cindy's world

My Hungry, Hungry Hippos game was a hit. It got stolen 3 times and was finally retained by my cousin. My cousin’s gift was stolen 3 times, and was finally retained by me. For anyone who has never participated in a white elephant exchange, it’s a gift-giving game in which each participant brings a wrapped gift, then numbers are drawn by lot to determine the order of the turns. The first person up picks a wrapped gift and unwraps it for all to see. The next person can choose to either steal the first gift, or to take a chance at another wrapped gift. The third person up can choose either to steal any exposed gift, or to unwrap another gift. This keeps going until the last gift is unwrapped and everyone has had a turn. If someone’s gift is stolen, the now gift-less person can steal another gift, or take one from the wrapped pile. Once a gift is stolen 3 times, it’s locked to the 3rd person and can no longer be stolen. This was my first white elephant exchange party. My wrapped selection gave me a bottle of Bailey’s, which I love, which Mr. W stole from me to force me to steal from someone else. The reason he did this, he said, was because when this game was explained to me last week, I expressed my inability to steal a gift from someone who really wants it. It’s just mean. I’m more apt to let them keep whatever they want, and I’ll just take from the wrapped pile, which is what I did! When my Bailey’s was stolen from me, I was just gonna take the last wrapped pile present, but everyone yelled that I would end the game and they apparently wanted to keep going, so I finally stole from a guy the gift of a cream-colored chenille throw and the DVD The 40 Year Old Virgin. I’d really wanted to see the movie, anyway.

I had fun. Lots of great food and people. And a hyper Jack Russel terrier named Mr. Burns.

The image hosting site is back up, so let’s finish this post up. 🙂 So, it was Saturday afternoon/evening, and my friends Sandy and Johnny have me over at Johnny’s to cheer me up, and to join their holiday setup as well as enjoy the beautiful Manhattan Beach, golden sands one small block away.

Don’t tell me this isn’t sweet:

What I was laughing at is the pose I had before Sandy actually took the picture.

Me with my oldest friend in the world (not old as in age, old as in we were running around the pier in braids and pigtails chasing after Uno cards blowing around at 5am as over-bundled-up six-year-olds in sweaters, vests, jackets and shawls as our dads hung over the pier and fished and our moms…actually, I have no memory of what our moms were doing).

You know how you drink a little too much, look into your wineglass, and think, “Look at all the pretty colors! It looks likes a sunset over Manhattan Beach” ?

Back at the house, we finished decorating the tree with the antique ornaments, and Sandy and Johnny are now taking a break with their wine. Sandy and Johnny are both admiring their respective favorite things in the room.

“It’s Christmas-Chunks!” Sandy chirped delightedly at seeing Chunk the cat in front of the tree. I told her I thought “Christmas Chunks” sounded like someone threw up eggnog.

The tree lights were finally turned on, and after oohing and aahing, Sandy went to do some adjustments and finishing touches. Johnny, as you can see, moves *really* fast.

Johnny’s holding back tears at his Christmasy living room scene. “It’s beautiful, man,” he sniffles. Gruffly and masculinely, of course.

My girl friend Sandy and I had our first complete “real Christmas tree” experience on Saturday at Manhattan Beach. Her friend Johnny was thrilled that he gets to “kill two birds with one stone” by popping both our cherries in this respect. Remember the last time I was there and was upset for not having my camera? (see posts Out of Character, Part I and Part II) This time I made sure to bring my camera! I had so much fun, they’re wonderful cheerer-uppers, the location was beautiful, and there was lots of festivity, tradition, sarcasm, laughter, and a smokey cat named Chunk!

Memorial to the Vets next to the tree lot:

I never knew pine needles grew straight out of the tree’s bark.

Taking the tree home

Setting up the tree

Johnny showing you his blood, sweat and tears invested into the project.

Santa’s Workshop, aka Johnny’s Decoration Collection. Some of those things date back several generations to 1920!

Moon over Manhattan. Beach, that is.

Johnny about to break into song, inspired by the beautiful beachy sunset.

