Friday: My mom and I were invited to a gathering at a Church (we aren’t Christian but the preacher knew my mom so we couldn’t just reject the invitation). Named “Who is he?”, I presumed it was to hear about Jesus Christ and I feel bad, but I admit the reason I went was for the refreshments. My mom made my aunt and grandma come as well Having to live in another borough, my mom and I showed up half an hour late and when we arrived, there was more people then we expected (some were even standing). The preacher and his wife gave up their seats for my mom and I and we ended up sitting in the front-center. There was some cheesecake and chocolate cake and although I wanted to have a piece of each, I had to limit myself to a slice of cheesecake only because it seemed I was rude enough as no other person was eating

After a couple of games that my family took no part in, there was a play. It was about a woman who grew up knowing the love of Jesus only to succumb to love, greed, alcoholism, vanity and was lastly tempted by suicide (each of these subjects were represented by a person she encounters). She tries to return to Jesus only to have all the bad influences hold her back until she falls Jesus relinquishes all these sins and picks her up again. It was dramatic with its lack of dialogue and on and off lighting.

Following the play was a whole segment on Jesus, sins, and finding the light. The woman talked in Cantonese so I didn’t understand everything since I’m not good at Chinese. I started dozing off towards the end… When it was all over, my grandma wanted to treat us all to dinner since it was late and also to make up for my mom’s birthday that passed a few days before. My little cousin was dragged along as well. She’s eight but she looks like she’s five. Apparently she hates me because I talk too much (I wanted to get along with her)—I’m not sure whether she’s serious or just shy.

Saturday: The office I volunteer at was sponsoring a Family Day event and needed volunteers. I invited two friends and we showed up at the club to help load the vehicles with the food and games. It was a bit hectic considering we didn’t have enough cars to transport everything. When we finally arrived at the park, it seems that all the food were already being taken care off by other volunteers. There was a hot dog stand, popcorn and snow cone machine, lemonade and ice tea coolers, etc. Everything was free. After putting up posters, I went to get some food and when I was done eating, I went to help serve some of the other foods (there was stuff like fried rice, low mein, BBQ/fried chicken, fish, cabbage, etc.). Two hours later, the food (except hotdogs, popcorn, snow cones) was all gone and the day isn’t over for another five hours. Some of the volunteers had to hand out flyers and I pretty much gave up on that after walking around for about an hour, so I joined Molly and Jeffrey at one of the games they were supervising. It was simple; just throw the ball through the hole and usually, this one kid would put his face behind the hole so if you hit him; you get a lollipop or a bag of chips. We stayed there for the rest of the time until we left. Sotheara, who I invited, her little sister, and Molly hung out at my house and played Rockband. I was so worn out when the day was over.

Sunday: Rebecca was celebrating her birthday yesterday (her birthday is today) because she had a track meet today. We saw the movie Vampire Sucks. It was funny but the gore was exaggerated at times. It was raining when we left the theater so we had to run all the way back to her house. We ate barbecue, we talked, and watched the movie Kick-Ass (Hitgirl was awesome). Rebecca’s birthday cakes were beautifully made. I had a slice of red velvet with cream cheese; not very fond of the latter though.

I must apologize for the lack of updates (four months pass by quickly yet so slowly). I will try to post more over the coarse of this summer considering I’ve made many more kusudamas and other origami objects that I’d like to write about. A few things have happened since the last time I updated. I went cherry-picking with my mom and her church friends (the apples weren’t ripe yet) upstate. It was a very nice experience. Our group raffled off gifts and I managed to snag a beach towel whereas my mom won 12 bowls of seafood ramen (it wasn’t very good though ). It’s probably the first time in my life I won anything My brother is the one who has all the luck. I took some photos of the scenery so I hope I’ll be able to get them up on my dead photo gallery soon.

Yesterday, I had hot pot for the first time; a treat bestowed upon me by my friend Rebecca. We went to Flushing and the restaurant was pretty neat—it had a retro modern feel and the lighting decor was beautiful and abstract. We each had our own individual pots to cook our food in… I was so full in the end and despite how costly the meal was, it was quite delicious.

This coming school year, I’ll be a Junior majoring in Media. During the summer, students in my major are assigned to complete five artworks of any medium (specifically: a self portrait using numbers, a still life that exhibits balance, a landscape with repetition, a black and white logo, an illustration of a poem). I’ve been procrastinating on this but I’ve already got some ideas for the still life and poem. Recently, I’ve been feeling doubtful of what I can do and this is mostly due to the fact that I haven’t designed anything in a while (at least a year!) I haven’t even opened photoshop in ages or coded anything (hopefully I didn’t lose to much of the skills I’ve attained over the last few years when I was more active in the web-design community ).

Aside from Media homework, I also have to read and outline three books on writing for my AP English class next year ~.~ Instead of reading those books, I am reading books like The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and other classics. Someone shoot me for distracting myself! Above all this workload, I also need to self-study for the SATs (which probably won’t even happen).

Throughout all this chaos, I’m also trying find a job so I can earn some cash to buy more art supplies