Well, er, 50 days turned into 10 days! Time flies by so much faster the closer you get to any kind of “big” day. So much has happened, and I’ve had so little time to care to sit down and update this thing. After all, between work, meeting up with people for meals, and Left 4 Dead, when does a girl have time to update her blog?

(more…)

… although it could be the Fremont-home vibe that delivers this kind of thing. Sigh…

I am led to believe that I have caught the cold from my brother, JUST when I’m about to

1. Go to an awesome rivalry baseball game (go Dodgers!),
2. Have my friends from HS over to chill in Berkeley after begging them day after day to do so, and
3. subsequently bar-hopping in the neighboring Shattuck bars.

UGH!!! I hope that this is just a fluke and maybe I’m not sick but just heavily sinus-allergied. Yes, I just said allergied. And I have to wake up at 9:00? to start the day. And it is 3. And you know, lack of sleep + major workout = tired body = breeding ground for sickness. Sigh! What unfortunate timing. I am also starving but seeing as how it’s late and also how my mother insists upon the eating-late-at-night-will-make-you-gain-weight myth, I can’t do anything about it but hope that I get sleepy soon!

I think another part of it has to do with the fact that I’m not sleeping with Justin. I sleep so comfortably when he’s next to me–I don’t think I’ve ever had insomnia in the duration of time he’s been in Berkeley with me–but when I’m at home in Fremont, I can easily stay up ’til 2 or 3 … right now I feel really tired but can’t even sleep!* And I remember in high school I used to stay up until ridiculous hours too–I’ve always wondered how I managed to get up at 7 for school every morning after sleeping at 4 every night … maybe it’s those afternoon naps

I’ve been constructing narration and plotlines in my mind but haven’t written a bit of it down–this is a process that occurs over and over again, and I usually end up forgetting the brilliance I had given birth to in my mind. This leads me to believe that I should carry a journal or a notebook or notepad with me, everywhere I go, but alas, laziness strikes and gets the best of me.

I was also reading my old papers from De Anza and Chabot, and man, I was such an English nerd! I remember I used to actually READ the assigned reading and actually PAID ATTENTION during lectures. I was able to ace a lot of my English classes, and it got to the point where:

1. I’d been at De Anza for a couple quarters now, taking English classes. For one of my third-quarter English classes, my teacherhad said something along the lines of, “Oh, Hau, I’ve heard of you before.” This led me to believe that I somehow had established an identity for myself in the English department. WHAT THE HELL. I never did anything and I really don’t think my writing is spectacular … and this will, of course, be proven later when I went to Berkeley … and
2. I’d gotten basically an A average on my papers and exams in my 46B-equivalent English class. Our final paper was an 8-10 page paper comparing at least 2 novels we’d read from the covered time period. I’m sure I stayed up and/or woke up early to write my paper on how Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels were similar in their attempt to expose human fallacy. When I received the paper back, there were nothing but check marks on each page, and a comment at the end that read, “Great ideas on Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels and how they both reflect human fallacies – 95.” As a policy, I don’t generally re-read my papers unless they were assigned rough drafts–where I am forced to reread my junk–but upon re-reading it about 3 years later, I’ve found a lot of interrupted thoughts and typos and grammatical errors. What the HELL? Later, a friend who was in the class was so indescribably angry at the grade he’d received in both the class and the paper, especially after discovering what I’d received.

And! For some reason, I make a presence for myself in my English classes at Berkeley too, even though my writing sucks ASS compared to the pretentious smart kids in my classes. I remember distinctly only going to this one class maybe once a week, two times every other week if I felt good about it (and this is a class that meets twice a week), and this professor whom I’d crossed paths with on campus actually said hi to me first. I could seriously go on …

This is in no way an attempt to BRAG about my circumstances. No, actually I’m just astounded by my lack of anonymity in the community, especially in the academic one, so much to the point where I’ve wished that I could just blend in like a chameleon, like the other kids in my classes. Why do I draw so much attention to myself? I don’t dress loud or have a loud appearance (“loud” being colorful and/or stand-outish); I don’t contribute anything particularly insightful in class–if I’m even there; my writing is of average quality (and this is not my opinion–it’s been reflected in my grades) … so I just don’t get it. If anything, I wished for nothing more than an anonymous place in the crowd of students so as to not disappoint my teacher with my shitacular papers. But alas …

Well, maybe this is entry is a good enough diversion. Maybe I will find my place in slumberland until I am abruptly interrupted by a phone call from The Boy.

*Is that how you know what your “home” is–by how well you sleep in it? If that’s the case, I found my real home … it’s just too bad that I don’t get to sleep there every night. 

Wow, this Firefox tool is REALLY nifty! I can post anytime while I’m browsing webpages–and that’s quite often. So YAY!

I’ve been on this intellectual-renewal-type-wannabe binge–no thanks, of course, to my Global Cinema class! The students in there only make me feel THAT much smarter and/or surprised that the intelligence of an average person in America is a lot lower than I thought (but Jay Leno’s “Jaywalk” skits should really have been a tall-tell sign that such was the case). But they have no factor in my current expedition for self-betterment; nope, it’s actually the fact that I’m exposing myself to movies from around the globe that’s got me going!

All back story rambling aside, I currently finished reading  Me Talk Pretty One Day by Dave Sedaris. Why the HELL haven’t I read this a lot earlier? Gosh, I’m like, SO five years behind. But in all seriousness, he’s a hilarious and witty writer–although I think I still like the other Dave better (but who am I to compare them? Maybe because the English teacher who made us read Eggers recommended Sedaris to me, discovering how fucking astonished I was by this masterpiece that is his autobiography). His writing’s a lot more stylistic and has a lot of personality–not that Sedaris is missing that, I’m just really biased

I also saw Avenue Montaigne over at Shattuck Cinemas a week or so ago. Cute French movie! Watch for a good time and/or light-hearted laughs. The main character Jessica, played by Cecile De France, is so adorable in this movie. PLUS Sydney Pollack is in it, playing as another director (although I think he should have played himself, that would’ve been awesome!).

Right now I’m reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller–yes, another book I should’ve read 5 years ago but haven’t gotten around to until now. I’m such a dork

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Things I Want To Do/Will Do This Summer:

• Learn how to play Piano
• Go to Las Vegas
• Take some graphic design courses
• Get a job
• Go to Viet Nam??

I am a bit excited But I am not looking forward to living at home. For the rest of my 20something life (hopefully only for a few years at most …). I just want to go on vacation, make money, make pretty things, and do things that make me happy. Sigh!
Immediate goals that need to be completed:

• Work on Grace’s Website
• Chi Delts at UC Davis?
• Food Blog
• M.Net Redesign
• Design THIS blog

Now that I’ve completed hautran.com I’ve become so lazy to do anything else! But alas, there’s much to do Hau. Much!

And one more list (just one more, I promise!):

Movies I want to watch:

• Leon – The Professional
• Roman Holiday
• Volver
• Pulp Fiction

… and I know there’s more. I just know it.