Glad He's Not My Boss

The other day I am having a late night at work. My cube mate is the analyst for Asia-Pacific (APAC) and has conference calls every Tuesday. He puts the call on speaker and mutes it while he attends to other things. I'm half listening to the call and I hear one man say something about what the current numbers are. The APAC VP is a notorious asshole. He's very offensive and blunt and not a lot of people like him. I'm assuming he must run APAC well because he's been in that position for awhile.

So as I was saying, I'm half listening, gathering all my shit together so that I could go home for the day. Again, there are two men in the background arguing over revenue numbers. I hear the APAC VP spit out, "I'll accept that answer, for now." You could hear the venom in his voice. I stop what I'm doing, look over at my cube mate and ask, "Did he really just say that?" My cube mate glances up from what he's doing, nods and just smiles. Gotta love the unveiled threat.

Fun Memories

The last two days at work have been pretty slow. I guess all my productivity and hard work from last week paid off because I'm left with nothing to do this week. So to say that I have been bored is an understatment. I started reading the daily comics, which is something I haven't done since high school. I came across this Garfield one, and just had to post it.

It reminds me of this time when Best Friend Ever and I were playing Taboo against her brother and sister-in-law. BFE and I were on the same team, and to be honest, just isn't fair. We've known each other since we were five and pretty much can say one word and know immediately what the other one is thinking.

So its my turn to do the describing, and the word is "mouse." I go into complete brain fart and cannot think of anything to express "mouse." Here is our dialouge:

Me: Chirp, chirp, chirp
BFE: Bird, baby bird
Me: No, something else that is small. Chirp, chirp, chirp
BFE: Bird, baby bird
Me: No, chirp, chirp, chirp
BFE: What?! Are you sure its not bird?
Me: (Screaming) Yes, I'm sure its not bird. Chirp, chirp, chirp
BFE: What?! OMG, just skip it.

I refuse to skip and we spend the entire time with me going chirp, chirp, chirp and BFE just looking completely perplexed. The word I was going for was squeak. I think I was even doing hand motions of a mouse eating cheese, whatever that looks like.

Cultural Differences

My cousins are visiting from Thailand. Pong, who is 24, is here taking English classes so that she can pass her TOEFL, and from there get into grad school. She is staying with my parents indefinitely. Pam, her younger sister, who is 20, also came for a visit while on summer break from Uni. She is staying until Memorial Day weekend. Their cousin from their mother’s side, Ploy, is also visiting. I believe she is the same age as Pam. All of them live in Thailand and have only visited the States a handful of times. We’re pretty close in age, but it’s amazing how different we are.

Pong, Pam and Ploy

My cousins are pretty sheltered. Just recently, since attending University have their parents eased up on them. Now they go out on weekends and hang out with their friends such as going to the movies or out to dinner. They go to sporting events and concerts without any parental supervision. It’s probably a great and exciting time in their life. But for me, I have been doing activities like that since I was in high school. As soon as I got my driver’s license, my foot was already out the door and on the gas pedal.

My cousins have never had any boyfriends or even kissed a boy. I know that they want boyfriends and talk about guys all the time, but have never dated anyone. I think part of the reason is that before University they went to an all girl’s school and secondly, I’m sure their parents would have disapproved of them dating in high school. From their pictures, I know that they have male friends, but so far they haven’t met any guys that they have liked or vice versa.

And when it comes to fashion, we couldn’t be any more different than night and day. Pong bought a sweater with Tinkerbell on it and wears it all the time. It reminds me of a sweater a six year old would wear, but she could care less. Pam and Ploy are more fashion forward and like things that are trendy (in Thailand standards, they do follow some of our fashion trends, but also Japanese trends). Chucks are insanely popular in Thailand, and that is all they wear. I couldn’t imagine them in any pumps, stilettos or even strappy sandals.

They both still live at home and won’t move out until their married. Even then, their father has talked about building them homes either on their property or in the same neighborhood. My cousins have said that they would prefer to continue living with their parents when they are married than with their husbands. Here in the United States, kids cannot wait to gain their independence from their parents and get their first taste of real freedom when they go off to college. I wonder if they think its weird that I live by myself.

It can be hard for me to hang out with them because I feel like we can’t relate on certain topics. I would never take them with me to a bar where I’m meeting up with friends. They don’t drink and I think would be shocked and embarrassed by our conversations. So I try to stick with safe topics such as school, work, movies, family, and things that interest them so that I can get a better understanding of them and learn who they really are. I’m sure Pong after staying here and studying will shed some of her Thainess and adapt to some American ways.

Baby Proof

Can I just say that I love Emily Giffin’s books? I have read her first two novels, Something Borrowed and Something Blue and absolutely adored them. So when her third novel, Baby Proof came out, I knew I would eventually pick it up and read it.

