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Jonathan wanted to have a prayer meeting so first we went to Yantze to eat. Since my haircut Tuesday evening, I hadn’t really done anything to my hair because I didn’t want to bother with it. I didn’t leave the house. But I showered and worked on my hair with my Dad’s hairgel for a longer while than usual. I got to the restaurant a bit early, planning to read a bit of the book Rebecca lent me. However, I saw Steve Mar go inside so I went in as well to chat. He told me about his credit cars, complimented me on my new haircut, told me about his haircuts, talked about enjoying blobbing (like a seesaw and jumping on so the other person flips up almost as high as the platform and then back into the water), etc. Linton and Phoebe showed up and complimented me on the haircut. I told Phoebe about the book Rebecca had lent me (that I hadn’t really started reading).
Then Chris, Jing, James, Jonathan, Peter Lee, and Perry came. The guys ordered family style (the 12-person combo wasn’t a deal). Phoebe ordered hollow-heart vegetable (go, Phoebe! hehe). Linton felt compelled to clean all the dishes, as always. Jonathan introduced Perry, who they had met on Meta retreat. Perry grew up in Portland, Oregon, and went to OSU for EE but then moved down here for his job (and doesn’t really know anyone). We went around saying where we graduated from, where/when our job, and what our favorite food is. Steve said Mexican, I said Chinese, Phoebe said curry, Linton said BBQ and anything cheap, James said ?, Chris said Chinese, Jing said steak, Peter said ?, Jonathan said spaghetti, and Perry said ?. Michael and Eveline came later. Jonathan’s really stepping up!
Outside, we took a group picture with Linton’s camera. He said he would upload it (which I interpreted as onto facebook because the others were talking about facebook), so I asked him to email it to me (but the way he nodded I think he was thinking, I just said I would, so I guess he meant he would upload it onto his computer and subsequently email it to us). Then, we dispersed to go to our cars to go to James’s apartment (I was hearing some guys asking who was driving and who was riding/carpooling). Linton or James asked me if I knew how to get there, to which I answered not at the top of my head but as always will use the dependable GPS to direct me as in the past that I have gone to James’s place. James responded with his usual, “Oh no!” I did not think twice about it until I was going to put my GPS in place and James knocked lightly on the passenger side of my car. I unlocked the door and he came in, so he could direct me. I was annoyed because I don’t need anyone to direct me since I’ve already made multiple trips to his place by myself–the only reason anyone would do that is to talk to me (like if Phoebe had sat with me). And usually that reason is fine–except in this case, because of our past conversations and incidents. I was too upset (I’d admit it was disproportionate, which bothered made it all the more worse) to really think of how to address it appropriately and delicately (also because I was driving) so I listened as he told me he was starting a three-month-Bible-study-group boot camp. In essence, with Simon Lee, they’d wake up like at 5 am to exercise before work. It also involves no junk food for the three months (easy for me), memorizing verses, and…. I don’t know who else is doing it with him. He can only miss two times or he’s kicked out (to prove his commitment).
We went around talking about our worst/best moment of the week. We were all pretty vague and lackluster in our answers, until Peter remembered an incident that happened this past Tuesday. I don’t think Chris would have mentioned it except that Peter brought it up. Peter had ordered a drink for him, who was enjoying it when around 10 pm the security people started checking IDs around the bar. Turns out Chris never renewed his driver’s license since January when our licenses expired. So they literally snatched the glass from his hand and asked him to leave. Then, he was told Friday mornings are the best times to go to the DPS so that’s what he did, except the line was so long he couldn’t wait without missing work, so he had to leave.
