A Personal Conversation

I really should learn to slow down a bit or even a lot. Once again, my calendar is loaded to the hilt this week and last week was a blur of too many activities, resulting in a full day of back muscle testing recuperation on Sunday. I logged over thirteen hours of sleep yesterday. Mental note to me: cough syrup and copious amounts of caffeine is not ideal. Jittery nerves and medicine head is not fun. I nearly felt as if my body was going to shut down that day.

I did the most random thing today. Granted my memory is poor at best but I don’t recall ever dropping my toothbrush while in mid brushing motion. Well, that happened to me this morning. Mind must be overloaded. I do admit to my mind being burdened by something on the dumber side but to drop my toothbrush in mid brushing is a bit embarrassing.

Happy Monday world.

I feel unsettled. I have unrest festering in my chest area.
I don’t know why. Well, maybe I do know why.
Unfinished businesses. Too many reminders of my unfinished business.

Grrr. Unsettled and not feeling good about it.

I don’t see a clear solution for this uneasiness. I should simplify my expectations or my frame of mind or something.

Time for a walk in this sobering crisp fall/autumn air.

I love it when kids give me something to photograph.

Here is something recent.

Happy Wednesday world.

I attended a birthday party last night. Someone, whom I suspects has a crush slight interest in me, but I'm not completely sure, throws this question out at me. "Why don't guys approach me at these functions?" I'm thinking this was a, hey boy, I'm single, eligible, and interested but then again, I could be wrong and I've been wrong many times before. As I'm writing this thought, I'm listing to Nelly and Aguilera - Tilt Ya Head Back. I found the timing to be ironic.

I retorted with a sly little reference to some guy she went out once or twice and that didn't work out too well. She didn't respond to that well at all. Oh wells. I'm not interested at the moment. Please call back again later.

Last night, I had dreams about flash photography and hitting the exposure perfectly. Boy, I'm getting geeks out more and more by the minute.

I pulled my first 6.2 miles in over a month. My groin and hips muscles are not pleased with me. As a sign of good faith, I treated my body to a Thai massage, Peuvian food, and a budget priced Chardonnay. I suppose, in the interest of fitness, I could have used without the latter two items. Oh wells.

There are/were two nasty knots on my shoulders about three inches from the center body. One, my masseuse (that's her name) attacked those knots as if her Mercedes CL 550 lease payment depended on beating those knots out of my body. On many occasions, I wanted to burst in tears from the sheer pain. But my cheap @ss Chinese ways motivated me to endure the process and get the most value for my money. One was working hard to help me out and I wasn't gonna let my pathetic low pain threshold retard this healing process. I'm sore now but I do feel more loose.

I can't stop thinking about HER. Having pictures of her to look at ain't helping. Argh. I'll have to ask her out or burst into flame trying.

Monday is ah coming. Happy week peoples.

The sun sets earlier.
The kids are back in school (at least based on my old views on the traditional school year).
The lights come on earlier.
Traffic is worse.

Passage of time.

My energy is muted. For me, fall is a requirement. It has to happen but I don't welcome it. If it were up to me, I would want a combo fall summer deal. Days fill with plenty of light and muted temperatures. However, my relationship with mothernature hasn't matured to the point where I can start asking for favors.

I suppose I'm heart only sides with spring and early summer with higher than average tolerances for middle and late summer as opposed to fall and winter.

The new job...hummm, so far it has been okay. The drive hasn't been that bad but I anticipate it will get worse.
 

My boss seems ultra cool though. My ex-boss emailed me on Friday to tell me how much she misses me. She's a nice person. She works too hard.

Time for me to reduce the food consumption. Must make a stronger effort.

So, I'm returning home from my weekend trip in Maryland/DC.

I visited my childhood friend who now runs a highly rated Zagat rated restaurant in Severna Park, Maryland. If you are in the area, please go visit Cindy and Brian at Cynthia's.

