My life could be a HBO special!

i just had an msn convo with my dear friend zee, who is currently in Israel on her way to becoming doctor extraordinaire. we met in uni and partied away our days together. In our youth (almost three years ago) we emailed each other as we embarked on our prospective futures - me to London and her to Israel, off to learn how to save the world in our own ways, talking about starting some medical-legal foundation.

And this is why I miss her so dearly:

ME: When do you start your rotations in New York?
Zee: This summer actually!
ME: Really? I might be spending my summer there - applying to a bunch of NGOs
ZEE: we'll do it up! I see tax law hasn't killed the heart of social justice
ME: If anything, it's planted me firmly in the public interest domain. OF course, we'll do it up! I expect nothing less. ahhh...zee and peanut doing up the town together again
ZEE: our lives are like some hbo special man. your romance has pushed it from abc afterschool special to showtime baby
ME: LOL. well - in addition to your sexual/bar exploits ;)
zee: with the jewboys. god the tv execs would have a fit
ME: That's why we would have to go with showtime. we WOULD make a good documentary though - especially if we ever end up starting that foundation.
ZEE: that's in season 4 ! ha!

Ah - good times.

feeling: slightly nostalgic
listening to: The Stones - Paint it Black

huh

i've noticed that i've started saying 'huh' a lot when someone tells me something interesting or unexpected. it's not a judgmental "huh", but more like noting an observation - more of a "huh. really?" or a "huh, i never thought of it that way." it's kinda cool, but strange nonetheless that i would begin using this. Usually, there's a pedigree to my sayings - some more common ones include:

"some people's kids" - shu
"make a move" - rosa
"good god" - weekend at kat's cottage
"and we're off - like a pack of turtles" - kat
"yeah yeah yeah" - mike
"yikes" - gillian
"right, right" (while nodding head thoughtfully) - i think that's just a wong thing or so i'm told by my sister-in-law

but "huh" - no pedigree. completely organic. anyway, it's rather useful. like "huh, exams are upon us soon", or "huh, never thought of roasting garlic before mashing it with mash potatoes" (highly recommended by the way). or like when susanne told me that she liked cilantro with her pasta. huh. (see? not judgmental, but just "hmmm. interesting"). not really sure why i felt the need to share that. in some way it bothers me that i've picked up another idiosyncrecy, but meh, i figure i haven't pushed past the annoying threshold yet.

i've just finished 2 weeks of visitors *phewf*! Don't get me wrong, i love these people dearly, but not the best timing. My mom came, and the poor woman had to deal with me stressing out because my computer broke down (don't ask) and then i realized exams were in three weeks, and she was there. my mom was here. who else was i going to freak out at? she was such a sweetheart - she just cooked and bought stuff for me :) i now have a freezer full of braised soy pork, dumplings, strip loin, and ginger soy chicken. my mom rocks.

and sarah (aka ms. prentice) was here for the past two days. revisited old times, watching oprah and going out for some awesome food. she was a total trooper as I was 30 minutes late picking her up AND we had to take a detour from dinner last night as su got into a car accident and needed a pick-up. as miss sarah is a fantastic and professional cook, she made me the most wonderful meal tonight, complete with salmon, squash, mash, asparagus, and this kick-ass molten lava chocolate cake. she rocks too :)

so now with the visitors come and gone, i have no excuse but to study. *sigh* i warned my sweetie yesterday about my exam personality - I'm not quite myself with the added pressure, so i might freak out - don't take it personally. first major hurdle...will we make it through exams? i think so. for the first time in my life, I have faith in a relationship. huh.

feeling: pretty good except for that weight that kind of sits constantly upon my shoulders. or like shay described it: like the tv hasn't really been turned off.
listening to: Ben Folds Five - The Luckiest

balloons

guru shay and i were talking a few weeks ago about dropping this whole law thing and writing a book about relationship advice (you know, because both of us have such amazing track records. who wouldn't want to ask two asian chicks who are slightly neurotic and quasi-melodramatic, disillusioned with their profession, with expensive shopping habits and ridiciulously high standards for relationship advice?). we came up with this fabulous idea when we realized that we are amazing at creating brilliant analogies when analyzing relationships. the working title is:

Learning relationships through understanding fashion, war, medicine, vegetarianism and balloons.*

The balloon analogy goes like this:

When you know that you are going to see someone you really really like, possibly even love, it's like you're walking around all day with this balloon tied to your hand full of hope and excitement. and when they don't show up, it's a if someone has taken a pin and pricked the base near the knot, so that it doesn't pop right away. Rather, you watch as the air lets out, minute by minute, as you go through the phases of less hope to uncertainty, to being annoyed to outright frustration to insecurity. until finally, the balloon has no air, there may be tears, and you fall asleep. But then you see that person again, or hear from them, and slowly but surely, the balloon fills up again.

The moral of the story? try to not get too attached to the air in the balloon, but cherish the fact that you have a balloon in the first place because it has the power to make you happy. when that stops, it's time to cut the string.

we're good, aren't we? this book is so gonna rock!


*see previous posts for the fashion, war and medicine analogies. the vegetarian analogy needs approval from guru shay before it's posted.