At work the other day, an old dog decided it’d be a great idea to take a dump right in the middle of our floor. The owner was really apologetic about it, but of course needed assistance in cleaning up the mess. I guess I was on poop patrol that day.
It’s been about 5 days and while sweeping, I found traces of it. Dear God, I thought I took care of it.
Yup, it was neither obnoxious enough for you to bring your big dog into a store, nor engage your pet in baby talk at a really high volume. He had to “drop the kids off [at our postal center].”
I guess I feel bad for the canine. He was old after all, and human or not, we all lose control of our bowels at times. Maybe we should create Depends for Dogs?
It’s just one thing that I always question: why did the dog have to suddenly go during the 5 minutes it was in MY presence?
Happy (belated) Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. since your actual birthday was yesterday. Sorry to bring up scatological mishaps on such a day. You’re still one of my greatest heroes.
This is Amy Hu signing off for January 16th, 2012.
Everyday I think to myself, “I can’t wait to blog about this. This is just ridiculous/too funny/amusing, etc.” That’s one of my resolutions for this new year–share more embarrassing stories about my life on the internet and hopefully still have friends by next year.
Amy’s Top 5 Happenings of 2011
1. My decision to begin a new life in Madison, WI as a production associate for InterVarsity’s communications department, twentyone hundred productions. Who would have thought that the man upstairs would call me to the Midwest? As nervous as I am to leave 70 degree winter weather in California, I am also beyond excited to combine my passions for both the faith of college students as well as in media arts. This next season in Wisconsin will prove to be life-changing and full of adventure. You can indeed look forward to this new layer to my blogging tales. And here is my prayer letter! Please consider sending me there, as I am in a season of raising funds to be able to experience this life-long dream of mine. Shameless plug! My goal is to get there asap, so tell your family! Friends! Great Aunts! Acquaintances! Frenemies! Mailmen! Local authority figures!
Our entire fellowship at Fall Conference 2010, held on the beautiful Campus by the Sea in Catalina Island.
2. In being blessed with the amazing opportunity to work with 2100, that meant my time with InterVarsity at UCLA was over. Almost six years of my life was surrounded by this community and it has proved to seriously be the best thing that has happened to me since I realized the secret to perfect steak is the 4 R’s (I will share this on my food blog). I gave much of my life to fostering the faith of many college students, and in turn, my own faith and life matured immensely. Late spring of 2011 was a season of goodbyes and thank yous to Bruin Christian Fellowship. As hard as it was and still is, I leave with so much to be grateful for and am overwhelmed by what God would do with me during my time there.
(top left) My poor Betsy didn't win the race, and I was there to comfort her at my job as an after-school program teacher/media arts specialist with Team Prime Time. (top right) My boss Cathy and I had to cater smoothies on a freezing day, which makes for little sales. But the cause was good at least. (bottom left) I currently work at a privately owned postal center, and I love it. I do mail drop-offs everyday. I do a lot of manual labor at this job. (bottom right) At the Korean after-school I worked at, I had to do pick up and fight with all the Korean and Latina moms to get my kids everyday.
3. If you count my almost full-time job with InterVarsity, I have had 6 different jobs this past year: professional smoothie maker at Jamba Juice, media arts teacher at Team Prime Time, summer and after-school program teacher at Ivy League Academy, web content management and graphics for Prime Time Sports Camp, and now full-time work being a postal apprentice for US 24/7 Postal Center–your local one-stop shop for your packing/shipping and office needs. I have met some strange, some remarkably interesting, some insanely obnoxious and rude, some surprisingly lazy, some even famous people in all of these jobs. Now you see where my desire to blog more comes from.
My dad insisted to take a photo like this at Boudin in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. We had to wait for him to craft the right eye mask. Chewing sourdough bread is a skill not known to many. My mom is holding in her embarrassment quite well here.
4. My dad’s retirement has created almost a completely new man, and I do mean that in the best way possible. Papa Hu has always been a stern, bad-tempered, stubborn, but also the smartest, most sacrificing, and noble man I know. He’s always had a silly switch in him, especially when there were opportunities for corny jokes. But finally retiring from working so hard for our family in order to give us the countless things I have today, there is an insurmountable joy in him that almost never wants to be turned off. And I absolutely love it. Now, don’t get me wrong, my dad still scares me more than anyone (maybe not my grandma, and yes his mother of course) and puts his foot down when needed. But there’s something about new Dad that brings tears to my eyes because I can see himself finally enjoying life and letting go. Retired Dad meant him finally living back at home instead of East LA, and now he enjoys his life again hiking with new friends in the suburbs of San Jose and making fabulous meals for my family.
