Braising my Beef

let it be known that my last saturday night was spent watching the world championships of sumo wrestling.

i know this kind of event isnt even surprising to you.

my relatives found it weird (negative) and lee found it weird (positive).

the funny part about the whole event is that there were bulgarians and hungarians in the tourney. some of them even looked like they found out the bad effects of cholesterol that they joined weight watchers. confusing?

it really was.

we missed the first 45 minutes of the tourney because we were looking for parking around MSG. (madison square garden. manhattanites call it as such. when i first heard it i was, what? vetsin?!) thank god we did, because the first half of the fights was full of SKINNY SUMO WRESTLERS.

i kid you not.

my seatmate was shouting "go to mcdonalds!" to this particular skinny guy. its just odd to see a non-fat sumo wrestler. its just plainly unnerving.

i surmise that everyone who went there didnt really rooted for anyone in particular. everyone including me we just rooting for the fatter one in the ring. haha. although there was our favorite, hans borg who was so hulkhoganish that he was wearing a yellow loincloth thingy and would make the crowd cheer him on. unfortunately, he didnt win the title. (everyone else was wearing colored loincloths because there was a team thingy going on.)

all in all the fights were good. i like the fact that its a one shot deal. short and sweet, no second rounds. i hate sports and i think sumo wrestling is fun to watch. (well, i think i watched wrestling more than any other sport there is. hahaha)

and i look forward to the kaiju big battel.

thank god for bored housewife friends!

this morning, lee texted me that i should check my email. lo and behold, she emailed me links of the clothes that i should try on or at least consider to try on that i will need to be wearing to a wedding…

TEN MONTHS FROM NOW.

i know its a little bit too early to think about what i will wear in an occassion in the next 10 months, but if i need to spend 300++ bucks to fly coast to coast and a wedding gift, really, i need to plan. who to better discuss this dilemma with than lee. (one day, she got really bored and started designing my wedding dress and 4 other dresses for her 4 other friends! thank god the color of her design for me was what i liked.)

i like the dresses she suggested but something tells me they look to clubby… then again, i know me. i will probably wear something clubby or weird. i remember wearing a little black dress, sequined little chinelases and a sequined purse and a small black denim jacket. one of my friends commented that im the only one she knows who could pull off something like that. (i know its pretty hard to imagine, but i tell you i got compliments from the groom himself.)

so there, finally a girly dilemma from me.

she told me to go over to forever 21 to shop for my one-time-use-dress, which isnt a bad idea for less than 30 bucks! (hahaha. im so cheap! and i work two blocks away from saks fifth avenue!) she has been stopping me from going too. she asked me to wait for her. hahaha. i swear to god, she is all excited about the dress and all im thinking about is the amount of moolah im gonna be spending for this wedding.

argh. thank god for lee knowing where to shop for real clothes.

with hesitation, i actually joined the raffle for a creative zen vison. i didnt want to wait because digitallife 2005 was a bit of a disappointment to us and i wanted to go home. luckily my bf egged me on to it.

lucky for him he won the coveted creative zen vision.

of course it is now mine. hahahhaa. i use it to watch the contents of his tivo (dloaded from tivo to go) and i am the official owner of it for the past 48 hours.

its a cute toy. it plays music, plays video (after a thirdparty decoder) and the sad part is that it only syncs with windows xp. i hate it because my computer runs on windows 2000 — only because it is their most stable version. it requires less memory and it is devoid of all the cutesy graphics that only eats up memory. then again, there’s my geeky (its a compliment) bf that would tinker with the whole xp/tivotogo/3rd party codec just to put my wonderful shows in the nifty thing.

after carrying it with me for the first time to work, i realize a few things:
1. its better to use it as an mp3 player if you are walking around the streets of manhattan unless you want to be run over by apu the cabdriver.
2. watching it on the subway poses some danger of it getting stolen because i live in the bronx.
3. its not meant for people who drive to and from work.
4. if you watch it from inside your purse your neck will hurt after you get out of the subway.

i still feel weird about watching tv shows inside the subway but i guess its all good. the bad part is that it steals your subway sleeptime.

its nice that i get this thing for free even if i didnt even think about getting an ipod.

living in the best city in the united states (i still consider manila as the best in the world) has its pro and con perk.

everyone wants to visit.

i always assumed that all the people who have come to new york visit the city, not me. although i am narcissistic, i have come to realize that the only reason why they fly over is to see all the touristy stuff. i only become the icing on the cake when they ask to stay over. (hahaha. not that i mind)

although i still feel homesick, i am loving the fact that everyone comes to visit the city because even without my samantha, miranda and charlotte, my social calendar is just overflowing. of course this includes visits from titas that i didnt really like socializing back in manila.

instantaneously, you become friends.

enough of that. the best part of living in new york is reliving your college days, if not only for one happy hour. lee, april and i had happy hour and dinner last night and for the love of god, i havent had that much alcohol in a span of one year. i seriously think that after i unconsciously quit drinking due to the lack of beer buddies over here, those were my worst nights.

after 5 years of living campus grounds, hanging out with them was college all over again. ah, to relive the days when you were young and stupid. (we’re still young but not as stupid)

we’ve all grown up. no more living with mommy, lee is married with a toddler and april and i are still longing. though i must say, some things never change.

they still fret over what they will be wearing. even if we were going to an eight dollar dinner entree.

three weeks with no sleep and an unmentioned curfew, a part of me is glad that my mother is out of my apartment. no more going home early. no more dealing with what she wants that i dont want (hah!) and no more worrying what she is up to.

the other part of me is sad to see her go. in spite of having to share my bed with her and having to agree with her for most of the time, i sometimes wish that she lives around the corner so i can visit her whenever i feel like it (which is most of the time during dinnertime. hahahaha) and that i have someone to go shopping with.

one of my cousins once said that she cant live with her mother anymore. i used to feel bad for her mother — but you know what, after living on my own, i actually feel the same way. i realize its not about not liking your mother. its more about embracing your independence.

for the most part, even if i miss her loads, i am very very thankful that she let me do my crazy rollercoaster life. even if i never said it to her, i owe it to her by showing to me through example how to survive living alone.

thanks madder.