Sleepy

It was a very busy day at work today. So busy I didn't have time to rest. After I left work and got on the freeway, I began to feel extremely sleepy. The traffic definitely did not help. What a miracle I arrived home safely. I literally was in and out of awareness the entire drive.

I almost took a nap, but I decided to go to the gym anyway. Afterwards I went to the banh mi place that I had not gone in a while. Their prices are still the same. I was happy.

I came home, enjoyed my sandwich, and started to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End DVD that I got a week ago. Man. Talk about a long movie. This is like a 3+ hour epic. There are parts that I like. When Depp and Rush are being over the top and several brief moments of comedic exchange here and there. I also like the special effects, truly spectacular. And that's about it. The movie has too many I bargain with you then I betray our agreement plots. It goes from this character to that character or these two versus those two. All that negotiation and change of mind scenarios become so confusing. One minute they are friends, then the next they are enemies. A summer movie doesn't need to be this complicated. It just needs to be fun. There's simply not enough of that.

I'm going to finish watching the bonus features and get a very good night of sleep. Yay.

Bang!

On the way to Dave's yesterday I was rear-ended by another driver. Bang! It came loud and fast. I wish car accidents weren't this annoying and terrible. The guy seemed sincere. We exchanged our info and I was back on 5 Freeway.

Dave had a really nice job interview today. It was a pretty good day for him, for me, not so much. It happens. Sometimes you get sh*t delivered to you, whether you like it or not. I would have to deal with the insurance company and file a claim to get the necessary repair done. I did tell the guy that I would call to let him know what I decided to do.

This morning I called and left him a message. By noon he still didn't return my phone call. I contacted his insurance company at 12, but it was their lunch time. So I waited. Another hour passed I called his insurance company again. I filed my claim, got my claim number, and should hear from an adjuster within two business days.

My lawyer still hasn't received the returned I-485 package. Can't wait to find out what "additional evidence" I will need to dig up. Oh the joy.

Luck

I dusted the lucky bamboo leaves and changed the water last night. Sylvia said by doing so regularly my luck would improve. Yes it's silly. Yes I have good health, for the most part. Yes it's true too that I have great friends. There are many many things I am lucky to have. I know.

I am simply tired of worrying about money and feeling trapped at my current job. I want to earn good money doing things I find exciting and inspiring. All that cannot happen if I don't get my Green Card. It's been almost 7 years since I got out of school. I just need this chapter to an end so I can begin the next.

This year is going to be different. I know it.

Bad news. Good news.

Cameron called me after I got home last night. He was on the way back from work and asked if I wanted to have dinner together. He picked this restaurant that he really liked and we were supposed to meet there. Of course, before I got to the place Cam called and said the restaurant was closed. We decided to go to a different Chinese restaurant one block away.

It had been a while since I visited Chung King. The last time I ate there I went with ZJ. That was more than a year ago. I got us a cold appetizer platter: cow ears, beef tendon, and beef jerky. So chewy and tasty. We then ordered dan dan noodle, spicy chicken cube with chilli, and ma-po tofu. Every dish on the table was spicy but it was not burningly hot. Szechuan cuisine spicy is more drug-like, numbing effect, almost a slowly spreading buzz. We enjoy that distinctive sensational buzz you get from Szechuan peppercorn a lot.

From talking to the owner I learned that the other Chung King was not related to this one at all. The other one just started to use the same name. She said taking them to court would be too much a hassle so she just let it be. Besides, she told us their chef just left and the food at that restaurant had changed. Cam said he ate at the other one recently and it was true he didn't like their food as much as before.

The owner really liked Cam. She even told me that she wanted to take pictures with him next time. No I didn't tell him that. I felt so embarrassed that I could hear loud and clear all her gushing and going ga-ga like a school girl in the back.

Last night I got the email from the immigration saying that it's returning my application. I would need to provide additional evidence and resubmit my I-485 filing. I'm sorry... it took them 8 months to figure that out? I mean, they couldn't notify me about this last year? I was mad.

Then again, I now know there's something wrong. This is better than not knowing anything at all. I hope the evidence in question is not going to be a tremendous burden. Well, even if it is I don't really have a choice not to get it done and have it resent. I've come this far and THAT GREEN CARD SHALL BE MINE!

I saw a really good looking trailer this morning - Beautiful, stunning, can't wait to see the entire film.

Another day skipped

I skipped another blog entry yesterday. This is not good.

Saturday night I went to QQ with Dave and Jose. The food was good but I think they tend to put sugar on most of the dishes. Even the green onion pancake was slightly sweetened. The standout dish for me was the v. beef noodle. The flavor was almost like the meat version.