Then prayer requests were next. Linton shared that David Kalloor was driving from Austin to Houston right now–with two nails in his truck tire, with Rean in the passenger seat, and with eyes needing glasses (which he has not been prescribed yet). Phoebe said, “When I think of something, I’ll let you know.” I asked them to pray for my NBCOTE, although I had a lot of deeper issues that need prayer, but I wasn’t willing to tell this group about it. But Michael and Peter were, if only but vaguely. Michael in summary said he needed spiritual renewal. Peter was even more vague, saying that whatever he had vaguely mentioned at the beginning of the year the situation is still the same. It’s a “waiting game” that will “need some luck”, and he doesn’t know where he will be six months to a year from now. Perry said he thought he was meeting up with his girlfriend but something about that didn’t work out, and that he needed time for himself in order to do things. Chris said he didn’t have anything. Jing said he’s leaving for Dallas tomorrow to talk with some people about a family and school issue (he went into details). Jonathan shared about time management. Steve and then James copied Chris and said they didn’t have anything. Jonathan also prayed for Eveline (studying for her UH exams), Vickie (finding an apartment), and Braden (regarding his job situation). I stayed some minutes to watch the Rockets (turns out last) game then left at 10 pm to drop off Phoebe. Linton and James walked us out to my car.
Initially the tentative plan was to go to the iFest: Out of Africa, then see the Lucy exhibit at the HMNS, then go to Hermann Park, then eat dinner at Star Pizza (because David’s in town). Well, since Lucy was extended, and no one really said anything about wanting to go to iFest (it was reported to not be that spectacular, so didn’t want to spend the money), we ended up checking out the new Discovery Green Park downtown right outside the George R. Brown Convention Center. Phoebe, Hannah, David and I met at Linton’s house, where we carpooled from. We got some ice cream from the ice cream truck. Jacky and Chris came later. We strolled through the park: chatting, looking around, casually throwing a football, taking pictures, checking out the colorful parking garage, and finally stopping at the Listening Vessels. Using the structure, David and I sort of caught up, but of course his unique comments always make me laugh (I don’t remember what we talked about). Chris was quite surprised that it worked, but Jacky didn’t seem to hear anything LOL.
Next stop: the famous Star Pizza. On the way there, we passed the Urban League! So that’s where it is. In the car, they were talking about their favorite instruments. The cello is apparently on the top three (besides the piano and drums, for David). Laurie joined us at the restaurant. The Boston/Atlanta game on TV was right in front of us. They ordered a (large?) Margherita - Chicago style on wheat, Chicken Alfredo - New York style on wheat, and Starburst - New York style on white. David took a slice back, for Elliot. We played musical chairs (or rather, we took turns going to the restroom and people switched seats to talk with others).
Then we headed toward the “Austin part of Houston” because of its “eclectic feel”–Montrose. We got slightly lost because there were two “Hollywood Food and Cigars” and a “Hollywood Vietnamese Restaurant” near where Inversion Coffee was. Laurie drove Hannah and me; she has a new two-door car that looked pretty different from what I’ve seen. The mileage meter is absolutely huge, and then it has a lot of other technological gadgets, such as saying how much gas efficiency it currently has. Laurie says another reason she bought this was that the re-sell value was quite high as well. Unfortunately, not knowing a lick about cars, I can’t tell you/don’t remember what car she had. Inside, they offered a lot of brochures and such to pick up, so I found out about some free film classes - that had already passed. Oh well, I’ll still pass them along, Elliot might want to check up on them regularly to see if there are any in the future. The place also had art from the Children’s Prison Arts Project (CPAP).
Most got coffee; Linton got chocolate milk, which he gave to rest to me. There wasn’t enough room so the guys sat on the curvy couch while the rest of us and David sat on the chairs along the wall leading to the restrooms (which had some plumbing problems - the girl behind the counter who just started a couple of weeks ago helped me out with a plunger, saying “This is not in my job description” haha). Linton asked David to play chess, then Hannah, Phoebe, Chris, and I played Chinese Checkers - the Cantonese way (you can jump equal spaces before and after another piece). Hannah won, Chris got second place (wow!), Phoebe got third, and of course I got dead last (I still had like five moves left after Phoebe finished). Phoebe and I played Mancala afterwards (after I used Chris’s phone to look up the rules). I was on the fringe and couldn’t hear everything before we started the board games, but I do recall two stories. Linton asked about embarrassing moments:
- David shared about being in a car with a girl, and during a turn or rough patch the girl placed her hand on his leg briefly then said “Sorry.” He replied something to the extent of, “That’s okay, you can leave it there as long as you want.” She paused and then turned and looked straight at him. Awkward silence on the rest of the journey…..Linton asked David if he was aroused. The rest of us were like, “Linton!” haha like his dad. David answered no.
