A feline future

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
21 July 2011
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I’m so excited!  My mom just told me this weekend that we can officially get a cat again!  And not only that, we can get two!  It’s something I only dared dream about lately, and I have certainly been pining for some feline friendship.  It’s been a couple of years and I think I’m starting to feel a lack of companionship now that I am living on my own, no longer surrounded by college buddies and textbooks keeping me busy all the time.  While I really enjoy being able to put work away once I leave and spend the night unwinding, it would be so much nicer if I had a pet, even if only on the weekends, to spend time playing with.

Awhile back, we had discussed how we could make raising a cat work, between the traveling my parents do and the uncertainty of where I will end up in the coming years.  I reasoned that my job and life now is pretty stable, and my mom is around enough that we could pull it off.  My apartment allows pets, so bringing a cat wouldn’t be a problem and my apartmentmate doesn’t mind since I’d keep the litter box in my own bathroom.  With those ducks in order, it really just came down to my mom getting final approval from my dad.

My mom volunteers at a shelter when she has time, and there are often older cats that people don’t want to adopt.  We’d be more than happy to take one of them home and away from the threat of being put down.  My dad, on the other hand, wants a kitten or younger cat, so my parents actually decided to get one of each!  I’m totally thrilled and I can’t wait to go to the shelter with my mom to find our future pets.  It has been awhile since our last cat died and I have been telling Panda how important it is for me to have at least one cat in the future.  I’m so glad I won’t have to wait as long as I feared I might.

The hunt for the perfect purse

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
18 July 2011
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Recently, I decided it was time for a new purse.  The one I’ve been using is just too large and flops over from not being full enough.  I had previously been using a smaller handbag sort of thing, which I switched out of when I wanted to be able to carry my iPad in my purse.  I also wanted to be able to separate my iPad into a different compartment so the inside of my purse wasn’t just a bottomless pit of stuff, but held things together better.  I hate digging around looking for something I know is in there, but got lost among the depths of the purse.

20110719-120955.jpg Armed with this criteria, I decided to do some shopping this weekend and came across a dark purple purse and a nice white one at Kohl’s.  I loved the color of purple purse, but it was a bit too long so the shape was kind of weird.  The white one looked really nice, but couldn’t fit my iPad in the center compartment that zipped up.  Other than that is was the perfect size and had all the compartments I was looking for, so I went ahead and bought it to give it a test drive.  I took these pictures to get Panda’s input and he pretty much thought the same thing, which gave me the final boost of confidence that I chose the right one.  And hey, if I changed my mind, I could always return or exchange it.  After all, Kohl’s has a pretty good return policy!

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Then at work today, I asked the opinion of one of my coworkers and she brought to my attention a detail on the purse that makes it a little less classy.  I really love the triangular holes and the black stitching, but part of the silver lining looked cheap.  So, I decided to continue with my search and see if I could find something that would meet my needs better.  This time it also came down to two purses, one white and one purple.  I really liked the brightness of the white on the black and white one, but the design was too flashy and not at all like me.  On the other hand, the color of purple one wasn’t my favorite, but I did enjoy the shape and the middle divider was deep enough to hold my iPad and zip up.

20110719-121016.jpg Between the light purple one from today and the white one I had purchased yesterday, I couldn’t decide which one was better, so I just got the purple one to give it a test run as well.  While I really like the shape of it, the external pockets, and the internal compartments, I love the look of a white bag!  We’ll see how this one feels as I use it tomorrow.  I was already noticing how much easier it was to have a purse closer to your body, rather than a huge hunk of a thing hanging down your shoulder.  As for the color, it’s not something a lot of people would choose and I am perfectly fine with that.  I don’t mind standing out in a crowd!

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I’ve already switched everything over to the purple purse and I’m still having trouble deciding if I should just keep both, choose one, or keep looking. My coworker did mention going to the Fashion District, so if we can do that this weekend, I’d definitely be open to replacing these with something else that catches my eye.  It’s hard to know when something is good enough!  I can’t help but think of what there might be out there that I have not yet discovered.  If I don’t find something soon, I think that either of these purses would do the job just fine and I’d never know the better, so I won’t worry too much about it.

Oh, and all this has reminded me of why I’m never that interested in shopping!  A “quick” trip to look at some items quickly turns into an hour or two and next thing you know, the day is gone.

