On the Road Again…

Today is another traveling day. My mom and I took a flight to Phoenix, AZ, where the temperature was 105 degrees. People have told me dry heat is not as hard to deal with, and they were wrong. I felt like I was in an oven the moment I stepped outside.

My mom and I got into another small and petty argument at the Phoenix airport. All of a sudden she said, “Why do you look so bored and depressed all the time? Can’t you just smile for once?”

To which I told her, “I’m always smiling… when I’m actually happy. If you want me to pretend, I can. But I‘ll do a shitty job at it.”

Of course she throws a fit at my statement. She demanded to know why I was so unhappy.

I asked her why I should be happy. I’m on a trip that I wasn’t told about or even consulted. I was still sick and I would get even worse because of the trips. I’m on trips constantly when I’m having to deal with personal problems. I can’t communicate well with my agent when I’m overseas and I barely just got a positive response from one. Did I need to go on? I didn’t think so.

Yay for Interstate 10

First, a little tribute to Interstate 10…

I’ve been to the Eastern end of I-10 (Jacksonville)
I’ve almost been to the Western end of I-10 (Los Angeles, about 15 miles away from the “true” end in Santa Monica)
I’ve lived about 9 years in the middle of I-10 (Houston)
I’ve traveled the eastern half of I-10 between Houston and Lake City dozens of times.

Now I’ve visited another place where I-10 goes through - Phoenix. I-10 is really a big part of my life. When I become a writer, I imagine the most important roads are going to be somewhere northeast, so R.I.P. I-10! I’ll miss you… the number “10” will always mean something to me.

10m Men’s Diving

I watched one of my favorite events, the 10m men’s diving, on TV (not live, unfortunately!). Thomas Daley from Great Britain was really good, but he looked like he’s 12. Damn I love diving. So much fun to watch such grace. David Boudia from the U.S. also did amazing. He picked the most difficult style. Apparently I’m not a good judge though. Every person I think is decent gets a bad score and the ones I think are rather unimpressive get like 90+. I’m a bit surprised that the style which starts with the diver standing upsides down on their hands are rather low on difficulty. It sure looks like the hardest thing to do to me, having to not only keep your weights entirely on your hands, but also pushing yourself off the platform.

New House

Today we came to the new house. After like three or four years of building and decorating, it’s finally ready to live in. The house is pretty nice. I especially like the basement. It has 3 rooms and a huge living room type thing. My parents are going to turn it into a bar. I’m a little mad at them for not adding a hot spring pool down there, but I probably won’t be living here much, so I have no right to talk about the decorations.

The only problem here is that there’s no internet yet. So hopefully we won’t be living here for too long because I’m like a cripple without the internet. I’m having to use a web cafe just to post this, in fact!

Bird’s Nest

Bird's Nest Stadium

Security at the Olympics was even tighter than airports, if that’s possible. Almost nothing more than a purse or handbag is allowed. It took about an hour and a half to get to the Bird’s Nest from the subway entrance, so leaving two hours ahead was about right. By the time we got there and took some pictures, it was almost 7. Our seats were in the second row, which sounds good but actually cameras blocked our view, so we sat on the 7th row since whoever had those seats didn’t arrive yet.

I saw women’s javelin throw, women’s 200m, women’s 1500m, men’s decathlon, and the award ceremony for men’s 200m. I thought it would be boring, but the atmosphere alone was worth the trip. There’s something about being there live and hearing the crowds, listening to the Jamaican national anthem that captivates me. Jamaica won both the 200m races.

I’m so FULL!

I ate lunch at the restaurant next to my parents’ home. I’ve never been to the restaurant, but it was really good and cheap. We ate spicy seafood hot pot, Hong Kong fried rice (the best kind), and tofu for like $10 total. And they don’t skimp. The hot pot was filled with squid, octopus, shrimp, mussels, and other seafood that was enough for 3 or 4 people easily.

At 5 my dad and I left to go to the Track & Field event in the Bird’s Nest stadium. I think it should be Track & Field, right? They dubbed it “Athletics”, which seems awkward to me. I wondered why we had to leave so early at first, and I soon discovered the reason. The line of people heading there was enormous. Taxis aren’t allowed to go right next to the stadium, and we had to get off at the nearest subway station. Neither my dad nor I knew how to get there. I was a little surprised since he went to the opening ceremony, but he said some official car took him in. Lucky!

An Old Friend

I slept from 9 P.M. to 9 A.M. I guess I was really tired since I got no sleep on the plane. Already there was a lot planned for the day. I got a back, neck, shoulder, and face message, facial, and haircut. It took 4 hours! Much longer than I expected. By the time I got done I was starving. I went to some restaurant and met up with my old best friend from when I was like 10. He’s doing pretty good, but stressed out because of the economy here. Neither of us wanted to talk about real life though. It’s too much to handle.

So what did we end up talking about? The Olympics. He said “Damn, Guo Jingjing looks hotter every time I see her. At first she was just average but now she’s like the hottest woman to me.” Guo is the winner of the synchronized diving 10m and also some solo diving event that I can’t remember. She is really amazing at diving, as good as Michael Phelps at swimming. Very graceful.

They Frustrate Me!

I hate my uncle’s wife and my cousin‘s wife.

Both of them love to judge me. Who are they to do that? I’m so mad at them both. I’m not their family, and I’ve made it pretty clear to them. I guess I struck a soft spot. I don’t care. I just don’t.

My cousins took me to go eat lamb-kebob’s earlier, and they were so good!

I don’t really have much to write about. It’s been a boring couple of days. I started watching Heroes again, on episode 21 already. It’s addicting all over again, and as weird as this sounds, Sylar is such a good character. I always like the evil ones, it seems.