livin the plaza life

i learned a new term from my cousin over thanksgiving - it's called "the plaza life." let me explain.

the day after thanksgiving, a few of my cousins and i went to hang out in the neighborhood i grew up in. as background, this town is often referred to as the suburban chinatown - there is a plaza, in fact, that we call, "The Great Mall of China." common things for the young cool asian kids to do are: go get boba milk tea at the local tea house (it's quite the hipster scene. the one i went to had a poker game going and a 16-screen tv wall playing music videos), play pool, karaoke, race cars. these are not stereotypes. this is what i go home to. yes, it's true.

anyway, there was nothing to do the night after thxgiving, so i thought i'd give the plaza life a chance with a few of my cousins:

- hit up the local hipster tea house. the waiter didn't understand my broken chinese, i didn't understand his broken english. there was laughing. from him. about me. i think. yum pudding jasmine milk tea drinks as i poured through some of those $12 hk fashion magazines they have on their shelf. their clothes are so much cooler than the ones in american fashion mags. i like.

- my cousins are trying to figure out who the pop star is on the big 16-tv screen thing. i finally take a closer look. oh. my. god. it's my friend justin with those back-up dancers. what???!!! it all makes sense. i forgot, but he quit yahoo (where i used to work) a few years ago to go become a famous pop star in hong kong. and now he is. no joke. proof: my cousin's friend at the tea house had one of his songs as her ringtone. my roommate's friend has been in love with him for the last 3 years. he's done a kfc ad. his concert sold out in minutes. need i go on. my cousin andrea, an aspiring hk pop star herself (okay, not really), goes bananas and wants me to text him right then and there. surreeeeaaal. http://youtube.com/results?search_query=justin+lo

- we decide to ditch the hipster tea joint and go sing karaoke. as i walk back from the bathroom just in time to catch my cousin singing (and dancing) to some backstreet boys, i realize that we're the only group who is singing english at this karaoke place. my cousin decides to hit up some chinese song by some dude she's in love with that she thinks is dreamy. he's not so hot, but cool video. and cute girl in video. now she's dreamy. ;)

- my aspiring hk pop star singer cousin convinces the girl at the cashier counter that she is part of the hong kong student association at UCLA and just didn't pay her dues on time (apparently, members get a discount here. random.) 10% off. sweet!

- okay, it has been an interesting night, but i'm ready to hit home. the plaza life wasn't so bad - kinda fun actually. i hung out with the hipster kids drinking some pudding tea. discovered my friend is an international pop star. did some back-up dancing to my cousin's version of some black eyed-peas song. got my usually grumpy, distant and quiet cousin to bust out on a couple of songs. quality fam time.

funny that i grew up around this, but since i left for college before all of this really developed, i never was a part of it. it's kinda weird to see your hometown so differently. wonder how that would have made a difference. maybe i'd speak better chinese, hah.

i may not do this every night, but i think i hang with the plaza life...in doses. ;)

slippery slope

i can't believe i'm addicted to a tv show. first it was lost and now it's heroes. what has become of me?

i have never been one to make plans around tv shows. usually, i have no idea what time or day different shows are on. in college, i went without a tv for most of my four years and didn't miss it at all - i know i was better off without it.

not that i think tv is bad, but when it takes priority over going out and interacting with real people or takes priority over talking to a friend on the phone that one hasn't talked to in a while, i think there's something amiss. i suppose people make a social event out of it, and that's trying to combine the two worlds - "Lost night" and whatnot. somehow, it's not quite the same tho, when the friend interaction involves staring at a screen together.

i know - millions and millions of viewers nation and worldwide tune in every night. and there's the huge industry tied to it. but somehow, i'm still not that comfortable turning into a couch potato. there's much more out there to see, do and learn. keep the addiction away!

ah, sigh. perhaps i should just resign to it. i am old now. i am a working person again. the power may be too strong to fight. a sad state of affairs. at least i can finally be a part of the water cooler chats.

and more importantly, who do you think is gonna die in the next episode of Heroes?

egg is the new black

okay - so in the last couple of weeks, some very blog-worthy things have happened in my life, but i have just been lame and didn't sit down to write them. namely:

• i was about 20 feet from where the shootings happened in the Castro on Halloween night. heard the gunshots, saw the people running. so much for my magic 8 ball costume. didn't see that coming. crazy. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/BAG7CM2Q454.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
• my birthday happened. my boyfriend flew back for the weekend (thx for the roses!) and my friends threw me a surprise birthday party at my apartment (thanks roomie and Junebug!). so fun. so nice. i'm lucky. we were engrossed for hours with karaoke, cell phones, a slinky, nachos and magnetic balls. don't ask.
• went to this really fun art auction fundraiser thing with JuneBug. tried to bid on a doll made with lite brites, but lost. but i won one of those new limited edition (Red) Nano iPods tho! Check out the fun pics: http://flickr.com/photos/misocrazy/sets/72157594368748960/
• went to vegas with 7 of my cousins and my sis. first time we all hung out socially like this, ages ranging 21-31. my cousins rock. so much fun despite the fact that i'm a few hundred dollars in the hole. it was worth it tho. :)

Anyway, the real impetus for this entry was that i was out last night for drinks with a few friends because our friend, Petastic was in town. And as we were standing at the corner waving down cabs at the end of the night, a big truck drove by and egged me and Petastic! Can you believe it? I mean real direct contact hit with yolk on the street egging.

It's the kind of thing that happens in the burbs and here we were in the middle of SOMA and POW! - right on my neck (i think i have a bruise). I also happen to be wearing a white jacket too, tho by the end of the incident my whole right side of it was yellow (and kinda sticky and wet) along with inside my shirt and on my shoe.

This, among other things (like finding out what hyphy is just last month), makes me feel old. it seems so long ago that i was in the world of dumbass kids doing pranks like this. and strangely i was pretty calm about the whole thing (as Petastic attempted to wipe off the egg mess off of me with newspaper on the street). in the end, it could have been a lot worse, so i'll just chalk it up to my city livin (i know - it's a burb thing, but hey, maybe egg-throwing is the new black).

one of these things is just like the other

things that are the same thing (who knew? i didn't):

violin and fiddle

coriander and cilantro

woah. go figure. i know. i changed your world today.