crash and burn

so in my last post, i mentioned the slight dilemma i had about whether or not to bring this lady friend to my family's thanksgiving dinner. well, i did take her and things were fine - my friends and family were very nice. and she loved the turkey and all the food that went with it. so i thought things were going well and we had a very nice evening.

but she broke up with me yesterday. what sucks is she broke up via an-email. and i'm left here just shaking my head and feeling pretty shitty. i'm still hurt and in shock...my iPod is on "shuffle" mode and the weird thing is that maybe it knows how i'm feeling because it just keeps playing super sad songs. 

anyway, this was just another bad crash and burn incident in my life. i'm running a bunch of things in my head and going in circles but maybe i'll never know where things went wrong. growing up sucks. and even when you're grown up, it seems to suck even more.

a dilemma nonetheless

hi, everyone. the last week has been a blur - i say that often, but it's really true in this case!

as usual, work has kept me busy but my volunteer position at a local school has kept me even busier. in between going to school meetings, evaluating, amending and approving the school budget alongside my council members, there's just always a lot to do and i find myself doing a lot of extra reading and research in order to help make the best recommendations as we steer the school along so we may best serve the needs of the students, parents, faculty and staff. but i'm committed to my position and of course, to the schoolchildren - so i'm very glad to spend the extra time needed to do this job, but i just wish i could get more sleep sometimes.

the other thing that has me going full-speed is that i recently met someone and i guess (yes, i have to say 'i guess' because we haven't quite had that talk) we're in that early phase of dating. so all that means is i've been out a lot but it's been nice to getting to know "A". the remarkable thing (to me) is that she doesn't really speak English that well and my Japanese conversation skills are pretty terrible. i have a much better time reading and writing Japanese since i spend so much damn time watching anime and reading manga, but put me in a situation where i have to start speaking Japanese and you're gonna hear a lot of "Uh...", "Um..." and dead silence while i rack my brain to come up with something. and poor "A" has been going to her electronic translator a lot since we met. i have to say my Japanese conversation skills have improved vastly and i've been having a good time getting to know "A" and i think she feels the same way about me. it's hard to find someone who likes manga (much less knows what i'm talking about) and baseball (she likes both!!!!!). we're both fans of the strip, Plica. in fact, "A" brought over a her dvd of the Plica animated short -- something i had wanted to see oh so long ago but just hadn't gotten the chance to - and we watched it one night at my place. (^o^)

it's definitely pre-mature but Thanksgiving is this week and "A" has never been to a typical Thanksgiving dinner (i.e. fat turkey with all the goodies like stuffing, mash potatoes, candied yams, pumpkin pie, etc.) and i had the feeling she wanted to go with me to my family dinner this thursday. i'm not sure if i'm ready to bring her to a dinner that involves my immediate family, extended family and friends - yet i don't want her to spend Thanksgiving alone and i do want her to experience a cool American tradition such as this one. "A" has only been in San Francisco for a few months and is trying to soak in as much as she can while she's here on a special work visa and has to return to Japan late next year.

so...i don't know. any thoughts, suggestions? do i bring her to my family dinner? or do i let her be on her own that day? it's a dilemma - not a bad one - it's kinda a nice dilemma as there's someone i'm interested in and i want to include her to various parts of my life. but we just met, it's still so new to me and this...is all happening...so...fast...

Wak to Seattle

so it's official: Don Wakamatsu has been hired as the new manager of the Seattle Mariners. he was most recently bench coach for the A's. This hiring makes "Wak" the first Asian-American manager in Major League Baseball history.

alright, Wak!! this is great news - not because Wakamatsu is Japanese-American, but because he's a great coach who will bring a lot to the table - and the Mariners need all the help they can get, especially as they try to bounce back from their awful season. i think this is awesome!

all the tidbits of news during this off-season (like "Pedroia the Destroya" being named AL's MVP or CoCo Crisp being traded to the KC Royals) just makes me ache for the baseball season to start already!!

bah, it's monday

the weekend was a blur and here it is on monday and i'm trying to stay awake while at work. i've had three cups of coffee. but here's a bit of news that i found absolutely awesome: 16-year old Japanese high school girl gets drafted by a Japanese baseball league starting up in April 2009. not only that, she's a knuckle-baller who patterns herself after the most excellent Tim Wakefield. way to go, Yoshida Eri!

