[leconte hall, physics building]

i was making my way back up campus enjoying a yogurt park mini...
one sentence before i head to physics discussion:
turn ons: boys who've got that rugged, kind of unkempt/unshaven look.

[apt six, berkeley]

tired tired tired. Church was fun though, and after church my mom, brother and I went to IHOP. I haven't eaten there in a while, and it's not bad there. We invited my uncle and his family to eat with us since we haven't gone out to eat with them in a while. Go try the corn bread cakes, they are superb.

Then came berkeley, where i struggled through a lab writeup and then fell asleep on our wonderful cozy couch. I think i took a two hour nap, and it was much needed.
Not much to say for today

[saddlehill lane]

i took my brother out to "el pollo loco" on clayton road today. I'd never eaten there before, and i wanted to know what they were all about. The food is actually pretty damn good(!). I had a chicken taco salad, or what they lovingly refer to as a "pollo bowl." Super good, beans, rice, and 3 flour tortillas for $0.45 extra.
Yeah, it was a little expensive to pay $3.59 for a little fast food bowl, but then again, it was pretty good quality food. Why the hell am i still talking about this?

anyway, so the rest of my day since i got home from todai...hmm. I offered Martin ice cream, but he said he was full. I helped my mom move furniture around. Oh yeah! Tell me how cool this is: The neighbors across the street were having a garage sale and they were selling a butterfly chair. [yeah i know, i thought it was weird to buy your own neighbor's unwanted stuff, but it's a fucking awesome piece of furniture, i always wanted a butterfly chair, so shut it. [grin]. In any case, i got it for $3. Yeah, i thought it was quite the score.

haven't much to say anymore. i'm going to go watch snl tonight, that'll be fun.

[saddlehill lane]

i turned in my apron, server card, and name tag to my manager today. I'm really going to miss Todai. I've learned so much about older generation asians and have been able to look into worlds so vastly different from my own. I started improving my spanish and had just begun to warm up to all of the hispanic kitchen workers. I was hoping maybe i'd be able to help them start reading and speaking english so they wouldn't have to work 50 hour weeks washing dishes or making sushi for people that don't have enough class to tip more than 5% of the bill. *ahem* that's another topic altogether.

I'm looking forward to accenture. It's going to be a great summer working for such an awesome corporation (yes, almost as awesome as Todai [that was dripping with sarcasm, by the way] ). I just have this terrible sinking feeling about how hard i'm going to study. I have so many doubts about how my grades are going to turn out. I have to get myself out of the mentality that i'm already doomed. I've really gotta kick some ass.

so tonight, i'm planning to do a little homework and then maybe watch a movie with my mom. my dad and little sister left for the philippines last night while i was working the friday night shift, so i thought i'd take my mom out to a movie to keep her company before i leave for berkeley tomorrow morning after church.

my mom hired a hispanic gardener to maintain our garden while she's still on crutches. Martin, like the kitchen workers at Todai, can't speak english very well. He and my mom communicate with signs and nods and pointing. I help when i can, but my six years of spanish at pine hollow middle school and clayton valley never taught me to understand spanish at the speed at which native speakers rattle off the words. I'm learning though, but now that i've left todai, i can't have my weekly practice joking with Oscar, Francisco, Julian and Jorge. I only told Julian (the first worker that i ever revealed my spanish skills to) that i was leaving. I figured they'd all learn from him that i'd be leaving the restaurant.

After speaking to him that one day a few months ago, little by little all of the workers would go up to me and ask if i spoke spanish..."hablas espanol?". I guess they all just share information among each other during lunch break. They were so warm.

[le conte hall, physics building]

math lecture was tolerable at best. I never mentioned that i saw my math professor on the stairmaster at the gym earlier this week. It's odd seeing lecturers up close. Well, then again Prof. Poonen's website offers a huge blowup of his picture . Did you see it? Well let's just say the picture isn't so flattering, he doesn't look so bad in person. oh shit, gotta go to physics lab.
i'll continue this later

[apt six, berkeley]

I got home around 10:30pm from the Likha fundraiser in San Francisco. It was very unstructured for the first half hour and I was concerned that my roommates were feeling uncomfortable because they didn't know anybody and may not have known what to do with themselves. It was all good though, kathy and I headed around to the hors d'oeuvres table and started taking advantage of the food, which is typical of college students. Yum yum calamari, restaurant style tortilla chips, and quesadillas. I wanted a virgin strawberry daiquiri, but the bar only served hardcore stuff, no pretty girly drinks for me. It's all good though, after the party, we went to in n' out and i shared a strawberry shake with james. I drove and i'd been planning to eat in. I thought it'd be fun to go inside all dressed up and eat burgers and take in the awesome atmosphere that only "in n out" can offer.

