cindy's world

I know it’s a negative Asian stereotype to say we squat, but here are some photos I discovered in Mr. W’s laptop alone…

At a park local to my work, one lunchtime, July 2006:

In San Simeon, July 2006:

Around San Simeon Pines Lodge, July 2006:

more beachside later that day:

At the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens, hunting for turtles, October 2006:

In Hawaii, a cliffhanger squat from behind, November 2006:

WHY are there so many photos of me squatting?!
At least I’m not *really* squatting here:

Here’s what I look like when I’m NOT squatting:

Just thought this was funny cuz Mr. W handed a guy (brotha’ from Philly, early 20s, on vacay in Oahu) the camera so he can take a photo of US in front of Diamondhead. Here’s what he took:

You all know about my hidden captions, right?

YIKES!! What happened to Monday’s blog post??? Did I not post one?! How unlike me.

Yesterday after work I finally utilized my annual pass and went to Disneyland. It was insanely crowded. In line for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, I wailed, “Why are there so many people here? It’s a freaking weekday!” A father holding the hand of his 8 year old son turned and said, “It’s spring break right now for a lot of schools.” “Really? This early?” He complained also, “That’s why I’m here! It’s MY idea, no one else is supposed to have the same idea!” I said, “I know! That’s how I feel!”

So not only were there a ton of people and my favorite — kids — we lined up for Space Mountain, and 40 minutes in, the ride broke and we ditched the line and reached the outside of the building just as it came back up and functioning (so we forfeited the ride); we then lined up for The Matterhorn Bobsleds and actually did get to ride that; next we lined up for my favorite ride, the Indiana Jones Adventure, and 20 minutes into that line, that ride malfunctioned and we left at that announcement; and lastly we lined up for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode that. 50% success rate. I wonder why I don’t go to Disneyland more often.

I had a really nice surprise when I came back from my lunch workout today. The loveliest bouquet of yellow and sunset roses were sitting on my desk in a pretty brass-colored jar-like container. They were from Vanessa, as a thank-you for being there for her. Awww, thank you for the flowers, Vanessa! Being the good friend that I am, I know what she really wants. So I’m posting a photo of my hair under the guise of taking a photo of me with her flowers. Please keep in mind that I’m bloated from PMS, and not just bloated, but especially bloated cuz my monthly visitor is running late. So I’m not at my best.

I just got back from my forced march to see the movie 300. The only thing I’m gonna say about it is that it’s Gladiator meets Lord of the Rings meets Kill Bill. I like to go to the movies to relax and have a feel-good air when I walk out. Instead, this is what I looked like coming out of the movie.

Vanessa’s on her date watching this movie tonite. I wonder if she’ll wear the same expression. She’ll probably enjoy it, though. Altho, I did learn one thing from the movie. I do not have elongated nipples. Sorry, Jordan.

I forgot to add another thing that I was grateful for yesterday, aside from good friends and having hair that a salon could screw up. I’m happy that I found my old jazz shoes before bellydancing yesterday, because we did so many chaine (pronounced shuh-NAY) turns that it would’ve been impossible barefoot. I would’ve been screeching haltingly on the wood floors, or flying across them uncontrollably if I were in socks. Who knew that bellydancers did chaine turns? I was also grateful for my prior dance experience.

Here’s a normal-ish photo. These photos make me want to post some old really good photo to redeem myself. But this isn’t my laptop. 🙁

We figured we’d keep our options for the show open and simply see what’s available Saturday night at a discount ticket events counter near the MGM casino. Mr. W’s brother had purchased and fixed up a new SUV, so he efficiently punched in a search for MGM in the satellite navigation system that he installed himself, and off we went with the two brothers, me, and the parents. It wasn’t until we were almost out of the neighborhood until I questioned, “Why does it say that the destination is 368 miles away and it’ll take us 4.5 hours to get there?” The brothers at the front seat looked at the nav. “It does say that,” the brother said thoughtfully. He punched a few more buttons. The address came up. In California. West Los Angeles. “You selected MGM Studios!” I realized. “Well I’m glad you noticed so we didn’t keep following its directions!” the guys laughed. Yeah. Been there, done that.

