Author: Pearl L

just three more days until jerimy gets back from india….

ooh!! it’s so close i can almost taste it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

so i guess this is as good a time as any for an update, although frankly it is long overdue….

first, i must thank michael and sharon for coming to visit me the first week jer was gone, and for taking care of the place for a few days when i went up north!!! coming home was so nice — the place was sparkling so, i almost didn’t recognize it! and it was so wonderful hanging out with you and getting to spend some time getting to know you guys better!! you’re even more awesome than i could ever have hoped, and i can’t wait to get together with you guys again~!!!!!! i just hope shaun is doing okay, and his alter-ego “X-Games” manages to keep things on the up-and-up-and-not-bleeding side. 0_o

home was excellent. I got to see a bunch of friends i hadn’t seen in ages and was able to spend some rare quality time with them. i got to see alice (whom i hadn’t seen in something like a year), edward (another kickass friend i’ve been lucky to keep in touch with), and chris (one of my good friends from ucla) up in Davis one weekend in their new native surroundings. Ate lunch with Mandeep (one of my best friends from UCLA) in Danville. Spent an evening watching anime (good stuff, although with many amusing panty shots) with high school friends Jeff, Vanessa, Amy, Jen, and Phil. Went clubbing with high school friends Stacey, Albert, Taylor and company. Grabbed lunch with Agnes and Stacey. Went to Velvet Lounge with my aphio dentist friend Wayne the one night a really horrible DJ was spinning. Had an afterdinner appetizer with high school friend Sarah. Got dessert and drinks with my favorite UC neighbor Paresh.

And of course, lots and lots of time with my family. :) Family time is rare, and as i get older, i like it more and more. maybe i’m just better at avoiding conflicts, maybe my parents have mellowed out some. Or maybe i’m not there long enough to where i get the bad things (like angry rants and petty disputes) as well as the good things (like the food, warm happy we miss you feelings, and washing machine access). And i get to spend time with my sister too!! My sister’s becoming a pretty cool person. heh, she’ll be at davis next year too!! geeze, everyone’s going to be there.

haven’t been up to too much since i’ve been back in LA. well, maybe a little bit. it’s a lot of sleeping at odd hours (to talk to jer) and working some semblence of a social life in his absence. Went clubbing with good friends Dennis, Chris M, this cool gal Rhona, and some of her friends the Friday before last. Had dinner at Beijing Islamic Restaurant twice in the week after that — once with good friend Brian and once with a few friends who stopped to visit on their way back to the bay area from Las Vegas (edward, edward’s gal rie, and matt). Also had a late dinner in monterey park with the visiting group and brian one evening (i’d forgotten how fun those late night jaunts are! i’d also forgotten how tiring they are too. 0_o). had dinner with aphio big bro Bobbo at the Redondo Pier one night, and attempted to check out Hermosa Beach, but was thwarted at the sight of ambulances and fire trucks. Actually checked out Hermosa Beach with aphio pledge daddy Neil. Was very glad we stuck to Hennessey’s there since the other bars were seriously obnoxious meat markets.

Friday: dinner with Aaron (pal from freshman year) and Brian before the former had to leave for this 5 stop flight to dallas.
Saturday: tennis and dinner with Masa (Daily Bruin EM/saved my ass so many times frosh/soph year), and an evening in. =)
Sunday: lunch with bobbo and alicia in the OC, south coast plaza, then dinner with Linnea at Mishima!
Monday: dinner with old friend Thomas S
Tuesday: errands with Jen and Jen #2. =) =) =)

… and that brings us to today. it’s now 3:24am, and it’s definitely time to sleep.

oh, and my joy of the week: my parents sent me mooncakes!!!!!!!! they’re yummerific excellent!!! ^_^

happy belated mid autumn festival~!!! (mid autumn festival was monday, by the way. -wink-)

so it is easier to deal with things when removed from them than when you are actively participating. when you’re participating, you have an active responsibility to those you are interacting with: their feelings, their interests. sure, it’s important to be yourself, but part of being a good yourself is to be aware of other people’s feelings and sensitivities. it’s an art that maybe is to be learned with time and maturity. in this young, individuality-obsessed society, it’s easy to forget to take into consideration the other people with whom we share our society. it’s expected almost, that one ought not care, or think about other people, even though we depend on other people every day in order to live our lives.

we are not independent creatures; we are interdependent ones. it is too easy to be the person removed and distant; it is a form of copping out on your obligation to the world around you. what obligation, you ask? at the root of it, i’ve always felt it is important to be give and offer the most of yourself as possible, because it is simply selfish otherwise. how are we to be individuals who take and take from our society and not give anything back to that which sustains us? it is too selfish of a thing to think and act as a single person alone, unmindful of the needs of those around us, and foolish to not contribute to the advancement of all just because we tend to be lazy in carrying out our part of the load.

it takes courage and bravery to be as much of yourself as you possibly can be. i’m the first to say that it isn’t easy, since i’ve struggled with this belief of mine for quite some time now. it takes a certain fearlessness that i can’t say i have just yet, although i do hope that one day i will. and it takes a maturity and understanding of self and others that i simply haven’t achieved yet.