- Linton egged Chris on to share his story where he ended up “stroking” a girl. “What?!” exclaimed Chris, “that’s totally not what happened.” In elementary or middle school, he was at his desk behind a girl. He was just shaking his leg as some of us do at times, but then he realized he was shaking his leg against the girl’s leg. Oops. He stopped and apologized. The end.
- They asked me for one, but I couldn’t think of one at the top of my head. “Preferably one involving hormones.” Hm….
Monday, April 21, 2008. Rick’s recovering from attending the wedding (of Dr. Barber, psychiatrist, and Dr. Romero, psychologist) so he didn’t come in today. Since Dr. Barber’s going to be gone for a month on his honeymoon, Dr. Coverdale covered rounds with us this morning. Before I knew it, the morning was pretty much gone (around 10 or 10:30). I don’t even know how it happened, because I had imagined that it felt dragged out, but it didn’t. *Shrug* I performed another KELS (she all-of-a-sudden put her head down and didn’t respond), had lunch, then administered the other KELS (to the one with GAD), as requested by Dr. Camp. In the evening, Jeff picked me up to watch the Rockets game.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008. Rick came back so Sally showed us the photographs she took :-D. At home, Vickie told me about Jennifer Chung. Her first original song, “Very Last Time,” if it were by one of the major pop artists I probably wouldn’t look twice, but this is an unsigned, rejected-from-American-Idol, Korean-American living in California who wrote and sang it! I also baked Angel Food Cake (the bigger batch with pineapple as directed by Tiffany Lin and the smaller experimental batch with cocoa). “Vicky is my UT friend I told you about that is at UTSA grad school for kinesiology. She very nicely said that you can ask her questions about UTSA and becoming a PT” LOL!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008. I attended rounds then finished writing up my last KELS. Jennifer had a doctor’s appointment around noon so she again couldn’t join us (long awaited doctor’s appointment) as we went out to Black Walnut Cafe for my last week here. Tiffani drove Elderine and me, while Sally drove Theo, Rick, and Janet. Rick paid for my lunch and then offered to buy me dessert, so I picked the German chocolate cake ($6?) since the woman in front of us chose that. I told them I brought angel food cake (which Jennifer had tasted in the morning for breakfast and loved the chocolate flavor). When we came back from lunch, I had missed giving one of my patients her creatively painted pig (with specks of brown for mud/dirt). Oh well. I showed an informational video on bipolar disorder, which was ended early due to disinterest from the patients, haha. I honestly couldn’t say much for one guy because really right now he looks normal, and Rick agrees, although he reminded me about the presenting incident, which I had forgotten to ask him about. This is what the patient explained to me, since had told the doctor he felt he was getting better, but told me that really he’s saying that so he can get out (he’s here involuntarily). The patient said that if someone kept saying I was a lesbian (and he reassured me that he wasn’t labeling me that), and that unless I accepted and said that I indeed believed I was a lesbian then I could go outside, then I would comply as well. In the end, it would either be me still believing I was a heterosexual and just on the surface acknowledging I was a lesbian, or I would be brainwashed and be convinced out of repetition that I was in fact attracted to girls and not guys. Anyway, later Rick sat in as I evaluated a new guy, probably to see if I had improved in that arena, since it was my weak point. Linton had sent out an evite about going to see the iFest, Lucy, Hermann Park, and Star Pizza on Saturday - wow. I went to bed at 9 pm.
Thursday, April 24, 2008. Janet was early because she had to prepare for the psych booth of the health fair (which Rick helped to set up and Elderine/Tiffani/Jennifer also helped). I called the PT about one of our patients who had problems walking recently (new decompensation) for some reason. I did my last rounds, and my last cooking group (which accumulated 68 RVUs for Rick since Janet was busy with the health fair). During lunch we had free lunch from the fair, and I also went around grabbing some free items.
