busy busy

So I forgot to mention that on Thursday I was offered a second job at school. Yay! The pay sucks as usual since the CSU system pays its TAs and GAs way the hell less than the UC system TAs (and we don't get tuition waivers or free health insurance like they do), but any money is welcome money. Espcecially since I had just that day contacted my prof/graduate coordinator to offer to TA pro bono for him just to beef up my CV with more teaching experience. So now I get that experience and a pay cheque for assisting with Media and Social Issues course in addition to my job as the writing lab instructor. This is totally going to get in the way of working on my thesis and Phd applications but I'll have to make it work.

Friday night, we headed out to the San Mateo County Fair. I've never been and thought it'd be a fun way to spend an evening since we don't usually do much on Fridays but lay around and watch a movie at home. We met up with everyone, had some turkey leg, a beef sandwich, some garlic fries, beer, and funnel cake and then headed over to watch the hypnotist show. I've seen this type of show before in Vegas and this one didn't quite wow the crowds so much. His volunteers were mostly in the 13-15 age group and far too self-conscious to be suseptible to suggestion. He ended up with about 2 who seemed genuinely hypnotized and one of the two was an older lady. It got pretty chilly out so we toured the petting zoo, arts and crafts, and the area where people sell stuff. It's pretty much a scaled down but more expensive version of Vancouver's PNE or Toronto's CNE. We headed over to Stinger for a few drinks which, for Simon and I, turned into a few drinks too many after taking those last two shots with the bartenders. Someone, I don't recall who, suggested we go to IHOP where I put away a basket of deep fried cheese sticks. They were actually pretty awful, much worse than the homemade ones I concocted for our turkey fryer party if I do say so myself. They also did nothing to sop up the alcohol because the next day I was hurting bad. No pilates class for us. A small meal at home and a slow painful stroll through Target to get some necessary household goods before heading out to my friend DQ's wedding.

Wedding was at Koi Palace and the food was awesome. (Congrats again Dennis & Kim!) We were a half hour late due to hangover sluggishness but the show didn't get on the road until 2 hours after the designated start time (not really sure why), but really the food was worth the wait. It was nice to see some folks I hadn't talked to in a while. Too bad stupid me brought a camera with no compact flash card in it. Anyways, somehow the party wrapped up by 11pm or so and we didn't have any plans so we decided to check out this place that Denny keeps talking about - Lucky Chances casino in Colma. He goes there for the food but we were too full to try it. Still, we had to see the place since we were in the neighbourhood. The parking lot was full so we opted for the free valet parking. We took a few steps inside and I could feel the tired eyes of all the Asian gamblers turn in our direction. We were a little out of place in our post wedding get up and I swear to you the place was sketchier than an after party in Vancouver's Chinatown at 5am. I was just waiting for some Vietnamese dude to yell doh mah and a Chinese guy to respond with lay say pook kai and maybe deliver a few random bullets across the room. That didn't happen but still I was not feeling at ease at this place. We walked around and observed people playing strange games with dice and dominos that we'd never seen before and trust me Simon is no gambling rookie. We watched the Texas hold em tables for a while before we decided it was time to head home.

Oh yeah, Simon has been really diligent about updating his blog lately. And Herman started one too.