I really enjoyed the Border Grill truck, so I was intrigued about the restaurant and decided to go with Panda for Father’s Day. It was pretty tasty and definitely unique, though I prefer the truck when it comes to appetizers and dessert.
My favorite, the green corn tamales. I prefer the cone you get from the truck though.
I got the sauteed shrimp dish. Very yummy and very sour. (I love sour.)
Panda got a carne asada quesadilla - very heavy food!
The TED conference is the most unique type I’ve ever attended! It’s pretty rare to have everyone watch the same presentations throughout the day (no break-out sessions) and because of that, it makes sense that they include this portion – a stretch break:
tedxucla break from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
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.
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.
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!
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!
Look ma, ALL hands!
The leg I'm touching is actually floating and not on the other one, so this was HARD!
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!
peacock showing off from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Check out the shaking he does with the brown feathers on his backside, haha.
peacock booty dance from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
I got my iPad today! It was a bit earlier than expected (they had estimated a June 22nd delivery, but based on the tracking I estimated a June 21st delivery). Instead I got it this morning and happily spent the day letting it sync up with iTunes. After work, I began to play around with it to see which apps have iPad versions and which ones are still stuck in the iPhone days. I’ve set just about all the settings I can think of and I’ve begun to organize my apps into folders again.
There’s something really fun about new things – setting them up, exploring them, and personalizing them gives me a great sense of satisfaction. After spending most of the night fiddling with my gadget, it’s time to call it a night and get some rest. Tomorrow’s a new day and another chance to find uses for my iPad. 😛
Videos of the international collaboration mentioned in yesterday’s post.
korean american collaboration from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
