Happy You-Know-What, Everybody

So Thanksgiving is officially upon us and I am still not asleep at this ghastly hour of 0100.

I really miss my best friend Cassandra. I just had a long conversation with her over Skype and it just reminded me about how much fun we used to have together- just not even doing anything you know? I miss having those kinds of people around. The ones that you can just hang out with without having to do anything really.

These days it's kind of hard to just hang out without doing anything because we all look for things to do when going out with friends. Some kind of purposeful event has to bring people out together; whether it's going out to dinner, for a movie, or to a bar... I think I was really lucky to find friends whom I could just veg out with in silence without really expecting anything to happen in the day. I miss those peaceful times.

I had fun today in the city with a new acquaintance. Another weird twist in my weird life I should say.

I came home feeling really tired from my rather intense track practices. My butt has been aching all day and I pretty much walked around in pain the whole time, but I guess that's just the price you pay for a nice butt.

I'm approximately one-eighths through Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and it's like a Russian Gossip Girl thing from back in the day. I love the drama! Reading again recently made me realise how much I missed it.

My everything is hurting today actually, not just my butt. My arms, neck, thighs, abs, etc... they are all protesting in their own way and I don't know how else to satisfy them. I wish I had a little kid to jump all over my back right now, or a really good masseuse named Sven or something. Even my cat walking on my tummy right now feels good.

I am driving back to PA tomorrow morning for the Thanksgiving meal at my aunts.

Whoopee! Food!

I just hope I don't fall asleep at the wheel on the long drive home... again...

Spork & Foons

I did this on Paint.

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait for this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's been raining all day and you already know what kind of wonders that does for my mental health.

But no matter! I shall spend this weekend recovering more before getting back into routine. Definitely more beach and banya time is required.

I know what you're thinking... Beach? At this time of the year? In such weather?

But seriously... beaches aren't just beautiful under the blinding sun in the heat of summer. It's just as lovely at night when it's cold- the air is still and all you hear is yourself breathing and the waves far down below the boardwalk... Besides, it's not like I'm going to be lying on the sand in my teeny weeny 'kini... I'll be all wrapped up in my scarf holding a hot something (not sure what yet but I'll decide) with my Ipod plugged a few milimetres away from my eardrums.

Lounge music? Check.

Oh I am so ready for this...

Ok so I just realised that I haven't watched TV since May this year. I can't even remember the last time I watched a movie in a movie theatre; which is just as well because nobody wants to go with me anyway. I KNOW! I SOUND LIKE SUCH A LOSER SOMETIMES!

But I'm really just playing cool like that. Cool people don't watch TV or go to movie theatres. They catch all of their films and shows online for free at their own schedules.

Know what I've been saying recently? Really stupid stuff. Like, "sporks & foons", "toffee & cea", "fack & field"... What's wrong with my brain? Can't transmit linguistic information anymore? Am I getting old or something?

Enough of this silly post.

I'm off to bed.

P.S.

I've been a horrible student today. Some of you know why... D:

Land of the Setting Sun

So here I am sitting on my bed being tired... typing away on my laptop... Listening to the same song that's playing on this blog right now.

I've been having a rather strange week so far- but I'm sure my thoughts will rearrange themselves sooner or later (hopefully by this weekend). They always have a way of rearranging themselves before the week is over.

Anyways... I woke up this morning feeling like a piece of cabbage that's been left on the stove to boil for hours. By the time I got to school, my brain had already melted and was about to drip out of my ears. I walked around in a semi-daze thinking about the most random stuff ever. When I talked to people it was almost as if I were talking to them through a glass window- I never really knew if my words reached them or not and I only had a slight idea of what my lips were saying...

Though the past two mornings were really sunny, the afternoons have generally come down to this- stark, white, cold and brief.

Oh yes. It's that time of the year again.

You guys back in Singapore have no idea how nice it is to have the sun for such a long time compared to here. At 1700, the sun is pretty much gone and you're plunged into a deep cold darkness. It's sad because after school ends at 1400, you really only have 2-3 hours of sunlight then it's gone.

Poof.

Just like that.