And what view is so inspiring for Johnny? This one:

Oops, the image hosting site just crashed. Something I did? I’ll post the tree photos in a followup entry. Rest your mouse pointer over the photo for a caption!

What begins with a funeral, ends with a party, and has lots of hard work in-between? No, it’s not the way a dyslexic person describes his life. It’s…today!

I got in to work early to meet up with my judge and court reporter, and the judge drove us to my bailiff’s mother’s funeral. It was a nice little service. My bailiff, whom we hadn’t seen for the past week due to his bereavement leave, had his back turned looking into the coffin with his arm around his sister when we walked into the chapel. Then the service began, and he never saw us, because we had to leave early to come resume our criminal trial. It was nice to see that there were so many people there that he wouldn’t have missed us. I recognized his daughter and his brother from photos he’d shown us.

At lunch, I left to go run 4 miles at the gym. Lately, altho I tell people “I’m gonna hit 4 miles today” when they ask where I’m going, I don’t really believe myself. I figure that’s just the tentative plan, but that I’d likely modify it when my athletic abilities don’t allow for the optimism. Surprisingly, I ran 4 miles without any overexertion at 5.8 mph (a bit over 41 mins), then did a lap and a half cool-down jog-walk. Without my MP3 player. I guess my court reporter was right. Sometimes you have an “off” day (like Monday), and sometimes you have an “on” day. I’m glad I took advantage of my “on” day. She, on the other hand, I caught yawning while doing arm curls. She’s “off” today and hated every moment of her workout, but in the end, no matter how much your brain resents the process, your body still got the benefits of a workout in.

Tonight, Mr. W’s buddy is spinning (or maybe just DJ-ing, I’m not sure) at some beach town club. I don’t remember what city he said it’s in. But we’re gonna go represent. The location’s supposed to be just casual dress, but casual in a club is not the same casual at a BBQ, so I have no idea what to wear. Especially since it rained earlier, so looking skanky has its price. Har. On the other hand, I really should wear the stuff I can get away with wearing now, before my body ages and my skin puckers and my parts sag and support becomes not just an option, but mandatory if I don’t want to trip over mammary glands.

I like Southern California because so many cultures are accessible in a relatively small area. Especially where food is concerned. This morning, we did the Americana thing with a BLT-type sandwich at Corner Bakery, then caught an early matinee at the movies (Aeon Flux). Popcorn and soda, cliche stuff. We skipped lunch, watched some random stuff on TV, then drove to a Mexican food restaurant somewhere in a backwoods community an hour away. In the warmer seasons, a brook runs by the wooden split-level patio of the restaurant, which faces the woods. After dinner, we drove off-road and admired the cold winter air, forest crickets, and stars. On the drive back, we stopped by an Asian plaza and grabbed some boba tea stuff at Lollicup, and I bought some Chinese pork jerky and marinated bean curd jerky. And we’re back at Mr. W’s, where I’m all showered up and about to watch Charlize Theron’s Monster on DVD, which role earned her an Oscar.

I don’t see how I could ever move anywhere else. 🙂 Unless SoCal goes to hell, or detaches from the rest of the US and sinks into the Pacific, as some doomsayers predict.

I just watched Aeon Flux, a futuristic post-apocalyptic movie which is a cross between The Matrix and The Island of Dr. Moreau and Stargate. It was very interesting, and for such a complex storyline, it was told and unraveled very cohesively. Extremely entertaining, full of action, special effect, fantasy, morality/humanity issues, even romance. On top of it all, there are few things I like better in a movie than a hot girl kicking ass. Except for maybe a Jennifer Aniston movie.

What’m I doing at 2:40p blogging today? I’ve got Margaret Cho’s album “The Notorious C.H.O.” blasting next to me so I can drown out the sound of USC running all over UCLA right now, 17-0. USC just finished scoring on us again, and in the following kickoff return, a UCLA player catches the ball, takes a few running steps forward…and falls flat on his face, literally. The ball is dropped and USC grabs it. Instantly upon this occurring, my cell phone rings. My jujitsu instructor is calling to harass me.