(i’m just not there yet…)

maybe i just need to dig in and live a little more, try to keep myself from indulging my affinity for the shadows and step out into the bright lights of the city (literally and figuratively). maybe i should do more to express myself and figure out who i am more, take more choices upon myself and live out the consequences, for better or worse, rather than hiding away after every mistake.

it’s about time i learned how to sing. maybe it will be full and proud, maybe it will be quiet yet clear. but i can’t hide away from finding my voice anymore…

for the record, i think comments are quite fun. but i’ve been getting some rather odd ones lately. someone recently posted a comment to a post from last year where i had announced IHOP’s free pancake day. for some reason, they thought this was an official IHOP site, so they proceeded to explain why their city (located in middle of nowhere, Oklahoma) should get an IHOP. To be fair, it was a very good explanation, and hell if i were an IHOP executive, i would strongly consider putting a location where the writer described. It’s just that i’m not. And this is not an IHOP site. it’s my personal blog…

and frankly, that isn’t really the weirdest thing one could come across on the internet. I’ve come across many odd emails when i was answering webmaster email at the Daily Bruin. 0_o some are nutcases, some are misguided. the saddest one was from a kid in Uruguay who wanted information on how to be a firefighter in the United States. I didn’t really know what to tell him. i was tempted to look up the information for him myself, but there were too many messages like that to deal with.

cheesy anthro student note: gee, it really matters what context communications take place in.

so i’m glad people are finding my site, and maybe finding some sort of use for it, albeit not quite what they’re looking for. no, this site does not have porn, sexy bikini asians, or naked pictures of jennifer lopez. (oh no, i’m going to trigger the search queries~! aah!!) yes, all those words have appeared in various posts of mine, but not in succession or in that order until now. so please, this isn’t what you’re looking for. do move on and find what you’re really looking for.

IHOP’s site can be found at www.ihop.com. You can contact them at www.ihop.com/contact.html.

have a nice day!

i’m currently hanging out at jen’s apartment, trying to spend a bit of time in her presence before she leaves for Davis. jen #2 and i helped her make curtains for her new apartment, and it looks like the two of them are currently trying to make boxers for themselves and some friends.

theme of the day: one legged boxers?? (it’s important to remember to cut enough fabric for 2 legs, not just one)
quote of the day: (assuming one legged boxers are made, imagined roommate quote upon seeing these unusual constructions) “gee, your right leg looks a little cold.”

jen and jen #2 get along so well. it’s kind of cool sitting back here and watching them interact, feeling the warmth and familiarity that comes off the two roommates. it’s a special kind of space that gets created when friends are sharing in each others’ company. it’s one of those things i really marvel about — such a moment is made in that connection between two people, that sharing a bit of time and life with another person in this great wide world.

heh. maybe i should stop blogging all this and actually participate. i find i often try to keep too much of a distance — i always want to be the observer, the outsider, some sort of invisible admirer of the world. i always feel so removed…

today is the 2 year anniversary of the events of september 11th.

let us honor the memory of those who perished in the tragic events of that day.

the new postal service cd has been on aggressive repeat in my winamp these past two weeks. yes, i went and bought the cd. yes, i’m still listening to it after i bought the cd. i can’t get enough of it! there’s such a contrast between the sort of aloof sounding music and the earnestness of the lyrics that cobbles together a sort of synchrony that makes me completely addicted. so the cd is on repeat.. again and again and again and again.

“i’ll write you a song and it won’t be hard to sing
it will be a natural anthem, familiar it may seem
it will rally all the workers on strike for better pay
and its chorus will resound and boost morale throughout the day

i’ll write you a song and i hope that you won’t mind
because all the names and places i have taken from real life
so please don’t get upset at this portrait that i paint
it may be a little biased, but at least i spelt your name right…”

okay, i know i have lots to update on, but i have to say this first!!

so for maybe only the second time in all the months i’ve been on friendster, i go through and look through friends, friends of friends, etc. And it’s awesome! I read my friends profiles, kinda surf through who they know, encounter folks i haven’t seen/heard from/about for a really really long time, and do a little mini-catching up with on people’s lives. i really love looking at the pictures people post up. It’s amazing — most of these people are ones i haven’t seen since high school, or for at least a couple of years, and it makes me so joyful to see them with their friends (new and old) and in all these new places in their lives!

the one that i thought was the most adorable was (and it might sound funny for me to say this) the picture of my ex with his new girlfriend. They are seriously ridiculously, amazingly, unbelievably cute together. Dude, even he and i never looked as cute together as he does with his girl now!!! and he seems soooo happy too!! oh, it’s sooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay now i’m tired time for bed.