第一步

明天开始，放四天假。 星期一是圣诞节，星期二是自己请的假。

这四天我什么地方都不去了。

朋友问我，去拉斯韦加斯？我说飞机票太贵。去芝加哥？不要了。去附近滑雪骑马？也推了。

我想要在这几天，好好想一想。

最近脑子里感觉很乱。 好象一堆没有关连的思路，在十字路口搅乱了，所以一直团团转。

可能最近工作比较忙，而且回到家没多久就睡了，所以没有自己的空间。

我不开心吗？好像不是。

生活挺顺利的。和同事混熟了，生活有了规律，工作也在进展中。

可是内心有一个角落是空的。

我以为有个人可以帮我填，却没有。找别人帮我填，却是有心也填不了。

很多东西，我肯，也只要，自己一个人面对。为独这一个，我连第一步也踏不出。

趁这四天， 我想看清我有什么。为自己能有的感恩一下。

然后草拟一份地图，画出我想走的路。

画完后，看一眼记在心里。然后把它忘了，每一天不为将来，只为今天而活。

有太多东西我一直认为我需要。有太多时候我沉浸在自己的梦里。

可惜我想要的东西不能并存，但我很是执著的两个都要。结果两个都得不到。

我不想拖。这不是暧昧，这只是猜测。这没有对未来的幢景，这只有对未来的不肯定。

我不能再给时间，也不能再找借口。

因为我好像发现问题的根源了。

今天吃晚餐，得到一个 fortune cookie。

“The greatest risk is not taking one”

所以这四天里面，我要为明年的改变踏出第一步。

Another Dry Spell

Hmm.. having a dry spell on my blog.

It's been one crazy week. I have been busy all week, and this weekend I will be busy too!

Oh, I bought myself a birthday present. :D So happy, been wanting one since late October. I also got something for free this morning! This is such a good week. Heehee.

Ah, I will update when I have time.

Let 'someone' know first, so don't 'bitch' that I didn't update my blog. Though apparently I'm the one who's doing all the bitching hor? :P Just kidding.

Jots

I'm so happy today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To you, thanks sooooo much. That email really meant a lot to me. Even thought of printing it out and putting it on my desk so I could read it everyday. :) Can't believe you said that, after all those complaints about me not being a good friend. I'll be coming after your invitation next April! ;)

And there's a Happy Hour on my birthday next week! Yay yay. I'll NOT drink like how I did in St. Louis. What stays in St Louis, happens in St Louis. Nope, that's not a typo. It's our version. I was kinda forced to drink in St Louis, so can't count that against me anyway. :P

One of my good friends is coming to celebrate with me. Whoop dee doo. And if all our plans go the way they are supposed to, maybe TWO of my good friends will come to Louisville next year! Wah, that would be sooooooooo fun. Maybe I'll get an apartment close to them, then we can play mahjong during weekends. Hehehehe.

Feels good to be on the other side

I went for a recruiting event last night.

5 university seniors and 5 full-time employees. We went bowling first and then had dinner at a pretty fancy restaurant. I couldn't understand almost half of the menu. Picked fish in the end since it's usually a pretty safe choice. The tiramisu was heavenly though. Not as good as the one I had in St. Louis. But still delicious. I love all tiramisu. Mmmmmm.

It felt a bit strange at first. For the past 1.5 years I've been the one going through the interviews, meeting full-timers for dinner, digging for good questions to ask them. All that while being nervous but trying to smile, be outgoing and friendly at the same time.

And now I get the questions thrown back at me. "How long have you worked here?" "How do you like working here?" "How's the city like?" "How's the study program?" I don't even remember what I answered.

It was so fun! I mean meeting all these soon-to-be graduates and seeing them all excited (and nervous maybe). Makes me feel all excited too. I can't even imagine why I was nervous last time. Because I was definitely DEFINITELY not out to pick bones with any of the candidates. I doubt any of us was. Then again, it's understandable for them to be nervous. My future's not on the line anymore.

I hope whoever gets an offer will accept it. All of them seem really nice. Meanwhile, I'm gonna see if I can ask to join more recruiting events. :D

Exhausted!

I'm so exhausted!

I went for a trip to St Louis during the Thanksgiving holiday last week. Met up with a bunch of friends from Drake. All 15 of us. We rented a humongous 15-seater van. So fun to drive around in such a huge vehicle.

I had a lot of fun last Thursday to Sunday. We went to quite a number of places and ate A LOT of good food. I am NOT going to eat any more meat for the rest of the year.

Came back yesterday around 4 pm. Slept almost right after I got home and didn't wake up till this morning. Still felt very tired today though.

Will be getting photos from the others soon. Maybe I should write a travel journal for St Louis. Then again, I said I would for the last California trip and it's been a year.

An Encounter with Colonel Sanders

I met Colonel Sanders last Thursday! You know, the man behind (and in front of) every KFC.

