cindy's world

Saturday:
Burke Williams in Orange was a nice facility, but it was overcrowded. I liked how in Brea’s Glen Ivy, even tho the apptmts were booked, I was never in a room with more than 3 people at the same time. BW in Orange, similarly to the BW in Pasadena, packed their clients in. Time flies by the fastest in 3 situations: when you’re facing an imminent deadline; when you’re talking to or hanging out with someone you really like; when you’re receiving a massage. My 80 minute massage felt like 45. I think I may have dozed off for a few minutes, tho.
After we (childhood friend Vicky and I) left the spa, we walked around The Block and had a sushi dinner. Then more shopping as she looked for stuff to buy her hubbie. Goofed off at Saks 5th Ave as she tried on various oversized fur hats and I took her photos w/my cameraphone. The last time we’d done something like that was early undergrad, laughing hysterically while trying on oversized sunglasses at Nordstrom that made us look like flies.

Sunday:
I woke up bummed on Sunday at 7a and could not go back to sleep. I finally got up and did an intensive workout from 8a-9a, then got ready and met my friend Edgar at 10a for a Taiwanese breakfast. Turnip cake, flakey flat pastry stuffed with beef and cilantro, fried “ghost” (literal translation from Mandarin: oil strip), and a big bowl of fresh hot soy milk. We walked around the strip, then drove down to Ten Ren for boba tea. It was nice to catch up on each other’s lives.
Then I drove to my parents’ house for my weekend visit, first making a detour to park in the shade at the local public library to chat with my college roommie Diana for 2 hours. As usual, we comforted each other and laughed at our social problems, and commiserated about how freaking far away in time our Cancun trip is.
At my parents’, I laid on their Ceragem infrared bed and let it run its program on me for 40 minutes. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. That reinforced that I would very soon be okay. The first sign of things going bad for me is the inability to sleep.
On the drive home from my parents’, I called someone with whom things had ended rather badly a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t ever planned on talking to him again, but recent events made me appreciate certain things about him, and I wanted to make a small effort altho I didn’t expect him to reciprocate by even picking up the phone. Surprisingly, he did and appeared to have no grudges. We didn’t talk long, maybe 45 seconds, but it was long enough to know we were cool.
I got back home and met up with my ex personal trainer Brian, who arrived perfectly punctually with his electrician tool pack (he really is a jack of all trades). He immediately went to work removing the old and installing my new garbage disposal unit in the kitchen as I cleaned up downstairs around him, vacuuming, windexing, tidying. I didn’t even want to watch him; it looked way too complicated for me, what with the plumber’s putty, electrical wires and plumbing he had to reconnect. After he was done, we went to Cafe El Cholo for dinner. Their mango fruit-infused margarita never disappoints. The mango was so fresh in the blended puree. Similarly to my earlier outing w/Edgar, it was great to catch up w/Brian over good food.

Things to remember (inspired by a conversation w/a friend earlier):
* guys get interested fast, but they also lose interest fast
* situations that run their course quickly also change quickly as they run out of course
* things will run their natural course whether or not I sweat it

That being said, things to look forward to this weekend:
* this afternoon, with a good friend subbing in as my bailiff
* this evening, hanging at Outback after work
* this Saturday morning, Taiwanese breakfast with my college best friend to catch up on each other’s lives
* this Saturday afternoon, meeting up w/a friend I’ve had since 3rd grade, an 80 minute massage at Burke Williams Day Spa at The Block at Orange, and subsequent hanging out, shopping, eating at The Block
* this Sunday, visiting my parents then meeting up w/my ex roommate/ex personal trainer at my house so he can help me take care of a chore, then we’re going out to dinner

Yin yang, Newton’s Law, whatever the natural or supernatural forces you choose to believe in, has made the pendulum swing the other way.

