08.26.04
Holy Moly…
… a week has gone by since I last wrote something! That’s gotta be the longest time. Seriously though, if you noticed it’s been a week, you need to get a life. Some people do have lives, you know. Some people on the other hand, like myself, (and like yourself, if, as noted previously, you noticed that it’s been a week since my last entry,) do not.
All I’ve been doing this week, since Sunday is pack, pack and oh yay, pack some more. It never ends! My room is a mess, and although boxes are starting to pile up, it just seems like there are even more stuff to be put in boxes. I absolutely detest moving. Actually, moving to a new place is kind of exciting in a way, so I guess I only just hate the packing. This move is a bit daunting though, because everything will be new. It’s a new city (Keene, is hardly a city, but whatever), a new apartment, new white people around me (diversity is not in their dictionary), and a new job. Not to mention, in a few weeks, a new car too.
What’s with me and (parenthesizing) everything today?
Anyway, I always used to think people who have cars have money. Well, some people do, but, as always, I have to be an exception to my stereotype. This move is going to leave me broke. The downpayment for the car, the insurance, the monthly payments, along with furnishing a two-bedroom apartment are torture to my bank account.
Did you notice how confidently I mentioned that in a few weeks I will be driving a car?
I’ll be driving! Yes, that’s right, I passed my second road test. I am now officially a driver in the state of Massachusetts. Woo!
I was so nervous during my test. The night before, I had a nightmare about it. It’s so bizarre and so complicated, but still pretty much crystal clear because I wrote it down after I woke up from it. Yes, I’m psycho.
The summary of that dream was that Eric couldn’t come on time, and T, by some stroke of luck, was in Boston, after a 12 hour drive from Virginia, so he took me to the road test. At some point, I left T at the DMV to look for Eric and when I got back, he was washing his clothes at the DMV while, at the same time, wearing wet clothes. Just before I woke up, the DMV had just checked us into a hotel because they ‘overbooked’ the tests and couldn’t accommodate us. Sweet. Still, I was so mad that I didn’t get a preview of the test even in my dream.
Eric was so sweet though, he made me drive, despite my many pleas to not drive, from the mall to the test site to get a feel for the car. He even asked me to practice backing up to a parking spot. I did a horrible job on that, but I just wanted to get it over with, so I didn’t practice it again.
So, on with the story. I had a big teddy bear of a police man tester. This man was huge! Not fat, but huge and heaving. After checkin the car, he asked me to do the hand signals. I think he felt sorry for me failing the previous test because of the hand signals. This is how it went:
Cop Teddy: You know your hand signals now, don’t you?
Me: Yup. I actually said slow for the last one, but she wanted me to say slow-to-stop.
Cop Teddy: She was a toughie, wasn’t she?
Me: Oh yeah.
Man, I’m so witty. Oh yeah.
Anyway, pity is a good sign at a test. Before I drove, I even asked him to wear his seatbelt, but he declined. Still, that was a good safety check, Deeds. Going out the parking lot though, he asked me to take a left turn, and I said, “Left turn? But it says no left turn!” Then I realized at that time, left turns were allowed. Nice going. Ick.
The first part was pretty basic, I just had to go around the block, and stop at every stop sign. Of course I didn’t fully stop at my first stop sign, so, in an attempt to make up for it, at the next one, I stepped a bit too much on the break, and had to say, “oops, sorry”.
The second part was backing into a parking space. I did such a horrible job! I was in the line, but slightly over the line and the car wasn’t straight. Eric was visibly cringeing in the back seat. After that we made our way back to his car and he gave me another shot at backing up. I did a better job, although I was really close to his car. At one point he said, “Now don’t go hitting my car now!” Nice, Deeds.
Of course, being the teddy cop that he was, and sympathizing with me for my previous test, he passed me. He said Eric should make me practice the backing up many times, but he’ll pass me.
So, now I can drive.
That’s my story. The End.
08.18.04
Three Messages
Thanks to Eric for driving me to the site of my road test tonight. He forced me to get a feel for the car too, which was cool, except that I didn’t get to try parallel parking on it because there was a security guard roaming the parking lot. I hope we get there early tomorrow so I can drive around again. Wish me luck, please.
Congratulations to Mike for coming to the decision of going to law school. Another bad loss for Argosy. Good luck at Fordham.
Chayo! to TB when unloading stuff to his new place all by himself. Wish I could help.
08.17.04
My life is so exciting
I was a total bum today, reminiscent of my unemployed days when I’d be a bum, give myself a hard time about it and be motivated enough to keep doing nothing. Despite the lovely summer day outside, I made myself stay indoors watching footage of the olympics, of the cross-country equestrian event, nonetheless! Woo! I saw 3 world-class riders fall while jumping over the grecian urn.
At about 1:00, I finally convinced myself to shower and get ready to go outside to read a book or something. But alas, laziness overcame me once again. By the time I was ready to go outside, I lay down in bed, closed my eyes, and decided that the nice day is not enough motivation to go out.
Then, feeling thoroughly disgusted with myself for being so lazy, I had some ramen noodles and watched some more of the olympics, only this time, I saw the men’s 200m semis. Of course, everyone knows that when you’re watching gorgeously fit people doing hard-core physical activity while you’re berating yourself for being so lazy, you have to eat ramen noodles. It’s the only way to go. Mmm, sodium.
Then, at around 5:00, in an effort to productiveness, I started reading my C++ book. Of course, I fell asleep soon after. By some miracle though, at 6:30, seeing there was still some sun outside, I went out and walked to Shaw’s. Woohoo! Finally, some exercise. I bought tons of food too.
I’m lazy AND I’m a fattie.
Life is sweet.
