happy chinese new year/valentine's day/president's weekend!

chinese new years is the chinese version of christmas. there's always so much to do around the house to prepare for the big day. needless to say, this long weekend was busy. now that all the furniture has moved in, walls painted and other furnishings finished, i can breathe a long sigh of contentment. i have to admit, busy-ness and small tasks aside, i think i prefer chinese new years over christmas. maybe it's because my parents and i are not christian, so christmas to us is just any other western holiday with no particular meaning. chinese new year, on the other hand, is a huge deal to my dad, who has extremely traditional chinese beliefs still. despite his condition, he stayed up the entire night of chinese new year's eve to make veggies and sweet dumplings as offerings. the phone was ringing off the hook as relatives from abroad called in to wish us luck and health. afterwards, we all went to the temple to listen to sutras for an hour to ring in the new year (though i'm not buddhist, i've always been a fan of the religion (lifestyle?), which seems so peaceful and introverted). the following days, my parents and i dropped off gifts, along with red envelopes to friends and family. this, though awkward sometimes, is nice as i rarely get to see some of these people. the only thing i'm disappointed about is that i didn't get to have an amazing, big dinner celebration with my relatives. since my grandma passed away, there's no one to hold everyone together. naturally, the ends are now loose or completely torn away. the closest thing i got to having a real dinner was at cafe bakery, which is a western/chinese restaurant, with my parents amongst other small lonely families (those of you who know cafe bakery know it's not meant to be cozy or personal).
besides red envelopes, chinese new years (to me) means all things flora! (there were a lot more flowers but these two were my favorite)





valentine's day fell on the day of chinese new years this year. no romantic dinner for two for me this year. though we didn't do too much, i adore the presents i got from jack. lifesize stuffed dogs! buddy and boomer are eternally confused. the presents were actually quite fitting- we spent the entire day with the two real ones.






valentine's day and chinese new year both fell on president's day weekend! what a coincidence... not really. i had a lot of fun these last two days because they were completely unscripted and unexpected. sunday night jack and i went to return crystal's laptop charger and to treat her to drinks for letting jack borrow the charger for so long. this turned to an entire night of rambling and gossiping which then escalated to a really, really late night snack at video cafe where we (and others who later came) ended up watching the end of zombieland and the beginning of the terminator. stayce and i both, quite embarrassingly and loudly, gasped at a frightful scene from the terminator in a room full of late night goers.

tuesday afternoon was supposed to be the last day of this beautiful weekend. jack and i intended on grabbing naan n curry for lunch before we both headed our separate ways. in some weird cosmic fate, i happened to notice crystal and cathy there in the other dining room of the restaurant. our surprise encounter blossomed to an afternoon of chattering and playing with attention craving buddy, icecream and chocolate cake while playing cranium. we all ended up missing classes.





my skin has taken a beating from my diet and lack of consistent sleeping schedule. health will have to wait at least one more week though.