Sometimes I forget how easily it is to make a child happy. I bought a little gift for one of my students today on a whim. I saw it at Walmart and thought, Oh Damian would totally appreciate this. And when he walked into his lesson later, I gave it to him, and he was so thrilled. He couldnt stop smiling, and I think this was the best thing that's happened to him since a long time ago. He kept wanting to touch it and see it and play with it. And you know what? I let him. It's seldom I see him this happy, and I was glad he was happy. Didnt get to do too much piano playing today, but that was totally fine with me!
Got a haircut too, and that made ME feel wonderful. I've decided, hairdressers can be miracle workers or dreambusters. Totally depends on how you feel about your haircut after the last snip.
I think I've figured out what was making my car sound so loud. A dirty fuel injector. Someone suggested I get a fuel injector cleaner and pour it into my gas tank, and I did it, and the sound's GONE!!! I am so excited!
So Dr Jeff Waters emails me and says he couldnt sign my guestbook because SBU's put a filter on all objectional sites (aka porn and gambling sites) and apparently, the website for my guestbook seem to be objectionable. I'm so glad he took the time to look at the website though, and want to sign my guestbook. Dr Jeff totally made my eartraining and sightsinging classes fun. I had SS and ET 3 and 4 with him, and had a blast. It was also at 11 am, when I was definitely more awake than those who signed up for the 820am class. He's definitely got a great, if not quirky sense of humor, and his saxophone playing is out of this world. One of the funniest memories was at the honors banquet. We both had to leave early for Sally Scott's Senior recital. He's the chairman of the music department and I was her accompanist. When at last they started to call each name to receive their cords, they started with cum laude, and we knew it was going to take forever to get to my name. So he said, as soon as they call your name, I'm going to run out and start the car so after you get your cord, run and meet me outside. So I got my cord, threw it at Sarah (Glidwell) and ran out of the banquet room, and Dr Waters was waiting for me, and we dashed to Sally's recital. Thanks to Dr Waters' fast driving, I got there on time! Woohoo!
Ok, I am going to bed. Later.

Ask me why I am up at 12:47 am. Go ahead. Just ask. I'll tell you why I'm up at 12:47 am!! BECAUSE I AM STUPID AND STARTED DOING LAUNDRY AT 10 PM!!! I only do laundry when I have to, and tonight is a "haveto" night. And of course I would have at least 3 loads to do! So I'm waiting for my last load to dry, and I'm sitting here thinking, WHY did I do that last load?? Why couldnt have waited till tomorrow?? BECAUSE I'M STUPID, that's why!!!! And I hate the fact that it takes so much longer to dry than wash! I could have been done by now if the dryer dried faster!! So I blame the dryer. And to top it all off, I have ODD SOCKS!!!!! What's up with that??? I dont mind odd socks if they are white ones, but I have ONE gray, ONE red and ONE black and white. Now you tell me, what am I going to do with 3 odd socks?? Make a puppet?? We'll see if the dryer monster spits out the other half of my odd socks. Sigh, the perils of doing laundry. No wonder I hate doing it. Mom is going to freak out if I tell you how often I do laundry, so I wont tell you. I can tell you she will either hide her face in embarrassment, or she will get on my case about the frequency of it, or do both. So mom, just know, I have clean underwear. I promise.

Ask me why I am up at 12:47 am. Go ahead. Just ask. I'll tell you why I'm up at 12:47 am!! BECAUSE I AM STUPID AND STARTED DOING LAUNDRY AT 10 PM!!! I only do laundry when I have to, and tonight is a "haveto" night. And of course I would have at least 3 loads to do! So I'm waiting for my last load to dry, and I'm sitting here thinking, WHY did I do that last load?? Why couldnt have waited till tomorrow?? BECAUSE I'M STUPID, that's why!!!! And I hate the fact that it takes so much longer to dry than wash! I could have been done by now if the dryer dried faster!! So I blame the dryer. And to top it all off, I have ODD SOCKS!!!!! What's up with that??? I dont mind odd socks if they are white ones, but I have ONE gray, ONE red and ONE black and white. Now you tell me, what am I going to do with 3 odd socks?? Make a puppet?? We'll see if the dryer monster spits out the other half of my odd socks. Sigh, the perils of doing laundry. No wonder I hate doing it. Mom is going to freak out if I tell you how often I do laundry, so I wont tell you. I can tell you she will either hide her face in embarrassment, or she will get on my case about the frequency of it, or do both. So mom, just know, I have clean underwear. I promise.

