how not to communicate.

Since we both have smartphones now, A & I can seamlessly chat on Google talk now to keep in touch. The only problem now is that typing long msgs on phones is slow and inefficient, and makes me cut extra corners. See today’s random snippet of our confusion.. hahaha

me: We’re watching the man without arms play piano. So crazy

A: Who’s we?

Watching live?

I’m pretty confused, kinda all over the place today. Haha

me: Me and T

At the library

A: Ah

There is am armless man playing piano at the library?

me: No on youtube

He won china’s got talent

A: Ahh

Are you on ur phone?

me: Yes

For context, this is what I was originally watching, though A did not know that.

I can’t stop laughing at what I bolded above.

We are ridiculous. That is all.

prayers for the san bruno fire

Yesterday I left early for class around 6pm. When I got to Skyline Blvd off of 280, a huge inferno emerged from behind the trees. The fire was literally bright orange, billowing madly, and must’ve been 50 feet high. It was such a strange event because it looked like it was something out of a movie, yet traffic was flowing better than usual and everyone was just watching it while driving by. It turns out I was witnessing the gas explosion mere minutes after it happened. I drove to campus since that’s where I had to go anyway, but I was utterly shocked and confused about what I had seen. There was still nothing on the news about it online as I checked it before class started.

It wasn’t until 8pm (nearly 1.5 hrs later) that someone from the school came in and announced what had happened. Our teacher cancelled class, and I headed home going north on Skyline since they had closed it in the other direction. I drove home by taking the 280 from South SF and drove by the closed Sneath and Skyline exits, as well as the smoke that flew across the freeway.

The last thing I can relate this to is the SD Firestorm in 2007, but that was still different as it was mostly wildfire and people who evacuated had time. There was no time for this, as houses sitting above the gas pipe exploded. The people from the neighboring houses barely escaped because the heat was causing everything to catch on fire.

As I was falling asleep in my cozy bed, surrounded by everything I own, I was wondering what it would like for the people who had lost their homes in the fire. I wondered how even those people felt that even losing all of their possessions was nothing compared to being safe. What is of value in this world? How does that even compare to our souls, which have eternal value?

It puts a lot of things into perspective.

responsibility!

I totally feel this way as of late. Oh, Allie (of Hyperbole and a Half), how you seriously are my twin. But way wittier & funnier & more eloquent. & white.

I don’t need to say anything cuz that is exactly how I feel. Okay, time for bed! I’m enjoying that I get tired at 1am now.

lately

As usual, I’ve been ultra behind in life, especially since returning from my trip (or even before that, when finals ended… or even before that, my entire life). Life is just kinda messy and hectic. I should really get around to posting about my trip and the reviews that went with it before I forget it all, but I can’t seem to find the time/motivation to do it.

Either way, I just wanted to put up the picture of the Brooklyn Bridge, just to show something. Gosh, I really liked New York… can you tell?

officially summer…

…for three weeks for me.

I love not being in school or tied down to *real job for now.

Despite having to wake up for early for a long day tomorrow, I’m still up ‘cuz I decided to get coffee around 5pm–way past my usual caffeine cut-off of 3pm. You’d think for how much coffee&tea I drink, I’d have some sort of tolerance, but I don’t. I guess caffeine still serves its purpose somehow.

And at this point, I stayed up so long I’m hungry. Boo.

—

Coinciding with my beginning of summer was finally the beginning of beautiful, summer-like weather… at the end of May, no less, but I won’t complain about that because I can’t! Except that I got sick… but even then, I still can’t complain.

{I wish I weren’t so lazy about putting pictures into my posts, but wordpress makes it really difficult. Something makes me think there must be a way around it.}

A turned 23 last Tuesday. In some ways, it’s kind of frightening because 23 sounds a lot closer to 25 than 22 does. But then we laughed it off because I guess you could say that about any age–we concluded that turning 23 is almost like turning 100! And that’s me next…soon, anyway.

We did a late birthday celebration with a planned hike on Friday (he had the day off work , but quickly unraveled into explorations along Skyline. We stumbled upon the Pulgas Water Temple of the Crystal Springs Reservoir and Filoli, a sprawling 654-acre property with a mansion and “secret garden” to boot. Interestingly enough, parts of Rent and Joy Luck Club were filmed at the mansion–which wasn’t surprising, because it’s beautiful! I have tons of pictures, but I’ll post another time when I’m not lazy.

Saturday was D’s BBQ, which ended up being high school + Hawaii trip reunion… which I liked. And Snowball & Mowgli were there, too… which I doubly liked.

