An inconspicuous winter afternoon @ Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay under the sun was unusually warm and exceptionally radiant. I started my day at the charming Caffe Mezza Luna in Harbor Village for a cup of cappuccino. While waiting for my coffee, I browsed their CD collections with a big mission in my mind: Christmas shopping! As I picked up a HMB magazine and sat down, the nice young man with a big wide smile brought me the coffee. I smiled back and said thanks.

My next stop was at HMB board shop. When I turned into their modest parking lot, the only blue truck in there made it look unusually smaller. The door was closed tight, and all the windows were covered by posters. I wondered if the shop was opened, and double checked to make sure the neon "Open" light was on. I turned the door knob and sure enough, they were doing business alright. The husky fellow behind the counter looked exactly like a stereotypical California surfer, sun tanned with light color hair. He said hi and asked me to be sure to let him know if there was anything he could help. This kind of friendliness was a bit unusual to me coming from such a tough looking guy.

With my expert-shopper level precision, I picked up a few items and landed them on the counter. It obviously made our shopkeeper's day! He praised me for coming in early for Christmas shopping , "not like us guys, always waiting until the last minute." He even told me about his new-born baby and his dog, judging from my dog hair covered polartec about the dog. As I said goodbye and walked out, he thanked me again for stopping by.

My next stop was Half Moon Bay downtown. My favorite store there is Posh Moon. It is small shop full of nice French inspired clothing and cute gifts. This time they didn't have anything new for me, though I carefully examined all of the racks throughout the store. Carol is this super friendly older lady who likes to wear her hats. If you catch her in a good day, she could give you 20% discount on your total bill.

Next I headed to Toque just at the corner. I followed a group of 4 or 5 leisurely walked in the store. Toque is a high-end kitchenware store. I enjoyed shopping there, but I was a little uneasy about the possibility of my bulky tote touching breakable items, which were displayed carefully everywhere. So I picked up a few things and left.

I then checked out a few other stores, but since I already got my catch of the day, and I was feeling my wallet fatigue, I slowed down considerably. I finally bought something for myself in a clothing store, which happen to have all full-priced clothing 50% off. As I paid, the seemingly young and quiet shopkeeper showed a very friendly smile.

With one side of my mind bubbling with excitement for all that I got in 2 hours, and the other equivalently prepping me for the pain I would unavoidably endure come January, I strolled back to my car, where I found another pleasant surprise. I parked right in front of a bakery, and they were still open! I rushed in and spent my last dollars on cookies. Then I left downtown with no guilt nor reservations.

I had no expectations when I left home, didn't dress up like when I was going to the mall, and got free parking without any hassle. I had a great day shopping with my friendly neighborhood retailers!

Now I can put my credit cards in the freezer and be content.

A thing or Two About Chinese Love Songs

China is such an ancient country with billions of people cultivated by lots of old philosophies as well as radical new changes coming with the political system.

It maybe hard for others to fathom the contemporary Chinese romance. But from these love songs, you can see the Chinese vulnerability regarding love. Maybe even get some insight into the generation grew up with such influences.

These songs have melodramatic and romantic lyrics like:

"Don't tell him that you are afraid in the dark; that you like the roses he gave you the most; that you like him to wait in the rain ... because those are my most precious memories."

"I used my happiness as a wager (for you) ... losing you, I lost everything."

"I am a playful and free kite, everyday making you worry. If one day, you become a kite, how do I get back to you? ... Because I know you are a worrying little girl, so before the rain cloud comes, I come back to your arms ..."

What Melodramatic

If Shakespeare tragedies are dramatic, then Chinese contemporary dramas are melodramatic. My definition of melodramatic is, the story has a bad ending, but it is so depressing that you feel like you fell into the mud and stuck there forever, until you stop thinking about it.

I'm not saying only the Chinese dramas has the capability to be melodramatic, because I'm sure Japanese literature and art has the potential well exceed the Chinese. But my statement was just merely my observation of a couple Chinese contemporary dramas.