Carmegeddon

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
15 July 2011
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All day, Angelenos have been bracing themselves for the 405 shutdown, which has been dubbed “Carmageddon” due to the potential for massive gridlock across the city as traffic diverts elsewhere.  As it is, the 405 is known for terrible traffic conditions, so we were really unsure of what would happen when a 10-mile stretch of the northbound side (approximately from the 10 freeway to the 101 freeway) and a 4-mile stretch of the southbound side was closed for the weekend.  Anyone trying to get over into the San Fernando Valley would have to find an alternate route, ranging from PCH along the coast to the 101/170 or 5 further inland.

We’ve been hearing warnings for over a month, with traffic condition signs flashing: “405 Closed 10 to 101, July 16-17 Expect Big Delays”  It’s been over the news and I’ve heard that even people in Norcal up to the Oregon border were notified!  Caltrans sure worked hard to make sure that as many people knew as possible so locals could plan to stay in and visitors could schedule around the weekend.  As we got closer, we were even told about an app called Waze that could provide us with GPS routes based on traffic conditions to help us get around the congestion.

So Friday afternoon, people started leaving work (wishing each other a Happy Carmegeddon), hoping to get home before the craziness.  Many even stayed at home that day so they wouldn’t have to deal with or contribute to the evening traffic.  By the time I was getting out around 6, the freeways looked clear.  They never looked like at on a weekday!  I was originally going to wait until 8 or 9 to head home so I could avoid the commuter’s clog, but since it looked so good I packed up and left around 6:30.

It was the most amazing commute I ever had.  Even with normal free-flowing traffic, there are still a lot of cars on the road, but this time it was so much more empty.  I only saw one car using the carpool lane, and that wasn’t for lack of carpoolers!  They just didn’t need it.  The only time I really had to slow down was up by the Getty Center, where there had been a crash that needed to get moved over so we could squeeze by.

Thanks to Carmegeddon for freeing up the roads before the closure.  It made my life a lot easier that night!  We’ll see how the rest of the weekend pans out.  I’m steering clear until Sunday night.

Polygamy

laelene Posted in general blog, relationships，Tags: , ,
13 July 2011
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I came across the show Sister Wives yesterday and decided to look into it tonight.  I’ve found it fascinating to watch their complex family dynamic and all the relationships in a delicate, precarious balance.  The show focuses on the ups and downs of the adults in the family, with the wives all in love with the husband and the husband in love with all the wives.  The husband is very careful to spend approximately even time with each wife, rotating where he sleeps each night and making sure to eat, pray, and speak with each of his dozen kids and three (soon to be four) wives as often as he can.

While their lifestyle is considered illegal, I find that I don’t quite understand the negativity that seems to surround their choices.  Each person chose to live this way and all are strong in their stance.  Who are we to judge whether it’s right or wrong when it’s between consenting adults well aware of their actions?  This kind of persecution is very similar to gay couples.  So why is it that gay couples have garnered a lot of public support for their lifestyle, when polygamists are still looked down upon?  I don’t understand it.  Fundamentally, it comes down to the same issue – what makes a family a family and who gets to decide what is and isn’t?

Personally, I feel that each person should choose how they want to build a family and what it is to them.  While I would not choose polygamy myself (one-on-one relationships are hard enough!), I don’t see the “wrong” that seems to offend people so much.  Though I suppose that in this case, the polygamy practiced is a one-way street so it can be offensive in a sexist sense.  The man may take on new wives, but the wives may not take on new husbands.  Still, it’s not like polygamy on the part of a woman would be accepted in society either.  Why can’t people just accept the choices that others make in their personal lives?

Polygamy seems like less of a crime than adultery.  At least here the wives enter into the marriage well aware that there will be others and the man (hopefully) is respectful enough to consult them on any additional wives.  There is no hiding of affairs and love children and all that crazy drama that seems to be in the news constantly.  The husband in this show loves and respects each of his wives, adores his children, and does his best for all of them.  Things could be much worse!

Memory lane

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
10 July 2011
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It all started with Jaycee Dugard… and ended with TV shows from my childhood!  Yeah, I know, random.  And you will never guess how I got there.

So there I was driving and listening to the radio when I heard that there would be a special on Jaycee Dugard.  Hers is a fascinating story, so I went online to take a look since I don’t have a TV to tune in with.  As I watched that story, I was reminded of one of the shows I used to love to watch (maybe because my dad loved to watch it): 20/20.  Since I was already on the ABC site, I started to watch videos of 20/20.  The episode I watched ended with a tour of the Spelling mansion that was just sold recently.

