recitation

• movies, sweets, and falling asleep with terry
• mom came and went
• really great chinese food at yi tiao long, which serves qing zheng food; also mayflower
• learned how to make soy milk
• wandered around with sanjay, who told me to stop feeling guilty about not liking people.  also, he probed about my non-existent sex life.
• dinner and catch-up with eugene
• finished the buddha series.  excellent.

i didn't take advantage of the weather.  that's okay though.

shopping

some women like to buy clothes and makeup.  i like shopping for wierd stuff:

• the east bay vivarium is disgusting yet totally awesome.  you can buy creepies like snakes, lizards, and spiders.  or you can buy friendlies like turtles.  but you'd better get your stuff fast!  looks like a lot of critters are sold out.
• i stumbled upon the prices of body bags while i was looking around for medical supply costs.  you can get a deluxe body bag, for the great price of $48!  it looks like cyanide antidote kits run at $400. 

exciting stuff!

modern times: my online dating adventures

i thought, why not?

 

it's a world where facebook-ing counts as friendship, personal blogging is like venting to your best friend, and g-chat is the same as catching up over coffee.  actually, that's not really true.  at the least, it's a world with so many more ways to communicate, so here's to an experiment....

 

here is my profile, if you're curious.  i'd be happy to hear feedback or suggestions :)

 

i'm thinking baseball here:  if a home run is meeting in person, then third base is chatting, second is an email, and first is looking at a profile or tagging someone as a favorite or giving the person a rating.  i've made it to second base, but third seems a little too fast after 3 days.  come on, i'm a lady... ;)

 

some things i've learned or wonder about:

• i'm using okcupid.com, which is a free website.  i remember it dimly, from my days at berkeley as the place where you took the purity test.  so, if i were REALLY serious about dating, i think i would go to a pay site such as eharmony, match.com, or yahoo personals.  i feel like people will be much more serious if you commit them to pay money, even if it is a nominal amount.
• i tend to respond to almost every message i receive.  whatever, it's just email.  however, this is not reciprocated.  i'm at 0 for 3. 
• profile making, selecting pictures, and writing emails are a fine art.  i've not perfected it, and i don't really care to.  in fact, it creeps me out just a little when someone has an outstanding or in-depth profile.  seriously, you have the time and energy to answer 2,500 questions or take 100 personality tests?  (i suppose though, i have time to pound out blogs on a pretty regular basis; or i have time to post on a dating site anyways :P)
• i can project a very different version of myself through words and pictures.  and so can everyone else.  it's hard to know what version of people to believe.
• so far, two categories of people have messaged me:  a.  white boys from the south who are grad students at berkeley (2)  b.  older-ish professionals who live in the suburbs (3 or 4).  i indulge with category a, if only because we can talk about blue bell ice cream and hot summers.

that's it.  i'll let you know if i ever make it to home plate.  i guess my adventure would not be complete, or even an adventure at all, if i didn't meet up with at least one person.

sunshine

i am generally optimistic these days.  like, i can do this, even though i don't know what "this" is. 

 

maybe it's easier to feel this way when the sun shines every day.  (that's deceptive though, as michael likes to point out.  it's still ridiculously windy and cold.  i like windy, just not cold.)  there are good things to eat, like peaches and strawberries; great books to read; new music to hear; fun places to explore; sun dresses and skirts to be worn; no shortage of things to learn; arts and crafts to be made; shows to watch; friends old and new to spend time with. 

 

people are going to school, round 2, and i feel okay/happy about it.  another list: 

• a hair cut to lighten it up
• barely drinking with michael mark and erika
• hollywood chinese, my hot date with rew
• napa with lauren and walter - ubuntu, great wine, and family time
• catch up with drew over little star pizza
• brunch with the girls
• cherry blosson festival with kammy and sydney
• john adams

looking forward to sunshine and beaches.

weekend notes

the weather was nothing short of glorious last weekend. sorry to be boring, but a list so i don't forget:

• thin blankets, open windows, and waking up with only one care in the world: how to enjoy the sunshine?
• into the wild, in bed ;)
  
• inspired by that tale of wilderness survival (nor not), i took an urban "hike" with terry, where we subsisted on in-and-out, crab, and gelato
• checked out yuri's night with joanna, john, and brendan
• shira's birthday get together
• yoga with lauren and kayley
  
• brunch and gossip with beijing kids nan, shay, and rew
• golden gate park, recombined. dan kayley terry lauren
• rewind. long, catch-up conversations with close college buddies: rob in la, sammy in shanghai. also, mom and sister. i had forgotten that i'm a phone-talker and always have been. that's pretty old school, huh? i doubt people younger than 10 make a habit out of calling people up to chat.
  

investigating: nonprofit consulting, ischool, social philanthropy

rewind, fastforward

this is jason wang, a childhood / family friend. i sat next to him at flora and ian's wedding last month.

when i was five, i:
a. chased him around at church
b. told his mother that i would marry him. (i believe he's engaged to be married :)

it cracks me up because i used to chase a lot of boys: there was brian miller in second grade, kevin west in fourth grade, and apparantly, i would sometimes call boys and tell them that i thought they were funny.




this is michelle, my sister. what can i say, she's sophisticated. she takes after me :)

o k

i max out my 401k,

and opened a roth ira,

i take calcium and vitamins every day,

i figure...i should be okay?

serials

recently:

• buddha by osamu tezuka
  
• john adams miniseries on hbo

midnight yoga, foreign cinema brunch, thai temple, wandering.  still finding little treasures in berkeley and san francisco :)

finding happiness in little things

i love how new, inky highlighters glide over pages so smoothly.

a silly vibrator

neutrogena's new  "wave power cleanser,"a vibrating facial cleanser, cracks me up.

dad and mcdonalds

i had mcdonalds for breakfast this morning -- sausage egg mcmuffin with no cheese and a chocolate milk.  i thought:

• my dad, sister, and i used to go to mcdonalds on sunday mornings while my mom slept in.  we would share a "deluxe breakfast."  dad would read the paper and drink coffee.  michelle would get syrup all over herself.  it was a fun ritual :)
• at the end of my "spring break" vacation in texas, my dad told me -- vacation goes by so quickly, and i'm sorry we didn't really get to talk. i know what he means.  but what can we possibly say to one another?  how do we tell people that they are important to us?  i don't really know.
• i have a strange food-oriented perspective on life.  i like to cook and eat, a lot.  it's satisfying to know that i can make something.  it's nice to be able to share and make food for people i care about. there's an element of ritual and stability about it that i like too.