The four-star, all-inclusive Dreams Cancun Resort & Spa that Diana and I have had our eyes on has been $213/nite as the best price I could find for the week we’re gonna be in Cancun. Just today, I get an email from Diana that says “dreams is having a super sale, $150 /night.” And subsequently, “Airfare about the same too.”

My response: “OH NO WAY!!!!!!!!!! And we just got a 15-count child molestation criminal trial…this is a great day! A GREAT DAY!!!” We’re gonna book our vacation today at lunch. If anything’s worth missing a lunch or a lunchtime workout for…

I was so excited that when the criminal attorneys came in for their trial and I saw one of my favorite DAs, I actually threw my hands in the air and said “YAY!!!” My boundless joy was so apparent that the public defender, who I do not know well, noted, “Gosh, this is such a happy court.” No one has ever said that about OUR court. Never. Quite the opposite. The judge is in a great mood after seeing the attorneys, too. He respects the DA greatly, and apparently was a juror in a case tried by the PD before he became a judge. He’s all cracking jokes off the bench and laughing.

And just now, I got a phone call from a fellow clerk, who gave me the AMAZING news that a difficult, overly complicated, multi-party car accident civil trial we have coming back in September, has just been settled in its entirety by his judge.

I’m so happy that I’m afraid of the other shoe dropping! Or maybe I already earned this wonderful karma I’m getting today. *dancing vigorously in seat*

I met up w/Brad and Val at Sam Woo in Rowland Heights for dim sum this morning. You really can’t beat the three of us stuffing our faces with delicious Chinese food and having the total bill come out to $23. Afterwards, I forced them to drive all the way to The Block at Orange and we walked around, let our food digest, had overpriced Italian gelato, people-watched, chatted, and then after Brad gave me a bag of lychee, they left to begin their long drive home.

I wish I had friends like them who live closer to me. 🙁
But I’m so glad I met them this summer. Thanks. 🙂

Aside from my supervisor’s chastizing solicitation of a verbal agreement from me to complete 82 fking divorce cases in the next 17 work days in addition to my regular workload, Friday was a DAMN good day. Damn it. Damn, damn. (Okay, so I’m still upset about the fking family law crap.)

In the realm of his work, a friend I don’t see nearly enough popped by the courthouse Friday and we had fun catching up with each other. Brad and Val also visited in the afternoon. They drove in from San Jose early in the day, and as they plan to be in Disneyland all day today, my bailiff was nice enough to pick up 2 discount tickets from the Sheriff’s Dept at lunch for them. Since we’d concluded our court trial the day before, nothing was going on in the department so my judge came out and met them, then donned his robe and posed for some photos with us. I wish I had them to post now, but they’re in Brad’s camera. Since Brad brought his laptop with him on this trip, MAYBE HE’LL READ THIS AND EMAIL ME THE PHOTOS ASAP. =) Brad and Val are both good sports in my cheesy photo antics, as you guys know from the July 4th weekend photos posted on my blog. I’m gonna try to meet up with them some time this weekend, maybe late tonite or tomorrow before they leave to drive home. We were gonna meet up last nite after my dinner plans, but they were too tired and crashed instead. That worked out for me, as I didn’t even come home until almost 6am this morning.

After work, I drove to Irvine to meet up with my cousins Diana and Jennifer at their house in Irvine. They have a really nicely decorated place! It’s very femme and creative. Our cousin Olivia also joined us, with husband Eric and daughters Nikki (5) and Erin (2) in tow. Olivia was so cute. She’s missed her carefree days of romping around with us now that she’s heavily into family responsibilities and real-life issues. When we were walking to the cars to take off to the restaurant, she started toward their car, then paused and said, almost whinily in Chinese, “Aww, I so want to sit with you guys!” We told her she’s welcome to, and she got all excited and said “Okay! Lemme ask my husband.” She ran over to him and asked if she could ride over to the restaurant with us, like a little girl hoping her dad would consent to letting her go out and play. I assume by the way his butt and legs stuck out of his car as he loaded the youngest into the carseat that he agreed, and Olivia came skipping, SKIPPING! back toward us with a huge smile on her face. A few more skips, and little Erin’s audible wail for “Maaaaaa!” permeated the air. Olivia froze, turned around, then back toward us, and the same huge smile came back as she skipped the remainder of the way to our car. Even with their car door closed, we could hear Erin crying. “Ooh, Eric’s gonna have a bad drive to the restaurant,” Jennifer said. “That’s okay, it’s only for a few minutes,” Olivia said dismissively.

