Thoughts

ROO'S NEW PAD AND SOME OLD FOOTAGE
Monday was Memorial Day, except we went to Irvine to check out Reuel's new townhouse and to remember something a little different.
His place is very cozy, with not much furniture except for a beautiful plasma TV complete with Tivo and DVD player and surround sound speakers. So, we all sat on the floor while watching the Suns steal a game from the Spurs. The TV was so nice, the imges on the screen looked clearer than some of the people sitting around me!
Afterwards, Enoch pulled out some old footage of some old Emmanuel Brothers and Sisters' Appreciation videos me made about 8 years ago. It sure did bring back some old memories of when we were all a littel thinner ... and with much more hair. During those days, Enoch and I spent a lot of time with Jason putting together these videos and shared many laughs together. Reuel and Luong also contributed quite a bit. After watching just snipets of the old footage, we were all rolling on the floor. It sure did bring back many memories of good days gone by.

STAR WARS
Everything I heard was true: the dialogue was terrible (especially during the romantic moments between Anakin and Padme) and the long talks really made the movie drag, but I was still glad I was able to see the movie. And even though I knew exactly what was going to happen as far as the plot was concerned, it still made me say to see Anakin's fall from grace and the tragic death of nearly all the Jedi Knights.
But to be honest, it was even amazing we ended up seeing the movie after all. See, I had planned on waiting until this weekend to see it so that I could share it was my brother, brother-in-law, and sister. And when plans were made to watch it with Karena, Sandra and Gabe, Liz and Steven, and Jacob and Victoria, I was excited. Everything was going perfectly ... too perfectly.
So, when I got the call about Steven hurting his back, I knew the plan had been foiled. Actually, we all met up to check in on Steven and things weren't looking too good. After both Karena and I worked on him, his back felt better, but he was shivering and was feeling dizzy. He was probably in shock. So, it was awkward to leave to see the movie. Liz and Jacob and Victoria decided to stay with Steven, but the four of us still went and managed to get good seats and buy tickets right at showtime.
Now, I just hope Steven is doing okay.

RAYMOND'S BACHELOR PARTY
Without getting into the specifics, I have to say everybody had a great time. And good thing too, because I had never really planned a bachelor party myself before and was nervous at how things might turn out.
So, I forewarned everybody that the day's events would be designed more for hanging out and less for trashing the groom. And I think that worked out just fine for everybody.
I should have known that with a little buffet and a lot of basketball, that everybody would have enjoy themselves. And that's exactly what happened.

Check it out.

In the end, we spent a lot of time talking honestly about marriage and gave Raymond some tips. Needless to say, we focucsed on many of the pitfalls and the differences between men and women. So after a while, it started to sound a little bad. But Danny Yee said something I will never forget, all the while he was putting on his shoes and about to head out the door. He stopped and said to Raymond, "Despite all the negatives we've mentioned, marriage is a great thing. In fact, it's through marriage that I've tasted a slice of eternity. When things are going well, that's exactly what I feel like -- a slice of heaven."
I guess even profound statements can be made in passing.

YOUTH CAMP RALLY
If there's one thing that CEFCers do up right, it's the Youth Camp Rally. Every year seems to be better than the last -- complete with fresh new ideas, funny skits, memorable words, and hopefully, a push for kids to go to Youth Camp to find Him for the first time or rededicate themselves to Him.
This year did not disappoint. I'll try to get a copy of all the footage, but let me just tell you, their parady of the old guy dancing in Magic Mountain commercials (and instead, getting a group to go to Youth Camp) was quick highlight. And the secretive thing that we can now discuss is that we brought me, Enoch, Edwin (a high schooler going to UCLA) and Pastor Rich in to become the Bruin Boys and do a rap (complete with MTV-quality music video) about Youth Camp. It's hilarious! But for me, the best part was seeing the group (with Luong in front) doing the Thriller dance. It was so funny and yet very well done.
Like I said, you have to see it to believe it.
On a more serious note, one segment of the evening was a parody on "That '70s Show" called "That '80s Show" where Simon, Enoch, Debbie, and Danette and I discuss Youth Camp when we were campers. Right before we were to go on, we were laughing about all the good ol' days. I suddenly got nostalgic and looked at everybody and said, "We've been hanging around for a long time ... and we're still hanging around." It was a cheesy moment, but I enjoyed it.

