A Friendship Renewed

We were really meant to be friends, no matter how much times we've broken up.

Isn't that crazy?!

I talked to Tom over the weekend, I played tennis with Raymond a couple years ago, and I don't remember who Derek Wong is. Christina was in the same room with me over 15 years ago, and we had no idea! Dang, small world.

Jer is sad and lonely since I chat with my "old new girlfriend" a lot more now (it's like we never skipped a beat!). Maybe I should find him a boyfriend! Haha kidding.

Yes I used to be good at math. Yeah I know, what happened?

Casablanca/Quiddler

Went to Casablanca on Lincoln. I don't get the theme...it's Humphrey Bogart meets Mexican food? Anyways, the tortillas are delicious!! Probably b/c they are made of lard. Yum. The food is good, but I've had better Mexican food, and for a lot cheaper too. Afterwards we played Quiddler, this word game. It's okay fun, not super fun. I still like Scrabble better. But Quiddler is great for large groups, while I prefer Scrabble with just one person. Anyhoo, go to Casablanca, order the cheapest thing, and eat tortillas!!

Casablanca Restaurant

220 Lincoln Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291

310.392.5751

Oh, that doggie is Guido. Really cute dog!

Learning how to swim

Today is my first post as a guest blogger on Jeannie's website, so I wanted to share a little story that we're all familiar with: swimming.

Swimming is one of those things that you either know how to do or you don't. And for those who know, you always remember how you were taught and the trials and tribulations of how you've gotten to the point of being a proficient swimmer. You know what I'm talking about: summer camp, or group lessons at the city pool, year after year.

For those who don't know how to swim, let me introduce Jeannie. Jeannie never learned how to swim when she was younger, even though a summer internship in Hawaii and having numerous friends try to teach her over the years. So this summer, we decided to give it a shot and really make an effort to teach her to swim.

Lesson 1 (last week). Get comfortable in the water. I remember the first thing we did as kids in the (old) Logan pool was to do bobs. In the 4 foot area, put your head under water, open your eyes, and breathe out slowly through your nose. Come back up. Do over again and again. Bobs teach you the two most important things when swimming: how to breathe and how to see. After this, we did a little bit of practice on the wall on how to kick, but we didn't fully get around to prone gliding yet, as she was still a little panicky in the water.

Lesson 2 (today). More bobs. I wanted to find a way for Jeannie to not panic, because even though we can stand in the water sometimes you find that when your knees are bent or transitioning from some other position your head will still fall underwater. I wanted Jeannie to be able to not get scared in a situation like that. So we played around a little bit more, tried to do some prone glide stuff, and then decided to try backfloating. Now, as a kid I hated backfloating because I've never really been all that buoyant. To my surprise, Jeannie was able to backfloat comfortably in the pool after 15 mins! I helped her with a hand under her hips but was able to back away from it all and just let her do her thing. Amazing. The only problem was her recovery out of the backfloat position. As she dropped her hips, hear head rotated up but also fell in the water and she would get panicky and try to grab onto something and end up inhaling some water. The fix: some bobs in the sitting position. With her legs straight out, she learned how to breathe and anticipate her head going into the water, which made recovery much easier. Put all that together with some arm movements to propel her in the water, and voila! you have somebody who is more comfortable in the water and has the means to get around in the pool. I guess you can call that swimming. Not bad for 2 lessons!

Jerry

Learning My Way Around the Garage

Something that I don't know much about is tools, so when Jerry decided to work on some shelving for the garage I asked if I could help. My prior experiences with tools had been limited to smacking things with hammers and using wrenches to pull things off, and the occasional use of the screwdriver to well, unscrew stuff. At first I was really hesitant to use any of the big tools b/c I thought I'd be clumsy and saw off my finger or something ridiculous like that (sometimes my imagination is overactive). But after Jer coached me through each tool, I got more comfortable.
Man, tools are pretty fun! I learned how to use the drill, the miter saw, belt sander, and the circular saw (but I dubbed it the butter saw b/c it seriously cuts through wood like butter!).
My favorite tool though would have to be the miter saw b/c it's self standing and so easy to use! The butter saw is kinda heavy and awkward to use (thank goodness for the laser!), and the belt sander was too heavy for me. The drill is kinda boring. It's like an automatic screwdriver. With umm, more power.

I loved the miter saw so much I broke it.

Whoops see where I accidentally broke it? Hehe. Jer wasn't mad at all, he thought it was quite funny that I managed to break a tool like that. Luckily, Sears offers a year long warranty, so we got a brand new saw right away.

It's fun to be crafty!

Who Ate What?

This should be an easy one! No matter how compatible we are, we definitely have some differences which make life interesting. :)

Eek, two hamburgers, monterey jack AND fritos? Fatty!

Cold noodle with arrowroot noodles, km chi and imitation crab meat

Who had the tastier meal? I have a feeling you're all gonna vote for the hamburger meal, haha.

