for lunch today, i drove to stanford campus to meet up with dave, his cutie toddler son dylan, and jose. ah, good old college buddies. it was nice seeing them (i saw them last night, too). man, life sure changes when you have kids. watching dave take care of his kid really made me wonder when i'll ever be mature enough to have kids of my own. i don't think i'll ever hit that maturity level the way i'm going. last night, he was talking about his sleep pattern for the first year or so, and even now, dylan gets up around 5-6am. holy crap! i mean, i get up at 10am at the earliest! ...
dave is an assistant professor at USC, so he's bought some USC gear for dylan. we've been giving him crap about that, since both he and his wife carolyn were stanford grads with us. so today, i hope he's remedied that by buying his kid some stanford jersies and t-shirts. go cardinal! i recommended the track house for a nice football jersey. dave justifies the USC stuff by saying that the school pays the bills, but still, it's your alma mater that counts, right?
lately, whenever i'm in a crowd, i find myself thinking horrible thoughts just to see if there are any people around me with telepathic capabilities. these thoughts are stuff like, "you're a big ugly bitch" or "i hope you die." isn't that horrible? so far, no one's reacted by smacking me in the fact, so i think telepathy is a crock of bullshit, haha. or maybe i've just met some very kind ESP'ers. :)
man, it's monday. i have a full week of work ahead of me. even though i had four days off of work, i don't feel rested. being with my family isn't relaxing, to say the least. i feel like i was on my toes for the entire time. my parents bicker a lot, and that is never fun to be around. they don't seriously fight; it's just the way they interact with each other. and meeting my brother's girlfriend was a bit stressful, too. i wonder if that's how it was when i introduced my gf to my parents when i graduated 12 years ago. funny, my brother takes after me; we both introduced korean girls to our parents for the first time when we graduated. i wasn't nervous or anything, probably because i was so wrapped up in my own excitement and stuff. but this time, being an outsider, i could definitely feel the tension.
i think i take after my dad. both of us speak our minds. it's kind of amusing to watch from a third person's point of view. and sometimes i think it's not that good of a trait, because sometimes what we say can be quite controversial. so now i'm wondering if it's something i should tone down. *ponder*
whenever i travel, for some insane reason, it messes up my GI system. i know i only took a 1-hour flight to LA, for during my stay there, i no longer had that instant urge to take a shit in the morning during my morning cigarette. it was really weird. i mean, my morning routine was all messed up. maybe my body knows that it's in a foreign land (i guess soCal is foreign to me? damn, it's only 400 miles away), so it gets confused as to what to do. i literally had to force out my morning dumps, sometimes as much as an hour after i got out of bed. thank goodness, though, that i had a tv in the bedroom i was sleeping in, so at least i still had ESPN at night.
while talking to one of my brother's church friends after his reception, i remembered one big reason why i used to fight with church's policies back when i was in it. it had to do with their segregation of guys and girls. this particular church is really strict about separating young males and females, like not letting them date or interact with each other. that really makes me mad. i mean, dealing with the opposite sex (i.e. relationships, dating, sex, etc.) is one of the most basic components of life itself, and instead of shielding this aspect of living from the kids, the church should embrace it and guide the young ones instead of not letting them experience it at all. i was very sore about this subject for a long time back then, and after my discussion with this guy, i was reminded of it again. hrmph. i feel the same way about standard "vices" such as drinking and partying. i'd rather let people experience it and learn their own boundaries and limits.
hehe. i remember the only advice my dad gave me when i left for college: "do NOT drink." and then, like my second or third night during orientation, i got hammered. ah, that upside-down margarita that this girl named "una" gave me. i will never forget it. sure, i went overboard a few times, i woke up drunk once, i had an alcohol-fueled one-night stand, but i learned on my own how to handle alcohol, and now i'm fine. that's the way to do it, i think. you can't teach this stuff by not letting kids touch alcohol at all.
ok, i'll step off my soapbox now. but man, that church thing about segregating sexes really pisses me off.
i think anne hathaway is really pretty. i did a google image search on her, and i was very surprised that she's already done a nude scene (nice nipples, by the way, very munchable). she seems so wholesome! i mean, i don't think she's gone nuts partying a la lindsay lohan style, so i respect her for that. (if she has, then i plead ignorance.) but anyways, i like her, and i will probably try to see _get smart_ because of her. fyi, i have never seen any of her movies.