I cried when my dad gave me these. I was so ridiculously happy, and he was ridiculously adorable.
5. My friggin’ skin problemz came back. I don’t even know how to diagnose it. It’s like a mixture of eczema, psoriasis, zombie decomposition–I seriously hate it. It dreadfully comes and goes, like Dennis Duffy on “30 Rock.” You don’t want him to ever come back, but when even the slightest thing provokes him to do so, wreaking havoc is all he does.
I just hope to be rid of it soon. I’ve seen all sorts of doctors, from eastern to western, male and female, old and young, White and Asian, human and extraterrestrial–it doesn’t seem to go away permanently. The sad thing is, I’m sure I’ll have to live with it all my life and be extra careful to not unleash the beast inside me. The best cure to this is my dietary and sleep habits, which I am terrible at. I love food too much and eat everything I’m not supposed to: shellfish, tropical fruits, sugar, red meat, etc. Why would I deprive myself to only kill me faster with a boring diet? Sleeping more is always something I should be doing–but I also love television, the interweb, hanging out with friends, and going out too much. That usually happens at night after my full-time job so where does the time go?
All I can say is, pray for me. I’m pretty sure this time’s skin episode came because I fell into a creek and from the gash on my leg, it got slightly infected and somehow triggered my skin to go nuts. Wonderful.
Well friends, it’s good to be back–blogging and extroverting my thoughts through this cathartic medium. Blessings on a new year, and may we all have many stories to share to remind us how funny and weird life can be.
I’ve been drafting a rather large amount of blog posts, but for some reason I never get myself to finish them. Typical ENFP habit–starting projects are a lot more fun that finishing them.
Today I stayed in bed til noon because it felt so nice to listen to the heavy rain for about an hour on my day off. I also stayed up til 3am scaring myself with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” episodes on USA. It’s on my list of “I Know These Are Bad Ideas But I Can’t Help Myself.”
I don’t normally like sleeping in and staying in bed past 10am, but today was an exception. I definitely felt nauseous later on. This leads me to the story of the week.
Living in Westwood indeed has its moments, and a little while ago was quite the example. My apartment is just a few blocks from Frat Row, and so the traffic of drunken college students would appear red on Sigalert at Landfair Avenue (if they had a pedestrian/sidewalk feature). With all the traffic, I really dislike parking on the street Thursday through Sunday but sometimes have no choice due to my inconsiderate neighbor who seriously does not know how to park in our tricky lot in the back. So he just gives up and takes up my spot too with his fat and obnoxious BMW. Bro, your car obviously does not belong in this kind of parking situation, so too bad and GTFO.
With another one of his weak attempts at parking, I for some reason had a bad feeling about parking my car on the street. But I ignored it and went to sleep knowing I had to wake up to move it early because of street cleaning.
The next morning, I took my groggy self to my car and moved it. As I got in, I noticed I couldn’t really see my right sideview mirror. Was it my tired eyes? Was it fogging up? I pulled over and got out to play detective on the mystery.
And there it was. Just glimmering in the sun. Adding an array of color on my gun metal grey exterior. Emitting smells of alcohol and bile. Yup, someone had completely disgorged all over my car.
I stood there in slight shock, but couldn’t help but laugh in the moment. I looked around me and did anyone else around me get vomited on? Nope, the puke perpetrator only struck my property. Oh, but of course. I live the life of Amy Hu.
I didn’t have time to do a thorough cleaning, so I just took a water bottle and some sanitary wipes and did my best to clear up the mess. It was disgusting.
Vomit and I have a long relationship–from being punched in the stomach by my twin so hard that I vomited, to me vomiting blood as a child, to my twin also holding my vomit after overindulgence during a buffet dinner, to my older sister vomiting out the window only to get my parents in the back seat, it’s been full of adventures and not-so-good times. But it does make for interesting stories, in which I am more than willing to elaborate on each one mentioned.
One day I’ll be moving out of this college town and hopefully live in a world where you don’t fear inebriated youths waking you up on your roof or hearing 10 different Top 40 hits at the same time at 3am.
But until then, I’m trying to get used to ear plugs and gaining a little more patience. Don’t worry, I haven’t resorted to getting a license for firearms. Hopefully.
This is Amy Hu signing off for November 21st, 2011.
JUSTFIVELETTERS 