I have writer’s block. I have an article due at the end of the work day today. Why did they present the due date to me on a Friday? I take my Fridays seriously. I am writing this blog entry on the same document as the article I should be working on. I am hoping by some oddity that by me being able to write so fluidly for my blog entry that my brains will burst with some brilliant idea for my article and overflow onto this same page. Probably not.

Sometimes I think I get more and more pessimistic by the day. But then it fluctuates. Life sucks. But wait, life is so amazing, I just need to appreciate things more. Yesterday, I took the bus home from work, since I am in downtown now most of the week. I met a boy and we talked about tattoo parlors in Austin being the most prevalent in the entire world. He said it was a fact; he’d read the rankings off of some article. The boy would be turning 18 in three months he told me. I don’t know if he was trying to impress me with his soon to be able to buy cigarettes or get into those dance clubs on 6th street or acquired voting rights. Well, whatever it was, I bid him take care of himself when I hopped off the bus. I thought about him and our conversation for more than I usually do when I meet other strangers. I don’t know why. He seemed like a cool kid. Kids like him make me brood over why my parents didn’t have another kid after me.

So situations like those make me think I am destined to have some role with kids in the future. Like being the coolest young adult mentor. Ahh, yes…that would be good. But I don’t see that happening for years.

I consider the weekend to be here when I step into the office Friday mornings. The same sense of urgency I felt yesterday completely vaporizes, leaving a nice chill in the air, the kind of chill you only feel when you have no responsibilities or cares in the world. Possibly one of the best feelings ever experienced by man.

Grilled Delights

We bought a new grill today, the cheapest one, after surveying 4 stores. The name of the brand - the look, font, looked strikingly similar to the restaurant with the volleyball court, called Aussie's on Barton Springs and Riverside. Strange resemblance aside, we proceeded to put the grill together after coming home and some frustrations did arise, but the small fire was put out after I left to go to HEB. I went and bought ribeye steak, some chicken thighs, some more steak of which I cannot recall the name of, corn on the cobs, onions, Worcester sauce, BBQ sauce, a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper, and Central Market brand veggie chips. When I got home, we took out bowls to marinate the meat in. Some leftover sauce from Whole Foods including teriyaki wasabi and ginger soy completed the marination process.

Mathis decorated the courtyard while the meat was cooking. He found a wall of some fake bamboo sticks strung together leftover from the house's previous owners and used it to cover the glass door so that more consideration could be paid to those sitting outside by not having to see people inside the house walking to and fro the hallway door. Using sticks of wood strategically placed on two squared grey bricks, he made a very nice table/footrest. The finishing touch included the metal fish taken from its old home in southeast Dallas. Chairs now surrounded the wooden and brick make-do table, including our proud Mexican chair originally bought for camping trips.

The steak was soft and juicy, the chicken was flavorful and tender, the mashed potatoes were well-seasoned and soft, and the corn was fresh, but could have used more time on the grill. And the onions were very well carmelized.

Our first dinner on the new grill proved to be a great success. I am sure I will tell this story again at the many high-society cocktail parties that I will start attending regularly.

Berry Chantilly

Despite the failture of our plan to kick it at the lake, the evening rolled along rather nicely. There was everything you could think of: friends who will forget your birthday and then get angry because you didn't do a good enough job of reminding them (or so they relentlessly claim), 2 bottles of wine - one Pinot and one Shiraz (although we did not get to the Shiraz) 2 dozen Tiff's Treats complimentary of the game's last loser, i.e. yours truly, 2 wonderful cakes - one strawberry ice cream and the second filled with beautiful white cream with berries on top, and of course, the game that occupied our minds, bodies, and souls.

It turned out to be a huge loss for the couple, because one was already the inevitable loser - I notice that if it's someone's birthday, you're either gonna get the hand or the pinch...or both. A picture was taken of the scarlet evidence, but it won't be revealed on this blog.

I had another delivery yesterday at work. It was great, though - I knew exactly what it was and it came about a week early. I laughed when the shipping/receiving employee told me it was a "light package from VSD."

Last night, while the game was on, I was chatting on gmail with a couple of people. I was also playing, mind you, and even lost. I like when people don't give me crap for being on the computer while we're all hanging out. I do give reports about whom I'm chatting with and what they're saying. Cristina's last night: 2 last nights in Austin in tandem! Who will be next? Well, that will come next week. Cristina leaves for Venezuela tomorrow and the feelings were more of excitement than anything. I would love to stay in a villa with a courtyard anywhere in Latin America.

