cindy's world

The massage was great! I had a nice chick bonding chat w/my massage therapist thru the session. The spa itself was far inferior to Burke Williams Spa, tho. This spa had no real “lounge” area, just a tiny waiting area for massage clients; the locker room area is tiny with one small steam room, one shower, two restroom stalls. No whirlpool or jacuzzi.

My friend and I wandered around Old Town Pasadena after the spa, all relaxed and happy. (In truth, the aromatherapy fumes probably did their thing on our neurons.) We walked to Afloat Sushi for dinner. The sushi bar there is very interesting. Everyone sits around a large revolving moat, and the moat surrounds the sushi chefs who are working in the middle of the room. Circulating within the moat are the wooden Japanese boats that “boat combination meals” are typically served on, and there are 3-4 little dishes of different types of sushi, sashimi, salad and dessert on each boat. As the boat drifts past you, you just pick up whatever dish you want to eat. The items are color-coded by the little dishes, from $1.99 to $6. I spent about $20 on dinner and was totally full. It was a lot of fun, and everyone’s just in-and-out since you don’t have to wait for the sushi chef to make your order after he finishes the other orders.

We went back to my friend’s house after dinner/shopping, met up w/her husband and the three of us shot the fecal excrement. Then around 11:30pm, when I was ready to go home and fall asleep, my friend decided she REALLY wanted supper and I somehow got talked into going to a restaurant in Monterey Park for congee (Chinese porridge). We got there close to midnight, and I was shocked to see the place packed with patrons – not teenagers or college kids who are up all night anyway – but like 50-60 yr olds! Since when did people my parents’ age hook up and go out for supper at midnight? I wondered as I stifled a yawn, painfully past my bedtime.

I didn’t get home until about 1:30 am, and when I did, I had a big surprise waiting for me. It seems that I had quite a few people worried to death about me since I forgot to take my cell phone on my outing that day. Well, I did survive the ensuing drama (which lasted until almost 11am this morning). Boy, am I tired.

The mounting list of coincidences are so positive and affirming. The college roommie and I were talking about spa treatments, which had been on both our minds recently. We need pampering, I guess. And today, my elementary school friend (we’ve been tight friends since 3rd grade) called me up and we’re going to Amadeus Spa in Pasadena! She just booked our hour-long massage appointments. Mine’s at 3pm. Check this out:

Amadeus Signature Massage
Forget your cares and leave the world behind as you unwind with our Signature Massage. This special treatment includes Aromatherapy Oils customized for your needs, Hot Rocks laid along key relaxation points and our Lemongrass Foot Scrub. From temples to toes, enjoy your best massage ever!
1 Hour & 15 Minutes…. $140

I’ve gotta go! Don’t wanna be late!

I thought I’d try something different today: controlling the direction of the day by changing little things and setting things up differently. On the nasty drive to work, I tried to change the irrate mood of having to deal w/idiotic drivers by listening to Harry Connick, Jr. croon the romantic standards of the ’50s and ’60s accompanied by orchestra and big band. I’m skipping breakfast and lunch. At lunch, I will go back to my old gym and try my luck there again, hoping that this time I will be left alone. After work, I’ll spend a little time cleaning my place up and then I will be meeting an old friend for some Korean soon tofu. I hope those plans go thru. He’s not normally a flaker, but sometimes I just get these feelings.

“Crash,” the movie starring Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, among others in an all-star cast, is in a nutshell “Pulp Fiction” with themes of racism and karma instead of underground gang warfare and drugs. Racism and karma also happen to be extremely dominant themes in introspective conversations between myself and the college roommie for the past 2 weeks or so. This is yet another way for the universe/spirit guides/powers that be to throw the obvious in my face. Kinda like what it did with “What Dreams May Come.” I immediately called the college roommie upon exiting the theatre. “You have to watch it before I get up there so we can talk about it,” I told her. “It is the culmination of everything we had been talking about.” The film artfully portrays the loose ends created between 6 or so sets of people and their relations to each other, and in the second half of the movie, it welds together each of these frayed ends. The result is many relationships of self-realization and interpersonal growth, some pleasant and touching, some uncomfortably baring. I won’t give away any more in case anyone wants to watch it. I highly recommend it, and would enjoy discussion with you on the movie.

At Rob May on Friday, I couldn’t find any dresses I could wear to Lily’s wedding, but did find my dad an awesome Father’s Day present. It’s a foot-tall liquor dispenser, shaped like an old-fashioned gasoline station pump, complete with sterling silver base, dispensing arm and handle. Clear glass top with liquid level indicators on side. Beautiful. I can see him pulling out the arm and dispensing a precise 4 ounces of brandy, neat, for his friends.

The sales lady commented about the cute shorts I was buying as she was ringing my purchases up. She said she’d like to wear them, if she could get into them, and that she’d lost some weight recently. It became a conversation about how her weight loss and depression was due to the fact that her husband of 13 years is going thru prostate cancer and surgery, and he’s bedridden presently with a catheter, which situation prevents her from being able to confront him about the fact that SHE JUST FOUND OUT HE’S BEEN CARRYING ON A LONG-TERM AFFAIR FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS.

Men suck.

