hear me roar!

it was much harder to be social at TT’s wedding than i expected. first of all, i went to the wrong dyansty restaurant. for some odd reason, i just assumed it would be at the one in cupertino, so after i worked out and got ready,i headed there, only to realize neither weddings hosted there was the one i was supposed to attend.

when i arrived at the right wedding, i realized that my friend PC hadn’t arrive yet, even though he was supposed to be there early for the open bar. i didn’t really know many people there, although i saw some familiar faces and made small talk with them.

i sat down at my table, and saw another friend with his date. we talked a bit but i didn’t want to interrupt their conversation too much so i kept to myself mostly. others arrived at the table but i just wasn’t in the mood to say anything. in most cases, i didn’t bother introducing myself and instead, just smiled and nodded. finally, PC arrived, and surpringly brought someone. i think that was a last minute decision, although i shouldn’t have been that surprised. i have to say, i always thought they looked good together, but no one really knows whether it has any long term potential.

i left as soon as the newly weds toasted our table - i didn’t want to bring anyone else down at such a happy occasion. when i stepped out, i saw a gorgeous sunset-there was so much red and golden clouds in the sky. it was one that i will remember for a long time.

for a moment, i felt really sad. and alone.

a year ago, there was so much excitement and hope. but a seemingly blossoming relationship doesn’t always turn out that way. and unfortunately, sometimes it takes a while to figure out that.

but there is likely no going back to how things were a year ago. one can only move forward, not matter how difficult.

june was the month of trying new workouts. having had the same work out routines for nearly 10 years, i tried 1) pilates on reformer, 2) kickboxing and 3) bikram yoga all within one month.

kickboxing definitely focuses more on the strength and coordination, and yoga’s emphasis is more flexibility and muscle endurance (and in the case of bikram yoga, sweat. i have never sweated so much. my clothes were soaked after an hour and half and sweat was dripping on to the mat). pilates on reformer, i felt, was more in between of the first two. and probably why i liked it the best out of the three.

while trying all these classes are pretty fun, i think i am gonna stick to my good ol’ cardio and weightlifting, and occasionally swimming and vball to mix things up. different things work for different people, but cardio and weightlifting have always been good for me, so i really don’t see a reason to ditch that and follow some trendy work out.

since i decided to not fight my redlight ticket (from a red-light camera), i signed up for the traffic school option and took an online course today. it’s supposed to be the comparable to the 8-hour course you would take in person, but most websites tell you that you can complete the course in less time.

they were right!! i did it in less than 2 hours, and that’s only because i actually read the first section. what was i think? i got the hang of it, and then i would just click on every section (otherwise you cannot move on), go take the quiz at the end (you have to pass, but have unlimited chances to do so), and take one final exam to complete the entire course. all for $14.99!

even if done in a short amount of time, it was still a complete waste of time. i didn’t learn anything that i already didn’t know. and this is probably just the state’s way of making more money. i wonder if they get a cut from the traffic school. and i doubt it will make me drive any differently.

i guess i will have to slow down since i don’t have another chance for traffic school for the next 18 months. i guess in that sense, i will have to drive differently.

i haven’t visited baja fresh in a long time - i decided to stop by for a quick lunch and noticed that they have TWO new salsas. one is a little smoky, spicy, with a lot of jalapenos and cilantro. i loved it! the other one is a mango salsa, whic i tried with caution, and loved as well. it was very fruity and tangy, but savory at the same time.

because of the two new salsas, i nearly ate all the chips that came with my meal. that wasn’t such a good thing.

i have been facsinated with ottmar liebert’s music, and finally, got to see him in person at a concert the mountain winery last night. the mountain winery has a spectaculate setting - nested in the foothills of saratoga, on a clear, cool night, under the stars and a crescent moon. i felt the music, however, would have been more fitting in a tropical area, like south beach (where i had heard “barcelona nights” in front of cafe med on ocean avenue), where the warm humidity enhanced the romanticism.

it’s been about year since i last attended a concert at the winery- the setting is about the only aspect that the last event and this one had in common. the crowd back then was much more energetic-perhaps appropriately so, since the gypsy kings performed at that event. and i was much more optimistic, looking forward to see how the future events would evolve.

i am not into trendy work outs, but i have been curious about pilates. my gym offered a free one-hour demo class, so i tried it out.

it was definitely harder than it looks, but it helps that i work out regularly, so none of the exercises i tried took me my surprise, but it was very challenging. enough so that i considered signing up for a regular class.

the next day, i was sore. but a different kind of soreness from lifting hard. a better kind of sore, if such a thing exist.

so now i am really inclined to take a class.

i sort of saved this weekend for some r & r, and to prepare for some upcoming important deadlines. that plan was thrown out of the water late friday afternoon, when i found out that a complaint has been filed against a client, as well as a TRO. which means we have very little time to oppose. bye bye “free” weekend!

it turns out that we also decided to file a complaint of our own, so most of the weekend was spent working on that. i had two social obligations and i was able to attend both, albeit briefly.

a colleague came by to say hello-we haven’t chatted much since i started. the interesting factoid here is that he married a girl i lived with one summer at wellworth plaza. in fact, he was dating her at the time and came by a lot, and we all hung out frequently. so needless to say, he knew PN back then as well.

after i told him the story, we ended up reminiscing a bit about what life was like back then. it was “a period frozen in time,” he said, and something we can always reflect upon fondly. as he was leaving, he said “i gotta tell [my wife] about this.”

i caught with CV last night over dinner-we hadn’t been in the same city at the same time in a while. i found out that she had a similar experience in NYC as i did in la, i.e., the moment where your heart sinks and starts to wonder “what if.” lucky for me, because i didn’t really know how to articulate how i was feeling. but i didn’t have to.

inthe middle of dinner, the power went out on california ave. luckily we sat outside, and still had day light. later as it got darker, the whole place was illuminated by candles. the restaurant is always pretty dark normally, and with the candles, it sort of felt like a cave.