Luncheon With The Ladies

I just came home from having lunch with the ladies at Adventures of Daytime Dining.

Today is the last Wednesday of the month and if you're part of the New Neighbors here in Memphis (and look at the calender in the newsletter), you'd know it's just another day to go have a nice lunch with other ladies who have also signed up to meet others alike. The group is called Adventure's in Daytime Dining. ...or something like that. I don't know. I signed up for the food. So it's a bunch of ladies who don't work, and all (but me) have waaaayyy too much too much on their schedule even for a simple lunch, and get together at a nice restaurant with good food and hang out to talk. Okay, a bone to pick: I don't know why we need to pick a nice (or different) restaurant each month if all these women are gonna' eat is a phucking head of lettuce! This is not even a hearty salad hahaha. Today, their little sorry salad looked like a side salad of lettuce, maybe spinach, thin slices of tomatoes with two sorry ass pieces of fresh mozzerella in it. So that's how they keep their skinny figures in place. Shit! Let me be fat... and happy!!! I had the villa pasta or something like that. Seafood (scallops, shrimps and mussels) with angelhair pasta in a homemade white wine sauce. YUM! Garlicky, buttery and just delicious :D I was full and very happy indeed. I looked over at their salad. How can they call that lunch?! It's rabbit food and shit, my rabbit would eat a helluva' lot more than those two pieces of romaine lettuce!

There were only six of us today. A very small group compared to the big group of at least 10-12 women we're used to. The conversation was dull. Today, everyone (but me again) talked about their kids... how awesome they are, how bright they are, how fast they are, how clever they are, how perfect they are and how they loved them all lol. Okay, maybe not like that but pretty damn close to my virgin ears. I was bored stiff. It was either kids or their diet . Where are the normal women?! Don't people talk about shallow stuff like shopping, shoes and clothing anymore?! ...or food! Why can't they be like Singaporeans and have an in-depth conversation about food, glorious food... while eating lol.

No matter. I should be used to this by now. I now realize why I don't have THAT many friends lol. Okay, so I'm the odd one. The one who can't stand bright sunny days at seventy degrees, the one who can't stand gorgonzola of any form, the one who doesn't think all babies are cute, the one who doesn't care what people say about her, the one who enjoys doing laundry, the one who deals with long neverending flight just cause, the one who loves cloudy and/or rainy days, the one who is just different from everyone else. Hey... at least I'm happy.

Permissive(?!?) RACISM?

I was telling the husband over sushi dinner last night that the radio station/show I listen to a lot (especially in the mornings), V101.1 - The Tom Joyner Morning Show - has been rather careless in their comments regarding 'the-other-race'. As a non-white, non-American, their conversations not only annoyed me, it disgusts even me. I wonder what do the (probably very small percentage of) white people feel if/when they listen to that.

This is along the line of what I heard them say:
DJ1: ...so this zookeeper stuck his hand into the tiger's cage at night while drunk
DJ2: It's a white guy right?! It's a white guy right?! (eagerly)
DJ1 keeps on reading the artile
DJ2: It's gotta' be a white guy. Only a white guy would do something like that!

Sure, we've all said stuff like that within our circle of friends about other groups of people. About white people, black people, Asians, you name it. But they are a radio station (who by the way speaks broken English a lot) and I feel, have a responsibility to the people listening in. Turn the tables around and imagine what might happen. Oooh... ugly!

Then yesterday, I turned them on and they were commenting on the new reality tv show, 'Black. White.'. They were talking about how the white woman when made-up as a black woman, didn't look like a 'sista' 'coz she had no 'JUICE'. Whatever that means, it didn't sound good to me. ...and of course, the sista' on the show had way too much 'juice' to look White. COME ON!!! The things they say on this radio station makes me cringe. I'm positive that if any white people say that about the black women, there will be a bloody riot.

