Friend is moving away from Houston [pout!]. Just helping get the word out about stuff she’s selling. All furniture is less than a year old and practically new.

Couch = $200 (bought it for $400; it is a futon that bends two ways)

Sharp flatscreen 32" TV = $400 OBO
TV Stand/coffee table = $15

Table and chairs (4) set = $60 OBO

1994 Honda Civic EX, sporty red 2-door coupe, 150k miles, in good condition! = $1500 OBO

Bissell Powerforce bagless Vacuum Cleaner = $20

Most comfortable Queen size mattress set EVAR (mattress + boxspring): $100

Friend is also giving away lots of household items...plates, silverware, pans, mugs, etc. E-mail / call for details.

Thanks guys! – C :)

Some people have bad hair days (I’ve been having a lot of those too, I hate this not-short-not-long length I’m at), but today was a bad car day.

First thing in the morning: I go to work. Park. I’m one of the few cars there in the lot. Later on I go out to run errands and I see this car KISSING my car. I’ve seen this car before, and it is always parked badly, but today when I saw this … I mean, seriously, what the … !?!?!?!

Mine is the Toyota, on the right.

View from the top. @#$% ...

Well, I start to pull away, when the car’s owner opens the door to his car. Most of you know I hate confrontation, but I jumped out and pipsqueak lil’ me was like, “Excuse me, is that your car? Because um, you were parked all the way up to my car so it was touching my license plate [ bang on license plate for effect ] … do you mind not parking so close next time?!” He nodded, not saying a word … I was like, “Great he’s gonna come beat me up now …” but instead he looked more confused than anything. Just great. He didn’t understand English. >_<

OK, so I went running my errands, and it started pouring. I switched on my trusty wipers. This AWFUL SCREEE-SCREEECH sound emitted from the wipers with each swipe. What the … I pulled over and took a look. The rubber blade of my passenger’s side wiper had come clean off, and the metal from the arm was scraping against my windshield!! OMG. I tried to prop my wiper up off the glass (lookin’ mega-ridiculous) so I could at least still use the good driver-side wiper and not hear that awful SCREEEEEECHING noise, but when the wiper came smashing back down into its resting position, I saw an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts right there in front of me. Edgar very kindly came out in the rain, took a look, unclipped my damaged wiper, and pointed me to some really good wipers that were on sale, and helped me install it too. :) Hopefully the scratches from that stupid wiper won’t be permanent …

And I’d just like to say I am grateful it was just a bad car day, not a horrible car day. :)

OMG OMG OMG. So I was getting in my car to drive to work today. I had parked under a tree last night, and saw some bird poop on my car. I'd just washed my car Monday, so I was a bit pissed, but whatever. But when I got in my car to leave for work, I realized with sheer, pure and utter horror that ...

THERE WAS A F###ING DEAD BIRD ON MY WINDSHIELD.

"OMG OMG OMG that is GRODY," I thought. I had to go to work right then, I didn't have time to deal with it right that moment ... I thought, "I'll just drive to work and the bird will just fall off I guess. I am so so so sorry Mr. Bird!" So off I drove. Whereupon I realized with sheer, pure and utter horror that ...

THE F###ING DEAD BIRD WAS STUCK IN MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS.

OMG OMG OMG that is DISGUSTING, I thought. And as I drove, I realized just how stuck it was. It was so stuck that not only was it not falling off, but ... the leg of the bird would swing back and forth, as if WAVING to me. OMG OMG OMG GROSS!!

Got to work (almost crying at this awful sight the whole way, I couldn't help it ... oh and I forgot to mention, there were BLOODY GUTS smeared on my windshield but I couldn't use my wipers!!) and stepped out to briefly survey what the HECK was going on. And to my sheer, pure and utter horror, I saw that ...

IT WAS A HEADLESS BIRD STUCK IN MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS. AND ITS BLOODY DECAPITATED BEAK WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE BESIDE IT!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I had to ask my co-worker if he could help me remove the poor bird (and beak, and bloody guts) from my windshield and wipers. Turns out it was like HALF A BIRD (I DUNNO WHERE THE REST OF IT WENT!!). WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!?1?1!! GRODY TO THE MAX YO!!!!!!