Now I’m not really into this pop culture thing, so I had no idea the Spellings were rich.  I had only heard of Tori Spelling here and there, and I have no idea what she has acted in.  I went digging more into this story of the sale of “the Manor” and eventually that led me to some related articles that covered 90’s pop stars.  Aha!  So that’s how a kidnapped girl leads to stars from my youth.

I started perusing the listings (you can read them yourself too) and there were so many great memories!  From Full House and 7th Heaven to Xena and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, I started to remember all those shows I used to watch.  I had all but forgotten about Boy Meets World and Home Improvement, Touched By An Angel and The Secret World of Alex Mack.  But then there were some of my favorites: Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Oh, and Bill Nye the Science Guy and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along!!  I did enjoy those learning shows.  I also remembered some not mentioned: Early Edition and Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.  Boy do I miss the good old days of good old television.  I didn’t know all the shows covered, but I was surprised at how many I did recognize and watch.

It was nice to look back on those shows and if they are available to watch… I’d love to remind myself of how good they were.

Exhaustion

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
06 July 2011
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Ever get so tired that you fall asleep without realizing it, leaving the lights on, the computer running, and maybe even still holding that pen in your hand?  Well that happened to me last night.  I woke up sometime around 1 AM to find my wrist was numb from propping my head up and my mind was so groggy it took me a second to register what was going on.  I considered still writing up a blog post, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy to type, so I turned off my computer, the lights, and then my mind as well.

I probably wouldn’t have woken up until 5 or something if I hadn’t fallen asleep with my head weighing heavy on my hand.  It was only when my hand was screaming for better blood flow that I jerked awake and tried to stop the numbness from becoming painful needles.  Maybe the yoga earlier that night was too restful, or maybe my recent travels caught up to me.  Either way, I was zonked out!  Tonight I’m feeling pretty tired too, so I should get to bed earlier and catch up on sleep.

Fast food conversations

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
01 July 2011
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I’m not a fan of fast food restaurants. For whatever reason, I always seem to overhear random conversations and it just puts me on edge not being able to tune out. Here I am at Burger King, having some dinner while waiting for my flight and there’s this lady talking to what appears to be her husband. From what I gathered, she writes episodes for some show and there’s a coworker who really annoys her. According to the lady, this coworker is so self-centered that whenever she contributes ideas to an episode, it’s always in a way to show off her knowledge of a given topic.

Fair enough, we all know people who just don’t realize how the people around them have learned to tune them out because they aren’t that pleasant to be around. But there was something about the way this woman was telling the story that actually made her sound exactly like the coworker she was complaining about: unknowingly self-centered. Ironic, isn’t it?

She just kept going on and on about how it was her plot and this other lady tried to hijack it just to serve her need to show off that she knew more about Catholicism and what a godmother is. And in the process, I heard a petty woman who was so focused on how much she disliked her coworker that she herself became oblivious to how self-centered she became.

What really bugged me more than that was that she was talking about something that made this other lady horny – right in front of her young son! He couldn’t have been much older than 8 or 9 and he just sat there listening to his mother rail on about some woman from work. I wonder what he was thinking. That certainly was no example to set for a child.

This woman got to my nerves a bit, just like another who was with a man at McDonald’s earlier this week. As they cozied up in a booth, I kept hearing her say to him in a nasally voice: “You don’t like kids… but you don’t like kids!” Saying it twice to make your point? I get that. Saying it at least 6 times in a row in a scratchy high-pitched voice that grated on my ears? Not cool. I’m not sure what they were discussing, but the entire conversation subsisted on her insisting he doesn’t like kids (or anything that bogs him down) and him chuckling and occasionally mumbling something. I was amazed that they could have an entire conversation where she said a whole of two sentences over and over again.

And so it goes, eating at fast food joints just hasn’t been panning out well for me. I’ve since moved to the terminal waiting area, and thankfully there are no conversations to overhear, just the echoey hum of conversations across the room.

Sendoff

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
30 June 2011
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Well, the time has come.  For months, one of my coworkers has been preparing to go off to business school (in China) and today was his official last day.  We’ve gone out to lunches, dinners, and even had a little in-house party.  We presented him with a cake, a card, a goodie bag, and an iPad!  All in all a pretty good sendoff, I’d say.  By now all the loose ends are pretty much tied up and his replacement, a friend of his, has been all trained up and is ready to take over his role.  Tonight, eight of us joined him at his place for one final shindig to send him off.  I’m glad that we got a chance to hang out one more time, since I was getting kind of sad at the end of the work day.