FALLING APART
I am 28 years old, but feel more like 82. And worse, yet when I turn 29, will I feel like I'm 92?
In the past few years, I've developed many different physical ailments. In general, it really disappoints to know that my body is breaking down. It upsets me that my knee required surgery and has never been the same since. Basically, I'm learning the hard way that this body is only temporary.
My latest ailment is another achy tooth that again has apparently gotten hold of the nerve and causes severe pain along the entire left side of my face. It's a very strange pain because it's worst at night while sleeping and seems to feel a little better when I'm upright. I've been waking up every hour and using Orajel to dull the pain. Needless to say, I've been a walking zombie these last few days. I've even tried sleeping sitting up, but that hasn't worked.
I don't see the dentist for another 2 weeks so I'm hoping this trend ends soon. Otherwise, you'll have to excuse me if I fall asleep while talking to you.

BRAZILIAN BBQ AND GAME SHOWS
We finally got around to trying this place in Burbank called Picanha for Brazilian BBQ. It's very similar to Greenfield where they walk around with various meats on skewers and you eat to your heart's content. After enjoying their lunch complete with salad bar and a lot of meat, I have to say that Greenfield is much better. I was also disappointed they didn't have anything wrapped in bacon (ex. filet mignon wrapped in bacon!)
But while we were there, they had the bar TV on the Game Show Network, which happened to be showing an old episode of "Super Password." I got so into that I couldn't even hold down a decent conversation with Karena. Instead, I started making her guess the password with clues I was giving her. All this made me realize just how much I loved watching daytime game shows as a kid. Some of my favorites included "The Price is Right", the aforementioned "Super Password," "Card Sharks," "Scrabble," "Win, Lose, or Draw," and "Press Your Luck" (Big bucks, no whammies!)
What ever happened to quality daytime TV like that?

PARIS HILTON & BRITNEY SPEARS
I try not to use the word "hate," but if I had to name two celebrities that I truly despise, I'd answer Paris Hilton and Britney Spears without hestitation. Yes it's true, I don't really know them and have never met them so my opinions are solely based on what I see on TV or hear/read from the media. But I just can't stand what they stand for.
Karena and I have never watched Paris Hilton's "The Simple Life." And we hate her new Carl's Jr. commercial where she's washing her car in a skimpy bikini, getting water all over herself while eating their new Six-Dollar burger. As far as I'm concerned, she's a nobody and shouldn't be a celebrity. She has trounced on her family name.
And everytime Britney Spears says or does something nowadays, I just shake my head. She is unbelieveably "white trash"-ish, especially now that's married to Kevin Federline. He's a big loser too. I read in a Details magazine article recently all about him. All he does is cuss. He wore a robe that said "Pimp" on his wedding day. And now, they're going to parents. Poor child. I'm glad to hear nobody is watching their UPN show "Chaotic" since all she does is talk about their pre-marital sex. Dumb.
So, the next time you're around me, let's not discuss either one of these celebs, lest you want to see me go off on a verbal rant of epic proportions. Thanks.

SWIMMING
One other thing I love, besides the OC, is swimming. Obviously, it's great to cool off in the water in the summer. But, since I grew up taking swimming lessons from a very young age and made it all the way to lifeguard status, I've enjoyed swimming. In fact, I was on the Montebello Swim Team for years and even started to get good at swimming the length of the Olympic-sized pool. (Actually, that pool was the one used for the 1932 Olympics).
Today, Karena and I got an opportunity to swim at my parents place. She spent half the time laying out, while I just swam around in the water -- kicking up water, twirling, splashing water, etc.
We both couldn't be happier.

THE OC
We spent the first part of the day in Cerritos for Karena's PT school classmate's wedding. Aparently, it is common for Korean weddings to have a buffet reception immediately following with tons of food. It was weird to not have an RSVP card come with the invitation, but that also is common. The food wasn't the greatest (mostly pickled vegetables and lots of kim chee), but we had a good time seeing all her old classmates again.
Afterward, we met up with a large group of church friends to celebrate Suzanne's birthday in Irvine. We ate at a place called "The Melting Pot" for fondue entrees and desserts. Since we had just had buffet, we didn't eat anything, but did manage to try some of their fruit dipped in chocolate, which is excellent. We ended the evening at Dave & Buster's at the Block by shooting pool and playing electronic golf.
After spending most of the day in the OC, I can't begin to tell you how much I love it there. The streets are wide, the people seem friendlier, and the area looks beautiful. The problem is we would never live down there since our families are all in LA. But it's a great place to visit. The OC definitely deserves all the kudos it's been getting lately.

