Curious Notions

Started reading The Romantic Movement by my Alain de Botton over the weekend. It was perfect timing … I was feeling a little off/low/defeated when it came to the other sex. Here’s one of the excerpts I jotted over that spoke to me.

‘You’re having a good time, you’re laughing, but what’s bothering you is you don’t know whether or not you can trust me. You’re thinking, ‘Is this guy genuine or is he some kind of a creep? Is this all just a joke or is there something serious behind it.’ You don’t quite know how ot act. If it’s all a joke, then you want nothing to do with it, but one side of you thinks it might not be and hence you should stick around.

It’s the permanent female problem, whether or not to trust a man when he’s seducing. You may like a man without trusting him, but one thing you want to avoid is getting hurt again.”

That’s kind of where I am right now. Personally. It kind of sucks.

I just dug up in my archives of my old blog at Xanga to find some quotes I jotted down in my reading journal from 2005 when I finished reading my first Botton book, On Love. Very interesting to see what excerpts got me in 2005 since that was shortly after the break up of my most serious relationship. Here are a few selected quotes from my first time reading On Love by Alain de Botton. I picked these quotes and copied them over in December 2005.

“But there is no inconsistency between a betrayal and a declaration of love when time is taken into equation. “I love you” can only be taken to mean, “I love you now.”

Hanging over every love story is the thought, as horrible as it is unknowable, of how it will end. It is as when, in full health and vigor, we try to imagine our own death, the only difference between the end of love and the end of life being that at least in the latter, we are granted the comforting throught that we will not feel anything after death. No such comfort for the lover, who knows the end of relationship will not necessrily be the end of love, and almost certainly not the end of life.

“Doubt is easy when it is not a matter of survival: We are as skeptical as we can afford to be, and it is easiest to be skeptical about things that do not fundamentally sustain us. It is easy to doubt the existence of a table; it is hell to doubt the legitimacy of one’s love. “

Medical history tells us of the case of a man living under the peculiar delusion that he was a fried egg. Quite how or when this idea had entered his head, no one knew, but he now refused to sit down anywhere for fear that he would ‘break himself’ and ’spill the yolk.’ His doctors tried sedatives and other drugs to appease his fears, but nothined seemed to work. Finally one of them made the effort to enter the mind of the deluded patient and sugested he should carrya piece of toast with him at all times, which he could place on any chairs he wished to sit on,and hence protect himself from spillage. From then on, the deluded man was never seen without a piece of toast handy and was able to continue a more or less normal existence.

What is the point of the story? It merely shows that though one may be living under a delusion [love, the belief that one is an egg], if one finds the complementary part for it [another lover under a similar delusion, a piece of toast] then all may be well.

Please consider using the Amazon links from this blog entry if you are interested in buying either of these two books. :)

Cindy came up to visit me Friday night. I introduced her to Clementine. They had new art on the walls and an amusing paper and I had her snap a picture for me. Sexy Tales! Basically what we did all Friday night and Saturday before she left. We chatted it up at Clementine, closed the shop and then migrated to Magnolia Cafe and had the Mag Queso and home fries! The home fries there are better than Kerbey Lane. When we got home, Roomie and I forced her into watching her first FULL episode of Friends. Seriously. Her first! She tells us not to judge her.. so don’t judge. Next day, I finally introduced her to Flip Happy Crepes. Man… they’ve expanded their seating area since the last time I went. I suspect it’s due to their Bobby Flay challenge not to long ago. I like that I found when it was a little more humble. Before, all they had to do was whisper their patrons’ names for us to hear our order. Now they have a new guy who screams!
Well, they deserve the recognition.

I do have one unsexy tale to share about yesterday’s experience at Flip Happy with Cindy. As she was circling the Flip Happy lot for parking, I was holding our place in line. There was a red headed main in a blazer (it was maybe 78 degrees outside) and a beanie. He rode his bike to Flip and I not only can feel him staring at me as I wait for Cindy to join me, I can SEE him staring with my peripheral vision. He finally asks me if I’m in line (I’m obviously in line with people behind me.) I go yes. He stands behind me.. but more by me than behind me. I eventually let him in ahead of me since it was taking Cindy a bit. He tries to make small talk with me which I normally welcome. I LOVE talking to strangers but this guy.. he’s just creepy.The way he’s staring. He asks me if I’m waiting for someone. I nodded politely. He jokes and tells me if Cindy takes any longer I might not be able to eat. I chuckle curtly. I let three more people in between which I ended up not needing to do. However, in hindsight, the more distance between Creepy Guy and us the better.

