I’m not sure if I’ve written about this before, and I’m kind of lazy to try and search through my old posts, so here goes.

Lately, I’ve been having many awkward moments of silence (I know it’s only awkward if I make it awkward, but most of the time, I can’t help but feel that way), and it’s happening with literally everyone I come in contact with: a project manager that I’m working with, a fellow co-worker in my group, my best friends, my cousins, and even my parents. I guess it’d be ok if it was just with people I don’t really know, but it happens to the people that I’m the most comfortable with, which is very unsettling. I realize that I am the one that almost always ends up not extending the conversation somehow, like by adding additional remarks or providing any kind of follow-up. I genuinely have nothing to say most of the time. It’s like I’m a conversation roadblock, brick wall, or even black hole. I don’t know about how the people on the other end of it feel, but for me, it feels kinda weird and it does get to me. Every single day, I hear people have conversations about hella random stuff or just about nothing in general, and I think “why can’t I think of stuff to talk about like that? it doesn’t seem too hard.....what the hell’s wrong with me?”

And if you could believe it, once upon a time, I couldn’t stop talking. Apparently, when I was a kid, I was complete chatterbox (yeah, can you even imagine that?) At school, on my report cards, I always got a check-mark on the box for being “talkative in class” or something to that effect. And when I was out with the parentals, I would talk to random people, like the people behind us in line (at the grocery store) or to the cashier or whoever. My parents didn’t like to tell me stuff, cause they knew I’d just blab it out to whoever. And I remember all of this. But the weird thing is, I don’t remember when I stopped being like that. I can’t even narrow it down to any kind of time frame. I’m not sure if I’m like blocking some kind of traumatic childhood experience that led me to shut the fuck up all of a sudden or something like that. Right now, I’d take any explanation, cause it’s kind of weird not knowing.

I hope that people don’t mistake my silence for not caring. I wouldn’t be feeling the way I do about this if I didn’t care. I just really, really, really suck at conversing.

Last weekend, Kev & I went out to eat in San Mateo. Even through the rain, it was well worth the drive.

First, we went to Santa Ramen. It had been too long since we last went. Last time we tried to go, they just happened to be closed that weekend, and the time before that, they ran out of miso! (I was sooo bummed out). Despite not calling before we drove all the way down, they were open and they had miso! And I also sprung for the kurobuta (japanese stewed pork), since they happened to have that in stock too (they usually sell out fast). It was happiness in a bowl. Seriously. I could die happy after eating at Santa Ramen.

Afterwards, we went to Sweet Breams (sounds like something got lost in translation) and got a "school" (12) of mini taiyaki. We got to choose 3 flavors, so we got nutella, azuki (red bean), and vanilla. They were pretty good, and hot, since they're made fresh. But since they're soo small, we kinda went through the it all hella fast. We easily could've done another box. At least now we know for next time.

Jaymi told me about another ramen spot in San Mateo called Ramen Dojo. She said it was really good, and the cousin that she went with said she liked it better than Santa Ramen. Pure blasphemy, right?!?! Well, according to a bunch of reviews on yelp, maybe not. But I must verify these claims myself. So we're gonna have to try that place out soon.

For almost the past 2 years, I've been mainly listening to kpop. It more or less started a little before the SM Town concert, and every since, I've been adding to my kpop playlist. I've added some random english stuff, like Sleigh Bells, but it's mostly been just kpop.

A couple weeks ago, I was looking for something new to listen to, so I tried out Pandora. Not knowing who to look for, I just put in the name of one of my favorite bands, The Offspring. Their last album came out a couple years ago, but they still sound exactly the same as they did when I first heard them back when I was in high school. Then it played other related songs, some which I happened to also listen to back in the day, like Green Day, Linkin Park, Blink 182, etc. I still have all those songs (and CDs) in my collection, so I made a new playlist with all those songs. I hadn't heard some of these songs in hella long. It's refreshing to hear old favorites again, and I guess it's cool that I still like them, even after all this time.

Yay!! - my streak of watching the Warriors lose to the Kings (or the Kings beating the Warriors, however which way you want to view it) is FINALLY over. I think it was only 5 or 6 games, spread out over maybe 6 years, and I had NEVER watched the Warriors win in Arco Arena (and during those earlier years, I was a Kings fan first, but of course, now I'm a Warriors fan first, but I still support the Kings).  But all that changed on Tuesday when the Warriors destroyed the Kings, 115 - 89. It was awesome, even being in enemy territory, and there were a lot of Warriors fans too. But the win was kind of bittersweet because......

