oh yeah, i forgot to mention that yesterday was my monday night volleyball playoffs. we were short one person and i was about to not go as well, but decided at the last night to go because the team was already short so many players.

we got eliminated after the first round. sort of disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. our team goes through a lot of ups and downs and the streaks were really hurting us. but this also marks the last time i’ll be playing on this team because my other team will be moving back to monday nights so i won’t be able to play with them.

since we were short players, when i was in the front, i was asked to be the setter…for those of you who don’t follow volleyball, me, or my playing volleyball, the setter position is usually left for people who can:

1) set
2) play the position
3) move around the court quickly

this position is not my forte and on top of that it also takes me out of the hitting rotation, which sucks, but oh well. but i’ve been improving my setting so i guess it was nice to see that the improvement has not gone unnoticed. but still, i felt like i was struggling a little bit. oh well.

wednesday will be the playoffs for the altera team. i’m really hoping that we’ll be able to play well, but with the new line up, it’ll be interesting to see how we do. i also happen to be setting that evening as well. neat! actually, i don’t mind setting on the altera team as much, it’s kind of fun to play the new position there.

and so that’s enough volleyball talk. i probably should find a new hobby. maybe i’ll take up photography again. i think that it’s time to organize a little photography outing. hmmmm, where to go? where to go?

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i didn’t go to work yesterday. i didn’t do much of anything yesterday, actually. i woke up and didn’t feel very good so i decided to call in sick and actually slept for most of the day. while i wasn’t sleeping, i was in bed watching tv instead. i got caught up on a lot of shows and got more caught up on a lot of sleep. too much sleep, maybe. the only time i got out of bed during the day was to go make a quick run at mcdonalds for some food.

the weekend was pretty chock full of stuff to do. it was a little overwhelming and i long for the weekend where i can just relax and enjoy it lazying about for a little bit. friday, we went to this club/bar/lounge place in the city called [url=http://www.fluidsf.com/]fluid[/url]. it was alright, pretty small, actually. the dance floor (if you can call it that) was pretty crowded and small. the go go dancers weren’t that impressive, and overall, i thought that the place was so-so. i was on the guest list which gave me a $5 discount on the cover, so instead of $15 it was $10. sort of lame.

but when i went to the bartender and got a drink, they gave me a free drink on them. i thought that was pretty cool. when i told shirley that, she asked if the bartender was hot and i replied, “yeah, i guess so, but they’re not my type.” she asks, “oh why not?” and i replied, “well, he’s a he. =P”

saturday i had breakfast with trang, ray, and shirley and then i spent the rest of the day running some errands and taking care of little odds and ends before heading over to trang and shirley’s party in the evening.

sunday, i had dim sum with some of shirley’s friends and then went to charlowe’s birthday party in the park. didn’t know too many people there, but was able to play some volleyball in the park which was fun. i was late to volleyball and missed the first game on sunday night, but was able to play out the rest of the evening and ref’d the last two games.

i’m not sure if i’m going to be returning to the JACL volleyball league on sunday nights. it takes away so much of my weekend activities and i’m just not sure if it’s worth it for me to do so anymore. i think i’m pretty much decided on this, unless maybe i get bumped up to the A pool. the A pool has a lot of off nights so it won’t feel like so many of my sundays are burned away. hmmm, i don’t think that that is going to be much of an option though because it seems like that pool is pretty full. decisions, decisions…

monday was spent sick and here i am now.

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i was at a party the other day and we happened to get on to the topic of dating and exes. people were comparing how many people they’ve dated and so people took turns telling each other their number. two people said that combined they can count the number of relationships they’ve been in on one hand. then the other person blushed a little and said, “oh really? wow, i feel weird now. i think i dated like 6 people…” and then they looked at me and i was like, “uhhhh…well, can i not answer?”

but they made me answer and i told them that i think i have 9 exes since i started dating in high school. one of the guys at the party congratulated me for having dated so many people, but i had quite the opposite reaction. congratulate? uhhh, no, that isn’t quite the way i see. it’s actually kind of sad for me to say that i’ve been in so many failed relationships. it made me think a little after the party about why it is that so many relationships just haven’t worked out.

i think that it is safe to say that a few relationships shouldn’t “count.” i had no idea what i was doing back in high school and i think that those were some of my most poorly handled relationships…but hey, you never know what you are doing when you first start out, right?

and then i think i went through a phase that just wasn’t really me. it was more exploration and maybe a little desperation to find something and to be someone who i’m not.

and after all is said and done, i think that i’ve finally realized a lot of things about myself and relationships. i’m done trying to be someone who i’m not just so that i will be liked. i’m done trying to impress someone by doing things that i wouldn’t ordinarily do. i’m done trying to force myself to look for things that aren’t there in someone else.

but i don’t think that it is something to be proud of to have dated so many people. i know some people think that it’s all about the game and the conquest or whatever, but really, i think that’s rather lame. i’m much more interested in being with someone who i can share the rest of my life with….that is my endgame. nevermind having all of those experiences…i just want that one experience with the right person.

maybe it’s taken me quite a bit of time to figure out what i really want. maybe it’s taken me quite a bit of experimentation to get to where i am now. but having dated so much isn’t something to be proud of…it’s more a reminder of how unlucky i’ve been when it comes to the world of dating.

