flurfy hair.... FLURFY HAIR!!
Tkimutaku's flurfy hair in MR BRAIN is amazing. i mean, is there anything more amazing that kimutaku's hair... flurfy. well, yes, but for now, i'm satisfied in the amaziness of his bouncy and wavy hair. the drama is total crack. first of all, the first scene you see is of him pouting. kimutaku --- pouting! sigh, after watching nakai in a drama with hair, i should not have been so amazed, but i am. this is how bored and pathetic my life is... oh well, i'm happy ... fairly content. ..
so i know it's been a while since i've posted. i leave a very boring life so there's really nothing to comment on.
love julie and julia. meryl streep is a great actress. mom loves her. i love food. went to barnes to try and get julia child's "mastering the art of french cooking" it's on back order. i'll wait until the faze dies down before i go back and get it. also, it'll be some time before i finish the four books i bought on that trip.
i got
- Julie and Julia by Juile Powell
- My Life in France by Juila Childs
- The Hour I First Believed by Wlly Lamb
- Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonello
reading the birkin one now. love it. tho i hate hermes now tho. and truth is i've never been a big fan of birkins. i know it's all the mistique of the bag and marketing of it that makes it special. personally i prefer farragamo's leather and designs. granted i've never even held a birkin bag, but the design i guess is just too ... "mature" for me. but the book is great fun and i'm completely envious of the author who [spoiler alert] moved to barcelona and found his love... and money and fashion].
one of the reasons that i even got to get to go to [say that three times fast... got to get to go to] was cuz mom and i was waiting for the gap to open sunday so she can find some comfy white pants.
as most knows about the horrid typhoon morakot has devestated southern asia. China, the Philippines and Taiwan were hit terribly. mom and i helped by well calling ppl who had money and ppl who could volunteer. our temple went out to the grocery store fronts in chinatown and asked ppl coming in and out to donate. as a member, my mom had to wear the designated blue t-shirt with white pants. the saying is "blue skies with white clouds". grams loves the uniform. when the 9-21 earthquake hit and the volunteers hit the streets, she would walk by and empty her purse into each donation box and tell them "my daughter's a member" personally i think they should change it to "white clouds on blue skies". have you ever tried to find comfy, airy, white pants [sweats are not allowed] mom's old white jeans had a stain that she could not get out, so we went out to the black and white store and got a pair. it seemed nice. it really is nice. however, when you're out in the heat for over two hours, it's not so nice. mom hates the extra lining. it keeps ppl from seeing her underwear but it also keeps her legs from breathing. the first day, we had two two hour shifts. i was aboot to die under the humid weather. so over the week before the next weekend [we scheduled for two shifts spread over the two day] we looked everywhere for affordable white pants that breathed. ten stores and nothing. mom had to wear those pants again while i wore the thinnest, loosest clothes i could find [i had wore jeans that first weekend... more on that later]. finally, sunday morning, we went out to einstein's bagels by the town and country and thought we'd walk over to gap to check one final time... they were open at 12 and it was only 11 then. not wanting to head home and then come out again, we went to barnes and i got my books and waited. they had white jeans, only thing was that they were the torn kind. mom was iffy. i was like "get it. GET IT!" we went all over town to get them she better get them. i think she finally gave in cuz they had a sale and it was tax free weekend. but funny thing was she walked out of the store with them on [we paid for them of course] and neither me or my mom or the sales lady even saw teh security tag on the bottom of the pants. the alarm didn't even go off. so basically she wore torn pants with the security tags on to ask ppl to help the victims of typhoon morakot. [i guess it's funnier if you know how strict ppl are about appearances at the temple]
so that is the story of our pants seeking adventure. it sounds wrong somehow, tho it's really ever so innocent. .
you can stop reading here. the rest is just rantings and more rantings and what i remember so that i can remember later on.
