cindy's world

I’m not gonna turn on the TV for a week. The TV is the kiss of death for me. Despite the fact that there are no shows I feel compelled to watch (since “Friends” is over), when the TV comes on, it inevitably moves from its intended purpose as background noise to foreground obsession.

I’m gonna replace the TV with organizing my financial statements, reading, working out, maybe even finally sending out Christmas cards!

Eh, who’m I kidding on the last one? I don’t know where anybody lives anymore. Unless all the cards are to be e-mailed.

I made it in to work. The office didn’t even have our courtroom scheduled as “dark” (no judge), so they’re unofficially letting me sit in my own courtroom to do with the day as I see fit. I’m divorcing people.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I’m bummed a lot, but I can’t put my finger on a reason. Let’s check my pillars.
1. Work? It’s fine, it runs itself. I get along with my coworkers.
2. Family? Mom and Dad are the same as usual.
3. Friends? No drama there. They’re all around, busy doing their own things but generally responsive when I initiate contact, if they don’t already initiate it with me first.
4. Boyfriend? He’s Mr. Wonderful, what else can I ask for?
5. Health? I haven’t had a need to visit Kaiser again in a couple of months, so that’s good. I can be more proactive about the workouts and jujitsu, but it’s not a life-or-death thing and there’s really no consequence to my taking it easy, except for the slower progress in weight loss, and it’s cosmetic weight right now anyway; I’m not in danger of having a heart attack.
6. Cat? Dodo’s been the same as always, sometimes pesky, always good company. I do feel guilty for not being around more, tho, since he likes to be underfoot and hang out with me.
7. Finances? Same as always. No problems paying off the bills, mortgage, insurance, and I have enough fat to play with for frivolities.
8. Am I bored? I don’t think so. Every weekend and weekday evening is filled with something; if anything, I’ve been doing more stuff than usual what with all the not being home and traveling.

The heck is wrong with me?! Am I burned out? What the heck am I burned out on? The guilt of being anchored by pittily tasks and not being productive, probably.

Ya know, I think I just hit the nail on the head. Cuz I feel better and more inspired already.

Maybe I should stop blogging now and divorce more people. =P

So I’m up procrastinating from cleaning up the house, watched 2 middle-of-the-nite episodes of Angel (1 hr each), then I finally showered, applied the lint roller to various surfaces, Windexed other surfaces, and then the big task: vacuuming. I started with the cat area. Immediately the stench of burned rubber permeated the air. Damn it. The rubber band broke inside my Fantom Fury again. It’s a pain to get more bands because the stores don’t carry my model anymore, so I have to order it online. I’m fed up enough to get a new Fantom. Maybe that’ll be my x-mas present to myself. (Yeah, yeah, I spoil myself.) I went to backup handvac. It barely picked up anything and then faded in the next 10 seconds or so. It’d been doing that the last few times I tried to work with it, but I always blamed it on the lack of charge. Now, it’s been charging for at least a week straight, so that’s clearly broken, too. I went to second backup broomvac. It turned on, sniffed, and then died. For some reason the charger plug had been pulled out of the wall, even tho there’s no reason for me to have done it. I don’t get it.

So now the house is unvacuumed, there’s cat residue all over the carpets, and my broomvac is charging downstairs, but I’ve had no sleep all nite. I think I’m gonna try to call in sick tomorrow because, I have a feeling, I will be. Either that or I’m gonna take an hour nap, then get up and vacuum and try to go to work.

I am sooo sleepy. I had lunch with some coworkers instead of doing a 3-mile run. They were going to a new Italian restaurant and it’s hard for me to resist Italian. I had a great manicotti. My coworker Andy advised me before we got there to not drink the water provided by the restaurant because, apparently, “it can choke a horse.” He’d brought this to the attention of the restaurant staff before, and their response was “Yeah, we know, the water in Santa Fe Springs is a bit heavy on the metal.” “Heavy on the metal?! You can float a spoon in there!” was the response. The food was not at all greasy or overly heavy, but golly, I hit food coma anyway.

I need enough energy to hit the grocery store after work to buy ingredients for what I am in charge of bringing to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a friend: lowfat, low-cal chocolate cheesecake. I know, sounds fishy, but I can do it, darn it! Since i have jujitsu Wednesday, I should make the cheesecake tonite and let it just gel in the fridge. Otherwise, I suppose I can make it Thursday morning. Yeah, Thursday morning sounds good.

