Life's short and boring...

Oh come on!

The day after I put up that journal about my series of unfortunate accidents... I GOT INTO A CAR CRASH!!!

Thankfully I wasn't the one driving but I should've been. My mom drove but she wasn't very focused. Basically, we slammed into a stopped car at 30mph. The front of our car was smashed in and there was gas and antifreeze leaking from the engine.

I spent the rest of the week recovering from shock and injuries. Yeah, I was badly bruised up. Being a witness and passenger in the accident I was being interviewed a lot by officers and insurance companies. Most I'd be doing all the talking because my mom doesn't really speak English.

This sucks! The time spent after a car accident is really troublesome and boring. It also sucks that we no longer have a car... We need to get it fixed. My neck is still a little weird, so I guess I'll end the journal here and get off the computer.

My back pain returned a few days after arriving in Chicago.
It still hurts even till now. Last time it was a herniated disk. This time around I'm not quite sure. Behind the spine there are two main nerves that lead into the legs. One is the motor nerve and the other is the sensory nerve. If something happens to the motor nerve, then you become paralyzed. If the sensory nerve is disrupted, there will be severe pain. When there's something wrong with the nerve, there's a 50/50 chance, motor skills or pain. All I can say is, I hope I don't end up in a wheelchair. I would prefer not to distribute further to my disabilities.

Miki always arrives in Batavia every Saturday. I need to call and remind her to bring the i-pod cord. Do I need anything else from Chicago? No, I think I have all I need.

The restaurant was really busy today. Many tables and many regulars. Completely packed, no walking space. I had to handwrite some special menus too. Since I'm smarter than the manager, I wrote two of them and went to xerox them at the Batavia Public Library. I made lots of copies. If anyone is wondering why I didn't type it and just e-mail it to Kinkos-FedEX Office, it's because my computer still doesn't have Microsoft Word. I'm always put in charge of the menu. Changes, revisions, design, assembling, new items, omitting old items, price changes, and special promotions... I'm in charge of all of it. Alignment is what really takes forever and I kill many trees in the process.

I'm allowed to sleep in now because of my jetlag. So I can go to work as late as I want. Tomorrow, I need to buy a new laptop case, because my old one busted at Narita Airport. I need to complain to T-mobile about my defective phone and the harassing phone calls that aren't even calling for the right person. I'm also seeing Miki tomorrow. I think I want to eat a hamburger for lunch tomorrow if that is at all relevant.

YATTA!!!!!! I have internet again, thanks to wonderful Arata for retrieving my laptop charger.

I ended up waking up at 7:00am...
I don't know what it is with Japan that makes me wake up early. It could be because nearly everything closes around 9:00pm, resulting in me sleeping early.

We checked out of our shady "Asuka Hotel" and took the Yamanote line down to Shinagawa for our next hotel. So... this new hotel is friggin awesome!!! It's called the "Prince Hotel." There's a 60 lane bowling alley, an arcade, a penthouse bar, indoor amusement park, aquarium stadium, mall, and movie theater ALL INSIDE THE HOTEL!!!!!!!! It's possibly the biggest hotel I've ever seen upon arriving in Japan. The two previous hotels were tiny and had one twin sized bed (imagine sharing the bed). This one has two beds and lots of space and a working fridge (Asuka's fridge was broken).

Later, we took a short walk to find a place to eat in Shinagawa. One of Arata's wise tips about Japan "Shinagawa is like Ginza, it's a real wallet buster, be wise to not shop here and shop at the other train stops (ex: Shibuya, Harajuku)." While walking, we found a nice little "yakitori" place. How I love to try strange things. We ordered the works: liver, tongue, heart, kiel bone(chicken sternum), cartilage, tripe, raw alcohol soaked squid, chicken skin, and bacon wrapped quail eggs. Arata ordered German potatoes for some reason. But it was a great meal, so delicious. The restaurant owner came and chatted with us for a bit. Arata told the owner that we were Thai and we were on vacation visiting her. The owner said something along the lines of "wow, that's interesting, Thai people huh, I like Thai food, do they eat spicy? If they do, I have some pickled peppers on the house for them if they want." So we got ourselves a free bowl of pickled peppers... Arata can't eat super spicy things. Miki's tolerance is up to par with mine. I eat insane heat, but my sense of taste is really sensitive, but I can handle super spicy food. Arata and Miki just lightly nibbled on the pepper, while I just plopped the entire thing into my mouth. I felt that heat right away, my entire mouth was burning. I had to wait and cool down a bit. Then Miki told me to continue eating the peppers (since I can handle them) because we shouldn't waste the old lady's (owner's) kindness. As I finished off the remaining peppers, I said, "ohh... this is so going to hurt tomorrow..."