I forget about him after he ordered and left. By the time Cindy and I ordered I had momentarily forgotten about him. Didn’t even mention him to Cindy. Cindy and I chose our seating to sit and chat while waiting for the Flip Happy guy to bellow out our names. I see Creepy Guy kind of a good distance away from us and again, had pretty much dismissed him in thought. UNTIL!! He spots us and then proceeds to PICK UP HIS TABLE! and move it but 2 feet away from us. HE MOVED HIS TABLE! I didn’t tell Cindy anything even though I was having a mini anxiety attack since he could hear everything we’re saying. I did my best to ignore him for a good 20 or so minutes (the crepes are really worth the wait). When he left to get his order, Cindy exclaimed “THAT GUY. He won’t stop. STARING!”

“I KNOW!!!”

We reshifted our chairs to have our backs to him kind of but he sat there and seriously and blatantly STARED at us the whole time. I so should have just turned around and asked him to stop. Ugg.. He finished his meal way before us and just sat there and it felt like he was just DRINKING us in. Yuck yuck yuck. Finally we finished our crepes and as we were departing in our respective cars, he had completely turned his body to face us as we drove off the lot. Staring. I’m so glad he didn’t have a motorized vehicle to follow us.. Because. I think he would.

Next time I will grow a pair and tell him a little something. Can’t believe that didn’t occur to me as it was happening.

The Bank Job

I can’t remember when I saw The Bank Job. Maybe 2 weeks ago? Saw it with Jason and Roomie. Here’s an overdue movie review. I liked it. I like how Jason Statham’s better known as “the Transporter guy” or “Handsome Rob.” Talk about typecasted. This blatantly titled movie is based on a real bank job that happened in 1970 something in England. The heist accidentally stumbles on some scandalous photos of some important Brit politicians. Nothing fabulous but very fun. Remember it takes place in the 70s? So unlike Handsome Rob and the gang in Italian Job an dall the gizmos, they instead rely on a jack hammer.. and an old school WALKIE TALKIE for team almost top secret communication. I wasn’t blown away but I was far from bored which was what I was expecting. Jason and Roomie really liked it.

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who!

Yet another movie I saw with Jason and Roomie. Saw this one last Monday. Don’t tell him I’m revealing this, but it was mainly Roomie’s idea to watch it. My only incentive to watch this movie is I used to teach preschoolers computer skills right after college and Horton was a Dr. Seuss CD-Rom I used to teach reading and math. The movie? Kinda fun. Slow in the beginning but I got more sucked in later. About Horton, a cute and a little annoying in the Jim Carrey kind of way elephant. Horton’s cuter in the Cd-Rom. Anyway, Horton hears voices from a speck and discovers after some persistence, that there’s an entire world living on that speck. He decides to make it his mission to find a safe place for the speck. I actually gasped with fear once. Nothing amazing but I bet you could keep yourself entertained while kids gurgle with glee. 2.5 stars.

True Romance

Sarah once recommended me this movie maybe a year ago? I mentally flagged it and Netflix recommended me this movie based on my previously rated movies and reminded me of her recommendation. Had I known earlier that True Romance was written by Tarantino! I’d make a point to watch it sooner. Well written, fun, badass. Star-studded before the studs were stars. Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson… more. Christian Slater plays a comic book store manager and he meets this hot mess of a novice prostitute named Alabama (Patricia). Loved that her name was Alabama. They accidentally fall into some money in the form of coke and their mutual purpose throughout the movie was to convert it into cash and live a happy life together. Hot mess, Patricia completely grew on me. COMPLETELY. She takes one for the team when a man tries to beat the coke’s location out of her. She laughed through it. Laughed! You’d fall for her too in that scene. Anyway. I thank Sarah for the great recommendation. 4.5 stars.