We had a delicious dinner at King’s Fishhouse in Laguna Hills. Their something-bikini martini, however, could’ve been a little more fruity, a lot less starter-fluid-y. Blech. We took a photo of the four of us cousins at the table which I hope I’ll get from Olivia soon. The lack of sleep and food coma caught up with me and as we returned to Diana and Jennifer’s house, I was invited in to crash for a few hours and all three of us did, in the living room in front of their TV, until Diana and I woke up around 3:30am and watched the remainder of “White Chicks” which was playing on Starz!. It’s a pretty typical night of falling asleep in front of the TV and waking up in the middle of the nite for me, but I’d never driven over half an hour afterwards before.

Oh, I also missed some calls from some friends at dinner, and one was from my girl friend inviting me to go to a huge party tonite. The birthday boy’s turning 40 (I can’t even imagine!) and has rented out the ballroom of a hotel in downtown LA. That should be interesting.

My body was sore from overdoing a workout Tuesday, so yesterday, I made an impromptu massage appointment at Glen Ivy Day Spa in Brea for 7:30pm. Man, that place is popular. On a Wednesday nite, the only slots they had left were 20 mins at 5:30 and 20 mins at 7:30. I wanted an 80-minute but oh well, guess I’ll have to save my money for something else.

I got there an hour early to enjoy the facility. The first place I went to is the empty Garden Tea Room to fill out my waiver and consent form. That room is amazing! It’s got quaint little conversation areas set up all over, plus a large blazing fireplace on the far wall with cozy seating and lounging areas around it. There were ample stone tables to do work, and low soothing music was playing. I could see myself there with a spot of tea working on my (soon-to-be-purchased) laptop, organizing my notes and writing my book. Next, after putting my stuff away in the locker room, which has windows into garden-looking enclosed areas, I sunk into the kidney-shaped whirlpool. There was only one other person in it, and it was large enough that sitting at a certain angle I couldn’t even see her. Instead I faced the large glass wall that opened into another garden-like area. Then I laid for 15 minutes in the sauna. The temperature of the sauna and the whirlpool were perfect. Most of these places tend to have the water/steam too hot, and I have to get used to it while feeling like cannibal dinner. Cold wet towels on ice were provided in a large brass bowl by the sauna door. All the sinks were large round brass bowls. It all looked very neo-Roman. 10 minutes before my massage appointment time, I got into the robe and spread out in the women’s lounge with complimentary cup of their Serendipi-tea. They had sliced cucumbers on ice in the lounge, too, for our puffy eyes. I didn’t use any as I did not want to risk pouring hot tea down my chest.

The massage therapist, Carla, was wonderful. It was probably the best massage I’d ever had. She had a unique way of applying pressure, and she explained that she was trying to distribute the lactic acid buildup in my muscles so that the soreness would go away faster. At the conclusion, she agreed with me that yes, I did need a longer massage as all my muscles are tight. (Maybe I’m not stressed and they’re just tight because I work out. HAHA, right.) I was in this fuzzy sedated heaven state when I teetered out of the massage area back thru the lounge into the women’s area, and I jumped into their shower. Oh! Shower bliss, too! A large overhead cylinder dispensed rainfall-like hot water onto my head. A regular showerhead on the left wall gave me the diagonal blast for my upper back. The right shower wall had a lower, more focused showerhead that gave me pressurized water onto my lower abdomen or lower back, depending on which way I turn. And of course, complimentary Red Mineral Clay shampoo, conditioner, shower gel. I was afraid I wouldn’t make it home last nite.

