cindy's world

Gravity is especially strong for me today. I had a hard time getting out of bed and had to be re-woken a second time by Mr. W. I oozed over to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, popped in my contacts, then oozed back over to the bed, where I was again pulled into horizontal position for about 10, 15 minutes. Finally, fearful of Mr. W’s reaction if he happened to come upstairs again to see me still in bed, while I try to explain to him that I’m not STILL in bed, I’m AGAIN in bed, which is probably equally alarming to him, I oozed over to the closet and picked out work clothes. Zomboid, I trudged downstairs and sank into a chair while Mr. W handed me a plate of tomato and jalapeno hummus omelet. From there, how I got to the car was a blur.

Then shortly before leaving for work, Mr. W trotted over to the side of the house and returned to the car, where I sat waiting for him, with a little white rose bud from our yard. It woke me up a little, because when I poked around inside the rose petal and peeked in, about to shove my nose in there and inhale, I saw a fat green worm curled up inside snoozing away. I did the ew ew, gag gag thing and Mr. W snatched the rose from my hand, stuck his fingers into it, and pulled the worm out. Then he opened his side of the car door and deposited the worm on the street. So I did the ew ew, gag gag thing AGAIN cuz now he TOUCHED it. He returned the rose to me and I gingerly and suspiciously moved around other petals, and saw another greenish grayish blob that resembled a tiny shell-less oyster. I decided I had enough of the rose even after Mr. W once again dug out the gray matter and flicked it out the car, so he put the rose into his cup holder instead. I know, I know, that’s gratitude for a guy trying to be romantic with his newlywed wife.

Gravity took over again, so instead of resisting, I lowered the car seat back all the way and went to sleep. After Mr. W went to work, I had the car to myself and instead of going to work myself, I instead lowered the car seat AGAIN and napped in the parking structure outside the courthouse for another 40 minutes.

But I DID have enough presence of mind to call both Dwaine AND Andrae to wish them a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! As usual, crazybusy Dwaine didn’t pick up his cell phone, but Andrae picked up and after I pretended like I was all awake and chirpy and stuff in calling him on his special day, he said, “You are a sweetheart! I can’t do stuff like this. The only birthday I ever remember is Dwaine’s.” I wish I had a twin so I could make twin jokes like that. Hippo Birdie, Dwaine and Andrae! You’re now MY AGE! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Here’s a meme I filled out earlier at work for anyone who’s bored, or looking for a blog post topic. If you fit in either of these categories, I tag you!
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44 ODD Things about you!

Okay – Copy the body of this meme, paste it into a new post, FILL IT OUT with your own answers and pass it on! Learn 44 things about your friends, and let them learn 44 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing? I love chunky bleu cheese. With tabasco stirred in. and fries dipped in.
2. Do you own a gun? not me, personally.
3. What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks or other specialty coffee shop? UCLA – iced cappuccino royale. Starbucks – caffe mocha with soy or hot chai. that specialty peppermint one they have during the holidays.
4. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? not unless it’s surgical or invasive.
5. What do you think of hot dogs? Eh. Kinda phallic.
6. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride, instrumental version w/all the bells and whistles, like Leroy Anderson’s. But that’s only if Wham!’s “Last Christmas” doesn’t count cuz they’re looking for a “traditional” song.
7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? nothing.
8. Can you do push ups? yeah.
9. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? I don’t really wear jewelry. Favorites change seasonally. Currently, my wedding band.
10. Favorite hobby? blogging, I guess. Especially reading everyone’s comments! *nudge*
11. Do you have A.D.D.? No, so if I tune you out, it’s intentional.
12. What’s one trait that you hate about yourself? I’m not gonna even think about this question.
13. Middle name? my phonetically-translated (poorly) Chinese name.
14. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
1. “Arrrgh.”
2. “I’m glad my staff is open-minded to try fresh longyans.” (dragoneye fruit)
3. “It’s freakin freezing in here.”
15. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, iced tea, the occasional protein shake
16. Current worry right now? Am I gaining weight?
17. Current hate right now? annoying people. and when people don’t know when to shut up and/or defend me and/or leave me alone.
18. Favorite place to be? under the covers with Dodo. Not that we’ve ever done that. But I used to lay under the covers with my arm sticking out, and Dodo would curl up on top of the bed in between my arm and my side.
19. How did you bring in the New Year? Dude, it’s SEPTEMBER. I guess I’ll have to check my blog diaries.
20. Do you like to travel? In small doses.
21. Name three people who will complete this? a bored person; a person looking for a blog topic; a person who loves me.
22. Do you own slippers? lots.
23. What color shirt are you wearing? white knit top.
24. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? that stuff scars too easily and slides off all the time. annoying.
25. Can you whistle? yeah, but just the one note.
26. Favorite color(s)? yellow.
27. Would you be a pirate? sure, I’ll be Corolla Slayer.
28. What songs do you sing in the shower? whatever’s in my head. Most recently it was Michael Buble’s “Home.”
29. Favorite girl’s name? Hildegarde.
30. Favorite boy’s name? Billdegarde.
31. What’s in your pocket right now? no pockets.
32. Last thing that made you laugh? Last nite, one of the comments on Flat Coke’s MySpace photos.
33. Best bed sheets as a child? smurfette sleeping bag that I was allowed to use in bed during cold winter months.
34. Worst injury you’ve ever had? I don’t want to think too hard about this one. I’m just gonna say the broken heart.
35. Do you love where you live? sure.
36. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2 big screens. And one little hand-held packed away somewhere.
37. Who is your loudest friend? My husband. Yesterday while he was roaring I even said, “Ow, ow!!”
38. How many pets do you have? One, but he’s really a roommate and therapist. In a batman mask.
39. Does someone have a crush on you? That is not confirmed.
40. What is your favorite book? There are lots. Cecilia Ahern’s “P.S. I Love You” isn’t bad.
41. What is your favorite candy? San Francisco Brickle, See’s. Or a Lindor’s mint truffle.
42. Favorite Sports Team? Uh, Bruins, hello.
43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? trying to convince myself to ooze from the downstairs couch into the bedroom upstairs to brush my teeth and go to bed.
44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? “My arms are asleep.”