Claudia and her husband, Ben, both agreed when they were dating that neither one of them wanted children. But now three years into the marriage, Ben is reneging on their deal and decides he does want kids. This causes a huge conflict within their marriage, which ultimately leads them to divorce.

Claudia slowly adjusts to being single again and even starts dating one of her co-workers. But through it all, she finds herself missing Ben and wondering if she made the biggest mistake of her life. How much is she willing to compromise to win Ben back? Will she decide to cave in and have kids with Ben?

Baby Proof examines relationships and the struggles to maintain one and the sacrifices people make for the sake of the relationship. How much of ourselves and our principles are we willing to compromise or even give up for true happiness? Is love really enough to sustain a relationship in the midst of controversy? Those are all questions, I found to be central to this book.

Of course, since this books is mainly chick-lit and not a depressing drama, it wraps the situation up a little too nicely and unbelievable by reality’s standards. I have a friend who is in a similar situation and could see having children become a huge issue later on in their marriage. She just got engaged and has told her fiancé from the beginning that she does not want kids and he keeps saying that she’ll change her mind. I know her, she is steadfast about her decision, even donating her eggs to a fertility clinic and when warned about complications that could lead her to being infertile, her response was, “Oh well.” If he thinks that once their married, that her biological clock will start ticking, he’s got another thing coming to him. It’s not going to happen. Granted we are allowed to change our minds, but usually with decisions like this, the person has thought long and hard about it.

I always flip flop about wanting kids. Deep down, I know that I do one day want to have children, but not anytime soon. I can barely take care of myself and am way too selfish to have a child right now, but when I’m more mature and in a stable relationship, I would like to go down that path.

I am personally not fond of kids and actually think child birth is one of the most unnatural things you can go through. To which everyone responds, it’s the most natural thing you could do. I scoff at that. What is so natural about having a parasite growing inside of you, stealing your nutrients, getting bigger and bigger, until you have to push it out of you? I always relate childbirth to the scene in Alien, where the Alien pops out of the guy’s stomach, screaming and bitting. See, I’m not yet in that place where I’m ready to have kids. But one day. My poor future kids.

Having children is just one of the many obstacles that people encounter in their relationships, and I hate this notion that love will fix it all. It takes a lot more than just love to keep a relationship growing and maturing. I was actually shocked at how easy it was for Claudia to run to a divorce lawyer instead of really sitting down with Ben to discuss this roadblock. They never even had a conversation as to why he wanted kids and what was motivating this change of heart. The next chapter she is in the office of an attorney going over her options and settlement. She so easily gave up on her marriage, which is sadly what a lot of people do in this day and age.

I definitely enjoyed this novel, but liked the first two a lot more. Giffin has a way of sucking you into the story. I would be lying in bed, saying ok, one more chapter and then I really need to go to sleep. I could relate to the emotions that Claudia was going through, and one particular passage caught my attention.
“I am pretty sure that I love Ben more than he loves me. I know he loves me a lot. But I still think I love him more … Love is seldom—almost never—an even proposition. Someone always loves more … I happen to love Ben slightly more, which has the effect of making you fear losing someone more than if it were the other way around.”
I totally got what she meant because I have been in that position before. I hope Giffin produces another book soon.

Because I Got High

The other night Kiah was over because she had no electricity. We're chit-chatting and catching up when she goes, "Why is your cat staring at me funny?" I look over at Weasley, who is lying on his back, belly up, clutching his feather toy like its his security blanket and answer, "Oh, he's just high." Immediately, Kiah starts laughing and says, "You're cat is so high right now!" And he was.



And an oldy, but goody one of Weasley getting high off of someone else's catnip!

The Thirteenth Tale

I have just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. There is one passage in the book that captures my love of reading, the very essence of why I love to read so much.

“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same. Books are, for me, it must be said, the most important thing; what I cannot forget is that there was a time when they were at once more banal and more essential than that. When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books.”

I knew exactly what she meant when she wrote that. Except I feel my appreciation for reading and literature has only grown, as I get older. I even re-read books again just to see if my current life experiences and outlook changes my interpretation and understanding of a story, especially stories that really moved me.

So the Thirteenth Tale is about a biographer named Margaret, who is hired by the illustrious and reclusive novelist Vida Winter. Miss Winter is finally ready to tell the world her story and the mystery behind the Thirteenth Tale. She is supposed to be like a J.K. Rowling, beloved author, but little is known about her. And so the story begins and you follow Miss Winter’s childhood and uncover the secrets from her past.

I thought Margaret’s character a bit odd. Margaret was born conjoined twin, and after detachment surgery (I doubt that’s what its called) her twin sister dies. Margaret doesn’t discover this truth until she’s older, probably around 8-10, but is haunted by this. She refers to her twin as her ghost and constantly whines about how incomplete she is. I could understand if she grew up with her twin and suddenly her twin dies, but she has no recollection of having a twin, let alone her death. Its all very strange how she feels like half of a person. That whole subplot just bothered me, but I’m not a twin, so I don’t know.

