Catch the rainbow of conciousness in a jar

2004-05-11 - 10:20 p.m.

Today I watched the movie "Love Actually." Maybe I'm just a big sappy dork, but I absolutely loved this movie. I think I'll probably watch it again tomorrow. I have to admit that I may not have caught exactly how everyone was related to everyone else, and I didn't recognize Claudia Schiffer when I saw her so that joke went completely over my head, but I still loved it.

I made sushi today. I've never made it by myself, mostly just watched while my friends made it. But while I was in San Francisco this weekend I bought a sushi mat in Chinatown and WinCo sells nori (dried seaweed), so I was all set for my first solo sushi-making expedition.

For innards I used spam and avocado. Spam musubi--an ono pu-pu first introduced to me by some Hawaiian friends in college--is much tastier than it sounds. Anyway, I don't think I'm quite ready to open a restaurant, but my sushi turned out pretty darn well! I think WinCo might sell that fake-o crab meat, too--if I can find it tomorrow maybe I'll try my hand at California rolls...mmmmm!!!

On Thursday we're having all new windows put in the house. It'll be happening Thursday morning while I'm home but my parents are not. In order to allow the workers to be able to get to the windows, we're going to have to move a lot of furniture tomorrow. The house is so small, though, and so full of stuff, I have no idea where we're going to put it. You'd think the garage would be a good place, but the garage is pretty much full already. Seriously, I didn't know until I was in junior high that a garage is supposed to be a place to keep your car. I always thought that's what the driveway is for, the garage is for storing your junk. But anyway, I managed to scooch stuff around in the garage enough to make a space large enough to put all the stuff that has been under my bed. My bed has to leave my room so the workers can get to the window. That means tomorrow night I'm going to have to sleep on the floor because I'm sure not going to sleep on the couch in the living room to be awakened at quarter to six when my dad gets up to go to work.

This morning I got a phone call from an old family friend, Steve and his wife Barbara. I haven't met Steve and Barbara many times. In fact I can only remember meeting them twice, although I'm sure I met them more often when I was younger. I remember going to their wedding (Steve and Barbara were together for 15 years or something before they got married) and I remember that they were at my paternal grandmother's funeral a few years ago. At any rate, they called to let my family know that Barbara's mother had died. My mom tells me that she's been sick for quite some time. And apparently I met her, too, at my paternal grandfather's 80th birthday party (I guess that means Steve and Barbara were there too), which was only 4 years ago, but I don't remember her. When my dad told my grandfather that she had died, my grandfather announced that "our grandfathers on our fathers' side were the same man." Meaning that my grandfather and Barbara's mother were cousins? I had no idea and my dad says that's the first he's heard of it too. I wonder if it's true, but I guess I have to assume it is. How nutty is that that these people could be running around that are my family and I've never even been told they are relatives? Suddenly these "family friends" are "family."