behind the curtain, in the pantomime

aha back. it's been awhile. since i'm feeling uncreative and my mind is dead, i will list out my life
of the past couple weeks or so.

1. liondance for dance marathon last sat. first time under the head. messed up a bit and had no idea what i was doing but overall, successful. actually managed to "eat" the candy packages on the floor in front of us, tear it open while making "chomping" movements, and make a successful throw at the crowd, producing many surprised "oh!s" much fun and got some asthma like coughing fits after. but it was worth it. (have also finally made my way onto youtube. but i won't say where cause i suck like that :P)

2. liondance for pasadena parade last sun. actually performed on a central stage. at last minute (we never find out our parts until seconds before the performance. talk about impromptu >:|), find out i'm cymbaling for malay...which newbies haven't learned yet. proceed to make up entire part. and learn very fast indeed.

3. after liondance for pasadena, dim sum at LA chinatown's empress pavilion. SO GOOD that it obviously deserves it's own number for my list of events. haven't gone there since maybe end of middle school. proceeded to dominate at eating chicken feet (or "phoenix claws" as justin corrected). SO GOOD. i think i've said that already.

4. chem midterm last wed. no one finished on time. prof is angry at my class cause apparently everyone told later section all the midterm questions, screwing up his curve and making the average unbearably high. this is his retaliation. idiot peers.

5. liondance at usc last wed night. usc apparently doesn't have their own liondance team (suckas), invited us to perform for their pacific asian festival or something. was tail for namsi and gong for malay (this time i've figured out the parts ha.) they were kinda unorganized and things ran late. gave us food tickets and there was a mix of experiences with usc peeps. some were told, wtf are you doing here? some were treated decently. one of us got intentionally elbowed hard in the stomach by a usc-er. mind you, she is a foot shorter than me. i was going to punch someone in the face. ended up not getting food at all. at least they paid for our performance (ha.)

6. math midterm on friday. as time was called, i close the packet promptly. backside faced up, i realize i completely missed a whole question on the very last page. each question is 20 points. my stomach dropped and i froze completely over. after initial shock, my head started swimming and i felt like throwing up and crying at the same time. it was odd. could not concentrate in chem (shiz.), got back and punched a few walls. got really tired all of the sudden and napped. and napped. and kept on napping.

7. liondance at alhambra parade yesterday. in actual parade this time. never knew a parade could feel so long and time so slow (yeah, it's a weird phenomenon). routine: groups cycle from bannerholding to music (cymbals), to lions (lion head and tail switch underneath whenever partner feels tired). was almost overcome by fatigue in legs after second shift under lion and after 5th switch in total. also got my first red envelope from some lady. successful in recieving and shoving it down my shirt (yes, dirty money indeed) in a timely manner. except, after my first bow, realized i was bowing to nobody since the lady had run away. that was sad. made a baby cry too. spent too much time playing with crowd and had to "gallop" almost a 100 meters to catch up with the truck again. trust me, it was hard. also cymballed ten times as loud as anyone else cause half the people were too shy about it >:| by the end, my hearing was muffled like no other. next time, i'm bringing ear plugs dude.

(random note: parade is on the street that the "far away" 99 ranch plaza (some of you know it as "the place") is on. the one that has the TOFUPOT place my family always goes to :D. started at that corner and ran for about a mile down the street. never knew this parade existed :P)

8. dim sum after liondance at alhambra. never knew that dim sum place existed either. not as good as chinatown but hey. got my chicken feet. because i'm really whiny. SO GOOD.

9. liondance this morning to afternoon for harvard-westlake event. apparently location changed from school to some reallyreallyreallyreallyo_0really rich person's "humble" abode(not.) in beverly hills. was tail (someone tried to yank my tail away from me again >:|) for namsi.

10. seeing/being on such rich property gets its own entry as well. seriously. never seen a "house" that large. it consisted of a front yard larger than two uppermiddleclass homes with a longass gate fence thingy. garage for three cars on one side. a row of parking attendants dressed in snazzy suits opened your car doors and parked your cars if you so choosed. enter to back. backyard is huge. contained an individual building in one corner (garage number two) that held 5 cars. three more cars were parked outside. in other (far) corner, there was a huge pool and a frigging poolhouse. pretty snazzy one too.

there was a large stage (enough for four of us lions to fit) and probably 10 mics. perhaps 20 large round tables with umbrellas set up in the field, leading to a hugeass patio with the best catering i have ever had in my entire life. it was basically dim sum + variety of other main dishes including two complete pigs (i say pigs not pork because the heads and legs were fully intact). on other side of field (yes, there is still some field space available), there was a little band set up, a dumpling stand, and a BOBA stand. good boba too. also on the field, closer to the tables was a desert stand which served freshly cut fruit, lichee and peach konnyaku jellos, mochi balls, some ginger stuff with those little squishy balls inside, egg tarts, puddings, ferrero rocher? chocolates, and more o_0.

then to top it all off, the decorations were elaborate. they had trucks of flourists there, setting up the prettiest array of plantlife i'd ever seen (well, for a "small" event at some person's house). many cherry blossom branches, orchids, i don't know the names of anything else i saw there. but man. they were everywhere. lots of asian decorations too, none of that cheap chinatown stuff either. all i could keep thinking was. man, if they gave away all their money until all they had was enough for a good upper middle class life, they could probably make like 10 homeless people very well off too. but then they let us frolick and eat all their food. sadly enough, i was sedated. but. SO GOOD.


man. i've eaten quite a bit for the past couple weeks. yay chinese new year.
also, i aspire to be as good as this kid right here. some day.

if you're really bored, this is crazy, and we are so totally not allowed to do this :(

shiz. lion dance makes me really asian. o_0