So by this point, all that was left was to spend some quality time with him before he flies off to a faraway land where Facebook and Google don’t exist.  Thankfully, we’ve got some techy guys who can set him up with a VPN account so he won’t be completely cut off from the world.  After all, he just got a Google+ account and what a shame it would be to set it all up only to never use it!

This time when we left him, it felt right.  We’d spent as much time as we could together and got some good old bonding in outside of the office, all of us just friends.  It’s the kind of camaraderie I was hoping for when I mentioned potentially setting up happy hour sessions after work.  It’s great to get to know my coworkers in a relaxed setting with no time constraints and it’s a pity we don’t do it more often.  I hope that it doesn’t always take someone leaving to get us all together.  And I hope that we’ll be able to stay in touch as our friend embarks on a new chapter in his life!

Natural talent

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
26 June 2011
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playground equipment - three-level horizontal bars

I spent most of recess on these! Did you have them too?

We all have things we’re good at naturally and I’ve found yet another random skill that I’m pretty good at, for having no training.   You see, yesterday I took an aerial martial arts class and I picked up on the moves pretty quickly.   Granted, I’m by no means “good” at the trapeze and silks, especially compared to the advanced students, but I was one of the better beginners.   I was able to do all of the moves that the instructor had us noobs do, and even tried a few of a bit more difficulty.  My childhood experiences playing on horizontal bars must have paid off!

My instructor seemed kind of surprised and asked me what I do for strength – I replied that I’ve been doing some yoga for a few months.   Now I thought that that would explain it to her, since I do feel it has helped my strength a bit, but to my surprise, she asked, “That’s it?”   I then joked with my friend Iota (who came to the class with me) that I must just naturally be strong!  Come to think of it, maybe there’s some truth to that?  After all, prior to picking up yoga this year, it’s been years since I’ve done anything to stay fit and build or even maintain strength.

I was pretty tired by the end of it all and my arms were shaking from exhaustion.  Between hanging from the trapeze in a variety of inverted positions and trying to keep the silk from sliding through my feet, I’d done as much as my body could handle!  And that’s not even counting the rigorous mini workout we did as a warm-up to class that left my abs sore.  I just knew I’d be sore the next day and so it has been.  There were times during the day today when I was so sore I couldn’t do more than flop back in bed and take a break.  That’s good though!  I like it when I’m working my muscles and I look forward to the next class!

hanging upside down from trapeze, with legs spread wide

Look ma, ALL hands!

hanging sideways on a silk ribbon

The leg I'm touching is actually floating and not on the other one, so this was HARD!

Progress: a handstand!

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
23 June 2011
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I’ve been practicing yoga for over 6 months now and I’m finally getting to the point where I can do some of the poses that were too challenging at the beginning.  While it’s not obvious to me the strength I’ve gained, I know that I must have to be able to balance and hold myself up on my hands for Crow Pose.  More recently (this week, actually), I’ve even managed to do some handstands against the wall, with my yoga instructors spotting me.  I’ve got to work on my core to be able to hold it myself, but I’m getting there!  It’s a great feeling, since I always thought my upper body strength would never be enough for a handstand.

Now, in both classes this week, I was able to do an assisted handstand, even coming off the wall with tonight’s.  But for my teacher guiding my hips so they’d stay stacked above me, I’d say I was doing a real handstand.  I’ll be working on getting up on my own and staying up, then doing it away from the wall.  I’d also like to try some of the crazy balance poses I’ve seen, which is sure to work my upper body and core.  The physical changes may have been gradual, but the effects are becoming noticeable now.  By the end of the year, I’ll be walking on my hands!  😛

I was really proud of myself this week for doing handstands (I even did it twice today).  The more I do them, the better I get!  Soon I’ll forget what it was like to be too weak to get up.  Won’t that be great?  Now I just have to figure out how to get some of the simpler poses right… I still can’t rotate my biceps the way I need to for Down Dog and my hyper-extended elbows don’t help the situation.  Ironic how I am advancing into harder poses, but those basic ones are still difficult.  The hopeful news is that my teachers have been practicing for years and years, so I’ve got time to get better!

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