Fentons

Rinaldi, after watching Up decided to check out Fenton's. We did, the place as he puts it"IS OVER RATED!" It was packed with people and the scoops were pricy, the choices were classic flavors, very unBerkley. There was a classic dinner with dinner junk food. We bought to go and ate outside instead of waiting for an indoor table. Afterwards we sat in the car with the heater on to warm up. The only way to do ice cream in the cold winter. It was a fun trip regardless. We tried to pick up Amanda from bart to join us but as it turns out she was in Fremont and hadn't gotten on the bart yet.

I haven't seen up. Just the other week, every day on HBO I was watching a sad movie per day and cried through each one; Marley and Me, PS I Luv U, Atonement, etc.... no more sad movies. So when Amanda wanted to watch a drama tonight, sad one, forget it. I do like a good drama, a good film but,........I'm sick of CRYING!!!!!!!!

Rocky at 8 months old

Been puppy sitting Rocky again. He is such a cutie, total cuddler, snuggler. He slept with me at night, tucking his head on my shoulder. He knows when the down poor is and whines and runs for cover 30 seconds before the down pour. A natural protective instinct running at work even though we were indoors. I bought him a toy to play with. I love Rocky. He sure lets you know his complaint when you've been gone too gone or at night. He doesn't like the feeling of being alone, period and at night. I like taking him out on walks. He tries to sleep on my lap as I sit on a chair to read papers or on the computer but he's too big to fit all snug, he has to hang on now to keep from rolling off.

Black Friday

I went shopping and spent a lot of money on art supplies that were on 75% off on archival art paper. Then on lots of art supplies that doesn't go at 65% off. The good stuff seems to be the imported ones so they cost soooooo much more. I'm happy, spending lots of money on credit, stimulating the economy. Now I have to go to work to pay for all of this.

Thanksgiving Day

Taking a meal break in the afternoon. Spend the morning on guitar hero, had lunch and the afternoon more xbox. We went for a puppy walk and played basketball on rip stick. Dinner ended with packing for Black Friday sleep over with alarms all set to wake middle of the night to go shopping and early morning too. Stores are lame this way, they make you be at the store at 12am and then 5am for different early bird sales for different things on discount.

My father this week has been having some physical problems. First it was bloody nose, then he cut his hand bad washing a pot, then he hurt his lower back and can't walk or sit or get up. He is in his seventies. So he is finally letting me take out the trash. My dad is cute this way. He won't let me garden because he doesn't want my nails to be full of dirt. He won't let me take out the trash because it's heavy and he sees it as a man's job not a girl. He is classic this way. I have a wonderful, fun, sweet, loving father.

Charity Focus Karma Kitchen Tipping Guests

Went to Charity Focus for meditation. The story was on the eagle and the crow:

The crows often attack them, diving at the eagles from above. But, instead of doing all kinds of acrobatics, the eagle simply retracts one wing at the last moment, lets the diving crow pass, and then extends its wing again. The whole thing requires minimal effort and causes little disturbance.

I decided I need to be smooth like the eagle. I get stuck in struggles, especially when they're not even mine to be involved with. I just get pulled in like the mosh pit or something. Terrible! Gotta just be smooth.

After the meditation and a delicious dinner, I helped out with Wisdom Tips. In Karma Kitchen,the pay it forward gift economy Sunday Lunch in Berkeley instead of tipping the wait staff, eat dinner gets tipped by the wait staff with a wisdom scroll and a dollar book marker. Pretty cool, huh, guests gets tipped and the meal is free too. You walk out with a grateful heart and a yummy full belly, eating as much as you like and pocketed with a tip and wisdom for your mind. Totally cool!

Thanksgiving Meal One of Five

My family celebrated Thanksgiving early this year because my sister Helen and her family is off to Disneyland for the holidays. It doesn't really matter because we do a Thanksgiving marathon each year, we see each other every day and eat and eat and eat. I made the meal again this year. It was all vegan. My dad asked me to do Christmas this year too. So I will cook again for Christmas. The top hit this holiday is the gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin soup, cornbread, and samosa. I played guitar hero and failed. The kids didn't let me play again. I'll have to secretly practice on my own and make it into their in crowd again.