Yeah, so hot chicks kickin’ ass. Thus the beauty of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Zorro; Kate Beckinsale in Underworld; Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in Charlie’s Angels; Jennifer Garner in Elektra. It’s very inspiring. Charlize Theron even executed a defensive take-down combination that was nearly identical to something I’d learned recently in jujitsu. Movies like these make me wish I were thinner and could pull off latex.

This is the best trailer I’ve seen in awhile. It’s for an upcoming Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner movie called Rumor Has It. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at a trailer. The movie is about a family getting together in Pasadena, CA for one daughter’s (Mena Suvari, the blonde friend in “American Beauty”) wedding and the other daughter (Jennifer Aniston) finding out that their mom lost her true love (Kevin Costner) before she married their father because he slept with the grandmother (Shirley MacLaine), and Jennifer Aniston’s character was intrigued about who this man is, and this man actually comes to the sister’s wedding, and next thing you know, Jennifer Aniston’s character gets sucked into his charm as well. BTW, her character’s engaged to a great guy (Mark Ruffalo). It’s just a big mess with some really great, witty lines.

Rumor Has It trailer

Unfortunately, it doesn’t come out until December 25 this year. “What’m I gonna do till then, implode?” I wailed to Mr. W, who sent me the trailer.

I watched Rent (the movie, not the musical, altho the movie IS a musical) over the weekend. I didn’t know until I talked about it at work on Monday that much of the original “Rent” broadway cast performed the same roles in the movie. No wonder. I thought the acting was brilliant. The actors embraced their roles and their music. I’m not normally a fan of musicals, but I thought the presentation onto film was done excellently, i.e. merging the snapshot-vignette expose’ of the individual characters akin to the style of soliloquys in plays, with Hollywood camera angles and editing. Impactive, definitely.

For those of you who don’t know much about the plot of “Rent” (like me before I watched the movie), it’s a glimpse into the lives — personal issues and interpersonal relations — of approximately 7 people (I’m too lazy to count) living in some slummy apartments in New York. The main themes depicted are relationships (homo- and heterosexual, and friendship), HIV and coping therewith, near-poverty and coping therewith. At first it seemed I couldn’t relate to any of the things or people in the movie, so it seemed like a good “escape” film. But I was wrong. The plot works hard to show that as removed as these ghetto rats are from the average person’s reality, they are still Everyman, and the same heart of humanity runs a rich thread through everyone no matter what the life experience.

It was a very tearful weekend. I cried thru much of the movie. If you decide to watch it, watch for the symbolism of when Angel (the cross-dresser) takes off his/her wig; the meaning of Santa Fe; the perfect body language between Angel and boyfriend Collins, from the eyebrow arches down to the fingertips.

One warning tho. Well, actually, two. 1.) If you don’t enjoy this movie, you’d be annoyed to discover it will pretend to end 4 times before it actually ends. 2.) If you have ever nursed someone through HIV to AIDS to death, you probably should not watch this movie before seriously emotionally bracing yourself. In a Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Studies course I took at UCLA, we watched a movie documenting a gay couple’s life from the onset of AIDS till death; we saw the social stigma that is their life, each emotionally painful step they took to get through every day. Even with just that detached, prior exposure to patients with AIDS, portions of Rent were very difficult to sit through.

Neither the TV in my bedroom nor the big screen TV in the living room has been on since I wrote that I would not turn them on. I’ve tried to fill my sleepless nights with either blogging (which leads to IMing, which has been extremely rewarding since it is still time spent communicating with my friends) or reading. The blogging is excellent for getting rid of nagging thoughts, as since childhood I was able to immediately quell mental hauntings by writing them down. Thus all the diaries, journals, elephant-memory. Reading is good for keeping a finally blank mind from wandering back into something self-destructive.