So the husband brings up slavery and what their people went through. Oh boo hoo... there is their damn baggage again. Bah! The Japanese and Chinese have been slaves too... what about the internment and railroad experiances? Hey, I watch PBS once in awhile lol. Have you EVER heard an Asian-American ever bring that up!? Ever!? I may be less sympathetic but I feel that the 'bitter' Black people of America just can't have it every way they want! On one hand, sensitive to every damn thing a White person says (practically read into every single word spoken, chew up every sentence that's put out there) then say worst crap about the white people in reverse. Why are they still so bloody angry?!?

Personally, this is history. It's ridiculous baggage for anyone that's still alive. It isn't any of our problem today. You get no sympathy from me!

JIA

'Jia' is the name of the new upscale boutique hotel in Hong Kong (the first in Asia designed by fancy schmancy Philippe Stark). It's also where I am now... no, not Hong Kong. I'm at home! It's good to be home even tho' I was heavy-hearted leaving Tokyo after a week of blissful (early) Spring break with the laogong. For a change, we had a pretty slow-paced vacation. No serious heavy-drinking, not overly-indulging ourselves (I'm not saying none 'coz I had my share of uni-licious uni hee hee but I didn't buy the crazy bag with the matching wallet and watch I really liked at Takashimaya lol) ...and in a long time, we didn't even go practice crazy karaoke'ing :) Despite all that, it was still a wonderful trip. It's hard not to have a good time in fast-paced Tokyo (especially if you live in Memphis lol).

It was unseasonably cold - it freakin' snowed TWICE in two days lol... but fear not, with all the walking, after almost being frost bitten and getting head colds (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration here) walking those miles all over Tokyo helped a great deal to build heat and burn some calories that needed to go away anyway lol. And the food... oh the food! We went back to see my toothless ramen boyfriend at his restaurant lol - it's been awhile since we hit the streets of Kabuki-cho at three in the morning lining up for yummy ramen together with all the businessmen and their hostesses... but it's so worth the wait... and of course, we followed our tradition of dropping by Sushi Cho for some serious awesome sushi in the little alley in Ropongi on our first night, had sushi breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market - you might think it's such a touristy thing to do but hey, it can't get any better getting a full sushi and sashimi meal at eight in the morning with the most delicious clam miso soup and beer rubbing shoulders, knees and thighs next to the fishermen and fish auctioneer who's finishing off their day's work :D ...and of course, as usual, we met up with Bruce's ex colleagues, now good friends and our friend Julie who flew in from Seattle via Honolulu to hang out with us for a couple of meals :D So it was nice... we tried more different insane restaurants and laughed at all the crazy things we did, saw and experianced.

It's even nicer to be home because the day after arriving from Tokyo via Dallas, we took the three hour drive up to Nashville for 24 hours (for a Math competition) and back. Please(!), IF there is a 'gawd', DO NOT make us ever go back there again! So it's the Capital of Tennessee. Big phucking hairy deal. Capital of idiots more like it. I don't like it, and I don't want to go back. I don't want go into detail why or it'll become ugly and feelings will be hurt. Hahaha, okay, no I really don't care whose feelings get hurt... but it's almost 2am now and I'm in no mood to rev up my emotions at this hour. All I can say is, it makes me appreciate the Black people in Memphis or simply appreciate Memphis in general lol.

Right, time to get some Z's and enjoy the comforts of my clean crisp bed (Nashville Holiday Inn YUKS(!) ). I envy the husband. He's been in deep slumber for hours.

Video Girl

Ya'll(!), the videos of Emma are up! Ok, for those who are like me (once upon a time) who couldn't stand people showing pics of babies in their family (I didn't care if they were the kids, the grand kids or the neices and nephews of these people... ok, I'd admit it, I still don't want to see them lol!), you can ignore this post. But for the others who simply love babies and want to see the cutest Chinese little baby in this world, this is it! Bruce and I think our favourite niece EKT is the cutest, most adorable and certainly smartest of them all. The videos of her are up! They are at our website under pictures or you can click here to go direct.

DISCLAIMER: If our niece seems a little grumpy in some of these videos, it's 'coz she wasn't in the best mood. She was sick on this trip. That's why not so many insane screaming and laughing from her. But still lots from me :D

ENJOY!!!

