the chair

It turns out the glorious chair from World Market isn't so glorious after all. I finally debuted it tonight, while eating dinner (had the traditional 29th of the month gnocchi), just to break it in, and yeah, my ass and my back weren't so happy even after just a few minutes sitting on it.

The back rest cuts my back a weird way, so I feel its intrustion even after getting up. The seat's slits feel uncomfortable, and unsecure. It's just one of those chairs that you can't sit on for a long time, or if you do, you'd need to constantly change positions to find one where some part of your body won't hurt. I guess that's what you get for $16.99.

So much for that; I'll return it this weekend and continue to search for another chair.

it's the little things

Ok, I don't have much of a life, it either takes a whole lot to get me excited or it's the small things that get me worked up.

After I took Angel for a car wash at the Westlake Chevron, I decided to visit Trader Joe's for diced onions since I'm in the area. After parking, I take a small detour next door to TJ's at the new World Market. I wanted to check out their selection of wooden chairs for my apartment so possible guests can take a seat if they don't like sitting on the stools that came with the studio, because those don't have back support, blase blase.

Luckily World Market had some wooden folding chairs made of walnut, I believe. I love the dark wood, it's so elegant and it doesn't look so cheap. It's actually only $16.99, I mean that's a lot for someone who really can't mess with a tight budget, but it's a necessity, that's how justified it...but it's true, really.

Another item I found there, a nice bowl, perfect for when I get a take out order of #16, Imperial Rolls & Rice Noodle from Tu Lan. The bowl's not too big or too small, just in the middle. I don't know what it is with me and my fetish with bowls, but it's been so many years since my last bowl acquisition. I'll need to make a special trip down to 6th and Market for an order of #16 sometime this week.

Oh, and speaking of the Yuridia DVD, it's bad news; I didn't get any homework done when I got home from the short shopping trip and dinner with J. Marq at IHOP. I'm virtually glued to the tv basking in Yuri's glorious voice. Watching the footage from the conciertos really add "meat" to all the songs I listened to all these months via CD and iPod.

caught in a hot dog

So then later on this morning, when I attempted to sleep again after watching the Yuridia DVD, Sakomi calls and wanted to know if I wanted to eat lunch with her. I said sure, and again went back to halfsleep.

After getting up, I got ready and Bancy called because she needed an escort to the mall so she could buy a birthday card for Roomie. We're both weird in that sense; we can't go to public places alone, for the unnecessary fear of something insignificant like people "judging" us.

Usually Sakomi text messages her and they set up a lunch date and Bancy would alert me of their plans to see if I could tag along with both of them. Well the last two weeks, when all that weird energy floated around, not just with me, but apparently with Bancy, Sakomi and I wound up lunching together by ourselves, with the exception of the one with Babysoto.

So today brought me a dilemma because I thought something happened between the two girls and that they weren't speaking because Sakomi just called me and not Bancy. I called Bancy back to tell her I couldn't make it to the mall with her. Then to make some matters wackier, my total indecision kicked in, and at first I suggested eating at Lily Cafe (Chinese-American grub), then Cafe Durango (Mexican-Salvadorean), or since because the sun shown out here in the area where it's most foggy, I suggested somewhere near the Great Highway/Sloat.

So off we went to the Carousel, a burger/hot dog joint, popularized because of its "calling card," the giant head of a dachshund in a chef's hat that looms over Sloat Boulevard. The picture here is the original dachshund, before it fell down. Now they built another head and placed it in the center/divider of the street.

The place only had two women working the whole place, and we waited for a good seven minutes before placing our order because they focused on preparing the previous orders. We got a little antsy because of our limited time away. Eventually they took our order and handed it to us, and we figured we had about fifteen minutes to eat, and about ten to drive back to campus.

Poor Angel was attacked again by bird doo-doo because I parked her under a utility pole. I'll give her a good car wash after work, I just felt bad for her. I hope her "skin" doesn't burn so much from the turd.

We ate our food (I had the Bacon Cheeseburger; it wasn't bad at all) by the beach in the car, and stepped out for a few minutes to enjoy the weather and the view of the Pacific. The timing worked out ok, and Sakomi wasn't late for her class.

como yo te amo

I laid down to sleep close to 1am last night. About two minutes later, with my eyes closed, concentrating about falling asleep and vowing to take control of my dreams (lucid dreaming), the familiar ringtone of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You" melodiously summoned me to pick up the phone; I set that ringtone for Jems.

