The meaning of exhaustion

Today was my first day of school. I have been so stressed out to the point that I actually dreamt about school and even about Johnny cancelling out in helping me yesterday!

I started out the day driving into traffic right when I got onto the freeway. I had to move to the side for the fire truck to get through. I seriously almost cried. I was so close to calling Ray and cry about the possibility of being late for my first day of school. Luckily the accident was a mile past my exit and on the other side of the freeway so I was only dealing with rubberneckers. Seriously, people, don't you have to go to work too? Why are you gonna cause other people to be late just because you want to gawk and stare?!?!

The day went by ok. It wasn't bad and it wasn't great. Just ok. I have a few ADD-like kids and a lot of cute kids. We spent most of the day getting acquainted and learning the rules and such. Apparently I missed my prep hour because the prep schedule was not placed in our boxes but on the microwave in the teacher lounge. That totally sucked. Thank goodness this week and next the kids will be out by 1:50 so I'm enjoying this early release. Now, I'm lying on my couch trying to ignore the pain in my feet!

Dragonboat bonanza

Saturday we went up to SF (Treasure Island) to go to the International Dragonboat Festival. It was an interesting experience. The festival wasn't all that. There weren't enough food vendors so line's were freakin' long (one place actually ran out of food), and the entertainment was ok (local groups dancing, singing, etc). The races were cool. I've never been to one before so it was fun to watch. It looks so tiring!

Later that night we joined Johnny, Allie, and Allie's friend, Jeremy for late-night drinks at the Blue Monkey. Apparently it's a club but not a club and a bar but not a bar, but it's really just a lounge. (inside Johnny joke) It was not too bad. Good music and nice couches to lounge. I actually felt sick from drinking half of my tequila sunrise so I stopped. We hung out for an hour and headed home at midnight.

Still not finished and 49ers brawl

Can you believe I'm still not finished with my classroom? It's quite sad. I mean, I am 90% done with the classroom but I still haven't transferred the lessons plans from my head onto actual paper! *sigh* And there's 2 more days of school and one of those days is a staff development. SHIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I would rather talk about more interesting things than setting up my classroom! So Friday Ray and I got invited by his friend, Konrad, to go to the 49ers vs. Titans game. So we took the bike up there and man was it cold. We were freezing our asses off! My left pinky was actually numb! A few interesting things happened at the game.


#1: The halftime show was peewee football. It was so cute! We watched 5-7 year olds play a mini-game by the goalpost. Seriously, their helmets were so big it looked like a helmet with legs! There was one point where Ray didn't think they would actually throw the ball, but they did and we watched as the ball flew in the air and....BOINK! The ball hit the other kid's helmet! It was great entertainment!

#2: We actually witnessed a fight near us. It was quite scary because we couldn't tell if it was going to roll over near us so we were like in ready flight mode. Two guys actually rolled down the stairs! Mad crazy!

#3: Towards the end of the 4th quarter a guy sat a few rows in front of us. For the longest time all he said was "Deeeeeefeeeense!!!!" over and over again. And when they would play music he would stand up and dance like he was on "So You Think You Can Dance!"

I hate classroom set up

So today was my first day of classroom setup. Johnny and I headed up to San Leandro in my car full of teacher crap at 9:00 a.m. We get to the classroom and discovered that the teacher before me had left a shitload of copies of math and language arts stuff. Usable? Not all of them since it used to be a 2nd grade class. I did sift through it and picked certain things to use as the beginning year homework packets to give them a little review, but the rest of the stuff I had to recycle. It took me 4 trips of using a small/med. sized box to get rid of all that stuff! And then, of course, I had all this 2nd grade textbooks for math, language arts, history......AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I moved all that shit off the shelves and over to the door for whomever they were going to send over this week to take it. It drove me nuts though because it just makes my room look so cluttered right now so I feel uneasy. Then I get the bad news that they don't have anymore tables so I'm stuck with those damn desks. Ugh! AND THEN, there's 2 long shelves under the white board that I so wanted to move but it turns out it was bolted into the white board tray. I asked the custodian to remove it but he said it wasn't possible. AHHHHH!!!! So now I have to lean over it to write on the damn board!!!!!!!!! By the time 4:15 rolled around I was so tired that I started putting borders up without putting butcher paper first! Teachers, you know what I'm talking about! Anyways, I'm glad to be home and relaxing. My legs are sooo tired. 3 more days of this (hopefully!)