Anyways, tomorrow, I "might" be meeting up with some friends. I hope everyone's available. I know I have time for all of this week. I will be off to Yokohama, Hakone, and Fujiyama next week! Roadtrip!!! (yes, we're taking a car, shockingly not going by train) YAY! Yokohama: Chinatown is next week, I'll try my best to have as much fun as possible before the roadtrip.

I just noticed...
I'm doing a lot of hotel/city hopping, aren't I?

Yesterday was Santi and Chi-an's wedding!
Miki and I had to cater for the entire party. A lot of people turned up for the wedding. It was a lot of work and I was working for free. The party took place at Santi's house. His house has no air conditioning. Not like it mattered, the majority of the party was outdoors. Not to mention that it rained all day, it was a good thing they set up tents. A lot of people still got soaked though.

Santi and Chi-an really wanted their food theme to be a full "Tapas" menu.

Appetizers

• Empanadas
• Steak w/ chimichurri
• Bacon wrapped dates
• Caprese
• Arugula Salad

Main Entrees

• Black beans
• Rice
• Grilled vegetables
• Cuban pork roast
• Paella con mariscos
• Picadillo
• Grilled plantains

Dessert

• Madelines
• Blueberry au citron
• Flan cheesecake
• Lemon cookies
• Creampuffs

As we were discussing the menu, both of us gave Santi this weird look and said, "Santi... Caprese.. IS NOT Spanish!" But he wanted it anyways. As long as his wife could get the bacon wrapped dates, he didn't really care.

One of the downsides to catering is... you work in a place where no one sees you. You're in an enclosed area with little ventilation and near heat blasting stoves. I have to stand all day and it hurts my feet. It feels different to be backstage during a wedding. You get to see the bride get ready. The make up artist cakes her face with tons of make up and she puts on her amazing wedding dress. As they announce her arrival from outside, as she walks out that door, she holds her breath and gives a big wide smile of relief. Then she gracefully glides through the door that separates her from the groom. As Chi-an walked out that door, I could hear people in the hallway crying. Being backstage during a wedding truly is an amazing experience.
After the ceremony finished, we already finished preparing the appetizers. We begun to work on the main dishes. For the steak appetizer, we cubed the steak and trimmed the ends and fat off and left them on the side of the cutting board to not be served. Unfortunately... the groom snuck into the cooking area and he starting eating all the unusable meat-ends we left on the cutting board. Santi was stuffing his face with steak as he was telling us that they already ran out of steak outside. Then he started hoarding the fatty pieces of meat-ends on the cutting board. Santi said, "I know it's bad for my heart, but it's where all the flavor is!!!" He left us to work on the other food. We took the pork roast out of the oven and it was so juicy and tender. Not to long after we carved the roast and served it... Santi's brother, Victor... saw the pork fat we trimmed off the roast and he started attacking the cutting board just like his brother. Both of us yelled, "Victor! Away from the pork fat!!!" Victor, who was still stuffing himself with pork fat said, "but it's so yummy and it melts in your mouth." In my mind I was thinking, you're a doctor Victor, you more than anyone would know how horribly unhealthy consuming pork fat is.

