Leaky

I finally went to my landlord and told her my leaky kitchen faucet today. I also had a nonresponsive disposal. She fixed it by simply "resetting" it. She even showed me how to do it. The faucet needed a new washer and it would be done later this week. For some reason I was worried about talking to her before. She caught that too. When she was leaving she joked I didn't need to wait 'til end of the month to notify her any issues. She was right. I get very timid sometimes. That's something I need to improve.

Feeling sentimental

One of Sodagreen's best songs... Perfect for the mood that I'm in...



My favorite song by Belle and Sebastian...



I heart this song and the whole album... Gives me goosebumps always and makes me lovesick everytime I play it.

Waiting

In my short life, there is a lot of waiting I can remember. There's waiting for someone, there's waiting for something. It's finding patience, and it's looking forward to a different life.

Mom left when I was very young. When she finally came back I was not living with my parents anymore. My uncle's family had became my home. I didn't have much to look forward to everyday except for dad's picking me up on the weekend. I got to spend one day with mom, then back to my uncle's on Sunday evening. It was always hard to say goodbye. I didn't understand why I was returned, sent back to living with another family. I felt that I caused this, that I was not wanted.

Nevertheless, I loved spending time with mom every weekend. Dad, mom and I got to spend a brief time living together as a family when I was in 3rd grade. Then mom left for America before I started 5th grade. When I was younger I looked forward to every Saturday and Sunday to spend time with mom. Now I waited to reunite with her when she came back again. Or some way, somehow, I really had no idea how or when it would happen. I remember reading her letters and felt pain, relief and confusion. I did know she loved me. I just didn't know what I did wrong. She promised that we would be together again. So I waited.

When I was in my 9th grade, my godmother brought me to the US Embassy in Taiwan to be interviewed for a visitor visa for the first time. I didn't pass. I felt I failed. I remember my dad pointed out the mistakes I made during the interview, and told me to correct them if we were to try it again. I was very disappointed and discouraged. I wished dad had come with me. After waiting for a few months, after finding out a "better time" to reserve another interview, dad and I went. We did it together, and we both were granted visitor's visa. It was exhilarating. What I had been longing, waiting for since my mother left was finally coming into fruition. It would have been almost 5 years since her departure. I could finally imagine reuniting with her again. I was so happy.

I was 14 when I arrived in New York. Mom registered me in a private school, and began the process of changing my visitor's visa to student visa. I was mostly happy, if a little lonely, living with mom and studying English. It was the most time I got to spend with her, besides the short time we were together as a family. From June to November 1990, I felt home. It didn't last of course. Mom decided the economy was going down, and she wanted to see if Taiwan had any business opportunities for her. She told me it was her dreams that she wished to pursue. She asked me if I would be supportive of her ambitions. I would. She said she would be back soon enough. Then she took off again.

By this time, I was still waiting for her to come back. Then weeks turned into months. I moved from NY to LA. I went from staying with this family to living with another family. She never did come back. We would talk on the phone, but my hope for us being family again was slowly diminishing. I realized I was not a priority. I needed to let her be and let things be. I began schooling in LA, and launched another long period of waiting.

Because mom left NY, my student visa application never received proper care and was never completed. After I moved to LA, she was able to locate an immigration lawyer who understood my situation and made my status legal again. Every walking minute after that, throughout high school and college years, one dark thought that hung over my head constantly was my visa. I knew my legality would become the number one issue once I finished school, and I must achieve permanent residency. Part of the reason, besides I really wanted a life in US, was that mom never had it. I told myself, mom spent all those years here without obtaining it successfully, I had to fight hard to get it. I told myself I would work as hard as I could, wait as long as I could to achieve that goal. I wasn't going to spend years here then finding myself having no green card.

I was fortunate to find a position right after graduation. My visa was eventually changed to a work visa after one year with this company. When I moved onto the second job, I started the green card process. I anticipated the waiting period from 4 to 5 years, I never thought it would end up being close to 7 years of my life. Because 9/11 happened. The immigration policy changed. My files were transferred to backlog center. Certain information was lost, more time was spent on reapplying, re-supplementing the evidence, materials, etc. The wait was draining, sometimes infuriating. I found patience, or patience found me. This lifelong frustration finally ran its course last March. I was exhausted. I was relieved. I was freed.

Consequently the green card arrival jump-started another stage for waiting...

Yes... the right job. Still working towards it. Still waiting on that part of my life to take wing. Life... especially mine, is full of waiting.

Fortunately I have passed the bigger tests.