Friday, April 25, 2008. Rick again negotiated the groups so I could finish early. I could leave at lunch, but I joined them and actually tried the angel food cake I had brought. Rick showed me his FWPE scores to him and announced that I had passed the rotation, YAY! Then I could leave, but not until after I filled out the evaluation of the rotation form and turned it in. Rick and Tiffani said that all the other students were out the door the second the signal was given. I also had to say goodbye to my patients (even the new one I evaluated today haha), the nurses (Loida said to call them once in awhile), the psych techs (Victor keeps saying that I’m always one of the first to work with the difficult patients), even the new med students (Bo, Lan Lan, and Charlotte). My patients were so nice, came up to me and said that were very grateful for the help I gave them (I thought they didn’t feel I helped them that much, especially one who kept making comments that we were keeping her here longer than she wanted). And Jennifer was super sweet, even giving me a card and apologizing for not giving me a gift card to Starbucks or something! Since Rick let me leave early, I decided to see the CSI exhibit. My parents took me to Old Place Cafe to celebrate LOL. But w00t! the Rockets won their first win (finally!) on the Jazz court, 94-92, last night. Just reading it while waiting for the food to come got me nervous, it was such a close game!
Last night I got on the internet and found a slew of emails regarding watching the Houston Rockets. Lisa Leu wanted to see a live playoff game for the first time. With lots of emailing, they decided to go to yesterday’s game, which was much sooner than she expected but she was up for it. I replied saying that I wished they had a good time and that we’d win. Around 8pm (about half an hour before the opening jumpball), Jeff Chen called me to say that he could find no one to go with him to the game. Arnold had a flat tire and decided to hand off the tickets to him. I was hesitant because it was so last minute. I called Elliot to see if he wanted to go, but there was no answer. I was on the fence, and then Jeff said, “Okay, I’m going to make an executive decision. I’m going to pick you up because I’ve already made a U-turn.” Thus I ended up attending the game as well.
Complications were involved, however, beyond being late (which was actually not that big a deal compared to everything else). First, we had a hard time finding a parking space. Then, when Jeff parked and stepped out of the car, an African-American guy came and asked if we had paid. We answered no, so Jeff coughed up $15 to get a ticket. As soon as that happened, another African-American guy in a long red polo shirt started running towards us shouting that this first guy was a fraud. The first guy took off. Before we knew what had happened, this second guy explained what the first guy did. Apparently the first guy just waits around for people to park, pretends to be the attendant, then steals the money and gives a fake ticket. Jeff had put the fake ticket on his windshield, on the outside. The second guy says that obviously that’s not safe because anyone could just take the ticket. The fake ticket was also different from his ticket (although that ticket was different from the rest of the tickets in the parking lot). The second guy insisted that he was legit, saying that these tickets were after-the-start-of-the-game tickets (thus they looked different), that the ticket’s supposed to be put inside the car, and that he’s not running away. Jeff coughed up another $20.
We walked to the Toyota Center, but I think he was so preoccupied because I had stopped to put back my contact that was paining me and he didn’t notice at all - he just kept walking. We stepped off the really tall escalators (whoa, I don’t think I’ve been in that building since…elementary school, and it still looks huge), and then Jeff said he was going to go back and check on his car. He couldn’t shake it (I don’t think I would’ve been able to, either). I didn’ t think it was good for him to walk around by himself, so we both went downstairs. The people at the door said that there is no re-entry. Thus we went back upstairs, found our seats (1 and 2 next to some big/tall UH white dudes) near the aisle of row 8 in Section 404, and watched…I think we caught the second half.
At halftime, Jeff said that he was going to try to convince the people at the door to let him leave and return. I didn’t see that happening, so I didn’t join him. I watched the show, which was entertaining for me, all that breakdancing and such. Turns out Jeff was able to convince a guy at the door to let him leave/return (the guy told Jeff to come back to the same door and if the guy wasn’t there, for Jeff to name him). Jeff decided to leave his car at the parking lot. Then we continued watching the game. They made some good plays (we stood up), but the Jazz immediately snatched it away (by making their own good play). And there were some disappointing plays (wow, that was a really bad shot). And when Bobby Jackson (whoever he is, he seemed to make a lot of points for this game when I watched) made a 3-pointer but the points didn’t show, the game died. Thus today I read, “As Jackson swished his 3, Scola was called for an offensive foul. Seconds later, the Rockets were out of chances.” Indeed. I’d like Rafer Alston to come back for Game 3, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea for him (you know, don’t want to re-injure and really be out for the season).
