It’s been a busy week, and an… interesting weekend. An old friend from high school was visiting last week. On the night I hung out with him and his friend, we visited Reid over at the club and got a good buzz going. Thinking back on it, it may not have been the greatest thing because I took them to Sapphire Rhino afterwards. They were then hustled out of hundreds of dollars (while I stood around saying “I’m good” and “I’m just waiting for my friends” over and over again).
My friend’s friend came back at one point with a drained look on his face.
“How…much did you blow?” I asked. “Did you buy her an Xbox?”
“I bought her Xbox-es” he said, shaking his head.
Good times.
And the weekend … brought about fundamental changes to my life. It’s nothing that took me by surprise, but .. it’s change nonetheless. The next few weeks are going to be interesting.
I just finished Super Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The book was interesting; not as good as Freakonomics was, but still interesting. It wasn’t really a sequel either, more of a followup.
I’m just feeling good that I’ve read a book again. The last time I read one of these things was back in November. Up until then I was going through about 2-5 a month. And then Modern Warfare 2 came out.
So I think I’ll stay off the video games today and keep reading. Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” is sitting there on the coffee table so I guess I’ll just dig into it. Time to put on my bad-writing-glasses!!
It’s another cold night here in Vegas. Of course, I shouldn’t be complaining about weather in the mid 50s, but most of you guys reading this are in Hawaii, so I think we’re good.
I knew before I left that I wasn’t looking forward to coming back to the cold. And I’m still feeling a little weird. I’m still wearing shorts and a t shirt, just like I have been for the past month. I even walked out to the mailboxes like this yesterday. I’m not sure if I was imagining things, but the puffy-jacket-wearing-lady that I passed and said hello to looked at me like I was on crack.
It’s a cold, quiet night here tonight. Kerri’s already asleep after a long day at work. I’m sitting in the living room, TV off, and thinking I’ll probably just be reading tonight. I was pretty excited a few minutes ago when I saw this link that lets you play Super Mario Brothers:
It made me think of this time when I was a kid back at a church dinner. For the kids’ section, they’d set up an NES with this game playing. Remember how it was a two player game, and the second guy would take his turn after the first guy died? Well I was Luigi, and after the kid on controller 1 died (which took maybe 6 minutes), I went on to pass the entire game in one go. Yeah, I used the warp zones and all, but I just didn’t die. About half an hour later, there was an audience watching me pass the game (only half an hour because I used the world 1 and 4 warp zones). I distinctly remember this one guy behind me saying “He’s going to do it. The korean kid” (I’m Chinese).
Yeah dude, I used to rock Super Mario Bros like that. Thinking about it now though, poor kid on first controller only got less than 10 minutes of playtime and had to spend the rest of his turn waiting in vain for me to die.
Fast forward to tonight. I’m trying to play it on my keyboard and I died literally 4 seconds into the game.
You can’t go home again.
There’s a metaphor to life here somewhere. One that even relates to me this very night. I’m just not sure what it is…or if I even want to realize it. So I’ll stop here.
I’m back in Vegas. Flew out on Sunday night and forgot that check-in and security for the 10pm flights at Hawaiian’s Interisland terminal take all of 10 minutes (I got there about two hours early like how you’re supposed to). I had a drink at the airport bar and talked a bit to these two girls who were celebrating their last year at HPU and going on their first trip there. Their to-do list included seeing the Pirate Show at Treasure Island and going to the top of the Stratosphere. I wished them an awesome trip.
Then I got to Vegas, and it was raining. What gives?! On the plus side, I haven’t washed my car once since the day I bought it, and the rain got it looking white again. Kind of.
Kerri’s family is in town this weekend, so after getting home and taking a short nap, we headed downtown to hang out with them. I blew about 40 bucks on slot machines, realized how little I missed gambling, and later helped take her family down to the Bellagio so that we could check out their Chinese New Year Display over at the gardens.
I’m going to steal one of Kerri’s pictures from yesterday. I really need to get a camera.
Those are pandas made of flowers. The centerpiece was a huge tiger made of flowers for this year (mom’s year!)
And of course, it’s always nice to see white people taking photos and enjoying the whole asian thing. I overheard someone ask her friend “So what’s with the tiger?” This runs a close second to the time I was at the buffet over at Main Street Station and I overheard an old white lady at the buffet line ask “What is that? Shrimp?” It was crawfish. And, honest to God, the only people I saw eating it were me and a black family. Not that I’m complaining. Hey man, more for us!
It was a busy day, and I had a lot more time to unwind today. Kerri’s at work now, and after she comes back, we’re going to head back downtown to spend time with her family again. It’s their last night here before they fly back to Hawaii. They’ve been here since Friday, and I totally planned on getting here before they did, but I did the typical boyfriend thing of not paying attention when she was talking. I thought she said “They’re coming on the week of MLK”, when it was actually “The weekEND of MLK”. Oops!
At least I got to see them for the last half of their trip.
I spent the day unpacking and washing my clothes, and unwinding. It was an awesome time back in Hawaii, and great seeing friends again. I’m trying to think back over all the memories while at the same time realizing that, like everything, there’s only a limited time that you can really remember a good time accurately, before parts of it start getting distorted and/or slip away.
Again, maybe I should get a camera. And use it.
For some reason, a recurring memory was from a few hours before my flight. I’m outside, saying goodbye to my dogs. They were wagging their tails and licking me, like nothing was wrong. Of course, they didn’t get that I was leaving, and even now that I’m gone, they’re not sitting there wondering where I went. And the next time I see them, they’ll walk up to me, wag their tails, and lick me again, as if I were always there.
