08.12.10
Posted in Other Weddings at 8:57 pm by admin
Kitu’s wedding (Anand Karaj) was this past weekend and I had planned to wear white slacks, because I needed pants in the temple (gurdwara). Then the day before the wedding, I read that white is typically worn at Indian FUNERALS!.. eek!!.. So, I rushed out, bought a $30 dress and some fabric to make myself pants and a scarf. That way, I could just remove the pants after the wedding and use the same dress for the reception (because I had no place to go change clothes in between events).
BTW, thank goodness for Indian Standard Time (meaning that Indians are typically late to events).. This came in very handy, especially when Dan and I were convinced we were super late, but turned out to be right on time for the Barat. 
Then before we entered the gurdwara, we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads. We sat on the carpet on opposite sides of the temple (Dan with the males and I with the females). Kitu entered and was absolutely drop-dead GORGEOUS in her traditional wedding gown!! James was so handsome and you would have never guessed he was a whitey, because he totally looked Sikh… and even carried a bad-ass sword that made Dan envious! The ceremony was all in Punjabi, and was so incredibly beautiful that it made me wish I could have a Sikh wedding!!
So, here’s the thing.. I read that it’s considered rude not to eat the food that you’re fed during the ceremony, but they gave us this “sweet pudding” that’s similar in texture to squishy cookie dough (ie. equal parts of flour, butter, and sugar). The Sewadar walks around with this big bowl, reaches in with his hand and squishes it into an oval-ish shape, then places the glob in your hands.. Now, I’ve never liked raw cookie dough and even though the sweet pudding didn’t taste that bad, it was so rich that I was still unable to eat it all, no matter how hard I tried… SO then I found myself reverting back to when I was 6 years old… hiding it in the napkin, pretending to chew, while smiling like it was the most dee-licious thing I’d ever eaten. Soon, the napkin became saturated in grease though, so I was desperately searching for a place to discard it, but of course (just like when I was six), no trash (or dog) was nearby to save me… I wished I had done what Dan did and eaten it in one huge gulp. 
So, in between the wedding and reception, James decided to shave and WOW, what a difference!!! He looked great and Kitu looked stunning wearing another lovely gown. In fact, the light hitting the sequins gown made her glow.. she was SO beautiful!! The reception was so much fun and the thing I loved the most was how everyone (old and young alike), really liked to dance, it was great and the music was wonderful!! I think Dan was especially memorized by all of the beautiful Indian women, because at one point he said, “after Japanese women, Indian women would have to be the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen”.. aaaww!
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07.30.10
Posted in Random Postings at 2:07 pm by admin
I had a great 3 days in Vegas this past weekend, enjoying the pool, buffet, walking the strip, shopping, etc.. In fact, Chy and I jumped on the beds so much that I think I pulled a muscle in my neck from all the acrobatics. 
But I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is YES, there were definitely times when Dan had to remind himself that he wasn’t watching the *real* Cirque du Soliel show… THAT’S how good we were!!
We also saw Penn and Teller and Dan even got to participate in the Magic Bullet trick. It was super cool but sadly I wasn’t allowed to take photos.. you can see an older version of the trick on youtube. What I found even more impressive though was how calm Dan was up on a brightly lit stage, with everyone staring at him. I mean dang, every time Teller walked around the aisles, looking for an audience member to select for a trick, I found myself sink into the seat, looking away, terrified of being selected. But there’s good ole’ Dan raising his hand, smiling away like a crazy person, and happily standing on the stage with microphone in hand.. awesome! 
Can’t wait until we can return for another Vegas adventure!