Anyway, near the end they had a memorabilia throw which I guess they have all the time. I didn’t think we’d get anything, but a Rockets cap fell on our seats! Yet I saw another hand and so I let him have it. Jeff asked me, “You didn’t want it?” Well, I don’t really wear hats/caps, and it seems like the African-American guy was a big fan (in all Rockets attire and holding Rockets gear). Doh, I guess I could’ve first asked Jeff if he wanted it. Too late.
After the game, I saw Judd! with his FOB friends ;-P For those of you who don’t know, Judd is the older brother of Tina Huang (not spunktina). She and I were the only girls in our grade at FBCC for Sunday School. Then, Lisa saw me! They were at Section 409. So we were united with the rest of the HCC BASIC members who went: James Hsia (who drove), Robert Hwang, and Chi-Chi. At first I wanted to ride with Lisa since we live only a few minutes away from each other and that would save Jeff some mileage, but James said that it would be better if I ride with Jeff so that he wouldn’t be driving by himself. So we walked to Jeff’s car, and then they continued walking to James’s vehicle. Oh, I forgot to mention, it was interesting, a woman almost fell over a huge traffic cone, but James saved her, haha. And so Jeff dropped me off and I went to bed a bit past midnight. Tired.
ROCKETS-JAZZ PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Utah leads series, 2-0
Game 1 - Sat. Utah 93, Houston 82
Game 2 - Mon. Utah 90, Houston 84
Game 3 - Thu. @ Utah 9:30PM TNT
Game 4 - Apr. 26 @ Utah 9:30PM ESPN
Game 5 * Apr. 29 @ Houston TBD
Game 6 * May 2 @ Utah TBD
Game 7 * May 4 @ Houston TBD
This week is spring break for many people, including the social worker. That means the social worker on Team C has to look over both Team B and Team C patients (follow-up appointments, possible placement options, etc.). Obviously she can’t participate in both Teams’ rounds, so Rick reminded me to inform her of who’s being discharged and whatnot when I hear that information.
Monday, March 17, 2008. One patient was discharged on Friday and now he’s back! Man, that sucks. Another patient was “forced” to leave because he started saying (i.e. making up?) symptoms so he could stay here longer (he probably won’t do well if he leaves, functional-level wise). We finally met up with a patient’s significant other (family meeting) to get the other side of the story of one patient who’s quite a mystery to us all (psychosis? depression? schizophrenia? drugs?). One patient left pretty quickly today, so I had to catch him on the elevator. I was sort of on edge because when he came in he was on 2:1, but then I thought, but they’re just letting him go outside, so it should be safe :-) He’s a charmer, haha. Rick also encouraged me to teach another patient how to dress using just one limb. I don’t even think about physical dysfunction anymore wow. But I did remember the steps because we had to pretend to be a patient while I was taking the class in school, so I remember it clearly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything regarding pulling the hair back into a ponytail with one arm. For dinner, my parents and I ate at Old Place Cafe (although we parked in front of CoCo’s, haha - changed mind). We said hello to Grace Hsiau’s dad, who was there by himself.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008. Today’s Janet’s birthday! Boo, ANOTHER patient returns (yesterday’s guy has schizophrenia most likely, this girl has mania no doubt). I actually evaluated a patient with another patient’s help in translation, hehe. Well, as the patient translator could tell obviously, this new patient was too disorganized to really answer anything, even “do you have pain?”. In the afternoon I showed the patient (my translator haha) a book that Sally gave me to share: [I forgot and can't find if I had written it down, grrr, it's about living with one arm in a two-arm world]. I tried to engage a patient in a game because he’s very distracted, or even in looking through a magazine and tearing out pages he liked, but to no avail. I engaged another patient in a card game, and she was so surprisingly pleasant, even telling me to go eat lunch but also stating that if I had time later she would love to continue playing. I did, this time making a bigger effort to convince her that her delusions are just that, but of course she started getting agitated so I backed off. Afterwards, Tiffany Lin picked me up and we ate dinner at Van Loc with everyone else (excluding me) who was going to the Rockets game.