Moon Festival is this Sunday. My mom emailed me to make sure Mr. W and I would be going to visit them. I reassured her that I would, and got this email in response:

“Remember the Moon Festival night last year? me and your dad at Diamond bar senior club park enjoy the moon light and You were on vacation in somewhere, talked about the ring over the phone with me and end up I paid for it. it’s been a year already, don’t forget to wear that ring Sunday. I think after dinner, maybe we can bring moon -cakes and tea there to enjoy the moon light for a while.”

The “on vacation somewhere” was on the Big Island of Hawaii for Mike (Wilco) and Christi’s (Flip Flop Girl’s) wedding. That ring was my birthstone, an incredible quality of natural color-change Alexandrite set between diamonds on a white gold band. I just got the ring re-rhodiumed recently and picked it up with Jordan when she was here for OUR wedding. How funny the things that link together.

I found out through the grapevine the other day that a bunch of my coworkers are waiting for me to get fat. That’s right. Gym Trainee said these people don’t realize that I didn’t make physical fitness a priority just to bag a man, I did it for longevity. (I mostly did it for vanity, but I didn’t correct her.) While it is true that personal health is more important to me than attractiveness, my health is usually not in jeopardy so I have the luxury of not having to think about it much. Hence, the goal had always been to look cute in a particular outfit or dress or…bikini. =P The way I see it, the awesome blood pressure, low bpm, ability to do stuff without being winded, all the other health benefits are just side effects of working out and looking good. Who could fault that? Altho…if I’m gonna get sucked into or apart at a black hole in the very near future, maybe it wouldn’t matter cuz I couldn’t even leave behind a hot corpse.

Anyway, I asked whether people are expecting Mr. W to get fat, too. And I was surprised to learn that indeed, some people ARE happily awaiting him to meet that fate. Why? Cuz apparently that’s just what married people DO. They get fat together. “What makes them think we’re just all of a sudden gonna get fat when we’ve worked out together before we were engaged, during the engagement, and even now?” Mr. W asked absurdly. On some level I think the people who are expecting and hoping for this need to. Cuz it makes them feel guilty every lunchtime Gym Trainee and I pass by them on our way to the gym and they’re on their way to Jack in the Crack or MickeyD’s. Cuz watching me maintain my figure and watching Gym Trainee lose fat, tone up, and get hugely improved blood test results at the doctor’s make them feel like they need to get off THEIR lazy butts, too. But they don’t want to, so if they see us fail, they can say, “See, they worked out that hard for that long, and see where it got them? Nowhere. I’m glad I stayed put and just enjoyed my food.”