—‘—,-{@ ~ THE WEDDING ~ @}-,—‘—
My friend Lily’s wedding was 4pm at the famous historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. After the graduation brunch (see Part I, below), I rushed home to change, shower, apply “wedding makeup”. The road closure at Hacienda Rd. sent me on a long, slow-moving detour before I was able to get home, and that delay, along with what felt like rush-hour traffic (bumper-to-bumper at 5 mph) on the freeways, caused an otherwise 50 minute drive to be 2.5 hours. When we arrived at Greystone Mansion, the wedding had concluded and the photographers were taking guest/family photos w/the happy couple. The only thing more beautiful and breathtaking than the hilltop estate was the bride, in a Vera Wang-esque strapless princess-skirted wedding gown. I slid right in and mingled, feeling horribly guilty for missing the wedding, and upset because I REALLY wanted to see the ceremony. The bride’s best friend (whom I also know from high school) almost blew my cover a few times. “Hey Cindy!” she greeted me.
“Oh, Deborah! I didn’t even recognize you!” I continued, trying to make conversation, “I heard you got married! Congratulations!” Brownie points for me for remembering, I thought.
“Yeah, I did! My husband’s around here somewhere.” She looked around, and not seeing him, continued, “He’s the one that was up there with me.”
“Up there?”
“Yeah! He was playing the guitar! You know, when I was singing?”
[a beat.] “Oh. That was your husband,” I said thoughtfully, as if suddenly realizing the answer to a question that was burning in my mind as I watched them perform.
About 15 minutes later, I ran into Deborah again. “Hey, do you have a younger sister here?” I asked her. “Cuz I saw someone down there that looks EXACTLY how you looked in high school!” Brownie points for me for remembering and noticing, I thought.
“Yeah! That’s my sister! She was up there with me. Singing.” She looked at me oddly.
“Oh.” I should just stop talking to people.

—‘—,-{@ ~ THE RECEPTION ~ @}-,—‘—
I asked Lily’s dad at the photoshoot, “When’s the reception? The invitations didn’t say.” He said, “Just whenever we’re done here, probably 6, 6:30. It depends how long this takes.” Wow. He booked an entire restaurant for the evening?! Chinese banquet at Mission 261 in the scenic and classy San Gabriel Mission District, the traditional course after course of seafood, shark-fin soup, chicken, delicacies. The table we were assigned to sit at was strangely full, and it looked as if some people there had brought others to the table who aren’t supposed to be there (cuz I can’t imagine that Lily would mingle us young English-speaking peers, and some of us attended HS together, with 75 year old men). So at least 4 of us who were supposed to be at that table went to the “overflow” table at the back of the room. Which was just fine, because our adopted table got served WAY ahead of the original table. I had fun catching up w/an old HS friend and chatting w/her friend about my writing and publications, and about the politics involved in writing Asian American literature. Lily did the customary mid-dinner changes from her wedding gown to traditional Chinese dress to fancy ballroom gown, and after the meal, everyone migrated from the dining hall to a separate ballroom in another part of the restaurant for the games, bouquet/garter tosses, dancing. Open bar thru the whole event. Wonderful turnout, impressive banquet, and I’m sure it was a very lovely wedding ceremony.

—‘—,-{@ ~ THE GRADUATION ~ @}-,—‘—
The CSULA graduation was yesterday morning, commencement from 8a-10a, then brunch at 11:30a. I was told “She can only get like 6 tickets for the graduation.” I’d quickly calculated: Mom, Dad, brother, brother2, bro2’s wife, boyfriend. Okay, understandable. “Why don’t you just meet us at the Cheesecake Factory for brunch?” I agreed. And I did my own thing in the morning. Not that “my own thing” wasn’t engrossingly enjoyable, but upon my hour-long drive from home to Pasadena, I was informed, “Everyone’s here at Cheesecake Factory early; we all came straight from graduation.”
Wait a minute. I had made reservations for 18. “Everyone’s there? As in, everyone except for me? Seventeen people came straight from graduation and are there already?”
“Yeah.”
“And she supposedly only had 6 tickets?”
“Well, I didn’t know they wouldn’t check for tickets at the door.”
When I got into brunch and the graduate finally showed up with her boyfriend and friend (45 minutes late), she walked up to me and demanded, “Why didn’t you go to my graduation?” I felt bad because she had personally called me at home to invite me to her graduation, so I pointed to the person responsible.
“I was told you only had 6 tickets, and I was supposed to just meet you guys here for brunch!”
“Everyone else got in,” she said.
“That’s what I was told.” Brunch was yummy. Cheesecake Factory’s food presentation is getting better and better. And it tastes WAY better than what I remembered from the Beverly Hills one when I attended UCLA.

The college roommie had said that the July 4th trip can also serve as a celebration of my b-day, which is June 29. This works out well for me mentally because I was feeling pensive about spending my b-day alone this year. As it turns out, my b-day will be on my 2nd Jujitsu class so I will be busy all evening so I don’t have to think about it. And the 1st weekend after the b-day, I will be up north, kayaking around the seals in Monterey Bay. NOW I’m getting excited! The roommie remarked that it’d be the same as Memorial Day weekend; fly up Saturday, dinner Saturday nite w/friends, athletic sight-seeing activity Sunday, BBQ house party Monday, flight back Monday nite. I’m definitely gonna bring my camera this time so I don’t have to go around begging the roommie’s friends to send me their digital photos of the weekend.