Nay - the Warriors traded Monta Ellis & Epke Udoh (and Kwame Brown, but I could give a sh!t about him) to the Bucks for Andrew "I-broke-my-foot-in-January" Bogut and Steven "this-didn't-work-out-the-1st-time-so-let's-try-again" Jackson. They traded their best scorer and best young big for a center who probably won't play till next year and a guy who is considered to be a cancer in the locker room. I don't know what the Warriors management is thinking. I guess Bogut is cool when he's healthy, and I hope they try to flip Jackson for someone actually useful before the Thursday trade deadline. The kicker is, the Warriors play the Bucks this Friday, which I happen to be going to since it's Filipino Heritage night. Not sure if Ellis & Udoh will be playing, cause I don't know if they've passed their physicals or whatever, but if they do, it should be interesting. Who's gonna guard Ellis? Klay Thompson? Charlie Jenkins? Whoever it is, it's not gonna be pretty. It's just gonna be weird in general seeing him blow by whoever and score for the other team.

I only started actively looking for free moving screenings starting last January (2011), when I was still working in Fresno. I guess Fresno is a big enough city, but I guess they're not big enough (I would guess that it's way too ghetto). In the 16 months I was there, I only went to 3 screenings: Hot Tub Time Machine, The Mechanic, and Unknown.

When I moved to Sac, there were waaay more screenings. I guess it's cause it's the capital, or just an overall better city to have screenings than Fresno. So far, in the 9 months that I've been up here, I've been to 10 screenings: The Change-Up, 50/50, 30 Mintues or Less, Columbiana, Moneyball, Big Year, Immortals, The Woman in Black, Project X, and 21 Jump Street.

side note:
I just watched 21 Jump Street tonight, and it was hella funny. I was damn near laughing the entire movie. And I soo wasn't expecting anything from this remake of the old 80's show. When I first saw the trailers, I thought it was hella stupid, and that Hollywood was running out of original ideas and just rehashing old crap. But no, it was hella good. I would've paid to see it.

And those are just the ones I've been to. I've gotten passes to bunch of other movies, but didn't have anyone to go with , and I didn't feel like going by myself (Moneyball is the only one that I've been to by myself here in Sac, cause I was NOT going to miss my team's movie). So I missed out on Act of Valor, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Paranormal Activity 3, The Ides of March, Conan the Barbarian, Battle: Los Angeles, and How Do You Know.

side note:
Is it sad that I actually name all the movie screenings that did and didn't go to? No, I don't have a perfect memory, I actually have an excel spreadsheet where I keep track of all the movies I've watched and who I watched them with. I dunno, I just like keeping track of things I guess. Like, I hate it when I forget who I saw what movie with. Or when I ask someone "did you see this movie?" and they're like "yeah, I saw it with you. don't you remember?" and I just smile and saw "oh, yeah" when I'm really thinking "wait, did I see that with you?!?! I hella don't remember....." So now, this spreadsheet will help me avoid awkward scenarios like that. So to answer my own question, no, it's no sad, it's awesome and totally normal/justifiable.

You'd figure that now that I'm in Sac, I'd always have someone to go with. When I was in Fresno, Chris was out of town a lot, and my co-workers (the ones that didn't have kids or weren't twice as old as me) didn't like free movies or something (they were a weird bunch), so I went to those by myself, cause I didn't have anything better to do in Merced & Fresno. Well, up here, I have Shann, Gabe, Haile, Elway & Patchi when they're off, and sometimes Jaymi if she gets permission to come up (my co-workers here are in the same boat as my co-workers in Fresno). Even with all those options, I still get no takers from everyone. Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

So if you count the ones I didn't go to, that's 17 screenings in 9 months. I'm actually quite proud at the fact that I don't pay for movies very often anymore. If I'm not watching free screenings, I'm paying with Century gift cards from Costco that were given as gifts (very popular Christmas gift last year), or with free moving passes that I get from redeeming points that I get when donating blood at The Blood Centers of the Pacific. I donate twice a year, once in the summer & then around Christmas time. I get 1 movie ticket in the summer, and then 2, sometimes 3, at Christmas. I would totally still donate if they didn't give free movie tickets. It just happens to be a perk.

I was actually really sad the last time I had to actually pay for a movie ticket (with real money!!). It was in December and I really wanted to watch the new Mission Impossible movie, and in IMAX. I could've used one of my blood donation passes, but I forgot to print it out. But I suppose it was well worth it. And  the last time before that was in July when I watched Transformers 3 (definitely soo not worth it).