J: "Hello, I need your help with Flash, I'm desperate, everyone else is sleeping already."
Me: "Oh ok."

Who knew that I'd stay awake for two more hours and finally get some shut eye at around 3:15am? This is why I hate Flash, and judging from Jems' reaction to our convo and his admission, that he hates it also.

It's amazing how much energy I had in me that late, maybe my body's getting used to staying up super late nowadays, but towards the end, I started thinking that today probably already was "lost." I knew I'd struggle with my energy, I knew I'd act like Mr. Crankypants. I kept thinking, he better be so nice to me and realize the sacrifice I made. Am I too nice to him, my fellow struggling classmate, or too stupid to look after my own well-being?

I hear my alarm go off through my earplugs, and I reach out blindly to push the snooze button and fall back asleep quickly. The cycle goes on the whole two hours plus since the alarm starts beeping. When the sound of the alarm plays in your "dream," it sounds so different, unfamiliar, the buzzing seems to go at a faster pace.

The silver lining in all of this: I vaguely hear my doorbell. Half asleep, I venture downstairs to find out if indeed someone rung me up. It's amazing I made my way down to the front door or our building since my movements consisted of sloth-like sluggishness.

I asked the man in the brown uniform: "Did you ring 102?" He said yes and handed me that electronic tablet to sign my name in acceptance of my parcel. I couldn't believe that the item that I "won" on ebay (I skipped past the bidding process and just did the "Buy It Now" option) arrived so quickly, since I made the payment only on Friday. The item: "Yuridia, La Voz De Un Angel," a combination of CD and DVD with all her performances from her stint at "La Academia," the Mexican version of American Idol/Big Brother. Was this my reward for staying up so late and helping out a poor desperate soul, that I'd miss work in the morning and catch the UPS delivery man? I do have bad luck with UPS, I mean why do they deliver at times when everyone's at work?

Anyway, my excitement woke me up a bit, and I promptly inserted the DVD in the player. The quality of the picture surprised me, I thought the video footage of Yuridia from "La Academia" was that of an amateur recording from the analog tv to their digital machine...I mean maybe that is how they made the DVD, especially with the technical advances nowadays, anyone can appear like a pro. It seemed like a real DVD. I finally got to watch her sing "Como Yo Te Amo," "Asi Fue," and many more songs I missed because I started watching the show midway through the season. I hope I don't abuse and take my time away from homework watching this DVD...we'll see.

And oh yeah, I've learned my lesson well...I'll make sure to turn off my phone before going to bed and maybe on the weekends too.

walking through the park and reminiscing

One of my fondest memories due to a hangover happened last October, if I recall correctly. Anyway, Ashley and I reunited after many years of living separate lives and running with separate crowds (me by myself, and he with his fun partying friends). The previous week, Roomie and I hosted him and Stib at Eric's chinese restaurant and they returned the favor by hosting us at their favorite place, which for the life of me I can't remember the name. It's right across the street from Martuni's, but I think the restaurant no longer exists, or they changed the name.

We agreed to meet for dinner that Friday evening almost a year ago at the restaurant, but when I got there, the place only had a few diners, and even the bar area looked deserted. So I called Roomie, but he didn't answer his phone, and I left a message for Ashley. Apparently, by the time Ashley called me back, I mistook the meeting time by two hours earlier. Ugh, I thought, what the hell am I supposed to do, walk up the down the aisles of Rite-Aid? Luckily, Ashley came over to hang out with me and kept me company before the other two came down. It felt like the good old days, about seven or eight years ago, when we hung out often, and laughing laughing laughing. But while I waited for him, the sun just went down and the crisp autumn air comforted me. I crossed paths with a homeless woman who sang "Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from Mahogany)," and I followed her down the street just so I could hear her sing some more of the song.

At the restaurant, we drank cosmos, and since I drank on an empty stomach, I started to buzz halfway through my first cosmo. They ordered me another cosmo when dinner came, and by then I practically lived in another world. Luckily, the restaurant provided entertainment in the form of vocalists/lounge acts; they sang old standards accompanied by piano, one gal even sand "Maybe This Time," from Cabaret, and I enjoyed that thoroughly.

After dinner we headed to the Cafe, and geez, I think Stib bought us more drinks, I can't even remember what, but I got so wasted. Luckily no vomiting or any other nasty stuff happened.