Jacob Bringing Me My Jacob

This is my cousin Jacob and his sister. His father is my father's 2nd oldest brother. Second of a pair of twins. My parents are really into family relationships and were very happy to see him again. He now lives in New Zealand flying out the day after tomorrow.

His father died a few years ago out of malpractice. He went in for simple surgery and the doctor forgot to stitch him up on the inside and only stitched his skin up on the outside. So he was running an infection and a fever for a week, getting weaker and weaker. When they discovered this a week later he had been too weak for another surgery and he was also running a temperature from the infection and been bleeding for a week. He died, he was healthy and quite young and strong too. I was young then.

Years later, I dreamed of him telling me to tell his family that he knows they went to the grave to visit him and that he wants to them to know he knows. I felt weird to communicate this wondering why he can't just visit his family in their dreams and tell them himself. I just ignored him and the dream. I am very capable of ignoring. It's a skill I have perfected well in American culture. A few days later my father told me they went to his grave and visited him along with his immediate family. I was like wow! Maybe the dream thing is true. Maybe I should do something like call his family and tell them this.

In the dream he also complained and demanded to know why I didn't do anything for him for his funeral. I was totally dumb founded. I was a kid, in my opinion, as a Chinese girl, there is no say in family matter. Plus I had no idea he was not Christian and a Buddhist. I guess he was a closet Buddhist and he wanted a Buddhist funeral. But I figured his family was in charge and they would of made such arrangements as his request. Well, his brothers gave him a Christian funeral and he wasn't happy about it. I tried to explain that I had no idea, too young, no voice and I was powerless to play such a part and that his immediate family should have done something about it. Some how my uncle felt and thought different in his complaint.

Strange to me, who am I? A recent college graduate by skill and age but in terms of experience of the world, really just a kid. Who were we in past lives? Who are we as spirits? Why does he treat me as someone greater, stronger, influential, got it together?

In fact in body this life time, we were distant. Not estranged,it's just that my father's side I have over 100 living relatives, whom I can't seem to keep track of names etc.... because there are too many. I felt bad that he spoke to me as if I was someone better and more and that there was no excuse for my dullness and ignorance or whatever it is that I think it is. There are some things I am not getting in the spirit world, lots of things I can't seem to get my conciousness and human body to catch up to. It seems like a different dimension all together.

Gwhyneth Chen Playing Chopin

Watching the unloading of 9 foot piano that costed $100,000. off the truck was interesting. The movers were definitely very careful with the process.

Ben created this platform for the piano and the red cover. Ben is a beautiful wood maker. He is also one of the gentlest souls to come across and sweet too.

It was so nice of Kuo Juan to loan her table linen for the reception. Jerry was awesome in showing up hours ahead with an iron to iron the table cloth.

David is in full force with his tool belt. He was fixing lights in the monastery. Yeah, don't mess with a guy standing at the door with his power tool belt and his Avatamsaka shirt on.

I found out about the event only three days before and so I did my usual thing and helped out with the offering not knowing who was coordinating, decorating etc... I found out the night before that no one was doing decorations for flowers and no one was doing the reception. So 11pm the night before the event I went to pick up maple leaves from the street in the dark hoping to use it for decoration. I love the colors of the fall, the warm gold, orange and red.

I am so grateful the Gwhyneth was generous enough to perform a salon concert again this year. She is a wonderful amazing pianist, must see her live and feel the experience of the music. It would just feel something was missing if she wasn't able to do a salon concert. It has been an annual thing now. Hopefully she will be able to do this next year. Tonight was all on Chopin.

Joanne Shenandoah

Hung out on 4th street while waiting for David to show up and listened to a street musician play in the cold. Then I went to Castle in the Sky to check out their fountain pens and ink. Teance was packed so I went to Peets. Ooops!