While I was working on the paella, I was opening the Arborio rice with a really sharp knife. There's a saying between people who know me and it's "Never give Tessie a knife!" I tend to accidentally injure myself when using a knife. Commonly I've chopped off my own fingernails... and that's a normal occurrence. On some occasions I have bled. When I was cutting open the Arborio, I held the knife in my right hand and the bag of Arborio with my left. My left thumb and index held the top of the rice bag open while my right hand sliced the bag open. Because the Arborio is vacuum sealed, the bag will move when you puncture it. When I sliced through the bag, the bag puffed up and the bag became thinner. Because the knife was still going, I underestimated the strength I was using to cut the bag open. All of this happened very quickly, so there wasn't enough time to think. The knife ripped through the Arborio bag very quickly and sliced right through my thumb. I had cut so deep into the flesh of my thumb that it actually reached the bone. I started bleeding all over the kitchen sink. I thought I had lost my thumb, it was a lot of blood. This is the second time I have nearly cut my same thumb in half. The first time was from a meat cleaver. First impulse from getting cut is for me to rinse it in the sink. Conveniently right in front of me. Then I got a sheet of paper towel and applied a lot of pressure onto the cut. I was squeezing the cut shut with my index finger and continued cooking with my clean right hand. I was cooking with one hand for the rest of the wedding. You know, from the time I got cut, I've been requesting a bandage through Miki... and I never got it until the end of the wedding because Miki kept forgetting. For the whole wedding, I was clutching onto a paper towel because "someone" never grabbed me a bandage!

This catering job was a success and everybody loved the food. By the end of yesterday, I was really tired and in pain. Victor's wife, Sue, knew I worked really hard on the food and gave me a nice long back massage. After Sue was done, Santi attacked me with his chair massager. It was a basic wall plug-in massage device you attached to any chair. I was sitting on a stool so Santi just held it up to my back and pushed up against it. Ouch! It really hurt! He was jabbing that thing into my back, actually, he was leaning on it. He said the deep tissue massage is even better with applied pressure. Yeah right! My back still hurts even right now.

I woke up sweating today.
It was really hot this morning. Last time I checked the weather, it was going to be in the 80s all week. The current heatwave is very strange because I can usually handle a hot day, but for this weather, I haven't been able to breathe easily. It's very strange because it's still technically spring, but it feels like summer.

After waking up and hating how hot it is today, I got onto my laptop and watched episode 8 of "Meitantei no Okite," but that was the most recent episode subbed. It's been a whole year and they've only subbed 8 out of 10 episodes. Then I watched a few episodes of "Castle" with Miki. I just enjoy my mysteries.

After finishing up Castle, our aunt stopped by and she was hungry. So we all went out to eat. We went to Cho Sun Ok today, one of my favorite places!

YAY! TABLETOP BARBECUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is Miki preparing the stone plate by flavoring it with garlic!
You know you miss this Arata!!!

MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE GRILLING MY OWN MEAT ON THE TABLE!!!!!
Look at the delicious red slices of beef sizzling on that stone plate! It was so yummy!!!! The beef just melts in your mouth, it was so juicy. That beef was so delicious! You can probably imagine Miki and I having epic chopstick fights over the cooking meat. I just love tabletop barbecue, besides the fighting. The biggest fight Miki and I have isn't mainly over the meat. After we eat all of the meat, there is a yummy fried rice that is cooked on the same stone plate. If you wait a while and don't stir the rice, it'll create a thin layer of burnt rice. This thin layer of burnt rice is located at the bottom of the stone plate. To most Asians, the burnt rice is the best part of cooking rice, because it has this smokey indescribable crunch. The rice is golden brown and it becomes crunchy and partially stale. It's really tough to get because it sticks to the stone plate as it burns. So you need to scrape this thing to death to obtain those crunchy rarities called burnt rice. Me and Miki smack each other with spoons as we're scraping the plate for the burnt rice. She always ends up stealing most of my burnt rice...


I ordered some yummy salted mackerel too. My mom can make this too, but I like the one in the restaurant better! There's something about this that makes it super delicious. The salt ratio is just perfect!!!!!! It's a perfect balance of saltiness and bland oiliness. As to the mackerel my mom makes, her's turns out a little bitter, like a charred taste. But the one at Cho Sun Ok is just...... PERFECT!!! It's even better that the bones were removed from this one. It was super delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later today I followed Miki on a little trip downtown.
I WAS WATCHING GIRLS POLE DANCE, I even took pictures:

GUESS WHERE I WENT?!
AHAHAHAHA!!!! Get your mind out of the gutter!!!
I went to Miki's gym, Every few days or so, Miki has classes at "Flirty Girl Fitness." The location of this gym is quite shady, the gym's building is actually a warehouse. The surrounding buildings are like that too, they're all warehouses. This gym is of course only for girls, therefore the entire place is prissy pink and loaded with girl power. I don't like super girly things so I was like "ewww" when I walked in.