i love and hate volunteering. obviously, i hate it cuz it means ppl out there are suffering. i love it b/c i get to help. i also hate it cuz it seems that everytime something happens, the weather is just wrong. it's unbelievable hot and humid out and the first weekend [as i have mentioned before] i wore jeans. i wore loose jeans, but still, by the first half hour it was stuck to my skin. by the end of the day, the material has infused onto me. i kid you not. our first shift was in front of my mom's fave grocery store. our first time at that location. we usually got viet hoa cuz most ppl spoke english there and not a lot of volunteers speak english. well not a lot of volunteers speak at all, to my chargrin. mom had asked her friend, my old chemistry tutor, to help out. she's a nice lady and her kids are great. they had chinese school so they couldn't come. in our group was also a "su-bwo" one of the elder male volunteers of the place. i don't care for him. you'll see why later. so we're out there right and the temple's ... i dunno... media person came over to take pictures. she actually had the gall to tell us what we were supposed to do. lady, i've been volunteering since i was six. me and my mom ignored her. she was full of it and didn't know what was up. [i sound full of it, i know but seriously, you'll see why i'm pissed] being a buddhist and asian foundation, my mom and i always have a rule to bow at a 90 degree angle to all those who pass. for my mom, it's her very own communion [or something like that... she used to be catholic] it's her way of paying for her sins. so imagine now, each time a person comes in and each time they go out, we bow at least once [one per family at least] and extra bows if they donate in that weather. she definately paid off all her sins. personally for me, it's more of a business strategy to get more ppl to notice and willing to donate. it's pays off later when i explain. so the "su-bwo" [actually i stop calling them that respective term for a while now, after i had yelled out i was leaving that temple and i was taking my mom with me... didn't work obviously] was really annoying. i know that there are a limit to things that ppl can do. doing the whole 90 degree bow thing is something a younger person can handle. even my mom's friend didn't bow as far as we did cuz we know her back isn't that great. but at least she spoke up to each person who came by to implore their charitability. seriously all he did was stand there and hold the sign. not just that, he stood in the shadows away from the flow of traffic. if you're going to stay in the shadows, fine. it's a hot day. we even went inside the atrium [there's a mini foryer that has two automatic doors on each side that enters into the grocery store. there's a room in between that we can stand and stay away from the heat, and better yet someone had knocked one of the inside doors open and so we had a/c. [mom had to talk to the managers - well she knew the owner and had called him but didn't want to use him over the manager and implored for him to let us stand there out of ppl's way and out of the sun.] we had asked him if he wanted to stand inside with us. being stubborn he stood outside. i was like, w/e. .
the cherry part was when we say jade temple's youth group out there with us. since it's going to be awkward having both groups stand in that tiny entry way [since we were more agressive, it was obvious they weren't going to get much.] there were two side entrances and since they had more ppl [they had like ten vs three four of us] they split up and secured those exits. then mom went over to talk to them about how they should be agressive and appreciative of what is going on. even a quarter or nickel will help the disaster relief. apparently it's the first time jade temple did anything like this [i find that hard to believe, but maybe so since my family also left that temple. not really, we still know ppl there, it just that i stopped going to chinese school there so we had no reason to keep up with all that was going on. the reasons are for another day, most already know the story, and it's a great story, but this one is running on long enough] so the kids were adorable. they made their own posters and wrote in bad chinese handwriting. one was even just holding out the newspaper with the fallen hotel picture on it. [youtube link] there's a guy who delivers fresh chinese bread to each grocery store and when he passed us, he gave us a box full. we gave them to the kids. in turn, one of them had went out and bought a case of water and shared with us. it was cute. but to the point, what really made my day was that two of guys look very much like some kpop ppl. the first one immediately reminded me of 2pm's Taecyeon. the second one bothered me so much cuz he was like a mini younger version of a korean actor but i didn't know who. i was sure i saw his picture around, but since i didn't watch anything from him. i'm sure i saw the pic on shenyuepop just not sure. he kinda looked along the lines of kim dong wook, but the other actor [an older one] whom he looks like. oh it's going to annoy me so much. but yes, recognizing them [somewhat] was kind of the best part of the day [aside from the volunteer work] also, ... i called taecyeon look a like awkward... cuz he was..don't hate me cuz look-a-like was awkward. i'm not saying that taecyeon himself is awkward. .
ok... quick summarization of the rest
next we went to viet hoa after lunch. pants were stuck to me. mom says if you put your hand her leg, there'll be a wet handprint stuck there. now those who don't know viet hoa should know that there's a semi clear glass ceiling outside and stone benches. we don't sit. the other groups do but we don't. i heard one of my mom's friend's complaining that she went past one and all they did was just sit there. what's the point of you being there then? just leave the box and go. anyways, highlights, only the three of us. tho we had some sheild against the sun, we had no wind and the ceiling fans wasn't working, so worst condition ever. there was an old grandmother who donated against her daughter/granddaughter's wishes. the latter had tried to pull her away, but the granny was like "no, i'm donating, back off" and was like "good job" at least that's how i'm going to interrpret what she said. at first we did what we always did, but it seemed that we weren't getting the same results. finally i got desperate and just bowed and yelled over the carts and begged. it helped. i was feeling faint by the end, but it helped. the end result was not completely disappointing so i basically just went home afterwards, showered and crashed until the next day. thankfully we only went out on the weekends. mom and i had a week to restore our health before we went out again.