Devastated

Dave lost his effort to uphold the revocation today. He was devastated. I felt so terribly sorry for him. It has been 5 years since he started the whole process. Tonight his neighbors got to tell their lies once again, but when it came time to counter-attack their claims, the commission refused to look at any evidences we brought. It was excruciating to see how the members of this "animal commission" treated Dave. Obviously the dogs have more rights than people in Los Angeles. If your neighbors have noisy unruly dogs, good luck persuading the city to help you. They won't. 5 freaking years of videotaping these horrible people with their horrific dogs, documenting the events, going to the hearings, making calls to different officials, all added up to nothing. I am so upset, but imagine how Dave is feeling. He has to live with those horrible neighbors and their ill-behaved dogs everyday. It's so unfair. Sigh.

Emergency Memorial Day Party

Dave hosted his "emergency" Memorial burger party today. He and Jose were supposed to go to this picnic party, but it was canceled at last minute. So they planned one on their own which turned out wonderfully. The burgers were yummy, and the flan-cake was fantastic. Everything else from fries to coffee tasted great too. The weather was perfect and everyone had a mellow, breezy fun afternoon at Dave's. Later we checked out an episode of The Big Bang Theory, which Dave didn't like. Then we watched something from his DVD collection, it was kind of challenging for me. I don't even remember the guy's name, some Scottish comedian. We sat and talked and watched TV. This was a relaxing and delicious holiday. All thanks to Dave and Jose for making it happen!

Couchella

I talked to mom for more than 40 minutes this morning. It was a lot longer than our usual heated conversations. She was more encouraging and gentle too. I didn't feel stress or angst afterwards. I wish all exchanges between us could be this civil.

Tonight Dave, Jose, Cameron and I attended Miwa's Couchella house party. There was a lot of people coming to this small concert/multi-media performance showcase with vegetarian foods. Dave and his friend Mike and Cam did a great job with Dave's original music. Miwa's shows were cute and charming. Everyone had a wonderful time laughing with each other and experiencing the mini shows. I met a couple of new people there too. It is always fun to get to know someone who is interesting and interested in getting to know you back. We were all working the art of small-talk and finding ourselves a few new names to remember. It was an exciting evening.

A rather full day

Today I had lunch with Dave and Jose at Tasty Noodle. We ordered their bitter-melon with black beans, mapo tofu, Szechuan stir-fry, eggplant with hot garlic sauce, and mushroom buns. The portion was just right, delicious. And we finished them all. We then went shopping at the relatively new Fresh and Easy in Alhambra. It's a grocery store that looks like Target, but is stocked with a unique mixture of their branded, Trader Joe's like products and mainstream items. Oh they also had self checkout stands. Fun! After that, how could we not pay a visit to one of our favorite ice cream joints, Fosselman's? We ordered a sundae with fresh peach, strawberry with chocolate chips, and butter pecan flavors. Topped with whipped cream, peanuts, caramel and chocolate syrup. Delicious! I came back home, rested, and wiped my car's interior with leather conditioning. Looking back, this was a full day!

This clip made me laugh...

Scratch to win!

My neighbor likes to buy those scratch-to-win-money cards from a liquor store. Today she showed me a card that she got and said she might have won $20,000! I was shocked and very happy for her. Wow! Maybe that's what I should be doing, instead of searching for jobs! Imagine how easy my life would be if I won a couple of these! Sigh... Of course, after we went to the liquor store the owner handed her the disappointing news. She didn't win. She did get a few dollars here and there from other scratch cards. So she bought more again. Here's to hope for winning that elusive $20,000 soon.

On the job front, it's still going. I want to be positive about it, but sometimes it's just sad. I don't know how it all will end. Good thoughts! Focus!

I finally watched Twilight tonight. It's... so average. The transition from scene to scene is really off, and the tone is awkward too. I understand the appeal of vampires, I just don't think this movie does them and their stories justice. The dialog is... stiff. The lead girl is... wooden. The book has to be better than this. I sure hope the sequel is more polished and refined than this one.

A Typical Day

Today's a very typical day for me. Woke up, spent an hour on the computer, went to the gym, came home, lunch, showered, napped, job-hunted, dinner, TV. Oh yea, my neighbor kindly gave me some fruits, so I could save money and spend more time at home! Hahaha! Thank you Caretas! I watched the very cat-like Halle Berry strut her stuff in Catwoman on AMC tonight. This isn't that good of a movie. The music is bad, the story is bad, and the action scenes are mostly lousy too. I do like how she really embraced the role and tried to have fun with the character. Only if the movie had a better script and a stronger director...