Yesterday, we made meatloaf and mashed potatoes for ourselves plus Jason and still had left overs.

Tonight we had American-Asian night and fed ourselves and Bing and still had left overs. Mmm. Tomorrow I think I’m going to make Tofu Mapo… Mapo Tofu? I always get it wrong and get corrected by the waitstaff. I’m going to cheat a little and use a sauce mix for tomorrow though. It will alleviate some dishes we’d have to clean. I hate that about cooking.. the massive cleaning you have to do afterwards.

Egg drop soup! The first time I cooked for the roommate, he was actually sick and asked for chicken noodle soup from the can. I made him the egg drop soup (my first time) and I remember when I offered it to him, he very politely and meekly asked, “Um… can I just have the canned stuff?” I asked him to just try a spoonful. He tried and after he gulped down the first cup he said, “You should make a living making egg drop soup. It’s the best I’ve ever had.” The best! I didn’t really follow a recipe. Just chicken stock, soy sauce, ginger, green onions and of course egg.

Another first for me. This is American-Asian style. I say this because I got this recipe a long long time ago just grabbing random recipe cards from a Walmart. Tasted like an American-Asian egg roll :)

I guess I’d be sad too if I just turned 25. :( I’m glad Thomas gets to do it first. Happy belated birthday to my dear ThomasWomas.

I have always had this unhealthy tendency to jam pack my life with activity. I often go for long periods of time with very little sleep. Before last night I could not remember getting more than 3 hours of sleep. It used to be I’d get a little more during the week days because I didn’t go out all night and then wake up early either to meet Nisreen up for a work out or to babysit. However, for the past few weeks, even during the work week I’d get three hours of sleep per night. Three has been my number. Last night I finally got more than three. I got a whopping eight collective hours (I woke up a couple of times). I don’t think my body likes the drastic change because all day today I’m dragging my feet and yawning…

This past weekend was full. I went to San Diego for work on Thursday and came back Friday night. I stayed at a very sexy hotel. See through showers with mirrors and they offered vibrators and couple’s intimacy kits at the mini bar. Alas, it made me feel a bit wasteful not bringing a boyfriend.

I flew back into Austin Friday night even though I had the option at staying at Ivy another night for free; I wanted to celebrate Brandi’s birthday. Friday night I came in too late so we had a 2 part celebration. Started on Sixth Friday and ended at Hula Hut for dinner on Sunday.

Saturday, I woke up early after three hours of sleep (see?) to meet up Nisreen for an awesome work out. We’re trying to make our own makeshift boot camp now that our former boot camp has dissipated. I then babysat the rest of Saturday, getting out just in time to celebrate Thomas’s birthday. Also went to my first South by Southwest music show at Prague. Saw Blue Scholars. Quite thoroughly enjoyed them. Reminds me of Common.

Sunday, woke up after a night out (again, three hours of slumber), babysat, had lunch, then enjoyed the last part of Brandi’s birthday celebration at Hula Hut. Afterwards, I laid my head down to sleep just a little and ended up going to bed for EIGHT HOURS. I haven’t had five hours much less EIGHT in ages! I woke up this morning for work feeling a bit muddled and with a killer headache. Suspect my body is not used to the amount of sleep. Tonight it looks like I’d get a bit more than 5 hours.

I don’t want to die at 30 because I didn’t get enough sleep.

Life has been really busy and stressful lately and blogging took lower priority. I have about three movie reviews and a whole bunch of new things to recall and recount.

Tonight though, I leave you with a few pictures from Brandi’s birthday. Thomas has the photos from his birthday.

For her birthday, Jessica and I got her a charm from James Avery. 2 things went wrong. 1, her sister got her the same charm with the same engraving, a dog bone with her dog’s name engraved. 2. Although we ordered it 2 weeks ago, the charm didn’t come in in time. So I took one of my old James Avery boxes, cut out a small paper dog bone and wrapped her. Complete with James Avery seal and ribbon! I knew saving boxes and ribbon could serve me one day.

My brain has been fried due to work stress and other personal matters so here’s yet another video.

Former roommate hooked me up with these videos. It’s so funny because it’s so true.