I guess the only downside to the free screenings is that in order to get good seats, or actually get in to the theater, you have to line up at least 2 hours before the screening starts. For the most part, it's worth the wait. So far, the one exception would be Columbiana, which hella sucked. I was soo mad at the end of the movie. Not worth it, at all. Another time, Haile & I were going to watch Conan the Barbarian, and went to the theater to line up, but the line was already hella long, even 2 hours prior, and the line was outside and it was like 95° F that day, so we were like 'F this. And good thing we did, too, cause apparently the movie was terrible.

So yeah, that's my schpeel on free movie screenings.

Friday:
It was Grandma Jean’s birthday, and she decided to celebrate it at Thunder Valley, so she invited a bunch of the fam to dinner there. I was still up in Sac, so I said why not, and my parents were going too. The whole dinner thing wasn’t exactly planned too well. My parents and I got there before everyone else (we drove separately). When Grandma Jean did show up, maybe 30 minutes later, they had to wait for Auntie Grace to check in, since Auntie had free rooms or something. We were also going to have to wait for Cliff and Vince  to show up before we could eat dinner. And since it was a big group, and it being a busy Friday night, getting seated would’ve taken hella long. My parents and I didn’t eat before-hand, and we were hella hungry. Taking into consideration the points I just listed, we just said eff it and went to the food court to eat on our own. I think we finished eating and parents drove all the way home before the other group left the restaurant.

Another why I couldn’t wait, other than that I was hella hungry, was cause I had to leave early to go back to Vallejo and help Tim install his rear Brembos. God, they’re nice, but way to expensive. I could not justify getting those for the mini. But freakin A....now I’ve been looking into less expensive big brake kits, like the set that Wilwood sells. Brembo and Stoptech only sell the fronts, but Wilwood sells both front & rear, and combined they’d cost a little less than Brembo adn Stoptech. If one year, I have the extra cash, then maybe I’d consider it. But now, it’s totally not necessary, and it’s basically just for show. Though, it would look soo freakin nice.....

But anywho, we didn’t start till maybe 1230am. Being n german car (an Audi S4 Avant), things initially didn’t go so smooth. It progressed from “How the hell do we get to THAT bolt??”, to “Aww crap, do we have to remove the shocks??”, to “Why isn’t this lining up right??”, to getting a hammer for some “gentle persuasion”. And 3 hours later, we got the driver side done. Now knowing what the hell we were doing, the passenger side only took us an hour, and it would’ve been quicker if we didn’t forget to re-connect the shock after we mounted the wheel. But it was well worth it.

Saturday:
Jaymi, Jacqueline, Albert, Haile, and I volunteered for the Bay Area Brew Fest through One Brick. We signed up for the 1st shift so that we could drink afterwards. Our shift was from 11am-2pm, but the event didn’t start till 1pm. The vendors were setting things up themselves, so for the first maybe hour & half, we weren’t really doing anything. Albert & Jacqueline were at the Lost Coast Brewery table, and Haile was at the Rogue Brewery table. Jaymi & I started off at the front checking people in, which was mistake. It was a hella nice day: clear skies, sunny, no wind, but bad for us since we were outside with no shade, and I didn’t bring a hat or sunglasses. But eventually we switched with the people pouring beers. I was at the Anchor table, pouring Liberty Ale and Anchor Bock. Anchor is a local SF brewery, and I just so happened to be wearing an A’s shirt, and basically everyone with any SF Giants gear gave me shit. I suppose I kind of had it coming.

After our shift, we went outside to eat. There were 7 different food trucks, and the event coordinators gave us food vouchers worth up to $10 in food (and they also reimbursed us for parking, which was $10). The lines were pretty long, but I guess that was to be expected. I ate at the Brass Knuckle truck and order a bacon-wrapped hotdog and sweet potato tater tots, which were freakin amazing! After we ate, we went in for more drinks. We should’ve drank more before we ate cause by the time we finished eating and went back in, a lot of the breweries were out of the popular beers. But it was all good, there was more than enough other beers to try out.

Afterwards, we went to Japantown to eat again for some reason. We all ordered our own things, and (surprise, surprise) only Jaymi was able to finish her meal. Then we stopped by Sophie’s Crepes for a crepe, but since we were all sort of full, we all just split one. We also went to the Nijiya Market, cause I had to stock up on ramen, yakisoba, and the chocolates for work. I swear, the drawers at my desk at work could pass for a japanese mini mart.

Jacqueline wasn’t feeling too well after the event. She says it was because she had a bad headache all day and NOT drunk, but I think it was cause she wasn’t used to drinking all that beer. She ended up yakking in the Japantown parking garage, and Albert sent us a picture of it. Gross.

Sunday:
Stress relief at the Blue Rock Springs driving range & lunch at Bud’s with Kev.