anybody want to watch _kung fu panda_ with me this weekend? did i mention i saw _zohan_ and liked it? that girl (love interest) is really cute, too. IMDb states that she was in a few episodes of _the OC_, but i didn't recognize her.
ok, that's it. gonna check up on a few things before i leave work. gonna take my mom out to dinner and then catch up on 3 hours of last week's _sytycd_.
so on saturday, lunch with my brother and his gf was a little stressful. it was the first time my parents and i were meeting her, btw, so i was on edge. my brother, his gf, and my mom are very religious, and at one point, the exchange went as follows:
dad: health is number one (in priority).
mom: no! the lord is number one.
dad: well, i am talking about the *real* world.
mom: no! *i* am talking about the real world!
ugh. my mom and dad bicker a lot like that, about everything. i just didn't know what to do, so i started staring off into space, hoping the moment would end. anyways, the gf seems like a nice girl.
later on in the afternoon, the gf's parents and my parents met over tea or something. i figured that this could be a train wreck, so i declined to go. instead, i took a nap. (this entry overlaps my previous weekend entry.)
then, at night, we drove to the LA meeting hall for my brother's church's graduation reception. man, that was really weird. it was like being in church again. (background info: i attended church for one year, during my senior year in high school.) there were hymns sung, biblical passages read, and testimonies spoken. and the word "amen" was uttered by the masses like two hundred times, i'm not kidding you. it was like being in another world. i was very uncomfortable, and i'm sure my dad was in the same place. i caught him napping, even.
there was a little sermon about values changing, i.e. value in christ vs. value in the material world, and there were also testimonies given by all the graduating seniors. my brother's speech was pretty good. i know that he and i don't share the faith in god, but i'm proud of him and who he is and what he believes in.
i was a little apprehensive in going to this event because i knew that G was going to be there. G is this girl that i met when i went to church way back when in 1991-92. she was the main reason why i went, because i thought she was cute. in fact, she was the first girl i ever said "i love you" to, albeit it was in a written letter. however, when i went off to college, i promptly forgot about her (when i met k1), and i dropped her off the face of the planet, so i figured i hurt her pretty badly.
so when i first saw her, i think we made eye contact, and i immediately retreated. after the reception was over, i just gathered myself together, walked over, tapped her on the shoulder, and said hi. i knew she was pregnant, (in fact, she's due in two weeks) so i congratulated her on her impending delivery, and she smiled and said thanks and introduced me to her husband, who's a pretty good-looking and friendly guy. we didn't talk much afterwards. but i'm glad she's doing well. *phew*
sunday, i took my dad out to lunch for father's day. we were joined by my brother (who recommended the restaurant) and one of his church buddies jason. i sneaked out and gave my credit card to one of the waiters, but then, after the meal, my dad announced that he was going to pay. i fought him long and hard, telling him that i had already given my credit card. eventually, my dad relented, and i won.
right after lunch, my dad dropped my mom and me off at the airport off two hours early (i didn't want to miss my flight again), but this time, security was a 5-minute breeze. shit. so we waited a long-ass time, and i was bored out of my mind. the flight was uneventful, but then came the porn-hiding. (sorry, the story to come isn't that interesting.)
basically, when i drove home, i dropped my mom at the doorstep with her luggage, and i went through the garage. then, i closed the garage door, ran inside to the dvd player with my bag, stuffed the porn in my bag, and then opened the front door to let my mom in. it was that simple. *phew* no porn discovery for my mom! yay! yes, i had been planning this for days.
i picked up some food for my mom on the drive back, and then i went over to jack and amy's place in union city for dinner. dave, carolyn, their kid dylan, and then jose came over, and it was a nice little college reunion. it was actually a nice break away from the family stress (it's never relaxing when i'm with the family) to end the weekend. amy cooked up a feast, and i thank her for that. it was fun watching the kids play, and i played a game of war with little boy anthony, although i'm pretty sure he cheated and gave himself all the face cards. :)
so that was it for my 4-day weekend. the undisclosed family drama is still there, and i'm not sure how it's going to resolve itself. i understand it a little better now, and i'm going to do a little more investigating on my own, i think. i just hope i can get through this week with my mom staying wtih me. she's already preached god to me a few times. :/