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07.22.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:07 am by admin
Today, I arrived at the bus stop late, so there were barely any seats left. I noticed an empty seat that a girl had put her bag on, so I walked over to sit down, and can you believe Ms. Stuckup just sat there and didn’t move her bag. At first I shuffled my bag, to hint that I was going to be sitting, but instead she simply slid her bag a fraction of an inch closer to her (still taking up half of the empty seat as if hinting, ‘that’s all the room that’s available’). So, finally I sat on her bag (hoping to crush something fragile in there), then lifted my butt and as I said, “would you please move your bag?”, she immediately yanked it and was clearly annoyed, because she started chewing her gum, smacking it as loud as she could like a cow who hadn’t eaten in weeks, and then started popping/snapping bubbles incessantly in between. Hearing this made me smile though, because on top of being so annoyed, now I was convinced Ms. Stuckup was about to get TMJ. Half way through the ride though, she finally exhausted herself to the point that she shut her mouth and I never heard her again.
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06.21.10
Posted in Bus-Blog at 11:33 am by admin
My morning matinee on the bus centered around an older man who reminded me of Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report. Though he wasn’t dressed nice or even well groomed, he did bring a ton of virtual files onto the bus. Then proceeded to spread them out in different directions in front him as he stood there moving pieces around, holding them up, putting them down again, etc. In addition, he kept pulling up his cyberspace keyboard (vertically), and pushed buttons in the air at lightning speed! At times, he was deep in conversation on his blue booth, until I realized he wasn’t wearing one. Then he’d go through his cyber filecabinet, pull up and read the documents on the screen in front of him, then laugh randomly, and finally return (deep in thought) to his table full of scattered files. He eventually wore himself out and decided to sit down to take a quick break. Then in true Tony Stark fashion, he attempted to sweet talk some random lady next to him by telling her how much he liked *his* shirt. Unfortunately, I had to leave cause I arrived at my stop.. Of course, the mischievous side of me though really wanted to see what would happen if I grabbed one of his files from the air, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the virtual trash can as I left.. But I really wasn’t in the mood to try and outrun a mentally unstable man first thing in the morning, so I opted against it.
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06.16.10
Posted in Bus-Blog at 8:49 am by admin
Today, as the bus pulled up this thin, 5′7″ old timer popped up out of nowhere next to me and leans over to say, “you make me feel taller”. Then smiles happily as he puts his hand on my shoulder, leaving it there way too long. So, I smiled and then slowly moved away from him. Of course, this was about the same time that Big Mama did her usual charge toward the front of the line (while the rest of us stand back to avoid being run over). But you know, that skinny old timer wasn’t phased in the least by the 5′2″, 300lb black woman with attitude, and rushed to block the bus door. And if that wasn’t amusing enough, then he looks back and motions for me to come up and get on the bus first.. hahaa!! Man, that Old Timer has cojones! I told him I was fine though, so he smiled and got on the bus as Big Mama looked pissed.. it was great!!!
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05.12.10
Posted in My FAMILY at 9:48 am by admin
My folks arrived on Sat, so we planned a nice Mother’s Day dinner on Sun. But on Sunday, Yofu decided to come down with the same nasty flu virus that my mother had been tortured with all last week. So, we canceled dinner and he spent the next two days and nights absolutely miserable. Even as we tried to distract him with TV, he would suddenly begin moaning from the stomach cramps, along with his back ache, as he laid on the couch looking like he wanted to pass out. So, we did what anyone would do in this empathetic situation… we turned up the volume to drown out his cries of pain and continued watching our program.
Anywho, I told Chy that we’d have to change his name from Pop-Pop to Poop-Poop, because the man was practically living in the bathroom. Had I known in advance that Poopsies, I mean Popsies was going to spend so much time in there, I would have setup a small TV for him to stay entertained. A cute moment though was last night when he was telling us that he drank Pedialyte and it was SO nasty. Then he apologized to my mother, because he made her drink the stuff last week when she was sick. He vowed never to make her drink Pedialyte again. And that’s when it hit me that God gave Yofu the flu as “paybacks” for my mother, so that he would be more sympathetic in the future when she’s not feeling well. Wow, the Lord really does work in mysterious ways to get the message across!
On the bright side, last night Yofu was finally able to eat some food (ie. soup) for the first time in over 2 days and he looked much better. Plus, he was yapping up a storm like his usual self. Then this morning, he sounded even better. Of course he gets better though, just in time for them to head home tomorrow. Poor Madre spent almost her entire visit cooped up indoors and taking care of Yofu. I’m sure this will go down in history as one of her most special Mother’s Day memories..
