|
| Is my hubby awesome, or what? I got flowers delivered to me this morning. They smell sooooooo good. I feel loved. ^______^
Btw, I'm an aunt~! My nephew is so precious. Hairy too, but still, so precious. He will be referenced from now on as Dill. Hmm, or maybe Pickle. Haha!
| | |
| It's all done. We've finally moved out of the fishbowl and into the fish tank, yippee! (Fish tank = Cin's nickname for the condo) We couldn't have done it w/o the help of our friends. Although half of them don't even read this blog, thank you so, so much! We had less than two weeks to schlep all our belongings to the fish tank, and Gema and I were going crazy the last few days. You've brought us back our sanity. Thank you!
We've been packing, cleaning, and moving our things every night since we got the keys, so we weren't getting enough sleep. I actually drove myself sick from exhaustion during that first w/e and succumbed to a wicked bout of food poisoning. I had to take a day off from work, it was that bad. Then two days later, I got hit w/ a different sickness. My health is normally pretty good, so I attribute both cases to all that stress and lack of sleep.
Thankfully, it's all behind us. I don't want to move again for a long, long time. And I'm swearing off buying more clothes until I overhaul my closet and donate what I don't need. I must've had seven suitcases worth of clothes, and this isn't counting socks and shoes. It honestly doesn't seem like that much clothes when it's hanging on the rack, but when you have to schlep seven heavy, packed to the brim suitcases worth of clothing, you start to evaluate whether you really need it all or not.
Same thing with books. Unless it's really, really worth it, I'm banning buying books for now on. The library is good enough for me. I haven't even been able to buy books for the past few years anyways, due to lack of space. But now that I have space, I want to keep it that way. Keep the fish tank spacious! That's my motto.
And dishes! My goodness. Gema and I have mugs galore, most of them brand new, never used. Why? Because we don't drink anything hot that requires a mug. Maybe I should start. Make the effort it took to pack it worth it. Gah. We were thinking of buying those cute Japanese dish sets so that it'll all match when we have company over, but for right now, screw it. We don't need more dishware. Now, glass food storage containers on the other hand... Currently all my Pyrex type tuppy is round, so getting some square and rectangular shaped ones won't make me feel bad. I can certainly wait for a good deal though.
We're only occupying half the unit right now and have kept the bedrooms empty because we want to paint them. It's really amazing, because we have enough space to be able to do that. I've gotten so used to the fishbowl that I'm not used to walking so much to get to where I need to be. Like, going to the bathroom? I have to walk and walk and walk. It's crazy. It's an alien feeling. Granted, the place is not that big, but to me, it's huge. This is a good kind of problem though, so I'm not complaining.
I'm kinda sad about our tv reception though. We get channels 2, 4, and 22. What. The. Heck. I don't watch any of those channels. I live on channels 5 and 11. What am I gonna do w/out my Manly Men, House, and 24? It's a bummer, but I'll deal. Maybe the lack of tv will give me more impetus to write stories.
I know that I'll look back and marvel over how Gema and I ever lived so long in the fishbowl. Seven and a half years. Can't believe we crammed so much stuff in there. Boy, was he good at Tetris, or what? ;)
| | |
| Turns out that escrow will close today, so we're supposed to get the keys to the condo tonight. Man, there were so many turbulent things that happened. I don't even want to go into it. Just, I have a great family. Really, truly great. I just hope everything will be worth it in the end and that Gema and I will be happy homeowners.
After all the crap we went through (aka, the home buying process) I have worries that I might not be happy living there. Since our fishbowl is so tiny, I feel very close to Gema. We may be doing our own thing, be he's right there. I can literally reach out and touch him. Just turn my head and smile at him because he's right with me. Being in a bigger space, I don't know if I'll feel as connected. There will actually be walls separating us now. The new place is only two times bigger, it's nothing huge, but I can't help but feel this way. That's my biggest concern. The other ones, although numerous, seem completely paltry in comparison.
Like, the moving in process. Although we should be getting the keys tonight, that doesn't mean we can move in right away. Why? Because my parents are traditionalists, so we have to do all these things to bless the new home. First, we have to purify the place, and we have to pray to the spirits or gods (I dunno who, gotta pray to somebody though) with incense and offerings and it has to be done during a certain time of the day. What time, you ask? From 11 am to noon, because that's when the spirits/gods are hungry. Problem? Gema and I are both at work at that time. Gema also refuses to pray, so it's up to me. And since I work in the Valley, I can't just go home, pray, and go back to work during my lunchtime and get this out of the way. So basically, we can't move in until the weekend. This time crunch isn't stressing me out yet, but it's a concern. Paltry when compared to the worries about our relationship, but still, a concern. *sigh*
Moving onto lighter stuff, since we've been clearing out our freezer and pantry, the fridge is getting pretty empty. Yay! But then, it's also sad. Yay because there's less stuff to schlep to the new place. Sad because I feel like I really am starving. We hardly have anything appetizing to eat. Ok, we still have loads of pasta, but I want rice, damnit! And I can't have any until the weekend. Omg, you'd think the lack of rice would be slimming me down, but I don't see a difference at all. %$(*!