The first thing you see when you walk in, it's the front desk. You pay for merchandise, membership, and lessons here. All of these classes are split up into different rooms down this creepy narrow hallway.

LOOK AT THE PINK CHANDELIERS!!!!!!!!!!
This place is just way too overdecorated!!!

Did I fail to mention that this place has a friggin spa too!!!!

Not only can you workout and sweat like a pig here, but you can also get massages and a pedicure too. I think they paint nails too! After making yourself look pretty from all of that sweating, you can go get drunk at their actual alcohol bar!!!!!!! Almost all gyms have "juice bars." This gym has an alcohol bar!!!!!!!!! I'm not a member at this gym so I didn't take any classes. I just sat down and waited for Miki to finish her class. I was listening to my i-pod and doodling a little bit. Miki finished and we went back home together.

Not too long after I got home, my mom arrived home too. I started writing this journal and my mom kept bothering me. For someone who supposedly supports you, my mom was being very mean to me. It's really annoying when she calls me a slob for being on the computer too much. The thing is... I only get on the computer for about an hour to check e-mails and write my journal for the day, I hardly see that as "too much." Other than that, my mom kept calling me disgusting, worthless, ugly and she she kept telling me I should die. Isn't that something mothers aren't supposed to do to their kids? When people get verbally abused like that, they become a little screwed up. Parents are meant to guide us and make us into better adults... aren't they??? People wonder how I put up with this and why I'm not suicidal. Well.... as ill-tempered as I am, I'm patient with other people. I suppress everything. I cry silently on the inside... It's really difficult for me to pretend like none of it ever happened. But I manage. I compensate by being very open with people I trust. And that's how I get rid of my bottled up insanity...

That grilled meat was sooooooooo yummy!!!!
Until next time, bye again.

Today was such a nice day.
Ex stopped by early this morning to prepare for ice skating. After Ex was all set, we went to go pick up my friend Marvin. We got a little lost because we accidentally missed the exit for Marvin's house. Marvin isn't much of a morning person, but I managed to get him up early to go ice skating with me. That's an achievement, right? Talking to Marvin brought back some high school memories, it was fun.

We drove off to Skatium after picking Marvin up, surprisingly... Skatium is somewhat nearby Marvin's house. We arrived, I scanned in, everyone else paid for rentals and admission. Ex got himself a pair of figure skates, as he usually does and I convinced Marvin to get a pair of hockey skates. When we got onto the ice... I taught Ex how to skate prior to this, so he's fine, but Marvin... was a little off balance and was adjusting himself for the first half hour, not bad though... I think he did well for a beginner. It probably would've been a lot easier if it wasn't spring break and there weren't any children around, because today the ice was horribly scratched up from too many people.

After a short period of time, Marvin was able to skate faster than me, "nice job Marvin!" Then he figured out how to maneuver in a controlled manner. I tried teaching Marvin how to break... but that didn't work out. Marvin's first time ice skating and he only fell twice!!!  We had a few awkward moments...like, I would crash into Marvin or he would catch me and save me from disgracefully face-planting. Or I would almost crash into Marvin but make a sudden stop two inches in front of him, then we stood in awkward silence... I don't know, I feel safer when Marvin's around. I have the best friends in the world!!!

Speaking of friends... there are some whom I know personally, but wouldn't call them friends. Like Mike for example... In the world of ice skating, advanced brake spraying is the biggest insult, especially when you spray another skater. Mike sprayed me twice today! I wasn't happy with that at all. I was with my friends!!! Show some decency Mike! Getting sprayed in front of your friends is embarrassing, it shows lack of respect in the sport and it also changes how your friends view you. Because I wasn't thrilled about getting sprayed, I did some carving to produce some shaved ice. I gathered up that "snow" and made a lightly packed snowball. When Mike skated by, I pelted him with my one snowball. SKATER LAW #12: After being hit by a snowball, it is in your rights to use any snow remainders on you and whip those remains back at the original thrower.