Overall I liked this book, but was not in love with it. It had gotten so much praise and I was expecting more from it because of the reviews. The story is definitely interesting and Setterfield took me in a direction that I wasn’t expecting. After the twist, I went back and saw that she did a great job of dropping hints to lead the reader to her twist. But at the same time, I felt like I had been there, done that. I feel lately that a lot of books try to shock you with this unexpected twist and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. After discovering the twist it actually made me question the story even more instead of feeling satisfied with the end result.

I Hate Comcast! Pt 2

It has been close to a week and a half and I still don’t have cable. I hate to keep whining about the same thing over and over again (who am I kidding? I’m notorious for doing that), but I am extremely pissed off. This is just unacceptable to not have cable TV for this long. I have called them everyday and keep getting the run around.

After supposedly, allegedly it was to be fixed for the umpteenth time today, I lost it. I called demanding to speak to a manager over the ridiculousness of the situation and demanded retribution. After being transferred and put on hold, I finally spoke to someone who sounded halfway competent.
(Seriously, is it too much to ask for decent customer service this day? Another rant for another time because truly there is no such thing as customer service in the service industry anymore.)
Again, allegedly, supposedly someone is going to come out and check everything from inside my apartment to the outside line, and of course I have to waste more of my time by taking a half-day to wait for them. So fucking annoyed.

After having a long day at work, all I wanted to do was sit on my couch and spend my evening watching mindless TV. I just wanted to unwind and let go of the stresses of my day by losing myself in nonsense television. Call it escapism at its best. There are just days when I want to come home and see what messes Bart and Homer get into, play a few rounds of Jeopardy with Alex, catch up on some political news with Jon and Stephen, hang out with the gang at Central Perk, talk Carrie out of cheating on Adian with Big, and cry a few tears with Meredith over her awful hair and rejoice when Addison and Alex finally end up in bed (which I don’t think is going to happen anymore because of her dumb spin-off). There are days when going to the gym or reading a book just doesn’t cut it. I just want to get lost in nothing and forget about my forever-growing to-do-list at work and all the other emotional crap that I choose to suppress; spend a nice evening with the TV and me where I can ignore my life for a few hours. I don't think its too much to ask for.

If Comcast could just get their fucking act together and fix this shit then all would be well.

That was a Close One!

Disaster almost struck. I almost killed Dropsy, my frog. Yesterday, I finally cleaned his tank. It was gross. There was algae growing everywhere and I could no longer see inside the tank through the algae. I knew I was being a bad mommy and didn't want him to perish like his fallen brothers. Its just so time consuming to clean that damn tank.

I followed the normal procedure of transfering Dropsy to the small fish bowl that I have. I then proceed to put him in the cabinets because if I leave him out, Weasley will try to kill him. So la dee da, I clean the tank and refill it with water. Now, you cannot put the frog back into the tank or it will go into shock from all the sedatives and chlorine in the water. I usually let it sit for 24 hours with the filter running.

I decide to put Dropsy back into his tank tonight and call Weasley over to watch cause I know he'll enjoy it. I've learned that whenever I'm dealing with Dropsy to always wear gloves. Good thing, I followed the rules tonight.

I use the net and scoop Dropsy into it. I put my gloved hand over the net so that Dropsy can't jump out. Weasley is right next to me, all excited and interested in what I'm doing. But he doesn't realize that Dropsy is in the net. So I nudge Weasley to look at the net. All the while, little Dropsy is squirming around. During the nudging of The Wese, I must've moved my hand that was covering the top of the net, cause out hops Dropsy. SHIT!!!!!

I know that Dropsy's fate is much worse if I don't grab Weasley. Weasley makes a bee-line for the frog, and luckily I grab him before he pounces. In a panic, I try and throw Weasley into the hall closet while Dropsy is hopping towards the front door. I'm hoping that he can't fit under the door or he's a goner. I'm frantically trying to close the closet door, but I have way too many freaking shoes and the door keeps jamming on them. I give up that route, grab Weasley and lock him in my bedroom.

I run back to find poor Dropsy sitting in the corner right in front of the door. He needs to get back into the water soon or he'll skin will dry out and he'll die. I approach him cautiously because I do not want him to slip under the door and into the main hallway of my building. I try using the net to scoop him, but the net won't open up all the way. He begins to hop, and I try and grab him with my gloved hand while at the same time trying not to squeeze too hard or I'll crush him. Thankfully I get him back into the net and into the tank. Poor thing was probably freaking out.