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04.30.10
Posted in Happenings from home at 3:24 pm by admin
My parents were scheduled to visit us today so last night, I reminded Dan that once we change our bed sheets for them, we would not be sleeping in the bed, so he had two options:
Option 1: We change the sheets that night and then sleep on the air mattress in the den.
Option 2: We wake up early the next morning so that we can change the sheets then.
Dan chose option 1 and we have one of those cool raised air mattresses, so he set it up, and off to bed we went. Sometime during the night though, I woke up with this pain in my neck and back, only to find that the air mattress had deflated to the point that now we were awkwardly pinned together in the middle like trapped sardines, as the mattress was enveloping us. I practically had to crawl my way out of the pit as I tried to move towards the side. Soon, I could hear poor Dan’s pathetic plea, “Noriko?… is it OK if we just sleep on TOP of our own bed?” So, we wiggled our way out of the sinking air mattress and made it over to our room. By morning, we were both exhausted and feeling like we hadn’t slept. Then as I was driving into work, I received a voice message from Yofu, saying that they would not be arriving today after all. hahaa.. We’ll that figures.. we’re nearly suffocated by our air mattress for nothin!
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04.26.10
Posted in Random Postings at 1:54 pm by admin
So the funeral was today and despite the morose occasion, it was really a beautiful ceremony and the music was perfect. I have to say though that the Catholic religion is just steeped in so much tradition. And everyone seems to know when to sit, stand, kneel, cross themselves, etc. And it’s interesting because it’s not like the priest tells them what to say/do and when to say/do it. Instead, it’s as if their behavior is hardwired and triggered by some special key word given by the priest.. fascinating! The priest was Filipino or as they say, “Pilipino” and he proceeded to talk about how death is both “a mystery and a mystery” (which we assumed was some kind of religious homonym or something). It was about 5 mins into the sermon, that we finally realized he was saying “MISERY and mystery” and even once we figured that out, we still couldn’t tell from his pronunciation which one he was talking about because both words sounded exactly the same when he said them!
Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely sermon in the end and I tried my best not to cry, because I had forgotten my tissue at home, but that lasted all of 5 minutes. And then we had to go to the cemetery for the Interment ceremony and that was even harder to view. I had planned to go to work after the funeral, but I was feeling so emotionally drained that Dan and I just went home after wards. It broke my heart to see my friend’s mother as she sobbed and could barely have the strength to deal with the sorrow. I felt sick with pain for my friend and the entire family for their loss. And of course, it also made me incredibly sad to know that one day I too would have to experience that emptiness. It made me want to hug my parents and make them promise that they would never leave me. Then I told Dan that I loved him, but that I may need to leave him for a guy 10 years younger, so that the probability of my husband outliving me would be much greater!
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04.25.10
Posted in Random Postings at 11:00 pm by admin
As some of you know, the father of one of my dearest friends lost his battle with cancer last week. His viewing was this evening and the funeral is on Monday. He was such a nice man and though others warned that he could be scary at times, he was always nothing but kind and warm to me and I truly adored him. Now, I’m not Catholic and had also never been to a viewing before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The venue was packed and we were standing along the wall, as the priest began the prayer ceremony. The ceremony itself was really nice and the Knights of Columbus presence was super cool. Then ~ 30 mins into the service, they said they would end with the rosary prayer and a couple people left their seats, so Dan asked if I wanted to sit. I declined, because it sounded like the ceremony was ending soon. But then Dan (who had gone to Catholic school as a child) smiled and said, “you’ve obviously never done the rosary before”.
