back to work

This scene is vaguely familiar. Sitting in front of my computer at work blogging because The Boss is away for the week. Except he's not completely away, he's still in town, and had already paid us an unexpected visit at 10:30am this morning. He walked through the front door dressed in an unfamiliar green parka with an orange cap. I thought he was the electrician or something. We were all standing near the front desk bitching about work, only one of us recognized him and she walked up front to greet him. But as she approached him he was already walking towards us and caught us in the middle of discussion. Luckily we were weren't saying too much.

There's a heavy tension in the air between the staff and The Boss. I can sense the day approaching when he's going to get rained on by all of us. It's already happening, one member at a time, by the two bravest (most confrontational) one's, of course. So far, I just sit back and listen to their triumphant stories and wish I had the nerves to step up and give him a piece of my mind. Except I need to formulate my thoughts thoroughly before I step in there and get fired or end up quitting myself.

Listening to all the bickering is probably one of the best learned lessons for myself. At some point I will become The Boss and I only hope the bitching that goes on behind my back will not be as intense. I'm not ignorant to the fact that this sort of office gossip does happen and there will be several occasions when I will be disliked. But this environment sure doesn't shed light on how to keep your staff happy.

Anyhow, to brighter things. I drove down to Irvine to visit some cousins from Taiwan. A 6 hour drive through 152 and I5. 152 was really nice. I5 was boring as usual. If you stole a car on I5 with THE CLUB on it, you can probably drive pretty far on that straight road. To make that road worse, there was heavy fog that slowed traffic down from 100mph to 50mph. It's those drivers who think their fast (driving on the fast lane) that blocks up all the traffic. oh wait, brighter subjects..... it was nice seeing my two not so little cousins again. 18 and 19 with make up on and shopping for V-neck sweaters that drop down to their belly. The sweater was made of light see through cashmere. "What do you wear underneath that?", "nothing" replied the 18 years old, with eyes wide not understanding the point of my question. Fine.

For dinner we went to this really good Japanese restaurant, newly opened by two chefs who branched off on their own. We ordered loads of Sashimi and bottles of cold Sake. Damn, those girls can shop AND drink. Then again, anyone can out drink me. The following night their mom calls me asking me to remind her girls to "study hard" "behave", the typical chinese stuff. I was actually thinking how nice it is that they've finally caught up to age and can "play" with the rest of us.

New Hours

My Boss decided to have new hours for our office. I no longer get to sleep in on Tuesdays and I have to work every Sat. as opposed to getting to sneak a few saturdays off. I'm so bitter about my losing my Tuesday mornings. That's the only day I get to wake up an hour later, work out then have a decent breakfast. I can almost hear some of you say there's lots of people who work 50 hour weeks blah blah blah. I dont' give a crap, pay me a lot more and I'll put in my extra hours too. I was starting to feel comfortable at my job but this was the first week I woke up daily wondering how to get myself out of that hole.

counting down

4 more days till I get my break. This thought is making my week very long. What am I going to do during my break? I think I'll go hiking everyday, then once I hit the peak, just sit and read a little then hike back down. Either that or I'll end up at the mall shopping more for myself. and god forbid I just sit at home doing nothing. Am I even capable of doing that? I'll end up reading, watching TV and doing laundry at the same time.

This past weekend I went bar hopping with my friends. I managed to stay awake the whole night till we got in the car. I was very proud of myself. My formula is to workout an hour before I leave and drink lots of coffee and water after the workout. The dehydration seems to help suck the caffeine into my body better.

Tis the season

To be shopping fa la la la la

For every gift I've made this season I seem to have doubled one for myself too. This Christmas is getting to be very expensive. Due to my lack of discipline on keeping to "the list" , "the list" I'm having to shorten the list or find cheaper gifts. oops.

This week has been very slow at work. I often find myself walking to the staff "lunch" room to be entertained by the millions of ants attacking the cookies there. I love my co-workers, but for some reason they just don't get it. Ants are crawling all over this bowl of packaged cookies that they managed to rip their way into. I don't know where to begin to clean them up. They're pouring out of the bowl like a black waterfall. Today I tried using tape. I got so bored so I grabbed packaging tape and placed a few strips on the counter. I left it at that. Maybe that'll help disperse them. Hold on, let me go check. um, No, I think they called for back up instead.

Thank god it's Friday

There they go.

This month two friends will be leaving the Bay Area. Friends are hard to come by, and it's so sad to see two take off just like that. I'm so proud of them. I know some of us are unsatisfied with the stage we are in our lives. I've often considered moving and leaving this place too, but I'm scared. So, to see two of them packing up, moving far far away to achieve what they want is very inspring for me. It's do-able, things will be ok and I could leave if I want. Will I do it? Probably no time soon, still to chicken shit.

Gosh, with those two gone who's going to share my MJ with me?

Squirl's been a good friend from the start, we hit it off with a comfort level like sisters share. You know, the one where you can bitch at eachother and know it's ok 'cuz there's no escaping this relationship. But alas, she's taking her loud Cosmopolitan/Malibu Orange voice to a city large enough to accomodate her vocal range. The next two weeks will be dedicated towards doing things squirl's been wanting to do, but never got the chance to do in the Bay Area. Like going to the mystery spot. Gosh, that place is boring, but I already made a point that i'm only going if I get to be drunk when I step in. Maybe it'll counter balance my drunken equilibrium.

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!"