After getting to MGM Grand hotel & casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mr. W’s brother whipped out his cell phone and called their other brother, who works security at MGM. “Can you see us by the statue? We’re next to your big lion in the lobby.” I tried to make eye contact with the security camera, but didn’t know which of the 15 black domes suspended from the ceiling to look at. Mr. W’s brother then asked, “You guys wanna see the security room?” “Yeah!” I said. And off we went. The security “room” was more a cluster of rooms each with their own purpose. In one were aisles of shelves of VCRs recording for each camera in the building. Another one housed shelves of recorded video tapes. The room I found of most interest was where the guys sit at a low long table, watching a wall of TVs that showed players’ card hands, slot machines, people walking by the stores, the cash register inside a souvenir shop, dealers looking bored waiting for people to place their bets. Computers lined the low table, allowing for control of each camera and keeping records on blacklisted people and slot machines that hit a jackpot. I love behind-the-scenes stuff. I feel so privileged. I even get stories, like about the time when Robin Williams called security and asked them to focus on Camera 17. So they did, and they see Robin Williams licking his lips provocatively, winking at the camera, rubbing his nipples through his shirt, making a gesture like he’s holding a phone to his face and mouthing the words, “Call me!” The security had a huge laugh with that one. They watched as Robin took photos with everyone who walked up to him and asked, and he also took photos of people. Really nice guy, I hear.

So anyway, the show that was available with decent seats that night was the musical Mama Mia! at 10p. So we got 6 tickets and triple-dated. The show was a lot better than I expected it to be. I mean, I didn’t know 90% of the Abba songs as they were before my time (and by that I mean before the time that I spoke English), but I did recognize a lot of the 80s dance moves the goofy characters/actors did onstage. Cabbage patch, kid-n-play, snake, Reebok. Because all the publicity posters showed a dark-haired girl in a wedding dress (think “Muriel’s Wedding”) and the title of the musical is what it is, I thought it’d be a Latin-esque story. But no, it was set in the Greek Isles, a place I really want to see one day, and the storyline was really interesting. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, but not as much as the 4 drunk girls a few rows down from us waving their beers in the air and dancing in their seats.

I had a really fun time this weekend, even tho we’d driven back home already by early afternoon Sunday. And by home, I mean my parents’ home, where we stopped by to help them wax and buff their new wood floors and my mom made a multi-course dinner (with a tiny bit of prep help from me).

Hellos from sunny and windy Las Vegas! We’re here after driving much of the night to celebrate Mr. W’s mother’s birthday.

So far, I woke up, showered, had breakfast, and we’re trying to decide what show to go to tonite (to treat the birthday girl). Mama Mia? Forever Plaid? Some topless revue with boas and feathers? Speaking of which, we drove by “Cheetah” on the freeway and I’d never noticed it before Bat and Flat Coke suggested we meet up there one day. I guess now I know where it is. If I ever get a strip tease routine down, I’ll let you guys know.

And speaking of that and Christina Aguilera, she’s here this weekend for a performance. What a koinkidink. We were just talking about her on my blog and here she is.

Friday evening, Mr. W and I met up with Vanessa and another girl friend for Korean tofu (soon tofu). Food was good, I had raw crab for the first time, we had fun chatting about donkey punches and felching and safe words (I said “Armageddon” would be problematic as a safe word cuz it’s hard to say with your mouth full), and then one of the restaurant workers came to our table to kick us out, saying there were customers waiting! What the heck, how rude? It wasn’t like we were at one of 2 available tables, everyone waits, we’ve always waited, and those people there had only been there for like 2 minutes. I don’t think I’m going back to that restaurant; there are other soon tofu to be had.

I was rifling through my CDs at work and was surprised to find a CD-Rom where I’d saved, among other things, old photos that were on my last work computer. I looked through them and wanted to post this series, cuz I forgot how funny they are. Rest mouse pointer over photos for captions!

This is me with the Northern Cal gang at some beach up there for Wilco’s July 4, 2005 barbeque. I never remember what beach it is. I wanna say Santa Barbara, but I think that’s wrong. Santa Cruz? Some UC town.

Brad discovers that Diana had fallen asleep on the beach blanket.

Brad and Jen take advantage of the perfect opportunity to beat Diana up.

The slaughter continues.

Tah-dah! Jen’s declared the winner over a knocked-out Diana.

Brad takes the camera so I can get in on the action, too. Jen and I help BBQ utensils reach their full potential.

