Panda’s flying out tonight, so I decided to go with some shots of LAX that we got while visiting Clutter’s Park on Valentine’s Day.
I see the Goodyear blimp!
And the Hollywood sign!
Peering out at LAX. This is where I'll be when Panda flies home!
Today is Panda’s birthday! It’s fitting that he’s celebrating another year just as he gets ready to embark on the next stage of his life. In just a few days, he’s off to the east coast to start a job, a career. It’s also his first time living outside of Los Angeles, so there will be a lot of learning and adjusting to do. Hopefully the worst of the storms has passed for this year, so he won’t have to deal with driving in the snow. Living so far from is already going to be a challenge in and of itself, weather notwithstanding.
This Sunday will be the last full day we get to spend together for a long time and I am excited to be sharing some of our favorite things together, including good food and good friends. Of course we will also have some alone time to enjoy each other’s company before our primary mode of interaction becomes Skype. Back when I went to Singapore for a few months, we had been through this challenge (in addition to a pretty drastic time difference). While this won’t be as bad, it will have to sustain for longer, so I am preparing myself for some tough times.
The good thing is that this is a great opportunity for him to grow and hopefully within a few years I can move out there (or he will decide to try something else and we will both move to the same place). It’s too early to say what might happen until then, but we’ve weathered a storm before and I am confident we can do it again. I just hope that we are able to visit each other every few weeks or months. Things are so much better when I can share them with him.
This weekend I finally got the LoveSac PillowSac! I mentioned back in May 2009 that I’ve wanted this thing for ages (about 8 and a half years by now) and now it’s here. Originally I had wanted a SuperSac, the 6-foot diameter LoveSac, but after my friend lent me his indefinitely, I started to focus more on the PillowSac, which is cool because it is quite versatile. I like that you can get the Rocker and set it up to be a rocking couch, or lay it out flat to be the size of a full mattress. In addition, there are the fun shapes like fortune cookie and pea pod. 🙂
I’ve been following the Deals section of the LoveSac site, where they had an entire Fushia Berry Chenille set for $499 (more recently discounted to $399 for Valentine’s Day specials). I liked this set because it came with the PillowSac and cover, a Rocker, and two throw pillows. Purple’s my favorite color and I thought this unique pattern would be fun. However, it’s absolutely tacky and impossible to match with anything, so I held off, not sure about that pattern. Then, about three weeks ago, the Red Herringsuede one showed up for Valentine’s Day, also at $399, but without the throw pillows. Now I couldn’t decide between the two. The purple set had a better deal, but the red set is far easier to put in a room.
Click to see the deals:
So, that’s how I ended up at the LoveSac store with Panda this weekend. I figured I could take a look at the materials and decide once and for all which one made more sense. Thank goodness I did too! I had thought that the Herringsuede is a type of faux suede, but instead it’s actually a herringbone pattern renamed. After seeing that, I would have rather had another more exciting texture. Luckily enough, the store had a black Velvish PillowSac cover that it was selling for a discount because this cover was discontinued and it was their last one. Even more fortunate was that they had an open PillowSac selling for a discount because it was not completely brand new and in the packaging. The reason for that was it was used in a L’Oreal commercial that Beyoncé shot recently. Pretty cool, huh?
So when I heard the price of the PillowSac and cover, I was pretty sold, but I wanted the entire set I’d seen online, Rocker and throw pillows too. I asked the saleslady about that and she was able to offer slight discounts for both. She had a couple of throw pillows to choose from and I thought the Red Herringsuede would actually be a great contrast on the black. Having pillows that don’t match the PillowSac itself made things much more lively and exciting, otherwise those pillows sort of blend right in. In the end, I’d be paying about $27 more at the store for a much more customized set with a cool back story. And so that is how I ultimately got my new PillowSac set!
I haven’t wanted to spend the money to get internet service at the apartment, so I’ve been using whatever signal I can get. Unfortunately, this results in a lot of disconnecting and extremely slow loading. It’s getting to the point where I need to use an alternative solution, or just give up using the internet extensively while in the apartment. My first hope is to find a nice neighbor with enough bandwidth to share their network password with me in exchange for a portion of their monthly cost.
I don’t want to have to deal with a setup cost for internet I’ll only have for a year, so I’d rather split the cost with someone who has already set it up anyway. I just hope I have some nice neighbors who’d be willing to do this. Roomie refuses to go ask, so I wonder if it’s an American culture thing for each unit to stay separate and not share amongst each other. I really hope I can avoid incurring a cost that isn’t wholly necessary by making a new friend with the neighbors! We’ll see how that goes.
It’ll be nice to finally go on Skype, watch a video, and do other things that haven’t been working for me lately. The frustration of getting kicked off AIM just might have to be avoided by paying up, sadly. That’s a good $200 each* if Roomie and I split a service – quite a hefty sum at the end of it all.
*clarification: for the year we’re at the apt, not per month!