Another fun weekend

It's always a fun weekend when I'm with Ray! Ok, here's the barf bag.....anyways.....

Friday, Aug. 19th:

Ray and I went to the Tech summer camps BBQ at my camp director's place in Alameda. It was a cute cozy rental located behind the landlord's Victorian. I believe it's considered a cottage or mother-in-law. Anyways, it was nice seeing the camp ppl again. Found out that one of the camp staff is now dating a Tech friend. Ahhhh!!! That's sooo crazy! I'm happy for them!

Saturday, Aug. 20th:

Morning started off a bit slow with some sleeping-in, which is always great since I only have one more week of fun left! We headed off to the Daruma Festival (which turned out to be the Daruma Crafts Boutique) around 11ish. It was located in the Saratoga Community Center across from West Valley College. It had some cute stuff but we weren't planning to buy anything and so we didn't stay long, plus we were starving and their bento boxes were $14!!!! We decided to cross the street to the college where they were having a farmer's market. We got some rotisserie chicken along with potatoes and water. It was very yummy until Ray got stung by a bee. We immediately headed to the nearest store to see if we had to buy some bee medication. I was really worried since it was starting to swell and I really didn't know what to expect from a bee sting since it's been like 10 yrs since my last one. Luckily Albertson's has a pharmacy so the pharmacist suggested to just keep it on ice. So we walked around the store while he held a bag of frozen veggies on his arm! By the time we left (about 20 min. later) the swelling had gone down. I was so relieved.

After that fun fiasco we headed to the Milpitas Art and Wine Festival. It seemed a lot smaller than the last time I went, which was 2 summers ago. We walked around, had an Orange Mist, listened to a group perform (some were good and some were so NOT good!), and bought a cute fan switch with a sun and moon on it. We then stopped by Big Lots and Home Depot to buy two wooden rods. The cashier at Home Depot was so lame. She accidentally hit the tax exempt button and got all confused and had to call the manager twice. We were there way longer than we should have!

Once we were finally able to leave HD we headed to Ranch 99 for some cheap Chinese food. They have a self-service station now so we pack as much as possible! The lady even asked if we can close the box and I was like, "Sure!" as I discreetly was trying to hold down the top! It's well worth it though because that fed Ray and I for two nights! Afterwards we hung out for a bit with Shirley and then headed out to the clubs. I had joined this Vietnamese social group and so we were meeting this guy that emailed me. We were going to Studio 8, which Ray and I have never been to. It was a pretty cool club. I like it a lot better than Agenda and Zoe's now. Glo is pretty nice too although Studio 8 is a lot bigger. We never met up with the guy since we never really established a more specific meeting place. We left the club at 12:30 and had a late-night snack at La Victoria's. Mmmmm.....orange sauce is good!

Sunday, Aug. 21st:

Went baby shower shopping for Joanne's shower. I like shopping at Babies' R Us. They have cute stuff! Met up with Ray around 1 and just basically hung out for the rest of the day. Ray played a bit of video games while I read my book, hung out at Borders, and then had our own outdoor movie and watched "Without a Paddle." It was so not worth even a rental. If you're really curious about the movie just borrow it from the library!

Disappointing news

I just recently heard news about 2 friends that's very disappointing. I hate the fact that I'm not that close to them so I can't say anything in response to this bit of news because I, and many others, honestly feel that it's a huge mistake and they acted out of irresponsibility. Unfortunately there's not much I, or anyone else, can say.

Super Sweet Sixteen Biotches!

Has anyone seen MTV's Super Sweet Sixteen reality show? So I'm sitting here watching MTV and that show comes up so I decide to see what it's all about. So today's episode focuses on this girl, Sophie. During the theme music you already discern that these rich parents spoil their kids out of guilt but just from watching 5 minutes of the show you can already tell that Sophie's diva, bitchy attitude is fueled by her mom's lack of parenting. Sophie tells her mom to shut up in a clothing store and is constantly yelling and arguing with her and her mom takes it. She even told her mom where to sit while she shops as though she's a pet dog. It's very sad how these parents think that if they throw money at their child everything will run smoothly and yet they don't realize that by not actually being parents their children will grow up to be the kind of people that everyone hates.

A whole lotta nothing and some

Ahhhhh!!! Summer's almost over! I don't know if I can handle it! I'm dealing with so many mixed emotions right now. I wonder if this is some sort of teacher syndrome. Part of me doesn't want to let go of my summer vacation but the other part is itching to go teach. I'm so confused!