And the best part was that we finally saw Wicked on Sunday. Yes, after 2+ years of wanting to see it, hearing hype but not willing to shell out the money (though it would’ve been well-worth it to pay full price), I finally saw it. And it was just as good, even with all the hype and whatnot. I love good songs and good stories… so what was there not to like about Wicked? (: However, as much as I dreamt about it, we got no pictures with the sign or in front of the theatre, b/c I felt & looked like garbage at the height of my sickness. Luckily I didn’t feel that way during the show.

The good things about 3-day weekends is that it makes the week go by so much faster. The bad thing is that I don’t want this week to go by faster since I feel like I have so much to do before I leave for the other coast! Yikes.

the light at the end

I don’t mind being a student most of the year with the exception of midterms & finals time. Then I get overdramatic and hate life for the span of a couple weeks. Luckily, this bout of depression coincidentally ends once finals do. Strange, isn’t it.

Unfortunately, my room is wrecked during this time…more than usual. So. last essays go in tomorrow night, marking the end of the longest semester ever (seriously, it’s unbearable after the break-neck speed of quarters) and clean-up this weekend.

Plus hiking, BBQs galore, and Wicked. Can’t wait! (: The light is bright.

pandemonium… at the dinner table

My brother brought me back this shirt from Thailand. It’s actually from Threadless, called Pandamonium.

It was a topic of discussion at dinner tonight.

Mum: What a crazy shirt. Why is there a panda with helicopters with missiles? So random.

Brother: Uh… it’s a pun on the word pandemonium. You know what the word pandemonium means right?

Mum: (squinting at my shirt still) I see the panda, but where is the monium?

Dad: (clearly on a different page) It’s ammonia, not ammonium!

Me, brother: Wow.

It’s safe to say that our parents still show their fobbiness, despite how many years they’ve lived here. Hahah..

weekend update

There are so many potential things to write about and stuff, but my to-do list never shrinks and I feel guilty writing posts about my life when I should be doing.

But isn’t that the story of my life… there’s always something better you could be doing with your time. or something you don’t want to do but should be doing. (in this case, i should be finishing up tidying up my clothes and starting on my Excel final, but all I really want to do is catch up on my Yelp reviews and knit.)

Since I last updated, I…

-bought a sewing machine, currently sitting on my dining room table since I can’t figure out how to thread it.

-currently waiting for a mother or friend (hinthint) to teach me how to use it

-hung out with friends I’ve known since Kindergarten. yes, crazy..  I hadn’t seen one of them in like nine years.

-hung out with a high school friend I haven’t seen in two years.

-realized people don’t change that much.

-became a member at GBF

-ate quite a bit this weekend: raw oysters, clam chowder, amazing almond croissant, freshly grilled steaks!, dim sum, a couple half off fraps, yikes.

-currently working out some bureaucratic stuff for work ): why does the government take so long with processes.

-began eagerly looking forward to the end of the month!

Ok, so I cheated on the last one. Phew. I had to put it down or else I’d forget it all.

lightning

i feel like i have so many things i could say. like they all accumulate in the sieve of my mind and i lose them all (or am too lazy to) before i get a chance to write them down.

and not even electronically. sometimes i have my moleskine with me, and even then im too lazy to write them all down coherently.

as if my mind runs faster than my writing hand can move or fingers can type.

but then again, my mind is just everywhere. it jumps like lightning. …just like my [nameless] fish, when i turned on the light suddenly on him since i forgot fish don’t have eyelids. or when i showed him his reflection to see his response. [...can you tell i'm having fun with him? (: ]

btw, i think it’s necessary to add that i’m a little butthurt that my turtle has been looking at me disdainfully these past couple days… seriously. perhaps s/he knows i got another pet. but regardless, whyyy ):

the hills are alive…

They are alive indeed...

I watched The Sound of Music for the first time ever a few weeks ago. Yes, you read that correctly… first time. Unsurprisingly–but surprising to me at the time–I LOVED it! While I enjoy the soundtracks of musicals, I normally don’t enjoy the inane story lines of musicals (consider me a realist), but I just found this musical so charming and happy–yet with the looming, historic background of the rising power of the Nazis. Plus, Julie Andrews is one talented woman. Secondly, I realized I knew majority of the songs already without knowing they’re from this musical, as it’s so popular in culture.

I mention this because “Do Re Mi” was stuck in my head all day. Possibly because I was unpacking from my trip, and the Duty-Free store in Tokyo is called Fa So La.

But yes, I am back from my short stint in Asia… much to update, much to say, but that will come in following days. (: