Checklist

- Call appa
- Cardigan
- Coffee
- Cole Valley
- Corner Cafe, Cash Only
- Car stuff
- Condo stuff too
- Chinese food tonight (never a letdown, Shanghai Dumpling King)
- Chez Panisse (oh wait, that's tomorrow)
- Check if you can retrieve data from your computer after you see a HDD HARD error message (see Google result for first two keywords: "Can you...")

Man, girls must be going crazy out there.

My favorite: can you freeze cheese.

Hmmm, I'm feeling lucky!!

OAK

I park my car somewhere on 9th Street in what no doubt has to be Chinatown. At first, I think about re-parking in a “safer” neighborhood, but then I take a look at my Honda and realize that the dented hood and missing emblem caused from my highway accident a couple of weeks ago make my car look right at home where it is. So I leave it where it’s parked and feel additional security by the presence of the three different cop cars up and down the street.

I head towards Broadway Street to the bar where my friend is having a birthday party. I am a bit early, and no one is there yet, so I venture off into the neighborhood to grab a bite to eat and wait for my roomie to arrive. I figure I’ll just end up being late to the party. It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten by myself, and quite frankly, I really should do it more often.

On my way to the bar, I had passed by a couple of promising restaurants; I head back to the intersection of 9th and Washington to check out my options. On one side of the street is a fancier restaurant that serves New American (whatever that is), and on the other is a casual restaurant (but still nice) serving pizza and pasta. I decide to Yelp the fancier restaurant on my BB and surprisingly find that the reviews are decent. My rule of thumb is that the first five or so reviews have to be somewhat good for me to commit.

I decide to leave the casual restaurant and head over to the fancier restaurant. Levende East.

I’d like to say I meander through the crowd over to the bar, where I end up sitting. But in reality, the restaurant is pretty desolate despite the good sound waves spilling over onto the street. I feel the music out – the type of music that you imagine yourself head nodding or foot swaying to. (And yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition).

Relaxing lounge music. Chill people at the bar. Honest waitress who recommends the heirloom tomato salad and the lamb sliders. Nice to just unwind from what has been fast-forward momentum towards I have no idea. The last time I went to a nice restaurant by myself was back in Tel Aviv… back in January… back when… [ end of tangent ]

I like to keep busy and entertained because it helps with passing time and enjoying my 20s life. But I was telling one of my roomies the other night that I haven’t really had much alone time these past few months. So tonight. Is.a.good.night. Not only am I doing my own thing, but I will be able to do what I’ve been doing all summer… committing to not missing out.

Happy birthday to my crafty friend!

‘Til next time, East Bay. And next time, I will have my credit card with me.

(Sadly, I left my credit card in the other wallet, so my roomie is coming right now to cover for my meal as I stare at the $18 in cash in front of me with an embarrassed heh heh.)

Sto-rhie of My Life, 5-7-5 Style

There's definitely nothing like unheated kimchi boggeumbap at 1:30 am. Leftover from our first roomie dinner two nights ago at the new place. I had just gotten off the phone talking to my friend for an hour and a half, and I was hungry from having skipped out on dinner.

We somehow always lose track of time.

Our phone call started as I drove up the 101 back home to SF. The firedrill at work kept a couple of us at the office past 11 pm; I had to cancel my movie date with her, not to mention cancel my scheduled appointment to meet a Craigslister who is selling me his Canon EF 50 mm 1.4f. His name is _ _ _ _face, and I totally butchered his name thinking I was cool, pronouncing it "fah-cheh" when it really is just "face" (as in "your face is ugly").

On a good note, I got this morning off and had high hopes of running through GGP or sitting in a cafe and enjoying people watching before heading to work, but instead, I decided to unpack some boxes, sneak in 10 pages of my book, and finish up on belated haiku (both singular and plural) that I started last week:

haiku introduction
not artsy enough
to write profound poetry
i’ll try anyway

~*~*~*~

about me
accused of being
a “you’re just too nice” ice queen
i have opinions

my outlook on life
nothing to lose by
loving life as intended
give it all you’ve got

friendship
the friends worth keeping
never doubt my intentions
laugh at my bad jokes :)

5 w’s
who what where when why
ignoring punctuation
like oxford commas

things i’m bad at
posting up pictures
my BC calculus class
cardio workouts

she-car-go (Chicago)
high on LSD*
french stroking it in the car
missing girls night out
*Lake Shore Drive, duh

sf
up and down the hills
land of priuses galore
thought to be Chinese

sf restaurants
tacos from mission
at least four stars, yelp dot com
late night anywhere

remaining summer plans
play in the bay, yay
alaska with capuchas
tear it up, vegas

alaska
no sarah palin
yes! to seeing Creation
beauty at it’s best

~*~*~*~

haiku conclusion
no common theme, flow
but that’s how i roll, you know
to bed i must, go

[ edit, more like to lunch i must eat ]

Pit Stopping at Home

I drove all the way home to let my dog out of the house so that he could pee. What lengths I go to for my little brother! But then again, if you saw him, you'd fall in love with him too. It's the least I could do for my parents, who are celebrating their anniversary today in San Francisco.

Surprise umma and appa!

Just checking email on my father's computer right now because I can't get my work laptop connected to the wireless at home. My father's setup is like a control center. Two flatscreen monitors and two keyboards are connected to a laptop. The Yahoo Korea Finance web browser is flashing at me, and there's a Skype window box blinking orange with a message that contains a ^^ face. Sensory overload.. think I'm going to head out now. But first, I'm going to scope out what Korean food my mom has in the fridge.

It's like second nature. Coming home and straightlining to the fridge.

Nat Geo

Back in college, magazines were a pleasant study break with friends. We'd sit at the Barnes in E-town because Borders didn't become an addition to the downtown area until my last two years at school. But now, time spent reading magazines is usually spent alone, and I've recently become a fan of National Geographic. I usually pick up a magazine or two when I'm traveling to pass the time on the plane, so I pick up the latest Nat Geo and Time magazines today as I am en route from NYC back to SF.

[Sidenote: I actually did the same when I went to NYC just a few weeks ago... bought a Nat Geo for my friend who loves elephants. The edition I bought for her featured an article on the ancient baby mammoth found in Siberia, and I saw it on her coffee table's shelf last night. The edition I bought today will probably sit on my coffee table soon after I have perused the heck out of it.]

At the airport, there are several Nat Geo editions. There's one about Machu Picchu, but I've been there and done that (picture above right proves this claim). So... I select the one about the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land that pictures Arab Christians in Jerusalem on the Via Dolorosa, a stark contrast to the mass of Muslim Arabs I encountered on the Via Dolorosa as they were making their way to the mosque for Ramadan (below photo doesn't do justice to the mental image I have). Even after having visited Jerusalem twice, I almost forget that such a minority group of Christians exists.

(September 2008: All the shops closed because the Muslims were heading to the mosque for Ramadan.)

As I take off my Onitsuku's and settle into my business class seat, I notice that the man next to me is checking out my magazine. I am not really in the mood to discuss a topic like the one at hand, and I respond with nothing more than a smile. Interestingly enough, the baby mammoth Nat Geo edition I bought several weeks ago caught the eye of the passenger next to me too. We struck up a conversation that lasted for 2 red-eye hours and talked about life, serious stuff, shallow stuff, and all the in-between. He was a cool twenty-something UCLA graduate from Newport Beach who was heading to NYC for a work meeting, and I didn't mind talking with the surfer dude at the time because he was quite a character. However, tonight I had already done enough talking on the phone with my mother in China and father in Korea (wasn't able to connect with my older brother in Los Angeles) and was too exhausted to discuss viewpoints about any sort of world religion with any stranger.

Love for Nat Geo aside, I love NYC. Overall a great runner-up trip from my trip a few weeks ago to the Green Apple. Repeat of K-town shenanigans plus catching up with college friends and feeling like a Plex cellmate again. There are but a couple of people in SF with whom I could spend the entire day with from morning until past 3 or 4 am where we speak about something, speak about nothing, or straight up fall asleep on each other while hanging out. It is always nice to be around old friends and feeling that comfortable.

It's late. Too much sleeping on the plane has thrown off my sleep schedule and outstripped my brain capacity like a Malthusian catastrophe. I am thinking the Time magazine, entitled "The Meaning of Michelle," will have to wait for later this week.

Michelle Obama and Michelle Rhee. Both meaningful women of power that have made the cover of Time. Me Michelle is still figuring things out for herself but is at least proud of herself for where she is at now.

G'nite SF. 'Til next time NYC.

Coffee Shop

Toasted plain bagel with plain cream cheese. Check.

Small circular, wobbly coffee table. Check check.

Still steaming cup of coffee that is probably too large for my own good. Check check check.

Droning of the Odwalla-endorsed refrigerator & people watching of SF-ers.. getting distracting.

Chiming of the bells that have been placed around the knob of the front door. Okay, back to reality.

Been a long time since I've worked from a coffee shop.

Knowing is Half the Battle

So, I've been back for several months now. I never got to writing that update on Jerusalem*...sorry!

Lately, I haven't had much energy or time to really do anything other than mentally blog. Is that another way of saying thinking too hard? Possibly, and to be honest, not completely out of the question. Mentally blogging somehow helps me to make sense of things.

I should probably be sleeping soon, but I can't get my mind off of the documentary I just watched called, "God Grew Tired of Us." I guess the documentary has got me mentally blogging, and I want to get out some thoughts out in writing before I forget.

As part of my goal for 2009, I'm trying to become a more educated and responsible citizen in this world. Maybe all this living in Haight has heightened my sense of social responsibility. Regardless of the reason, I'm learning and attempting to broaden my peripheral vision beyond the narrow focus of comfy, cushy, yuppie life by taking it one step at a time.

My desire to self-educate more on social issues initially stemmed from my recent sojourns in Israel. Initially, I wanted to read up on issues regarding the Gaza strip because I didn't want to sound like an idiotic, clueless American when visiting. I actually found it difficult at first to plunge into learning about these issues because they are complicated by factors that cannot be easily reconciled: history, race, and religion.

Not surprisingly, these factors had their own roles in the documentary I watched tonight about the war in Sudan. Although the documentary wasn't my favorite, it was worth learning about the Sudanese Lost Boys and hearing about their struggles in America after becoming refugees. The documentary got me thinking, and I think there's something truly innocent and memorable about:

• Someone who sells his remaining corn rations to buy sweets for some of the children in a refugee camp
• The question, “What is a shower?”
• Excitement over experiencing electricity for the first time
• The sight of a man eating a whole stick of butter because he doesn’t know what type of food it is
• A man playing with a balloon for the very first time
• The confused look on a man’s face when looking at an Orthodox Jew for the first time in his life
• A hand motion towards a trash can as someone says, “Do not throw the trash out the window. Put it here.”

Next week, I'm watching a documentary called "Made in America" with a few friends. If you're interested in taking baby steps at world class citizenship, then let me know.

Knowing is half the battle [against ignorance].


*Sidenote: I will make it a point to dedicate a post to Jerusalem the next time I'm in the Holy Land. Glad to know I have fans of my blog. Really appreciated all the emails, IMs, wassups, and "omg, be safe" messages that I got while I was overseas.