I was so grossed out I couldn't even take pictures like I usually would, OMG!!!! Yes I know, I'm such a girl!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! @_@

BEST: getting a phone call from Japan and hearing Moe-chan speak English to me. Thank you, Moe-chan. You TOTALLY made my day!

This was especially nice after waking up at 7:00am in a cold sweat from having my first nightmare in a very long time and not being able to go back to sleep.

Little Moe (pronounced "Mo-eh") had been practicing hard all week so she could say a few sentences to me in English.

Apparently the stress from reciting those lines in English got her body really tense:

Here she just looks a little nauseous having to tolerate my awful attempts at Japanese conversation:

Finally, when saying goodbye and an oh-so-sweet "I love you!" she finally relaxes a tiny bit - but still has a death grip on the phone with both hands:

Thanks to Hiroko for the action shots. :)

==========

WORST: Having to deal with apartment's new management ... again and again.

Me: Hi, I don't know why I got a notice for not having paid my rent. I have it automatically set to deduct from my checking account every month.

Apartment's New Management (ANM): With the new management, we don't have that anymore, and don't know if we will ever have that. If you bring in a money order in today, we'll waive the late fees.

Me: OK, can I have the exact total of rent plus utilities?

ANM: No, we don't know the exact amount. They're still figuring it out. [ cue my rolling of eyes ] Your best bet would be to pay what you paid last month. If you end up paying a little more, that amount will be credited towards your next statement.

Me: And what if I end up short a few bucks? Would that just be tacked onto the next statement?

ANM: Well ... then we would bill you for that amount and you'd have to come in and pay that, again via money order. So, we advise you to maybe pay a couple bucks more so that doesn't happen.

To say that they are concerned only for their bottom line seems something like an understatement. Is that the norm? Or only because I live in this particular apartment complex?

Also, I can't get straightforward answers to inquiries, like: "Have you added freon to my A/C yet?" and, "There are big gaping holes in my weather stripping, you do realize that all my A/C is just going out through those holes?" So far, I've "only" had to call them 4 times and talk to them in person about it once, only to get answers like, "Well, you should test it by turning the dial to 70F so we know if they did it or not," and "Don't you have a foundation problem? The weather stripping will NEVER be perfect."

Well, I'll keep thinking about the BEST wake up call ever and Moe's adorable voice and it'll be all good. :)

Had me speechless.

So you can't really tell what the rims look like from afar ...

 
So here they are in all their up-close-and-personal glory.

Aiyaaa.

Thanks for all the birthday well-wishes!! And hope all is well for everyone in this new year!

As if to alert me to my +1 status, my body protested at 9pm to go to bed. It's now 4 am, and I am strangely wide awake, and awfully sentimental.

I think I've become more aware in my "adulthood" of patterns engrained in me that I don't necessarily like, but are undeniably part of my being. I suppose I could just say "that's just how I am", but I refuse to just BE that way.

To all of my friends: each and every one of you inspires me to be a better person. And that is the best birthday present I could have.

I looped back around to get a picture with this HOT PINK JAGUAR. Can you believe it?!?! Many thanks for the owner of the car, Mr. Reginald, who allowed me to take pictures, and even came out to get me in the pic too! "I guess I'll be seeing this on MySpace," he said. While the thought of owning a MySpace page makes me somewhat nauseous, I do want to share the pics.

Ze car! I had to loop around to come back to it, I just *had* to get a pic of it, hehe.
 

Dorky pose 1.

Dorky pose 2. Ooooh I got to touch the car!!! OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH!!!

He apparently gets requests to take pics with the car all the time, hahaha.

By the way, like the cuuute new shirt? :)

How do you pronounce these words:

"shone", "contribute", "distribute", and "terrain"?

If you can, write out the emphasized syllable in CAPS and write it out as closely to other words as possible, ie. i say Canuck = kahNUK.