now i know we've got American girls here who also got game. when we gonna see them play in the MLB? Huh? WHEN?

read more about Yoshida here and click here if you prefer to read the article in Japanese.

rockin' san francisco

this week was long - tough work week and lots of tasks i had to take care of related to a school i volunteer at. whew. i'm glad the work week is over. so glad.

the other day i messed up pretty badly at work - it was an oversight of mine, something i should have triple-checked on but didn't and frankly i had thought was taken care of. but that was not the case when i arrived at the office. i tell you it was one of the longest and frentic days i've had in a long while since i've left the full-time world of film/tv production. i left work and headed straight to Nickie's, where i drowned my work frustrations with Guinness, poured by very cute S., my favorite bartender there. it was a quiet night at the bar (me and one dude who was hitting on S. but she was so not having it). a basketball game was playing on the flat screen but i just listened to S. talk about her dreams and aspirations while i downed one Guinness after another.

last night, my friend and i went to the Warfield to see Ben Folds perform. i've been a fan of his (and Ben Folds Five) since the mid-90's, but i had never seen him in concert. my friend, Stuffy, is also a fan and she had mentioned he was coming to San Francisco for one night only - and so we snatched up a pair of tickets as soon as possible and there we were dmist a bunch of homeless drunks and prostitutes hanging about at the magnificent Warfield Theater on seedy Market and 6th Street.

we didn't bother with the opening act and opted to drink beer while hanging out on the second floor. apparently, most people did the same because it was pretty packed. after an hour or so, we headed inside the theater and proceeded to our seats - way, way up on the upper balcony - basically, the nosebleed section. hey, we're both old so we weren't gonna stand on the main floor for freakin' couple of hours and bump and rub bodies with random people. we were there to listen to music. we were there to see Ben Folds rock the city.

well, what can i say? i LOVED the concert. Ben Folds was awesome - he was personable, funny and a terrific performer. He's a freakin' musical genius, in my opinion. the first set was all new stuff from his Way To Normal album and the second set was all old stuff, like the classic, Kate, and Still Fighting It. The night was a blast - we sang along, danced, and cheered along with all the many other fans. since we sat way, way out there in the back and i don't own a digital camera, i just took a random pic from my mobile phone. it looks ridiculous but i'm gonna post it anyway. i mean, why the hell not?



happy friday!

sign the pledge to repeal prop 8!

i'm still pretty mad about the passing of prop 8. - it's a little (okay, A LOT) bewildering, to be honest. maybe the news pundits are right - perhaps the opponents of prop 8 didn't do enough work early on and got into the fight a little too late; perhaps we took the voters for granted and assumed there'd be more "No" votes than "Yes" votes - i truly don't know. all i know is the fight continues and i encourage you to take action to protest the passing of prop 8. i signed this petition a few days ago and sent a link to many of you in an e-mail. i thought to add this to my blog as well. the petition is hosted by Courage Campaign - click here if you'd like to add your name to the petition to Repeal Prop. 8: Restore marriage equality to California

fight the good fight!

post-weekend update 11/10/08

i stumbled into work this morning and a co-worker remarked, "another wild weekend, eh?", to which i replied, "actually, no. i slept most of the weekend and could use some more sleep, quite frankly." i suppose i tend to have that "just got of bed" look wherever i go and whatever time of day it may be. S. and i then chatted about our weekends over a late breakfast and cold coffee.

i spent most of the weekend in my pajamas. if i wasn't sleeping, i lounged around on my couch, re-watching the the first season of "Maria-sama ga miteru" anime. i don't know how many hundreds of times i have watched these dvds but ever since RightStuf released the first season for the US, i watch them as much as i can. i'll pop them in my DVD player often - sometimes just as background when i'm cooking dinner or cleaning the apartment. hmm. maybe i just like being surrounded by (the voices of) cute Japanese girls. (*o*)

part of the weekend was spent with my upstairs neighbors, A&M, as they invited me to watch the DVD of the first season of "Extras", starring Ricky Gervais. that first episode with Kate Winslet is freakin' hilarious. then the rest of the episodes pretty much ran along the same formula and though funny, it got old fast and then you're not laughing as hard but expecting the same jokes just told a little differently. but Gervais is surely a funny, funny man.