Adventures At The IRS

...so a few weeks ago we got a letter from the IRS. One letter to me (to make sure the husband got it), one to the ROMT saying blah blah blah, call us, make an appointment 'coz you're gonna be audited. Obviously, it was a little scary for me having watched American tv time and again seeing people led away in handcuffs for fraud or whatever, who knows(?!); read about how the husband's step-brother, MM - lawyer of the crooked-gay-naked-Survivor lose his case last month for tax-evasion. My stomach was in a knot almost immediately. I can well imagine why my always very cautious husband who gets quite easily stressed on a normal day has been pretty highly strung for the last couple of weeks since he made the appointment for today, March 1.

It was agreed that it was a good thing I would be away for a week in Thailand while the husband would be undisturbed and be able to organize his paperwork to deal with this upsetting meeting. I did feel bad that he had to do it himself but I also knew I was of no help to him. ...so I came home from a great vacation to a more then ever stressed out husband, a study full of paper - more than usual - files, binders and more paper... and oddly, a not very hungry husband lol. As timing would have it, I fell sick the day after I returned. That meant leaving the husband all weekend to himself to catch up on more unfinished work, matching the sale and purchase of stocks. Fun! NOT! It's insane how much time and work he's put into this... a rough estimate... hmmm... a full 9 - 5 work week I'd say. No exaggeration!

Being the supportive wife that I am (and very kaypoh also lah), I was quite pleased that I was not only invited to this meeting, but the husband actually wanted me there with him for moral support. So at 11am, I went on my merry way to pick him up for a 12:30pm appointment. Okay, a little kiasu considering downtown is about 30 mins drive away... but we wanted to be safe and early. We got there an hour early lol. He had part of his usual pack lunch/snack in the car before we proceeded into the building into a small cold (not as in temperature but as in non-persona) room with five chairs, a small reception window and cheap office carpet. I felt like we were back at MLGW!!! We sat there while I tried to ease the husband's temperament. The box full of binders from 1998 to 2004 at his feet, it was a little hard to distract the poor man. I think he wanted to be distracted. His laughs were louder then usual, his face hot from nerves... his mood... almost too good lol. No doubt he'd done his homework... oh believe me, he did his bloody work. But like being at the INS (immigration people lor), you never know what kind of an officer you'd get, what they'd ask and nightmare of all times, what you forgot to bring that you were supposed to.

12:30pm came and went and a good five minutes later, a black woman came into the room, introduced herself as Ms Brown (I don't know about you but I thought you never introduce yourself as ms or mister right?). We went into the room, romt took his binders and computer out of the box, set it up and there was a little look from Ms Brown and then she began 'oh... you brought your own computer...'. Yes she was impressed. But that was only the beginning. For the next 35 mins, she asked the husband about random stocks he traded. She asked, he provided details, calculations and answers to match her numbers. She had originally picked 40 random stocks from the list of 250 trades he made. But after the 4th one, she said "let's just skip to the last page". I could hear the screaming sigh of relief inside my husband's head. "There is a god!!" ...ok, we wouldn't go that far. Never mind the mistakes he found that the IRS actually owes him some money in return. Never mind about how much work on AT&T trade alone he had worked on the night before since it split and changed name and split and changed back it's name... all he wanted to do was get outta' that room. We managed to do just that all within the hour... with a letter to boot to say we owe nothing, we're clean and we're honest! WOW!

We were in the car within minutes, the husband was breathing regular again (first time in weeks), and I can't even tell you how many times he sighed and told me he's happy again - this is just on the drive home mind you. He was actually gonna' go back to school for the stupid ass faculty meeting, can you believe it?! I gave him my you've-got-to-be-phucking-kiddin'-me look and he made the right decision by calling school to say he was on his way home hee hee.

We came home, I made a huge batch of popcorn, he had a beer (now THAT is relief!) and he fell into deeeeep slumber within seconds :D