Monday, February 28, 2005

Random thoughts....

Had dinner at Guy's house last night. Quite a meal I must say, four entrees with soup. Real soup, not Chunky's or Campbell. Then we had fruit, ice cream and redbean pie for dessert. Absolutely amazing. Great food, great environment, but most importantly great company. Where you see Guy, you're bound to see Rebecca (more often than not). TallKen was also there, and just like the former two, wherever you see TallKen, SoChi is probably within a 10 foot radius. Not to mention Guy's new family member, Sao Tao. BTW, rumor has it that the main course for Thanksgiving dinner is rabbit meat. Hrm.......curious.

I don't remember the last time a friend invited me to their house for dinner and the dinner wasn't a potluck.

Didn't realize the broad spectrum of age within our fellowship. Now that I think about it.... we cross three generations: Generation X, Generation Y, and that generation raised between Baby Boomers and GenX - who are so often unidentified cuz they just flew underneath the radar. I don't particularly see any pros or cons with this, except when the subject of inter-church dating came up, we had a plethora of gossip coming up. Including even, cross fellowship activities and events involving SFCAC.

One of the cross fellowship events that's coming up is the Singles Retreat in July. Makes me wonder if there's a double meaning behind the "retreat." =) Stuck in Tahoe for three days with a bunch of single girls.... *sigh*...to be a bachelor again.

Another possible event that is less thought provoking is good ol' team competition. Turns out some of the girls in the English Young Adult fellowship are pretty gung-ho when it comes to volleyball. Some of the peeps in Joseph know a thing or two about bunt, set, spike. We'll see where this goes. Maybe we can bring some people from the different fellowships and form a SJCAC team.

Speaking of volleyball, we had the playoffs in our league tonight. We won our first match, beating the #5 seed, but eventually fell victim to the #4 seed, barely. It took 8 weeks for our team to jive...I think if we keep this team going, we can actually be a force to reckon with.

On another note, Ken and Guy were talking about discipleships for our church. I started wondering, that's great!! But who's going to disciple Joycie and me?? We have a couple in mind...but they're super duper busy. On the flip side of the coin...if they discple us well enough, we can possibly inherit some of their work and ease up their bandwidth. HA!! I tried that one time when crashing a class freshman year of college, "Dr. Bailey, your class is already full with 150 people. What's another one or two? With me in your class, I can tutor students on the side and ease up your office hours." It worked....she let me crash. But I never tutored anyone...heh heh heh....

Liar? Nah...I'm just a natural businessman....

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Where a kid can be a kid....

TV commericials are great. You see kids playing with two or three GI-Joes, but it'll be the most fun you've seen anyone have! You buy the same toy, open it, and realize, darn...this is stupid. You don't get all the cool mountains and background that was on TV. Or a stinken Hot Wheel race track. The dinky little car goes round and round. That'st dumb!! Why are the two white boys on TV having the time of their lives?? I'm sure everyone's fallen for that trap...and eventually learn their lesson.

Not the case with one particular commericial - Chuck E. Cheese. Oh no. There aren't any sceneries to enhance the fun. The pizza that rolls across your screen is the juiciest pie you've ever laid eyes on. The Chuck E. Cheese mouse DOES exist and is your best friend. The plastic ball pool is the size of Arkansas and it's bottomless. But with my upbringing, I had to settle for the fact that places like is for rich families only. I do not deserve to play in places like that...the world was created with a hierarchical structure and I wasn't anywhere close to the top. I wouldnt' even know how to ask mom and dad to take me there...cuz there's absolutely no justification to go to a place like that, when we can do the same things at a public park.