We didn’t have a flag, so we had to claim Diana as our conquered land with a beach umbrella. Diana wakes up just in time to protest before our big plunge.

This is what happens when people hang out with me. Ensuing antics. Photographic evidence.

James had told me about some amazing sushi in Tustin that’s served traditional omakase style at the sushi bar, meaning you don’t pick items off a menu, the sushi chef just starts serving you all the different fresh fish of the day until you tell him to stop. Altho I was forewarned that this meal would be expensive, I was eager to try out the restaurant.

Last Friday evening, Mr. W and I met up with James and Vanessa at Sushi Wasabi for this delectation. James was right; all four of us enjoyed every single cut of fish. When the chef puts the hand roll, sushi or sashimi on your plate (each fish/oyster/scallop/crab is served slightly differently depending on the best way to showcase each flavor), he’d tell you what it is and where it’s from. “This is salmon from Austria,” or “This is blue crab from Alaska,” or “This is oyster from Seattle.” I’m not quoting him as I can’t remember where anything’s from, but it went a little something like that. I felt like I was taking a seafood tour of the world from my seat! The experience was also unique in that altho I’ve had yellowtail, ahi, oysters, etc before, they never tasted like this. Each savory bite melted in my mouth and had a fresh, refeshing and almost sweet aftertaste.

In the midst of the funny and entertaining conversation we were having together, James happened to mention that the last time he was there with 2 male coworkers, it was a no-holds-barred type of meal celebrating his promotion, so they’d gone through the entire fish menu twice plus some change, and polished off more than one liter-sized bottle of sake, and the total bill came out to over $700. Mr. W balked. I’d already expected our meal to be expensive because I was forewarned a few times by James, but I think Mr. W didn’t expect it to be that expensive since he kept saying that the restaurant is located in a ghetto Mexican area where there wouldn’t be a lot of sushi connoisseurs in attendance. Our total came out to be over $330 including tax and tip. Vanessa plunked down her card, and I wrote her a check for my and Mr. W’s half of the price (I’d never reimbursed a friend for a meal with a check before, but I don’t have that much cash onhand). James of course paid her in cash, the wealthy guy. But even he was $2 short. Haha.

I think it was worth the experience to try this amazing place out once, as it has totally blown all my past sushi experiences out of the water. But Mr. W lamented the entire weekend about how altho it truly was the best sushi he’d ever had in his life, no food is worth that price tag. (He’s sick at home today with food poisoning he got from some other food Sunday afternoon [my poor little boy], NOT from the Friday nite sushi, and Vanessa speculated maybe it’s a karma thing from all the complaining he did about the sushi all weekend. Food has feelings, too! At least it may have before we chopped it up and ate it over rice. Yum.)

Also worthy of note is that James remembered to bring his happy Magic 8 Ball (see comments on that post), which turns out is actually a Magic 8 Ball that’s yellow with a big smiley face on it, a promotional item from some company’s recruiting.

I had so much fun today! After lots of experimental private time this morning, Mr. W and I drove out to The Pike in Long Beach and met up with 4 of the Northern Cal people who had come down to attend their friend’s wedding: Mike”Wilco“, his fiance Christi, Greg, and his fiance Cheryl. We had Japanese food at a sushi/teppan restaurant, and I don’t remember the restaurant’s name, but I’m pretty sure Mike took a photo of it on our way in. The table conversation was funny and entertaining. Jimmy and his fiance Sabrina were at another beach some cities away and offered to bike to us after they finish lunch, but Long Beach was too far and they had a flight to catch, so I missed them this trip. I told Mr. W that if Jimmy and Sabrina had met up with us, it would’ve been 3 newly engaged couples and us. He said, “And if we were engaged, it’d be 4 engaged couples!” “But we’re not,” I said. I don’t know why I burst bubbles like that. I should just smile and nod along. I made Mike take a group photo of us at the edge of the pier, “so I can post it on my blog.” It’s all about pleasing the readership. Mike made fun of my dedication to blogging, I may have said something derogatory about the fact that he blogs so rarely now, and the conversation somehow led to his threatening to delete my entire blog. Blog administrators have waaaay too much power, I think. After the group photos were taken, he walked ahead of me, throwing over his shoulder, “I’ll send these photos to you the next time I blog.” “HEY!!” I protested, cuz that could mean I wouldn’t see it for weeks. Heh. All in good fun, tho.