These are the only ones I can think of that people have laughed at me about. If you have pointed out my supposedly weird pronunciation of other words, please feel free to point them out. :)

Summer is just gettin' started here in Houston. Yippee.

I can now tell time and by a cool pink display too:

I have reason to believe this gift card (feelin' da love!) is an intentional mockery of iHaTePiNk, knowing the bestower of the gift's humorous personality:

And ... blatant iHaTePiNk love, even from a hospital bed:

I couldn't see the blue sky from where I was at, but I could see it was just around the corner. :)

Apologies to Cindy for the violation of the cuteness of her stuffed bears when we went over to her place the other night.

Hahah okay fine, I'm not THAT sorry. :) Click through for the more "risqué" pics. Disclaimer: by clicking through, you certify that you are over 18. May not be work safe ...

Oh, and I just had to pose with Crystal's cool new camera. It's PINK!

When I started my day, I had ten things on my to-do list. By the end of the day, I had proudly finished these first ten things, but ... in the process of finalizing things, another ten items have been added, to be finished within the next 7.5 hours. Whee.

I'm glad I had time to grab lunch with Esther. It was so good to see her. She laughed as she tried to navigate through my to-do list: "It's a jungle!" Compared to her careful handwriting and organized note-taking, yes, my wayward chickenscratch is indeed something to wade through. At least it's organized to me. :)

See you in oh, 31 hours or so. :)

Have you had a moment in your life where every single time you think back to it, you just can't help but bust out laughing? Here's one of mine:

Instead of explaining what's going on here, I thought I'd open up the comments for possible captions. Keep it clean, please! (I didn't have to mention that, did I?)

Quote of the day:

"He's in-in-incompetent ... I mean, impotent."

Sometimes, the best course of action to take is none at all.

@ Abercrombie & Fitch Nov 2006.

This was my second funeral ever, the first being about 13 years ago. I've had people in my life pass away, but I was unable to attend those funerals. I have yet to lose someone very close to me, and I know my day will come, and I know that no amount of mental preparation nor experience by proxy can really prepare me for it ... these are just some thoughts regurgitated out into digital format, since I've been thinking a lot about various things since attending the funeral.

The Logical Write-Up

They say people only get together for weddings and funerals, so I started to draw some parallels between the two. Both are considered once-in-a-lifetime events that friends and family try to attend if they can. Both require some advance arrangement in terms of finding a location, planning the number of guests who will attend, figuring out who will be making speeches. Money / gifts are exchanged, though in the Chinese tradition, money is given in red envelopes for happy events (ie. weddings) while white envelopes are used for unfortunate events (ie. funerals). Both can have receptions, and thus be social events.

Both are celebrations in a way - weddings obviously celebrate the love and happiness of two people and their futures together, while funerals could be described as a celebration of the life of the deceased and wishing them well in their next destination. People cry at both.

(I feel like I've just written a segment for Wikipedia. And I know it looks like I have no feelings and could possibly be a heartless robot in human form. Please read on.)

The Emotional Write-Up

We arrived at the funeral site an hour early. Our friends, the children of the deceased, were already there getting ready for everything. We said hello, hugged, and asked if we could help with anything. They said they had things under control, and introduced us to a few relatives. I just didn't know what to do. It just felt wrong for me to socialize in such a setting, and I just had to leave the area, so we went walking around the funeral grounds until it was time to start. I felt like if I had stayed there, I would have started crying, the emotional tension was so thick, with everyone either already crying or on the verge of doing so.

I was pretty determined to not cry. It is, after all, one of the Buddhist things to do, as a show of compassion and understanding for the deceased, detaching from our relatively selfish need to have them stay here with us, so their spirit can find their way to the next stop on their journey. And then there's the logical side of it; if one person starts bawling, then there's a sort of domino effect and then it just kinda gets out of control.

Walking around the funeral area was a bit better, but I got a bit depressed reading the tombstones. Doing some math, we found children buried alongside their parents. Young men who had been killed in war. Poems penned by lovers left behind. The saddest part was seeing a little baby's area of the burial grounds. I'm glad I had company; we talked about the inevitability of birth, aging, illness, and death, and reflected on our own impermanence.