08.15.04
Road Test Road Kill
So, I had my road test last Wednesday at the Watertown Mall.
It’s rumored to be the easiest test in MA. It’s where everyone’s worst driver friends got their licenses.
Oh yeah, so I failed the stupid test.
I didn’t even get to drive!
Nasty, nasty woman police tester was implacable.
She asked me to describe and demonstrate the three hand signals.
I did really well on the left and right turns, but I could not, for the live of me, remember what the third signal was for.
D: Uhm… U-turn?
NWP: Nope.
D: So, what is it?
NWP: You’re the one taking the test here. Think.
D: (Thinking) Oh, slow?
NWP: Yeah, slow on?
D: (Slow on? What the?!?!) Uhm… slow on an intersection?
NWP: No, slow to stop.
D: (So, why did you even say slow ON, when you could have said slow TO!?!?! Objection, misleading!)
NWP: You have to review your hand signals. (Scribble, scribble, scribble on my permit)
D: Okay. (Hands on the steering wheel, looking forward, ready to move)
NWP: Reschedule. (Step out)
D: (Dumbstruck) PAUSE (Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) What just happened? (crazy laughter)
So there. That was it, it took about 3 minutes, tops. I was there with my aunt a good 2 hours before my test. Oh, what a disappointment.
Good thing though, I was able to reschedule my test for this Wednesday at the Cambridge Armory, where they make you do everything and where Eric’s brother failed the test.
Heaven help me, please?
08.10.04
Hello ‘Te
I just realized I didn’t note down my sister’s latest achievements.
1. She finished the New York bar exams 2 weeks ago. (results in October)
2. She met her boyfriend’s family a day after the bar exams ended.
3. She got a job the next day after coming back from meeting her potential extended family.
Woah, there, baby. Go ‘Te.
PS: I just watched Mallrats. Snootchie Bootchie! woo!
08.05.04
Muse Superfan + Last day at Argosy
Yup. That’s what I am, at least according to Jared.
I was wearing my hot pink Muse shirt from the Curiosa Festival and he said:
“Muse, huh? You’re a Muse superfan!”
Or something like that.
Plus, I got to tell everyone I went to the Curiosa Festival and that they too can go for only $25. I’m like the Muse advertiser or something. Yeah, I’m with the band.
Oh, and thanks to everyone at Argosy, today was my last day. It was awesome. People were wishing me good luck, I got a free lunch from Mike and Jared, and a free drink from Chris.
Yay, I actually made friends. Awesome.
No freaking OT anymore
So, I got my paycheck today and I’m pissed to find out we weren’t going to be paid for overtime anymore.
SUCK!!!!
I was pretty happy this morning too! I had brought in 2 dozen doughnuts and it was nice to be the reason people were having a sugar high.
Oh well. I hate money. I wish I had tons of it so that I don’t despise not having enough of it; but, I don’t want to have too much so that I don’t know it’s value anymore. Ah yes.
At least I found out that I would have to pay almost 1/2 my insurance quote (~$375/month) since I’ll be an NH resident soon. Plus, I won’t have to pay sales tax. Isn’t that awesome! Yay, no more outrageous MA expenses. NH here I come.
Oh, how sad.
08.04.04
Updates
So, it’s been a week. Wow. Here’s the highlights of the past week:
1. Minado [food] - Oooh, delish Japanese buffet! I used to say it’s a sushi buffet, but it’s more than that. There’s one row of just sushi, one row of hot entrees, one row of salads, and one row of desserts. If you like sushi, this is the place for you. I mean, there’s so much stuff you can try, it’s not even funny. It’s only $15.95 for lunch and really, one full plate of sushi is worth that at least, and then you get to have other stuff too. Everything is fresh, contrary to the buffet stereotype where things get stale or ingredients are substandard. Everything feels nice and fresh and hot and crunchy and ooh. This is definitely highly recommended.
2. Curiosa Festival - This is my first concert festival, so I’m no authority, but, oh my gawd, it was sweet. Muse was sooo cool. It was just awesome, I was so speechless, so high and so overwhelmed right after the set. Too bad it was such a short one. They only did about 5-6 songs, I think. But still, Muse alone made it worth my $60 bucks. I was rocking along with the rest of the crowd, it was awesome. I was flowing.
3. Keene - I checked out my new town this weekend too. I saw one other asian guy in the Thai restaurant and he was a waiter. That’s it. Yeah, I’m sure I won’t be discriminated upon. I mean, everyone I met from my future company has been extremely nice. There was this one scene though, that keeps bugging me. TB and I were walking along Main street and somebody hooted at us for some reason he and I can’t figure out why. That was slighly unnerving. Being the only two non-white people there, I can’t help thinking it might be because of that. Oh well.
I got so depressed though, when we were eating at Bickford’s. I mean, I’ve always lived in the city, even in Manila, and in Boston, there were always so many different kinds of people around me. Keene is a really, really small American town. Oh well. At least I’ll get to do hiking and biking and snow boarding. Maybe even kayaking. Who knows. Whatever.
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [books] - I looooove Harry Potter books. I woke up this morning feeling so bad for Harry Potter and just thoroughly hating Professor Umbridge. I was so disgusted imagining her toad-like face until I realized I had to get out of bed. I don’t even know why I was thinking of Harry Potter, first thing in the morning! No, no, no, it’s not like that. I’m no Michael Jackson. It’s just that I’ve gotten so involved within his whole story. I re-read the books one after the other again so that I can read book 5, and oh my, I’m flowing again right now!
5. The Village [movies] - I thought this movie was okay. I was expecting more from it. I think, I expected it to be more thrilling and to have a bigger twist in the ending. It wasn’t bad, it was still pretty good. I still like the Sixth Sense the best of Night Shyamalan’s movies.