Seriously, the drive home, I felt drunk. Or high. It felt like my body and spirit were padded in a cozy soft envelopment, and nothing could touch me, physically or mentally. I finished off my night at home with yoga and fresh grapes.

Woke up right before 6am. There was some light visible thru the curtains, and I was feeling normal. I had complete recall of everything, including my dream that I had already woken up and gone out w/everyone for breakfast. I came upstairs thru the iron spiral staircase, looked out the window, and found myself staring at the ocean. It was a bit overcast, but the water was glittering and blue, and the sand was white. I had no idea we were that close to the beach. I would’ve burst into song if I could think of a song to sing. What a great house! What a great location! What a great morning! I needed to get to my car, grab my omnipresent workout bag, change to workout clothes and go jog on the beach! I started to leave, but decided to come back and leave them a note just in case they woke up to check on me and think I freaked out and ran out. Before I could write the note, Boyfriend came out of his bedroom (he did tell me the nite before that he gets up at 6a), marveled at how awake, spry, and not hung over I was, and insisted on coming with me to my car. I was grateful, as the place looked totally, wonderfully different in daylight. I practically skipped to my car. We decided to drive my car back toward his house to find closer parking, and we managed to park half a block away from his beachside property. By the time we came in, my girl friend had grudgingly gotten up and we made a plan for the day.

The three of us took a morning stroll beachside (the houses along the sand are simply amazing. I don’t know how many times I carped about not having my camera on hand.), wandered by some stores in Downtown Manhattan Beach, stopped by Starbucks where Boyfriend got coffee and a muffin, walked up and down the famous Manhattan Beach Pier…

…where some runners were warming up for a Pier to Pier race at 7:15 am, then walked back to his place. My girl friend and I then drove to Vons and bought breakfast groceries. We made eggs, hash browns, bacon, 2 kinds of sausage, buttermilk biscuits, and mimosa. I felt like I was on vacation. We were waiting for the cloud layer to burn off so we could go for a swim in the ocean. I didn’t have a swimsuit, so the three of us took a walk to Downtown Manhattan Beach where, uncharacteristically and on a whim, I purchased a $90+ red very sexy little bikini. Then back to the beach house, where the two of them took a nap (at least that’s what they said they were gonna do, altho it sounded from downstairs like a very “active” nap) and I took my morning shower.

When we set up at the beach, we laid out for a couple of hours conversing of the ramifications of cross-generational ignorance upon global environment, society, history, pathology, until some other friends of Boyfriend’s joined us, then the three of us (I, reluctantly) walked to the water. I had no intention of going in past my ankles, as the last time I was in ocean water farther than that was when I was a hairline away from drowning myself, but the Boyfriend ran up to me and grabbed me and threw me in. When I came back up, I said, “You didn’t even ask if I could swim!” He looked horrified, and apologized for traumatizing me for the rest of the day (I can swim). Completely uncharacteristically of me, I was in the water chin-deep, playing with the waves, and it was wonderful. The ocean was warm, and Boyfriend played with a bobbing jellyfish. “It’s the kind that doesn’t sting,” he insisted. They got out of the water too quickly for my taste, but I followed and we laid out on the beach discussing movie plots and shortcomings for the next few hours. I noted how different these people’s frames of reference are. They were joking about celebrity deaths, which is common guy talk, except the references were to various planes, their external structure, inner operation, etc. Apparently these flashy-careered (screenwriter; something Sony Pictures related; TV commercial producer) people all have pilots licenses. They were discussing celebrities’ drunk flying in the same casual mainstream way the people I’m normally around discuss celebrity drunk driving. Boyfriend, in making fun of my Chinese girl friend and I, alluded to the Thursday Wall Street Journal article about 2nd generation Chinese American spies in the engineering fields. Of course we hadn’t read it. When his friends got there, he made the same allusion in mocking us and they all knew what he was talking about as if it were the over-media’ed Michael Jackson trial. But I digress.

