Once it’s said, it’s not a secret anymore

Hi Jenn, I have something very important to speak with you. This is Rod’s wife a female voice said on my voicemail last Monday. She called back about 2 hours later.

Last Monday’s incident freaked me out. More so, how the woman got my phone number. With my name and accused me of having a “relationship” with her husband.

Chris joked it was his wife, but we all know his name doesn’t sound like Rob or Rod.

After much thought, the only place that I have my phone number visible is on my facebook profile. Only available to friends and specific networks. And I have always been very selective of the friends I add.

To me, it was almost a test of whether people will still claim they didn’t have my phone number, when it was right there.

Should I be cautious? My philosophy is that most people are too lazy to look at my information. More so, I would like to have some entertainment in the evenings on my phone (except for telemarketers).

Flakeage, cancellations, and finding the backup

Today, I was supposed to:

  • Travel to San Diego for a client meeting
  • Have dinner with friend A
  • Have dinner with friend B and friends
  • First plan got canceled.

    Second plan got canceled.

    Third plan got canceled.

    So, I sulked home, but a surprise awaited me that wouldn’t have occurred if first plan, second plan, or third plan worked out. Is this what serendipity meant? Or does fate know that for the last few months, my Thursdays are never supposed to be a quiet evening of boredom and quiet?

    Plastic bags banned in San Francisco

    Ever since plastic bags were banned in San Francisco, I was happy that my ball of shopping bags under the sink would decrease in size. And started to bring my own canvas bags when shopping.

    But now months later, I have used up nearly all my plastic bags. What am I supposed to use for the smaller trash cans? Can I feasibly convince myself to buy plastic bags to fit those office trash cans? Or do I pour out the office trash cans into a larger trash can?

    Bringing in my lunch

    As a young’un, my mom never let my sister and me buy lunch at school. There was the exception of Pizza Fridays where we begged to be like everyone else and buy the ticket to pizza every Friday. Or in high school, where we use the money we earned from red envelopes to buy french fries (now that I think of it, I never asked my parents directly for money until I was in college).

    And so this day, I still bring lunch to work. It’s a puzzling thing to do in downtown San Francisco when there’s a diverse set of restaurants in the area. But I just couldn’t justify spending $10 a day (the average more or less) eating out. Even as much as I like my pho and tea. My freshly tossed salad with grilled chicken. The mashed potates and meatloaf, cooked homestyle. The thick MSG-laden beef stew and thai iced tea. Oh I would love it all.

    But I just couldn’t justify it.

    And so I am on a journey to cook better. I try not to appear cheap, but I know some people perceive me as such.

    I made Vietnamese bun yesterday and pseudo fried rice today. And had a plain yogurt dumped with a scoop of strawberry ruharb jam.

    Don’t lie to me, she threatened

    I saw the light flashing on my phone, hoping it was my doctor or some other medical professional calling back after I had left a message this morning about feeling a little ill. It said private no. calling. In fact, I had gotten a number like that this morning, but nobody was there. I thought someone had a bad connection.

    I answered with my name as I picked up the phone as I usually do when I want to be professional.

    “Jenn?” a female voice said.

    “Yes, this is Jenn.”

    “Is this Jenn of Atech? This is Rod’s wife.” she said.

    Puzzled, I hurried into a nearby empty meeting room and asked her to repeat what she said. Eventually, I said, “I don’t think you have the right person…how did you get this number?”

    “Don’t lie to me, I saw your email on my husband’s computer. This is Rob’s wife and I want to know what your relationship is with him.”

    If I hadn’t been under pressure to finish some work and feeling horribly ill, it would have been somewhat amusing to me. But for some reason or not, I felt anxious like I had been accused of something…wait did I really have a relationship with Rod? Was I drugged at one point in the last week that I emailed a Rod? But wait, I don’t even know a Rod!

    Somehow I decided that I had to prove to her that I wasn’t the Jenn she was looking for since she had my number and could terrorize me for awhile. I told her that I lived in San Francisco and that I didn’t know any Rod. And that I was sorry but I wasn’t the Jenn she was looking for. And I didn’t own a company called Atech. In fact, I was too young to even get to that level and…

    She eventually apologized and I wished her good luck in resolving her issues.

    I thought I said “I am down”

    It’s a strange and awkward moment to call a friend and leave a message on the voicemail. Then receive a text message 1 hour later that says “I thought you weren’t interested. I had to give them a final count on Wednesday.”

    When you said yes more than 3 weeks ago.

    But when you call back, nobody picks up and so instead you send a text message back.

    I just happen to be Asian American

    I ran across a trailer today for the movie Falling for Grace.

    Simply put, it’s a movie about an Asian American woman, living in New York City, trying to get away from her cultural identity by becoming an investment banker and entering the high socialite world.

    Will I see it? Sure, I am intrigued that it’s about Asian Americans, but the idea that Asian Americans are always struggling with their identity and trying to assimilate with the culture…turns me off.

    What bothers me about the archetype of the Asian American in movies—specifically the movies with Asian Americans as leads…is that it becomes about rejecting culture, finding that culture is needed and accepting culture. It doesn’t ring true to me.

    Although both of my parents are immigrants, I never really felt that Chinese culture was forced upon me (except the frugal mentality which is pretty common in all immigrant cultures). I was lucky as some say to grow up in a well-to-do neighborhood where luxury cars roamed free and crime was nearly nonexistent. The only Chinese people in my life were my relatives and my mom’s occasional nursing school friend. Other than that, I never experienced the games of mah jong (I was jealous when watching The Joy Luck Club). My parents rarely compared my sister and me to any other kids. Or that whole trying to be set up with a good Chinese boy and produce babies as soon as possible.

    I just happened to be an American who had an Asian heritage.

    Granted, I grew up in the Bay Area where being Asian was definitely not uncommon. My desire to live in Hong Kong only is because I want to live in a foreign country period.

    But my name comes from my mom watching Romeo and Juliet. They knew someone named Julie and so chose another J-name.

    The tax payment is not taking away your money

    I paid taxes this year and spend a good portion of time whining and complaining how it ruined my budget.

    But then…I realized…the tax payment I made wasn’t really about giving money that I thought was mine. Like the tax refund. Rather, it was taxes that the government was supposed to have taken away, but for my own individual situation, it was not withheld.

    But still, I hate writing the check for great amounts of dollars.

    All I can say is that I feel sorry for the people who have to open all those envelopes.