Cindy told me to try Five Guys Hamburgers. Apparently, they have a In N Out like cult following. Considering my very packed social schedule while in Maryland, I doubt I would have the opportunity to search a Five Guys burger stand and have a burger. Besides, with all the eating I've been doing, not having a Five Guy's burger wouldn't be a bad idea.

But alas, fate would have it where my departure gate sat squarely across a Five Guys Hamburger restaurant. Okay, after 20 minutes of self debating, I finally thought, well with a five hour flight and having to PAY for the airplane food, I should just cut my loses at this point and succumb to fate and order a burger. As a compromise to myself, I would order a basic burger, sans the cheese, and enjoy the experience. I'll keep the calories to a minimal and be done with it. I order a regular hamburger with one meat patty, mushrooms, hot sauce, jalapenos, and something else.

I got my burger after a five minute wait and I'm ready to munch while on the plane. Given that I still had a 20 minute wait before I was allow to board, I decided, let's reduce the carry load and consume the burger.

Life played a funny little joke on me. Instead of my ultra simple burger, I got a double cheese burger with the requested accessories. I can't waste food even though I desperately need to cut the consumption. I'm Chinese. I need to not waste. I'm me.

I'm attending a wedding in Maryland this weekend. I'm already here. Having to pay 15 bucks to check in my one additional bag was uncalled for. Considering the weak economy and the decreasing gas prices, I felt violated. Granted, the pay for additional bag has been around for a few months.

The flight was full. What's up with that. Redeye and full. I did, however, appreciate, the airlines showing me Kung Fu Panda. Pleasant surprise.

I hate packing. My attitude is, do the best job possible in one sitting and pack while not stressed for time. Granted, I didn't have enough room in my check in bag for it but I am however, bummed that I forgot to knowingly not pack my tripod. I hope that's the only think I forgot. I think I have enough room and budget for a beanbag tripod or something of that nature. I guess I'll have to find a camera store in the area.

One other note: they charge tax here for beverages at Starbucks. Bummer. The music at this Starbucks is fantastic.

I might be accepting a job soon. Yikes.  

Superbowl Sunday

Got a hot tip and made two extremely small wagers on the Giants. Both wagers hit. I’m up one lunch and a break time drink.

I coat-tailed it to pretty cool catered and bartended party held in a photography studio. The photag shoots food. The food pictures on the wall were pretty cool. It ultra cool for me to be in a fully functional photography studio. Meeting the actual photographer was uneventful.

The huge softboxes were awesome. I want my own studio.

As respect, I did two shots with the host. I choked down one tequila shot and one vodka shot. Both shots didn’t agree with me. Luckily, being the driver, I was able to excuse myself out of three more shots. Poor Monster, he wasn’t feeling so good the day after. Tequila is foul. For some reason, Monster is constantly being associated with tequila. I need to stay away from Monster when tequila is around. I balanced the rest of my drinking night by sucking down girlie wine coolers. I wasn’t about to allow myself to get messed up.

The bartender’s aid kept encouraging me to drink. I do believe he was gay. I do believe he was being overly friendly with me. During the last celebratory stretch, where the Giants scored the decisive touchdown, Bartender’s aid, while I was sitting on a barstool, came up behind me and lightly wrapped his arms around me and jumped for joy, cheering for the giants. When I initially met him, he was donning a Patriot’s cap, which made me question his motives. His chest was facing my back. I was heavily discomforted by this.

Along with the basic sporting event junk food fare, we had BBQ ribs, baked chicken, meatballs, and beans. For dessert, there were Costco cookies and someone brought in some chocolate cupcakes. Tasty. The chili con queso was notable.

The game was projected onto a 14 foot screen. Quarters one and four were exciting. Quarters two, three, and four made the defense tired. I missed all the key audio portions of the game and the commercials. However, I did sing along to the Thriller when the lizards were getting down.

Eli has brothers named Cooper and Peyton. Archie and/or wifey have, by Los Angeles standards, less than conventional naming conventions for their sons. Pretty cool names though. I’m happy for Eli. I wonder what Cooper does for a living?