The next day, my head felt so heavy, I lay horizontal the whole day. Ashley and Stib planned to come over, but at the last minute, they cancelled, which probably was a good thing because I couldn't host them, not in my condition. Roomie stayed upstairs seemingly fully functional and doing some file managing/home errands.

The only thing I could do: turn on the Magic Mic karaoke machine and belt out some tunes. There, laying on the sofa in front of the tv with mic in my hand, my head resting on a decorative pillow scoring 100's at least seven times in a row. I sang my old diva standards like Reflection, I Turn to You, Don't Cry Out Loud, etc. At some point, The Greatest Love of All finally made sense. In my hungover state, I finally listened to what the lyrics meant, after all these years of hearing that song, understood.

Ah, the fun you can have with autumn memories. And the title does reference the Little River Band's song "Reminiscing."

so did i drop the class?

The answer: No. I knew in the back of my head that dropping it now would mean headaches down the line. Last week I had moments of weird anxiety-like "attacks," but they resulted from the lack of sleep and clouded my judgement, I guess. I mean, all week long I just wanted to sleep all my problems away, and not deal with the stresses of work and school.

I asked the other students I know how to drop a class, and the process is actually very simple, just like when you first register for classes online. I also called other folks to hear their version of why I should not drop the class. Roomie, supportive in many of my personal decisions, said that I should do what I really felt was best for me, but all along I knew what he meant: "Sure drop it now, but I know it's gonna bite you hard in the ass later on, and I won't hear the end of your complaining about a wrong decision, blase blase."

My classmate Jems actually bluntly told me not to drop it. He asked why, I told him why, but he still persisted that I just suck it up. I love the energy of those 22 year-olds; they fear nothing and they're not yet jaded. I thank him for making me feel some shame in even thinking about quitting.

So later that evening, our group presented the life and times of Emile Galle, Art Nouveau's premier glassmaker. I couldn't contain my nervousness in front of 75 classmates and my hands shook when I spoke, and it shook the notes I held and read from...it makes me laugh when I think about it. Anyway, our midterm is this Wednesday, hooray for not dropping the class ;-)

really, something sweet after all

Last Saturday, I did a mini Costco run, since my funds are pretty low, and I didn't want to indulge in any more "junk." So I just got some spinach, edamame, bacon, and watermelon. I didn't put watermelon on my list, but I gathered I always need dessert after every meal besides breakfast. I debated about getting the watermelon because I thought they're already out of season by now, but once I heard the super-hollow sound from my knocks on the first one I came across, I was like, damn, now that's a hollow sound! Oh well, at least this one won't turn all cottony, I thought.

Much, much later that Saturday night, I craved the melon, but I felt it was too late already, so I hesitated on cutting it up. Fortunately my craving got the better of me, and got the best surprise once I sliced the thing in half. I'd say its size was medium-medium, because all of it eventually fit in the one serving bowl/container after carving the melon into balls.

So I usually take my first taste with the ball carving, and OMG, this watermelon probably was the sweetest, firmest, most awesome tasting watermelon I ever tasted. I felt truly blessed this time, especially since my last melon experience a few weeks ago wasn't as pleasant. That last one tasted bland. Hopefully I can luck out again next time, because I can eat a whole melon in a day! (There was this one time at Brophy when Drug, Uncle Rudi and I "competed" about how long it can take us to eat a whole melon. First Drug said she can eat it in two days, then I said 24 hours, then Uncle Rudi said 18 hours, and Djym kept saying after each of us made our declarations, "So-and-so, eat that melon in 24 hours," or "so-and-so, eat that melon in 18 hours." He styled it after "Name That Tune.")

this week sucks!

I'm in despair. I don't like my history teacher, I don't like the assignments. I'm overwhelmed. This is the first semester at SFSU where I feel burnt out and am debating whether to drop the history class. The workload, the many many late late nights, I'm just tired. It's the first time where I really feel like I want to drop a class, and what a damn shame. The stress-out feeling every day, every hour, every minute, is getting so old and tired. Hell, I'm old and tired. I can't recover from a late night that quickly anymore. Today's the last day to drop a class. I must decide within the next few hours if I'll drop the history class. Working full time sucks, going to school now sucks. I just want a vacation from it all. I'm just so tired.

fun lunch

Wednesday is Babysoto's last day at work, so I came up with the genius idea of Bancy and me to take him out for lunch. Last week, Bancy suggested drinks after work, but I knew I couldn't make it because of homework, schoolwork, groupwork, whatever you wanna call the ball and chain that is school. I also didn't hear anything about a work send-off for him, so the lunch idea seemed perfect, and thank goodness both Babysoto and Bancy agreed to the deal; they also expressed flexibility in their schedule to do lunch either today or Wednesday. It turned out Sakomi and Babysoto made lunch plans already, so the situation looked better and better. The best part: Babysoto said we didn't need to pay for his lunch. Believe me, I know it sounds real cheap, but for us cash-challenged folks (me and Bance), that's music to our ears.