saturday: eileen went out with us along with a "su-yi" [auntie/granny] mom told eileen to do the 90 degree bow. the granny didn't have to do it, but then again, we didn't really think of her as part of our team. she was just there holding the poster. there was this one guy who donated and of course, once someone donates, we all bow and say our thank you's. he was like "no, plz, no bowing" and walked away guiltily. we laughed. eileen loved how we guilted ppl into donating. i was like, "yeah, asian guilt is a great thing to take advantage of" but it's not just for the guilt cuz some ppl don't care about the guilt. it only works on some ppl. the others, they can see how we're out there, in the heat and really working our arses off [it's a great workout for the behind] and by donating they are rewarding our efforts. anyways, moving on. mom decided to go to each station and take a donation box holder for a walk around the shopping center with her since she knows most of the store owners. the ones we already went to we didn't go back to since it's too much to continually going to a store and asking them for donations. altho, one restaurant who donated the most even let us ask the customers [i don't like asking the customers for obvious reasons. who likes to be bothered in the middle of a meal... only in chinatown would this be allowed tho] they had told us that there weren't a lot of volunteers that weekend cuz ppl had stuff and some stations were even given up cuz there weren't enough ppl. but they also told us that there was going to be at least two donation boxes at each station. each box had it's own owner/holder who held responsibility for the box since each box could contain thousands of dollar. when we got there, there was only one box. so mom took the guy with her a walk around each store front. some were really charitable and some weren't. in this economy, i don't blame them. i stood out there again, this time with my old chinese school principal. her voice was so small and she said a whole slew of things "the weather is unforgiving, but there's love in all of us, help 8-8 flooding". it didn't really work. finally i was like, i'm doing it my way. we got some donations but since we didn't have a box, she used her hat. no one minded so we went with it. at the next stop, same thing, just this time it was all guys. so mom went with the box guy. i stood out there again. at least they had shade and wind. i glared at them. i was annoyed since they really weren't doing much. sure, they kinda bowed, but they muttered. well one muttered and the other one didn't speak. i was like speak up. i got annoyed at one. the other one i didn't yell at him. he looked like he was about the crash under the heat so i kept telling him to drink water. the other one looked like he barely broke a sweat, so i was a little meaner. i was thinking of introducing him to katy, tho i don't really know him, but he's her type. she likes the slightly geeky guys. he definitely fit the profile. but alas, she's at school and i'm here. i keep telling her to move here, but then again, i don't want to get on her familys bad side. after that, we went home, again, shower and crash.
sunday, well, you know already, einsteins, barnes, gap. then we rushed home to change and rushed over. we had another location this time and there was shade. though we stood out front, we didn't really get much a/c. i literally stood smack dab in the middle to get some air. eileen couldn't make it this time. her legs were hurting too much and she got a massage instead. her bf took her place. her mom kept asking my mom to check to see if he's a good guy. he's decent. i mean, from that first impression is that he's a good guy, he's decent, he cares enough about eileen to come in her place, but he didn't bother to visit her the day before... so i give him 94/100. also, he was able to follow our jokes. there weren't as much ppl where we were stationed so we were able to joke around and whatnot. mom even started singing and old chinese song about unity. i think it's a military song, but i wouldn't know for sure. highlights, the water store gave a whole stack of cash. i was so shocked i almost burst in tears in thanks [the water deprivation and heat exhaustion might have made me a little more emotional tho]. and there was teh father with his kids. we all four said our very rehersed "plz help the victims of morakot" [well not that exactly, but you get the gist] and bowed, and the guy walked by with his kids and replied "we already donated". a lot of ppl say that, and we say thank you just the same to show that even tho you didn't do it with us, we're still appreciative of your efforts. well, then his lil girl says quite loudly "daddy, no you didn't"... we burst out laughing. mom started stating how you can't lie when you have kids cuz they'll learn from you. so even tho our shift was almost over, we were kinda looking to see if the guy had the gall to leave. yeah, he didn't. there's a food court inside but still by the door. we saw him standing their with his kids with a drink in his hands waiting for us to leave. i guess his wife didn't know what was up and wanted to get back home asap yelled at him and just went out the door anyways. as he was passing us, he told his wife to walk faster. i lol out loud. seriously great. we went back to hand in our box and not wanting to move away from the only fan in the whole building, i watched as they counted. we had the highest donation that day. no one else was able to break the thousand dollar mark. as our pile of donations were being counted, i looked over at the other group's stack... all i can say is
thank you everybody who helped out. even one penny really well help with relief efforts. though you certainly won't read this, i thank you all with the bottom of my heart. ^^.
ok... so that really wasn't a quick summerization.....