Saturday, November 19, 2005

San Francisco Turnaround

People were saying it couldn't be done. So I thought, "Fine, we'll see!" Not only was a turnaround trip to San Francisco possible, it was possible to do well...
Celia wanted to go shopping, I wanted a road trip, James heard food... the rest is now history.

Left Los Angeles (Downtown): 12:30 am.
Got into San Francisco 6:30 am.
From the Bay Bridge, first stop was breakfast at Mel's Diner. James and I dropped off Celia at H&M downtown. Then we did our tourist impersonation!!!


Here is the Bay Bridge.

Hey Natalie! We found your Gallery! There's the Golden Gate Bridge.
Of course had to go to Fisherman's Wharf.
Don't know what this is about, but it is in front of Pier 2

Nice long pier with Angel's Island and the Bay Bridge... oh yeah, a boat...
Alcatraz Island. Didn't they blow the island up in "The Rock"? James and I walked the whole wharf from one end of the embarcadero to the other, from there we cut across on Mission then up a block to Market all the way back to the H&M store where Celia is supposed to be doing her killer shopping. Celia wasn't done yet so we hung out at the Virgin Mega Store for a bit. Afterwards we all took the trolley back to Fisherman's Wharf.
We had lunch at Nonna Rose and got done around 3:30 pm. We gassed up the car and headed back home at 4 pm. This time we took the more scenic 101 fwy instead of the boring 5 fwy. Took a little longer, but we got into Los Angeles at around 10 pm and had dinner downtown. I went to sleep a little before midnight.

I was supposed to go into this trip to clear my head of a few things. Didn't work... on my mind the whole time.


Friday, November 18, 2005

Anger, Part II

Ok, so a few more friends have been expressing concern and I really appreciate it. I am going to do something some of this anger that has been building up inside me. Yes Alan and Melinda, something constructive, hahaha weren't going to let me weasel out that way huh?
For now, my sister and I were having dinner the other night and she mentioned she wanted to go to San Francisco just for the day. What an awesome idea! Celia sure comes up with a bunch of these cool ideas.
So, a turnaround road trip, shopping trip, culinary tour (that one convinced James), get out of town trip to San Francisco is a go. If anything I can clear my head a bit.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Anger

I like to think of myself as a pretty level headed guy. It usually takes a lot to make me "go off". My sister tells me every once in a while that I'm too "kind" or something to that effect. It's a good thing that we've been pretty busy lately and that we haven't seen each other in a while, otherwise she would be telling me to calm the hell down... or something to that effect.
I've been on a short fuse lately. I blow up at people, so far I haven't blown up at anyone I know, though that's really not an excuse.
Just recently, I exploded. I got into a fight. I had thought I left all that behind me. What makes it even worse was that I was the one who started it, I was the one who refused to let it go and I was the one who hurt another human being.
I don't like seeing myself like this. It brings up too many memories of a past that such violence was all too common and tolerated. Helpless to stop it, unable to even speak out against it because survival depended on it.
I am finding myself "stepping out" at work quite a bit lately. I've been getting very good at counting to ten. I know my boss has noticed it, enough that he has taken me aside to ask if I was ok. What a reversal, I'm usually looking out for him.
After that fight, I'm more aware of keeping it under control but the reason(s) why I "exploded" still exist.
Well, this was fun.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Shopping sucks

Shopping sucks if you are LARGE.
I told myself that I was not going to buy any "good" clothes until I lost a lot of weight. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on clothes that I would not be able to wear after I lost the weight. I used to tilt the scales at 390 lbs a year and a half ago. I am now at 280 lbs, still tilting the scales but at least now it doesn't curse me when I get off, not much anyway.
Since I started teaching, I realize that I cannot get away with the wardrobe of jeans and t-shirts. I had decided that I was going to just chuck all my clothes, which depressingly fit in one garbage bag.
What goes in the bag:
  1. If I haven't worn it in the last month -- in the bag.
  2. If I only wear it inside the house because there's no way I would wear it in public -- in the bag.
  3. If I think that particular style is going to came back again -- in the bag.
  4. If I have to think twice about it -- in the bag!

Now with the closet acting like an echo chamber I was off to start dressing like an adult or a reasonable facsimile. I got to the mall, one of the nicer ones in SoCal to start my transformation.

  1. Macy's for Men
    As I was making my way to the entrance, I couldn't help looking at their window display, it was very inspiring. I was looking through each section and I fought the urge to go through the area for the younger crowd. I also stayed away from the "active wear" section otherwise known as jeans and t shirts. I got to the more "professor type" clothes and I was a little lost as to where to start. I saw some sweaters and I thought, "Ok, let's start there." I found a few nice ones in my size (XXL). On the way to the fitting room I saw a couple of shirts (the ones with buttons, c'mon) so I grabbed them too. This is where it started to go wrong...
    The first thing I tried to put on was a sweater... didn't fit. I tried the other one and as soon as I unfolded it, it was obvious that this was not going to fit either. This was ridiculous! I know I am an XXL, except for clothes that says "Made in India" or "Made in Malaysia"... well you get what I mean. A sales person asked me if I was finding everything ok. I asked her if they had anything in my size. She pulled out a nice long sleeved shirt and asked to try it on. No dice. She then told me that I would not find anything there and I should "go across the street" referring to a big and tall shop. I thanked her and thought what does she know? I'm going to take my money to the next store.
  2. Nordstrom's
    This time I went straight to a salesperson and asked, "what do you have in my size?" They told me to try Rochester's "across the street." Now the big and tall has a name... Rochester's.

After going through a few more stores, I started getting mad. After another 20 minutes, I started getting really depressed. I was so dejected that I decided I was never going back to this mall of specific type. Anyone not fitting that type is banished "Across the street."
I ran a few errands I had planned later in the afternoon after a "long day of shopping" had lunch. Then I went home and took all those crappy T Shirts and ratty jeans out of the "bag" and put them all back in my closet and brood.
I am looking forward to a birthday get-together with a bunch of friends for "The Embassy" later tonight. Hopefully, that will get me out of this "funk" I'm finding myself in...

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Food Posting


Ok, I'm posting some food stuff because the one who is supposed to be doing so hasn't been doing his job.

Anyway, James and I have been going to Maxim's in Rowland Heights for a while now. It has become a source of "comfort food." Their menu has a lot of variety, I would have liked to have been around when the menu was being developed. I picture a bunch of people yelling out names of dishes machine gun style and some poor guy trying to write it all down.
During one of our visits just as we were leaving, one of the waiters walked by with a plate with a big chunk of meat on it. After, James and I did our usual double takes, we asked the waiter what section of the menu that chunk was written in.
He said it was on the "special menu." I guess we were too busy working our way through the king sized menu that we never got around to checking out "menu #2."
Well, James I tried it and here it is....
It was not bad though the sauerkraut was a bit on the too sour side, it overpowered the sauce.

Celia had the skewers...

Maxim's Cafe
18904 Gale Avenue
Rowland Heights, CA