righteous indignation
today has been a day of not speaking up enough.  in the first incident, i stopped for lunch at quizno's to enjoy a yummy grilled sandwich.  i love quizno's.  i fell in love with quizno's in college, as there was one in town.  but i digress.  when i got there there were two people in front of me in line.  the first guy was taking a long time to order.  i couldn't hear what they were talking about but i think he was just really particular about his order.  i got kind of annoyed, but it was only a minute.  not long to wait, but something one is unaccustomed to in a fast-food type situation.  when the same guy went to pay, the cashier, who i think was also the manager, asked for 99 cents more because the sandwich somehow required "extra meat".  the customer was kind of making a fuss, not understanding why he was being charged extra.  but the cashier dude was really obnoxious.  he was essentially loudly berating the customer in front of a crowded store.  do you want the sandwich?  no?  then he took it away and put it behind him and the customer was confused because he did want the sandwich.  i felt sooooo bad for him because he was really being embarassed.  it only occured to me later as i was "enjoying" my own lunch at a table next to this customer that i should have gone up to the cashier and asked him if it brought him satisfaction to embarass this guy in front of the whole store.  because that's essentially what he was doing.  he wasn't trying to make a point that the customer was mistaken or anything.  the cashier just wanted to belittle the guy, and what the fuck is that about?

in situation number two, i went to ikea.  during the checkout, i was wrapping some glass items i bought in plastic so i wasn't supervising the cashier.  but i did notice him ask the people behind me if we were together.  we weren't.  when he told me the total, i thought it was a little high but didn't say anything because i can easily go into stores like ikea and target and spend more than i intended.  but after i paid, as i was walking away, i looked at the receipt and noticed some items that really didn't seem like mine because they were more expensive than anything i had bought.  after taking inventory, i realized that they really weren't mine, so i went back to the cashier and asked him about the items.  he looked and within a few seconds explained that they were items of the customers behind me.  he finished the transaction he was in the middle of, then asked me if i could wait five minutes while he rang up the next few customers in line.  i said no.  first of all, when was he going to stop and take care of me if the whole concept of checkout lines is that when one person is finished, another usually takes his place.  second of all, it wasn't my mistake, i wasn't making an unnecessary fuss so i refused to wait.  all i said, though, was no, i want to go home.  but do you realize what happened?  this guy scanned two items that were on the conveyor belt, asked the two guys if we were together, they said no, didn't cancel the items on my receipt, and then scanned the items again so the people behind me could pay for them!!  and how do i know this, because i asked if i had paid for their stuff and he said no.  so after taking my credit card, he turned around scanned the exact same items again and was going to let me walk out paying $50 more for stuff that i never bought.  i mean, really, what nerve!!!!!!!!!!!!! it isn't THAT difficult to void an item or two.  i know because i've worked at target as a cashier and it's just a few keystrokes.  he just thought i wasn't going to notice or something?! grr!

more politics
just watched clinton's speech at the democratic national convention.  he was far less slimy than i remember him being when i watched one of his state of the union addresses.  but then on the news, the reporter said that george w. bush "scraped his knee" after falling off his bike at his ranch.  two things.  one: yet again, bush is at his ranch.  b: isn't this the second time he's fallen off his bike?!  do we really want a guy who can't ride a freaking bicycle to be president?!!??!!! 

speaking of bicycles, i just bought a new one today (with help from dad, thanks!).  i was really interested in the trek navigator 300 because it rides so smoothly and comfortably.  but a guy at another bike shop said, uhh, well, i usually sell those to "older" customers.  you're young, he continued, so i went with a more rugged bike.  today, when i went to pick my lovely shiny new blue bike up, there was an "older" woman picking up her navigator 300 from a tune-up...

 

a moment in history
is this a turning point in american politics, where people are no longer disillusioned or apathetic?  here's an article in the new york times about politics dividing familes and igniting lunch counters everywhere (or at least in new jersey).  will this result in a higher voter turnout?  not in my family, because i'm going to do everything in my power to keep my parents from voting for the first time in their lives.  because they want to vote for bush.  i know, i'm evil. 

e-bola
i woke up this morning with the aches and pains of someone with the flu.  i think i have e-bola, or maybe it's motaba.  either way, today was one of the hardest days of my life, as i still had to do 6 hours of day camp with 6 crazy kids, one of which was snotnosed and gave me this disease.  oooh tomorrow is friday and i am so joyful!

grass is greener part the 4th
i can't wait until i have nothing dramatic to talk about in my life.  no crap from work, no crap from my family.  just the mundane study stuff of law school.  HA!  fat chance. 

today, my boss' brother-in-law passed away after a long illness.  i feel badly, but for me, this meant having to teach some afternoon classes, after a long day of daycamp.  thankfully, the kids were remarkably well-behaved.  it made my heart hurt.  i love how excited the little kids get about learning taekwondo. 

