Not to my surprise, I got hit by a ball today on my left leg while playing softball. I was taking my turn as a pitcher and of course, I couldn\’t stay out of the way. Even though I wanted to be tough, I am still wincing 3 hours later. I am about to use frozen vegetables to ice it. :)

Update: Softball/baseball injury stats

I remember the old days of the chat rooms. Back in the day, I used to frequent AOL chat rooms for the casual conversation. Every 20 minutes there would always be the \”a/s/l\” question to which I would always respond \”4^2/middle of nowhere/no sorry I have a headache\”.

Then that matured into an AIM chat rooms with the guys of Danville. Random people would always be invited. We would make fun of each other, shouting in caps and flooding the chat with random remarks. We would try to invite all the buddies we had on our lists, making the room chaotic. There would always be the lurkers. I made one of my first virtual enemies there. She said that she would send the Chinese mafia after me. I am still alive.

Then it matured into more controlled chat rooms. With the same online blogosphere. We talked about the issues of the day. We would trade the tech problems, the updates to our software. We would play online games, me screaming in glee when I won scrabble with the word \”knight\”. All while we procrastinated on homework and studying for midterms.

And from there, it was phone conferences. My Cingular plan somehow allowed for multiway phone conferences (the main reason that I didn\’t change providers for years even though I had very bad phone reception). People liked to be anonymous, not saying who they were. Deep voices. People singing. And sometimes me falling into laughing fits. And fun chaos.

Then a lull.

Yesterday was the first \”random\” chat room I participated in for awhile. It was different. Some aim clients didn\’t support chat rooms well. Mature. Chaos unaccepted. But now I have entered a generation of aim with a purpose.

\”Drunk as a skunk!\” my aunt giggled when we got to the reception as she ogled the open bar. It was held at a country club. The tables were arranged by family as expected. All the \”girls\” in my family were sat together–my sister, my cousin, my second cousin and me. My older cousin taught me the meaning of each dish–a mango sorbet to cleanse the palate. My youngest cousin took coffee with her wedding cake. The newlyweds were forced to kiss each time people tapped their glasses. The bride\’s side of the family kept doing line dancing on the dance floor–the grapevine, the BootScoot, the cha-cha and the Macarenal. Even to Nelly. My sister wasn\’t afraid of dancing, even if the dance floor was empty. Someone stepped on my right foot with her heel but she didn\’t notice. All the \”adults\” in the family were afraid to dance, except for my parents. My dad told me that he was pretty much the only one among his five siblings ready to try new things. My uncle looked scared when I suggested using the stairs in the hotel rather than the elevator, because there could be someone lurking in the corner. We got too much candy.

From someone\’s journal that sort of describes my annoyance this weekend:
When I was younger, I hated going to weddings. After the wedding and during the reception, my aunts and the grandmotherly types would come up to me and poke me in the ribs, cackling, \”You\’re next.\”
Finally they stopped, when I started doing the same to them at funerals!

I am typing from Chicago, waiting to go to rehearsal dinner for my cousin\’s wedding. *cough* Why is my uncle and aunt taking so long to get ready?

This will be the first time in almost 10 years that my entire dad\’s side will be together. I haven\’t seen a few of my cousins for that long… I know tonight will be filled with the usual Asian bragging (about their children) and somehow a family connection. On the way from the airport, my aunt asked me the blunt question, \”Do you have a boyfriend?\”

To which, I replied, \”I have high standards.\”

I come from an area, an era where people don\’t need to get married so young. Where getting a steady job is most important. Where satisfying your own goals are more important than settling down and starting a family. And it\’s a place where we are supposed to believe i don\’t need someone to make me happy, but so often we go home alone and mope about loneliness.

For the first time in a long time, I played a sport today. A real sport, mind you. My program is forming a softball team for the summer and out of a guilt trip, I joined it. So today was the first practice.

Once I got to the field, I suddenly felt this flashback of bad memories. The time when I was on a winning volleyball team, but we lost the finals because of me. The time when I got hit in the head with a softball and I had to wear my glasses with tape wrapped around the nosepiece.

And the last time I had picked up a bat was in high school, sophomore year. I was once of those kids. I couldn\’t hit. I couldn\’t catch. I couldn\’t throw. I failed all the skills tests. And…I have this immense inferiority complex along with an explosive tantrum edge. So the teacher tried to teach me the right form. I felt singled out and totally defined as an outsider in the class (the loser, the one who couldn\’t be like everyone else) as I was told to hit the fence. Over and over again. I started crying. I didn\’t want to be like that, embarrassed in front of people who didn\’t know who I was. I hated PE. She asked me if I was alright as class finally was over…and I said no. She couldn\’t say anything to that.

On a side note, that was the only class I got a C in high school. :)

But yeah those flashbacks overwhelmed me…but to my surprise, I overcame that. Somehow this time around, I wasn\’t really an outsider. As a result, I had a little more confidence in myself. Even though I couldn\’t hit most the balls or catch most of the balls, I was able to play sufficiently. And it was fun.

A factoid: The heat generated by a laptop, and the knees-together pose needed to balance it, can damage a man\’s fertility.

Guys, watch out for those heated laptops. Even if it can keep you warmer (than…a warm body) during the winter…

Another piece of triva coming from a slight obsession of Star Wars: Yoda was based on Albert Einstein. WHO IS YODADDY?!

\”Whoa!\” Doug said when he found out that I was 3000 miles away.

I have a feeling that I\’ll be having many of these comments in the very near future.

After the William Hung fanaticism in Berkeley, I was shocked to learn that my friend April was participating in the Asian American Idol contest (by the way, go vote). Yet, singing is one of the very few ways that you can tug at someone\’s heartstrings. How many ways are there in life to really make someone happy…someone sad…? That by singing, you can control people\’s emotions.

In other news, this season of 24 is over. I was slightly disappointed by the plot and how Fox perpetuated incorrect stereotypes. And not that many people were killed this season! :(

Anyway, this season I learned:

It\’s always really irritating when my parents get on my case about taking loans.

So now I am 23. Shouldn\’t I be trying to pay my own way through graduate school? Can\’t I take loans?

Should I really borrow money from my parents? Or should I take my own way…and pay it all myself?