| 25 dec 2001 merry christmas, folks. i just finished halo. the last part was really frustrating, because it's timed.. basically you have to drive from one end of the map to the other in six minutes. it took me like at least five tries to get it. after driving off a cliff, i turned off the game in frustration. but this type of stuff is typical OCD stuff for me... i can't get it out of my head until i finish it. it's a love hate type thing. but after fuming for a while, i went back at it, and two tries later, i finished it. *phew* so my last night in LA, i met up with taiko friend gina. she e-mailed me that day, and gave me her address, and i was like, "hey! you're in cerritos!" i was staying in the same city, so i went on excite.com and did a white pages search for everyone in cerritos with her last name... there were like 70 people found, so i had little hope of finding her. but at the end of the listings, i found someone who lived at her address, so i called the number and left a message. luckily, gina got it, and we met up a few hours later. first, we went to a sketchy bar, with this bartender who was some 40+ year old wrinkly woman with a low-cut top showing off her wrinkly boobs. ewww. i had a johnnie walker on the rocks, and gina had a gin and tonic. we talked a bit, and then headed off to in 'n out to grab some food. it was good seeing gina... she's probably my favorite korean girl. and what makes her different is that she has humility.. and perspective. she's not terribly vain or materialistic or anything... so that down to earth quality makes her rather endearing. i miss her and the rest of the taiko girls that graduated last year. the biggest hurt of the LA trip was not being able to smoke freely... i made a few excuses that i needed to go outside to make a phone call (which is bullshit because my cell gets perfect reception in the house), and that's where i stole away a couple of smokes... but at the risk of people smelling it when i went back in. so i headed straight for the shower the first time, hoping that my mom didn't catch a whiff. *sigh* i gotta quit. my current plan is to finish my current carton and then see how long i can go without a smoke. it's a terrible habit. but quitting is gonna be hard, and i doubt i have the strength to go cold turkey without the aid of patches or gum or anything. so got xmas i got jay the godfather dvd set. but a few weeks ago, when we were having dinner, he said, "i bet margaret is going to get me the godfather dvd set." and my heart just dropped. and when i came home last night, i saw a wrapped present that looked suspiciously the same size as a thick dvd box. when jay and margaret left for church, i pulled out my gift, and i compared the sizes... they were exactly the same. sure enough, this morning, there was a shrinkwrapped godfather dvd set sitting on the coffee table. shit. i guess i'll still give my gift, but i'll see if i can get margaret's receipt and have jay exchange my gift for some store credit or something. i watched the tapes i had of last week's _dawson's_ and _felicity_. both episodes were surprisingly good, both featuring reunions and group gatherings of the friends. in the _felicity_ one, they had a shot of the group walking down a street at night... and it reminded me of the ending shot of my favorite movie, _st. elmo's fire_. seeing movies about friends and camaraderie makes me mushy. even that shot of the four teenage mutant ninja turtles... there's something about good friends being together that strikes an emotional chord in my heart. i was IM'ing mike last night, and we mentioned that we should get together for some pmt today, because both of us wouldn't have much to do on xmas day. so he called me up this afternoon, and we met in cupertino village for some pmt at fantasia. then i grabbed a really late lunch at pho superbowl. great name for a pho place, and as expected, their bowl of pho was quite large and yummy. we talked for a bit at the pho place. we had a little discussion on whether a person should be friends with the ex's. i dunno. i still think it's the civil thing to do, but mike said that often the civil thing and the right thing are separate issues. it's just that i've seen it done before, and i think that if a person was good enough to go out with, then there must be some redeeming quality in that person that would make you want to stay in touch. i dunno. mike said that you have to remember that there was also a reason why you're not together anymore, but i think that as long as you both define the boundaries and don't try to get back together anymore, the problems that came up during the relationship shouldn't be an issue again. *yawn* i'm tired. i'm glad i finished halo, though. leaving it unfinished made me feel really uneasy, like this hole in my life that i needed filling. i just wish i could have finished it with jay, instead of playing the last three or four sections by myself. but now i feel like i've gotten this little monkey off my back, and i don't have to touch the xbox out of sheer compulsion anymore. last night, i had this dream about church people. i went to a local church my senior year in high school. the main motivation, though, wasn't a spiritual one... it was because i was in love with one of the girls there, grace. funny thing is that according to my mom, she's getting married in a few days in LA. i wish her the best. she was a couple of years younger than me, which doesn't seem like a big deal now, but back in high school, anything more than one year seemed like a huge thing. but when i went to stanford, i just dropped all of my high school relationships, and i almost immediately got wrapped up in my college life and forgot about grace. it's pretty sad. i kind of knew that would happen to me, and the letters that grace wrote me went largely unanswered. she was the first girl i said "i love you" to. wow. that seems like such a long time ago. she made me this bead necklace when i left for school, and symbolically, it broke while i was in the shower one day. so that reminder of her that i wore every day for a while was gone, and so went our friendship. but anyways, it had a dream about church people, which hasn't happened to me since high school, i think. we were singing christmas hymns. *shrug* i dunno. it's just weird and coincidental that the dream came on xmas day. maybe it's a religious omen? i wonder... so at least i got to hang out with someone today... spending the entire xmas day alone isn't something that i am excited about experiencing. so it looks like next week plans are being laid down for a new year's celebration at tahoe. should be nice, assuming we can find a hotel place that's not going to cost mucho duckettes. i have to work tomorrow. bye! |