I was never one for the super-fancy cell phones. To me, functions like MP3 playin’, movie-watchin’, video-takin’ just drain cell phone batteries too fast. I wanted a reliable cell phone that’s easy to use with basic functions quickly accessible, and Nokias have always done that for me. It’s got a pretty decent little camera, too.

However, since I lost internet access at work, I’ve felt totally crippled. I can’t get information about things, spellings of streets or specialized terminology, or get store hours and addresses. I also can’t check my account balances or pay bills online. It’s just totally sucked. So I decided to get an internet-capable cell phone, since my current cell phone needs to be replaced anyhow. It keeps dropping calls and telling me I need to insert a SIM card. The problem is that AT&T, which I have now, doesn’t have reception in my courtroom. I wasn’t sure if this meant that even the powerful iPhone would not work in there. My courtroom assistant’s Verizon phone works in the courtroom, but she didn’t have internet so I don’t want to switch companies and then realize that after buying a SmartPhone, I have to leave internet at the door.

So today, I called around and found a coworker with an iPhone. Indulging my reception experiment, she walked into my courtroom watching the reception bars on her iPhone. Immediately, the bars dropped. By the time she’d reached my desk, it said “no signal.” I still had high hopes for Verizon. I found another coworker with a Verizon internet-capable SmartPhone, an LG, and things seemed great when she came in. She even pulled up a website standing by my desk. However, the website froze, and everything we tried afterwards just brought up a “server inaccessible” error message. DAMN IT.

I guess I can save the moolah on an internet-capable cell phone and just get another Nokia freebie with AT&T. The monthly service plans would be cheaper, too. Maybe this time I’ll even relax the purse strings enough to get a plan that includes text messaging.

We’ve been getting a lot of house things done, much of it financed thanks to all the Target, Home Depot, Nordstrom, Macy’s, etc. giftcards from wedding guests. =) I’ve also spent a lot of time doing one of my favorite pastimes, sitting online chatting with friends. Mr. W even walked in last nite and threatened to clock the exact time I’m spending on the computer so that he could give himself the same time for computer gaming. =P So I quickly ended my IM conversations and left the room, sheepishly realizing I’m kind of a crappy wife between all the online stuff and phone chats with my friends. My mom’s been calling me like 3-4 times a day, too. She’s putting together a small Chinese banquet for those friends/family who were unable to attend our wedding, since I had departed from tradition by not having a Chinese seafood banquet at the actual wedding. We keep getting really positive feedback from wedding guests on the food, though. The coconut-crusted mahi-mahi was an especially big hit.

Speaking of being on the internet and the cell phone, I’m now considering getting an internet-accessible cell phone. My current Nokia is having issues, dropping carrier constantly and telling me that I need to insert my SmartChip. I think it’s just past its prime. Mr. W’s cell phone has been temperamental also, so we’re gonna go to the cell phone store in a little bit to shop around.

Yesterday evening, Mr. W inflated all the bike tires and we biked the mile down to the Lake and hung out at the beach watching the sun set and the stars appear. Bunnies appeared in the grassy areas, too. We were surprised to see a bunch of people still playing sand volleyball, but the courts were pretty well-lit. We decided to bring some wine or mojitos down tonight with a blanket. The weather was very comfortable, the Lake is private, so it still feels like a vacation without the cost. I am really digging our new life together.

Mr. W and I spent yesterday running errands, one of which included depositing the shockingly generous monetary wedding gifts from friends and relatives. I had pre-warned Mr. W that the bank probably would not accept a check made out to Cindy Wonderful since there is no proof that we’re married, and probably would not accept ‘Mr. Wonderful and Cindy’ checks, either, without a joint account for deposit. I remembered that Flip Flop Girl and Wilco ran into that problem after their wedding. He brushed it off and said that’s impossible; as long as we BOTH sign the backs of the checks made out to both of us, the bank would honor it. I was dubious. And I turned out to be right. So after Mr. W’s ineffective mini fit, we opened up a joint checking account to deposit all the wedding checks. The banker was very nice, apologetic about the inconvenience but firm. If a check is made out to TWO people, they have to show proof that the money went to benefit both people, and depositing it into just 1 person’s account is considered improper/unethical/illegal/against procedure. If the checks had been made out to “Cindy OR Mr. W,” it’d be an entirely different story. What’s in a word? I was fine with it as I had wanted to open a joint account anyway to handle our household bills, but Mr. W had his personal accounts at a different bank and didn’t want to bank elsewhere.