Thank God, nothing bad happened. I would've felt so guilty if Dropsy had die. Lesson learned: no more having Weasley around when I put Dropsy back in his tank.

Still no TV

I still don't have cable! I've almost come to accept the fact that I will never have cable again. At this point, I don't even care that I don't have cable. But I will continue to bitch and moan about the fact that I don't have cable. How the cable gods mock me? They are enjoying my misery. Not only do I not have cable, but I also have a headache and the sniffles. Can't quite be sure if its allergies or a cold. Either way, I feel like poo. Would like to call out tomorrow from work, but then realized that I have no tv, so the whole sitting on the couch and watching tv while you're sick scenario is gone, might as well just go to work. At least there I have stuff I can do.

Speaking of work, still have not done the certifications that I mentioned, perhaps will look at it tonight. I have no motivation to pick that shit up. I have no motivation for anything right now. I think having no tv has sucked the life out of me. I have lost the will for anything. I was going to make a slideshow of some of my favorite pics, but can't even be bothered to do that. I had an interesting idea for a post, but lack the will to carry on with it. Instead, I am whiny and am making you suffer for it. I think I may just go to bed and call it a day. I don't care that its 7pm and its still light outside. Le sigh.

I Hate Comcast!

I haven’t had cable TV in almost a week. It started acting up last week and I put in a call for them to fix it and now I’ve lost all channels. Something to do with the outside line needing to be replaced and could take up to 7 business days!!! Are you fucking kidding me? Its already been a week since it first started going all wonky and now you’re telling me it’s going to take another fucking 7 days to fix this shit. Unacceptable! I honestly believe Comcast is the devil and this further proves my theory. I swear to God, if they don’t fix this before the weekend I am going to go coco-bananas.

Instead of doing something productive like clean my kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom or reading up on some course packets for certifications for work

(I need to take 6 certifications and each course packet is over 60 pages long! I have to pass them all by April 10. I have not yet started even looking at this and have no idea how I’m going to pass. I still have no clue what my company even does; let alone how to use the damn product. Who cares about the history of BI -that’s Business Intelligence for those who aren’t in the know, and I’m clearly one of them. Ugh)

I decide to procrastinate in any way possible:

• I went to the gym to make up for last night’s disastrous attempt of running for 10 minutes, then walking for 5 minutes until I decided to throw in the towel and binge on ice cream at home. I actually should’ve stayed at the gym longer to watch some TV, but I think its frowned upon if you just stand on the treadmill watching the built-in screen on the machine.
• Ate my leftovers from lunch and an entire bag of potato chips. There goes the workout.
• Played with Mr. Weasley and brushed his hair. He could do for a nail trim, but I’m going to save that for tomorrow night.
• Myspaced for an hour looking up random people I went to high school with. I found a guy I used to date, and boy does he look rough. The years have not been nice. If I were to see him on the street now, I don’t think I would recognize him.
• Obsessively plucked my eyebrows. I’m starting to think I’m not doing a good job shaping them because every time I go get a mani or pedi, the lady always asks if I want my eyebrows waxed, and I always say no, but she keeps asking me “Are you sure?”
• Caught up on radio gossip by reading DCRTV. Even though I’m no longer in the industry, I still like to be in the know.
• Decided that I really do need to clean the apartment and made a note to self to clean the place.
• Added the frog tank to the list.
• Wished I could pick up the current book I’m reading, The Thirteenth Tale, but I’m at a part where there could be a ghost story and am deathly afraid of ghosts and knew that if I started to read it, would not be able to sleep at all tonight and do not want to break the streak of sleeping peacefully throughout the night.
• Talked myself out of having a bowl of ice cream and settled on three strawberries.

I’m in a desperate state of mind. I seriously don’t watch that much TV anymore, but I just like to have it on the background when I’m doing other things. I like the noise it creates; it makes it feel like other people are around and hides the fact that I’m sitting here all alone. It also cuts out the noise from the other apartments and I don’t have to hear my Korean neighbors singing karaoke (actually, I never heard them do that, but Best Friend Ever has). If I don’t have TV back by Saturday, you better believe heads will roll.

I'm Back Bitches

Man, I caved into the peer pressure of Jessie and rejoined myspace. Well I didn't really cave, but told her if she wanted to re-create my page for me, than she is more than welcome to since I can't be bothered to go through the motions of it all. So she did and made it the page look pretty and even uploaded pics for me! That's dedication right there.

If you all remember, I deleted my account because myspace ruins lives! And to fill the void in my life, I create this blog. Well don't worry, I won't abandon this blog now that myspace and I are back together. After being on it for just a day and half, I'm already over it and am so tempted to delete it all over again, but I know that Jessie would be upset if I did so.

I've kicked the myspace addiction. Besides I'm way too addicted to reading other people's blogs to really care what goes on in the myspace world. Its a sickness, I know.