Monday I worked at 7 World Trade Center on the 45th floor. The view was breathtaking.
Watching the sun set over NYC (and it was a 360 degree view) made me realise how many sunsets I'd missed watching in my lifetime. I mean, seriously... How many beautiful sunrises and sunsets have occurred already that I've let slip me by?

Of course if I had all the time and resources in the world I'm sure I'd be a lot better at catching sunsets and sunrises... In the meantime, only the lucky few get to pause from their personal ratraces to enjoy such a special moment; so when I do get the chance, I feel blessed.

Most of us have been asked this question before: which do you prefer? The sunrise or the sunset?

I honestly prefer the sunset, just because it gives me this tingling sensation in the back of my head that something wonderful is about to happen... something magical, romantic... It is like a gateway to another beautiful world.

My nights are always special...

My mind is drifting again. I'm off to bed. I sense a really good dream coming on tonight.

Technicolour, surround sound...

Goodnight!

Lalala

I used to be able to say whatever I wanted here, but now I have to speak my mind in word puzzles and metaphors.

This morning's sun was fantastic. It was shining really hard and I had to whip out my shades (finally!) to shield my poor eyes.

So I went to school, got the car fixed (goodbye 70USD...), did my homework, ate some stuff, then in a few minutes I'll be leaving for work at the World Trade Center. I thought the place burned down already, but today's work address says World Trade Center so.... I'm curious to see what kind of place we'll be working in.

So. So. So....... life is rolling on as usual. More than a million people are sitting at their computers typing away like me right now. Where are we all headed? Sometimes it doesn't seem as lonely anymore... :)

Mom Dynamics and Life

So this morning right before I left for church, I got on Facebook only to see that my mom had left a message on my wall telling me not to put a picture of my in my bikini sitting by the pool as my profile picture.

First reaction: Pissed. This is none of her business! I didn't even want to add any of my family members on Facebook in the first place because of this very reason- I didn't want them commenting on every little thing that I did; especially my mom, since she has a bad opinion on most of my friends and she's pretty mean/blatant about it.

However after a few minutes of fuming, I decided to change the picture anyway. It was a totally uncharacteristic thing for me to do but I did it anyway.

I left for church with a very sour taste in my mouth.

I really don't like it when my mom tries to stick her fingers into little aspects of my life, especially my social life. Every since I was about 10, I've never ever had a single BFF whom she did not hate with a passion. First it was Cassandra, then it was Alexandrine, then it was Nicole, then finally Tanya (whom she still hates with a passion).

And I always ask myself, why? Why is it that she hates all of them? She always says the same thing; that they're a bad influence on me. But what about me? Perhaps I'm a bad influence on them too... no? The thing that gets me the most is the way she treats them.

I think this was a month or so ago, but Tanya and I were at the mall... Some time later, my mom came by. She hadn't seen Tanya in a really long time since Tanya's banned from the house. Tanya obviously wasn't thrilled at all when she found out my mom would be meeting us at the mall, but I told her it should be ok since it had been a long time and my mom had probably gotten over her hatred.

Nope. Wrong again.

When my mom arrived, it was like watching something from the movie Mean Girls. I felt really embarrassed that my mom acted the way she did because... I don't know. I really don't understand her anymore- how she can let a much younger girl get to her so much. I mean, Tanya's mom forgave me a long time ago, even though from her perspective you could say that I led Tanya into a lot of trouble. When I was troubled and crying, Tanya's mom was there to talk to me while my mom was frowning and asking me "what, what do you want to say?".

Sometimes I wonder if it's just because of our culture.

I recently watched this movie about three generations of mothers and their daughters. It made me realise that perhaps it's just a part of Chinese culture- the way mothers act the way they do...... like a far distant cold star shining over their daughters.

Enough of this. My mom is still my mom. I've recently been trying to get used to the whole "obedience" thing but I'll tell you, it's really difficult.

Anyway, I spent this morning looking for mechanics after church but they're all closed for the Sunday. In case you're wondering, the window on the drivers' side of my car got itself unhinged. I can't move it up or down. It's stuck. I looked it up online and apparently it happens to a lot of Honda Civics and Accords. The mechanic will have to open up the door and realign the window or change some mechanism inside.

Tomorrow I have school in the morning, then work at night. No practise at all this week! This week is my week off! I am so relieved you have no idea. I can finally rest and try to get over my incessant flu/cold/fever/cough.