Don't Read News

One thing that's hard to bear about the work week for me is the fact that I work at the computer all day, and it gives me plenty of opportunities to go on the online news media to check daily news. To me, most news are toxic in different ways.

Is news reality or reality check or distraction? Most news are negative. Someone's misfortune or misconduct stirred up interests of the mess, and every news agency starts chiming in on the latest development as well as detail breakdown analysis. The media grows on others' misfortune.

How about the readers like me. Am I encouraging the media? I would have to say guilty as charged. However, bad news is so draining and depressing. Why do I take it upon myself to endure such negativity?

The solution? Stop dwelling into news, and focus on the now and what's around me.

My Meditation

How do you meditate? How do you learn to do it? I have some Yoga and relaxation books that talk about meditation, but I don't think you can learn how to meditate by reading books. Just like it's hard to learn how to dance by reading a book, eventually you have to do it.

I've been to Yoga classes where the teacher teaches meditation. The idea is to keep the mind focus on one thing, one phrase or one idea. When you realize your mind drifts away, you catch yourself and put the mind back to the original thing. Slowly over time, your mind is calm and peaceful focusing on the one idea, without drifting away.

One night I was awake until late, because I played on the computer until late and had some strong tea at dinner. It kept my mind restless. I was tossing and turning thinking about many random things. When the clock showed 2 AM, I decided it was time to try falling asleep, so that I could have a normal work day tomorrow.

To calm down my mind, I lied on my back with Savasana pose, and started breathing deeply. In my mind I wrote the Chinese character date - 日 - and I breathed slowly once with every stroke. Every time when I finished writing the character in my head, my thought would already be wondered away from the writing, and thinking about plans or fantasies. So When I started writing the character again, I intentionally brought my thought back to the character. The first ten to fifteen times when I wrote the character 日, my mind continued to wonder away somewhere in the middle of the writing. However after a while, my mind slowed down, and I was able to stay with the character. Slowly, the character morphed into a donuts, then it morphed again into a piece of cloud. All the ideas became irrelevant for the moment, and I eventually fell asleep.

The Importance of Shoes

Are you a shoe person or a purse person? It's very sad but true, shoes and purses are my guilty pleasures. It's comforting to know, however, I'm not the only woman who possesses such obsession. In fact, it's probably quite normal for our population, except for a few outstanding individuals I know and admire, who have unsurpassed self discipline and self control to disregard material things. I continue to strive to become one of those exceptional people.

I try hard to reject the temptation of those things, but in my weaker moments, finding good pairs of shoes and a nice purse brighten my day. Until the next good find comes along, which haunts me at night.

Creepy Things

#1 The two Tans
Jack's 3rd Ave. kiteboarding webcam was down for close to half a year now, because someone dropped it when moving it. As the kiteboarding season started this year, more and more people were noticing the absence of the webcam, and emails inquiries came to Jack's mailbox.

One day Jack told me Tan offered to donate his home computer to host the webcam server, so we wouldn't have to rely on the company hosting the webcam. Jack refused it a few times, because the hosting server was not the root cause of the problem. Jack just needed to get the webcam fixed and get it back on line. After a few times of unsuccessful engagement and many technical suggestions, Tan stopped emailing Jack with further offerings. Both Jack and I were quite amazed what a persistent person our friend Tan was.

Last week Jack came home and told me, "this guy walked up to me and said: it's good to finally meet you." It turned out it was the Tan who was emailing Jack, who was a different guy from our friend Tan.

#2 Confused about the singer
Finding out my favorite love song from high school was sung by a man rather than a woman.

#3 Are you alright?
One day I found Jack in the bed room lying on his belly. I was startled thinking he was fainting.

I screamed: "Are you alright?"

He looked up and said, "yes, I'm fine."

It turned out he was trying to deflate an inflated globe, and he was lying on it to squeeze the last bit of the air out of it.