Posts Tagged ‘parents’

Keeping the holidays low-profile

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
12 November 2011
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I’m not sure why, but I have had an aversion to following seasonal trends in the past couple of years.  I guess it’s because after reading so many articles about Christmas, New Year’s, or the like, I don’t want to be contributing to all that.  After all, how original could you get with that stuff?  Instead I prefer to enjoy the season, where people are hopefully making positive changes in their life as they look to family and re-evaluate their priorities.

This year I’ll be vacationing in China with my parents, which is a great way to spend the holidays.  It’s too bad Panda couldn’t be with me too, but we can do plenty of trips in future years.  I’m really looking forward to going back to China; it’s been 3 1/2 years and it will be nice to visit again.  You can be sure that around that time I won’t be writing about a tree and presents!  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other wonderful things to write about and thank goodness for that!  If you want the same old holiday stuff, go watch some TV.  😛

New pad

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
02 January 2011
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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.  🙂

25th birthday

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
30 December 2010
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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.

Vacation

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
23 December 2010
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Well, today’s the first official day of my vacation! The only other time I took days off were to volunteer for Opportunity Green, which wasn’t much of a break since that kept me busy. So this is the first time since I started my job that I am going on a vacation, truly going on one with days off, travel, rest, and the whole shebang. Usually I can manage one or two of those items, but now I’m taking advantage of all three. Plus, my parents are here to enjoy this vacation with me and we’re going somewhere exciting and new. 🙂

I spent the bulk of the day on a plane, going from LA to Atlanta to Miami. I slept as much as I could and pigged out on cheap pasta for lunch and dinner. When we arrived in miami, most of the day had been lost – I left 9 am from LA and got in to Miami around 7:30 (local time), so after settling in, eating dinner, and resting a bit, it was already time for bed. I wasn’t sleepy though, so I’ve been up playing games. Tomorrow we get on our cruise ship and head for the Caribbean! I’ll make sure to get some pics on my phone so I can post some.

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