It appears that quite a few people, mostly women, are using my wedding as a “goal date” for various personal improvement deadlines. I think that’s cool! I feel strangely influential that I can arbitrarily set a date for something, and a bunch of people now set their mental clocks to that date. The power…

I’ve been pretty true to my workouts, but I think I need to incorporate more cardio than I’ve been doing, just to increase the burn a little more. I was eating an Oreo-style sandwich cookie in the elevator yesterday, waiting to get to my floor, when a jury room clerk got on and said, “You can eat whatever you want, you’re skinny. Are you still going to the gym?”
“Every day at lunch,” I told her.
Meanwhile, I’ve been getting crap for doing weights at the gym from the previous generation of Asian women. My mom told me to stop all the weightlifting I’m doing because I’m just gonna make my arms even thicker and less attractive before the wedding, since I’m apparently not heeding her advice to get my wedding gown and Chinese dress with sleeves. The Chinese dress seamstress/shopowner advised Vicky to, above all else, avoid any weight-bearing exercise using her arms to prevent them from growing bigger by the wedding date. (The seamstress didn’t say this to be rude, she said it to address Vicky’s concerns that Vicky wants her bridesmaid dress to have sleeves because she dislikes the appearance of her upper arms.) I still insist there’s a reason why there are no fat girls on the weight floor but tons of them on the cardio equipment and in the aerobics classes.

I discussed this with my co-gym-rat-friend, college roommie Diana, yesterday evening when we met up for a healthy dinner at California Fish Grill in Irvine. Her response was, “You HAVE to keep working out!” (She meant “you” as in “one,” not saying that I personally have to keep working out or explode in outward-falling fluffy fat rolls. No, that’s more like MY personal fear.) I find it ironic that when the seamstress lady was telling Vicky to avoid working out her arms and yet had praised my figure, she was unaware that between the two of us, I was the one who hit the heavy gym weights. And when Diana and I went in to the seamstress shop Monday evening to be measured for her dress, the seamstress was all impressed by Diana’s slimness and the toned appearance of her arms and shoulders, and Diana hits the gym weights hard, too! Diana’s dress, as a matter of fact, is slightly halter-top cut because the three of us (me, Diana, and the seamstress) agree that it shows off her arms and shoulders perfectly.

Diana and I celebrated ourselves by having dessert at Mochilato, and had three ice cream mochis each. This time I had pistachio, mint chip, and toasted almond flavors. YUM. In fact, I’m sitting here eating a plain mochi I’d brought back with me right now.