Tonight Panda, Houdini, and I went to a dinner with my apartment mate (I’ll call him “Roomie”) and one of Houdini’s high school friends. When Houdini met my apartment mate, he immediately wanted to set good ole Roomie up with a friend of his who he’d met up with recently. She had told him she was interested in dating and possibly a relationship and hey, Roomie happens to be doing the same! So, Houdini set about getting a blind date arranged (with himself, myself, and Panda as company).
Well, tonight Houdini gets in the car and tells us that she’s not coming. Instead, we’re going to go pick up this high school friend of his, who he thinks might actually be a better match. Shocked and confused, we asked what happened and as it turns out, this whole blind date thing was made into quite a big deal in one of the classes that the original blind date girl is taking. On Friday, one of the people in that class (that she works with too?) actually asked her out because he liked her and didn’t want her to go on this blind date (and potentially get swept away by Roomie!). She said yes, so she wasn’t going to come anymore.
Coincidentally, Houdini had another friend (the high school friend) who is single and looking to date too. He even felt she might be more fitting for Roomie, so he invited her to come instead. She agreed and hence we went to pick her up tonight rather than the other girl. Funny, isn’t it? Houdini’s attempt to set up his friend ended up in her getting a date with someone she already knows. Meanwhile, Roomie and the high school friend had a pretty lively conversation tonight and whether or not they “like” each other, I do believe they had a good time and met a cool new person.
I am infinitely amused by the unintended result of trying to set up that first girl with Roomie. Houdini got his wish and got her and Roomie dates (just not with each other, lol). All in all it’s a pretty hilarious situation. Certainly not how we envisioned or how it was supposed to go, but it’s all good! And this is why we should be open to things that come our way. You never know what might actually happen in the end!
This weekend Panda and I spent some time browsing Target stores and I got quite the steal with two jackets for $5 and $4 each! The original prices are something like $20-25, so I’m very pleased. One is a plain black zip-up hoodie with these amazing embellished straps – you know the ones that you tighten the hood with – which are a silky satin kind of look. The tips are even a nice metal piece rather than the cheap plastic ones you’d find normally. The quality of the cloth is great and it feels really good, plus it is very warm! The other is a fleece half-zip in my favorite color: purple! It’s a little large for me, but I don’t mind having some outerwear be a bit loose on me. And really, for less than $4, how could I pass it up?
I also bought myself a yoga mat so I won’t be the only one without one in class (and coincidentally, they went on sale this week). After much back and forth between the 3mm and 5mm ones, I decided to splurge just a bit and go for the thicker one I’d been eying. I mean, it was on sale and Panda had earned a $10 gift card he put towards it, so really it was costing me less than half the original price. It also happened to be in purple, so that was perfect. I did need to get it pretty soon so I wouldn’t have to borrow the instructor’s mat all the time. It was really fortunate that I waited those extra couple of days and caught it on sale. 🙂
Then, today we found a jacket with a fuzzy inside lining, which I’ve been looking for for awhile. I think it’s a men’s, but with jackets like that I don’t think you can really tell and it doesn’t matter too much. I like that the outside is a fleece material – that seems to be my newest obsession. Panda had gotten one of these a few weeks ago and I’d scoured the women’s section looking for one for myself, but they just don’t seem to have them anymore. The one today happened to be small enough to fit just right, plus it was a clearance item, so I decided to get it and check that item off my list.
Now I feel very well-equipped for cool nights and the chilly days at the office, when I’m sitting at my desk all day freezing. There was one more jacket I saw today that I really wanted – a white polar fleece zip-up, but it wasn’t so cheap that I just had to get it. However, I do want to keep checking on the price of it over the next couple of days/weeks so I can grab it when it gets to a low enough price. Panda has started to teach me and share with me the way that he shops: lots of browsing and finding awesome deals before buying! It feels really rewarding when you get something for a unbelievably low price, so for things I can wait on, I definitely want to wait for them to go on sale or into clearance.
Today Panda and I went to a birthday brunch for a friend up at Castaway Restaurant in Burbank. It was fun times with good friends!
Click to see full images.
Recently Panda pointed me to an article that our friend had shared on Facebook and it got us thinking about and discussing parenting. The article, by Amy Chua, outlines her personal view and experiences of parenting the Chinese way – very strict and disciplined. While it’s true that the tough love style of parenting that most first generation Chinese-Americans mothers employ can be extremely effective in producing children accomplished in school, particularly math, and proficient in at least one instrument, I don’t see it as an East-West divide.
Rather, I see it as a disciplined vs. not. In a high-class neighborhood, you will find children of any ethnicity taking music lessons, sports lessons, getting tutored, etc. during their “free time.” You’ll find parents who enforce a strict schedule and push their children to excel in each thing they learn. Granted, Eastern and Western styles are still different, but I don’t think it’s so much the yelling and threatening and extreme rules that make Asian parenting styles any more effective. I feel it really comes down to parents creating opportunities for their children to learn more and taking the time and effort to make sure they actually do learn.