That's all. Overall it has been a pretty decent weekend and I think I like Staten Island a lot better than Bayonne now. The place just feels more... alive. It's cleaner too and the roads are wider. The only thing that sucks is having to pay tolls no matter which direction you go- towards Brooklyn or towards NJ. So much for great locations.

So... Obama got hired for the next four years by the American people. Big change. Whatever. They all tout big change, but really... The biggest change that needs to happen will not happen because everybody's way too comfortable with the way things are. This world is coming to an end and that's my firm belief. Life may not necessarily be in the pits, but I'm certain it's not going to be improving a whole lot.

I'm just enjoying what I can right now and building for the future, no matter how bleak it seems.

Lolita

The weather has been horrible, but life has been really good to me!

Things are finally smoothing out and I'm having fun this weekend. I just went to Royal Baths today; supposedly it's the biggest banya in the U.S.A.. I was expecting a lot out of it, but the experience really let me down. There was no cold pool (out of service), the floor plan didn't allow the patrons too much privacy, and worst of all, the hot room wasn't even that hot at all.

But all in all I had a good time.

I've been in Staten Island two days in a row now. I never really knew what kind of place it was until I was there yesterday. It actually looks like a really nice place to live other than parts of Brooklyn. I'm going to find out more about it- maybe moving there isn't a bad idea. It actually reminded me of NE Philly. Quiet... yet happening... yet not happening.

Anyway, my car just spazzed on me. The window on the drivers' side got stuck- I think my window got unhinged. Greattttttt.... It better not rain tonight...

My brain is starting to shut down on me.

Speaking of which, I have a strange dilemma these days.

A lot of things and people are vying for my time now. I have almost entirely forgotten how to handle situations like that ever since I'd been living at the bottom of a well 2 years or so ago. What do I do? I really miss having my girlfriends being within 2 miles near me so I could just go talk to them instead of trying to reach them on the phone (*cough* Tanya *cough*) or online.

My eyes are reaaally shutting down on me...

I hate Blogger for not making it more convenient to load pictures.

Florida Fun

So this may potentially be my longest post ever, but we'll see... I haven't even gotten to the end yet! Simply loading the pictures took me 2 days because I only had a little time in between classes, track, doing homework and church.

I make myself sound so preoccupied, but seriously this has been such a relaxing week compared to the ones before. It's true, with God's peace, you can feel blessed in any circumstance.

Speaking of circumstances; they have been awesome!!! I've paid my last ginormous rent this past weekend because I FOUND A ROOMMATE! She's been quite cooperative and quiet so no complaints yet. Another great thing that happened this weekend was the trip to Disney, Florida for the track meet.

To be honest, I left for Florida with a heavy heart because even though it was an all-expenses paid trip (and they gave us 65USD for pocket money), I simply wasn't looking forward to being around the noisy freshmen 24/7 for 4 straight days. Also, I was stressing out about the championships that we were supposed to run on Saturday. It was the most important meet of the season for us and I really wanted to do well for personal reasons.

Anyway, I'll let the trip speak for itself with pictures (a thousand words each) and my own two cents here and there...

We flew on Thursday afternoon, leaving the cold smelly Jersey air behind.

Below, the black river winked its eyes at me.

By the time the plane arrived in Florida, the sun was already saying its last goodbye.

Our hotel rooms were alright. The beds had cheesy-looking bedsheets but at least they were clean and tick-free.

We took turns hopping into the shower then got dressed before venturing out for dinner.

The girls had already made the place feel more like a dorm room.

Since we didn't have the chartered bus to take us out of the Disney compound for cheaper food, we had to settle for dinner at a restaurant within the resort.

I wasn't too excited waiting for my overpriced food. I was hoping at least that they'd be American-sized portions.

In the meantime our two other tablemates were occupying themselves with Paulina's Iphone.

The place was decorated to look Southern, rustic, and yellow. It made me tired.

Turns out that our food portions were measly Singaporean-sized portions. I ended up paying 42USD for an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. Even afterwards, I was still very hungry, but I didn't want to order more because I would've spent all my money. As you can see, there aren't any food pictures because I was feeling so ravenous that I gobbled up all my food before you could say "waffles are for playing with, not eating". I think my brain shut down during those few minutes that I was stuffing food into my mouth.

