Recently, my household had two visitors. One of them was a guy who lives in Shanghai who is here in California on a business trip, and he was a university classmate of my mother. And the other one was my grandma's friend's son, who is currently studying in San Francisco for his master's degree. Both of them came at the same time.

The younger guy, the one who resides in San Francisco, always insists on using an honorific to address my mother. (I guess you would call it an honorific, but I'm not sure what it should really be called) He previously used the title that means older sister, but that seems nonsensical seeing as my mom is the same age as his mom. So he changed to saying a word that means aunt after her name instead. My mom says that he can just call her by her name, forget the honorifics, but he still went with the aunt word.

I remember when I was younger, still in elementary school, my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to stay at our house during the summer. I was really annoyed by having them around at that time. For one thing, they kept calling me by my name followed by the word that means older sister. I never understood it because I'm not their sister, so I insisted they just use my name, nothing else, but it was pretty hard for them to manage that. I guess in Mandarin and the Shanghai dialect there isn't a way to address your cousin. Or maybe cousins are considered to be like siblings.

Also, there was the time that my cousin was threatening to turn off my Gamecube. I was afraid he would really do it. I sat on him so he wouldn't be able to touch the button. However, this was very traumatizing to him (maybe I was really heavy and cut off his circulation?) and he ran to his mother saying I had hit him. I denied it, but I wasn't able to explain myself since I wasn't fluent enough in Chinese (and at the time, I couldn't speak French; my aunt's family lives in Paris).

My mom said my cousins would grow more mature with time, but they haven't improved all that much. A few years ago, I went on vacation to Europe and visited my aunt's family in Paris. The cousins were irrepressible as always and insisted on sitting next to me in the car and playing my Nintendo DS. (I think they have their own DS now, though) One time my cousin sneezed on it, which was really disgusting. Anyhow, if I didn't sit next to them in the car they would throw a fit. (I didn't want to put up with their antics so I sat in the back next to my grandma and mom, meaning to take a nap, but not managing it)

My family has been considering another vacation to Europe, except we want to see different places there, like perhaps Barcelona, Spain, or Italy (though people say Barcelona is better...Hmm. If you've been there, let me know what you think). We'll probably be taking a cruise since we haven't been on one since I was still in elementary school. It'll be in the summertime, which is best for me, as I won't be stressed from school. Unfortunately, if I go to Europe I will have to visit my cousins. My mom got annoyed and said that I could just go home early and not stop by Paris, while she visited her sister, but then I can't really fall asleep if my mom isn't there. I guess I have a mother complex.

On to other matters. Today, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so both my dad and I had the day off. (Most people are still working today, because they usually get Presidents' Day off, but my dad's company is an exception.) We went to various places, like REI, Any Mountain, Jamba Juice, Whole Foods, Petco, and Petsmart. I was looking for a hat to buy for Yosemite because apparently it's going to be cold and the one place you can lose heat the most easily is through your head. I was meaning to get one of those with earflaps because I thought it'd be better for keeping my ears warm. (They have to be fairly warm. When my ears get cold, I get headaches.) I picked one hat from REI and one from Any Mountain and decided I would let my mom make the decision since I have no idea which one I like better.

I haven't been to Petco for a long time because there used to be one in my town but it closed down years back. I noticed that there was a section with animals to be adopted. (Petsmart also has one, but they only have cats...At least usually.) There were two rabbits, some hamsters/mice (I didn't pay that much attention, I'll just call them rodents) and I think probably a cat or two. I was watching a particularly energetic rodent (I'm guessing it's a dwarf hamster?) named Boggle. He was behaving rather curiously. Sometimes he would get onto his wheel and start running, then he'd get off, and get back on and change direction, and sometimes he would run like crazy, but other times he looked kind of bored. Very interesting. I read on his description that he likes to take food, piece by piece, to his plastic castle, and stash it there for later.

Labels: adoption, behavior, boggle, chinese, cruise ship, dwarf, europe, family, friends, gamecube, hamster, hat, honorifics, interesting, martin luther king, name, petco, relatives, shopping, vacation

TODAY'S ICON BROUGHT TO YOU BY: mermaidsss.blog.cz

It's not quite the middle of November currently, but it isn't the middle of autumn anymore, and it's certainly not the middle of the summer. So I had to put November in, to make this title feasible.

On Tuesday night, I had a dream. I hadn't been remembering my dreams for a while, so it certainly did catch my attention. The dream's beginning, unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten. However, after a certain point, I do remember the dream... Earlier, I had seen a very nice dog, and I wanted to keep it, but my dad had said I couldn't. Then, I remember I was at my school, or at least a place that looked like my school. I noticed an automobile, a bit like an ice cream truck or something (though I have never actually seen an ice cream truck) coming. In the car were two people, and one of them appeared Asian. For some reason I thought it was one of my favorite musicians, Yuuki Aira, but it wasn't, much to my disappointment. The two women got out of the car and started running down the sidewalk in my school, pushing strollers. Then the one who I mistook for Yuuki Aira bent down to do something, tie her shoelace or whatever, and then I noticed the dog I had seen earlier. It was on the other side of the sidewalk (I was standing on the grass field at the time). The dog was near some bushes. (Which is weird, there are no bushes in that part of the school) So I went over and hugged the dog. My parents were not around to spoil it. But then the two women were getting away. For some reason I felt like I had to chase them. My dad popped out from some place or another (I know he was there but I never saw his face) and we both got onto bikes. I had to hold the dog too since I was taking it with me. We started peddling to follow the women. We went onto a highway. For some reason our bikes went 100 miles an hour. I recall being worried about getting in trouble for speeding. We went pretty far and I think for some reason I was in Palo Alto, pretty close to Stanford University. (Then I woke up.)

It was a very random dream. I don't really know if there was any meaning to it. But I do suspect my brain could be reminding me of my desire to have a dog. I have been asking to have one for years and years. My mother once said (jokingly perhaps?) that if I quit using the computer except for school research, then I could have a dog, assuming I would feed it and walk it and things like that. Back then I was very reluctant to actually go through with a deal like that, so I decided I would have to survive without a dog for a while longer. Now that the things that previously interested me are either nonexistent or I don't have time for them, I'm started to consider it again. I wonder if I would really be able to have a dog, though. What if it's just a ploy to get me off the computer?

My father just told me about someone else he knows who had a daughter who kept asking for a dog. The father finally said, "Look, if you raise a hamster for a year, and you clean its cage and take care of it, then we will let you have a dog." They got her a hamster...She cleaned the cage once, and never again. So her father said, "Then you can't have a dog, unless you prove yourself responsible enough." The girl said in response, "If it were a dog, then I would take care of it!" Some folks like their hamsters, but a hamster is nothing like a dog. (For one thing, hamsters, unfortunately, can only live a year or two, whereas dogs can live to the double digits depending on their size) Still, I know, a dog is a living being, and if you can't take of him/her, that's going to be a problem.

I've been thinking lately if I should write some other stories. I had started to write a story because I had some ideas of things I wanted to write about, but since those ideas would take place a lot later in the story (imagining that the story is a hundred pages or more! Very long. I intend to write a book someday), my interest kind of tapered off. Maybe I should write about myself. I can write about myself on my blog, but everyone has their secrets, and you know, you can't be exposing things on the Internet. You never know who's out there. It's like a commercial I saw once, "The Internet is like the ocean. Sometimes it can be safe and other times it can be very dangerous," or something like that.

Labels: a midsummer night's dream, bike, chase, computer, dog, dream, hamster, highway, internet, november, palo alto, responsibility, sacrifice, stanford, story, stroller, trial, truck, wish, yuuki aira

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