That’s living in the moment. A state of mind that we can all hope to strive for.
The very last person I kissed before leaving was Toby. I’m especially worried that every time I see him might be the last, because he’s getting on in years. So I made sure to take a few extra videos of him. Here’s me waking him up the other day, trying to get to to follow me, and realizing that he was content where he was. After I left, he curled right back into a ball and went to sleep again.
Crazy last night in Hawaii…last night. Some drinking, singing, good conversation, and catching up with old friends. I also met some old white dude at a bar who I found out lives two blocks away from me in Vegas. I traded numbers with him and kind of started regretting doing so a little later. Is this how girls feel after they give out their numbers?
I got home late, and was pretty tired. But I was feeling well enough this morning when mom threw my door open and announced that we were going to church.
I walked up with her and felt a little bad because I hadn’t showered when I got home last night (the sin was still all over me!) It was a nice service, though. There was a Christian family there from Jordan who sang a few songs in Arabic.
So today’s my last day, and I’ll probably just take it easy and spend time with the mom and baby bro. Some time later mom wants to go back to Kaimuki Library because Frank DeLima is going to do something there. I didn’t even know that guy was still around.
It was a nice day with the family, helping out with errands here and there, and eating Korean food for lunch. Then tonight, another chill evening but this time at Mercury Bar. Again, watching Ikaika on the keys and Mark on the Drums, drinking $3.50 PBR’s (any bar with PBR is ftw, btw). Random encounters with people I haven’t seen in years, good music and interesting prose.
Other things of note: A large block of verse scrawled by whiteout pen over the urinal: I only read part of it while taking a whizz and soon lost interest and skipped to the end. Also, the sink in the men’s room with only the hot water working: Something I thought was strangely fitting considering the bar’s name (the planet I mean, not the god of trade).
Early night tonight and I’m back home, watching yet another installment of the Conan vs. NBC Marathon. Three more days in Hawaii after this before heading back to the cold.
I made my way down to the Dragon Upstairs tonight. Ike the mercenary-pianist was playing with band-of-the-night. I drank a $6 Guinness out of the can and listened to smooth music, mulled over my life a bit, and went further beyond my texting quota for the month.
On the way back to the car, two seperate bums both specifically asked me if I had 75 cents. Whaddup with that? Did they find that it works better than asking for an entire dollar? Or is it because times are tough and even they understand that everybody’s stretched thin?
On the drive home, I noticed that the guy who does the radio commercial for Senor Frogs doesn’t pronounce “Senor” correctly. He pronounces it “Senior” (as in “Senior Citizen”) which I found pretty ridiculous. Random rant.
Either way, I’m home early tonight. In time to watch the more of Conan O’Brien’s disgruntlement with NBC. Tonight was a good night.
Three bars in one night. Ended up at Irish Rose - the only stick of butter in the milk aisle, if ya know what I mean. Good times, though. $2.75 PBR’s like it should be, not no $5.50’s like they do it at 35. I bounced when the band started playing Kings of Leon. Can’t stand the mumbling. Zach, I still owe you a hefe, and also found out that Colorado girl is really into fistbumps.
As for tomorrow… I’m excited, but scared at the same time. We’ll see how that goes.
I decided today that I’d spend the day with mom, help her out with errands, and take her out to lunch. Here are my Facebook status updates from throughout today:
Day with mom part 1: Eating oatmeal with moms on the couch and watching cooking shows with her. She’s surprised at how many cooking shows there are now. “Nonstop cooks” she said. “Everyone’s on the bandwagon” Oh mom…COMON!!!!
Day with Mom part 2: Finish eating our oatmeal. I’m like “Hey did you put Vanilla in this?” She says it’s a protein powder. “I don’t need protein!” I tell her. And point at my awesome (ie: girly) arms. She gave me a “wtf are you talking about” look and went back to the kitchen to wash up.
Day with Mom part 3: Finished talking to mom about things I needed to do while I’m back here, and went ahead and booked my flight back to Vegas. We’re going to the bank next, and then to lunch.
Day with Mom part 4: Went to Tenkaippin for lunch (again) and smelling all garlicky (again). Afterwards waited around at the vitamin shop while mom meandered around like she always does, then went to Foodland to do bank stuff and go fruits shopping.
Day with mom part 5: At Foodland I’m blown away at how produce costs twice as much as it does in Vegas. EXCEPT CHICKEN LIVER! Some kind of weird special today where they were selling trays of old chicken liver for 9 cents a pound. After mom flipped out for a while, we bought the last three 2lb trays they had. Total cost: About 57 cents. No clue what we’re gonna do now though. Probably dog food and some human food.
Day with Mom part 6: On the drive home from Foodland, mom’s still happy about cheap chicken livers. I initiate a highfive. She sits there confused for a while and does a upward-swinging underhand reverse-’gimme-five’. I spend the rest of the drive home explaining the difference between ‘gimme five’ and ‘highfive’.
At Jazz Minds tonight with Ikaika. Always good times, especially when that guy gets drunk and goes totally native with the racism. A few hours, shots, and beer backs later, I’m riding home, going through Waikiki and yelling at young couples. I find out the hard way that Kaimuki’s Zippy’s is no longer open 24 hours and now I’m eating instant Nisson Chow Mein. Good times all around. Somebody help me. Please.