This Sunday, Joycie and I took Francisco and Issac to a local Chuck E. Cheese. For $35, we had a large pizza, four sodas and over 60 tokens ~ with some coupons I found online. The kids standing by the token dispenser were looking in awe as the coins kept dropping like it would at vegas when you hit jackpot. I literally had my entire coat pocket full of coins - felt evil...that I was spoiling the kids. They oughta learn the value of a dollar..that it takes a lot of hard work to enjoy themselves. Anyways...so we sat down, I passed out some of the tokens and they were gone within a second. 10 minutes later, they came back and started hanging out with me and Joyce. Now why would they choose to hangout with us?? Oh...I get it...they needed a refill. =)

Joyce and I couldn't fight off the wave and wave of kids running around. They'd run into you, cut in front of you, steal your Skeeballs. I guess when you're small, you keep your eyes focused on the big shiney lights...and disregard everyone else around you. Best part of Chuck E Cheese wasn't the arcards, nor the food...but seeing the kids squirming their ways around each and every corner in that Jumbo Maze thingy that I can longer fit into. =(

We were there for about 2 hours and amazingly, the tokens lasted us for the entire time. We ran out of things to do and just played games that won us tickets. The prizes they had available were the absolutely ugliest POS in the whole wide world. How anyone can afford to win those prizes is beyond me.

If someone were to ask me what I think heaven is like... Chuck E Cheese would be a valid valid answer.

Another dream down....another million to go.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day

Once a year, I along with the other 50% of the human race (rough estimate - nothing scientific like the election polls) would flock to the closest florist, Tiffany's, Victoria Secrets, Sanrio in an attempt to not be typecasted as the modern day "Al Bundy." How much money have I spent on Valentine's Day since the inception of the concept in my adolescent mind?

Not counting the dumb 2x4 Valentine Day cards sold at Walgreens for $2.99 a box, I remember my first Valentine's Day present being around 6th grade. The night before Valentine's Day, I went to Walgreens (hrm...that worked out well) to buy a $5 chocolate heart. It was a red box, about the size of a binder, with the word "Love" handwritten across it. I was tiptoe-ing all night that night...worrying that mom may discover my miscalculated investment. And to think, I didn't even have the courage to give it to the girl. I made my friend deliver the package for me. Sixth grade...that must've been when I was 12?
Many moons later, when I was a sophomore in high school, a $2 investment was made on a rose sold by one of our school clubs. The recipient, my first high school love. The deliverer, "Secret Admirer." I didn't even have the ballz to let the girl know it was me. I wonder if I should let her know now??
Then there were the next 5 years that I've successfully eliminated from the memory banks, for better or worse. Ah...how I wish I was single...
Just the past 6 years with Joycie can singlehandedly lift our nation out of the red. Give or take a billion here and there. Our first Valentine's Day was the first time I sent a dozen long stemmed fully blossoming roses in a vase. That's when I truly experienced the pain and agony of being a man..aside from having a baseball hit me smack in the balls. The last several years, I've eased up on the flowers and gone with handmade flowers - whether they're ribbon or orgami. This year, I've completely skipped the traditional dozen roses. Am I getting less romantic and more mainstream humdrum...or is it just wise-cash saving?

Come to think of it, I haven't spent a Valentine's Day - single - for the past 10 years. And what have I gotten out of it?? An "EXCELLENT" on my credit score.

What do I have planned for this year? With all that's been going on lately, a night at home with a nice book and a hot cup of tea would be more than I can ever ask....

May the Lord bless all who seeks love, and may love fill the hearts of who have seek the Lord.


And may my poetic phrases actually make sense....

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Chinese New Year's Celebration

Oh Mylanta!! The performance by Carmel Fellowship blew the rest of the competition out of the water!!

It was the most entertaining amateur performance I have ever witnessed. From concept to deliverance is way beyond one's imagination. And here I was thinking Joseph Fellowship's commericials were going to steal the spotlight from everyone. Only to see that Carme's commericials were not only funny and nostaligic, but was technologically sound! The older the ginger, the spicier the ginger.
To extend that saying further...Faith fellowship consisted of a few elderly women. They didn't do anything extravagant like Carmel, anything funny like Bethel, or anything hip like Joseph. They merely stood up there as a group, sang a New Year's Celebration song, and wished everyone a Happy New Year. More is Less. They had the simplest of performances, but won the hearts of everyone by their demonstration of sisterhood and fellowship. We have so much to learn.

It was the first time Joyce and I took part in a Cantonese Congregation celebration since we never go to Prayer Meetings. I was actually amazed to see that our fellowship are the babies of the church. Not counting the real babies. There were but a few teenagers and adolescents. I guess all the "kids" are ABCs and tend to flock towards the youth fellowship - done in English.

A Happy New Year to all...and to all a Happy New Year.