Leina's Life (by Tony): August 2006

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Blanket Chair

On Sunday, an new chair showed up in Leina's living room. Tony sat in it and found it moderately comfortable. He inquired where this chair came from. Leina replied that it had always been there, just that is not usually used for sitting. It is her blanket-holding chair.

Leina has a stack of blankets in her living room that is almost two feet tall. She freely admits that she has no need for such a large number of blankets, but then explains how she can't give them away, even to someone who was really cold and homeless, because half are homemade, and the other half either aren't very nice or are too nice. She also has no room in her closets (where unused blankets are usually stored) to store the blankets (due to other homemade linens and soforth), so they occupy the blanket chair, moved only when she has numerous guests over, then replaced at the end of the day after they have left.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Making it Up

Preparations are ongoing for Miki's wedding. Leina was informed that she needs to get made up for it. Generally, Leina is happy with her complexion and sees no reason not to let her natural beauty shine through (except for an unfortunate bout with holistic medicine a few years ago, but that's a different story). She was thinking about some blue eyeshadow, maybe some mascara.

But Miki had directions ready for Leina. Leina had to go to the MAC counter and buy foundation and concealer. She purchased both, based on the advice of the makeup lady, but when she showed them to Miki, Miki said that they had the shades wrong. You want the concealer to be a shade darker than her foundation! So Leina went back to the make up woman and tried to return her makeup and get the shades reversed, and the makeup woman said No, it is the way I said, the concealer should be a shade lighter than the foundation.

Then Leina wondered what she was doing with concealer, anyways, since she didn't have anything to conceal. Oh yes you do, said the woman at the counter. You have dark circles under your eyes!

Monday, August 28, 2006

An Unhappy Hiker

It was just over a year ago that Leina volunteered to drive 2/3 of the way across the country with Tony and Erica. She had promised to be the life of the party, keep up the witty banter, and learn how to drive stick. Instead, she sat, somewhat carsick, in the back seat for almost the whole way. She seemed to enjoy the Spam Museum and bought a few souveneirs for various cousins, and had a good time camping in the Badlands and squeezing into Tony and Erica's two-person tent. She also enjoyed singing along to "Since You've Been Gone" for most of the two dozen times it played on the radio.

The high/lowpoint of this trip occured when Erica talked Leina into climbing Harney Peak, the tallest point in continental North America east of the Rockies. Leina is generally a willing party to outdoor activities, as demonstrated by her rock-climbing and wakeboarding and so forth, but she was not happy during this walk. In fact, during the many years that Tony has known her, has never seen Leina so unhappy. She was thirsty, tired, and maybe felt some altitude sickness. Reaching the top was little solace to Leina, because it just meant that she needed to climb all the way back down.

Erica discovered a way to keep Leina occupied for much of the hike down. She asked Leina what her favorite foods were, and Leina responded with a cuisine-by-cuisine list of her favorite foods, which took over an hour, rapid fire, to get through. Leina has more favorite foods than most people have even tasted. She survived the descent, but got sick in the car and Tony had to pull over. Eventually, they had hamburgers in Wyoming.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Andy's Going Away Party

On Thursday, Leina's friend Andy is moving to China to be a lawyer there. Leina and Erica threw Andy a going away party on Sunday. It was a brunch party, and Leina generously hosted, and did much of the preparation. Charles fried bacon and Tony almost flipped out when he saw that Leina was trimming the fat from the bacon. He also started to give Leina and Charles a hard time because she had him using an undersized thin frying pan which was causing smoke to billow throughout the house when a few weeks earlier he had gone through the effort of cleaning up and seasoning a very nice cast iron frying pan which would have done the job much better, but then he remembered he was trying not to be so mean to her so he cut himself off.

Angie made quiche, which generally consisted of her yelling at her brother and Chris to do things because "I have a cast on my hand!" but she did manage to slice the thumb of her good hand while trying to chop parsley with Leina's incredible sharp knife that was so sharp it was dangerous.

Will and Amy brought bagels and lox and cream cheese, Joe and Kanade brought a scrumptions lemon poundcake, and Nicole supplied the little coffee maker which worked hard but kept up with the caffeine addicts present (Leina is not among them). Erica brought o.j., Dianda's almond torte, some random brownie things her mom gave her, and made a big fruit salad (she had fretted that there was nothing red in it, due to the fact that she'd bought yellow watermelon, to the point that she almost had Tony talked into going to the Ferry Building to buy some strawberries on the way but it didn't open until 10:00 because California organic farmers like to sleep in, and no one noticed anyways). Steven Dodson brought three bottles of Champagne. Andy arrived a few minutes late for the party, something that he will not allow to happen in China, where a few minutes early means right on time, and he brought a bottle of port. To brunch. Leina was happy to have it, but the partygoers were happier drinking mimosas.