DINER FOR DINNER
I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but I really love diners and the food they serve there. Looking back, my love fest for diners probably started in college when we would go out to Carrows or Denny's after church on Friday nights and have some really good conversations. It was a fun time where the eating was good, the conversations were meaningful, laughter was in the air, and the friends were aplenty. Plus, I love that scene from "Pulp Fiction" when John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are eating in the diner at the end of the movie before it gets held up. That dialogue about pigs being filthy animals was hilarious. It still makes me laugh. I think all of that put together makes me love diners.

For the past 2 years that we've lived in Glendale, we've always wondered what all the fuss was for this diner called "Conrad's." It was always full and there were always people coming in and out of that place. Personally, I thought it looked like a place straight out of the '70s where mostly older individuals ate. But we went there tonight and the crowd was a mixed bag -- families, older folks, teenagers, young adults, etc. The food was decent and again, the conversation good.
We may go back again, but we still don't know what all the fuss was about.

STAR WARS
I think everybody has Star Wars on the brain today. And they have good reason since many people I know will be checking out Revenge of the Sith tonight at midnight. I'm SO excited to see it, but so far, have not found an opportunity to go (I've had to pass on 3 different offers because of scheduling conflicts).

I haven't been this excited about seeing a sequel (technically a pre-quel) since right after I saw "Back to the Future" as a kid and couldn't wait until the second one came out. I thought about it every single day for a whole summer in 1985.

Ricky left me a voicemail today, asking if he could park his car at our house tonight so he could run down Brand to the theater to catch the midnight showing of Star Wars. Now, why he would run all the way down there (it's not very close at all!) is beyond me. Maybe he's in strict training to become a Jedi Knight.

LYRICS

Meant To Live -- Switchfoot

Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bid for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly

[Chorus]
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken
[Chorus]

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live

MONTEBELLO
We rented the movie "Sideways" yesterday. Towards the end of the movie, Thomas Hayden Church's chracter gets married in an Armenian church. It turns out, that church is in the greatest city of them all -- Montebello! In fact, it is literally down the street from where I grew up.
They stand in the parking lot where you can see houses with typical Montebello architecture (pretty much the houses next to Ricky's house). And when they leave the parking lot (actually the Taylor Ranch parking lot), he turns left onto Montebello Blvd. and passes by the sign that says "Avenida de la Merced." So, not only is my city now world-famous, but so is my elementary and intermediate school.
But this is only half the story!
I was so excited that I called my parents to tell them. But when I talked to my mom, I got a very unexpected response. She gave me a lecture about the benefits of living in and raising a family in Montebello. She told me how I shouldn't make fun of the city because it is a better area than many others, has a mall, a Costco etc. She admitted there are bad areas in South Montebello, but the Northern area is a great, stable suburb to grow up. I couldn't stop laughing. I did my best to assure her that everybody knows this is a great city and we only poke fun at it for laughs. We're not really serious.
She was unconvinced.
So, the next time you want to make fun of Montebello, remember that you'll be offending my mother if you do!

SATISFACTION
During our weekly staff meetings at work, my boss will sometimes read some of the comments we get back from our patients. During this past week's meeting, I had positive comments from three different patients. But one of them was truly interesting and made me the butt of MANY jokes at work.
The patient wrote something like, "Victor is extremely consciencious. He is a satisfier of human beings and their emotions." Now, I understand (sort of) what the patient was trying to say, but it was just a funny way to say it.
After the meeting, everybody kept calling me "a real human being" and "the satisfier." Our "class clown" co-worker, kept singing the '80s Human League song, "I'm Only Human."

FILMING
We did some filming for the upcoming Youth Camp Rally (I'm leaving the details out on purpose). In addition to dunking basketballs on an 8 foot rim, we also climbed to the top of some monkey bars, knelt down into a kids' playhouse, did some dancing, and some other things. Afterwards, I was thoroughly exhausted and tired.
I guess I'm not in high school anymore.

SANFORD & SON
Many nights, we come home exhausted and tired. All we want to do is get some food in our stomach and go to sleep.
But it's especially on those nights that I flip to TV Land and turn up the volume really high. We love listening to the beginning theme song of the '60s show "Sanford & Son." We actually never watch the episode that follows, but Karena and I break out in laughter every time we hear it. Plus, we dance as crazy as we can to arguable some of the best music ever written!
It's the best stress reliever I've ever found. You should try it sometime.

