Silly Child

I accidentally walked into the ladies' restroom today. Dirt coated my fingers so I needed to find a place to wash my hands as soon as possible, before I obliviously wipe my eyes with them. Quickly scanning the room, I find a room with its door slightly open. I stick my head in and peek in. As soon as my head concluded that it was a restroom, I barged in and gleefully performed the three basic steps of hand washing. Fortunately, no females were in there.

THEN DON WALKS IN AND JOINS.
Two guys in a restroom for one. La la la, rub-a-dub-dub. It's a small restroom and we are standing within 4 inches next to each other. Abby finishes talking on her phone and stands outside waiting.

"Hey, Abby, look! Two guys in one restroom!" I snicker to her from inside.

She says nothing and stares for a split second.

"Not just two guys in a restroom, two guys in a women's restroom," she humbly adds.

I poke my head outside and peek around again. Sure enough, a feminine figure with capital letters "WOMEN" are inscribed on a round, blue sign. Oops. Two men in a teeny MALE restroom is disturbing enough, but a ladies' restroom? I'm seventeen and should know better. For the record, the last time I walked into the ladies' restroom was in kindergarten 12 years ago. Only that time, a yard duty lady called out "Is anyone in there?" and I squealed out in my 5 year old voice "Yes!"

Don't you just love it when your inner childish heart comes out? You could do anything you want and could care less about the world but your own instantaneous joy that passes on to others. No matter what people say, everyone would always remain a child at heart--my grandpa in Japan armpits farts for the hell of it.

Later in downtown, we happened to see these officers who, while patrolling this intersection, were chattering as if at a high school reunion. Men in uniform! And later when one of them gets fatigued from standing on the job, he doesn't just take a break and rest, but finds a chair and props it open right in the middle of the intersection. Two birds with one stone. He knows he's getting paid at the same time. It's easy to see why San Jose is one of the safest biggest cities in this country when police officers still have their eyes out in the middle of their breaks. Cops have their fun, too.
In America, men in blue with handguns are not always the best people to approach. But these guys--we need more people like them.

It doesn't stop there: A rather buff 30 year-old African American man on the light rail was karaoke-ing in his falsetto, the high opera-type of voice, to some songs on his cell phone and was practically dancing in his seat. His girlfriend slapped his arm twice to stop him from continuing. Darn, an ending to a good show too soon.

If only everyday we all could set aside our adult etiquette away...
Great post-sunset glow to conclude the day.
And here I am back home in the bucolic suburbs.

Searching

I want to find a place under a big tree on a grassy field--those types of places where no one can hear me sing or see me dance. Preferably one with a spectacular view.

Reading has been impossible for me with the sounds of the city jungle.

And that day shall come! (:

Everlasting Impressions

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Maya Angelou

So,

"Let the people live in your heart."

Japanese Proverb

Unpitiful Scorn

A several days ago, Anita warned me right after school to be careful when commuting home by bicycle.

"Those drivers are dangerous!"

Yeah, I know.
Bay Area drivers suck.
I know that for a fact, and I'm delighted she's on the same page. When I cycle, I'm always prepared and always waiting for Murphy (a generic Bay Area driver I call) to mess up and do something stupid. That's how I ride safely. But I do thank courteous ones with a smile and a slight nod.

Drivers here do all certain kinds of unsafe lane changes, right of way violations--especially against pedestrians, and aggressive swerving. But one of the worst aspects of their operation of a motor vehicle is their lack of attention.


Just like that. (I had to put 'fail' in there somewhere.)


As I walk up to the large gym gates, I see cars from the opposite direction turning left from the turn lane, only to realize the gate into the school is locked. With nowhere else to go, cars pile up and trap themselves like rats.

It gets better: as one car enters the trap, another one pulls up behind it, trapping it in and a chain reaction multiplies. Once the other drivers behind finally realize it's locked, they make a complete U-turn and go away, leaving the trapped animals frantically trying to do anything they can to escape the non-collision pileup. Two cars back up with their white taillights on, and one car does a U-turn, blocking through way traffic. Angry drivers honk. And the next thing you know, it's a dog eat dog world. So for any reckless drivers reading this, I have no sympathy for you whatsoever should a law enforcement officer pull you over. Learn your lesson now before you hit a pedestrian.

But other times, violations themselves can be pretty hilarious. Like this parking job.

Guess who that is!

Except For...

English fulfills its name as the language of irregularities and continues to fool even us Americans. Abby and I were wondering about the conjugation of "lie" and "lay" with an interesting ending to the discussion.

Abby (19:30:29): i got schooled
Me (19:30:32): BY JIMMY

Muahahaha.

For those grammatically inclined, this will help (present, past, past participle; intransitive and transitive, respectively):
lie, lay, lain; lay, laid, laid.

So many rules, it's ridiculous. Japanese only has two irregular verbs.


And earlier today I accidentally called her sister "Jackie." Dear Jesus, I felt so embarrassed.


Back to my college lecture for physics and physiology homework. D:
But, but wait! During the lecture, the professor made a jaw-dropping hilarious comment regarding sig-figs (significant digits):

"I just kinda--uh--sig figs are kinda like pornography to me. I know it when I see it but I can't define it."

Life is full of surprises. ;)

Boom Boom Pow!

Thunder. 4 AM today. That picture is the actual storm that occurred early in the morning.