I got a massage today!!!! I feel so much better now. It got to a point where it hurt even to sleep, and so I thought, what the heck, I'm just going to go for it, and I did, and I am SO glad I did. My neck and shoulder muscles feel a lot more relaxed now, though the massage therapist didn't get every kink out. I might just have to go back again soon, and I'm sure I'm not looking forward to it. (NOT!!!)
Aura and I hung out tonight, and it was really really nice. She's such a nice girl with a wonderful heart. She helped me fix up my blogspot website a little better so people can actually sign a guest book. She and Charisse both work in the Cerritos office, and without them, LA would be very miserable. So thank you girls, for making my life here so much more pleasant, and for letting me look forward to Tuesdays!
So anyway, Au and I went to Fridays for dinner, and then we went to Barnes and Noble for a little while. (I saw the Trading Spaces book 40% off and I WANT IT!) Then we sat at Starbucks for the next 2 hours and just chatted about everything. I blame her for my addiction to Starbucks coffee. But I digress. We both love to travel, and we both want to visit Europe. She was a music major, and we have a lot of things in common there too. It was just a really great time chatting. There was a very intriguing couple next to us. We were both trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, but we didn't have very much luck because we were trying to be discreet and talked while we were trying to eavesdrop.
Charisse (pronounced Sher-isse)wasn't there tonight with us because she had family obligations. But she's usually there on Tuesdays when we go out. It was her place we went to to play DDR. She's wonderful. When I was training in Cerritos last year, she totally helped me with the routine of things, and told me and retold me and reretold me how to do stuff in SNAP. She was patient to the end, and I was not a quick study!! I have a lot of respect for her and her abilities in running the office. Both she and Aura are so quick at SNAP that I just watch in wonder when they are working.
Us 3 and Blessing, Charisse's cousin and a fellow teacher went to California Adventure one Wednesday morning last year and had a blast. I hope we do it again soon girls!
So there you have it, my group of girls. Kinda like the 4 Musketeerettes. All for one and one for all!!

I saw the funniest thing yesterday. Jeff and Dana have a puppy called Baober. Say it in Chinese and it means precious. And he really is a precious little puppy. So Jeff asks me, have you seen Baober stalking? I said no, so Jeff shows me. He starts to walk really slowly away from Baober, and Baober starts to walk really slowly with Jeff too. Baober's movements were as slow as Jeff's were. It was so so funny. And then Jeff takes off running, and Baober shoots off after him. He is really the funniest animal. He thinks I'm his personal tummy scratched. Everything he sees me, he lays on his tummy, just waiting for me to scratch it. And when he doesnt get enough and I've had enough, he begs. He begged for food this afternoon at lunch. I was sitting on the couch eating, and he jumped up right next to me, and sat on his hind legs, and with his 2 front paws, begged for food. He's got a little protruding lower lip that makes him look like a little monkey. He is really cute. And so much personality!!
I spent Saturday afternoon at the Tobias's home, and had a nice chat with Kathie. Her husband Bob is an elder in the church, and they are a very nice older couple. They are young enough to be in touch with the younger crowd, but they have 6 grandchildren. And then they had me and the Potts family over for dinner, and Kathie made this awesome pie with peanut butter, low fat cream cheese, whip cream, brown sugar and vanilla. It was SO good! I could have eaten 3 slices, but of course I didnt! They had a piano, so after dinner and chatting, Jeff says, why dont we sing? And so I played the piano and they sang.
I spent this afternoon with Becky. She's an awesome friend. And she's got a very powerful voice. She's thinking of going to grad school close to where I live. I am so happy to hear that.
I enjoy talking to AiAi every night. I think we've shared more online chatting than in any conversation we had when I was in Singapore. Tonight I shared with her how I've actually begun to really worship in church again. And it took me leaving Singapore to do it. And I thank God for that actually.