Next time, i'm eating IN at IN-n-out. All that aside, i really enjoyed the entertainment once it got started. Alan Manalo is incredibly funny, kudos to the 18 mighty mountain warriors, and to Ramon Abad for his masterful puppetry.

i've gotta turn in.

[apt. 6]

it's late wednesday night and it's been a long day. I started with a wonderfully titillating math lecture and then went to the gym. Yay, arms day. I hate when I'm ready for my next set and I can't find the set of dumbbells that i want...but in this case it was a little rewarding. The guy who had the weights i wanted asked what i was looking for and offered to let me borrow his for a set. I'd seen him in the weight room before, but i mean, you don't just start conversations with people in the gym just because you're both regulars. It's funny how the gym is like that, there's just this unsaid understanding that people are there to focus on themselves.

Anyway, so his name is Alex, a Junior with a major in Physics. He seems pretty enthused about his major, I wish I felt the same. I like Engineering Physics but this whole semester has been killing me. I don't regret my major, i like it, but i'm just not as excited as I could be. Well, now i have a new friend and he'll be able to give me advice about physics professors and the subject in general. So arms day went well. I was even able to do my last 12 rep set of shoulder presses, those things are killers.

Anyway, so the rest of the day was just lecture and homework, but i went home to pick up the 4Runner so I could drive it to the party tomorrow. I'm bringing Chris (my roommate) and her James. I need to warn james about the possibility of a mini drag show performance by my choreographer and some others. I'm sure he'll be cool about it, he's very open minded.

my parents took me out to thai. it was super yummy. I thought it was neat that the hostess recognized me and asked if i worked at Todai. I find it really really strange that she would eat at a place like Todai when she worked at such a good restaurant. Honestly, Todai doesn't have the greatest food at all! It's okay, but it is NOT worth $22.95 for dinner. The food is mass produced and is not cooked by a gourmet or anything. Not to bash my coworkers, i know a few of the chefs, but this is not fine dining...

Anyway, so i'm winding down and ready to go to bed.

[leConte hall, physics building]

i was supposed to have a completely full schedule from 8am to 5pm today, but my E195 class got cancelled, so i'm planning to go do a little math homework right after i put a few thoughts down.

it's gorgeous in berkeley today, sunny with no wind...good weather in berkeley is something close to a miracle.

hmm, i have to plan my travelling/parking for thursday night's party. I'm looking forward to going since i haven't seen a lot of the dancers in a while. It'll be good to see how everyone's doing and to introduce my roommate to my dancing world.

thinking about buying an md player or mp3 player, but i'm not really ready to shell out $200 or more for portable audio...i'd much rather buy clothes =D at yellow rat bastard or aeropostale. Also, i need to save my tips from todai to buy two tix to treat my sister and i to good seats at the madonna concert in september. I'm not sure how much those are going to cost, but i'm sure i'm going to have to pay 2 or 3 x face value for 10th row or better. Yeah, so i'm going to have to hold off on buying any fun md/mp3 player until i figure out exactly how much madonna's going to be.

time for math.

i'm finally finished with school for the day. Instruction is officially over on May 8th, which is basically the "last day of school," but it really means a ton of studying until finals are over. Can't wait til school is over...

wow this is a great song...i think i'm going to buy nelly furtado's cd on half.com. I'm listening to her song "shit on the radio" and it's super super good. You know what's also super good? Yogurt park irish mint cream with butterfinger. *sigh* =D

i'm goin to go see what gary had to say for today on his blogger.

*ahem* this is my first post with blog and ideally it's supposed to be an awe-inspiring piece of prose to anyone who reads it, but alas, my muse fails me. I think i'll write about my weekend. I worked for 10 hours on Saturday at todai and it was rewarding, but i was totally out of it. I just didn't have the greatest day, I think it's because i was preoccupied with studying and i wanted to bring up my grades instead.

As for Sunday, I went grocery shopping and took a nap and downloaded nelly furtado's "i'm like a bird" and lifehouse's "hanging by a moment".
I also recommend Stevie Wonder's "when i fall in love".

I just finished working out and i'm thinking i need to change up my routine because i'm starting to plateau (or maybe i already have, yikes). hmm, time to go eat.