In the evening, Mr. W and I attended my aunt Jessica’s New Year’s Day dinner at her house. Aside from my aunt and uncle, my parents and us, my cousin Diana was there with her boyfriend Doug, and they brought Diana’s dog, a perky happy Jack Russell terrier named Mr. Burns. For a large part of the evening, the dog was on my lap napping. Dinner was delicious — broiled lamb chops, braised oxtail, creamed broccoli soup, steamed cabbage and snap pea salad, mixed brown and white rice flavored with chicken broth, with dessert fruit chocolate fondue. Because Doug, my dad, and I (to an extent) are all clowns, dinner was a lot of fun, too. It was nice to see my cousin and her boyfriend again after almost a year. It’s funny, they’re like 10 minutes away from Mr. W’s house where I’m at a lot, but we never make plans to hang out when I’m there. Instead, we used to make plans when I’d drive all the way down to Irvine from home.

Right now, things have settled down again. I’m blogging on Mr. W’s laptop drinking tea, Mr. W is playing Legend of Zelda on my Nintendo GameCube, also drinking tea.

Oh, I just remembered. Christi and Mike said they were probably gonna do post-wedding activities in Hawaii instead of pre-wedding activities, so they’re going to be staying in Hawaii after the week of their wedding, as opposed to before. That’s perfect, cuz that’s the week I’m gonna be able to have off! Christi’s reasoning was logical. She didn’t want to have to worry about being sunburnt, scraped or bruised from scuba diving/hiking/island sports for her wedding day, so the fun should be after the ceremony. Yay!

V-day: I went over to Mr. W’s armed with a freshly baked banana creme pie from my favorite bakery. Mr. W worked up a sweat in the kitchen opening containers of BBQ babyback pork ribs and roasted whole chicken from Costco. Oh, and he also made mashed potatoes, and by “made,” I mean he dispensed hot water over potato powder and stirred it up. And he made salad, and by “made,” I mean he opened the Costco container and poured the pre-tossed salad greens into a big serving bowl. Dinner was delish; both teenage kids were home but they opted out on the banana creme pie in favor of Costco rice krispies treats. Kids… Oh, and we went to bed early, like at 9p. No V-day nookie. Mr. W was tired. I’m sure all the slaving away in the kitchen exhausted him. (I’m not complaining — I didn’t cook, either.)

Work: Today we did our first civil harassment hearing. It went okay. The plaintiff got his restraining order granted against a chick who’s stalking him. She didn’t show up. Later on in the day, I was reviewing a future harassment hearing. A woman is requesting a restraining order against another woman. The defendant is accused of following the plaintiff around in her car, calling and cussing her out, threatening her, throwing rocks at her house, breaking her car window and her brother’s car window. Seemed pretty crazy, until I read what the plaintiff put in the question about “How do you know the person you want the restraining order against? Please explain.” The plaintiff wrote, “I dated her husband.” Well, hellO!

Bellydancing: Nothing remarkable. Nothing eventful. I felt clumsy but picked up on the routine as we went. At the end of class, as we stood in a big circle holding hands and spent a minute to give silent thanks for the things we are grateful for this day (this is how we end every class with this instructor), I went thru my usual list of being grateful for my health, for being able to take a dance class, for the health of my family and friends, and added to it gratitude for having Mr. W in my life and for my closeness with my friends, especially my girlfriends, even the ones who live far, far away. And for my car.

