Shopping & Bowling

Another wonderful weekend of working. Blech. Both Saturday and Sunday were beautiful and sunny...and I was stuck inside a crazy madhouse Target and didn't leave until the sun set. Grrr.

But anyhow, I finally set up the Wang Family Christmas Tree...it's all sparkly and shiny, just like a good tree should be. So since we got the tree, there needed to also be presents under the tree. So, on Friday, I BARTed into the City and went shopping. First stop: the newly opened H&M in Union Square. I'll admit that I was there more for personal reasons than present-seeking, but I HAD to experience it. I was bit disappointed by the selection, but I did manage to snag these adorably tacky butterfly hair clips. ..they're green and gold, with rhinestones and glitz galore.

I did manage to blitz through my gift list...so I will be off to the post office tomorrow since everyone lives far away from me.

On Friday night, Brett and I went bowling. A few weeks ago, he had beaten me at computer bowling, so I was ready for a rematch with the real thing. We got our snazzy bowling shoes (gendar-appropriate red for me, blue for him), and hit lane #3. He won the first match 124-120 (grrr!!!)...but I bounced back and bowled a whopping 140 the second game for the win. It was then decided that it would be a best-of-three, and by game three, the fatigue was setting in, so he ended up taking it all. Good times.

Holidays

As the month of December speeds along, I am gradually getting into the holiday spirit. Ho ho ho. People have been swarming Target for their holiday trimmings and presents...I try to avoid the seasonal/toy/electronics corner when I'm in the store. There is a tendency to get mobbed by stressed-out guests in those areas. But yes, with all the Christmas cheer in the air, I have been motivated to be festive, and decided to set up the Wang family Christmas tree today. Well, first, I got home and crashed for a nap. No fewer than 4 people observed that I looked very tired this morning...yup, I was up late.

Over the past year and a half, my mother has been cultivating a Christmas tree. Well, it smells like a Christmas tree, but it is quite scraggly and lanky and sparse...I would object to the non-cone structure of the plant, but my mom seems convinced that a potted tree, shapeless or not, is better than a cut tree, and therefore refuses to accompany me to the tree lot to pick out the "perfect" tree. So I have to settle for a scrawny, unbalanced substitute....it needs to be propped up in the corner to prevent toppling. Sigh.

To add the holiday spirit, I am also starting my Gift List. Both my personal wish list, and my list for others (see, I abide by the whole "spirit of giving" thing"). Top on my list is a GPS system...it would be fabulous if the little computer-generated voice navigated me through the streets of SF and kept me from looping around in the sketchy neighborhoods. I figure it will save me lots of time, and time is money. So I'm starting to research GPS systems now. Any suggestions? Oh, and if you're interested in me sharing the holiday spirit, please inform me of your curren t mailing address.

Morning

It's a blah, yucky Thursday...the kind of day when you just want to curl up with a good book and drink hot chocolate and never leave your bed. Unfortunately, a Price Accuracy Workshop thwarted my plans and roused me from slumber at 4:30 AM. Have you ever woken up to a blaring "beep beep beep beep beep beep" alarm clock? Have you ever wanted to smash aforementioned alarm clock with your bare fist and crawl back underneath the covers and continue dreaming about mistletoe and presents and cookies? Ok, so I don't really have dreams about cookies...but I did want to kick my alarm out of the endzone this morning. Instead, I grudgingly obliged its blaring and trudged into the cold. My sockless toes were less than appreciative.

Thanksgiving etc.

So my brother trekked all the way home for the Thanksgiving holidays, and of course he dog-napped Toby from me. He snagged the little puppy, and let him sleep on his bed for the 3 days that he was home. And then, last night, when Toby returned to my room, he yip-yapped his little head off because all of a sudden his little doggie bed wasn't good enough and he wanted to slumber in the people bed. Yip yap, Yip yap all night. Stubborn little puppy. Sleepless little Jocelyn.

Anyhow, Thanksgiving. I cooked. Alot. Karen came over for the weekend, and on Thursday, we spent the entire morning/afternoon in the kitchen mashing potatoes, roasting turkey, peeling apples etc etc. Much more room in my home kitchen than in my Japan kitchen--and a REAL size oven. So yup about 15 Chinese people came over in the evening to dine on the feast, and I somehow feel that the only person who really appreciated the meal was my brother, who really only likes Stove Top Stuffing. Ah well. I also got stuck doing the dishes. But all in all, lots of food is always a good thing, so I was Thankful for everything.

Unfortunately, the next morning, I had to rise and shine at 4 AM because Target decides to open its doors at 6 AM on Black Friday to lure bargain hunters into its doors. When I arrived at my store a bit before 5, there was already a pretty decent line snaking around the corner. Stupid, crazy people. It was drizzling and dark outside. I like shopping, but I have never once in my 23 years waited in line before sunrise for a semi-bargain. Anyhow, the entire day was crazy busy, and the store got thrashed. We did a weeks worth of business in one day. But despite all the craziness, I had a fun day--it's more entertaining when there's stuff going on in teh store than when it's slow and boring.

Football

On Sunday, I attended my first NFL football game ever. Now, I've attended football games before, but they've been college homecoming games, meaning that the focus is more on tailgating and alcohol than football. I've never really understood the footballian method of scoring, and I've never sat down to watch an entire game...the most has been the couple of minutes before and after the Super Bowl halftime show. So attending a real, live game was totally new to me.