Car washed

I spent the entire day at Dave's today. I finally gave my car a much needed and deserved wash. Dave helped me wax in, wax off, and buffer it too. He was super handy and helpful. After lunch I was feeling totally nappy. Before I fell asleep I helped Dave clean up a bit, and pop the cherries for the dessert he was making for the evening. Jose came in just when I was waking up on the couch. We started with this watermelon salad courtesy of Paula Deen's recipe, it was surprisingly yummy. Dave's pesto pizza was rock-star awesome. The cherry dessert was good, but smelled a little funny. It was a fun filled evening. We watched The IT Crowd, a hilarious show from UK. We then caught the last 15 minutes of AI. I came back home an hour ago. Glad I finally washed the car. I could be so lazy.

Smooth day

I had an interview today. It went better than I expected. They seemed to like what I had to say and I thought I handled their questions well. Still, I don't want to be overconfident, who knows what will happen next?

The night went along smoothly. I wrote and sent the company a thank you letter, had a small dinner, watched the new Fox show Glee. It was surprisingly touching and well-produced. I liked it.

Returned

I worked today. Yay! Went to the gym afterwards and came home to rest. Actually, I went out after dinner to return the cologne I got. Yes I put it back in the box and carefully pulled the plastic wrap around it to make it look like brand new. I mean, the bottle's broken and unsprayable. It was a defective product, so I should return it, no?

I watched Charm School tonight. A lot of hot messes going at each other, but so far I couldn't find one to root for yet. I need a girl who's just plain evil, or plain hilarious, or both! Most of the girls this season are just mean... there's a thin line between mean and evil. I like my reality villains evil and over the top. I'm sorry, mean is just not entertaining, or fun. Where is the naughty, scheming bikini-wearing Megan? Or the loud mouth, volatile Saaphyri? Yes I knew they wouldn't be on the show again, but boy were they entertaining on the 1st season! Yea I thought about Frenchie too, she'd rock this gig out for sure!

Can't use the cologne

Dave and Jose invited me to go to a new Mexican restaurant with them today. It's called La Flor De Loto. This was the first Mexican, vegetarian, all-you-can-eat buffet experience I had. The food was fresh and light on salt. I really enjoyed it.

Later I came home and started working on this cologne I got a few weeks ago. The bottle's spray head just refused to be pressed down. I couldn't get anything out of it even though it was brand new! I turned it clockwise, and also counterclockwise, nothing worked. I was so frustrated. Sigh. An hour later I had to give up and do something else. I decided to watch Taken, an action thriller. It was very entertaining. Who knew Liam Neeson can be a such badass?! He was like Jason Bourne 20 years later, stopping at nothing to find his daughter. The action scenes were good, the story was simple to follow. All in all, excellent fun.

Overate

Dave and Jose came over for lunch today. We went to Vegetarian Wok and had a great time. We hit a home run with our selection and finished everything. Yum. We then went to Kang Kang for shaved ice after shopping at the hardware store. The restaurant wasn't as packed as I anticipated and the shaved ice we ordered was decent. I knew I ate too much but I kept going. When we came back, we were ready to install the kitchen under the cabinet lamp Dave bought me. It didn't take him long to have it set up and I was so thankful. I also realized how dirty that corner of the kitchen was and started cleaning right away. We sat and watched mindless TV for a while. They really like the New Yankee Workshop and Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way on PBS. So intellectual! While I am all about New York Goes to Work...

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Tonight Megan and I went to Kanpai for dinner. I know, after all that food and non-activity (no I didn't go to the gym today... gasp), I was about to eat more! The highlight of the meal was definitely their 3-cup chicken. It took them very long to get the dish to our table, but it was worth the wait. After that we drove across the street to Class 302 to have green tea shaved ice with red bean and mochi. It was totally delicious. And I felt like a pig. No more eating for the week. Just kidding. Gym here I come.

Current Gym Faves

I haven't been to the gym in over a week! Wow. I think I should be doing even better tomorrow and will try to stay half an hour there. Sometimes it's good to take a break from it all, but when you don't get up and do something you start to feel off. It's all about keeping a balance. Too much of something for too long, life gets stagnant and the body will react accordingly.

I was looking at the music videos I had been listening to before I got sick. Here's one from the Ch-pop princess Jolin:



Then there's this one from a Korean singer Boa, she's a fierce dancer:



I like this one too... by Kat Deluna. The song always gets me moving:

A Dollhouse day

I got sick over the weekend and finally went to the doctor on Monday. I wasn't sure if I should, because I no longer have insurance. Just one of those things I have to deal with when I don't have a regular gig. The doctor didn't spend that much time on me and I am pretty much still recovering, hopefully that visit did do the trick.

I spent most of yesterday watching Dollhouse on my couch. The show is a quirky mix of sci-fi, drama, action, sharp dialogue and girl power. I have a few more episodes left and although it is not Lost, another great show currently on TV, I hope it gets renewed for next year. Speaking of Lost, here's a fan's awesome take on last week's episode. I can't wait for tonight's season finale! What am I going to do for the rest of the year?