Yesterday I woke up before 10 and decided to go to the gym without breakfast. It still took me a good 40 min to get out of the apartment. Surprisingly I wasn't feeling hungry or exhausted during or after working out. I even went to Ralph's to get groceries for the week before heading back home. PK called and suggested we could hang out later in the evening. I looked at the movie listings and chatted with Jen about what to see. In the end PK agreed to The Orphanage, since I already saw Jumper with Sylvia on Saturday.

He came by early, so we watched a little bit of television. Velvet Goldmine was on and we saw the last 20 minutes before leaving. I took him to Vietnam Restaurant, which Cam and I went to the week before. We got a meatball fold-into-whatever-you-want-roll appetizer (sorry I forgot the name) to start. Fun times with separating rice papers! PK ordered this charbroiled pork with spring roll and broken rice dish, which he liked but couldn't finish. And I got a shrimp paste with charbroiled pork and spring roll vermicelli bowl. I emptied it satisfyingly. Every dish we had on the table was delicious. PK also got himself a coffee drink. He never tried it Vietnamese style before. I joked that he needed to make more real Asian friends.

Our theater, Regency Academy, was a bargain theater. $3 per ticket! How was that possible? Outrageous! It was very cold outside, so we just got inside to wait. There wasn't a lot of people coming in, about 20+ of us by the time the movie started. Because the theater seats were built and arranged strangely, picking a good place for viewing was important. I liked where we sat. We were right behind the stair entrance, so we were almost at the center mid-top viewing angle. That was a comfortable and winning location to be in.

The Orphanage is very good. It has several good scary moments. It uses almost none, if any, special effects or sound cues. The characters are well written and story is strong. It has certain elements of Pan's Labyrinth and The Others, which are the very few horror / mystery / drama that I love. The Orphanage is more stripped-down, characters are less fantastical or stylish. I did find a couple of plot points that weren't clearly explained in the movie, but overall I thought it was great.

This morning I checked the bulletin again and found the I-485 date had moved forward another 11 days. My case is still pending. I felt so upset. I had to push myself to stop thinking about it.

Then I saw this:

It made me laugh so hard. I realized laughter could make dark clouds melt, even just for a few minutes. Thanks Ben & Jimmy.

Buena Park Mall

I slept in a little this morning, woke up around 10 and finished my soup. I called Sylvia to see if she wanted to hang out today. We decided to have lunch and watch Jumper. 5 Freeway was surprisingly smooth. I tested the free iPod FM modulator I got from work while driving down to Orange County. Too bad my old classic iPod wouldn't fit, so I used the nano instead. It worked pretty well. Still, FM modulator sounds like crap compared to direct audio input.

Sylvia took me to this new hot dog place called Portillo's in Buena Park Mall. There were a lot of people. Supposedly this restaurant came from Chicago. We got Asian wonton salad, lemonade, signature beef sandwich, and this new Portillo hot dog sandwich. For fast food, the food served here tasted nicer and the ambience was better. The prices were reasonable too. They even served beers and wine. The atmosphere was pub-ish and busy inside and out. I had a good dining experience and expected this place to become very popular with Californians.

We went to the back of the mall to get tickets for the 1:55 showing. This part of the mall was emptier, far less crowded. There were many retail spaces left unopened and unleased too. Not many people walked or shopped here, the difference was quite drastic. After we got our tickets we walked inside the mall, it had the same emptiness - half of the stores remained untouched. Even the lower dining area was closed. We looked around and went into DSW to look at sandals for her. We didn't buy anything. There were more shoppers in there than in the entire mall. It felt sad.

Inside the movie theater looked new and had a plush posh decor. The sound was pretty good too. The movie itself was OK. It wasn't trying to be anything it wasn't. The zoom here and there was exciting to watch. Imagine Nightcrawler from X2 looks like a college freshman, has family + responsibility issues, and tries to protect his girlfriend because Samuel L Jackson is after him. I thought the film was a little rushed and could spend some time to make each character stronger and the relationship between the two leads more believable. Then again, it's not supposed to be anything meaningful, so for what it is, Jumper is a decent even fun if at times flawed, sci-fi movie.

I came back around 5:30 and finished the second banh-mi I bought last night. Dave and Jose might come to have dinner with me after their movie. It is still raining outside. Maybe hot porridge tonight?

Friday

It's finally weekend. There wasn't much to do at work. I fixed a few things on our mailer and finished our fax ad. It was a slow day.