We could've gone out for a romp or two, but I was feeling quite drowsy from the dinner and it was getting late anyway, so we went to sleep. I decided to take the foldable cot, but since the thing was close to breaking, I took the pink mattress off the metal and laid it out on the floor instead.

Then I konked out.

Next morning, my coach decides that it was necessary to wake us up at 0630 to have us eat breakfast at a BUFFET place right BEFORE practice at the race venue afterwards.

At first when I got there, I told myself that I wouldn't eat too much because I didn't want to feel nauseous while running afterwards. However, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't bear the thought of me being at a buffet and not eating as much as I could for 9USD.

So I grabbed a plate. Then another. Then I grabbed four bananas and stuffed them in my shoebag for later. I wanted to grab more but everybody had finished eating already and were getting up to leave. I was quite upset.

This is my coach. We have been driving each other up the wall so far this year.

Louis decided that his knife wasn't clean enough and gave it a few more washings.

After the morning jog on our race venue, we went back to the resort to get changed. The sun was already halfway up and we got to see our surroundings in daylight for the first time.

I'd give it 7 stars out of 10 for serenity.

After a quick shower, we were off to Disney's....

Magic Kingdom! Walking from the entrance of Magic Kingdom to Cinderella's castle would've probably only had us walking about 800m. However, because of the fact that we had three girls with three cameras, the trip there ended up taking approximately 20 minutes instead of the 10 it was supposed to be.

Once we got in, the realities of the magic hit us.

LINES! lines and more LINES!

I revisited a fond friend of mine. The last time I saw Minnie was (I think) back in 1997 in L.A.

Had a tea party in her house for 2 brief seconds.

There were too many children running around. I know I know.. I was once a child like them too, but they are SO annoying!

More waiting.... mostly for Paulina's sake because she was the most excited one of us three, always wanting to take pictures with this, that and everything.

At least we had nice weather. It was slightly chilly but definitely better than the 1 Celsius we had left behind in Jersey.

We went on every single enjoyable ride possible.

We were careful to choose the ones that had a height requirement because that meant that the ride was probably at least a little bit thrilling.

Definitely enjoyed Space Mountain!

It's a small world after all! This was one of the rides that I vividly remember being on in L.A.

We were getting a bit high from the sun and the fun.

Got tired so we took the little train around the park to rest our legs.

Oh yes. we were there on Friday, which was 31st October, Halloween! Almost everybody in Disney that day had a costume on. I had so much fun looking at all the costumes.

For the first half an hour that is.

Then I realised that all the little kids were dressed as either a Disney princess, or a Disney cartoon character. It got boring after a while.

One of the many princesses.

I almost let out a sigh of relief when i saw that this girl wasn't a Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Something about her made me think that she should be a Disney character herself.. I like the dress. Very cute.

This was quite funny to watch.

Cinderella no. 1278493.

Of course, we couldn't leave Magic Kingdom without visiting their main people. But you know what stinks?

On Disney advertisements, they always show the characters walking around the park saying hi to the kids. But in reality, they are locked in some little room and you have to wait in line for about 30 minutes to even take a picture with them! It seemed very staged and I missed seeing the characters walking around like they were in Disney L.A..

Since I'd waited a good 30 minutes just to take pictures with these two, I asked them to do an Asian cutting board pose with me.

I didn't want to wait in line to take pictures with Donald without his pants on, so I just snapped a shot of him from the sideline.

So we were almost on the way out from Disney when I see Snow White walking around, and.... THERE WASN'T A LINE AROUND HER! I happily asked if we could take a picture with her, only to find out that she wasn't REALLY Snow White. She was just dressed as Snow White for Halloween that day.

HAHAHA~!

Duped! But seriously, she was SO pretty. I think Disney should just offer her a job.

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the night because I pretty much spent it in bed, having a fever. The sudden drop in temperatures once the sun set sent me ducking under the covers and turning the heat way up in the hotel room. I really thought I was going to die.

Next morning my fever went down, but I felt so drained. Still, I didn't think it would affect me that much for the race.

WRONG!

