What an incredible weekend! Despite a long week at work, I managed to get off on Friday with enough time to practice wushu, and do the aerial cartwheel! Landed it twice! It was really just a matter of conquering fear and not putting the hands down. Of course, it's a lot easier to say than to do. After lots of pushups and squats and stomach exercises, we had a full night of food and fun with DDR to celebrate Zhang Lao Shi's birthday. The cake was incredible too: it had a portrait of her posing with her straightsword on the frosting. No one dared to eat her face. =)
Saturday was another awesome day. I was supposed to spend the morning with interviewees at Siebel, but couldn't muster the energy to wake up at 6:30, after partying until 2 the night before. So sue me. I was just going to volunteer to do random errands anyway. I'm sure it went fine without me. Instead, I got a good night's sleep. I still got up around 9:30. Managed to finish unpacking my room and vacuum the whole upper floor. Dropped by the extra wushu practice for a bit and sorta got a butterfly twist going. I just find it incredible that after trying to do the aerial cartwheel and butterfly twist for 2+ years, I manage to sorta do both in the same weekend!
But the best part was yet to come. That night, I went out to dinner and Ragtime ball with Annie. I can't think of anyone I'd rather spend a night dining and dancing with. The food was great, but the fellowship and dancing were greater. We learned blues together at the ball, and proceeded to shake off months (or in her case, years) of rust caked on our dancing. At first it was kinda shaky, but it was fun being on the dance floor again. The only thing I wish were different is just that the band would've played more of a variety of styles. There was a lot of blues music and swing, and a slow waltz or two, but no fast waltzes or club 2steps or hustles. But hey, it was cool having a live band to dance to. Annie says she's such a klutz, but she really moves pretty well. We were keeping up with the fast lindy's pretty well too, for old-timers. =) Looking back on it, I'm glad I got to dance with her so much, but I wish I had time to dance with some of my other friends as well. (Tina, Kari, Megan) I guess that'll have to wait until next time.
After the ball, we took a Testimony (past and present) picture. Actually, we took like 5 since we kept finding people that we thought had left. The poor cameraman couldn't leave!
Sunday, I slept in again. When I woke up, I just laid in bed for a bit, basking in the memory of a wonderful night with a wonderful friend. I bought a ton of groceries from Ranch 99, then hurried to In-N-Out for lunch and watched Megan and Jeff in the Sorcerer. It was a funny production. It's been a while since I've seen a show, so it was entertaining. It's also kind of strange knowing the romantic lead in a show. Makes it a lot harder to see the character instead of the actor. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. Especially the song about the young girl who falls in love with the old Notary (67 yrs old). It brought back memories of a voice concert at Columbia where I was the "plain old man" who was hard of hearing. Those were fun days.
After the show, I had to rush off to mass, where I was challenged by the message. I felt the Lord speak to my heart through the parable of the Master who gave his servants talents. The Master punished the servant who was too afraid to invest the talents he was given, the one who was too afraid to lose his talent had his talent taken away from him, and was rejected and thrown out into the cold. Am I wasting my talents? Am I not investing my time and energy wisely in building up treasures in heaven? The Master's other two servants doubled the amount they were given. Can I honestly say that I'm anyone near that productive for God? What needs to change for this to happen? I better start changing soon, beacause time is of the essence, and God will want a full account of what I did with the talents He gave me.
After mass, I joined Dan and his friends in celebrating Dan's 26th birthday. Wow that's old. =) But I couldn't say that, because most of the people there were older than that. We went to Buca di Beppo's, where they made us wait over an hour for a table, despite an estimate of 30-45 min. The food was well worth the wait though. I wasn't in very good shape before dinner... a combination of sugar low, dehydration, and a headache. I was feeling much better after good food and fun with fellow Catholics.
After some shopping at Safeway, I went home and chatted for a bit. A couple of my friends were warning each other back and forth, and I started in on the action. I noticed that one of my friends reacted a lot more and generally seemed to be having fun while being the object of teasing. That got me to thinking... maybe people (girls, especially) like being made fun of. It's kind of a sign of being comfortable around someone when you can point out their flaws and give them a hard time, and no one gets offended. Perhaps I am too careful about being a "supportive brother"... so much so that I don't push beyond the boundaries of my friends' and my own comfort zone. The net effect: I don't have deep, meaningful relationships with people. If this is true, something needs to change. I've gotta change my attitude and my actions. Having lotsa friends is nice, but it gets rather lonely when you have some problems and nobody cares enough to notice. This is something I need to pray about. If you get the chance, I would appreciate if you would pray for me too.