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yesterday was a pretty uneventful day. there was some volleyball to be had. playing the setter position can be pretty hard work. i think that i am particularly sore. i was planning on eating tacos that trang made, but it turned out that dinner was too late and i needed to eat before volleyball so shirley and i headed over to 369 instead in fremont and had some food there. the food was pretty decent. as we were leaving, i had forgotten to leave a tip, but shirley remembered and we went back to the restaurant and left a little tip there.

my head has been up in the clouds recently. i haven’t really been able to concentrate too much on anything. i guess i’ve been distracted lately, but not too sure what it is that i’ve been distracted about. just a general weirdness of sorts.

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i decided to check out the q-cup in berkeley yesterday after i got an email from the owner of the shop. it’s located on center street in downtown berkeley near the bart station. i decided to check out q-cup on a whim and decided that i would bart there from work. the thought of having to drive into berkeley, find parking in downtown, and then walk to q-cup, get my drink and repeat everything in reverse didn’t seem worth it. luckily, it’s only a $2.50 roundtrip bart ride. that isn’t so bad, especially if you consider that i probably would have burned close to a dollar in quarters for parking in berkeley too.

q-cup there is a small shop and there was something rather odd about the tea or pearls there. i think that there was a hint of mint in there that sort of bothered me, though.

it was an interesting trip on the bart. it’s been a while since i’ve ridden on it but everytime i ride the bart a flood of memories overwhelm me from the days i used to ride bart to commute from berkeley to san jose. ahhh, those were the days.

i went to this massage class yesterday where we learned about various muscle groups in the arm and how to best massage the arm. it was kind of interesting but there was this one poor woman who went who didn’t have a very good experience. she already had carpal tunnel syndrome and then when her partner came to massage her, she was howling in pain. he apparently aggravated something that was already bad.

it makes me wonder though why people who have such conditions won’t be more careful about these things. why would you let an untrained person apply pressure to your arms when your arms are already in pain? why?

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i’ve been running late to a lot of things lately. this is a habit that must be broken. i’ve been getting to work early though, so that’s a good thing.

yesterday, i was running late to volleyball. so late, in fact, that when i got to citybeach they were about to start play. so i ran onto the court wearing jeans and a t-shirt without my ankle brace. i decided to take it easy that game and not play too aggressively. it seems that my ankle actually held up well, though. maybe i’m using this brace as a crutch…it has been a while since i hurt my ankle…but i’ll still play with it, as a preventitive measure and all.

yesterday was finally a good volleyball day…well, decent, anyway. i got a few good hits in and i think that i just felt better about my play overall. this is a good thing too because i feel like i’ve been in a bit of a rut lately.

actually, on the whole, i do feel like i’ve sort of peaked in terms of volleyball. i don’t know what it is that will get me to that next level, but i feel that i am not really improving any. i think that i really need to seek out play that is much better than what i’m at now. that’s how i improved last time, when i played at a higher level than i was at. it was painful, but i did get better. i’m probably going to drop two of my volleyball nights. i just don’t feel that it’s very productive and i think that i’m beginning to feel a little frustrated that i’m not getting better.

perhaps it is time to find a new activity…

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.+@mx\d{4,5}\.([a-z])\1\d\d\.com

that’s the regular expression of the day that is now catching about 7% of all of the spam that i was getting all the time. sheesh. stupid spam.

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my posts seem to be getting farther and fewer between, but i’ll see if i can do my usual weekend recap first. friday night was spent clubbing it up in downtown san jose. we went to get drinks at zoe first and then headed over to agenda to dance it up. agenda’s a pretty small club and is probably one of the more well ventilated clubs i’ve been to. i didn’t get too hot but i did get tired early. it’s been a while since i went dancing.

saturday was spent eating a little bit and then resting a lot. shirley and i went to get thai food at king of krung siam in mountain view and then decided to play scrabble at lucy’s. i had a green tea milkshake there. it was rather good. while playing scrabble, i bingo’d and made the word “nuances”. i thought for sure that i had an easy win, but later in the game shirley bingo’d too making the word “strained”. in the end shirley won by about 15 points. *sigh* i guess this teaches me not to cry victory before the game’s over.

then we hung out a little bit with her sister, alice, and watched some tv and chatted before i went to dinner with [url=http://www.track15.com]dardy[/url], [url=http://www.bastalaranza.com]geoff[/url], alvin, nelson, jen, [url=http://www.phamily.org]paul[/url], [url=http://leafee.ocliw.com]leeya[/url], and mike. we decided to go to pasta pomodoro. i haven’t quite decided how i feel about that place yet. i guess it’s still hard for me to decide, but the food is alright. i don’t like how they like to crowd all the tables super close together though.

after dinner, shirley and i drove her sister back to berkeley and then headed back home. i still haven’t found a pair of sunglasses that i would like to get. it seems that none of the styles that are out there really appeal to me.

sunday was spent lazying about. tried to go to stacks, but the hour long wait was a bit of a turnoff and we decided to go elsewhere instead after checking out the farmer’s market in campbell.

and then volleyball on sunday night.

it looks like my weekend has been pretty much planned out already for this coming weekend. so busy…

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i had chicken and waffles for lunch today. half a chicken and two waffles. mmmmm. very good. i know i haven’t been eating well lately, but i can’t help it. it’s just too good. i haven’t had pearl tea in a long while too so after work today, i’m going to go over and indulge in a little pearl tea at tapioca express.

looks like i’ve got some work that i need to do too, so i’ll be a busy bee. i wonder how long i will be staying there tonight. i sort of don’t want to go home tonight because i’ve got a lot of stuff to do and i know as soon as i get home, my motivation to get any work done will be very, very low.

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