Anyways, so yesterday (Wednesday) Jen, baby Chase, and I took a roadtrip up to San Leandro to check out my classroom. It's ok. I like the fact that it already has a built-in rug area where the library and circle time will be. I don't like the fact that the two windows I have are up by the ceiling. I'm glad I had the chance to look at the room though so I have a better idea of the layout.

Today I got a pedicure with Mary. It was soooo nice to finally get it done. The bottoms of my feet are very smooth now! All that walking in Europe made it rough and it was driving me nuts! I took Stinky to the vet for the third time in a month. He has UTI so we've been giving him antibiotics but the second check-up still showed an infection so we had to give him medicine again. I took him in for another check-up today so I'll know the test results tomorrow. That cat's been stressing me out too much. He's already a senior citizen so I'm starting to have fears of death so any problem that he has makes me nervous.

Tonight a few of us are going bowling and checking out the Rainbow Rollers team. Go team!

PGA & War of the Worlds

Monday, July 15, 2005:

Shirley, Johnny, and I went to Great America. Before we headed out there we stopped at Fu Lam Moon for their cheap-ass, yet good, dim sum. The total came out to approx. $20 w/ tip. We arrived at GA around noon and went on Psycho Mouse, Top Gun, Rip Roaring Rapids, Vortex, and InVertigo. We headed home around 3:30.

Shirley and I watched some Firefly and got ready for the Outdoor Movie Bonanza. Johnny lent us a projector so Ray and I decided to host a movie night in the backyard. We took a white bed sheet and attached it to the overhang of the roof in front of the sliding door. We set up the projector on the kitchen table. Movie goers were Shirley, Xuanthao, Rick, Lorena, Joy, Rob, Johnny, Ray, and I. Shirley made some excellent funnel cake along with homemade apple topping, whipped cream, and strawberries. Yum! We laid out a tarp and blankets and watched War of the Worlds. The movie was not what I expected. I didin't really like the ending. Aside from that it was great having all those people for the outdoor movie. It was such a hit there's a request for another one!

Unbelievable!

Another Comment-Whore just left a comment on my blog about Comment-Whores!!!! They have no shame!

Comment-whores

Ok guys, apparently I got this odd comment in my "Boomerang" blog that talked about random news of Michael Jackson and telling you to check out treadmills with a link provided. It looks like someone is a "Comment-whore." You know, people that go around to random blogs and post up comments advertising whatever they're advertising. They're not even commenting on the particular blog or anything remotely related so it's obvious they didn't give a shit who's blog it was. It's just another comment box for them to fill up! COMMENT WHORES STAY AWAY!!!!!!! Good thing we can delete these comments.....

Luau pics!!

They're here!!!! The pictures from our 2nd annual Luau pictures are here!!!! Check 'em out guys and maybe then you'll see how rockin' the Shiznit Girls are!!

http://lilplaytime.siteburg.com/luau2005/

From Boomerang Bay to Jazz Festival

Thursday, July 11, 2005:

So Shirley and I were suppose to go to Great America today as part of our usage of the WOW card. Since Johnny was having a shitty week + 1 we wanted him to go with us to cheer him up. He had a lunch thing so we decided to just hang out when he was finished and make funnel cake with Shirley's brand new funnel cake kit! Around 3ish he said he wasn't coming without any real explanantion but he promised to go to GA with us on Monday. Anyways, that didn't stop us from making our funnel cake! I have to say that although it came out a bit crispier than it should've it wasn't that bad! It was quite exciting. I was experiencing stomach pains that afternoon though so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked to. I was in pain for the whole evening and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Lorena gave me some Pepto Bismo-type stuff and that helped it a bit but it was still there until about 1 a.m. when we went to bed. By the next morning it was gone.

Friday, July 12, 2005:

Ray got an off-site activity this afternoon. He got a WOW card so we went to GA together. We didn't get there 'til 2ish due to the missing sunblock, which was extremely crucial since we were gonna go to Boomerang Bay. Over where the Yankee Clipper use to be they built a mini-waterpark. It's pretty cool considering how small it is. They have a lazy river, a wading "lake," and 5 runners. 3 of them you can go with someone and the other two is alone where you lie down and go down the tube. It wasn't too bad although I did hit my hip on the side on the way down and pulled back my nail as I was struggling to get up causing it to bleed under the nail. Yeah, sounds bad but not really. It still hurts if I put pressure on it. We had a lot of fun at Boomerang Bay although I had to get over my swimsuit insecurities real fast! We then walked around a bit and went on Psycho Mouse and the Swings.