I suggested Cafe Durango, but Bancy screamed "NNNOOOOOOOOOO" over the phone, which made me laugh, actually. And Babysoto wanted Celia's. Whatever to both of them.

We drove off the parking lot as the dark and stormy clouds loomed above, and Sakomi called asking where we were because she apparently got really cold waiting outside. Babysoto used to own motorcycles, and he very recently got a car after selling his bikes. Judging from the way he drove that car, he probably thought he still drove a motorcycle. I mean Bancy and I held on for dear life in the backseat. Thank goodness I sat in the back because I probably may have busted someone's eardrums from all the screaming brought on by his "crazy" driving. Oh, and he had the nerve to call me a backseat driver! I only meant to instruct him on a better way to get to the restaurant. A lot of people call me a backseat driver, but I'm just a misunderstood good navigator ;-)

Celia's ain't no Cafe Durango, but I did get really full from eating a fajita quesadilla. It looked small in the beginning, but I started feeling full after the first third of it. Perhaps I ate more chips than normal. Fun times during our meal, except when the subject of someone poisoning someone's dog came up...that bummed us out. But then the thunder started and got everyone excited again. Haven't heard thunder in a long while. The drive back to the office was a little wetter, and a little more exciting, because Babysoto's driving mixed with a wet road makes your hair stand.

oh zoie

In hindsight, I really enjoyed my weekend, albeit I didn't accomplish everything I thought I should. Everytime I get out of my apartment in Daly City becomes a monumental event, I mean except for work. Went to the AC (yes, American Canyon, "The Gateway to the Napa Valley") on Sunday, and saw family, after a few weeks of not visiting them.

Last week, my sister's (Drug) husband's (Djym) boss let them "try out" a dog because I think the boss wanted to give Zoie (the dog's name) away. So Drug sent Zoie's picture to my phone, and I got intrigued right away, especially after I called her back and asked her what the deal was with the dog picture. After she described Zoie and how obedient she was, I felt so excited to meet her. I even told Roomie all about it. I showed my friends her picture throughout the week and said that I couldn't wait to play with her.


So then I go to my their house and ate some left over dessert from Djym's birthday bash the day before, and I also hung out with the kids, blase blase. When I dragged Drug along with me to Costco, that's when I realized and asked her where's Zoie??? Drug then said that they gave Zoie back because 1) Djym's allergies acted up, and 2) the owner's wife and daughter cried because they miss Zoie. Drug also said all three kids cried their eyes out after hearing the news that Zoie would not stay with them after all. Even Lianju's teacher said that he cried in class the next day because he got so distraught, poor kid. Yeah, this dog causes lots of tears shed.

Well I miss this dog even though I never met her, but Drug said perhaps one day they'll dogsit and she'll call me up so I can meet Zoie then.

wicked

ROOMIE WON THE LOTTERY!!!!

Well the lottery for a pair of $25 rush tickets for front row seats (yeah your neck strains, but who cares) to the hit musical "Wicked," that is. Watching broadway shows slowed down quite a lot for me the last couple of years. Maybe I lost a little interest in the genre, or perhaps the maddening price for a single ticket put me in my place, or perhaps my mind's just focused on school that I didn't allow myself to enjoy theatre as much. I do know that when I saw "The Producers" I felt that I didn't get all the hype and hoopla; I didn't like that show at all. The last time I saw a Tony Awards show? I can't remember, either 2002 or 2003, when "Hairspray" took home a bunch of the accolades. Drama Queen knows the story of my "boycotting" of that show.



The last show I saw before tonight was "Take Me Out," which Roomie really really wanted to see, because of the shower scene ;-) So about "Wicked," everyone I talked to said they loved the show, and I wanted to see it since long ago. I didn't know that this weekend was the last weekend in SF, and Roomie talked about wanting to see since the show opened, but we always got busy with other things. We knew that the show's SF run was sold out, so he planned to do the lottery.