Yes I watched last night's The Real Housewives of NYC Reunion. One word: MEOW! Wow. They really let each other have it! It's both hilarious and jaw-dropping to watch.



The most unappealing character this season has to be Kelly. I think her never acknowledging her friends or enemies has made her excruciatingly unpleasant and unlikeable. All the bitchiness and cattiness aside, everyone else has something to add to their arguing. Kelly's attitude just seems hollow and yes, like many have accused her of being, inauthentic. So now onto the brand spanking new "New Jersey" housewives... Boy this train will never stop!

Yes I am fully aware of the fact that I consume too much TV.

I love me some Frenchie/Angelique!

My First Yelp

Seven of us had dinner at Sofi last night, and it was a complete letdown. The squid appetizer was tough to cut and rubbery to eat. One of us asked for "medium rare" lamb, and it came out well-done. All the green beans on the plates tasted like they were taken out from a can, no joke! The rest of the meal didn't fare that well either. Not horrific, but nothing to write home about. And, the place wasn't busy, with only 7-8 tables, yet we had to wait 50+ minutes to see our food. To say we were disappointed by the food, and the service, especially reading all the kind reviews here, was an understatement. We felt the food was surprisingly uninspired, poorly executed, and overpriced. The service was also nowhere near satisfactory. We waited at least 50 minutes for our food. We waited over 10 minutes for our check. The water was never filled again after we sat down. Finally to top it all off, the staff even managed to miscalculate our check and charged one of us more than his share. We left feeling ripped-off, confused, and bitter. You know when you went to a seemingly nice restaurant where everybody said it was excellent, only to find out after you sat and dined in there that how wrong you had it and how unbelievably poopy the experience was? Yeah exactly. It is astounding to all of us that Sofi gets such nice, generous Yelp scores. Perhaps we just happened to visit on a bad night, but I doubt any of us will agree to return sometime soon. Probably never.

Worked

I worked today. I didn't expect a phone call from my old manager yesterday, but he asked me to go in and work on the document. I did, and also started adding content to the store site. It was a full day. I went to Dave's for dinner, had some sangria, and was fighting the sleepiness after we ate. I am such a lightweight. Now home, I'm just relaxing and getting ready for bed. Weekend is here again, and I look forward to resting and doing nothing... Hahaha. What's new?!

Gonna try to sleep better

I didn't sleep very well last night. I didn't know why. It wasn't that hot. Fortunately the AC was ready if I needed it. Well, I decided not to take a nap this afternoon, hopefully that would do the trick.

My old manager called today to ask me a question on the document we uploaded. We went back and forth on the phone, and finally he asked when I could give him the answer. I just flat out told him that there was no way for me to figure this out away from work. I didn't have the files at home, so I couldn't run the necessary tests to confirm the results. It's like, there's a reason why you want someone there full-time! So, until I go back into the office, he'll just have to wait.

Relaxing day

Today was a relaxing day. I met up with Dave and Tim for lunch. We went to a restaurant supply store afterwards and Dave got a big wok and bamboo brush. I then came back home and applied for more jobs. I Love Money had their season finale tonight and it was completely satisfying. Myamee's ice-melting technique was slightly questionable and totally hilarious! I continued to watch the premiere of New York Goes To Work, and was surprised how much I laughed while watching her working as an exterminator. Her reaction to all the pests she encountered on the sites was priceless. Vh1 scores again!

Drunk

Jane's birthday party went very well. I got a little drunk right off the bat. I didn't know Jane put a lot of alcohol in the sangria. She poured me a jar full and I was pretty much fighting the buzz most of the night. Only after I ate a lot of food and drank many glasses of water I was able to recover. It was fun though.

Today I went to my dad's friend's house to pick up some pineapple cakes. 60 freeway was packed to the max, so I decided to take another route home. It was a much longer drive coming back. Dave and Jose came over to have lunch with me after 2 pm and help me set up my AC in the bedroom. After that project was done, Jose worked on his renovation project, Dave took a rest, and I called Z back. For dinner we ordered a family size pizza from a local pizza place and watched Fox's animation line-up. It was a productive day.

Big lunch

I scratched my foot at the gym today. I didn't think much of it at the time. When I got home and took off my shoes I realized there was a lot of blood. Who knew gym could be dangerous?

My neighbor invited me to have lunch with her and I took her to a new, small restaurant, Ning Jie Restaurant near the Mission. I ordered their beef noodle soup, fried rice, and beef pancake. The standout was the pancake, the filling was delicious and the skin was very thin. The noodle soup was alright, and the shrimps in the fried rice tasted a little rubbery. Other than that, it was a a very good meal. I sure ate plenty.

Tomorrow's Jane's party. Yay more eating!