What really struck me about this style of “Tiger mother” parenting though was the complete focus on success, success, success. But really, what is success? People like to make assumptions about what it is, forgetting that success and happiness do not go hand in hand. So, that begs the question: what’s more important? Success or happiness? Of course ideally you want both, but sometimes they compete with each other. I don’t see the wisdom in caring only about success, assuming that you must be happy that you are successful and that’s the weakness of the Tiger mom model.
Doggedly pursuing success may bring you a certain amount of satisfaction in your accomplishments, and as Amy wrote, “Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it’s math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more.” BUT, that just means the child has learned that doing that particular activity well will bring about attention (and possibly rewards). It may not be the activity that is fun or makes the kid happy, but the associated rewards, whether it be praise or prizes.
I can appreciate the intense sacrifice and commitment of Tiger mothers, but I cannot agree that it is the “superior” way, as Amy claims. If by superior she merely means the most effective way to breed children at the top of their class (including being first chair violinist), I can definitely see it being a valid argument. But being superior period is impossible, for this or any other style of parenting. There is no such thing as the best way to raise a child. It all depends on what your goals are. Do you want someone who has a life full of rich experiences? Do you want someone who excels in school? Do you want someone who is just plain happy? For each, there is an entirely different approach to parenting.
Ultimately, this article and the book that it is excerpted from will stir up a lot of talk over parenting, but it will not show people the best way to be a parent. It’s good that it’ll get people thinking about what is important in raising their own children and how to do it. But before that even happens, people need to first identify what they want for their progeny, for that will shape their entire approach and just about every decision that is made forthwith. If you’re like Amy and want star students, you may very well have to become a Tiger mother.
I’m all settled in! It was a jam-packed day of driving around, moving furniture, and otherwise getting comfy in my new abode.
I picked up Panda around 8:30 and got back home within an hour. My dad then came along with us to get the rental truck, which took something like 40 minutes! There were only two people in front of us in line, but the one guy working took his time and made quite a few mistakes too. Except for standing the in cold for so long and getting a rather curt, “What do you want?” greeting, we had a pretty smooth transaction. The guy even had his dog Harley and some treats for the boy, so I fed him one when he came around to sniff me. My dad drove the truck back to our house since he’d driven moving trucks before, for the many moves we’d done during my childhood.
At home, Mom was already moving things out to the curb for easy loading to the truck. Between the four of us, we got everything packed up within half an hour and were on our way down to my new apartment. As we left our valley, it began to drizzle and the whole way down was wet. We had to move everything in the rain, but at least it wasn’t coming down too hard. My shoes and pant legs did get very wet though. This time we managed to get everything up to the apartment in about 45 minutes and I was surprised that even the large items could fit in the elevator. I hadn’t imagined it to be so big. My dad and I went to drop off the truck before the rental place closed and we were charged $10 for dropping it off after-hours. Meanwhile, Panda, my mom, and my new roomie stayed to set things up in the apartment.
When my dad and I got back, it was time for my parents to trek out to Hollywood to do some duty-free shopping for some relatives. Panda and I then went out to Costco, Staples, and Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for a desk for my room and a shower curtain for the bathroom. I ended up buying a bunch of food to stock up on. 🙂
What a busy, busy birthday! I got into LAX around 2 am and got home sometime past 3. After scarfing down some food (I can’t believe the airlines didn’t offer a single meal after all the delays and overbooked flights they put us through!), I was asleep by 4. I woke up just before 9, probably because I’m still sort of on EST. I took a shower and renewed my auto insurance, then went to get Panda.
We took a stroll around the park, had a huge lunch at a Northern Chinese style restaurant, ran some errands, and made the congested trek over to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills. I got my usual: a red velvet and a chocolate marshmallow and then it was time to rush off to the apartment complex to drop off my first month’s payment and sign the lease. I completely forgot that plenty of people actually went to work today, so I hadn’t expected the kind of traffic we got stuck in! Nevertheless, we made it to my soon-to-be new home in time to take care of the paperwork. Tomorrow my roommate does the same and gets the keys so we can officially move in this weekend. 🙂
By that time, we were running late to meet my parents at Din Tai Fung for dinner. Fortunately, we got there at the same time that they did so neither party had to wait for the other. We did, however, have to wait to get seated. Tonight was more crowded than the previous couple of times I’d been by DTF to eat and we were waiting for a good 40 minutes before getting a table. We ordered 10 items from the menu and chowed down as they started to serve dish after dish. Everything was steaming and delicious and soon enough we were all stuffed.
My parents headed home from there and Panda and I spent some time sitting together to talk and rest a bit. He’s getting ready to move out to work on the east coast, so things are going to be changing quite a bit in another two months or so. By and by an hour passed and we had to get home. I dropped off Panda and just got home not too long ago. There’s been a lot of traveling and not so much sleeping for me in the past day, so I’m just about ready to crash before we go celebrate New Year’s at a family friend’s place tomorrow afternoon/evening.