So that's my life. Hope minna is staying dry. The weather was so crazy yesterday, I got scared. Not wet your pants scared, but certainly apprehensive and concerned. Thank goodness it was a holiday, so I was inside. I just crawled into bed and stayed there (pathetic, I know). But hey, I was alone. Gema was at work. =( I don't recall ever being afraid of the weather before (well, not since I was twelve), so this is a revelation to me. I was seriously thinking of all those end of the world movies like The Day After Tomorrow. >.<
On my commute this morning, I was looking at all the trees that fell down. There was one nearly uprooted tree that was blocking my path. I had to hunch down and walk under it. Maybe not so smart, but it was either that or walking on the street, and I'll chance a tree falling on me verses cars running me over any day of the week.
Stay safe and dry, minna! | | |
| I found out last night that one of my favorite mom and pop shops has closed. I was so sad. It was a restaurant called New Meiji run by a really sweet lady.
It was sort of like a Japanese fast food type place, so it was completely unpretentious. They had food already prepared under the heat lamps, and you just chose the items you wanted. They would also cook to order any of their noodle dishes, and she would freshly prepare any sushi herself.
Man, this place had the BEST chicken curry. The best spicy tuna rolls too. It was so good and so decently priced. Since I would always order the same thing (one quart of chicken curry and twelve pieces of spicy tuna), every time I came in, the owner already knew what I wanted. And she always gave me extra too, whether it be a container of miso soup, or extra pieces of sushi. She was totally awesome like that.
Gema and I first discovered New Meiji about six years ago. We were driving down Wilshire looking for a place to eat. Every time I would choose a place, we’d have driven past it, so we just kept going and going. Eventually, no where close to where we lived and totally hungry, I just pointed to some random plaza up ahead, and New Meiji happened to be there (Gema and I tend to find a lot of mom and pop shops this way, lol).
During the first few years, we would come back often. Since my order was always the same and since I always came in w/ Gema, it was no wonder how she always recognized me. But then the time span between visits became longer and longer (it was rather far away, mind you). I remember how one day several years back, Gema and I decided to go there for old time’s sakes. It must have been at least a year since we had last been there, and she still knew it was me! I walked in and she smiled. I was like, “Do you remember me?” and she was like, “Yes.”
<Cue the warm and fuzzy feelings>
I feel regretful that we haven’t been there in so long. It seems like she recently went under, too. I’ll never be able to eat her delicious spicy tuna rolls again. I would literally sniff each piece before I savored it, they were so good. I’ve eaten a lot of sushi, but hers has been, and always will be, the best in my book.
I hope the proprietress is doing well, whatever she’s up to. Good bye, New Meiji. I’ll miss you.  (images are bad quality because they were taken from my camera phone at nighttime) | | |
| If all goes well, escrow will close on the 15th. Of this month. OMG.
It was actually supposed to close on the 6th or 7th, but there were some delays. So instead of omg-ing this week, I will be omg-ing next week. Man, so much to do, so much to do!
In an effort to save money and to haul less stuff to the new place, we've been eating out of our pantry and freezer for the past month. The only fresh foods we allow ourselves to buy are things like soy milk, tofu, and the occasional fruit and veggie. Omg, it's horrible! I have only one egg left. I've been saving it for a really good occasion. You know you're in dire straits when you have a save a friggin' egg.
We have also ran out of rice. What? An Asian person with no rice? It's Asian starvation, I tell you! Okay, I'm going overboard. I eat noodles most of the time anyways, but still. No rice. Now I want rice the most. But they sell them in such big bags, and escrow's closing so soon. I have to hold out for another eleven days. I need to be strong!
I was fiddling with the idea of buying a bag of brown rice (cuz they sell them in such small bags), but I still have so much dried noodles and pasta that I should eat first, so I can't. It's not like I don't have food, so I can't justify buying a bag of rice. But man, this predicament is horrible. Even if it's self imposed, it still sucks. =(
And what's worse than running out of rice? Running out of my favorite noodle broth base. So even though I have my beloved noodles, they don't taste good because I don't have my special soy sauce. Pretty soon I'm gonna run out of corn and wakame, and then I'm gonna be totally screwed. Just noodles and hot water. *sobs*
These are the kinds of hardships one must face when buying a home though. I shall persevere. BURNING!
Oh yah, and Happy New Year's to minna. Hope it was a good one. Gema spent it dodging my kisses. Man, I feel the love. ;P
| | |
|