PINKY
Every once in a while, my contacts irritate my eye and it turns completely red. This becomes extremely embarassing because everybody thinks you have pink eye. And what's worse is that I never have the stuff to take my contacts out or have my glasses handy. So, I'm forced to keep my irritated contacts in my eye so I can see and drive home.
Although this hasn't happened to me in quite some time, it happened yesterday. And just my luck, it was the same day that our entire staff went out to dinner and took many pictures. Even this morning, it's still red. I was going to stick with my glasses today, but I have to do a bit of filming today and don't want to wear glasses. But I don't want my eye to be red either. Hmmm . . .
Maybe it's time for laser eye surgery.

NO MORE "I SHOULD HAVEs"
Before I got married, I found myself always botching up certain holidays like Mother's Day, birthdays, etc. I would usually end up doing nothing besides saying, "Happy Mother's Day" in the morning. More recently, I would buy flowers from the grocery store to show my appreciation.
It wasn't that I didn't want to do something, I was just really bad at planning something worthwhile and meaningful. But because I didn't do anything, I would end up feeling unhappy at myself and saying, "I should've done this" or "I should've done that."
But since I've been married, I've faired much better, thanks to my wife, of course. Last night, we celebrated Mother's Day by having both sets of parents over for a home-cooked dinner (well, except for the BBQ pork and noodles we got from Chinatown). Karena cooked Chinese spinach and egg-drop soup and brocolli beef. We also had strawberries and a fruit tart from Porto's for dessert. Afterward, we presented our mothers with a large bouquet of flowers and a gift each. Finally, I was able to show my mother just a glimpse of what she truly means to me. And I didn't end the evening by saying, "I should've ..."

IT'S TIME
After hanging in our house for 5 months, it was finally time.
Today, on May 7th, we finally threw out our Christmas wreath.

CINCO DE MAYO
This is amazing, we almost never go out to eat on a "work night." But during these few days that I've been ill, we've gone out twice in four nights.
Last night, Karena's boss treated his entire clinic to a dinner at a restuarant on Olvera Street. Chips and salsa and guacamole (which I did not touch) were in the house. Margueritas were plentiful. And I scarfed down two of the best carne asada tacos I have ever had.
But I have to admit that eating Mexican food has gotten so much more difficult now that I'm allergic to guacamole. I still love it though. Ray and I recalled that we viewed eating Mexican food as a real treat because we rarely got it as kids because my mom didn't like it much. Maybe that's why I still risk getting sick just to eat some good buritos and tacos.
Afterwards, I found it so interesting that Olvera Street is literally one block from the heart of Chinatown. How weird to have two different cultural areas so close together. Who said LA was spread apart?!?

LUCILLE'S BBQ
Even though I was starting to get sick, we were excited to have dinner with Liz and Steven in Long Bech at Lucille's BBQ. It's one of Karena's favorite places to eat because she loves their beef ribs and their bisquits with apple butter. Plus, it was great to be able to spend some quality time with Liz and Steven and to see their new apartment.
After we left, I started to feel worse, but I still did have a good time.

SICK
I'm sick and yet I still went to work (even though I have about 3 weeks of sick time). Now, I'm sitting at Karena's work, hoping to go home soon.
I've literally used more than 1/3 of a brand new huge box of Kleenex and my nose is all raw. Thank God that tomorrow is my day off. I'm hoping to get some rest, although I have to get up early to take my car in to Nissan to get an estimate for the damage done to my car in the Kaiser parking lot.

MOVIES
I am a big fan of Ocean's Eleven, so I was excited to see Ocean's Twelve. But after having everybody tell me it wasn't very good, we decided to wait to watch it on video. And even though it was a bit confusing (I had to watch it two times to catch everything), we both enjoyed it. There wasn't as much cool sneaky stuff this time around, but the sequel was funnier. Matt Damon is awesome in the movie.
We also rented "After the Sunset" with Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, and Don Cheadle. It's also an entertaining movie, with some plot twists like Ocean's Twelve. Karena actually this movie was really good because of the humor, the thievery, and the beautiful shots of the Bahamas (as you know, she loves beaches with clear water and white sand). We heard the beautiful resort featured in the movie let the movie crew stay free of charge in exchange for the free publicity. Too bad for them the movie didn't do very well.
Next up on the list is, of course, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith. I can't wait. Hopefully, George Lucas will deliver the one all Star Wars fans have been waiting for.