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008. In the morning Rick bought me breakfast (I picked a croissant which actually wasn’t that good but of course I didn’t say anything) as we checked over the patient education materials that were going to be discussed this morning. We chatted a little: turns out intially all he wanted to do was rehab, and he got a job, but during that interval before his first day, he got this psych job, loved it, and stuck with it. The meeting itself was quite long-winded, especially doing all the corrections regarding the rules/regulations for the 3D and 3E nurseries (reminded me of my peds rotation). We just missed the shuttle so we had to wait half an hour for it to return; when it finally came around we hopped on before it made the U-turn because it was so windy cold. The two ladies talked about their weekend. Rick joined in, saying that he went to Kemah over the weekend with his family in town, and he paid $5 for a nasty-tasting hot dog. They were saying how everything is higher priced nowadays. Jokingly, that since Ben Taub has zoo passes that are given to patients for free admission, we could scalp them LOL.
We had lunch at Hungry’s since we could…. They “forced” Jennifer to come, even though she wanted to stay behind, all alone, eating her homemade lunch (she usually buys out) of cooked tilapia, steamed cauliflower, etc. When we came back we played bean bag, then I tried to play cards, dominoes, anything with one Spanish-speaking patient. She just kept saying, “No puedo” for some reason, even for simply pushing the first domino for the subsequent dominoes to fall. I spent downtime trying to call for next Wednesday (field trip). At home I stumbled upon All Over Coffee.
Thursday, March 20, 2008. As I got off 292 this morning in front of the log cabin, there was a couple of light honks, so I turned around to see Sally (with Rick in her passenger seat) shouting to me, “Did you wear red?” LOL. She and Rick did, and Elderine did as well, coincidentally. Basically yesterday afternoon Janet and Sally were saying how it’s nice to have new employees because they volunteer for everything and believe everything, so that if they were to say it was wear-red day, Jennifer would comply. I guess it’s an omen for a good day ;-) eh? Ping Lau came to check up on us, and of course he’s rooting for me to come fill some of their job openings since he’s seen me in peds AND psych. I pulled out the parachute and Rick and Sally found it would be a nice change from their usual games. It really brightened up one of our look-down-on-the-ground patients.
Rick’s car’s steering wheel pulley had problems. He had made a stop in the morning and fortunately a guy came and observed and commented that he could fix it up since it turned out he was a mechanic! So Rick left right before lunch to have it fixed. During lunch, they were talking about gambling (since Dr. Barber’s bachelor party is in Vegas) and timeshares. After lunch I asked a Spanish-speaking patient to point out the date on the calendar in the day area, and she pointed to April 15 (tax day) hehe. I played the football-on-a-string (the one we used in Guatemala) with a patient–a real arm workout for both of us. We were both sleepy afterwards lol. As I was leaving, one patient asked me to bring her information about Madagascar and quantum physics. Okay..sure…. I tried to catch Jennifer for a ride home, but I couldn’t find her. Still, it wasn’t bad, because the bus came at 5:05 so I was home by 5:40.
Friday, March 21, 2008. I tried to research a new leisure activity for our therapeutic activity group, but the system blocks “games” as a search term. We just played basketball again, and then extended bingo in the afternoon. Jocelyn came to visit! with her mom and daughter Ceriana. I showed one patient (who’s name reminds me of an old Stafford classmate) how to play Sudoku, but of course since I’m not exactly a pro myself, she didn’t really catch on that quickly - she returned to her word searches LOL (I don’t blame her). I talked with a patient about his CAH (command auditory hallucinations) and it’s possible link to his lack of social interaction, which he admits to isolating himself (What’s it like hearing voices others can’t hear by Ralph Hoffman). I also stumbled upon how to diffuse grandiose delusions ([had it open on monitor at work but distracted and went away and person using the computer after me closed the website, boo!]). Anyway, yes, I work tomorrow! (That was sarcasm.)
