Women's fashions

I went shopping with Lynn last week. No, not on Black Friday. Last year, Kevin got up early to get a laptop at Best Buy. They were sold out even before the store opened! They passed out vouchers to the people waiting in line and ran out way before they got to Kevin. So we are never hitting Black Friday in the morning again. I did, however, go to Fry's right before they closed on Friday, only to get a price adjustment. For those of you unfamiliar with the ways of the cheap, most stores give the price difference if you bought something earlier at the regular price and then it goes on sale. Instead of returning the item and buying another one, you just bring in the receipt on the sale day, and they give you the difference. For a little bit of trouble (not too bad because there was no line at the return desk), I saved $12 on a scanner.

No, no, I went clothes shopping with Lynn last week because being single and bored, she has nothing better to do or to spend her money on. However, she was nice enough to let the least fashionable person in the world and three kids come along. Actually, my parents took the two younger ones to see the Santa house and decorations, while me and my oldest tagged along with Lynn. There is nothing like shopping with a sister. She would hold up a blouse and I would say,"that's beyond hideous" or I would hold up a blouse and she would say,"dude, where do you get your taste from?" In the end, she bought one blouse which we both liked.

So here's my rant. What is UP with women's clothing these days? I guess the latest style is to wear some sort of fancy tank top with a teeny tiny sweater over it knotted together between the breasts. After about an hour of wandering around did the look finally strike me as being not that ugly. My daughter had a good time grabbing sweaters off the rack and trying them on. Of course, they fitted her perfectly. She was particularly in favor of this pink sequined one (who buys these things!?). I may not be that fashionable but one thing I do know: you should not wear anything that your 4-year-old looks better in. I better stop here before I work myself into a tizzy about the other crazy women's fashions like the ubiquitous tank top and low cut tight jeans. I am just waiting for baggy jeans and sweats to be in again. Hey, if bell-bottoms (aka boot cut) and platform shoes can come back, anything can.

Sisters

It's nice to finally read a couple of comments. For awhile there, only my sisters commented on the blog, which was not a good thing.

Me: So what did you think about my blog?
Lynn: It's lame.
Tina (later, after I relayed this conversation): Lyne thinks everything is lame.
Me: That's true. So what did you think?
Tina: You have way too much time on your hands.

Thanks, doody heads, thanks a lot. Just for that, you two get to be fodder for this thing!

Still sick

It is official: we are all sick. My parents came over yesterday to bring some soup and food for us. They are normally homebodies but as soon as they heard I was sick, my mom got cooking at the stove. It is weird to think that one day I will mean as much to the kids as my mom does to me. I must learn to make her soup.

Zoo trip

I'm sick again. I got this cold right after we visited the zoo on Friday. My sister Tina was off because of Veteran's Day and wanted to do something fun with the kids. So off to the LA Zoo we went. We all sacrificed our part to go: my dad because he woke up early instead of sleeping till noon like he normally does, my mom because she hates being in the sun these days and the stink of animals, us because Kevin had to request a day off and then had to drive all that way, Eric my 12 year old cousin because he ended up pushing a stroller all day long, and Tina because I don't know why.

It took us awhile to get started because as soon as we got there, my dad had to eat. Although he has diabetes, he didn't eat breakfast. His reasoning was that he never eats breakfast. Yeah, that's because he usually sleeps till noon! And my mom has been trained by him to be extra paranoid about food. So she thinks we're all starving and insists we eat the sandwiches which is actually our lunch. After half an hour, we finally left the front gate area and looked for some animals. Fortunately, they were pretty active, not like the usual sleeping animals. Let's see, we saw two cute bears eating, the male lion humping the female lion, two tiger cubs romping around, an orangutan mother playing with her baby, and a big chimp fight where two males ran around screaming and banging on the glass. It was really something. They scared my daughter who ran away. My son, who was sitting on Kevin's shoulder at the time, said, "hey, you two, knock it off." Guess where he's heard that before, like all the time?

The only bad part was the flamingoes which smelled like they were standing in raw sewage. There were two exhibits of flamingoes, and both smelled bad. I would advise anyone to stay away from flamingoes. Also, my parents started throwing peanuts at the mother orangutan which caused everyone to stare. You all know now how I feel about people staring, so I had to insist that they quit throwing them. Even though the mother orangutan did come nearer with her baby and, as my mother pointed out, there was no actual sign saying do not feed the orangutan. By the way, my parents almost always travel with peanuts because my dad loves 'em. In fact, when his doctor first told him to cut back on fatty foods, my dad asked, "how about peanuts, I can eat peanuts?" And then when the doctor told him no, he should cut back, my dad said," how about I eat only 10 peanuts a day?"

All in all, it was an interesting and fun trip. After we left the zoo, my nose started running and hasn't stopped. So don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for the next few days because not only will I be nursing my cold but also probably the rest of the family's

The Dream

I had a dream last night.

In it, I was sitting in a large room with other people around me. Somebody in charge was passing out a small package to each person. When it was my turn, the leader turned around and grabbed this big bunch of flowers and some huge posterboards. As she walked towards me with this, the young man who sat next to me leaned over and whispered, "I'm sorry, they were all out of roses." I realized they were from him, and before I could reply, the leader was in front of me, handing them to me. The bouquet of flowers was actually a big bunch of pretty small, white flowers and the posterboard was a huge letter to me made out of magazine cuttings, foam letters, pictures, and all kinds of interesting materials. I realized that everyone was staring at me and this huge gift. I also saw the young man looking at me intently with his penetrating face. I couldn't stand everyone's stare and so I quickly said, "Er, thanks," and shoved the gifts under my chair. The young man looked away.

Later on, I ran into the young man while walking home. I struck up a conversation with him, asking him about his bicycle which I knew was his favorite possession. I felt bad for my behavior earlier and so I tried to make up for it by being extra nice but it was already too late. Our conversation was awkward, and he seemed wary of me. At this point, I woke up feeling a little regretful.

During breakfast, it hit me. I had been so inconsiderate to the young man, not really giving him a proper thanks. I cared more about what some strangers thought of me than about the important person sitting next to me. Instead of being ashamed for no reason, I should have showed a more enthusiastic thanks to him and showed his gift off like he obviously meant for me to do. How could I have been so thoughtless?

I suppose the reason this dream stands out to me is that unlike the crazy dreams I usually have, this one is completely in character with who I am. I've done this many times in the past with Kevin. While I was living in Arkansas, Kevin mailed this homemade chocolate cheesecake to me, and when my other housemates saw it, they immediately made fun of loverboy and his gesture. I quickly put it away and then told Kevin not to send me any more.

Even worse, I've done this many times with God. The One and Only God who gave me millions of beautiful flowers in my bouquet and then topped it off with millions of wonderful critters to go along with it. Then he wrote the love letter of all love letters, taking over thousands of years to write, using all kinds of creative styles like poetry, songs, prose, and stories. And instead of thanking Him properly and showing it off, I'm more worried about what other people think, that I might be brainwashed or a Jesus Freak. So I sadly spend all my energy trying to fit into this secular world just to please total strangers.

My only consolation is that unlike the young man in my dream, God (and Kevin, for that matter) have already forgiven me, and there is no awkwardness, no wariness, no trace that I ever wronged them.

Mulan

Here is how we teach the kids Chinese. We show them Mulan over and over again in English until they know all the lines and then we change the audio language to Chinese. It is much better than those cheap dvd's we get from Taiwan and China. So far, they've learned one phrase from it, "tzu fa!" which Shang says right before he leaves Mulan in the mountains. It means "let's go" or "head out!"