Crouching Photos Hidden Papers
My room is 85% cleaned. 10% is paperwork. 4% miscellaneous stuff that needs to be sorted and put away. 1% stuff to be taken to donation.
With this, I found LOADS of old photos. I also found old college papers, my first American high school report card, my Mater Dei transcript full of A’s and occasional B’s with only one tarnish of a D in what American school system categorize as Calculus.
I found my immunization history and a letter from a Thai doctor certifying that I don’t have any deadly Third World communicable diseases. Was that something the embassy needed to apply for a student visa back then?
And my college notebooks and papers full of my notes. From my observation of the crowd in USC Commons, to my attempts at Nikki Giovanni style of poetry.
Boy, did I write good sap! I guess that’s why my songwriter professor told me I tell love story in a song like a country singer.
Well, I guess I’m brave enough to share these gems for your entertainment. Make sure to brace yourself so that you don’t fall off the chair when you laugh.
*
Thoughts – 2000
My head is in the gutter
Or is it in cloud nine?
Wherever it is
All I can feel is
The thought of
Making love to you.
All I can imagine is
The softness of kisses and
The silence of embraces.
All I can do is
To write it out
To ride out the wait.
The night will come.
And so will we.
Meatless Tuesday: Week 5
Breakfast & Through out the day Snacks
- Starbucks decaf soy caramel macchiatto. I ordered a tall but they gave me a grande.
- Starbucks chocolate croissant I never got to finish. We had birthday party today in the office so I was saving room for cake.
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Lunch
- Brown jasmine rice with 2 sticks of barbecue “beef” skewers and 4 cherry tomatoes. The skewers look like poop, seriously like a log of poop. It did have very meaty texture, though, and less soy tasting. Unlike the marinaded “chicken” I had a while back.
- A mini red velvet cupcake…more like a shot of cake and frosting…from Big Man Bakes at the office birthday party I threw and a very thin slice of pineapple rum cake the Big Boss brought back from the Caribbean.
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Dinner
- Red Robin queso and chips…and a couple of fries. I swear that bowl is bottomless. I had my fill and it didn’t look like I made a dent! That was washed down with a strawberry lemonade.
- A side of guilt.
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LOST snacks
- A glass of Jacob’s Creek shiraz. Very appropriate, I know.
- Coconut truffle from the box of XT Patisserie treats Nhien sent me for Christmas. Again, very appropriate.
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Satisfaction Level: Very satisfied albeit the GUILT!! Seriously. I had a choice to get a Gardenburger or a soup and salad but noooooo. I got queso. AND fries!! Not to mention all of the products with eggs in them that I completely ignore and dove in headfirst like the cakes. Meatless in the worst way today, folks.
Thoughts: Um. Yeah. I totally suck at being a vegetarian. The guilt alone will kill be before anything else.
Special Thanks: For those who’ve witnessed/read about my ordeal last night, please give thanks to the handy guide I used to battle the problem.
Ear Candy
I’m pretty sure every girl wants to be serenaded. I mean, tell me you haven’t had a little dream about that whole scene of opening up the window/balcony to find your boy downstairs, singing to you with or without a guitar, with a mariachi band, or holding up his boombox.
I must say that this romantic fantasy all started for me because of Freddy of My Fair Lady. He was outside her house because “there’s nowhere else on earth that I would rather be”. I mean, seriously! Would a boy REALLY think that of me
Obviously, “On the street where you live” has become the first in many songs in my fantasy world of being serenaded. Along with that are these new additions.
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“She” – Elvis Costello
This song gets to me since the first time I heard it in Notting Hill. The music is beautiful. His voice, fantastic. When I get to read the words, I am absolutely in love with the song. This is one that gives me goosebumps and gets me tearing up no matter how many times I’ve heard it before.
My favorite part:
She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough in ready years
Me
I’ll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is
She
*sigh*
*
“If it kills me” – Jason Mraz (acoustic)
This one of those songs I’m sure at some point in time you want to hear someone confesses to you. May be it’s just me, but finding out that you’ve always been the secret object of someone’s affection this whole time, that’s kind of sweet.
If I should be so bold
I’d ask you to hold my heart in your hand
I’d tell you from the start how I’ve longed to be your man
But I never said I would
I guess I’m gonna miss my chance again
Then again, it’s probably because nobody ever asked me out. LOL. Both of my relationships I was the one doing the asking. Well, you know, I’m one of those living in the moment–I have figured out what I want and I’m too impatience to wait around.
You. Here. Boyfriend. Now. Very pirate of me.