Aw, the Rockets lost to the Celtics tonight, breaking our 22-game winning streak (so the streak is flanked on both sides by the Celtics).
After work, Tiffany Lin picked me up. I had planned to walk to the restaurant early (for tonight) and then take the bus home, but she was really concerned for me (waiting aimlessly at the restaurant, then taking the bus at night) so this was the plan that ensued. She had just finished exercising so when we got to her apartment she took a shower. She said that one time she messed up her lower limb from the stairs, and another time it was already messed up so she needed a friend to help her up the stairs all the time.
Her room was interesting because she has no desk! She said that she gave the bigger room to her roommate, and also because she doesn’t study at home so she doesn’t need a desk in her room. On her bed was her baby blanket, the same exact one that I have at home! She asked to make sure, but it also had a zipper on the edge (so he could be zipped into a mini sleeping back). Yeup. It’s the yellow one with the bears on it. She has a photo album with random photographs and recipes. She also has a recipe group from a school, where there were contributions from everyone. I liked to peruse her book titles. She has this gigantic Rice Univeristy graduation diploma framed on the wall. She says it was ridiculously priced due to the material (sheepskin?) and size.
When she came out, we chatted. She asked if I wanted to watch TV, which I didn’t. She says she rarely watches TV because she doesn’t want to get sucked into a series and she just isn’t home when a show is broadcasting. She shared about her past, which I was interested since I don’t know anything about her (and was piqued when she was Grace..Ou’s bridesmaid and she sent a picture of snow from Maryland). She got into Rice’s go-directly-into-med-school-without-the-MCAT program so she didn’t have to stress about that. She was commenting how anyone could know what they want to do when they grow up, that she was simply fortunate enough to have guessed it right. She says she misses the sports from the East Coast, like lacrosse.
Then it was time to meet at Wilson’s. We briefly chatted with Andrew, David, and Robert Hwang, whose car we four piled into (not Andrew or Wilson). Alison showed up at Wilson’s just as we were carpooling to Van Loc. Going around the table, it was Tiffany, Cynthia, Nathan Kim, Andrew, James Hsia, Wilson, Alison, David Zhao, and Robert. Aw, Alison is by herself with the guys. Later, Liang wedged in between Tiffany and me (they ordered for her). Since I had ended up next to Robert, I finally got to see the “normal” side of him. He was born in Houston but moved to Oklahoma when he was one year old. He became a teacher and accepted a job as a high school orchestra teacher (through connections since there’s not many openings for that). Well, his parents moved back to Houston since his younger brother’s here for medical school, which helped him meet BASIC. He decided to move here as well since his family was here and he had experienced this community. The only drawback was leaving where he grew up as well as his nice job. He is currently an elementary school music teacher (he prefers his old job, that’s what he really likes).
We ate quickly and paid because they had to get to the Toyota Center to watch the game. My fortune cookie said: “Your winsome smile will be your sure protection.” It better be. I waited in the restaurant’s oustide-but-covered/walled room (chairs were stacked up). When my parents picked me up, I let Tiffany know I was safe. I came home, read the comics, then tried to figure out next Wednesday’s schedule.
w00t! The Houston Rockets added another game (104-92) to their streak by beating the Los Angeles Lakers, who hold the longest-running streak in history with 33 games in a row. There was a newspaper heading with Catch-22 in its title. I’m not sure what context it conveys, but I hope that we’ll end up in the playoffs. The BASIC Titans are going to watch the Rockets play the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, and it would be such a letdown for them to see our team lose on home court. And the last time I really really watched basketball, it just so happened that those were the years Hakeem Olajuwon led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA Championships. I don’t know why I was watching basketball in fourth and fifth grade. All I remember them playing against is the Utah Jazz and the Orlando Magic. And I think I watched the first season of the birth of the Houston Comets.