Our GA adventures ended at 6:15 when we headed over to Penang Village to meet up with some of his ex-coworkers for dinner. Two of them, Donny & Katrina, are moving back to the Philippines so they went up to Canada for a bit and just got back to pack up and leave so we had a dinner for them. They're a cool bunch to hang out with so like always I had fun.

Saturday, July 13, 2005:

Slept in, which wasn't the best thing to do since I got a headache from that! Johnny and his roomies were having a party later that night so we came over early to help out. Of course Johnny wouldn't let me touch a thing so we ended up playing ping pong, going on the internet, and playing on the PS2. A friend of Johnny's showed up around 8 and I was put in the position of whether or not to be civil to this person or to just ignore them due to recent events that had occurred. Unfortunately we were in an awkward position since it was just the four of us in the room. My solution was to keep conversation to a minimal although I made it a point not to give this person a hello hug like I usually do.

The party was a bit slow for a while with only Johnny's roommates' friends there so far. Mary finally came at around 9 so that helped a bit. Shirley strolled in about 11ish I believe. I'm not sure since by that point I was totally buzzing! I think I was talking way too loud, but oh well! Ray and I ended the night around 12:45 since I was coming down from my buzz and experiencing a tiredness I usually feel after buzzing.

Sunday, July 14, 2005:

Went to Valley Fair with my sister. I got 5 foaming wash soap at Bath and Body Works for $15 total. Nice! Ray and I went to the SJ Jazz Festival around 1:30. We first stopped by his cousin, Eric's, place to pick up his PS2. We hung out by the mainstage for about 2 hours eating our ribs and listening to the music. We then went over to the Salsa stage for a bit. That was pretty cool. There were a bunch of people salsa dancing in the McWhorter's parking garage. We left the festival around 5:45.

My smelly day with Shirley and Alice

So my day started out going to visit Ly at Le Cafe with Shirley and her sister, Alice. We enjoyed time with my sister for about an hour. After she closed up we headed to Vung Tau for lunch where I had the yummy noodle/veggie dish with the egg rolls, prawns, and the fish sauce concoction. Yum! Afterwards Shirley invited me to join them on their shopping trip to Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond but after she took a bunch of glass bottles and such to the recycle center. She was going to go to the one near Nob Hill so I waited at home while she did that, but turns out that the center was closed. So they came back to pick me up and we headed to the Albertson's on S. Park Victoria. Have you ever been up close to a drunk before? Have they emitted a certain beer-like smell? Well, take that smell and times it by 10! That's how smelly Shirley's car was from all the bottles she had in the backseat and trunk. Poor Alice sat in the back and had to endure the odor for a long time! We had to drive around with the windows rolled down. For a moment I was seriously considering sticking my head out of the window so I could breathe semi-clean air! We got to the center by Albertson's and they weren't accepting glass that day so we had to go to the one in Fremont off Warm Springs Blvd. Even after we got rid of all those bottles the smell still lingered. Luckily I was able to convince Shirley to buy Febreeze, otherwise forget about riding in her car!

Tonight: Shirley, Alice, Shirley's friend, Johnny, Ray, and I are going to a sneak preview of "Four Brothers" with Mark Wahlberg!

Interesting weekend....

Saturday:

The weekend started out with Ray and I heading up to SF for the Aloha Festival. We also realized that Brady's 4th birthday was the same day so we had to coordinate everything really well! We left for SF around 10 and got totally lost for an hour looking for the festival. It got to the point where we were going to stop at any festival we found! There was a lot of miscommunication between the two of us but overall we still had fun, despite all the stress! There was a point where we were on a hilly street going down but had to stop and the force of gravity pushed me onto Ray (we were on his bike) and it was so hard to push myself back on my seat! After the 3rd time of that happening we couldn't help but laugh!

We finally reached the festival and hung out for a couple hours. Ate some ok hawaiian food, did some shopping ("Pinoys dig me" shirts are cool), and listened to some music. We headed to the bday party at 2 p.m. Got to SeaBreeze Park around 3ish. It was already starting to wind down by the time we got there (it started at noon.) The usual suspects were there + babies. Ray and I were the only unmarried childless couple there. It was kinda weird but I'm getting use to it. It was cool hanging out with the kids. Liz, Chak, and Matthew made it out of the fog to join us so that was nice. We left the party at 6 (I guess it wasn't winding down so much!) and watched "Meet the Parents" in the backyard with Johnny's cool projector.

