Ask not what your nation can do for you?
I just got back from the Red River Gorge climbing with some new friends. Sam, my usual climbing-mate, brought 2 of her Brazilian friends to introduce them to climbing. They are such nice people! I want to go to Brazil one day to see how beautiful it is. Sam says that Hawaii reminds her of Brazil ... that's saying a lot about how great a place Brazil is.

And after she said that, I started missing Malaysia. In a lot of ways, KL has a great personality. The city is not only beautiful, but the people are really friendly too. I have not noticed this before, but after going home and being friendly to a bunch of people, you notice that people will open up when you are open to them. In the past, I was really closed-minded thinking that KL-ites are really unfriendly and uneducated, but that's not true at all. I think the city has grown and matured a lot, kinda in the same way I have since I got to the US.

And in some ways, I'm really disgusted by the way US is treating immigrants. People who really love the US and who want to be permanent residents are put through a whole lot of hell just to go through the process. And oftentimes it's not a smooth process that just involves bureaucracy. I've heard that your application can go bust in any stage of the process ... even right at the end. Don't get me wrong ... I understand why a country like US has to put red tape like this in place. But they can do a lot more to make people more comfortable with the process. Immigrants have dreams and ambitions too ... we can't just be left hanging if everything falls apart. Did you know that if you lost your status, you would have only 10 days to leave the country?!

And just for that, I'm beginning to feel like the US isn't a place I'd feel at home. If a place feels like home, then I shouldn't feel so alienated and "2nd-classed" all the time. I want to live in a country who appreciates me for who I am and will welcome me openly for what I have to contribute.

No Pain, No Gain? *sob*
*groan* My lunch is making me feel very sleepy.

I'm so bad when it comes to maintaining my work-out schedule. I got much better at it in the beginning of this year, when I started following Mike to the gym about 2-3 times a week. But 2 weeks in Malaysia broke that routine ... and coupled with extremely busy weeks at work following that, I just completely broke that routine! I haven't been to the gym since I got back on June 10, and I haven't been climbing for a month. Yesterday, I went climbing with Sam, and even though I only went up one route once, my body is still very sore and aching from that. I'm pretty sure all the muscles that I built are now slowly fading away, or somehow transforming themselves into fat. Argh!!

I wonder how much will power I will have when Mike moves to Cincinnati. Being all by myself and having no one to constantly bug me to go to the gym might just take a toll on my level of fitness. When it comes to living vicariously through others, at least I have my girls and SATC to keep me happy, but what use is it all going to be if I'm just going to grow fat?

Anyway, just random blabbering. My brain only woke up for lunch, and now it's gone back to sleep apparently. *zzzz*

It's a sunshiny day...
Despite being a thursday, today started off really well for me. I have quite a lot of stuff to catch up at work so I tried to get to work a little bit earlier. Had a great lunch hour with a friend of mine. He always manages to make the most mundane things sound interesting. So between him and the food at Red Robins, I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch break. Agreed with him that we need to do lunch together more often, it's just that our schedule always conflicts.

When back to the office after that and spent the next two hours struggling to get some work done because I was deep in the lunch coma. Managed to finish up at 5pm and headed out to Growlers Pub Happy Hours with a bunch of people that I work with. It was a great two hours of talking crap and laughing out loud. Pulled off a prank successfully on the freelancer, now I gotta watch my back.;p.

Here's the best part of my day, darling Elaine sent me a Pier 1 gift card!!! I was bouncing on the bed and nearly hit the ceiling! Thank you so much Elaine and Mike, and I must say, you do know me well, it was an excellent choice for a gift. Thank you thank you!

I'm dozing off. It's probably a sign that it I need to get out of here now.

Healthy Indulgence
Every woman deserves to be pampered, myself included (yes, the last time I checked, I'm of the female species). I treat myself to a nice haircut every four month, with color and hightlights done. I don't do this often, because it is utmost expensive to maintain a lifestyle like that. I would readily agree that any hair cut/color/treatment that goes beyond 2 digits are extravagant, but once in a long while, I feel like I'm obligated to treat myself well.