Well today he got lucky because he got called as the #8 winner for tickets. His excitement didn't rub off on me initially because I ran errands all day and when he phoned me, I still gathered materials for my design project at Pearl Art Store. I didn't have a chance to change out of my jeans and puma t-shirt because the lottery draw took place at 6pm. Plus Roomie wanted dinner; we ate at Ananda Fuara.

The show was absolutely fantastic, with an amazing cast, a great story, wonderful songs, hot cuties in the ensemble, and sparked an interest to watch "The Wizard of Oz" again, to tie the two stories. I also got to see one of my classmates, Erin, who works as an usher at the Orpheum do her thang. So seeing her there added a little something extra to the experience. Oh yeah, Steve Young also watched the show. We passed by him when we went to the restroom. I thought he'd get a lot more attention, but nobody approached him. He seemed like he waited for someone to come out of the women's room. When we passed by him afterwards, a blondie girl chatted him up. A young theatre fan sitting behind me didn't hide his enthusiasm for the show by woo-ing after every song. The constant woo-ing got super annoying because he was sooo loud when he did it and I sat in the direct line of "fire." I wanted to slap the shit out of him.



I'm such a celebrity whore; I dragged Roomie out to the stage door to see and wait for the cast to leave and maybe get some picutres with them. I didn't take my camera with me to the show, but luckily I found parking only a block away, so that I went to fetch the camera from the trunk of my car and even drove around to find parking closer to the theatre, just in time to take a few shots with Derrick Williams, who played Fiyero, and Eden Espinosa, Elphaba in the show. Bravo! Bravo!

tu lan

Sakomi and I planned to go run errands in downtown today, specifically to obtain materials for my design project. The day started auspiciously when the mail lady delivered a portion of the books I ordered through Amazon last weekend. I'm usually never home when deliveries come. Then Lennoire called me to say that she's in the city for a hair appointment, so we made tentative plans for her to join Sakomi and I for lunch at Tu Lan, the greasy hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant at Sixth and Market, you know, in the Hood.

For two weeks now I craved the "imperial rolls over rice noodles" dish, ever since Roomie and I took a drive around the city after watching "Fire and Ice." So finally the chance to roll downtown presented itself, and it's the perfect time to finally fulfill my craving. I could've gone at any other times prior, but with the price of gas so high now along with the attention my projects demand of me, I didn't want to take a joy ride up there just for food.

So the food did its job in satisfying my craving, then Lennoire went back to Walnut Creek and Sakomi and I went to work. First stop, a discount fabric store in SOMA's outlet district, where we ran into Kris Braun, who Roomie and I also ran into during "Fire and Ice." It's funny that he shows up when my craving for a Tu Lan dish started and now when it ended. After the fabric store, we drop him off at Pine/Kearny when Sakomi and I headed to Staples on Van Ness for iron-on transparencies and magnets.

My day with Sakomi capped off with an Oreo Cookie Blast (the perfect dessert!) at the Japantown Denny's.

way past my bedtime

These things called "all-nighters" do weird things to a man. I fell victim to one Thursday night, or Friday morning, because of a design project of course. It's not that I waited til the last minute to start the damn thing, but usually my inspiration to move along with my projects don't come until the 11th hour, unfortunately. I did my research, checked out design books from the library, ordered design books from Amazon, did sketches, but a clear direction of where to take the design eluded me. Knowing that some of my classmates felt the same way I did, like freaking out, or stuck in a rut, or just plain struggling, comforted me a bit. I didn't feel so alone and isolated with the problems.

So the clock ticks; I assess my capabilities of whether I can finish at some point before dawn. Things don't look promising, and it's one of those moments where you want to go back in time with the knowledge you already gained from the dreadful experience and apply it from the get-go. At 6am, I decide that I need to sleep because I just didn't want to go without sleep for 24 hours, plain and simple, even though the project's not complete. I figure I can squeeze some time in to work more while getting ready for work when I get up in 1 1/2 hours. Many times, plans don't turn out the way you design them, but you move forward. I woke up so late that I bypassed going to work in the morning, but did get to class on time.

The reward for the all-nighter: a pretty positive critique, mixed in with some comments of confusion about the direction of the project and how what I babbled about while presenting ties in with my thesis and actual product, blase blase. The miracle of all this however--the fact that I didn't crash throughout the whole six hours in class. I stayed very much alert and focused. Hmm, makes me wonder if by hanging out with my way-younger classmates is actually making me younger by a process of osmosis. Or really, was it all just a dream? Did I sleep all the way through it all?