So gas prices are sky high now. It's over $2.00 and it's not coming down. It just pains me to go get gas. It's a mystery to me why it's going up. The holiday season's been over a long time ago. Oh, and my car engine still sounds loud to me. At least it's louder than before! But the people I talk to say there is nothing to worry about, and they know cars!
I heard the song God's Love in Walmart tonight! I couldnt believe my ears! I havent heard that song in a long long time. And I must have been the only one singing along with it.
The commercial for Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ was just on, and it reminded me that a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go watch it with her. I dont know if I can handle watching that movie because it's so emotionally draining. The question is, who nailed Jesus to the cross? Apparently, in the movie, the Jews did. But we all know we were the ones who did it. He died for all of us. We all had a part in it. That's very devastating to know that I had a part in Jesus' cruxifiction.
I managed to talk to Stephanie and Jana yesterday, and I really needed them. They are my closest bestest friends, and without them I would go insane. I can handle living in LA because I know I still have them back in Missouri. I miss them so much. But it's good to know that I can just pick up the phone and call them and it feels like we arent that far away.
Well it's almost midnight here. So I'm off to bed because I have to get up EARLY tomorrow, and then I'm driving to Ventura to spend the day with Kathy Tobias. She's a neat lady, and she's an elder's wife. I'm looking forward to it.
And to AiAi who says I have bad spelling, it's only fast fingers working. And besides, I used SPELLCHECK! HA!

I got a new student today. Her name is Emry. We had a great time during lessons. She is my last student for the day, and she's an adult. We got talking after the lesson and I found out she's newly married and she's from Indonesia. She's new here too. So we decided that when we have time, we will hang out together, just because we are both new in the area. Since she and I are from Asia, we both have similar ideas on certain things, which I thought was cool. So I've made another friend I can hang out with. I think I am going to ask Motoko if she wants to have dinner with my nect Wednesday. Motoko is a teacher at the school. She's fun.
I watched Celebrity Mole Yucatan. I'm hooked. Too bad it was the last episode. Glad I watched the last few before this!
I also watched The Bachelorette. I'm rooting for Ian, the quiet, reserved guy. I dont think he's the guy I would personally go for, but I seem to go for the underdog.
I'm talking to AiAi at the same time, and I told her I smelled nice. This is the conversation that followed. I have to say beforehand, this is unedited!!

Audreyatschool: I smell nice
daffygirl: as opposed to... :p
Audreyatschool: I dont smell nice?
daffygirl: smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding youuuu
Audreyatschool: so what exactly ARE they feeding you??
daffygirl: HEY! grrrr...
Audreyatschool: hahahaha. Walked right into that one
daffygirl: growl...
Audreyatschool: keep growling, you sound like a tiger, another smelly cat
daffygirl: :-@
Audreyatschool: bwahahahaha
daffygirl: :p',',',',',',', (Audrey says: I WIN!!!!)

I love my sister, I love both my sisters. Too bad we dont get to spend time together anymore. And now that they are both married, and I'm not in Singapore, it makes it all the more harder to hang out with each other. If I had one regret about them, it would be that we didnt spend time together just the 3 of us. But then again, it feels good to know that we are still as close. I remember one time when I was back in Singapore for summer vacation, and we were all home at the same time one night, and the 3 of us sat around the dining table talking and laughing, and dad comes up and clears the table for us. When we said, Oh we can do it, he said, That's ok. how often do I get to see my 3 daughters talking and laughing together like that? Man, that's a memory I wont forget!

Well, this is the first of what I hope is many entries about my life in LA. My friend Aura introduced me to this website and said it was really a good place to put down my thoughts and just about anything actually. And I thought, what a great idea, now I can write about things that happened as soon as it happened and my family can read about it, rather than me having to remember it for a whole week so I can write it in my email. So here's the first post!
Tonight my friends from work, Aura and Charisse and I went to Charisse's house to have dinner and to play with the DDR. DDR stands for Dance Dance Revolution, and what it is is a machine which tells you the steps to dance and you do the steps on the pads provided. It was so much fun!!! I started out at the beginner stage and progressed to the next level by the time it was time to go home. Even the girls said I was getting really good. So I'm pretty excited about that. I think dancing has given me more confindece. Even this little bit of it made me feel so much better about my abilities. Not to mention it was great exercise!
Anyway, I wish I could get a set of DDR for myself, but that means I have to get a PS2, which will cost a lot of money, and money is something I dont have right now! Oh well, maybe if I wish hard enough, someone will donate one to me!