hear me roar!

i had lunch at abc seafood with my family - we don’t all get together often and i forget how much fun it is. it was especially nice to see my cousin and her husband. i can’t believe she has been married for a couple of years already. we should really all hang out more, considering they only live 30 miles away. my grandma was especially happy to have all of us there.

i then went grocery shopping again for the party tonight. after i got home, i dug out this really antipasta serving set i have: 9 little plates in a wrought iron serving stand. just washed all that and the wine glasses. i probably should chill some of the wine, and start cutting the bread and laying out the meat and cheese. i went to the backyard to cut some fresh flowers, but too bad we don’t have much. and we always have fresh flowers. luckily there are still 3 pretty roses that i cut from about a week ago and doing rather well indoors.

i even remembered to give a list of guest names to the guard at the gate.

i hope this to be a memorable evening filled with good friends, wine and food. happy new year everyone!

him: (around 2:30 am for him) i guess i should try to get some sleep…got lunch plans with my cousins tomorrow
me: ok, good night
him: talk to you later? ( i don’t know why that often ends in a question, but whatever)
me: sure.

(30 minutes went by, the phone rings)

me: i thought you went to sleep?
him: for some reason i can’t fall asleep
me: oh..is everything ok? is there something bothering you?
him: i don’t think so
me: are you thinking about something?
him: (pause) well, i can at least blame you for part of it because you have been popping in and out of my head
me: (silent gasp - did he just say that he was thinking about me????)
me: oh…brief, fleeting thoughts?
him: urgh…no quite so brief.
me: (silent gasp again - did he just admit to to thinking about me persistently???)
me: well, maybe you can think about something more calming.
him: so thinking about you isn’t good?
me: not what i meant. but i don’t want it to keep you awake when you need to get some sleep.
him: but what else am i supposed to be thinking about?
me: (huge silent gasp - did he just imply that he had nothing that he rather be thinking about besides me?)

i persuaded him to hang up and try to sleep again. and then i went to sleep very peacefully as well.

my teammate OF is moving to la, to work for Teleflora (aka “the flower shop.”) his roommate organized a small going away party for him, and at first, i was unsure about attending because a lot of my teammates weren’t going to be there. but it turned out to be a real great group to hang out with, and knew most of the people who showed up.

throughout the night, OF was his classic self: full of inappropriate comments, to every one of which we laughed wholeheartiedly. his word of the night was “talibanning,” meaning living a restricted life with no partying and no alcohol. this is exact the OF that we have grown to love and will miss dearly. i made him promise me that we will have Team Cyclones - Vegas Part II sometime this year.

i was disappointed that ucla only was selected to play in the sun bowl. but when i got to the gym and noticed that their game was on, i had to ask the staff to switch one of the big flatscreens to show the game so i can cheer on the bruins.

it was not a good move -ucla’s quarterback was intercepted three times within about a 10 minute span, and each time the opposing team was able to capitalize on the turnover, including running two of the interceptions back for touchdowns. but i had faith - my bruins are a come back team.

and they did, slowly and methodically. wait, never mind. they came back in a fury, and ended up outscoring the other team 50-38.

this should help the bruins’ pre-season ranking next year.

a group of close friends and i were thinking about a napa day trip, a nice lunch and maybe something low key in the evening. but with the pending storm and potential flooding, napa seems to be out of the question.

so instead i have offered to have a small party at my house, and have our own wine tasting.

i am so excited. i love having close friends over.

after taking care of the emergencies at work on wednesday, i was able to sneak away and enjoy my day off. i was determined to spend some time with HH since he was leaving for home for the entire weekend early thursday morning. he had also planned on taking a half day off and we had tentatively agreed to at least hang out for a little bit at some point during the day.

the storm that dumped a lot of rain in the morning moved away quickly and actually resulted in a beautiful clear (and warm) day. i didn’t want to waste any more day light hours indoors and proposed that we go to golden gate park. he somehow mustered up enough courage to resist the lure of his couch and big screen tv, and relunctantly agreed. the park was actually really busy, and we wondered aimlessly, but it was a good idea to get out for some fresh air and exercise.

at one point during the walk, we paused for a moment and looked to the west, across a meadow, at the setting sun, casting its rays through a light layer of fog or cloud, and shining through the large eucalyptus branches. (i think at this point he was trying to convince me that the sun was about to set soon and we should turn back). there has never been a moment prior to this point where i felt so unguarded. i think he did too, although it was unspoken. after the brief pause, we continued walking. he laters swears that all the walking tired him out and he was able to let his guard down. although he “complained” the entire time we were at the park, i like to think that he at least secretly enjoyed a little bit of it.

since he was such a good sport about doing the thing that i really wanted to do, i told him that for the rest of the evening, he can do whatever he wanted. we ended up spending a quiet evening at home, eating dinner, watching the warriors game, and taking care of domestic chores like laundry, packing and dishes. i was more than content.

things that i have learned today:

make my wishes known, and if possible, he will do his best to make it happen;
sometimes we have to do things that i want to do, and sometimes we have to do things that he wants to do;
sometimes he stares at me, for no reason, and smiles.
sometimes i look at him, and realize how far we have come, and my heart races.

but working at home!

the weather is awful so at least i have the luxury to be working in my pjs. i basically rolled out of bed after checking my email when i woke up and have been working since. i do need a fax machine/scanner though.

one of my very favorite restaurants anywhere - and two blocks from my old place in berkeley. i always knew that it is generally busy, the wait is long, the service is slow, the ventilation is bad, but the food is great. and it is one of the few places where the guests at the same table almost never get their entrees at the same time.

last night our dinner went really long, partially because the dishes took so long to come out. we sat upstairs and was able to observe the entire restaurant. HH noticed that whenever the waiters would bring out the food, he or she normally had mutiple plates of the same thing, to different tables. after watching this for about 30 minutes or so, he eventually concluded that the dishes took a long time to come out because the chef would wait for multiple orders for the same dish to be placed before cooking it. depending on how frequently a dish is ordered, the wait time varies.

i ordered something off the menu - i guess the chef must have been cursing at me since no one else was gonna order it. and it took a long time to come out. but it was just as delicious as i had remembered.

so if you ever go to this place, perhaps you can validate or invalidate this theory. but try the gnocchi fumatore. it will be worth your wait.

we had three court filings today - and we have been preping for a while, especially through the weekend. but inevitably, there were some last minute rushes. around 4, we got the confirmation that the messenger was in line at the court house already and barring last minute problems, everything should have been filed on time.

it wasn’t that long ago when i would have only been good at taking directions from more senior attorneys and completing the tasks they have asked me to do. more and more, and it was especially apparent today, i was able to see the bigger picture and took ownership of the things that i have been working on. i felt very much at ease handling whatever that was thrown my way, even things that i was not very familiar with.

but there are still countless skills that i still need learn to do and master…

we saw each other, finally!

it wasn’t out of convenience. and there were no other people. and we didn’t have any specific plans. and the timing wasn’t perfect because i had a lot of work stuff going on and we both had to work the next day (even though we had the entire weekend but we didn’t meet up).

but he made the effort to ask. and i made sure that i let work know that i would take care of all the necessary stuff before the morning but will be out of touch for a while -after that the BB, phone and laptop were stowed away. and he liked my favorite italian place in berkeley, even though he didn’t like it the first time he had gone. and we had fun. and we laughed a lot when watching “harrold and kumar going to white castle.” and as much as we both realize it was a bad idea to stay up, we did anyway. and he insisted on talking to me until i got home. and then some.

i happily got caught up with the work that i neglected for half a day, and went to sleep by 4 am. it was the best night of sleep that i have had in a week.