I mailed out ZJ's vitamins during our short break. It took some work to make the box just 3 LBs - I was proud of myself. Got out of work around 4:10 and went to the gym. Felt very laid-back today. Went to get some banh mi after the exercise. The price had gone up a quarter. It seems like every banh mi joint here has raised their prices. Sad for me.

Will try to sleep lots tomorrow. Rain makes me sleepy.

Skipped an entry

Yesterday was the first time I missed a blog entry. I went to Dave's after work and spent most of the night with him, Jose and PK. It didn't occur to me at all until I came home. By then it was way late to write one. So I just took a shower and went to bed.

I was excited to see Jose's car. He leased a new Rabbit on Monday. I was surprised how spacious it felt while sitting in the back. I loved the built-in iPod dock. It had a lot of neat, thoughtful features and details. A well-made roomy compact car. Dave didn't cook. He picked Ernie's Junior Taco House for dinner. The eclipse was happening while we were driving. After we sat down in the restaurant, we still went back out to check on the slowly vanishing moon. The moon actually looked smoky. It didn't disappear completely. Just got blurry.

The food was OK. Jose thought they didn't use the right cheese on the nacho. PK felt the huge burrito needed more things besides just rice and chicken. Dave and I didn't complain much. I did think the food was not over-salted, so that was good. After Dave had half of his peach margarita, we found out this was kind of a double celebration evening. Besides Jose's new car, Dave told us that he got a great job offer. What an awesome news! We were all excited for him.

After dinner, we went to Target to walk off the food and Jose's sleepiness. Ran into a couple of his friends there too. Spent plenty of time at the DVD's & children's books sections. PK was yawning a lot. He didn't find any interesting Transformers toys. We stopped at Fresh & Easy before heading back home. Jose got a couple of frozen treats: pistachio ice cream + pomegranate blueberry sorbet, for the night. Caught 35 min of AI before the PR reunion show. These girl singers had such funky names. We laughed a lot watching the reunion. Eliza is very eccentric, but sweet. Love us some Christian, aka Ferosha Coutoura, he's tirelessly entertaining.

I couldn't help but think about my job situation tonight. I wondered when I could stretch my wings, fly far away, find and land a better, more meaningful career.

I hope that time is coming soon.

Shopping & Getting Hit On

I got to work rather late today. Since we came back from the holidays I seemed to take my time a lot more in the morning. It might be that I never recovered from the long break. Or perhaps it was the freezing temperature. Well, compared to most of the weather conditions in US this winter, LA had it easy, thus not a good excuse.

I was planning on watching AI tonight. The first few was just all right. I didn't like the songs they picked from the 60's and the performances so far were just OK. It was not hard to quit watching it. I decided to go to Borders to see what they had. It's Dad's birthday and I wanted to get him something useful. I had a couple of ideas. So I turned off the TV and went.

By the end of the night I had found him a cookbook and a consumer report special on recent car reviews. Pretty much everything in the store was regular price. I never understood how they stayed in business. I couldn't remember the last time I bought anything at Borders. By the way - Thanks Eric & Mike for the gift card.

Some guy for no apparent reason started talking to me while I was browsing for the book. It was weird. At first I thought he was going to sell me something, but he didn't. I also thought he might be a church person - he didn't go there either. He did tell me about his fiance whom I saw before he hit on me. Obviously his way to show he was taken. We talked about the book I was shopping for, our jobs, where we live, semi-random stuff.

I know it's not entirely correct to say that he hit on me, but he did ask to have my phone number, because he said he might know people who "might be" hiring. Now, why would I want to give a stranger my number? It was weird. I wanted to give him just my email. He was a little taken back, "They would want your contact number."

"Well I'm not really looking now." I gave him back his flash card, still blank, and his pen.

He then said, "OK. I will just give you my email too. Is that fair?"

"OK." It's not like I asked to have his phone number, or email in the first place!

So we exchanged emails. So totally weird.

Work. TV Silliness.

I had to work today, unlike a lot of people who got a day off and were spoiled with a nice long weekend. It went fine. The traffic was light. There was a lot to do in the office today, so no time to goof around or feel sleepy.

Last night's outing was fun. Saw a couple of people whom I didn't expect to see. The club was a lot more crowded than two weeks ago. This time naughtier too. Porn everywhere. I was surprised that it was out in the open so explicitly. Times are definitely changing.

Work was more hectic than usual. There will be more to do tomorrow too. I went to the gym, came back and ate. TV tonight was super silly. I watched Dance War. It was supposed to be its finale, but the show had so little suspension, I wondered who really cared. They also revealed the new cast for Dancing With The Stars - by three of the past contestants. For a while I wasn't sure if they knew they were so silly, "Are they in it on the joke?" The whole production just looked super cheesy. I did laugh a lot watching it though, thinking, "This is SO BAD!" and kept my eye at it. It's kind of nice to end a busy day with some over-the-top silliness.