Ok lah, not the real Colonel Sanders. I googled and found out that the real one passed away in 1980, even before I was born. So unless I can see ghosts...

But seriously ah, this guy looks EXACTLY like the KFC man.

See what I mean? (That drawing is a bit off-looking though.)

Hehe no lah, I didn't get a photo of him. Paiseh to ask. But the one I met looks just like the guy in the photo. Just a bit more friendly and grandfatherly looking. He was wearing the white suit, black bowtie, all white hair and beard and walking with a black cane! If I ever want to mimic someone famous, I'm going to go all out like that too.

I met him when I was walking around downtown towards the bus stop. He was strolling along, other people around him didn't even notice or care. I think I was the only 'suaku' around, stared a bit at first because I seriously wasn't expecting anything like this. I mean people have said sometimes we can see Muhammad Ali walking around downtown. But Colonel Sanders?

So far this is the closest I ever got to anything KFC-related in Kentucky. I've only seen one KFC restaurant since I got here. So enough with the jokes that the best thing to do in Louisville is eat KFC. Hmph.

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I think my vegetarian plan is not going as planned. But I don't care!

I've been eating quite a lot of good food recently. First went to a Chinese buffet with my colleague one day after grocery shopping. It's the typical Chinese buffet with quite a lot of seafood. They had prawn salad, which is one of my favorite ways of eating prawn I don't know why. Mmm.. and the cheese-covered mussels were pretty good too. I couldn't eat too much of it though because the cheese made me feel quite 'jelak'.

Then after that my colleague had a birthday party at her place. She and a few of her friends cooked. So good. The soup was especially nice. White carrot spare ribs soup. Mmmm.. just like the one my mum makes. I miss my mum's soups.

Friday we had a Thanksgiving potluck in the office. Everyone had to bring a dish. And since there's over 60 of us, you can imagine the amount of food we had. I don't normally fancy American food, but this was pretty good. Probably because my colleagues (or their wifes) are good cooks. I think dorm food is a bad way to introduce foreigners to American dishes.

This Sunday I had SiChuan food. Went with 2 friends I met at my colleague's birthday party. It was delicious. I wish it was spicier though, I was so afraid it was going to be super spicy but I ended up not having to drink water at all. But it was still good. Had a lot of leftovers too so I don't have to cook before Thanksgiving trip. :D

And today was the best of all. I had.......... Japanese food! Woohoo! And it was GOOD Japanese food too. Can fight with the restaurants in Chicago. I went out with one of the principals and 2 other colleagues. Actually I wasn't supposed to go, but one of them fell sick so I 'ganti'ed. Hehe so lucky for me.

The first dish was the best, called Fire Roll. They put the sushi on a small plate, which is placed on a bigger plate. Then they started a fire on the big plate, so the flames burn the sides of the small plate which crispifies the sides of the sushi. It was so pretty too, the flames were blue colored. I was going to take a photo with my new phone, but then realized I didn't bring my phone. Haih. What a waste. Next time I'm going back there to eat so I can take a photo. And also because it really is very very very very good loh.

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Lots of things happened since last Wednesday (which was the last time I blogged). Went for another happy hour. Watched Casino Royale. The movie is quite nice, I recommend it. I know Craig Owen doesn't look like the typical James Bond, but in the movie he was very good. Plus he has the bod too. Hehe.

Going to Saint Louis this Thursday for Thanksgiving break!

Best Meal Yet in Louisville

Hi dear colleague! I'm flattered that you are reading my blog. And I'm super curious to know who you are. Mind telling? :)

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I just had one of the best meals since I got to Louisville!

Last night my colleague invited me over to her place for dinner. Her parents-in-law were in town last weekend and they made a lot of yummy dishes. I mean tons.

It was sooooooooo good. We had 卢/炉牛肉 (I still can't figure out which 'lu3' is correct) which is beef cooked in a spice mixture specially brought over from China! We also had 红烧猪肉, pork with a layer of fat boiled with some herbs. And then there was cabbage spicy style and 豆腐干 (dried tofu).

My english translations don't do justice to the food. But rest assured it was delicious! Authentic home-cooked Chinese food! Can't get any more authentic than this.

The beef was most yum-yum. I kept eating and eating it, with all thoughts about me being a vegetarian thrown out the 1st floor window.

I wish I have photos to show. Wanted to take photos of the food but then I didn't have a camera or a camera phone with me. Speaking of phones, I just got my new phone today!! Yay!! Will write more about this next time. :)

After dinner we went to watch our department's softball tournament. We play every Tuesday, but for some reason it rained every Tuesday for the past few weeks. I think maybe God / Kwan Yin doesn't like softball.

You know hor? I think everybody looks younger when they are not wearing work clothes. Last time at Drake, we looked so much more serious in our 'interview attire'. Kinda weird at first to see each other dressed like that. As though seeing a different person. Now it's kinda the same way with seeing colleagues in casual dress.