While sitting there and waiting for the new account to process, we chatted with the banker, who was fairly recently married. His wife had juggled with the possibilities of changing her last name to his, hyphenating her last name with his, or keeping her maiden name intact. She decided to drop her middle name, make her maiden name her new middle name, and then add her husband’s as the family last name. My mom did that. And the banker told me about the procedures I’d have to go through to get the name change applied to DMV, passport, social security card, employer, bank accounts, credit cards, beneficiary information, trust information, property records, retirement, and it just snowballs from there. I’m not a spring chicken. I’m kind of a late summer kind of chick, so I’d have to link decades of credit history and stuff to my new name after notifying everyone of the change and sending proof of marriage. Mr. W turned to me and said, “Keep your last name.” I had been undecided but had recently started leaning toward becoming Cindy Wonderful, but my head was now swimming with the hassle so I agreed.

Yup, I’m still me. But I’ll answer to Mrs. Wonderful or Cindy Wonderful, and if I have kids, the school can call me Mrs. Wonderful to link me to Little Girl Wonderful and/or Little Boy Wonderful.

I think Mr. W should change his last name to mine, though.

I am so, extremely, exhausted. Today I finally finished moving out of my old house. I’d been packing and moving things since last Thursday night. I’ll respond to comments and blog more later, but now I just wanted to say hello out there and yes, I’m alive; yes, we’re finally completely moved in; and no, we are nowhere near done unpacking. We basically have no garage right now, just a giant maze of boxes. But I am going to crash for tonite and do as much as I can this weekend. If Mr. W doesn’t make me throw everything I have away on sight.

We’re moving. Right now. I’m in the new house with the new cable internet. Mr. W got his son and three of the son’s friends to help out. They’re taking a pizza break in the back yard. We got most of the stuff out of my house this morning on the U-Haul, there are other personal things I need to go back to get, most importantly of which is the very freaked out, hiding-in-the-closet Dodo.

See you soon!

Yesterday evening, Dwaine and I met up at our former German teacher Mr. Englyng‘s house. I think it’d been 8 or 9 years since I’d last seen him, and 14 for Dwaine.

I got there first and when Mr. Englyng opened the door, I pensively hoped we’d still look familiar to each other, and he looked EXACTLY THE SAME. I mean, he may have lost maybe 10, 15 lbs but he had not aged AT ALL. He was as sharp as ever, as opinionated as ever, as tongue-in-cheek as ever. The four of us (with Mr. Englyng’s wife Kirsten) chatted in the living room until Kirsten left for her weekly painting class, then the three of us had hot dogs and fresh fruit in the back yard patio (the house looked nicer than I’d remembered, they definitely upgraded beautifully and he has a veggie garden patch in the back yard), and didn’t really come back. It got dark, Mr. Englyng lit candles, then eventually turned on some rope lighting he had on the inside perimeter of his patio rafters. And eventually his wife returned from her class and joined us and we kept chatting and laughing.

As we prepared to eat, Dwaine in his usual style suggested we toast to something. We couldn’t think of anything, and Mr. Englyng made a suggestion for something that the Germans do. The German language has a “polite version” of addressing someone and a “familiar version”. The English language used to, too. “You” used to be polite, and “thou” was informal. I would say “thou” to my kid, but “you” to my boss. Kinda like how we don’t say “you” or “him” to the judge or to refer to the judge; we say “your honor” and “his honor.” Anyway, Mr. Englyng proposed that we drop the formal polite “you” and go to the informal “thou”, i.e., call him Finn instead of Mr. Englyng. But only if we feel comfortable with it. I thanked him and Dwaine gave it a few seconds of hard thought, and said he couldn’t do it. There’s a certain level of reverence in our minds about our high school German teacher and we’re just not on his level, we’ll always be a step down. People like us never sleep with our teachers or bosses because we always have that separation in our minds.

We had a great time, I admired the couple with their 44 years of marriage and their apparent respect, love and support of each other, new hobbies they’ve grown to enjoy together in his recent retirement (sailing, hiking, road trips). We reminisced, caught up on each others’ lives, shared stories, ranted about the housing crisis (which Dwaine took personal responsibility for), shared current philosophies on different countries, cultures, political systems, even made a few confessions (Dwaine). I got home at 2:30a tired but very fulfilled. Mr. Englyng made us promise not to make it another 14 years in-between visits. Well, how about a month at the wedding?