so that's my weekend. lots of...doing nothing. i'm not complaining, though. it was pretty relaxing though i wish my cupboards were better stocked with junk food than they are. i ate a lot of fozen waffles with nutella and peanut butter. and while there's never enough time to do so, i could literally sit around and watch anime or read manga, 24-7. i'd have no social life to speak of, but i'd be one happy camper.


what we're listening to at work: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson
what i'm doing at work: ha! real work - reviewing a document for use by clients
my mood: a little moody, a little sleepy

keep moving forward

i'm playing hooky from work today - i just didn't feel like going into the office. it's not that i have a ton of work to do or am stressed out. and even though i should be completely elated given overall election results for city, state and nation - today...feels bittersweet. the votes are in and last night, Barack Obama was elected our 44th President of the United States. it doesn't matter who you voted for and what your values are, but history has been made. many states that typically vote "red" went "blue" and we now have the first African-American U.S. President. now the reason i say today feels bittersweet is that here in California, Prop. 8 (the ban on same-sex marriage) won - it was closely contested but from my last look at the polls, it wasn't as close as i would have wished it to be when we're talking about the fight to end inequality.

so i sit here on my couch, take a sip of my cup of coffee and exhale a long sigh. though it's not today - one day - gays and lesbians will be able to marry their partners - and i truly hope i live to see the day when that happens. we have a long fight ahead but we have to keep moving forward - learn from how the campaign was run this time around and make our next at-bat a home run. this is not over, folks. boys will continue to love other boys. girls will continue to love other girls. it's only a matter of time before we can legally walk down the aisle with the one we love - regardless of gender.

less than 24 before history gets made

tomorrow is Election Day and hopefully, history will be made! whatever side of the fence you're on, please remember to vote! your vote matters. i don't know how many times i can say this. it's a privilege to exercise your right to vote - please, please, please cast your ballot tomorrow (if you haven't already through absentee)! this is your city, your state, your country!

it's been a few days since i last checked in but Halloween came and went - my friends, N., and R., and i went to the De Young Museum for the evening. i thought it'd be fun for R., who was visiting from Charleston, SC, to go to the museum as he hadn't been before. and it was great! i wish more people had dressed up for the Halloween event, but it was fun and nice to roam the various, uncrowded galleries and not feel rushed. my favorite part was that the Museum graciously allowed us to visit the new, special exhibit on Yves Saint Laurent before it officially opened on Saturday! that exhibit is awesome. i am so not into fashion and i clearly have no true understanding of it, but this collection is amazing. it's inspiring on many levels and you can't help but step back and appreciate the incredible dresses, pantsuits, and everything he created. beautiful. if you have the chance, i highly encourage you to visit the De Young and check out the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit as well as their other special exhibit, Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes.

N. dressed up as a doctor and R. was a hippie. i was a schoolgirl - i was kinda going for the Japanese schoolgirl look - not so much the sailor outfit as the more preppy look but i ended up looking more like an average schoolgirl from the movie, Lost and Delirious. N and R got heaps of attention - yes, it helps they're both super cute and N. in particular is such a flirt and he loves talking to people - while i pretty much was under everyone's radar. a few of my friends had commented later on that i looked too much like an actual schoolgirl that people may have assumed i was a student and wasn't in costume. in hindsight, maybe the costume was too authentic and next time...maybe i should wear fishnet stockings or do something a little differently. N. took pictures but his MacBook is freaking out and so he's unable to get the photos to download from his camera - it sucks! but if/when he figures it out, i'll be sure to post the pictures in a future post.

after the Museum, we went to Park Chow for drinks and a late dinner. i always love that place though i prefer the Chow in the Castro during the summer since they have a sweet outdoor patio. after a delicious meal and of course, delicious Guinness - we walked around the city and chatted with random people who were also just hanging out.

overall, it was a pretty mellow but very fun Halloween. the rest of the weekend...consisted of more drinking and despite the crazy-ass rain we got, more partying. this monday morning was a bit rough. (T_T)

okay, friends -- remember to vote tomorrow! and if you're in California, please vote NO on Prop. 8! stay tuned for my next post-election post.