Happy Sunday

This morning I woke up late, like 10:40, I wasn't sure. The electricity was out. For a min or two I was worried I didn't pay my bill. Then everything came back on, I even heard the some alarm outside went berserk for a second. I was happy I could clean up, shave, with good sufficient lighting. Sometimes we do take things for granted.

I was on the phone with ZJ for a bit. He will be taking long trip from France to Germany to Austria to Switzerland then finally back to France. It was good catching up with him. I went to the gym afterwards. It was good to run and exercise when it's daytime. I felt there was more time to get stuff done.

I shopped at Ralph's, called Jenn and we talked for a while. It was mellow. I then went to Asian market to get more groceries to cook for the week. Megan called and shared some useful and possibly helpful strategies regarding my speeding ticket. I came home and started making the soup. I was going to use more chicken meat this time, so the liquid and vegetables needed to be slightly readjusted. PK called while I was preparing and we talked about tonight's plan. We would be going to MJ's tonight.

Robin Hood Men In Tights was on Encore. It was still funny and I laughed at its silliness. I had some leftover food from Friday night. Not very good when it's cold and soggy. Dave called to see if I wanted to do dinner. They were in the mood for Szechuan Chinese. Mmm spicy. Definitely I'd need to come back before heading out tonight hahaha.

Full day

Cam called around 10:40 this morning. He wanted to have dim sum, his friends canceled, asked if I had time to go. Sure. I was planning on seeing Sylvia and Judy today, but the only event confirmed now was meet at this new karaoke place at 3.

Cam and I at first were to go to Empress Harbor, then before we hit Valley, we changed our decision to The Kitchen. We parked a block behind and walked to the restaurant. The New Year Festival Parade was happening on the other side of the street. We didn't have to wait for a table. That was good, and bad. Usually there would be waiting, it could take a few min to an hour or more to get a table at a good dim sum restaurant. We didn't have to wait today and I was surprised.

In total we ordered 8 dishes, half of them were off. Cha Siu Bao's bread was too heavy. It stuck on the teeth and became unpleasant to eat. Our gai lan was paired with a clear light sauce on the side. I was used to the traditional thick soy sauce drizzled on top. The turnip with XO sauce was messy and unfocused. I was not happy with either the use of XO sauce or flavor of turnip. The rice noodle roll with beef was strangely crunchy. Cam said it tasted like it had water chestnut in the meat paste. He was right. I would understand if the water chestnut was less pronounced, but it was loud. I didn't get it.

I came home briefly and left. I went to Shi Lai Temple to worship, pray, thank for the progress made last year, wish for good positive things for this year. There was a lot of tourists today. I paid my respect and left to meet up with Judy & Sylvia.

It turned out the karaoke place was very popular and we wouldn't be able to get a room this afternoon. Sylvia went home, since she wasn't feeling well. Judy and I decided to go to a movie instead. She wanted to see Fool's Gold. I had heard it was not a good movie but I thought it might be one of those "the audience loves but critics hate" movies.

I was wrong. The movie has very little adventure, or action, or romance comedy, even though it tries to bring all of them together. The subplot between the old man and spoiled daughter is unnecessary. If they trimmed down 1/2 an hour and added one or two more action sequences it would be a fun or more entertaining commercial movie. The movie does show lots of MMc's chisel cut body. But that only works a little while.

For dinner Judy and I went to this Chinese cafe-style restaurant near the mall. I didn't memorize their name, it was something Kaffe, next to a hair salon inside the Nijiya Market plaza. It was horrible. The porridge we had was the worst. The rice was still clumpy in the soup. The chicken roll fell apart right after it got to our table. The sausage was served in measly, scattered, pieces. The only good thing was the meat sauce on top of the steamed vegetable. Needless to say we won't be going back.

Dave and Jose called during my dinner with Judy. They wanted to come have dinner. Judy and I finished and talked a bit more before I took off around 8:15. It was certainly a better dinner at Vegetarian Wok, but I was already full with lousy Chinese food so I just sampled. Dave ordered mushroom chicken, eggplant with basil, and fish in hot sauce. I wouldn't say this place had the best vegetarian place, but it was decent. Kind of like Happy Family, but without the all-you-can-eat menu.

We drove around to see if we could find a place to sit and have tea. We ended up in Piece of Cake on Las Tunas. It was a cozy warm small place. We got to sit on a tall table with high chairs. All of us liked the teas we ordered, and Dave really liked the cup set he got served with. Jose knew where the cafe bought most of their furnishings. He studied IKEA and Target merchandise well.