Sunday:

Hung out with the family while Ray went crazy at California Extreme playing old video games. Johnny had some bad news. Met up with Ray at 6:45 and we headed over to Johnny's to bring dinner and keep him company. went home around 9ish.

My bad.....

I forgot to post the links to our Europe pictures! Bad Trang!

London:
http://lilplaytime.siteburg.com/1_london/index.html

Paris:
http://lilplaytime.siteburg.com/2_paris/index.html

Amsterdam:
http://lilplaytime.siteburg.com/3_amsterdam/index.html

Panoramics of all locations:
http://lilplaytime.siteburg.com/4_panoramics/index.html

What teachers do to save $$

So Staples has this deal where if they are selling a box of crayons for $2 and another store, like Target, has it for $1, Staples will charge you the cheaper price. Sooooo, Lorena, Shirley, and I decided to start our school supply shopping today at approx. 11:00 a.m. We went to Staples and discovered that we have to provide the store ads in order to get the discount so we drove over to Target to get their ad. We drive back to Staples and do our shopping. Not only did we have the Target ad but we also got the Office Depot catalog to refer to. We finally were ready to check out and by this time it was a little after noon. We had to do three separate transactions along with the discounts. We didn't leave Staples until 1:15 p.m.!! All this and we're not getting paid for our time.

Stupid boys.....

An old friend emailed me because I sent him the links to my Europe pictures so I assume he was wanting to connect again, which we did a year ago and lost contact again. Anyways, in his email he says,

"btw, did you gain some weight since college???

I'm so mean!!!!

sorry,


Am I being weird and crazy or is that totally insensitive?!?!? I'm sorry, but you DON'T say that to ANY female! It doesn't matter how much self-confidence they may have, that kind of comment will cut like a knife! Ever since I read that email (last night) it has been on my mind. It's already bad enough that I feel self-conscious about my weight and my mom doesn't let me forget it, but now I have to hear this from a friend?!?!?!


ADVICE FOR MEN: NEVER COMMENT ON A WOMAN'S WEIGHT UNLESS IT'S TO SAY, "HAVE YOU LOST WEIGHT?" OR ANYTHING ALONG THOSE LINES!!!!

3 weeks of summer vacation left!

I hope everyone enjoyed reading about our European adventures. I know it's a long read but I didn't want to leave anything out. Last week was spent putting together our web album, blogging about our trip, and preparing for the annual luau.

The luau was a total success. Aside from a couple drunks and some party fouls things went pretty well. We did our usual decoration of a water scene and palm trees but this time we used the leftover brown paper as raffia and had it draping over the area that connects the living room and the kitchen. Sonya and Jeremy were also super great to set up huge black lights and this laser show. Johnny wowed us with his new music mixer on his computer and a projecter he borrowed for us, which we played "Blue Crush" on the wall with the palm trees framing each side of it. The party began at 8:30 but it started bumpin' at 11. A lot of people brought friends so it got really crowded. We had sangria, jello shots, and weird enough my sister bartending. I had a few drinks so I was feeling pretty toasty. That was a signal for me to stop since I hate being toasted to the point that I'm not able to consciously have fun when it's my party. Ray, on the other hand, got drunk off his ass. I don't think I like him drunk and we talked about it. He behaved in a way that I didn't appreciate so we talked about and hopefully I won't have to go through that again!

I spent the last hour of the party taking care of Ray (one of the side effects of drinking too much!) The party ended about 2 a.m. Everyone had a great time. We did experience a bit of Sex in the City when my friend, Hugh, discovered that someone accidentally took his shoes! Apparently Rick's friend had the exact same shoes as Hugh. The only difference is that Hugh's feet are bigger so Rick's friend, who was drunk, obviously didn't not notice the difference. But when Hugh tried to squeeze his feet into the other shoes he definitely noticed a difference! I felt soooo bad! Luckily we figured out who did it and Hugh, being the good-natured guy that he is, went home barefooted and is waiting for my call once I get ahold of his shoes!

Sunday was spent recovering from the night before. My sister and I went birthday shopping for our dad and I hung out for a while. Went over to Ray's and napped for about 2 hours, we had dinner at Taco Bell, rented "Team America," and called it a night.