But no amount of psyching-up or logical discussion could prevent me from tearing up when our friends had to go up and basically give a toast (another wedding parallel) to their father's life and legacy. To regale the audience with stories of the fond, fond memories. It hit me hard. Their dad is about my dad's age. Would I be able to stand up and speak with such poise if it were me in their position? Would I be able to recall minutiae that I did not think significant until death tore that loved one away, making every little detail suddenly significant because those memories would be all I had left? Would grudges fall away? And why do I still have stupid grudges when life is too short to begin with and we don't ever have time to tell each other we love one another? Am I waiting until death separates us to forgive the past? If so, why?!

I was asked to help with photography so that the relatives overseas who could not attend could see the proceedings. I was relieved that I could help in some physical way, yet this was a challenge to me as well. Normally (say, at a wedding), I would be up in yo' face, snapping away, shooting away relentlessly in search of a few good shots. That day, I felt inhibited (unfathomable, I know). Suddenly it felt wrong to be up and about when everyone was trying to be quiet and still. The only thing that slapped me back to reality was the reason for the photography: the relatives.

(Now it looks like I've got multiple personality disorder. Sigh.)

We were invited to a lunch after the funeral ceremonies, and I was afraid to laugh until there was some sign that laughing would be okay from our friends. (Incidentally, that sign came in the form of, "[Insert name of new friend], this is Caroline. You know that rap video I sent you? This is her." New Friend: "I THOUGHT you looked familiar somehow!!" How can you NOT break out into a smile with THAT kind of introduction?!)

And so I'm left with this: to this day, I am still unsure as to how to help when a friend has lost someone. Should I make them laugh? Try to cheer them up? Try to have them open up and talk about the one they have lost? Avoid the topic? I feel like I already have a penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, so I feel extra hesitant in such situations to open my mouth at all.

The only thing I know is this: T, C, and S, you have always been an example that I've wanted to follow in how you interact with and treat your family, always sticking together, through thick and thin; and then always being utterly selfless and considerate towards not just your family members, but to everyone around you. You are one of the strongest examples I've encountered that makes me strive to be a better daughter and sister. This period of time isn't going to be easy, and I hope you'll reach out for support if you need an extra ear / hand / shoulder ...

For Mother's Day, the bro and I came up with the idea to get her a personalized photo frame with a photo of her favorite children inside. This evolved eventually into a plate engraved with Chinese characters stuck onto a digital photo frame. In searching for pictures to load into it, I ran into some real gems. I found some pics of me actually looking cute as a young 'un:

Then, in light of all the misunderstandings I've been having with the bro lately, this photo struck me as bitterly and bitingly funny:

When the time comes for the bro to be married, I'll know where to find plenty of great material for his wedding slideshow. :)

I would rather eat rocks than buy anything at Best Buy.

I've developed a cough. No cold symptoms, just a cough.

I forget that most mothers don't work on Mother's Day, which is why I can still run around and get her real present ready today (she has no idea).

Just got back from a one-day trip to Dallas for a funeral. It's hard not to cry when your friends (children of the deceased) are crying while recounting the happy memories.

Reformatting my computer solved a bunch of little problems I'd tolerated for the last 3 years, including:
- external volume mute button: if I unmuted the laptop, then hit the increase volume button (also external), it'd mute again. So I'd have to hit "unmute" AGAIN, before I could use the increase volume button.
- I tried out this notebook utility that came with my computer called "battery calibration". Now, it actually gives me at least a few minutes after warning me before shutting down when the power is low. Before, it would go, "Better plug in now" and then shut down immediately.
- scrolling with the touchpad is much more consistent, whereas before it would just stop working sometimes. Strangely I'd read that you have to install a generic Synaptics driver to get hardware scrolling working in Firefox.
- the built-in wireless had been starting to crap out, so I'd bought an external wireless adapter. After reformatting, the built-in works fine.

Will add to the list as I find them. Good grief, should've done this sooner.

Off to finish off our gift to my mom!