Always the one to go out and get what I want, I’m not sure I know what it’s like to be wanted first. Heh.
*
Well, those were mine. What songs do you want to hear sung under your window?
Meatless Tuesday: Week 4 (Plus other things)
Well crap. I’ve been so busy that this blog is slowly becoming all about my Meatless Tuesday. Sorry guys!
Just to catch you up, last Wednesday was our 8th wedding anniversary. On our way to our tradition dinner at Benihana through the infamous SoCal rainstorm, we were rear-ended.
As we crested over the 405 close to Fairview exit, we got out of the carpool lane to get to the 73. Suddenly in front of us, a black sedan was sideway on the #1 lane. Its visibly damaged trunk was partly in the carpool lane and the hood in #2 lane. Unable to swerve around, Brandon slammed the brakes. We stopped many cars length from the black sedan. Far enough distance to be safe but yet close enough to see the people in the car trying to get out of their vehicle.
See? Driving at speed limit, leaving plenty of room in front of you in a torrential rain actually works. Unfortunately, the guy behind us didn’t follow the same rule.
All we could see out the rear view mirror was a smaller car than our Santa Fe disappearing behind us. And *CRUNCH*. We bounced around in our seats. Not too badly, but enough to know we would be in pain the next day.
Some folks had questioned me why we moved from the crash site. Well, among the many unwise reasons to get out of our vehicle or stay stalled in this lane–oh, I don’t know. It’s dark. It’s rainy. We are in the fast lanes with fast cars whizzed recklessly by each side of us? Um. No. We were not sitting out here to cause MORE accidents.
So we started to pull over to the shoulder. The car that hit us started to follow. Oh, goodie. However, by the time we got to the shoulder, there was nobody behind us.
That motherfucker was GONE.
We called 911 and waited for the CHP to show up. We couldn’t see what became of that black sedan either.
The tow truck showed up first and he told us that he was here for the black sedan that was reported by several people to be blocking the #1 lane. But there was nobody out there except us, he said.
Soon after that, CHP pulled up and got us off the freeway to file report and talk about the incident.
In short, somebody hit the black sedan and left the scene. The black sedan, having caused our accident, left the scene. The guy who crashed into us also left the scene. If it wasn’t for decent people calling that black sedan in to 911, it would’ve sounded like we made the whole thing up. I am forever grateful to those good Samaritans who called that in, by the way.
Back to us, with fading adrenaline rush, Brandon and I continued onto Benihana to make the best out of the rest of the evening. We popped some ibuprofen and went in to enjoy our dinner. Our necks were tensed but we didn’t quite feel the impact yet. I tried to dull it with a sample flight of sake…which didn’t really work.
The kicker of it all is that we had just finished fixing up the Santa Fe from Brandon’s day-before-Thanksgiving rear-ending. (That one was paid for fully by the lady who hit him.)
AND we now found out our insurance apparently only cover physical injury from a hit-and-run/uninsured motorists but NOT the damage to the car.
Then again, this is now a week after the incident, my lower back still is VERY tensed. Brandon has been doing well so far but, true to what our doctor told us, sometime the muscles don’t react to the impact until many days later, now the Mister also has the problem.
Now, to top off the cake that was yesterday in the Kingdom of Crazy (aka the office), my back was so tensed I had to go get a massage. The journey home on the bus took FOREVER as the jackasses, trying to creep up to the congested freeway entrances, blocked intersections all over Downtown LA. Seriously, if you set LAPD out to ticket all of those bastards blocking traffic, endangering pedestrians as well as impeding traffic, City of LA would totally pull out of the financial shithole they’re in. But I digress.
The massage part of Meatless Tuesday was nice, but not so much the rest of the day.
It all started at breakfast…
Breakfast
- Half of the Honey Nut Cheerios I originally intended to eat. I tripped and spilled most of the bowl full of cereal and milk onto my cubicle floor. *sigh*
- Snack: a slice of lemon poppy seed cake someone brought in.
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Lunch
- Veggie burger at Rowdy Red with only half of the buns. A bit of the sweet potato fries with ranch dressing. It was really tasty and I personally liked it. However my guts didn’t want any of that.
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Dinner
- 2 slices of Pizza Hut Veggie Lover pizza.
- A general scoop of Ben & Jerry’s Neopolitan Dynamite.
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Satisfaction Level: I WANT A FUCKING MEATY CHEESEBURGER NOW level. I was hungry all day. And cranky because of that. Well, the botched attempt at breakfast got me nice and hungry through lunch. I have to give the veggie burger credit for being thoroughly satisfying. But then it acted up, leaving me miserable and quite literally drained for the rest of the afternoon. I was so busy I didn’t get to snack before the evening massage either.