I love Joanne's voice. She is in the matriarchal line of the Iriquois tradition. Her husband Doug is in the Mohawk tradition.

Tonight was a beautiful evening of sweet, healing music from Joanne and sacred stories from Mohawk tradition about courage, the impossible, influence and changing the future. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Berkeley Buddhist Community and have my eyes and heart opened with wonderful experiences.

Jackie Reunion

Had fun meeting up with Jackie, the last time we really hung out was in high school. She remembered I was the Four Square King and my dancing. Though I loved dancing, I wasn't good or a beautiful dancer. We sang together on the choir. She has a beautiful voice. We talked about how poor we both were an how little we ate so we were really think in College. I thought I took a lot of units, 21 per quarter. She out did me, 26. I have known her since Eisenhower Elementary School. We weren't close friends but we hung out in similar circles. It was really nice to see her. She keeps looking younger and more beautiful as she ages. And how she stays thin? She has a five year old daughter, Ashlyn. It was really nice to catch up with her. I didn't know she was in the area. I kept thinking she was in LA for some reason. But no, she's in Saratoga! So close!

Airing out Badminton Feet

I arrived at 8pm and all the courts were full. There were players on the side seats airing out their hot feet from playing. These are serious players. There were some serious games going on. They were good to watch. These groups, they just keep going all night till they lights are shut off and they get kicked out. Really amazing to watch. Tonight was fun. I got some of my court movement back. My body felt light, but I was having lots of trouble with accuracy and timing. I need more practice. I had lots of fun using games to work on some moves that I needed to get back in touch with. People really take winning seriously here. I am just happy to be on the court and getting some of my moves back. It's like a dance more so than competition.

Guitar and Piano Lessons off Youtube

Thanks to YouTube and all the people who post how to play piano and guitar for stupid people who can't read music and play, I am actually getting over the hurdles of fear on learning to play the piano and guitar. I always get stuck on reading the music. Even when I sang for years in the choir, I couldn't read music. I tried. Somethings don't click inside. Must have short circuit somewhere within.

I do love music though. Since I am no longer in environments where I am around musicians, I'm stuck learning to play so I can listen to music. This has always been the case, I never had to learn to play any instrument because there was someone around me who played the piano, guitar and I would hear it every day. What a daily gift that was.

Maybe in a few months I will have learned to play "River Flows in You" by memorizing the piece visually, very exciting. I even have enough keys on my dinky little hundred dollar electronic keyboard for this piece. Last year I tried to pick up a piece of music to play off an anime theme song, I got to the second page of the song sheet and realized I don't have the keys on my keyboard. So I had to quite the piece. Now when I look at music to learn, I first check out whether or not I have enough keys on my keyboard. I should have bought one with more keys but for each set extra was an extra hundred dollars. I have 5 sets of keys. For a complete 7 sets of keys of basic beginner quality sound, it goes beyond three hundred dollar and doesn't fit into my car, couldn't of carried it home even if I did have that kind of money to spend. The ones that sounded really good were in the seven to eight hundred dollar range. Hey for that price, couldn't one afford a cheap used upright?

Now for the guitar, I will need to figure out how to tune it properly first. I do have music in mind I'd like to learn, mostly from Dashboard Confessionals and Dave Mathews Band. Way too advance for me, but I do like the music and that will keep me motivated to keep trying. I realized I have stopped and restarted and never finish what I started because I wasn't into the music and any hang ups I had that stalled me or stopped me put me at a dead end with the instrument and giving up. It's okay, I'll start slow. One piece of music a year to learn is a good speed for me.

Twin Creeks Stormz

Went to cheer for Dustin's little league tournament at Twin Creeks. The tournaments are 4 to 5 games in a weekend. It's been a year since I last saw one. Looks like some of the players really grew. Their team name is Stormz. It sure has made a difference in the game. It was cold as usual. I had on two blankets and I was still cold. But it was good to be there to support the players. Sports is a very healthy activity to be engaged in.

One of the moms complimented on my voice. She said there is something pure about it, suitable for public broadcast.