Brett had gotten two tickets from one of his coworkers, so he asked me if I wanted to go with. Despite my footballl ignorance, I said yes. So I was to go straight from work (6 am-noon....wahoo!!!) to his place, and then we'd drive to the game. Somehow, times were confused and we ended up missing the first quarter. Oops...I felt quite bad. Anyhow, going to any live sporting event is an experience, and Monster Park (where the 49ers play) is HUGE and football fans are drunk and crazy. I kept asking Brett silly questions about scoring and strategy and football in general, and he explained it all to me in easy-to-understand terminology. The niners were playing Seattle, which is like the first place team in the league or something. In between plays, I gawked at the cheerleaders and consumed a hot dog (mmm...red meat!!!). It was quite fun despite my obliviousness to the sport.

When the game was over, the masses of fans teemed out of Monster Park and into the parking lot. Traffic galore. So rather than sitting in a stalled car and stressing out over slow-as-molasses traffic, we sat in the trunk fo my trusty little Rav-4 and chatted till the commotion died down. And then it was dinner time so we went into SF to Ghiradelli Square and shared a sundae and then it was off back home time and blah blah blah... So yes, I've decided that football is fun when there is a cute boy involved.

Sunny Saturday

It's a lovely Saturday afternoon...sun is shining, birds are chirping, la-di-da. My parents are bugging me to go to a potluck that I've already said I'm not going to be attending...love it when the old folks decide that they want to plan my social schedule for me. I secretly think that it's because everyone at the potluck will be Asian and they encourage Asian shenanigans. Whatever.

I was up for work at 5 AM this morning. Wahoo. The store was SLOW so I was spent a boring 6 hours at work. Now I'm home, planning the Thanksgiving day menu. I remember trying to accomplish the Thanksgiving day feast fiasco in my teeny-tiny Japanese kitchen...if it could be done there, surely this year's meal will be a breeze. My mom doesn't have faith in my turkey-cooking skills, so we ordered a glazed bird, but e verything else I'll be whipping up from semi-scratch. I actually haven't cooked in quite a while so hopefully I still know how to manuever my way around the kitchen.

Anyhow, last night, I met up with Emily, her boyfriend Andrew, and Brett for dinner. Kinda like a double date, but that wasn't the original intention. I secretly think that it was a conspiracy on Em's part because she just wanted to meet the boy but whatever, I wanted to see him too. So we all went out to Korean food and I had a big rice bowl and a delightful Korean cocktail that tasted like grape kool-aid. Like chu-hi, but even sweeter. It was all fine and dandy and then Em and Andrew headed off to pack for LA (road trip down south) and Brett and I were once again wandering aimlessly--total lack of direction. Ended up in the bookstore. Yup. And then suddenly it was like 11 pm and I had to wake up at 5 this morning so it was a bit rough. Ah well I'm young and I'll survive.

5-day Weekend

Yup, I had five full days with no work. And oh how needed it was. I caught up on sleep, played with my puppy, started reading a new book, went to the gym, baked biscotti, ate sushi, went shopping...all the important things that get forgotten about when work gets in the way.

On my shopping excursion, I spent a ludicrous amount of money on one pair of earrings. But they were quite swingy and a very cool blue sparkly...so I feel somewhat legitimized.

Friday, Thome came over late in the evening and we went out for sushi. After some driving around in the upturned parking lot, we found the restaurant. Afterwards, we went and checked out Dave and Buster's, the adult arcade with a bar and games all in one. By far the most fabulous game was the trivia one...yup, Thome and I are clearly both quite dorky. But we wond a pretty sum of tickets, for which Karen got a D&B shot glass. Classy. Went home, and watched Flashdance, that classic 80's movie...so ridiculously plotless and cheesy with blatant T & A shots. And the main guy is a sleazy, hairy neanderthal.

Anyhow, by Saturday morning, I had confirmed my two dates. But first, my grandfather was treating all of us to a traditional Chinese Brunch. Karen came along too....she's quite a fan of the Chinese fried dough sticks.

Yup so I went from brunch to mini-golf with Brett. Of course I got lost along the way, and ended up about 20 minutes late. But eventually we find each other by the batting cages...he's a bit taller than I remembered, but still quite cute. We play putt-putt golf, make witty observations about the little kiddies, and tease each other. Also got in a game of air hockey and skee ball...so it was like being little kids all over again and by the end, I conclude that he is very cute and smart and nice and funny and all those other nice things. And in the oh-so-romantic locale of the parking lot, we make plans to meet up again on Sunday.

So then it's off home I go, to change and speed off to date #2. This is an official blind date...never met the guy before, but did have one phone conversation with him, if that counts for anything. He's nice enough, but kind of juvenile. We were at Dave and Buster's again, and go through the usual first date banter, play games, win lots of tickets. Fun, but no sparks.

Sunday morning, Thome's still crashing at the Wang's, so in the morning, we go out for a big fat breakfast at Flame's cafe. Ordered french toast and an omelette and a slice of carrot cake the size of my head. Yum. I have tutoring in the afternoon, then skidaddle to the gym to work off my PMS bloat by running 5 miles on the treadmill.

And then in the evening, I had dinner with Brett. And after dinner and strolling aimlessly through downtown Menlo Park and conversating in the parking lot (again) for 4 hours about monarch butterflies and infrared surveillance and travels and persian rugs and ducks and KAOS and all sorts of other randomness, I have concluded that I think I kinda sorta like the guy and yeah....