Anyway, about an hour after getting home and making a few phonecalls to Roomie and my sister in Ohio (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), I decide to nap. I don't know how long the nap took, or if I fell asleep at all, because Jems called. We talked for about 1 1/2 hours, talking about the last 24 hours and what took place in class today. We talked about relationships with our classmates, interactions with people, and the critiques. Looking back at the convo, I probably babbled hopelessly as my mind still felt energetic from the dynamic of the all-nighter; it's a weird feeling. I don't what to do now, I didn't eat a real dinner, just a banana and cookies from Subway. I guess I'll go to sleep now.

sleep, an update

I don't know whether my sage cleansings worked because I finally gave in to sleeping with earplugs again, a little after the sage cleansings. I started sleeping with earplugs way back in 1997 when Roomie and I first got together, because he snores and I'm quite sensitive to light and noise when I sleep. (So yeah, even though my brother-in-law said that I snore violently, other folks snoring or teeth grinding really wake me up.) For eight years I slept with plugged ears, until Roomie moved to Elk Grove, and I took over the master bedroom in Parkmerced. The location of our second apartment in Parkmerced allowed for a very quiet and peaceful living situation because it was one of those that didn't face the street, but rather tucked away at the end of a big courtyard.

Roomie took the tv from master bedroom there, and our neighbors hardly made a peep, so my slumbers didn't need any earplugs. I so miss the quiet nights, without any electical appliances disturbing me. Now I get the computer, tv, microwave, and fridge bombarding me with their electrical energy all the time.

The small kids next door still run and scream down the hallway at 6:30 every morning to wake me up prematurely, and if the earplugs don't come off during my slumber, I can go back to sleep right away.

I also succumbed to sleeping on my side; I noticed that by doing so, I can get to sleep faster versus by sleeping on my back. The only problem with sleeping on my side is that my shoulder and hip hurts, especially my left side. I dream of sleeping on a TempurPedic mattress, just to see if it really does make you feel like you're sleeping on a cloud. Oh well, I can just dream for now, that's if I can sleep.

you can't play with my yo-yo

Dealing with weight issues all your life totally sucks; going from fat, to thin, to borderline obesity, to somewhat thin, and back! I topped off with 213# at the beginning of 2004, then got inspired to do a modified Atkins/South Beach diet by my sis-in-law Fancy. She went through Atkins with favorable results, and so I thought that I can do that too. So around March '04, I didn't want to experience the dramatic weight loss the first two weeks by drastically changing my diet, so I slowly ate more meat and less and less rice, along with upping my fruit and veggie intake, all in an attempt to slowly introduce the "shock" of the new diet. My Holistic Health class at SFSU helped out quite a bit as well with visualizing the fat burning away. By the end of May, everyone said I lost a lot of weight, I looked like I was vanishing, I looked like Kate Moss, blase blase.

Looking back now, I did lose a lot of weight, according to the scale, the lowest I weighed after the new diet regime was 172#. Truly exciting! I went to buy new clothes, felt a lot more comfortable fashioning current clothing trends, etc.

Fast forward a few months later, into spring 2005, the temptation for sugar overwhelmed me and I let myself go again. I'd eat whole Just Desserts and Rubicon Bakery cakes from Costco all by myself, in the span of three-four days, sometimes I'd get a case of apple turnovers or danish; I went on an all-out assault.

So yeah, now my belt buckle slipped back a hole, my tops fit a little tighter, and the scale now reads somewhere in the 190's. Oh woe to me, I'm hoping that some of the weight came from muscles in my legs, especially now that I started jogging again. Certainly, my waist doesn't seem to get thinner.

I really thought I could sustain the high protein lunches and big salad dinners, but the excuses come like this: school work gets in the way of me preparing meals, I don't have the cash to replenish my fridge with the healthier stuff, or I simply just cave in to the cravings. Do I regret all the chocolate mousse gateaus or the apple turnovers or danish or chocolate mint cakes? No, I don't...when I don't see myself in the mirror or in pictures. Why must they make such delicious desserts?????

finally, no more screaming!

A new rage in Europe: "Dancing in Silence All the Rave." I think it's an interesting concept. I mean finally, you can converse in your normal voice; no more screaming at the top of your lungs just to say to your friend you think someone's cute. But I myself like to make some noise while I dance that gets drowned out by the booming music, like "woo-hoo yeeaah, baby!" Will someone tap you on the shoulder and tell you to keep it down? Hmm, what if people also sing along to the songs, does that defeat the purpose?