Today, I must prepare for an impending interview on Friday morning as well as figure out some way or other to get out of work twice. My mom says my boss (after confirming the birthday and year) is a horse in the Chinese zodiac and since I'm a rat, we two do not get along.

And I wonder how I stay so healthy

"Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so its got two things going for it."

-Dr. Carrie Ruxton, Public health nutritionist of Kings College London

BBC article

Raising Pandemonium

Things haven't been like what it was for a very, very long time. I try not to think about it too much, but it always creeps up...very slowly, yet precisely...goes into attack mode, and I'm gone...

College will be over soon enough for me and I wonder how these next 4 months will pass. I guess I will be more proactive and find new things to involve myself in. I will have enough to keep me busy with work and school, but I have yet to find something that will satisfy my passion the way AIESEC did.

Or I can just move along quickly and think ahead to December, to our impending trip to Amsterdam.

We said goodbye yesterday after a dinner of Plucker's and some Tremors 4 with Simpsons in between. It was nice, but hollow feelings remained after Johnny left. It will be very strange not having him in Austin, especially in my last semester at UT. I told Mathis I felt like I had just lost a friend and he agreed. Then we trumped off half-heartedly.

Women like to make connections among everything in their lives

I received a package from Tokyo today at work. I'm sure if the other employees walked by my desk, they'd think I'd just been sent some parts or tools for some machine from one of our subsidiaries in Japan. Well, that's what happens when one sits by buyers and planners for a manufacturing company.

Little do they know what is inside this package. I haven't opened it, because, like many things I buy from Japan, the wrapping is so gorgeous that it needs to be savored and not removed immediately, like a kid with his presents on Christmas morning.

The present lays wrapped in a pale orange paper, which makes me think of the beginning of a sunset. The paper has white outlines of a crane and Japanese letters. A coral colored ribbon outlined in gold completes the presentation. Lovely.

The package is addressed to Mr. [insert my first and last name]. The sender is a friend who visited Austin for a few days in May and stayed with me. He informed me of the package a week ago. I think he is confused about the usage of "Mister." He most likely is associating it with "San," which is a respectful title you insert after someone's last name and it is the same title for both females and males.

I can't help but remember my time in Kyoto at the end of July 2004. I was part of the International OC at the LDS for new members while on my CEED. I bought many treats - soft, purple bean-filled pastries as well as green ones. Then I visited an old ice cream shop that sells the best green tea ice cream I can only dream about now.

What sort of connection exists between lunatics and the moon?

The moon followed wherever I went. Two steps in the lake, two steps out. The crescent of a moon was always there, either guiding or watching me. Though the sky was pitch black and the lake reflecting the darkness, I did not feel a tinge of fear or reluctance. Perhaps it had to do with the myriad of bright white stars that lay spread out across the sky. The face of the dark night looks gorgeous with its freckles. Relaxed thoughts and serenity seemed to slowly pull me into another world, one where you could only go if you were able to turn your life around.

I feel like I am often in a limbo. Not quite the traditional meaning of the middle in between two extremes, rather, I think of it as being on a float with no destination in mind although you can see two doors standing still next to one another at the end of the route. The doors are open and they both look like they could contain utopian worlds beyond their no frills entrances, or maybe exits? What's real and what is not. What is practical or impossible.

I try to learn from every new experience I go through, but I don't think you can quite get the feedback or the summary of "things I learned" right away. It does take time. I see this because with every new adventure or endeavor I take on, I only feel more confused in the aftermath. But it's expected.

Camping has always been of particular interest to me, although it began with an experience that no kid wants told, even if it's 14 years later. Moving along, last Friday night could actually count as my first real outdoors experience, or second if you count the shiva shakti party a few months prior, or third if you look at that glitch during my youth group experience at 8 years old. Anyhow, this trip included sizzling chicken fajitas straight from a fire pit created by man, post midnight dipping in the lake, the classic movie scene of staring up at the stars while laying down in front of the water, a long walk around several lake lots of Lake Buchanon, feeling the night winds, and a lot of sun. There were no bugs, in case you were wondering.