I’ve been trying to read the novel Sister of my Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, which is a national bestseller about two cousins in India. Grace had mailed it to me a couple of years ago and she had written the inscription on the inside title page

Dear Cindy –
This is one of the best
books I’ve read in a while.
The author captures the love
between two sisters beautifully.
I hope you enjoy it as much as
I do.
Love,
Grace

I’ve tried to read it upon receipt, but could not get into it because it opens with too many things foreign to me.
They say in the old tales that the first night after a child is born, the Bidhata Purush comes down to earth himself to decide what its fortune is to be. That is why they bathe babies in sandalwood water and wrap them in soft red mamal, color of luck. That is why they leave sweetmeats by the cradle. Silver-leafed sandesh, dark pantuas floating in gold syrup, jilipis orange as the heart of a fire, glazed with honey-sugar. If the child is especially lucky, in the morning it will all be gone.
Thus reads the first paragraph of Book One, chapter 1.

Now that Grace is gone, I am determined to get through this novel. I found the book on my bookshelf a few days ago in passing and read her inscription first. I gingerly passed my fingertip along the edge of her words, handwritten in blue ink, softly lest I unknowingly wipe away some of the essence that she left on those very pages she touched. I turned the inscription page and tilted the back of that page to the light. By studying the lifted lines left by the differing pressure of her pen strokes, I could almost relive her writing those words to me. The heavier downstroke of the D in “Dear” and the L in “Love.” I’d like to think that those letters were pressed more firmly because they bore more weight in her head as she wrote them.

She had thought of me when she read these very pages. I’d like to know why she felt this book was appropriate for me. There’s only one way to find out.

Off I go to read in my bed, as I had done in childhood, and prior to the days of falling asleep to the sound of sit com laugh tracks.

Mr. W dropped me off back at home about an hour ago from Thanksgiving dinner with his friends and the friends’ family, and he’ll soon be on his way to Vegas. The Thanksgiving food was wonderful, the company was warm-hearted and light-spirited, the fire in the outdoor firepit was lively and mesmerizing, and my cheesecake was a success. (It really does taste better chilled, with dramatic dashes of Hershey’s lite syrup and a fluffy floral swirl of chocolate lite whipped cream.)

But this is what I actually wanted to blog about, and ask for feedback on.

The host’s niece asked me whether I watch “Gray’s Anatomy.” I don’t, altho I’ve heard it was a pretty good show. She said that there’s an Asian actress on the show and that I look “exactly like her.” No one else around the table said anything, altho they seemed to study me a bit. Before we left, the niece reminded me to watch “Gray’s Anatomy” on Sunday nights at 10pm on NBC because “you have to see that actress. I swear, you look exactly like her.” I asked if she remembered the actress’s name. She didn’t, but she suddenly remembered another movie that the same actress was in. I got a little excited. “What’s that movie when this woman just decides to go to Italy…” “Under the Tuscany Sun?” I asked her. “Yeah! That’s it! She played her friend.” Sandra Oh is the actress’s name.

Because everyone was leaving anyway, I didn’t say anything until Mr. W and I were back in his truck with the doors closed. I asked him if he knew who the actress is that the niece was talking about. He didn’t.

***
Margaret Cho is one of my favorite stand-up comedians. In one of her shows, she talked about an incident where a cab driver recognized her and raved on and on about how he loves her because she looks exactly like his sister. He then handed her a photo of his sister and Margaret’s first thought was, “Oh my God, she is sooooo ugly.” She then goes on, “Don’t you just hate it when people say how much you look like someone, and then you see the person they were talking about, and she’s sooo ugly?”
***

Even tho Mr. W said, “I think cross-racial identifications, especially on a first impression, aren’t exactly accurate,” I still felt compelled upon my return home to immediately take a photo of myself and give you guys a side-by-side comparison. So here is me, right now, no touching up whatsoever just the way the niece saw me, and actress Sandra Oh.


Photos of Sandra Oh courtesy of Yahoo!Movies:


Just for kicks, I’m even gonna show you guys a photo of me in which I look the most Korean:

I will say this: I take it as an extreme compliment that she’s really skinny.

For more comparisons of me to the few Asian celebrities in American media, see previous posts here and here.