Sunday Breakfast With Friends

Today is my first gathering among many future gatherings with friends that I vowed to do on the day of my dear friend's funeral. I'm happy that I got it started and I had a great breakfast as a result.  I'm sure this is how my dear friend would have wanted me to handle my loss of his friendship.  Life is too short to not celebrate everyday with friends.  But since it's really impossible to do so everyday, I want to do a gathering at least once every quarter.  I can't believe I had been so crazy in the past that I literally didn't care to make an effort to see my friends, very often for years.  It was appalling that I spent more time surfing the internet than time with my friends and family.  Having the strawberry cream cheese toasts with my friends this morning, I had just started to change that.

Remembering A Dear Friend

I'm not good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries, but Jan 18 will now be the day I will always remember, because it's the day when I shuffled dirt into my dear friend's grave in tears. I never kept track of his birthdays because like me,  he was the kind of people who didn't care much about his own birthdays. His birthdays always varied during the years when I was working with him because birthday cakes would just show up randomly on whatever day that was convenient for all of our colleagues to gather to sing him a birthday song.  But I will always remember yesterday because it was the day I sent him away. Yesterday was our last get-together since the great lunch we had about 2 years ago, which felt more like 2 days ago.

I never expected that among all my friends, the one whose company I enjoyed the most, the one whom I found to be the funniest, the most supportive and non-judgmental, the one whose assurance I sought when I doubted myself, was this serious looking man with this dramatically deep voice. I was never convinced that friendship could transcend age, race, sex and religion. But now I am a firm believer that people can literally be the best of friends regardless of age, race, sex and religion. I'm the same age as his kids and yet I consider him to be my best male friend and the only platonic male friend in my life.  He was always like a second father to me.  

I feel very sad for losing him.  It just feels weird that he seems to be so alive now that I'm reading his last emails to me.  For these two days, memories of him have been flashing across my mind, like movie trailers.  I just don't have one single bad memory of him.  There was just never a bad moment between him and I, not once.  I had fights with my own father, argument with my own mom. But with my dear friend, it was all comfort, fun and laughter, even when we were working on the most exhausting projects together.

My dear friend was always there for me when I needed help.  Among so many things he had done for me, I can't help but smile when I remember that once he got rid of the 20-pounds bag of rice and other junks that I had carried in my car's trunk for years. I didn't even feel embarrassed when he shockingly discovered that I was driving around with these junks for years.  It was because I just felt so comfortable around him.  This is what real friendship feels like.  I can't thank him enough for cultivating my professional capabilities. He was the one to see the talents in me when I didn't have the self-confidence to see them myself.  He was always being such a good listener. His sense of humor and his positivity lifted my spirits up when I felt down.  I miss him tremendously and I'm sorry that I hadn't visited him enough when I lost myself in climbing the corporate ladders elsewhere.  I felt there would always be time for me to take him and his wife out for lunch again. But I was wrong. 

Yes, I can almost hear his voice now, telling me, "Don't feel sorry! Life is too short for that! We are all short of time to do all the things we want to do. Besides, aren't we on diet?"  So, to honor my dear friend,  I will now regularly schedule a  get-together brunch with his wife and family, our common friends and our old colleagues who used to work with us.  I want to take his passing as an opportunity to build new relationships with the people he deeply cared, and to re-unite with our common friends he so cherished.

This Joke Put A Happy Ending To My Exhausting Day

I bought the hard copy edition of this book when it first came out years ago.  I however hadn't read it until today when I was riding the taxi back to the hotel.  I brought this book along with me for this work trip because one of my resolutions for 2017 is to always keep one of the unread books that I bought in my briefcase so I could at least flip a few pages during my transit; if not to finish reading the entire book.

It was at the end of page 20 that I came across a funny prank that Zappos.com's CEO Tony Hsieh pulled on his boss when he was working as a part-time computer programmer at a software company during his senior high school year.  One time when his boss was heating the water in the microwave to make tea, Tony stopped the microwave right after his boss walked away so his boss returned to find the cup of water still cold inside the microwave.  Unaware of Tony's prank, his boss just turned the mirowave on for 3 minutes again and walked away.  But soon as he walked away, Tony stopped the microwave again.  When the boss returned again to get the water, he found the water still cold. He cursed the microwave for being broken. This time he set the heating time for 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes out of frustration and walked away.  But when he returned 5 minutes later, he found his cup inside the microwave filled with ice cubes.  This was now somewhere on page 21, and I was laughing out loud.