We soon separated to clean up. I got a nice hot shower rinse in Boyfriend’s patio outdoor shower (!!) and as my girl friend and I cleaned ourselves up, Boyfriend and the band went off to rehearse somewhere. My girl friend and I caught up on each other’s lives, watched TV, walked to the store and bought junk food, Tecate beer, Absolut vodka and Bacardi Vanil rum, then Boyfriend got back with groceries and made dinner for us (BBQ pork ribs, BBQ beans, seasoned almond rice, BBQed asparagus, BBQed corn-on-the-cob, chocolate sorbet, Vanil rum-n-Diet-Coke). Great dinner conversation goofing off with some extreme low-brow humor, great stimulating and thought-provoking after-dinner conversation, and despite their urging that I stay another nite and have breakfast with them before I leave, I left.

8 drinks this weekend. That is really uncharacteristic of me. Absolute appreciation for life, its beautiful details and friends, hopefully becoming more characteristic of me.

OMG, fking amazing weekend. Not that the weekend’s over; it’s only Saturday nite/Sunday morning. And I just got home from going out Friday nite.

Work was uneventful for the first time in awhile. After work, I went to Outback Steakhouse with coworkers and had an eagerly anticipated drink. Thought I’d try something new. Since martinis are my new thing, I picked an Aussie Purple Passion martini. Uncharacteristically, I downed it before the appetizers even got to the table. Also uncharacteristically, I ordered a second drink. My tried-and-true caramel apple martini. Downed that drink before dinner got to the table. Had a nice fish and steamed veggies dinner. I came home exhausted at 7:30p and got ready for an early nite as I took out my contacts, washed my face, and changed to jammies.

One received phone call and an hour later, I was driving to Manhattan Beach in a ghetto-casual getup, hair done, makeup done, contacts back in, to hang out with my girl friend and her new boyfriend and his band members. Yes, my girl friend is dating someone whose job-away-from-job is playing in a rock band. On the way down I dismissed the fancy that maybe I’ll meet some interesting people thru her tonite, and brought myself back down to earth thinking, “They’re probably a bunch of old folgies, I’d likely be disappointed.” Which has been the case with her boyfriends’ friends in the past. As I was getting close to the restaurant they were all hanging at, I was on the phone with one of the guys who was giving me directions, so when I got to a certain point my friend and the guy came out to help me find a parking spot and guide me to the restaurant. It was dark and I didn’t even see them, but I stopped the car at their direction as they saw me. My friend opened the passenger door and popped in the back seat of my coupe. She pulled the front seat down and directed the guy friend to take shotgun and give me directions. This friend dropped down to get into my car and I did a stunned gawk. This guy, who turns out to be the drummer in their band, is easily one of the hottest men I have seen in a long, long time. Dirty blonde hair, beautiful eyes, great smile, dimples, and from what I could tell, he sees the gym plenty.

Anyway, I got to the upstairs patio seating portion of this restaurant, met everybody else, and then they paid the tab and we all walked across the street to go hang out at a pub type bar playing loud rock music. The drinks there were strong, and I was ordered (yes, passive voice) two apple martinis. Those drinks tasted like apple-scented vodka. I felt a tad dizzy for a few minutes, and that’s saying a lot for me because I don’t ever get any other alcohol-induced symptoms (such as the typical Asian rosin). The amazing thing at this bar is, even tho I was with my hot hot girl friend, male eyes were on me instead of her. They may have been able to tell that she was with her man. One man across the way stared so intently and for so long that my girl friend noticed and said something to me about him. But she and her man also hinted for me to flirt with Drummer Boy, who apparently, according to both of them, was interested in me. I made some minimal effort to chat w/him, but it was too loud in there to carry on a decent conversation. We soon left to hit bar #2.