I’m glad the Patriots didn’t go undefeated. Brady didn’t look like his usual self. Poor guy.

If everything goes through successfully, today will be a fine day in Laker History.

Welcome to Hollywood, Pau.

Kwane, you can't even finish off dunks. Your time is over here. Thanks for the non memories. Try not to get into too much trouble in Memphis.

On a secondary and happy note, Shaq probably won't make the All-Star team. I'm not hating on you, but you are making Mitch look like he knows what he's doing.

Go Mitch.

Unpublished New Years Resolutions – Now Published

1. Swear off all office provided donuts. I will not eat one single donut while I’m at work. If I happened to be in Louisiana and walking by a beignet stand, I’m going to go to town on those bad boys.

2. Consume 64 ounces of non soda liquids. This includes water, tea, or exercise related sports drinks.

3. Get a new professional address.

4. Launch photography portfolio website.

I’ve been pretty good. In the recent weeks, the social calendar has been robust. I’ve been juggling my social engagements with training. What are my priorities?

This week has been difficult.

I made the most of my Sunday. With a reduced bench, I played/ran  extra minutes on Sunday. And as a compensatory act for binging on too much wine on Saturday night (dayam that Taiwanese dude for over ordering, I told him it was a bad idea and dayam my Cantonese @ss for my inability to walk away from unconsumed food/drink), I spent extra time at the gym working off those calories. Saturday night was anti productive for the whole training regiment. I felt so guilty on Sunday morning.

I had a community service meeting on Monday night. I kept it simple.

Darn this DinaLA promotion. I had a terrific dining experience at Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City. The pre-fixed DineLA menu was excellent and I had leftovers. I was told that entrée sizes at Ford’s were built for super models; Light on the servings. However, I left the joint with food in hand. The flatbread there was fantastic.

I had committed to attending a charity mixer for some small MS foundation at the fabulously adorned Edison on Wednesday night.
Train or socialize?
Train or socialize? Argh.
Compromise then. Do both.

4:45 am - 1st Alarm.
4:46 am – turn off alarm and forget about going running in the morning.
5:00 am – never went back to sleep. Spent the last 14 minutes debating with myself about the merits of working out and sleeping more.
5:01 am – merits of working out won over sleeping.
5:20 am – happily and awake-ily on my way to El Segundo
6:00 am – parking and off I go. Mental note, it was 45 degrees out. The beach looked like dream, during sun up.
8:30 am – showered and sore-ily sitting in my cubicle.
8:31 am – legs are gently reminding me that they didn’t like the early morning run
8:32 am – legs are still gently reminding me that they didn’t like the early morning run
8:45 am – still reminding me
9:52 am – still reminding me
2:32 pm – still reminding me

Getting up and running was a proud moment for me. However, my body greatly disagreed with me. I was tired the entire day. I’m still suffering lingering affects today. I should have stretched before the run. It was a bad idea to run without proper stretching.

But I persevere. I will do the early morning routine tomorrow. I hope.
 

It is raining in Southern California.
I do take the 110 to get to work.

While driving to work this morning, while on one of the more windy parts of the freeway, I witnessed an accident unfolding on the other side of the freeway. In the two to three seconds that I had, I saw the hood teepee, I saw the car staring to spin out, and I bits and pieces of plastic parts rain over onto the other side of the freeway, landing on my car.

The adrenaline rush wasn’t ideal. I got sick from the rush and I felt bad for the others involved in the accident. I thought about calling the radio stations to tell them about what just happened but I thought I had better just concentrate on the road and make my way safely to work.

On a different note, I should have exercised better judgment on Saturday night. I made a stupid mistake and luckily I didn’t suffer any consequences. Bad idea Ricecooker. Very bad idea Ricecooker.

My teammate tore his achilles tendon yesterday. Yikes. I feel so bad for him. No more basketball for him.

Gosh. Shame.