Current mood:	sappy
Current music:	Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath

aaah, sweet blue ...
well, it's almost official ... i'm soon to join the big boys club with my sexy, sexy sweet blue k700 (with chinese strokes on the keypad). krzyl made the acquisition this afternoon in NY and will ship it to me ASAP. i was telling rokkusempai today that we all have different k700's. mine is blue w/ chinese strokes (code name: sweet blue), his is silver w/ chinese strokes, and krzyl's is silver w/o strokes, but all can write in chinese ... hotness.

so, i'm back in shampoo-banana, colder and wetter. i returned yesterday after spending an afternoon with j at UIC (registration for class). the weather in chicago was mid 30's w/ no snow. j and i spent the day catching up with each other, enjoying starbucks (twice). afterwards, i drove back despite having bad brakes, and as risky as that was, i'm sort of thankful i did. turns out, it snowed quite a bit after i left. i safetly made it back to chambana, and i spent 2 hours at midas today. the brake pads were non-existent and my front rotors were all chewed up, but i ended up paying an amount i could live with ... AND, i had a $30 off coupon for that specific midas. i've never appreciated quiet braking more in my life.

i'm still reveling from my time in houston. krzyl ended up flying in 3 hours early thanks to a very nice filipina ticket lady at ORD (who gave him every contact number imaginable). Wu-tofu (previously, C-tofu) and W dropped me off to wait w/ krzyl for his baggage. i executed a spontaneous sneak attack on him from behind and was so happy to be reunited with ... WINNIE!! (the stuffed toy i won from coney island). we drove back to my place, but made a quick pit stop at walgreens first. to all of our surprise, krzyl bumped into one of his ex's!! she's from the same town as my mom, but krzyl and the girl were beyond shocked.

okay, i definitely just broke and had to fix my shift key. it started as one of those, i'll just lift the key to blow out debris and turned into pulling the entire key off and getting it stuck in shift mode ... d'oh! oh well, it's back to normal now.

anyway, krzyl met my mom bearing the gift of josh groban - laugh all you want, my mom loves that mop head singer (i will admit that mop head can sing!). my mom was happily surprised receiving a gift she actually really liked and didn't already have. k also brought il panettone from italy, which i loved :D. k only briefly met my mom b/c we got in late and left the next day for n'awlins w/ wu-tofu and W.

that's right, we road tripped 6 hours to new orleans, checked in at a very nice marriott (the same one the virginia tech football players stayed at for the sugar bowl), and explored up and down the infamous bourbon st. i had seafood gumbo (for the first time) and some alligator sausage. we split up after dinner so k and i could pick up some starbucks while wu-tofu and W would pick up strippers. k and i were having a hard time finding a starbucks open at 10PM, but after spotting a harrah's casino (pronounced "cah-zee-noh," not "cah-see-noh"), i suggested to check it out. luck would have it, as soon as we entered the doors, we spotted an OPEN starbucks just inside. we drank our usuals, and i explained to k my parents' casino gambling philosophy. they'd go in willing to spend $30 each. as soon as they lost the $30, they'd stop. they knew the casino is designed for the house to win. to them, it was like an amusement park. so, they'd pay their $30 for their fun, and then it was time to go. so, i played and lost $10 in the $1 slot machines, and then k funded me $20 in the 5 cent MIB slots where i was up to $25 that i put into the 25 cent slots (big money, i know). after being down to $15, i decided to change slot machines (remembering the gambling fallacy that staying w/ one machine warms it up for a win). on my 2nd spin, i got two blue 7's and one white 7. k and i won $60. we stopped. we cashed out. i bounced around singing "i won money, i won money!" we left the casino earning back everything we spent on the trip, thus far. in the end, i went to n'awlins for $9.16 (including gas, hotel room, and meals). we were back to houston mid-afternoon the next day.

new year's eve was spent low key in my mom's house, but k, my mom, and i all went out to houston's chinatown the new year's day for sushi. we ate, shopped, drank bubble tea, k braved the chinatown haircutters, and searched chinatown, a hong kong mall, and a vietnamese supermarket desperately for my k700 phone to no avail. we happily spent time w/ my mom, and despite just having eye surgery, she was charming, cute, and hilarious as ever. krzyl's visit went over smoothly, as my own mother was ready to chuck my useless butt to the curb and keep krzyl. i could tell he was "in" when she let him do the dishes (she NEVER lets anyone touch the dishes!!).

krzyl and i also managed to go into the city to play at the aquarium, where we bought all-day passes. we went through the exhibit, petted sting rays, saw a live white tiger cub, rode a little train to a shark tank tunnel, went on the ferris wheel, carousel, and lighthouse drop ride.

all in all, our time together checked off many things from our "to do w/ someone special" lists ... next up: SEATTLE (mmmm, starbucks capital)