So Mike took the snow that still clung onto his shirt and started packing it until it turned into a tight chunk of ice. Because I couldn't get away, Mike whipped that piece of ice at me at about triple the strength of how hard I threw it. THAT REALLY HURT!!! Mike threw it at my arm! I didn't even throw my snowball that hard. I checked out where he hit me.... MIKE BRUISED ME!!!!! I am soooo mad at Mike right now. It hurt so much... and Marvin wasn't exactly too happy to hear that Mike actually bruised me. After that, Marvin challenged Mike to a race! That was an unfair race... Mike is the second fastest at the rink, even I knew that a newbie like Marvin stood no chance against a skilled person like Mike. It's okay Marvin, you're still an awesome skater to me, even if you skate slow.

After a long morning of torturous skating, we then drove to "Village Creamery." It's a really cool ice cream place that has a little more than your standard flavors of ice cream. They have corn ice cream and cheese ice cream and many other random flavors. Marvin said it had been a long time since he visited Village Creamery. Marvin ended up buying a chocolate bubble tea, Ex bought two scoops of different flavors I just can't remember which ones, my roommate got a scoop of corn ice cream, Miki got a scoop of guava ice cream, and I got two scoops of ube(purple yam) ice cream. It was so yummy!!!! Ice cream made out of purple yams.... DELICIOUS!!!!!!

After that eventful morning, I rested a bit, ate dinner.... and watched "America's Best Dance Crew." I am so in love with team "Quest Crew's" dancing skills. They are so awesome and their style is insane!!!! They are beyond the dancing level of greatness, team Quest Crew has what it takes to win this competition. And I'm not rooting for them just because they're Asian, I cheer for them because THEY ARE RAW!!!!!!!!!!!! Team Quest Crew has got some mad skills!!!!!!!!

Yes! I'm depressed again!
Why do bad things happen to good people?
It seems to be a pattern!!!

I am having the WORST day EVER!!!!!!!
First off!!!
Alex.... What you told me is true, BUT...
Even great leaders get "overthrown!"
That's right! I am on the verge of getting fired!!! Because of my futile protests, everyone has been threatening to fire me! To make things worse, my family wants to sell the restaurant off sooner than planned. Also because my parents want to pretty much disown me and return "home." And if they go, I have no means of supporting myself because I'm still in school. This morning, I received the gas bill and the rates were through the roof, it was even a "red notice" which means they're going to cut off the gas!!! To top that off, I can hardly afford to continue living in my house, so I might become homeless soon.

I want a future....
I wanted to go into filming/editing.
Or become an artist...
Or a pastry chef...
Or a technician...
Or a pharmacist...
(I'm talented in many fields)

But those things may never happen...
My life is ruined...
I'm still in college and I'm already going through this horrible crisis...
I have no future...

I've always wanted to go to Japan and visit Arata before I die... This lack of funds is going to set me back further, that means I won't be able to go to Japan next summer... I don't know if I will get to go to Japan ever!!! Why is this happening to me?!

And THAT was just my morning!
Even though I refused to go to work, I still got dragged there anyways.

I wanted to finish up my Shinjiro sketch, but the restaurant got really busy, so I couldn't do much. I answered a carry-out order for this lady named Nancy, she made her order and I filled it. Half an hour later... she calls up the restaurant again, but this time to yell at me. She started screaming on the phone, "HEY! I PLACED A CARRY-OUT ORDER AND YOU GAVE MY DAUGHTER THE WRONG ONE!!! WHERE'S MY FOOD??? YOU GAVE HER THE WRONG ORDER WHEN SHE PICKED IT UP!!!!" I calmly explained to her that the situation never happened, "excuse me mam, umm... no one has set foot into the restaurant yet, your order was the only order that was placed at this restaurant, your daughter could not have picked up the wrong order, because... no one can into the restaurant at all today... your order is sitting right next to me, there must be some mistake..." The lady became even more furious, "NO! I'M NOT CALLING TO ARGUE!!!! JUST BRING ME MY FOOD!!!! SHE ALREADY PAID FOR IT!!!!!! BRING IT NOW!!!!!!" I then said, "fine.. look... just give me your address and I'll deliver it personally, restaurant courtesy." She gave me her address and I told her that she still needs to pay for this order because it still hasn't been paid for, before I finished that sentence... she slammed the phone in my ear. What is going on?! No one came to pick up that order, but why am I being blamed? So I drove to the house and apologized like a hundred times, then they finally told me that IT WAS THEIR MISTAKE. It turns out that they ordered from my place but went and picked up the food from our competitor's place by accident. I don't see how that works... so our competitor handed/sold over food to a stranger that never placed an order there, HOW RIDICULOUS!!!! Man, I really needed to take my anger out on something. I need to punch something, sadly there was nothing punchable at the restaurant, so I started punching the register...