I'm still full from all that tea and bad Chinese food. Spent a lot today too. Time to get ready for bed.

Dinner with Cam

Cam and I went to a new Vietnamese place tonight. It's called Vietnam Restaurant. I cannot find its listing on Yelp. Maybe I will find it later.

We had the appetizer sampler, everything bun (with spring roll, bbq pork, fish cake & veges), 7 courses of beef, and a longan drink. It was a lot of food. I felt everything here was far better than Vietnam House. The food was seasoned properly. Flavors clean and to the point. Not over-salted or overly sweet. I really enjoyed the food and the time spent with Cam, who always found positive points in all my unfortunate stories lately. This was a happy dinner.

We came back to my place and tried to get my printer to work. Cam had to print out some document for his clients, I was worried that since I had not used it for so long it had become completely useless. We did get it to move, but it wouldn't print. Cam would have to borrow his clients' printer to print these pages out. It was kind of embarrassing. Half an hour later he called and told me it went fine. Thank goodness.

He came back to pick me up and we went to Fosselman's for some good old delicious ice cream. Cam got a malt. It's a foreign drink to me, it's like milkshake, thick and gritty. I had lemon sorbet and taro ice cream. It was a good combo. I really wanted something tart, tangy, sour even, then I also wanted something soothing, smooth, and creamy. Yummy. We talked about food mostly. We both agreed we were lucky to be living in LA where all types of cuisines are available around us.

Tonight was a very sweet and full evening. Thanks Cam.

Welcome this

This is my 2nd attempt at blogging. Last year I did for 6 months, then I quit. It was a brief commitment. I did miss it. It was a good way to practice writing, documenting, editing, etc. When I canceled, without my knowledge, the hosting company also dropped my domains, all of them. Long story short, Dave got them back (miraculously) without me knowing (of course) so now I have them again.

What does that have to do with me blogging again? Well... Originally I planned on hosting my new blog on one of my domains. It was how I did it before. Another opinion, however, pushed me to try doing it differently. This guy I met at Thanksgiving Party said blogspot is a good alternative. Since he is a serious and long term blogger, and a friend of Dave's, I took his suggestion in, digested it, and now decided to follow it.

Perhaps I just wanted to change. I said. Why not take a different step?

It hasn't been the best or most satisfying beginning this year. I first found out my I-485 was overlooked, or passed on, or for whatever reason, not approved. According to the bulletin date, which is now 7-19-2006, but my case was filed 2 months prior, which means (usually) my I-485 should have been OK-ed by the USCIS. It's not. I haven't heard any news. Lawyer said the bulletin date means little. They are still working on pending cases. However, experience-wise, the date is generally a sound indicator specifying the approval progress. I don't know what happened this time around. On top of this, I found out there were other applicants who filed after me already received their I-485. I was told I was one of their unfortunate cases. In fact. I was top 1 unluckiest client.

No thanks. I don't want that title. I have waited 6+ years, not counting the 1 year right after college, for this to realize. It's been a long bumpy road. Sure I stay positive. I say to myself I still have a chance. I humor my bad luck. I try anyway. It's the only method to stay sane and on course.

Last Wednesday I knocked over one of the speakers Dave got me. That loud drop to the floor chipped it one of the back corners. It was small, still I felt so terrible. That night was painful. I talked to myself, tried not to elevate this pity-fest, but the feeling was overwhelming. It was as if the world was pooping on me. God I didn't want to go there but my mind took me anyway.

Next day, Thursday, Chinese New Year, I ran a yellow light and saw this camera flash glaring quickly right when I was crossing under the light. It felt awful. I got online, surfed the pages where people wrote about the traffic cameras and how expensive the tickets were. I was devastated. I kept thinking this had to end - this string of bad luck - What the f- is going on?

Then of course this Tuesday I got a speeding ticket. I was pulled over, and told I was driving 49 on 35 speed zone. I was not even aware that I was speeding. I knew for sure I was perfectly lawful and perhaps just went a little fast between these two streets. Needless to say, that little Point A to Point A1 was my doom. I had never had a problem driving on Soto St before. Seriously, what is going on here?

I would like to think this was some kind of coincidence. Bad kind obviously. I would also like to imagine this was a way the nature showing me my time at this job is about to change, like it is giving me really bad goodbye presents. I totally would like to believe that I was just getting through a bunch of bad sh*t now so the rest of 2008 will be a very smooth ride.

I would sure like to look at silver linings and turn negative thoughts around. I really would, but it's hard.