hey peeps. not much going on today. i did get up at 10:30 today, which is my latest starting time on a workday in many months. i think that this is in part due to my falling in love with sleep again, because of the dropping temperatures. i love snuggling in my blankets on a cool night/morning, and i simply don't want to get out of bed these days.
i have a lot of work to do. i just got out of a meeting for an issue that i wasn't even assigned as of last week. now, i'm supposed to follow up on this, and i still have all this other crap to do. *RAAR* it's ok, though. i don't mind working, but this task that popped up is a bit frustrating because it's not well-defined. i hate murky issues, but i supposed that now since i'm a semi-senior guy, it's on my shoulders to take initiative and make it clearer.
today, D and i went to the taiwanese place in cupertino village for lunch. we got stinky tofu! i didn't smell as bad as i thought it would, and it was actually quite tasty when dipped in the sauce that they provided. the stinky tofu here is a bit different than the stuff you get in taiwan; here, it's crusty and fried, whereas overseas, it's boiled and way more pungent. either way, it's pretty good, and tastes way better than it smells.
so i'm going to leave early today to watch my cowboys on monday night football. i hope they don't overlook the bills, who are starting trent edwards at QB, the rookie from stanford. everyone is saying how this is a gimme game for the 'boys, so i hope they're not overconfident. i'm looking for a dominant performance, though, although it is an away game, and that's always tough in the NFL. the only problem is, it's on ESPN, and i don't get it on HD. part of me wants to go to st. john's or something and watch it in HD over a cheesesteak (half off tonight) and a whiskey.
there have been a few times when i've gotten little panic attacks after dinner. they have all happened when sitting in the backseat of paul and leeya's car. i can't sit still, and it feels like my chest is about to explode. i start squirming and stuff, and it's really annoying. part of me wonders is it's a form of claustrophobia, and the reason why i think it's that is because the attacks subside after i get out of the car. hm.
so i've totally gotten off of xanax as a sleep aid. no matter how late i sleep, i haven't needed to take it to fall asleep. my insomnia is gone! *cheer* *knocks on wood* and that's a good thing, because i don't like depending on drugs, and i certainly take enough meds already. my mom keeps bugging me to cut down on my meds, but i'm really reluctant to do so, because my tourette's has been behaving pretty well of late.
speaking of my mom, she's going to visit me in the bay area for a few days before we all reconvene in LA over christmas break. she wants me to find the local branch of her church while she's down here. uh oh. i really hope she doesn't drag me along when she goes. when i talked to her last night, she again reminded me to pray for something or other, and i just responded with silence. it's so uncomfortable having a family divided by religion.
during lunch (at southland) today, D ordered this interesting noodle. they were really short and thick, and they looked like bean sprouts or little radishes. he told me the chinese word for them, but i forgot. does anyone know what i'm talking about? what's the english word for them? i might get it next time. it was cool; the waitress there knew me, because instead of just bringing us the standard tea, she also got me a glass of ice water. :)
i was taking a dump today, and i noticed that the guy in the stall next to me must have flushed like four times at least. what was going on? i was really curious, and if i could, i wanted to see what was in his bowl. did he make a lot of skidmarks or something? or did he have a huge log that wouldn't go down? *ponder*
ok, that's it for me. gonna jet soon. go cowboys!
friday, i got a massage, and then i had dinner with some folks at dusita, which is now my favorite thai restaurant. there are now two locations, and we went to the bigger one near henderson and el camino. yum! the key, though, is not to order anything "spicy" because they can really jack up the heat, and it's just not enjoyable, and plus, you'll have some really spicy shits afterward.
saturday, i woke up at like 9:30 or so, and i got really bored. i watched some VH1 videos, and i also caught two episodes of _real world_ on MTV. uh oh. it's gonna be a showdown of trisha and parisa, who are fighting over a guy, alex. i'm now curious to watch the catfight this wednesday, but it interferes with _south park_.
i also caught part of the wisconsin/illinois football game, which was pretty good. i tried calling up some people for lunch, but nobody was available. so i just waited until 1pm, when it was time for john's birthday party. it was a deep-fry party, so i had some frozen twinkies lined up. we had fried chicken, fried okra, fried veggies, fried shrimp chips, fried coconut shrimp, fondue (cheese and chocolate), quesadillas, etc. basically, i ate here and there throughout the day.
i also drank a bit, too. i had a red stripe, a shot of mezcal (complete with worm, though i didn't eat the worm), and two shots of tequila. i was only slightly buzzed, though, and it wore off pretty quickly once i started eating. i LOVED the okra, although there wasn't much of it. and even though i ate for a long time, the total volume of food that i ate the entire day didn't add up to much.
i gave john a black golden state warriors long-sleeved t-shirt with the circle "city" logo. i hope he likes it. he told me later that he preferred this color over the original yellow one, so i'm fortunate that i couldn't find the yellow one, because that's the one i was originally looking for. anyways, i stayed at the party until like 10pm, when i left and went home to sleep.
cindy text-messaged me during the party, saying "cardinal does the dirty work," so i was a bit puzzled, but i took that to mean that stanford beat USC. but i didn't believe that, so i had greg dig out his laptop, and when i saw the score 24-23, i was just shocked. there was no way that we beat them! it took a long time for it to sink in, and then a sense of jubilation set in. i tried three times to catch the highlights on espn, but all three times, i missed them, and eventually, at home, i just fell asleep. i did manage to see the 4th-and-20 play, and the final winning touchdown pass, but hot damn! we beat USC! woo-hoo!
sunday, paul, leeya and i went to stacks in campbell. we waited for 35 minutes, but it didn't feel that long because we walked around in the farmers' market for a while during out wait. we also stopped by this celtic store, and it was funny, because the store owner was irish, and even though he was speaking english to us, i couldn't understand half of the stuff that was coming out of his mouth. paul told him that i liked whiskey, and i did understand it when he told me to find 40-year-old bushmills. damn, i wonder how much that stuff costs.
anyways, stacks was delish as usual, but it gave me such bad food coma that when i got home and turned on the 49ers game, i passed out for 2.5 hours. i woke up, had a smoke, and then watched some more football (bears vs. packets). then, i had dinner with alan and ting at pho to chau, and we visited the newly remodelled verde on castro, where we got boba. when i got home, paul called me, and i went out to castro again and went to tap-ex (no second boba for me) and hung out until they closed at 11pm.
so the weekend was pretty chill. and now i have a lot of work to do at the office this week. let's see if i can handle the extra stress, and if my tourette's can take the added pressure. *crossed fingers*