I had a bad day...
Life isn't worth it anymore...
Hopefully some Tuesday skating with friends will cure these blues.

But for now, I really don't have the will to live...

When I woke up this morning I was dragged to work once again.

My family came up with a ridiculous plan involving my cat.
My aunt's house apparently has a mouse infestation and they want me to send my cat over there to chase the mice out of the house. Because if there's one mouse, then there's bound to be a large nest.

Now I'm at work. The usual, very few customers for lunch, the rest came in for dinner rush. I had three delivery (lol, one of my fav animes) orders today. Ow my back really hurts...

If my cat can track the source of the mice, then he can leave that house and stay home with me.
Fortunately, my cat isn't a killer, he's just a hunter. He'll find something and retrieve it, but he won't kill it, he brings it to me as a live gift.
With the presence of a cat in that house, the mice will get his scent and instinctively run away.

I have a lot of homework and a paper about "Marie de France" to turn in, and an Utada Hikaru concert to attend on Tuesday!
I've been told that I don't need to work at Tusk, but I'll still be in Batavia.

Okay, I need to go and chase customers out (just kidding) because it's almost closing time.
Until next time, bye again.

Okay, in my previous post I was really mad, like suber(combo of super + uber) mad. Which is a rare kind of mad I'm not usually at the state of.

I was real mad and at that point, I felt it wasn't worth the $30 for the day at work.
So I started crying and whining. Hehehe, crocodile tears of course(I think).
Well, it sounds a little uncharacteristic for me, since all of my friends really see me as:
"the inspirational visionary, the fearless leader, the multi-talented creator, the extremely determined fool, the genius of the operation, and the iron-willed speaker."

Ahhh, when I'm not around my friend, oh man, I'm a big crybaby.
But because I save face with those great qualities listed above, I keep the truthful crybaby profile to a minimum.
But, that night I cried until they gave me $200 to shut up, I'm so bad.

Last night was pretty fun, I got to hang out with Jason, whom I haven't seen in a while.
So much fun. I went to my uncle's bar, Chicago.
For those who know where I'm getting at, please don't mention "that" or I may get in trouble...
The bar was packed that night, Jason told me he had to wait a long time to get in.
As for me, the owner is my uncle and I told the bouncer that I'm in the dining party, so I walked right in.
Jason's reaction was interesting, *shocked* "Ah! I had to wait and they charged me a cover fee!!!"

We enjoyed ourselves.
We sat in the front of the bar and there was a completely different party going on in the back of the bar, there were people jumping around and the DJ was screaming. Quite a scene. I got to have all you can eat pizza and chicken wings, yes!
By the time it got to the countdown, nearly everyone in the bar was drunk prior to that.
What a crazy night.
After the party, I felt really bad, because I promised Jason a ride home. I felt really bad, since the farthest I could take him was the red line train stop.
Wah! I feel so bad, Jason! Its handwritten.

Anyways, when I got back home, I was carrying two things, chicken wings in one hand and a fish sauce mixture in the other. (Jason you remember that horrendous fish sauce smell don't you?) Well unexpectedly, Pikus(my cat) ran in front of my legs and of course I didn't see him, you guessed it, he tripped me! Quite horribly, I fell over in a loud thump, the box of chicken scattered wings everywhere, but thankfully I didn't drop the container with the fish sauce. I managed to keep the fish sauce upright the entire time during my fall down to the impact.
The KNEES don't forget the KNEES. When I fell I landed right dab on my knees AGAIN. "OUCH!!!" my cuts/wounds opened up again, THREE DAYS IN A ROW" dammit, Nishi's blog is cursed!
I'm in pain again...ahh, oh well, I went to sleep at 2am. That was my night.