Relationship: I had a sit-down with an acquaintance over a quick meal of Daphne’s Greek food. She told me about a guy she’s been dating. Unfortunately for her, “dating” describes the relationship less accurately than “booty call.” The guy calls her up maybe once or twice a month. They don’t socialize outside of each others’ houses. When she invites him to do something with her and her friends, he comes up with some excuse and turns her down. He never invites her to events with his friends. He claims to be busy every weekend with his buddies. They don’t plan dates in advance; he just calls to see if she’s available, like, “right now.” He was nowhere to be found on Valentine’s Day, her birthday, and went MIA November through December (Thanksgiving, xmas, New Year’s). She has to think twice before calling him because she was the last one who called and invited him to do something, so now it was “his turn” so that she doesn’t scare him off by being too forward or pushy. She’s on eggshells when it comes to wondering when she’d next see him again. She has to be careful what she says around him in case he finds she’s getting too attached and backs away from her. She’s floored when he’s nice to her, like kissing her goodnight and being sweet for a whole evening. It’s awful!
I remember when I was in her situation, back when I either didn’t know better and didn’t recognize the signs early enough, or when I didn’t have a high enough self-esteem, or when I had tolerance for lame men. I don’t know what my problem was. It sucked, being nervous and afraid to call, afraid to ask but wondering whether he was seeing someone else, sleeping with other girls, because he sure doesn’t act committed to me. Wanting to welcome him by throwing my arms around his neck but afraid that would scare him off. Wanting to put my hand on his thigh, and after finally finding the courage to do so, feeling him not only not reciprocate, but stiffen under my touch. Always second-guessing, second-guessing. He didn’t call today, did I scare him off? What might I have said or done wrong yesterday to make him back off? Now I have to back off to make it okay for him to come forward. Pretend I don’t care for him as I do. Pretend he’s not important like he is. Altho the 2 guys who made me feel like this (well, mainly just one, the other one wasn’t nearly as bad) both decided they wanted to be with me and in the end it was I who left them, having gotten just exhausted from the stress, I would never again put up with this bullcrap as long as I did before. The way I see it now, I am worth more than that. If you don’t like me enough to do something about it, you’re just gonna have to miss your chance. You can admire my ass as I leave you behind. Both guys learned that the hard way, and they came running, but I was not going to be at someone’s emotional beck and call anymore.
I knew the truth, and didn’t want to tell the girl, but the truth is, he’s only with her when nothing else better comes along for the evening. He won’t even commit an evening in advance to her because just about anything else is a better option to him than her. He’s probably dating and sleeping with other women. He knows she’s that into him, he’s just playing dumb so he won’t feel responsible for breaking her heart. He’s spending all his holidays and his own birthday with people he places more importance on than her. She says they’ve made a little progress in the past year, but if it takes that long for just “a little progress,” he does not and may never like her enough. He has no respect for her and her time because she is always available to him, and she cancels her plans for him, altho he does not reciprocate in kind. She will always be #2.
I called Mr. W after talking with this girl, and dumped a bunch of love in his lap over the phone. I am so glad I am with him. I am so glad he didn’t play stupid games with me, to “keep her on her toes.” I am so glad that whatever affection I feel for him, I can give to him, and he will drink it all up with open arms and give me a kiss in return. There is no second-guessing myself, what I mean to him, how he has taken something I said or did, and no “uh-oh, I may have accidentally crossed the line when I said I like him, he’s suddenly quiet and withdrawn.” There is no substitute for peace. I am most grateful that he saw he has what I needed, and convinced me to try him on for size. I may never take him off.

Today, while James and I were Zaino-ing our cars, he thought to ask me why I’m not at work today. “It’s a holiday,” I said nonchalantly, wiping away.
“What holiday?”
“President’s Day.”
“What?! We don’t have President’s Day off!”
I shrugged. “I have next Monday off, too.”
“WHAT? Why?!”
“Lincoln’s Birthday or something like that.”
“Why do you get Lincoln’s birthday off?! How does Lincoln’s birthday affect you?”
“Well, the face of the American coin would be very different if it weren’t for Lincoln.”
“Oh. I guess that’s true,” he said.

My car’s nice and shiny now. That’s a pretty productive day off, even if I had to stop doing Zaino work every 15 minutes to blow my nose, or wipe off fresh bird shit. It’s weird; there were no birds overhead, but yellow streaks of poo just kept appearing! And it was hard work pushing the overhead clouds away so that sunlight comes through to dry the coats of polish. (James is convinced I have powers to control the weather, so I blew the clouds away when he complained of being cold. I sounded like this: *huffing* “awhoo! awhoo awhoo awhoo awhoo!” He seemed pretty content with that.) After we were done, I looked up and saw clouds highlighted by the dropping sun and noticed that the outline was a perfect angel, complete with wings spread and a lit halo over her head. James snapped some photos. As soon as he emails them to me, I’ll post them.

*** Addendum: Got it! Thanks, James! Believe me, people, the sight was more amazing in person.

*** Addendum #2: My childhood friend Sandy called me this evening and reaffirmed my faith in karma and the balance of the universe. There IS a God! She TOTALLY made my day. What a surreal day! =)