During a lull, Leina brought up a few volumes from her famous home video collection, and the party watched videos from Leina's 16th birthday (she used to wear glasses all the time and have bangs!), their high school graduation. Afterwards, they watched Flava of Love, Season II, where Flava voted off one of the contestants because she had lied and said that she hadn't been a porn star. People never learn--as Flava told her, it was just like Watergate; it wasn't the crime, it was the cover-up. Maybe Flava didn't explicitly make the connection, but that's what he was thinking.

Despite all the food at her brunch, Leina was too busy hosting and making small talk to eat much, so by 4:00 she was hungry again. She and Charles went off and ate Thai food at Stonestown. She also tried on a skirt while there. Afterwards, Leina pretended that her stomach hurt so she didn't come over to the Turners' and hang out with Erica and family.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Musical Beds

Since Leina, with the addition of Angie and Nicole, has turned her house into a boarding home, it has become more difficult for her to host other guests. This past weekend, Liane and Dominic came for a visit so that Leina could do some babysitting. Coincidentally, Angie, pretending that she needed surgery for her wrist, tricked her mother into coming to visit. This complicated things, since Leina has only three bedrooms but there were suddenly six people who would sleep at her house.

She was partially saved when Angie's mom decided to stay at the Turners' place Saturday and Sunday nights and Liane wouldn't arrive until Saturday. Angie's mom arrived late Friday, and both she and Angie assumed that they would share Angie's double bed. Leina would have none of it, however. The details are foggy, but somehow she tricked Angie's mom into sleeping in Leina's bed while Leina slept on the living room couch.

This gave Leina a chance to wash the sheets again before Saturday, when another problem arose. Dominic had no bed, and the floor in Leina's room was allegedly too hard for him to sleep on. This was solved by having him sleep on the carpeted floor of the living room, and Liane on the couch. Leina couldn't allow her Liane to sleep on the couch two nights in a row, so Sunday night she slept on the couch herself and let Liane have her bed, so that Dominic wouldn't sleep alone.

Scavenger hunt

On August 25 Sunset Scavenger is coming to Leina's house. She has been anticipating this moment for months. She anticipates opening up quite a bit of space in the basement. On the curb will be, hopefully, the maximum of five large items that will be picked up without cost. These items will include an old mattress, box spring, bed frame, metal shelves with wheels on them that she promises no one else would want.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

First Day of Work

Leina went into work on Monday concerned. She'd been called back by another job! And this other job gave her benefits. It was a stressful day, where she was a bit checked out and found herself given a tour of the office, but didn't remember much. She didn't meet any clients.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Walking the Walk

This morning, Leina picked up Mr. Turner at 7:20 a.m. and then picked up Sanders so that the three of them could represent the CDC in some sort of a walk-a-thon from whatever the name of the 49ers stadium is to whatever they are calling the park the Giants are playing in. It was to benefit Hunters Point in some way or another.

Leina was talking to Mr. Turner and Sanders, but she slowly found herself running out of things to say. This was unusual, but by the time that the walk was over she was, as she described, mute. There were some other people there who she knew, but her banter slowly faded out. It takes awhile to walk four or five hours, and even Leina can't hold a conversation that long, especially with people she sees almost every day.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Cookies again

Leina has been running around like a chicken with her head cut off, if the chicken were able to run bunches of errands and do lots of things for other people in its few waning moments before death.

Yesterday morning, she had to run to San Mateo for an interview for a mystery job--she doesn't really know what job she was interviewing for. It seemed to involve managing cases, which she isn't against, but she doesn't like the fact that it is a prominent part of the position title (Case Manager). She'd rather be called a worker of some type, even if the position involves mostly managing cases. Then she ran to San Francisco to fill out lots of paperwork, which involved signing her name over six times, writing her social security number on four separate sheets, and getting fingerprinted.

Then she ran to work for Mr. Turner, where she worked really fast and was very productive because she knows that her time there is limited. Then she went home and had to make cookies again--Noriko helped her out by bringing a bunch of the materials she needed--sprinkles, flour, an insulated cookie sheet so your cookies don't all get burned on the bottom--but Leina was a bit disappointed that Noriko didn't take after Auntie Evelyn and bring the pre-mixed batter so that Leina only needed to bake them. Noriko doesn't have a Kitchen-Aid, so it was excusable.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Last Minute Stuff

Leina was frantic yesterday as she tried to do as much as she could before becoming a full-time employee next week. That meant changing the oil at Kragen, dropping off her returnables ($7.63) at Safeway and spending that money on some corn (5 for a dollar) and string beans.

She also wasted some time filling out some paperwork and put in her hours with Mr. Turner.

