Certain realization started emerging and crystallizing, and I have been waffling a bit.
The thing is that I would love to pursue both options with equal enthusiasm.
My life is taking an unexpected detour.

Stay inside and drink plenty of water!










US Heat Index as of 1:15pm EDT

It's been 3 years with Eric! :)

I'm so forgetful that I didn't realize the anniversary until he unexpectedly called me.

I had two fillings done during my 3rd dentist visit.
It was better than the first filling, but the doc started drilling my teeth before local anesthesia was fully working!
I hope my doc can restore the remaining two cavities at once again next time. Dental Medicine in my hospital is always fully booked, and my next appointment is in September(!).

Judging from the thickness of the textbook, I am pretty sure that the forthcoming C++ class is going to be challenging and demanding!

I surrendered to the Google kingdom by installing Google Desktop, which includes the airfare comparison gadget I love!

It's pretty annoying all day when you realize that your bra strap is twisted only after you came to work.

Night in Philly:

We had a strong thunderstorm between 3pm and 4:40pm here, and the rain was so heavy until 4:40pm that I almost didn't go out to meet up with a group of people who are interested in language exchange. We met at a pizza place first and moved onto Independence Brew Pub.

The restaurant/bar was quite nice in a way that it was not smoky at all.

Time flew and it got pretty late. Philly Center City was surprisingly vibrant. I never knew that as I had never been out in the city after 9pm.
It felt pretty safe to walk alone on brightly lit Market Street, but I was glad that two guys were also heading to the train station with me.
After living in relatively safe and peaceful Urbana-Champaign for 5 years, my sense of safety/danger is a tad loose, so I tend to think that nothing will happen to me when walking alone late at night, except in NYC.
I was 90% certain about taking a subway, but still debating whether it would be safe to walk from my closest station to the apartment, recalling reading on a community message board that some people got mugged in my neighborhood.

After all, this is Philly.
[whoa, I'm really surprised that Philly is worse than Chicago! more crime rate info here.]
I changed my mind at the last minute and hailed a cab.
It cost me extra money, but it was surely the best way to go home safe and sound, rather than risking my life during the short 10-minute walk from the station.

Yuki's flight from Philly to Chicago delayed at the last minute, and she ended up coming back to my apt because she didn't have enough time to transfer to the flight from Chicago to Osaka.

Since her checked-in bag went ahead of her, it was upsetting for her not to know exactly how she was going to meet the bag again. I called United twice and two baggage service representatives said totally different things - Rep A) Pick up the bag at UA O'Hare Baggage Claim office and re-check it in. Rep B) Don't have to do anything at O'Hare because the bag will be automatically placed on the correct flight.
We simply couldn't trust them and ended up calling UA baggage service in Tokyo Narita.
Their Rep suggested us another option that she ask a check-in counter agent at O'Hare to take care of the luggage transfer, rather than going to Baggage Claim.
Yuki followed this 3rd option, and the bag arrived in Japan fine.

Anyway, I'm glad that she seemed very happy about this trip.

I spent this weekend in NYC with Yuki.
It was a freaking hot weekend!
As soon as we arrived at NYC, we headed out to a NJ town where Yuki used to live. It was a quie nice residential area.
Then we went back to NYC and walked around SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown where we had juicy delicious pork dumplings. After the sunset around 8:30pm, we went up to the Empire State Building for the night view. We had to wait for about 2 hrs in the line, though.

On Sunday, we started out late and went down to Ground Zero first. Then Yuki went to Metropolitan Museum, while I went to see Kanako, a friend of mine from Illinois who happened to be in NYC.

What happened to Yuki? I didn't ditch her... She got in touch with her old friend at the last minute and stayed with her on Sunday night.
Looks like she had a fun time!

ps. Chinatown is so smelly in the summer...

Online Grocery Shopping:

This is THE ultimate mouse potato activity.

I did it. Tonight... Eating only rice...

This is not because I am lazy, but because I don't have a car and no big grocery store is within my walking/train distance.
Although the delivery fee is charged, it's still a convenient deal for someone like me without a car.
I didn't save much time, though, since I spent a lot of time in front of my computer, thinking what to buy and loading up as many items as necessary for one month.
Yes, they deliver fresh products and meat.

Looking forward to Wed night!

I am a big mouse potato!

As if Reader's Digest knew this new entry of the M-W dictionary, one article in this month's issue compares how less calories you can burn as a mouse potato.

Walk two blocks to mail letter - 22 cal
Type email and hit sent - 9.5 cal

The "traditional" shopping involving driving and walking - 133
Online shopping and get items from mailbox - 17

Drive to a photo developer, return next day - 178
Sit at a computer and upload photos - 29



While I realize I have become a mouse potato, the cheaper prices on Amazon or convenience of emailing people abroad for free is too good to ignore.

Does anyone around my age read RD? I find it more resourceful than fashion magazines.

Japanese Star Festival "Tanabata":

Read more in English and Japanese.

The Tanabata song is beautiful. I wish you could hear me sing it!

Back from a fabulous time with IL girls and a good holiday with Eric and his family. :)

3 more teeth to fix...
Glad that a new dental resident successfully injected the right amount of anesthesia and drilled only my molar.

I am finally relieved.

This Chicago trip was booked by using a travel voucher AA had given me when I was bumbed out of a confirmed flight to Chicago last Christmas.
What? You remember me declaring that I would never fly AA?
I actually considered abandoning my vouchers, but I couldn't resist the temptation of *free* trips.
Anyway, getting back to this trip... It was only 2 days ago that I realized that seats were not assigned to me for both inbound and outbound, although I made an arrangement directly with an AA agent. Then I logged into the AA website to choose seats, and no seats were available for the Phila-Chicago trip. It freaked me out because AA might have overbooked the flight, which would cause them to bump out some people at the last minute.

At 6:30am (yes, AM) with my hightened anxiety, I called AA and they told me I had a confirmed seat and not to worry. Of course I didn't believe it at all because they couldn't give me the actual seat number.
FYI: the airline holds 10% of seats which are assigned only at the airport.


After 2 nervous days, somebody changed her/his mind this morning, and I found one available seat on the 8th row. Sweet.