SO, this rosary prayer took FOR-EV-ER! And it just kept repeating, with an occasional/intermittent song, then the set of prayers repeated again.. at first, I looked around wondering if anyone else was experiencing deja vu, but no one was phased by it, which made me wonder if *I* was the only one who hadn’t drank the Kool-aid. At the end of the second cycle though, Dan finally leaned over during the song section and explained that we had to do FIVE cycles of this. WHAT? You’re messin’ with me, right?? Of course, then I was frantically searching for a seat, ready to pounce on any open bench, and annoyed at the Catholics for making such a long ritual. We finally got a seat and after what felt like hours, the rosary prayer was finally over and then people where allowed to view the body. I decided not to view his body though, because the memories I have of my friend’s father were all really great ones, where he’s looking healthy and happy and I just didn’t want to have my last memory be the one in his casket. 
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04.23.10
Posted in Random Postings at 9:22 am by admin
Yesterday I was craving a Guinness, so D & I had dinner at a local bar. Next thing we know a girl walks in and suddenly this table of guys, stands up cheering at the top of their lungs, and start singing Happy Birthday, as they hug and pick her up. She’s totally embarrassed, as they announce that it’s her 21st birthday, which was odd because D & I agreed that most of them looked like they were in late 20s, but I guess that’s what heavy smoking and partying does to ya! So then one of her friends buys the entire bar a round of Irish car bombs. They call D & I over to join them, but we kindly decline. Then it was like major peer-pressure as the entire bar was waiting for US before everyone could drink their beers. So, the guy brings the drinks over to our table and insists, saying that this is the one time he can actually afford to do this. SO, we thanked him and EVERYONE in the bar at the same time cheered, yelled Happy Birthday, and drank up! Dan was the DD though, so he twisted my arm [yeah right] to drink BOTH Irish car bombs, then he also poured part of his Guinness into my glass. Anywho, before we left, we told the server that we wanted to buy the birthday girl a drink (given that it was the least we could do for the two drinks her friend bought us). The waitress started giggling as she explained that it WASN’T that girl’s birthday. That her friends sing Happy Birthday to her EVERY time they meet at the bar to embarrass her, because she hates it SO much! hahaa.. So, instead we bought her friend the beer and then I went over and wished the girl Happy Birthday. She started to say, “It’s not my.. “, but when she saw me wink, she smiled with relief, saying “thank you”.
So, as I’m walking back to the car, I’m suddenly feeling really light headed and turn to Dan saying, “wow, it was nice of that guy to buy everyone KI-rish car.. I mean, KI.. KI-rish.. hmm..” [as I stopped talking, trying to figure out what was wrong with that word]. Dan came to the rescue saying, “IRISH car bomb”.. Oh THAT sounds right! So, then I continued, “yeah, as I was saying, it was nice of him to buy us KI-rish car.. ” OH geez, I give up!! So, then it was off for home where I passed out on the couch, until Dan took me up, tucked me into bed, and later brought up water so that I was able to avoid a possible hangover this morning.
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Kitu’s wedding (Anand Karaj) was this past weekend and I had planned to wear white slacks, because I needed pants in the temple (gurdwara). Then the day before the wedding, I read that white is typically worn at Indian FUNERALS!.. eek!!.. So, I rushed out, bought a $30 dress and some fabric to make myself pants and a scarf. That way, I could just remove the pants after the wedding and use the same dress for the reception (because I had no place to go change clothes in between events). 
Then before we entered the gurdwara, we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads. We sat on the carpet on opposite sides of the temple (Dan with the males and I with the females). Kitu entered and was absolutely drop-dead GORGEOUS in her traditional wedding gown!! James was so handsome and you would have never guessed he was a whitey, because he totally looked Sikh… and even carried a bad-ass sword that made Dan envious! The ceremony was all in Punjabi, and was so incredibly beautiful that it made me wish I could have a Sikh wedding!! 
So, in between the wedding and reception, James decided to shave and WOW, what a difference!!! He looked great and Kitu looked stunning wearing another lovely gown. In fact, the light hitting the sequins gown made her glow.. she was SO beautiful!! The reception was so much fun and the thing I loved the most was how everyone (old and young alike), really liked to dance, it was great and the music was wonderful!! I think Dan was especially memorized by all of the beautiful Indian women, because at one point he said, “after Japanese women, Indian women would have to be the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen”.. aaaww! 