Thoughts: Yesterday just sucked in general. *sigh*
Meatless Tuesday: Week 3
Formerly known as “Veggie Tuesday”. 
Breakfast:
- Granola with blueberries from the farmer’s Market with milk
- English Breakfast tea.
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Lunch:
- Roasted eggplants and red pepper dip from farmer’s market and one pita bread. Well, I didn’t really get to have lunch that day so I ate what I could in a meeting.
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Dinner:
- Trader Joe’s frozen entree of Paneer Masala with spinach basmati rice. Yum-may!
- A couple of flutes of Fresh & Easy Ogio prosecco with lemon sorbet–a Scroppino without the vodka.
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Satisfaction level: Moderate. The lunch for thoroughly disappointing because I have stuffed grape leaves waiting in the wing. No time for the worker bees that day. I was *this* close to say fuck all and get a burger for dinner at that point, not because I miss meat but because I was starved. However, the hearty paneer was VERY satisfying as a meat substitute.
Thoughts: A viewing of Food Inc. also motivated us greatly to go out to the farmers’ market on Sunday. (Will post about that over on the food blog soon. It’s going to be an epic post.) We stocked up the fridge and the fruit basket to the brim. This time I had the mind to actually plan my Meatless Tuesday while I’m at the market on Sunday instead of panicking on Monday night because I had nothing veggie to eat. So, now I have more than enough to last me all week. LOL.
I’m getting a hang of this vegetarian business. I even wrote a rant to Fresh & Easy about their lack of vegetarian/vegan selection of the grab-and-go meals.
Separated at birth
Uncle Pete :: Jimmy Dean’s The Sun
Tabatha from Tabatha’s Salon Takeover :: A Na’vi
I mean…really.
Come on baby, Delurk
Obeying the Rude Cactus’ call to annual action, here we are once again, folks.
Show yourself, friends and readers!
Please post a comment below if you’re here today. Come on out of that dark corner of the blogosphere and introduce yourself. Or not. That’s totally up to you.
Just. Post. Something!
Veggie Tuesday: Week 2
Breakfast
- A small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and milk.
- Mid morning snack – a few bites out of the 2-lb. tub of Fresh & Easy low fat strawberry yogurt.
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Lunch
- Homemade mac and cheese, half of Barefoot Contessa’s recipe. Essentially shells, gruyere, and cheddar with a pinch of nutmeg. I also infused the milk with thyme and garlic.
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Dinner
- Brandon made us Top Ramen…
- Dessert: Ben & Jerry’s Neapolitan Dynamite. Lots of it.
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Satisfaction Level: Satisfied. Didn’t miss meat once!
Guilt Level: Very high for the lack of veggies when they could totally be had. Oh, and the ice cream gorge.
Thoughts
I took a mental day off on Tuesday (keyword there is MENTAL) and had an ortho appointment in the morning. I pretty much stayed in all day except for when I ran the books out to mail for Operations Paperback. I mean, I could have gone to the store and get some fresh ingredients to make ratatouille as inspired by the previous night’s Heroes episode. But I didn’t.
And of course, the blues got me diving into the arms of Ben & Jerry. I usually enjoyed a couple of bites for dessert anyway. However, I went to town with that. Then again, I did avoid the wine which was my original idea for dessert. One shouldn’t consume a depressant when depressed, a lesson I learned the hard way after my mom died.
That brought us to the blues.
A friend has been waiting for her grandmother to pass away for a few weeks. This weekend was it. Having had talked about the experience with the friend all week, it was like reliving the days with my mom again.
Obviously, once I got to work and found out the friend’s grandmother had passed away, feelings beyond my control were set in motion. I was sad for my friend’s loss. I was sad for my own loss. Which brought me to miss my family, my friends, and overall being home. I was sad for things I don’t have in my life, an interesting form of envy. You get the picture.
I hid behind my pile of work all day as an excuse to not be social. Thank god for that because I would’ve started crying.
The next morning, I cried in the shower. For not much of a reason but all of the above. I knew I couldn’t go to work like that.
Grief is a VERY odd thing. I mean, soon after my mom’s death? I get it. The random sadness and the crying. 2 years after and I’m still affected by some stranger’s death? That I don’t understand.
Then again, I *am* doing this veggie Tuesday thing in honor of my mom. So, I guess in someway it’s all related.