Drawn in my own world lying in my room, I was singing something with other people near the theater at the school. Yes, I was doing a musical out of nowhere. Dreams are weird, aren't they? Then, rumble rumble! My eyes pop open and I guess someone's pulling their recycle bin outside. But it echoed! Thunder, perhaps? Soon enough, I see flashes followed by more loud, muffled madness outside. I freak out. I've seen worse thunderstorms in Okinawa but since I haven't seen one in about a year, cold adrenaline rushes through my veins immediately.

I'm extremely horrified (worried that it might strike near) but I'm enjoying this light show. An urge to escape--somehow--but at the same time an urge to yearn. It's a rare feeling witnessing the mighty power of an electric storm.

So, let's get to the facts. The storm in the county caused 20 grass fires, striking in the Eastern Foothills (those golden hills you see to the east) near Mount Hamilton, which explains why they were partially muffled. But in San Francisco, lightning struck a power transformer, causing a chain reaction in which led to two cars exploding. I can imagine the man living in an apartment on the street where the incident happened with his eyes bulging out based on his interview by CBS 5. His reaction--funny stuff.

As for my dream, I would not have remembered it had I not signed online to ask my friends if they heard the thunder. Phew, I wasn't the only one. After the confirmation, I dashed out of bed to shut my windows which were OPEN at the time because I didn't want rain to fall in, and disconnected every single electronic charging in my bedroom. A fried phone would be bad. Real bad.

(Photo by Terry Rodery)

Slack Year

Despite reducing the amount of AP classes by one, my senior year does not feel like school at all. Everyday at school is an ordinary day of summer. Just a bit of uniqueness sprinkled on, though.


Take Wednesday for example. We cycled to downtown and blended in as SJSU students, ate and paid no tax at BK and Jamba Juice--isn't that awesome? Besides, lunch in high school tastes like cheap microwave food anyways. Ended up stumbling upon two friends from middle school when I least expected it and met with my two cousins some two hours later. ("It's raining men!" LOL) Everyday, I eat something different, at someplace different.
Aside: There's a supermarket opening on the corner of 2nd and San Fernando streets. Looks like a Safeway on the first floor of the 88 high rise. Sweet.

For me, there still is no transition from summer break to school. I'm on a marathon! And apparently, some of my friends are, too.


And that one less AP class I took out? English. Notice the difference between a college-level course and a regular high school course.

Last Year

This Year
I'm turning dumber by the day.



And today is September the 11th. God bless those affected.

This City of Mine

You sure have grown.


This place is like San Francisco now. Hordes of people, floods of jaywalkers, you know, all that stuff.

Survivor

I am thankful that my heart still beats and for the fact that I live in a house. An innocent, little ride to Starbucks down in Milpitas on East Calaveras Boulevard drove me (and I'm not making this up) to the edge of my sanity.

It was today that I truly screamed out loud and groaned for the first time in pain, as a wounded soldier would on the battlefield, for several seconds. It was today that I temporarily lost my ability to focus my vision, and that I couldn't speak clearly and mumbled unintelligibly. My body is still in excruciating pain.

I've always thought I could go everywhere, anywhere. And I still believe that. But what I failed to see was that the mind goes great distances in which the body cannot. Preparation is a vital necessity.

Just when all things seemed over, my house nearly burned today. All my fault. I'm too scared to touch anything anymore, and sadness has overtaken me.


I am unbelievably stupid.

Urge

I'm dying to ride out on my bicycle and take some pictures.
Really.

Reflections

"I think high school is where people change the most," a friend of mine calmly said.

We were sitting at Tapioca Express right after school on Jackson and McKee eating our food, with both eyes glued outside towards the busy intersection. It's a Friday, and we've just begun our Labor Day holiday.

I take a sip of my milk tea and nod my head with eyes still gazing outside.

"Yeah, I think so too."

Amazingly enough for most people, it takes them more than a decade from birth to develop their personality, only to have in one or two years change all that. As children, we eat, we babble, we whine, we moan and we want toys. Our conscience has been looking outwards. We see all sorts of things--from a 'horsie' to the very attitudes of our peers--to the delight of our eyes and take them in, helping establish a foundation for a personality. No time is spent in ourselves during this exploration period.

Then we mature into young adults. We've seen just about everything by now, and life speeds up. For the once magical, blooming fireworks that lit up our tiny faces long ago are now just a work of chemistry with fire. The twinkling stars in the night sky we'd gaze as children are now are mere grains of white sand. Almost everything by now is mundane to us. With nothing to see left, we turn to the one place for something new: inside ourselves. We adventure though, and begin to see extraordinary views of the everyday actions from a different perspective. These different views in turn influence our actions and lifestyle. That's my guess on why such changes happen in high school.

I've finally been able to catch a sunrise for the first time in three months. Up until Thursday, they were always sunsets. But for the time being, a sunrise is quite spectacular once the rays of light burst over the Alum Rock hilltops.


Everything is so calm! Contrasting with the evening at sundown, mornings are quietly lively. The atmosphere was, so to speak, that of a voiceless, outside market filled with people whose faces are politely smiling.

Strolling around school at this time is quite lovely, with its lush greenery lit by the refreshing rays of the morning star. A smile to start the day.

In other words, I have long been admiring the same sun, but just from a different perspective. (;