I should really clean the house, too. Gawd, the cat can sure spew fur.

Meanwhile, must…force…self…to divorce…more…people…

And then there’s the packing required to go with Mr. W to Vegas for the long weekend, and it can’t just be any sloppy ol’ comfy clothes, cuz it’s meet-the-‘rents weekend. *sob*

I need a maid! And a clothing-packer! And a shaved cat! And a chef!

Last nite in jujitsu we went over 14 ways to disarm and disable 14 types of knife attacks. (tanto no kata.)

I got stabbed so many times…

This Thanksgiving I’m going to be grateful for rubber-tipped knives.

I went to dinner last nite with my parents and my godbro’s parents. As soon as I walked into the restaurant where I was meeting them, the conversation turned to my recent weight gain. My godbro’s mother had lost some weight recently by simply cutting out white rice from her diet, and she said she was like me. My mom said no, not like me, because I gained weight recently. “Did she?” godbro’s mom said looking at me skeptically. I admitted to the 15-lb weight gain. My dad said his theory on my weight gain is that it has to do with my present emotional well-being. He then turned to me and said, “You’re happy, aren’t you?” I said I am. The weight gain did coincide rather suspiciously with my dating Mr. W. “I’d rather have you like this and happy than skinny and miserable,” he said. The godbro’s parents agreed, saying that I’m fine the way I am so the elevated mood is well worth the weight gain, altho my mom interrupted by saying that I should still watch the pounds for health reasons and I should make more effort to lose the weight.

So the moral of the dinner is that my dad’s happy for me and my mom still thinks I’m fat. I’m not really sure what to do with that. I guess liposuction is the answer to everything.

I don’t think Mr. W enjoyed the 3-mile midnite run we did Wednesday nite as it’s past his usual bedtime, so this weekend, the plan was to run Friday earlier in the evening, Saturday sometime, and Sunday sometime. My lunchtime workout on Friday (last day before my trainee returns from her Hawaii vacation) left my lower butt and upper thighs way too sore to do much running, so all we did Friday nite was fall asleep trying to watch Charlie & the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp on DVD. Saturday morning, as you guys know, we got up early to watch Harry Potter, but after a rather heavy lunch, we came back to his place and crashed for hours. Then when we got up again, we ate watermelon and fell asleep again (well, I did anyway; Mr. W was responsible and went to bed) trying to watch Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. It’s a really good movie; it just kept hitting the 9:30p timeslot when I usually fall asleep watching TV at home. This morning, we finally got some exercise in.

We biked 9.5 miles along scenic riverbeds (and by “scenic,” I mean there are birds pecking in the mud and less than 2 dead bodies floating face down. no, I’m kidding, parts of it was beautiful and we saw lots of gray herrings) and had breakfast at Coco’s, then biked another 7.5 miles on the way back. The reason there’s a mileage difference is because for about a block, we biked thru dirt instead of on sidewalks or bike paths, which resulted in my rear tire getting flat. That’s what I get for complaining that I’m not getting a big cardio benefit from the biking and that my ass hurts. Karma: “Oh, you want more effort for cardio benefit, huh? Oh, your ass hurts? Let’s see what we can do to resolve those problems.” So we walked the bikes another mile until we got back to civilization, I sat out and Mr. W biked the rest of the way home, and brought his truck to pick me up as I picked the stupid spikey plant spines out of the tires. Oh yeah, the front tire went hissingly, too. I put my hand over it and there was actually air pumping out. I felt like putting my face down there to at least take advantage of the cool breeze.

We got back, I jumped in the shower, and now I’m blogging about how on top of it my karma is. Man. Last time I called in sick to work and said I had a bladder infection, I got a bladder infection (a very bad one) within the new few hours. It’s getting to the point where I’m scared to say anything these days. What happened to freedom of expression, Karma?

It’s getting closer to 1pm now. Mr. W just got out of the shower. Maybe we’ll try Charlie & the Chocolate Factory again.

Harry Potter was more fun for the company than for the actual movie itself. I’d say the biggest difference between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and all the previous ones is mostly in the more “adult” feel, the entry of sexual tension and possible romance, the more real possibility (and occurrence) of death.

Yeah, and the Imax 5-story high screen was pretty cool, too.

