Dear Rude-Girl-at-The-Meeting-Today,

In the past, I’ve made the effort to have patience with the touchy feely, self-centered, “I’ve worked at CBOs for [x] years so I know more than you,” kumbaya attitude you bring to meetings. You’re young and, I’m sure, probably believe that the world’s injustices can be overcome solely by working at non-profits, “getting involved,” recycling and shopping at Whole Foods. I can’t fault you for this because I, too, was young once. Now I’m older, jaded and cynical. It happens to the best of us - but don’t worry. It’s not so bad.

However, your youthful earnestness doesn’t excuse you from simple, basic meeting etiquette. Let me spell it out for you:

1. When you go to a meeting, turn off your cell phone. By “turn off,” I mean push the on/off button until your cell phone actually shuts down. “Turn off” does not mean sticking your phone deep inside your purse.
2. Learn to recognize your own ring tones. Or, don’t play innocent - whichever applies. The odds are very, very low that two people at the same meeting have downloaded “My Neck, My Back” onto their cell phones. So, yeah - that call’s for you, bitch.
3. We all know someone’s calling you, so stop the ringer already. Ok, we’ve just watched you dig through your purse searching for your goddamn phone - now that you’ve got it in your hot little hands, TURN THE RINGER OFF. There is absolutely no reason you need to let the phone continue to ring as you get up from the table and walk over to the door. Every single cell phone has a ringer mute button. USE IT.
4. Do not have a personal phone conversation in the middle of a meeting. This seems painfully obvious to most people, but apparently you felt that walking 5 feet away from the table put you at a safe enough distance to start having a loud personal conversation into your phone. Whispering would have at least shown some respect on your part - but instead, you chose to speak louder than the rest of us. Jesus.

I really hope you take these pieces of advice to heart, because you and I have many more meetings scheduled together.

If not, I’ll just have to kick your skinny little ass.

Sincerely,
me

Spent a chunk of the day with The Sis eating dim sum and shopping amongst our fellow yellows at the Hong Kong Mall in Bellaire’s Chinatown.

We started off with dim sum at Ocean Palace, the ginormous restaurant next to the mall. As usual, the restaurant was packed, noisy and a little chaotic. Ah, Chinatown. Gotta love it. Unlike other dim sum places I’ve been to, Ocean Palace’s dim sum menu isn’t written in English….which meant lots of nodding, smiling and pointing with the cart ladies. We ended up munching on dim sum standards like shumai, dumplings, shrimp rice noodles, fried noodles, fish cakes, sticky rice in lotus leaves and, my favorite, turnip cakes. mmmm.

After lunch, we wandered into Hong Kong Mall for some afternoon shopping. Despite being completely stuffed from lunch, I got some avocado bubble tea (made with fresh avocados, natch) for dessert and waddled around after The Sis as she popped in and out of stores.

Browsing through the grocery store, The Sis and I noticed one thing - Asian baby hairstyles. We must have seen about 5 infant girls with pony tails sticking straight up the tops of their heads, like mini Teletubbies. Why? Is it some current parent/baby trend I’m unaware of? Is there a functional use for it?

Speaking of babies, I found these two dolls in the toy section. The doll on the right is Karina. She talks, she skates and she even comes with her own cell phone. Intended for children 5 years and up, because kids under 5 have no need for a doll with a cell phone. And the doll on the left makes me not want to have kids. Ever.

And finally, a visit to the alcohol section inspired a new project - sake journal. I’ve decided to keep a simple sake journal, much like wine journals, to document the types/brands of sake I’ve tried. It also justifies my budding alcoholism. ha.

As The Sis said, “Whenever you get into something, it’s never in moderation…”

The Sis dropped me off and I collapsed into bed for a 3 hour nap. All the dim sum, bubble tea, bread and sugar I’d been consuming all day caught up to me. Now I’ll be up till 3:30am. Great.

Let’s play with rocks.

mmm….soy milk.

Gear wishlist:

• Pocket PC
• MP3 Player
• Digital Camera
• CD burner
• New Desktop computer
• Stereo system

Just purchased a Dell Axim x50v with 624MHz processor, integrated wifi, Windows Mobile 2003 SE, and my favorite feature, a VGA display with 640 x 480 resolution. Sexy. Plus, with Dell’s current 30% off sale combined with my University of Texas student discount, I saved more than $200. Dell even threw in an extra battery and upgraded warranty into the package. Yay for discounts!

greetings from san antonio, tx. beautiful pic isn’t it? actually, satx is a cute, pretty city but my meeting ended up on the west side of town, next to univ of texas at san antonio and not close to the beloved Riverwalk. It’s been a long day, starting with me missing my flight AGAIN. Jumped on the next flight with some colleagues from the health department. As we drove from the airport to the meeting, I caught a glimpse of Trinity University….where i did my undergrad work….ten years ago. ten. As we passed my freshman dorm, I suddenly felt old - though not in a sad or depressing way. My head was suddenly filled with all these forgotten memories, and I realized how so very different I am today from the girl I was back then. It was, definitely, one of those self-reflective moments we have when we stumble upon a bunch of memories we had forgotten about. Anyways, the meeting was uneventful, and now it’s time to head back home. TGIfuckinF.

The archives aren’t working properly….looks like they’re not correctly reading the stylesheet files. Will repair later tonight.

mmm…bindaeduk

Lecture by Takashi Murakami at the Japan Society in NYC, Friday April 8th, as part of the Little Boy: The Arts of Japan�s Exploding Subculture exhibit. Also featuring Yoshitomo Nara.

*sigh*

HH says tickets are $230 round trip right now. Ouch.