tomorrow will be playoffs for several new friends that i’ve made at the fremont citybeach. i think that i will go and support the teams through their playoffs.

i remember a time when greg and i were playing a grass tournament and a bunch of my friends came to cheer us on. we were placed in a division that was way higher than what we could compete in and were getting killed. i was a little embarassed that we were getting slaughtered so.

but when my friends came, they were cheering for us and cheering for us rather loudly. any little point we made, any good play we had, they cheered. we still were destroyed, but the fact that they came out to cheer us on really brightened up my day. it is one of the happiest memories i have of those summer tournaments.

i used to date this girl and one of the phrases that we coined in our relationship was “i’m cheering for you.” i think it started when i was going through tough times. though she couldn’t really do anything to help the situation, she told me that she was cheering for me. i think just knowing that the other person is there, rooting you on in the face of imminent disaster always brought me great comfort.

after we broke up, she and i have gone off in our separate ways and we’ve had some ups and downs in our friendship. we aren’t talking anymore, and to be honest, i don’t know if the situation will ever let us be friends again. despite being disappointed at how she has chosen to handle our friendship, i still do remember with great fondness the phrase that we had coined.

win or lose, it doesn’t matter, it’s the journey that shapes our existance. i appreciate the people in my life who make it special, who make it worthwhile, and for those people i can only feel an incredible gratitude for the impact they’ve had on my life. whether they realize it or not, it is appreciated.

i’m cheering for you, too.

that’s what my mom said to me last night while we were talking about life, the universe, and everything. i didn’t know what that word meant and i asked her and she looked to my dad and this is how our conversation went:

dad: en?
me: yeah, what does “en” mean?
dad: ahhh, you know, “en” wa…. like, “en!”
me: what?! you can’t use the word to define the word!
dad: jaa, ne…”en” is like…well, you know, en!

at this point, my mom runs upstairs and gets her japanese to english electronic dictionary and types it in. “en” is the quality of being fated or destined. fate or destiny.

so my mom says that when it comes to love, it’s all about the “en”, yo. in japanese, “yo” can be used to emphasize a point. it’s actually the exact same way that i use it in english. i didn’t realize that until yesterday. it made me wonder if i knew that or not.

anyway, my mom was saying that when it comes to love, you’ll know it and it’ll work out if the “en” is there.

she then proceeded to tell me the kind of girl that she thinks i should date. she told me that the girl should have suffered in her life. people who have suffered in their life really appreciate everything about life. they appreciate the little things, don’t take people for granted, and are nice.

she also told me that i shouldn’t date a rich girl. she believes that rich people have had an easy life and expect things to be easy. so when the going gets tough, they won’t be there to support you in your time of need and suffer with you.

she also told me that i don’t need to date a pretty girl. she said even if the face isn’t pretty, it’s ok. pretty people tend to know that they are pretty and use it to their advantage.

so i asked her, “so what you are saying is that i should be dating an ugly, poor girl who has suffered through life?!” lovely! i guess i ought to go strolling telegraph in berkeley and pick up on some bums, eh?

this week has been a whirlwind of changes lately. i’m not sure how it all happened but i’ve been on a little bit of a shopping spree again. it’s awful. somebody stop me, please…or tell me what else i should buy because i’ve run out! =P

paul asked me if i had anything that i need to buy from b&h so i finally snatched up the sto-fen diffuser for the 550EX flash and the ridiculously overpriced monaco optix xr pro monitor calibration hardware. but hey, it’s all in the name of good colors, right? yeah, that’s what i tell myself.

outside of camera purchases, i have been debating about a big purchase, but with all big decisions in my life, i seem to have strong opinions about what i want and i do it rather impulsively. i was talking to my mom last night and she was telling me that she sees this trend in me.