And so today, I got my hair done. 2 hours of sitting in the salon and lots of money later, I emerged feeling relaxed and ready to tackle the work day tomorrow.

So this left me wondering, do guys pamper themselves too? If so, with what? Buying expensive stereo equipment? Expanding their collection of DVDs that they will only watch once? Or do they secretly envy us, and go for monthly manicures/pedicures? (hey, don't look at me... my co-worker told me that this place she goes to has more male than female clientale.)

I've been slacking off at work the entire week, or two. I feel like I'm all energized to pick up from where I left off. Was it because of my haircut? Or was it because tomorrow's agenda included lunch with a good friend and happy hour after work? Hmm, I'll say All Of The Above :)

We want your autograph
After weeks of fiddling and noodling, I finally got the guestbook up. It was hard to find a good one that doesn't require any server side scripts (no CGI because I'm not paying for hosting now...) so it really took a while for me to find what I wanted. The one that I'm using now is not perfect, but it's the best I can find. Anyways, it'll be awesome if you all could go sign the guestbook and leave a word or two for us aunties. Thank you.

I've also removed the two links on the top nav bar that really doesn't have any content going on right now, and there's where I added the guestbook link.

And the war rages on...
I'm sure many of the TV viewers (especially the more geeky... er, I mean techie) people out there have seen the ads showing PC users making the switch to Macs and are loving every minute of it. Here's a parody of those ad that shows the gaming limitations of Macs vs. PC. It it hilarious. Please check that out. And by the way, I'm a PC user, but if you decide to get rid of your Mac, I'll be glad to take that for you.
Here's the link: Apple Switch Parody

A big thank you and a big hug!
I came home today after work and found a sticky note on my door from UPS saying that they left a package at my apt club house because I wasn't at home to receive it. Turned out that one of my best friend and one that I've known the longest (way back since 1st grade!) Pearly had bought me the Calvin Klein Fall Preview Set that consist of 2 eyecolor, 1 blush, and 2 lipcolor.

I'm definitely a sucker for minimalist, neat packaging, and cK has one of the cleanest product packaging style. I love it. I love the style, the color, everything! I've never splurge on makeup so this is a huge thing for me. So Pearly, can I try out the color tomorrow... or do I have to wait till the weekend? :)

Muaks!

Things never go as planned
To follow up on my previous post, I fell asleep face down on my bed after I typed out my saturday plans :p. Was woken up by a phone call from Eric asking if I want to join him and Jon to go hit couple of golf balls. So I got up, went to Shell to get gas and a car wash, went to Kohls and get some summer shorts (they're only $4.00!), and ended up getting a pair of jeans that I can't even wear to work. But it was on discount and it's the exact cut I want: low waist flare. After that I headed out to Crystal Springs Quarry Golf and ended up sweating there for 2 hours or so. I was miserable because Jon keep telling me my form is out. Hey, I'm a beginner alright?! Gimme some time!

To relieve my frustration, I then ran laps at the Creve Couer park. Ended up feeling much better. Whew!

Today, my attempt to resume my saturday plan of shopping for some window treatments failed miserably because of the heat. I only managed to go as far as Target Greatland on Brentwood, and then I gave up because the heat was killing me. Plus, I couldn't remember the measurements of my door and window that I took that morning. I had it all in my head, thinking that I could remember something as easy as that. But, I think I had a brain fried (vs. a brain freeze, get it?!) so there I was in Target's home stuff aisle, staring at all the different measurement, and had no idea what I was looking for.

On my way back I stopped at Barnes and Nobles to check out some new books that I want but couldn't afford. There are couple of new Flash MX actionscript books that I definitely want. *Argh!* I'll just need to cut back on other expenditures (no more impromptu trips to TJ Maxx), and maybe put my window treatments plan on hold. Oh well, that's life.