The shape of a bottle of ketchup

2003-03-27 - 5:33 p.m.

I'm a little disappointed this afternoon. I was at the court house today from 8 to 2 or so. Out of the 60 potential jurors that were assigned to my particular trial, I was among the 25 that never even got called up. I sat in the audience the whole time and then they decided they had the jurors they wanted and sent the rest of us home. But I have a feeling that even if I had been called up I would have been dismissed. The case apparently was going to have something to do with drugs and alcohol and they were dismissing anyone who had any sort of extra knowledge on the subject and I have much more knowledge about that than any of the people who were dismissed. But I never even got a chance. So I'm done with that and back to work tomorrow. It was nice to be able to sleep in!

Last night I drove to Stockton for the Rho Pi Phi initiation. I wasn't able to get ahold of DeenPo before I left, but she called me on my cell while I was on my way there. She was reluctant, but I talked her into going with me. Half an hour later she called me back and said she changed her mind. But I begged and whined and she finally changed her mind back. She ended up having fun. And I had fun too. It's always nice to see things I worked hard for continuing even after I'm gone. I got to meet three new littles this year. One of them wasn't too friendly but the other two are really cool. We stayed at the party until about 10:15, I dropped DeenPo off at her house at around 10:30 and I was home in bed by 11:30.

Today on my way home from work I heard a new song I've never heard before which I liked quite a bit. Mostly I liked it because it surprised me. The thing is if I tell you the title of the song you won't be surprised by it because the surprise is given away in the title. I can't seem to find a version to download that doesn't have clicks and skips in it, though. Anyway, the song is called "Stay Gone" and it's by Jimmy Wayne.

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At first I wasn't excited about joining Rho Pi Phi. While I don't have anything against Asian people (in fact my five best friends are all Asian), I wasn't too fond of the idea of being the only white person in a fraternity of all Asians. But when one of my good friends begged me to go to one of their rush events with her so she wouldn't have to go alone, I gave in and went. I ended up loving it there, feeling very accepted. In fact, at one point I was in a room so crowded that no one could sit down but I had a plate of food in one hand and a drink in the other. I couldn't eat because my hands were full. One of the guys in the fraternity, Foo, came over and held my drink for me and talked to me while I ate. He was good-looking, articulate, and well-groomed. I was hooked. I joined the fraternity. During the next three years that we were in the fraternity together either he had a girlfriend or I had a boyfriend, but I always felt like there was some mutual attraction between us. It could totally be my imagination. I saw him again for the first time since May last night at the initiation ceremony. I didn't get there until it was just about to start and we were already taking our places for the ceremony so I didn't really have a chance to greet everybody until afterwards. But he was standing in the position next to me looking my way when one of the more loud-mouthed girls called out to him, "Hey, Foo, no flirting!" Now he hadn't done anything besides look at me, he hadn't even smiled, so he definitely wasn't flirting with me. But then he definitely wasn't flirting with anyone else either. Is it possible that he has told other people that he likes me and they were teasing him about it last night? Maybe. Unlikely, but a girl can dream, right?

Tonight my parents came home a lot earlier than I expected. I didn't expect them to come home until after I was in bed, but they got here around 5:30. We went to Taco Bell for dinner. While we were there we saw friends we haven't seen in ages. I won't even try to guess when it was I saw them last. It was actually the dad and brother of one of my brother's friends from elementary school. But their family and ours used to go on camping trips and things together. The dad recognized us, I don't think I would've recognized him if he hadn't said hello. The brother looked exactly the same though. He actually has Downs Syndrome, but he is doing very well. I don't know how old he is, older than my brother though, I would guess around 29. When I was younger, like 8, I used to think he had a crush on me. I still think I was right about that. Tonight the dad was talking to us and he called the brother over. The brother looked our direction, locked eyes with me, turned bright red, and took his baseball cap off and used it to cover his face. He came over and hid behind a planter. His dad had to coax him out and then asked, "Do you remember these guys?" The brother looked at me and said, "Yeah," then sat down and concentrated on eating his burrito. Anyway, we talked to the dad for quite some time catching up on what our families are up to. It was good to see them again.

Last night at the initiation ceremony I took a few pictures. I'm hesitant to post them on my really public site just because I'm in them and I'm not too fond of the idea of someone recognizing me, as slim as those chances may be. If you do actually want to see them, just let me know and I'll give you the address.

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Blogger Envy for Pieces of You.

Back in January I was really addicted to Diaryland. I was on it constantly, browsing through random journals. I expanded my favorites list significantly and even made a list of journals that I might put on my favorites list if they continued to interest me. Since then I've had less time to do things like that. I don't read all the people on my favorites list anymore. In fact, there are only five that I read regularly. But among the five that I read regularly, and all the ones I used to read, there are three that I always read and two of those are complete strangers.

The first one is Aroha. Why am I drawn to her journal? Because even though we are pretty different, we have a lot in common too. Sometimes I feel like she is going through problems similar to mine and its interesting to see how she deals with them. I feel like I can relate. So I keep coming back.

The other one is Holly. The reason I like to read Holly is a little different. I think from her journals I get inspiration. And hope. Most of the problems she has are not the same sort of problems I'm dealing with. But at the same time, she's at a point in her life where things are changing. And she has been able to handle that very well and make sure all the changes are for the better. She has a great love, a job, is moving to a small town, and has big hopes for the future. She shows me that happiness can happen. She gives me hope that I can have it too. And then for some reason I find myself copying what she does in her journal. Like joining Quilted and Pieces of You. I guess when it comes to journaling, she enjoys doing the same sort of things I do.