Bar #2 required about a mile of driving and some knowledge of the local streets to find parking. So my girl friend and her man suggested loudly that Drummer Boy come with me to help me out. We found parking pretty readily and went in the bar. Things got a bit friendlier, and as the minutes ticked by, Drummer Boy said, “I don’t think they’re coming.” I said that there’s no way my girl friend would do that to me. They did show up soon enough, and we had another round of drinks. Drummer Boy got me my old usual, a Redheaded Slut, but I had to lean into the bar and tell the bartender how to make it. A bit past midnight and some racy conversations later, my girl friend and her boyfriend tried to get everyone back to the boyfriend’s house to hang out, but Drummer Boy allegedly did the “polite” thing and hailed a taxi home, after firmly telling me that I am not driving home tonight after 5 drinks. I thought that was a bizarre end, but I learned later that Drummer Boy is really not a player and altho he can get girls, he doesn’t do the fling thing. Not that I’m a big promoter of the fling thing, but am I supposed to feel offended here? Anyway, I never saw him again.

Turned out Boyfriend’s house is walking distance from this bar, so we walked back. He has a very very nice place on the beach, well-decorated, full of whimsical artifacts from the 50’s. I slept on a big comfy couch downstairs after being warned that, as I’d never been drunk before, I will be hung over in the morning, and I may freak out not knowing where I am when I woke up. I said I’m not drunk, and I’ll be fine. My girl friend agrees that altho she’s never seen me drink that much (and strong stuff), that I don’t appear to be drunk altho I seem to be buzzing, which she finds to be unusual enough for me.

I’ve already had two very nice conversations today. The first was a 1.5 hr phone conversation with someone I hadn’t really talked to before. He instantly “got” my sense of humor, responded with his own, and pretty much anywhere the conversation reached, he was able to follow and/or lead. That was great! I like talking to smart people. He also had this uncanny way of tapping right into the heart of certain personal issues that I don’t even acknowledge to myself. They’re theories I’ve reached and then locked away about why I react a certain way to certain things, but nothing I’d ever admitted aloud. But he just jumped right into them. “You do y? Did x ever happen to you in your developmental age?” Uh…why, yes.

The second with was an old friend. I’ve known this guy since we were 12. I was sitting like a lazy slob on my couch watching some Lifetime movie about a woman who had an affair with her best friend’s 18 yr-old son (played by Brian Austin Green), and the phone rang. “Where do you live again?” my friend asked. He was minutes away. ACK! I ended up meeting him at Jamba Juice in Brea and we drove over to BJs Pizzeria to chat under full-blasting AC. I hadn’t seen this guy forever, since he moved to Northern Cali when his company offered him some ridiculous 250% raise and a promotion. The first thing he said when I walked up to him was, “What are you, living at the gym now?” Huh? I looked down at my attire, Happy Bunny t-shirt, short skort, heely sandals. This doesn’t pass as a workout outfit, does it? “You look great!” he announced. Oh! You always get brownie points for that kind of opener. We had a good 1+ hr chat about our lives, our investments, our properties, before he had to jam to Pasadena to compete as a blackbelt in a karate tournament.

Friday turned out to be a salvaged day. I went from this in the morning…

Bailiff: I just want to compliment you on the way you look today. Nice outfit, your hair, your makeup…
Me: Thanks, but what’s the point? I mean, really. What’s the point.

…to lots of fun at work, lots of laughing, a tad of drama between men, and a good time at Outback during happy hour after work. I finally met someone that I’ve heard my coworkers refer to for years. I would’ve never imagined that she’s physically the real-live version of Fran Drescher (not that Fran isn’t alive), except sans annoying accent. Hey, turns out that the Outback makes a caramel apple martini (not on their menu, but made at my request) as identical to the one from Downtown Disney’s UVA bar as I can tell.