so i missed sleepaway camp.  it finished this past saturday.  but a friend who worked for a week told me a story of a little girl named taylor.  she's a lovely, sweet girl, but has some emotional issues.  she started coming about 3 or 4 years ago, when i was still a lifeguard.  taylor absolutely hated the water.  she was petrified of it, actually.  if took all summer to get her just to jump into the water, and as soon as she did she somehow managed to paddle so hard as to levitate herself right back out.  last summer, i remember her being able to talk herself into the lake.  it was totally mind-over-matter.  the fish will go away as soon as you jump in, scared by the splash, and will leave you alone if you keep moving.  these were the lies we gave the girls to get them to swim.  just like water snakes won't bite you in the water because they'll drown if they open their mouths.  anyways, my friend told me that this summer, taylor was talking other girls into the water, telling them the same encouragements we told her.  my heart burst with love as soon as i heard the story.  it's for moments like that that i love camp so much, although they get lost in all the bullshit and drama of 50 girls stuck in the woods together. 

...but who's counting?
two down, three to go -- taekwondo day camp.
one and a half down, one and a half to go -- day camp in general.
four -- nights left to work at the club.

tub o lard
i think i'm getting back into some bad habits, like the ones i had before i went on my trip to new zealand in march.  i'm eating a lot, watching a lot of tv, eating a lot, spending money, being anti-social.  it's really gross.  i put on a lot of weight before i went on holiday, and i was also really depressed.  there's just a lot of shit getting to me right now, i think.  in the winter, i was really run down from working six or seven days a week, and sick all the time from the germs from the kids.  now i'm a bit stressed from my upcoming move, slightly financially stressed, and my parents are putting me in the middle of their manipulative games again.  and all this working for some reason day camp is sooo much more tiring than sleepaway.  maybe because at sleepaway camp i had the support and pleasure of some really good friends and being in the woods.  here, it's hot, humid and gross.  blech.
 

so tired
i've been getting up at 6:30 am every day this week to get to day camp in time to prepare and set-up.  i almost feel like i'm jet-lagged.  and i just took a little nap and i feel great but it was literally for like 5 minutes! argh!
 

BLEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHH
this has been an absolutely horrible day. i got a speeding ticket on the way to daycamp, even tho' i was TOTALLY going with the flow of traffic. two incidents of public embarassemnt: i tripped up the escalator at the mall and it took me three times to parallel park at the post office -- it was really really bad. and then i overdrew my checking account. man, what a waste of money. i'm going to take a nap and pretend that when i wake up, it's a new day.

calves
i learned something from my master at practice on tuesday night. he was saying that all the good taekwondo guys have giant calves. their thighs might be small, but their calves are ginormous because every motion in taekwondo depends on the calf, even just standing still practically, because you should always be loaded, and to be loaded, your knee is bent, flexing the calf.

so in short, taekwondo isn't going to make my calves any smaller, but at least it means i *could* be good at taekwondo.

reading is so informative
from time magazine, two new useful links.
mobissimo.com: billed as the google for travel searches. nothing to download!
lobels.com: buy grass-fed, hormone free beef ... by the whole and half steers...

here's another one, just for fun. i went to the museum of anthropology at the university of british columbia. it was really cool. they had all these totems inside and out. i met this amazing woman anne who probably has one of my fantasy jobs, teaching about native american/first people culture to schoolchildren. she just travels around and teaches. something did strike me about the artifacts in the museum, though. most of the oldest items were in the hundreds of years old range. many were made by people in my lifetime. it's not at all like europe. like when my best friend went to italy and was standing in a building built in 46 a.d. or something and that same day i had taken a tour of new zealand's parliament, which was built in the late 1800's but burnt down and was recently refurbished.  

a modest review
so i finished the rule of four. it took me only a few days, and i read a large part of it while hungover. here's my review: it's not nearly as exciting and fascinating as the davinci code. the dan brown book was based in a lot more popular stuff, like the mona lisa, and the louvre, than the rule of four, which is based primarily on one obscure text. but the rule of four is written a lot better. it treats the reader more intelligently and it doesn't read as much like a movie script. there is some sentimental stuff as the narrator is involved in this true love relationship with some girl, but otherwise, i thoroughly enjoyed it. so go have 4 gin&tonics, a shot of whiskey, some sake, some guinness, get a hangover, and read it yourself.

iraq
a friend of a friend i knew once upon a time, and spent a great new year's with, is in iraq with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. this is the second person i know who's fighting in Iraq. be safe, chris.

the i'm hungover and have done nothing all day except pack one box post
just saw a preview for the remake of the manchurian candidate with denzel washington. as far as i can tell, some corporation brainwashes the president to create the first privately owned president. who needs brainwashing to get the president into the pockets of corporate america?! we've got george w. bush!