May be you don't find this joke as funny as I did, I just want to share it anyway...

I'll Try To Appreciate Wherever Place I Visit

I've been here in Philadelphia for work for a few days now.  I never liked work travel because I'm a homebody and I just don't have a travel bug like the rest of my family have.  I often feel stressed out during traveling, may be because of the hassle at the airport, and the fact that I am phobic about being trapped in a plane cabin for hours.  One of my 2017 resolutions is to feel more appreciative of the workplace where my employer sends me.  While this is definitely not the best season or weather to be in Philly, I  will try to see the beauty of "The City of Brotherly Love" for as long as I am here.  I will try to find time to do some of the things recommended by the video while I'm here.  I have a relative living in a senior community in about an hour from here, I will overcome my dislike for driving and pay her a visit that has been long overdue.

My New Weekly Detox Mask Routine For 2017

I never had a beauty routine besides putting on makeup in the morning.  But years of wearing makeup without any skincare regiment is now hurting my skin with breakouts and acne.  Since I started working, I had become so busy that I had totally ignored my own skincare.  Before I knew it, such neglect had become a bad habit for years.  So beginning this year, I'm determined to do at least one 10-minute detox clay mask on the weekend. I received this Face Mask Trio as a Christmas gift and I'm now wearing the clay mask while I'm typing.  It smells pretty nice with a sweet citrus scent. The label says the clay mask is crafted with three types of clay, namely the Benetonit Clay Kaolin Earth Clay, and Illite Green Clay. It’s designed to clean the pores and remove excess oils. And it has a blend of essential oils – including orange peel oil, lavender oil, and sandalwood oil – to help relieve dehydration and lend a refreshing, uplifting scent. 

So I will see if this detox mask will help clear my skin.  Meanwhile, it's time for me to go wash it off.

P.S. If you want to join me in maintaining this detoxing facial routine for the rest of the year, (you can use whatever detox mask of your preference), you can copy my routine to your Google calendar, or you can subscribe to my skincare routine reminder to remind yourself of a detox mask every weekend:

I Finally Checked All My Lottery Tickets

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to declutter my handbag which is full of receipts, business cards, restaurant take-out menus, credit cards, keys and beauty products.  So while re-organizing my handbag today, I found several lottery tickets that I purchased during the last 3 months but I hadn't checked them against the winning numbers yet.  I don't know why I've been carrying these lottery tickets for months without bothering to check whether any of them was a winning ticket.

According to the law of attraction, my kind of mindset regarding the lottery is of course the reason why I didn't win. But at least I can now finally lose some clutter in my handbag by tossing those old lottery tickets in trash. I didn't expect to win so I didn't bother to check the tickets. I can't believe that I actually bought those tickets with the expectation to lose.  How negative of me!  

While I had never won any lottery, I will still play whenever a lottery ticket vendor happens to be around one of my errand stops. I won't be playing with my old attitude thinking,  "I'll be struck by lightening before I win the lottery."  I will train my mentality to become more positive while playing the lottery.  

The bible says, "Keep sowing your seeds, for you never know which one will grow - perhaps they all will."  So I will keep buying the lottery tickets, for I never know which one will turn out to be the winner. After all, a lottery ticket costs a lot less than a cup of Cafe Latte at Starbucks.

Let's Have A Bright & Sparkling 2017!

I had a very enjoyable New Year's Eve a couple days ago, even though I had missed the fireworks in Hong Kong.  I didn't celebrate on the eve of 2014, 2015 or 2016 but I danced through to 2017 with fantastic strangers at one of my favorite restaurants full of very nice and hospitable people. Thank you guys for dancing and partying with me even though you don't know who I am.  Your company made my New Year's Eve 2017 really special.  I haven't had so much fun for years, and I think it's a good change for me.

Now, one of the items on  my New Year's resolution list is checked-off, that is, party with complete strangers and just celebrate the moment.  As for the firework show that I missed because of this, I'm watching and enjoying it right now.  (Note: Fast forward to 1:22 to skip all the introductory chatter.)

Happy New Year everybody, and don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone this year. You will be happily surprised by the new friends you will make.