Run Post

...the most I have ever run in my life.

It was hecka funny to see a Filipino, middle-aged mailman along the route; he pumped both fists in the air to cheer us on.

1:45

Running Post #2

My friend and I went for our (my) first long run yesterday. I was so excited that I was already thinking about it as of Thursday. No joke. Friday night, I could barely sleep. Saturday morning, I woke up hours early. I killed time by having breakfast (and, I'll admit, coffee), playing with Charlie, and even cleaning the apartment.

We started off with a warm-up by walking for 10 minutes. It seemed like a bit much to me, but I surrender all running-related decisions to my running partner because she's been there and done that. Quite literally.

I suggested that we explore North Berkeley.Even though I've lived in this city for 4+ years, I don't really get out much, so many of the sites we we saw were just as new to me as it was to her. That helped keep me going.

We did a 10-minute run, 1-minute walk pattern. I'm so glad that I had her there with me because that schedule can get pretty boring to stick to. We talked about everything under the sun (well, we talked about a lot of things and we were under the sun).

Going the Extra Mile

I went for a run in Berkeley today for the first time... ever. I think.

How running in Berkeley compares to running in Hawai'i:

1. 30 deg F. That is, it is 77 deg F in Honolulu right now and it is 47 deg F in Berkeley right now.

2. I still ran with the threat of rain.

3. In Hawai'i, I ran along the beach -- it was beautiful, and also, there were a lot of bums. In Berkeley, it is beautiful and there were just as many bums.

4. In Hawai'i, all I could think about was jumping into the ocean after my run. In Berkeley... this did not occur to me at all.

Books to Kickoff 2011: Water for Elephants and Fifth Chinese Daughter

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

This book was a real page-turner. Very risqué. And delicious. I highly recommend it to fiction-lovers. I don't recommend it to elephant lovers -- turns out it's not really about elephants. It's actually about a young man who finds himself out of luck and out of work until he suddenly gets picked up to work for a ragtag circus. It's the typical rite of passage, white boy hero can't-do-no-wrong kind of book. Now, I've never worked for a circus, but Gruen's got me convinced the line of work is crooked, hard as hell, and full of surprises.

Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong

I randomly picked this book up at a used bookstore in Oakland (or South Berkeley... Actually, I don't remember at all where I picked it up)

It's a memoir told in the third person (in true Chinese literary form) about a young Chinese girl who grows up in San Francisco during the 1920s. I felt particularly connected to young Jade Snow for her experiences growing up with immigrant parents -- you know: strict rules, high standards, conflict between one's own values, that of her parents, and that of her friends, yadda yadda. Wong's descriptions of San Francisco are so beautiful and detailed that it makes me want to walk through the city, book in hand. And -- spoiler alert! -- Wong ends up going to Mills College for her bachelor's degree. Yaaaay, Go Mills! She describes walking through Richards Gate for the first time in 1938 (or 1940... sorry, fact check please). Her description is almost identical to a video that I have of myself as I drove onto the campus for the first time. Maybe I'll post it some time. Jade Snow Wong's story is truly inspiring. She skipped several grades when she was younger because she was so smart, she worked through high school in order to save up for college, she attained several scholarships that put her through Mills, she worked in the shipyards during the war front, she became an author, potter, and salesperson...

Anyway, read the book. It's good.

That's all for now!

A Man Prays to Win the Lottery...

A lot of folks have posted their New Year's non-resolutions, alternatives, reasons for not making resolutions, etc. It really would be more novel of me to write up a list of resolutions here since it seems that no one else is doing it.

Why are y'all giving up before even trying? So what if you miss the bar each year after setting new resolutions -- at least you still had the guts to dream up some goals for yourself! You've gotta show up for the race even if you don't know if you're gunna finish. You've gotta buy a lottery ticket to win the lotto. Haha.

Anyway, here are mine:

1. Improve my running -- namely, my endurance.

2. Save up money to go to Cuba in July.

3. Write down a few sentences about each non-school-related book that I finish.

4. Write down the negative things that I think about myself as they occur to me, allow myself to think through why I think that about myself, and then scratch it out and replace it with a positive thought about myself. This year is all about positive self image.

5. Learn how to meditate. Meditate.

F- YOU Trisha!!

After several attempts to retrieve my password for my Southwest Rapid Rewards account, I finally called Southwest to speak to an actual person. I was put on hold right away, of course, so I waited... and waited... Finally, a woman came on the line; I believe her name was Trisha. I explained my situation to Trisha. I gave her my Southwest 9-digit account number (no easy feat, as my brain struggles at looking at long series of numbers and then reading them out loud correctly), my full name, and my birthday, all of which matched up correctly with her records. For some reason, this was not enough; she wanted my address:

Shaving Cream, Paper Airplanes, and Pinhole Cameras

Dads are so difficult to shop for. Don't get me wrong, it's also difficult to think of appropriate presents for brothers, boyfriends, and male friends, but present-shopping/making for fathers is another beast.

One Christmas, when my sisters and I were about 5, 6, ad 10 years old, we bought my dad disposable razors, shaving cream, and deodorant from Rite Aid. -___-

About 6 years later, I bought my dad a paper airplane book because I remembered how he and I would make paper airplanes when I was a kid. The gift was intended to be both useful and sentimental. He laughed when he opened it because he thought it was a joke; he never used it. -_____-

Nyquil Dreams

Oh my gulay... I've been sick with a fever and all kinds of cold symptoms for the past couple of days, so I took Nyquil last night. The Nyquil knocked me out for a good 12 hours and gave me some of the gnarliest dreams.

I need to spend a few minutes detangling reality from fantasy.

1. My iPhone did not shatter in my pocket and its screen is not stuck playing white noise like an old TV.

2. I did not not get invited by PCN choir to sing the Pilipino National Anthem in front of thousands at HP Pavillion to open for the Backstreet Boys.

3. My friends from middle school and high school do not know my college friends and they did not purposefully hang out without me in the city.

4. I do not normally bring an entire rice cooker full of rice as my baon to school...

5. ...nor do I frantically hop fences and break into people's houses at night to use as short cuts in order to get from one side of Berkeley to the other.

OK, sounds good.

Fathers and Daughters

When my dad was crazy about basketball and the Lakers, I was right there with him. I took up the sport, joined a rec team (did terribly), and tried to keep up with him in conversations about basketball. I remember asking him what his favorite football team was when we still lived in Japan and I knew nothing about American sports. He said the "Niners". I had no idea who they were or where they were from, but I unquestioningly touted them as my favorite team if anyone happened to ask me. My dad is a huge techie and knows everything there is to know about computers; I in turn took part in a middle school program that afforded me the opportunity to build and program a computer. My dad was into cars, so, of course, I was too.

My dad used to talk to me about cars. During car rides, I'd ask him about various makes and models, the benefits of economy cars, the luxury of sports and, well, luxury cars, and so on. I looked forward to the annual San Diego Auto Show every year and secretly hoped that my mom and sisters would opt out of attending so that I could have my dad's attention to myself.