weird 2nd life
my lease for my apartment in boston starts on the 15th, and i've just ordered phone service for it. i feel really weird that all this is going on, it's like my alter ego, my other life, where my other husband and other family lives. ok, not really.

a good read
last summer it was the davinci code. this summer, it's the rule of four. read it.

okay, one more for the road.
a few months ago, i was drying my hair, and got this round plastic brush caught in my hair. it took me ten minutes to get the thing untangled. the funny thing is i did it again a few days later, and here is the result. it was far worse, took nearly half an hour to remove, and i think i was a little late meeting a friend.
i think i've solved the problem by buying a round brush with more natural bristles. yeay posting photos is fun!
 

like this photo, of a view during the aforementioned hike. the hike was mostly through lots of trees, but then every once in a while you'd come into a clearing and get great views of the valleys, and there was lots and lots of water. and there was even snow!
 

i did a hike on my own when i was in whistler. 7 hours round trip, and my reward was stunning views and this amazing place, rainbow lake, where i had a nice lunch and lounged.

i'll periodically be posting photos of my trip and some other stuff, since i just got some film developed and my scanner hasn't been fully taken advantage of.

i am a reptile
i think i molt and get a new skin every year. for the second summer in a row, that i've noticed, all the skin on my fingers is seemingly peeling off. it happened last summer i remember, at about the start of camp, which is now. maybe i'm a reptile. if i'm getting a new skin because i'm growing bigger, i hope i'm growing up not out. unless it's my boobs.

it's weird not to be at camp.

political note
john of the mccain variety would have been better, but he's too sissy to cross party lines and would rather have himself firmly planted in george w's arse. but i'm fully into john of the edwards. a daring and bold move. not stodgy and predictable like gephardt would have been. this campaign could have a chance. now let's all go vote! well, not NOW.

hot sweaty observation
my parents' house comes with a central air system ... that we never use and that works like shit anyways. so this is a hot sweaty observation: i LOVE c.s.i. the tv show, but david caruso is such a bad actor! i mean, he's got the vocal swagger of a guy with baggy pants sitting super low and far back in a tricked out sports car who pulls up next to you at a traffic light and winks at you.

happy 4th of july
i got to see the macy's fireworks from the nj turnpike, as they coincided with my drive into the city. they made me cry. the combination of all the stuff going on in the world compounded by the loneliness i feel whenever i go to work at the club.

i got to watch the return of the king on dvd today. i'd already seen it in theatres but it was fun to see it again and to be able to skip over the parts that annoyed me (e.g. most of the scenes where sam and frodo cry and depend on each other for support). i think i have figured out why the movies strike such a chord in me. and it's more than just the captivating story of good vs. evil, orlando bloom's eyes, or my affinity for new zealand, where the films were filmed. i think it's my awareness of how extraordinary a thing it was for peter jackson to make all three films at once, and the incredible camaraderie that must have been created because of it. i mean, the story focuses on a fellowship, and that was created in real life. so this movie makes me enjoy it on two planes, one in the movie, one on the outside. so it's this compounded movie-going experience. capish?

happy 4th
may i be the first to wish it to you, since it's 6am...and i'm off to bed soon.

a few observations.
*my mom pointed out to me one of the advantages of working with koreans instead of chinese people, as she did in her past life as a restaurateur. koreans, because of the strong class delineations in their culture, are incredibly obedient when you tell them to do stuff, or you are reprimanding them. they just nod and say yes, and when you are yelling at them, they don't look you in the eye because they are so embarassed. however, she's also told me stories of how much they talk about each other behind their backs, and all the backstabbing...personally i'd rather have someone tell me they hate me to my face, because then i get a chance to deck 'em.

*my parents' european vacation was good for their relationship, i think. last night during dinner, after my mom and i went to the gap to hit their sale, where my mom bought me clothes for the first time in AGES -- you know, with her actually being there and stuff -- and we bought these matching skirts. my mom was telling my dad about it and my dad had said previously that he liked that skirt and that my mom should buy it. she wouldn't at full price, though. the reason my dad liked it: it reminded him of this red dress she used to have when they first got married. everybody now: aww! well, this is a big deal for my parents. it's not like it's the arctic in their bedroom. it's just that most of the time, they don't even sleep in the same room!

hot and humid
it was kind of depressing walking out of newark airport today to be smacked in the face by humid air. and it wasn't even that hot! actually, the depression started earlier. flying out of seattle, we passed over amazing mountains, with the peaks of mt. hood, mt. rainier and mt. st. helens in the distance. pulling into new jersey, as the pilot put it, we were treated to a great view of industrial newark. boo hoo.

ok ok yes it's not so bad in jersey. but i really truly did love the pacific northwest. i don't really want to be rich, but it'd be nice to be blessed with a condo in whistler. heh heh.

one month and counting till i officially take residence in boston 02115!