Learning How To Not Drown

A quick background on my swimming lessons past:
My mom tried to teach me how to float in Hawaii when I was 13.
Nancy K tried to teach me how to breathe under water at Sunset Rec during second year.
Hannah, Trinh, and Jason and other Hawai'i folks tried to teach me in 2005. In the ocean! The big big open ocean.
But I never learned. I decided once and for all, I won't fail like I did the other 3 times!

So, over the holiday wknd Jerry gave me a swimming lesson. During that one hour, I learned how to bob my head in and out of water (I did it 9 times in a row!), how to breathe through my nose (I still need to do it slower and be more controlled though), how to position my arms to glide (I need to keep them straightened!), and how to kick my legs (whoops, I always forget and bend my knees). But I didn't get a chance to learn how to be less scared! For some reason I am still hesitant to allow myself to fully be comfortable in the water. Or maybe it's because I can't multi task (breathing, arms, kicking) so when I forget one thing, I end up freaking out in the water and wildly trying to grab Jer's arm even though the water is only 4 feet deep. While water goes up my nose, ouch! Yeah, I know!! I am such a freak-out in the water. There was this one time this toddler laughed at me in the pool! And then Christina said, I bet if dogs could laugh they'd laugh at you too! Mean! Hrmph. I do look pretty silly though. Jer says I look so stressed before I am about to breathe under water. I did my lesson sans contacts so I'm not worried about losing a contact or anything. I was excited about hitting the pool again today but I have a visit from Aunt Flo so I guess it will have to wait. Haha, all you girls know what I'm talking about.

In the meantime, any tips on how to quell my freak-outs and get more comfy in the water? What were some of your swimming experiences?

To Forgive...or Forget?

A while back, a former friend of mine did some things that were pretty bad. So bad that she went from bridesmaid status to a nobody in my life. I stopped talking to her and she's spent the last 9 months asking me to forgive her and to give her another chance through emails, calls, texts, facebooking, etc. While she's slipped my mind for the most part, once in a while a memory of her creeps back into my mind. I want to either forgive her or forget her but I feel like I'm stuck in the middle. I think we're both different people now, so things won't be like how it was before. But I don't know how things will be in the future, and if it's worth it.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? Which way did you go? If you haven't...which way would you go?

Halfway Done, or Halfway To Go?

Finally finished my last final of the year. Had all these plans to clean up and reorganize my room and shit, but I think I'll just go to bed. Feeling very, very drained. And not just from school.

1 2 3 Go!

9:41am
Our plan today:

Costco
Food 4 Less
Michaels
Sports Authority
Ross
Home Depot
20 pg paper
10 pg take home final
Fix bookshelf
6 month anniversary dinner- grilled pork chops, scallop chowder, mini cheesecakes
Game 2!

*edit*
10:47pm
How did we do?
Jer went to Home Depot and Sports Authority
I went to Michaels (apparently every crafty person in the area got the same mailer we did...yay for 10 for $10 and 40% off, the store was busy!)
We went to Food 4 Less together (so lucky that everything is in the same plaza!)
Postponed Ross until later (had to return a pot since his new roommate brought tons of kitchen stuff)
Went to Costco to pick up a quick lunch (it's awesome living 600 yrds from Costco! Still have to drive though, haha)
20 page paper 75% done
10 page paper 0%
Jer fixed bookshelf! Yay no more crap on the floor!
We cooked our dinner (sans dessert b/c I forgot) while trying to write paper/watch game 2. Not so good at multitasking, either of us.
Whew, Lakers almost came back! They can't win at home now though. I think NBA should be 2-2-1-1-1 and not 2-3-2

Oh yeah, and can y'all believe that it's been 6 months? Feels a lot longer than that. Happy half year, househubby! Hope you liked the butter/onion/celery/bacon/tomato/potato/corn/scallop/clam/clam juice/milk/flour/salt/pepper Manhattan/New England chowder!

M.R.S.

Had a convo last week:

"Hey I can't wait! In two weeks I'm gonna be done with my first year!"
"Good, it's been a long year. One more to go."
"Hehe so what's gonna happen next year?"
"You're gonna graduate, duh."
"Yeah and I'll get my M.P.H. finally! I want my M.R.S. too!"
"Geez someone's demanding."

Cost of my M.P.H.: Roughly $20,000...but fees are going up 7-10% for year 2
Cost of my M.R.S.: Haha, it's really priceless...but according to this site, this is how much it would realistically cost. Sad to know that even though my education is costing a lot already, a wedding will cost even more!

Must continue pinching them pennies! I hate being in debt, I prefer to spend my money AFTER I've earned it. But I have faith that I'll find a decent paying job. I've never been one to settle for anything less than what I think I deserve, whether it's my education, my love life, or my career.