Thanks, Coach
Dear Uncle Pete,
So, you’re finally leaving us.
Yes, I am hurt. And disappointed. I mean, don’t you love US? Don’t you love college ball? I mean, you’ve said it over and over and over again that here is where you want to be. What changed, Coach? Have we not loved you enough?
I know that you deny any bad blood between you and Mike Garrett or your departure has anything to with the looming NCAA ruling. But I think we all understand how much suck it could be to work for an asshat and to get out before the heat is unbearable. (On that note, Reggie, I hate you. And that goes for you too, Joe McFlashy. All I can say to you is that karma does exist, boys. You watch out now.)
At the end of the day, Team Carroll has to come first. It’s only human. We would’ve done the same thing for the money and the escape.
But of course, we have expected so much from you, Coach. We didn’t think you’d leave us.
Well, that’s all I have to bitch and moan about it. We can throw a tantrum all day and hold vigils all night. It’s all done now.
Now that I get that out of my system. .. *exhale*
Thanks for a one hell of a run at USC, Uncle Pete. You have turned the Hackett Horror Picture Show around into something beyond our imagination. You have spoiled us rotten with all the wins. This past rebuilding season has been quite hard for all of us, but you got us through it much better than anyone could have expected.
You changed the face of Trojan football forever, Coach. We haven’t had this much fun since, well, I don’t know when. (I came in toward the end of Robinson’s era.)
Your charity, A Better LA, is really making a difference out there. You weren’t just here to coach and get your paycheck. You were a part of the community.
Many bandwagon fans had boo’ed when we lost, and they are probably are cursing at you right now for your departure. The Coliseum may be half empty under new management. But hey, good riddance. And better yet, I might actually have a chance to get in on some forfeit season tickets. But I digress.
Us TRUE Trojan fans appreciate what you’ve done for us all these years. All the championships and Heisman. The Bush Push. The surprise that was Sanchez. The pranks you pulled on the team. Ah. The memories!
I don’t know if Seattle folks can love you like we do. Just sayin’. But hey, I’m sure you will wow and charm them like you did us.
Wish you the best in Seattle.
Fight on.
The first of many Veggie Tuesdays
One of my goals this year is to bring back my Vegetarian Tuesdays ritual. This time, I hold on to the dairy but ditch the eggs, but not in the strictest of sense. I mean, I’m not looking at the back of the box for baked goods with eggs in them. Just not visible eggs, I guess that’s what you’d call it. No egg salad or omelet, but okay with cake. Sort of thing.
I figured, I’d try to document my success and failure this year. It’ll go something like this.
Breakfast
- A slice of Fresh & Easy’s Il Fornaio panettone.
- A FREE grande decaf soy toffee nut latte which I sipped through the day. So it’s a breakfast AND a snack. AND because I had a coupon for a freebie, that stays within my once-a-week Starbucks goal as well.
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Lunch
- Fresh & Easy’s jasmine rice in a tub. (Best thing ever!)
- Wildwood Organics teriyaki sproutofu…which wasn’t all that teriyaki-y.
- A side of Fresh & Easy Thai peanut sauce for dipping…which improved the overall result tremendously.
- 2 small organic vine ripen tomatoes from local farmer’s market.
- Most of an Asian pear. (Coworkers helped me eat some.) And one bite of cake but all of the frosting on my half of a not-very-good Starbucks red velvet cupcake my coworker shared with me.
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Dinner
- Red Robin: The queso with half of the chips and some of Brandon’s garlic fries. I didn’t even put a dent into the bowl of queso. So much cheese!
- Red Robin: A cup of French onion soup.
- Red Robin: An electric lemonade…or something like that.
- Baskin Robbins: A scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
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Satisfaction Level: Full but a little guilty
I’m pretty satisfied with all the meals today, actually. Not horribly proud of my dinner choice but since I had a burger yesterday and about to eat the other half for lunch tomorrow, I wasn’t going to throw a veggie burger in the mix as well.
Other Thoughts
I did come home to check the box for the panettone for the egg content out of curiousity. And there it was. That was when I started to ponder how strict I am going with the whole no-egg thing. Same with the cake I had. There were eggs in that. My instinct says that if I was going to do the whole no egg thing, I should definitely be mindful of that and start checking the ingredients. On the other hand, I don’t want to be so strict I don’t enjoy the foods.
I guess I came to term in the middle. Avoid eggs if I can. But if it’s too much to ask, don’t worry about it.
Day 1 hasn’t traumatize me just yet. I can get through the year and beyond, I’m sure!