I had the stamina alright! But my strength had been sapped dry. I felt so weak that I couldn't speed up when I wanted to go faster. I felt so tired, useless, unhappy, miserable and disappointed. I didn't even tell my coach that I had a fever because he would just take it as an excuse on my part for running a horrible race.

Oh well. Things happen. I can only pray that they never happen again.

But once it was time to leave Disney's Wide World of Sports, I felt a whole lot better mentally just knowing that the cross country season had more or less come to an end.

Other teammates were obviously feeling better too.

His job done, our school's trainer could now kick back, relax, and enjoy the rest of his stay at Disney.

Everybody took a million pictures I'm sure. Still waiting for them to go up on Facebook.

It wasn't too sunny but at least it was warmer than the day before.

With the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, we decided to go to Animal Kingdom. It was exciting and all until we had to wait 20 minutes for the stupid bus to arrive.

Tamara just amused herself on the phone.

But finally we got there... whew. At this point I was really tired and still feeling weak, but I told myself that this was Disney anyway and I'd better enjoy the rest of my stay here.

It was on to Dinosaur land first for the rides.

The ride was so lame.

So lame.

So lame but I really enjoyed it!!! And look at Tamara being all freaked out by the dinosaurs. We're on the bottom right of the picture and she's in the yellow shirt.

We went for a second ride and this time I knew where the camera was so I posed. Except that Paulina's arm was in my face.

Such a cheesy looking dinosaur.

Went to Asia for a ride on Everest. It was ok.

Off to Africa where we were held up by some parade.

The characters were enthusiastically waving to the crowd, but nobody in the crowd really waved back. It was strange. Another thing that's really weird for me is the fact that there is an actual person inside that costume. Somehow I can't take the characters seriously because of that. Call it my overactive imagination (or lack thereof), but it just reminds me of Mars Attacks!.

Poor Goofy. You see this poor dude inside is obviously getting sick of his job. Under that mask he is probably frowning and pissed off.

Timon kept scratching himself down there. Was it part of the act? I don't really know.

Obese America: even Donald Duck's belly is feeling the bulge...

So while the girls were busy sifting through the gift shop, I was feeling really tired so I decided to sit outside and wait for them. I was sitting next to a popcorn stand and the popcorn lady kept throwing popcorn to these two birds. It was pretty cute watching them argue.

Later that evening the whole team got dressed up and ready to leave for the MAAC Championships dinner. It was nice to see Brian again (Brian graduated this May).

Louis looking all smart in his getup.

It turned out that before dinner, there was Mass. Oh, and not just any other Mass. It was a Catholic Mass. That's all I have to say, you can tell from my tone what I thought about it.

Oh, the dinner and Mass were held in MGM, or Hollywood Studios as it is known now. They had reserved a whole section and shut down the Rock N Roll coaster especially for our conference. This meant 7 coaster rides in a row for me and 10 for some others.

I actually packed the smallest bag out of the entire team. As a result, I was unprepared for the dinner and had to borrow Paulina's skirt. I wanted to take a picture by myself but Louis and Danny jumped in for ASIAN PICTURE and I thought that was an even better idea.

The boys were all high and giddy from the coaster rides and food.
Eventually, it was time to leave.

But even as most of the team turned in, I wasn't ready to go to bed yet. I mean, come on guys! Now that the meet is over and you have one last night in Disney, you don't want to go to the hot tub???????

Whew at least some people were game to go.

I knew we weren't going to have the opportunity to jump into an outdoors hot tub in Jersey for the rest of winter so I took my time to enjoy it.

Later we all got kicked out because the other drunk college kids were making too much noise.

Then finally, it was back to Dirty Jersey.. Bye bye fairytale land, hello cold stinky reality.

On hindsight, the team wasn't as rowdy as I thought they would be and I actually ended up enjoying the majority of my time there. I would definitely want to return to Disney someday with just a bunch of close friends.

In the meantime, God has been good to me. Very very very very very very good.

I just did my laundry and cooked some Russian борщ. I just had some and I think this is my best one ever!

Goodbye. I guess this wasn't my longest post ever because I started out with a lot of things on my mind, but right now my mind is quite empty along with my stomach (which itself has a lot of things on its mind... if it has a mind at all... which I think it does...)

Byeeeeeee