We (Mr. W and I) got there early enough to be the 7th group or so in line, and soon the other friends started arriving, but most importantly, the pastry chef arrived first with his gargantuan cinnamon rolls in hand. “DAMN it, overcooked,” he lamented, and Mr. W and I looked up from our cinnamon rolls in confusion. THIS isn’t good? Could’ve fooled me. The chef offered to redeem himself with another properly cooked batch and we politely accepted. What nice friends we are.

We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory after the movie and the Godiva cheesecake is still as good as ever. [the link brings you to the Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes menu. Click on the little camera icon next to Godiva chocolate cheesecake for a photo] I know I’ve written about that cheesecake before, but seriously, do yourselves a favor if you’re a chocolate lover and/or a chocolate truffle lover. Get a piece. It’s only $7.50. (Of course, we split it 4 ways, as it was too rich to eat on your own, so take this as an opportunity to ask some choco-holic girl out on a date. “Hey, my friend keeps touting this Godiva cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and I’m gonna go try it. The chocolate goodness supposedly just melts on your tongue. Care to join me?” Seriously, what girl would turn that down? It’s foolproof. I’ll expect my $5 in the mail for the advice.)

I have just redeemed all the time, effort and money spent in acquiring my Bachelor’s degree.

I, like many Asian women I’d imagine, have trouble finding the right shade of foundation. I found a brand I really like (Revlon’s Colorstay), but when I tan or pale it’s a hunt all over again. Since I darkened so much in Cancun, I’ve moved from my old office-pallor color (Sand Beige) up a few shades to the one I used in college (True Beige) back in the days when we walked everywhere and the first class is at least 2 miles away from any apartment. Before Cancun, when I had a very slight tan from the incidental sun exposure which could only have come from driving to and from work, I was using an in-between shade (Medium Beige) which still wasn’t quite right, but I sucked it up expecting to darken in Cancun to college-color. And I did. Now, my tan is fading again because apparently the glow from a computer monitor and the flickering illumination from overhead flourescent lights don’t stimulate melanin production, and for a few days True Beige was too brown/red, but Medium Beige was too pale. I expected to go shopping for a new foundation.

Here’s the genius part that started yesterday morning. Yesterday, I put a dot of the darker True Beige on my forehead, nose, each cheek, and chin, then applied the lighter Medium Beige like normal foundation, blending the color. It was a closer match, but still too pale. This morning, I did three dots of True Beige over the same areas but working only one area at a time to help lengthen blend time (Revlon Colorstay “sets” in 60 seconds), and I applied Medium Beige over the areas. My color is perfect. I just got back from the restroom (I worked thru lunch, having been thrown into a criminal courtroom impromptu in the middle of their morning calendar because the clerk’s mom died so she jumped ship in tears) and the color is still perfect, natural, even.

That totally made my day, in spite of the very real possibility that I may be working late for free to get thru this calendar, trying to decipher another clerk’s notes on the cases called this morning.

To the men: If you got this far, thanks for putting up with my hideously girly entry. I believe it’s the only one on this blog so far, so I’m entitled!
To the women: I know, I know, some of you have been doing this self-blend thing for years. But it just never occurred to me until yesterday morning, even tho I’ve blended lipstick and eye makeup for like a decade and a half.

Yesterday evening Mr. W and I went to the Irvine Spectrum to pick up our Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tickets for the show tomorrow morning. (Aside: the official website for the movie is amazing, btw. Click above if you’re a fan.) The opening show was at midnight and there were lines going all the way around the theatre in both directions from the front entrance. People were prepared to camp out in their beach chairs, blankets, Harry Potter costumes, floor lamps, generators, desktop plants, small barnyard animals, etc. At the ticket counter, the lucky teenager who probably wished he worked on commission informed us that there are 3 main theatres plus the large Imax theatre showing Harry Potter, and three of those four theatres are already completely sold out.

Craziness, it is! It’s starting to look more and more like we have to get up when it’s still dark to be placeholders in line. Thanks, Mr. W, for being so wonderful and volunteering to be the early-morning line bookmark so that we can get a bunch of seats together. Another guy who’s meeting us there is apparently a pastry chef so he’s gonna make and bring us cinnamon rolls. I should get a copy of all the Harry Potter books, have them piled up next to me as I huddle on the floor with my nose in one of them, and anytime anyone tries to talk to me, I’ll hiss, “Shhh! I’m trying to catch up before the movie starts!”