The day before, she went over to Charles' house to meet some of his family. And meet some of his family she did. There were over 40 of his relatives present, and Leina was introduced to all of them. She gamely smiled and made small talk with the various members of his family, but she made Charles stay near her because he was the only person there whom she knew. Now comes the tough part--remembering all the names.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The life of Leina as well of many of her closer aquiantences changed dramatically this morning--Leina found herself a full time job. She is accepting a position working for adult protective services, which is the type of work she wants (Leina finds protecting adults very rewarding). It is a short-term job without benefits that is expected to expire in April, but it pays well and could turn into a permenent job.

So things will be different. Those who have been depending on Leina for rides to/from the airport, childcare, picking up/dropping off drycleaning, web enabling their cell phones, and stimulating conversation at any hour of the day will now need to schedule those favors from Leina either before 8:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m. Leina's availablity over her lunch hour is not yet certain, but she may be able to squeeze you in if you give her a day's notice. Leina may not have the time to drive over to Clemente Street to buy tomatoes and lettuce. Her trips from Millbrae to Marin will decrease to fewer than one a week.

Leina feels bad about leaving Mr. Turner and not giving him a lot of notice, but this is a great opportunity for her, and he certainly understands. Leina will likely still be putting in a few hours a week for him on weekends for the next couple of weeks.

Monday, August 07, 2006

It is referred to as "A Wall"

Leina climbing said wall.

Leina in front of the wall.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Photos from the attempt at wakeboarding

This is the last time all day that Leina smiled. Notice she hasn't attempted to ride the board yet. Also notice that it is more of a grimace than a smile.
This is Charles, for those keeping track at home. He was also unsuccessful in conquering the wakeboard.
This is Nicole Dare. Or at least her skis. It is easier to water ski than to wakeboard, or so they say. Posted by Picasa

Climbing of the fascimile rocks

It has been quite a week for Leina. Despite her less than stellar performance boarding the wakes on Saturday, she picked herself back up and hit the cliffs of Berkeley Iron Works with Erica today. After the brief BART mishap, Erica picked her up and they had slices of Zachary's Pizza, which was conveniently located near Rockridge BART station. Alas, Zachary's by the slice is not their famously cheesy deep-dish pizza but instead a regular thin crust. Nevertheless, it provided ample fortification for the forthcoming activities.

Erica had purchased Leina a rock climbing class as a graduation gift. Once they arrived at the gym, Leina paid for Erica's class using the excuse that it was a birthday gift. Their instructor, Bob, who was about as mellow as a rock climbing instructor could imaginably be. Leina was wearing her Air Maxes for traction. It was not a private lesson; they had to share Bob with two ten-year-olds. He taught them how to hold to belet rope and then let them climb, unsupervised, to their hearts' content. They only almost let each other fall a few times each.

After two hours of working the ledges and so forth, they were exhausted. Leina became parched, and decided to entertain herself by rolling off all the drinks that she would be happy to drink. Orange Julius, lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick, and some things Erica wasn't familiar with, like Foster's Freeze or something.

She settled on root beer floats, so they went to Walgreens and bought root beer and iced cream. They returned to Erica's house, where Leina checked her email and drank said float, then sprawled on the couch and resisted Erica's invitations to stay for dinner. She insisted on leaving early enough that she could walk home and climb the massively steep hill from BART up Stillings Ave. in the daylight. The car died on the way to the Berkeley BART station, but it was just a few block walk and Leina made it home, up the hill, into the bathtub and into bed. Despite her exhaustion, if Leina was forced, at gunpoint, to repeat one of the two sports that she participated in the past week, she wouldn't hesitate--she'd choose the rock climbing.

A Treasure(r)

Leina, last night, went to the quarterly meeting of the San Francisco Association of Asian Social Workers. She had not been to a few meetings, and was surprised to find out that they had nominated and elected her, in abstentia, as their treasurer. Leina graciously accepted the appointment and is now officially the treasurer. She does not yet know what the position entails. At the end of the meeting she felt the earthquake which was exciting.

On a related note, Leina applied for her first job since getting her degree. It is only temporary, without benefits, but the pay is good. It involves social work of some sort or another. Maybe adult protective services.

Today, she is going rock climbing with Erica, making good on her birthday gift certificate. On her way out, Leina took the wrong train and Erica had to drive to Rockridge to pick her up instead of Ashby. It might have been Freudian because she is scared of the Berkeley Paintball Sniper, who has struck at Ashby before.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Another Typical Entry

Leina's co-hosted wedding shower was very successful. All involved loved the cookies, and agreed with Tony that the chocolate chip were better than the snickerdoodles. There were ample cookie magnets to go around.

Yesterday she went to work in the morning and in the afternoon Nicole moved in. They drank some celebratory limoncello.

This afternoon she took Angie to the hospital in Marin County (new slogan: "Just Because We're the Greatest County in the World Doesn't Mean You Are Invulnerable During Your Stay") where Angie got a new, more permanent cast that will last six weeks. On the way home, she dropped off Auntie Evelyn's drycleaning.