Monday, March 30, 2009

Twins Mania!

Oh dude.

Ok. So nothing freaks me out more than finding out someone I have known for quite a while has a twin. It just trips me out. Not that it makes that huge of a difference, but, it's like, "Wow! You have a twin!" You get me, right?

So, check this out, celebrities who have twins! I don't know them, but I feel like I do. It's just a trip!

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/getback-celebrity-twins.html

Daddy Oh's new car

Upon returning from my island vacation, I came home to Seattle o find out my dad had crashed his car. On the day I left, he ran into a lady on an unfamiliar freeway and totaled his 1999 Mazda 626. Before I saw the car, I asked if he was hurt at all and how he felt. His simple response was, "Yes, I am fine. Nothing wrong."

For a car that was going to be considered totaled, I was shocked that he had not been hurt. We had to go to the collision center to retrieve the tires off the car and when I saw the car, I could not believe that he was perfectly fine.

Me: Dad, you didn't tell me the airbags depoloyed.
Dad: Oh yes. Ha ha! I was very surprised. All of sudden, in my face!
Me: The car looks horrible dad. Are you sure you're ok?
Dad: Ha, ha! Car is very damaged. I am ok. At that time, when I put the brakes very hard, I thought myself, oh zee (Daddy Oh equivalent to "Oh geez") this is big problem.
Me: Dad...

The side angle of the car shows the true damage and it is still amazing to me that he is perfectly fine. My dad...honestly.

So, for the rest of the weekend, I spent two days wheeling and dealing with car salesmen to buy my dad a new car. I will tell you, I hate the process. But thanks to Kyle's help and dad's sweet charm, we ended up getting an awesome deal on a Certified Used Honda Accord with low miles. It is such a pretty car...


While test driving one of the cars, my dad had been asking all kinds of questions, mostly along the lines of, "What this button does?" "Is their cooling system (A/C)?" After the test drive, we went in to the dealership and sat down across from the salesman. The guy was going through his files and looking for a certain document and just in his frustration, he said, "Looks like someone jacked my price sheet."

And my dad asked, "What is jack?"

It was really funny at the time.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Earth Hour 2009

Where ever you are, on Saturday, March 28, 2009, turn out your lights.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spare change, sir?

I am at home in Seattle for a couple of days before heading back to "he Eug" (my pet name for the city of Eugene meant to express only mild distaste for the fact that I live there...) for the start of spring quarter. Home in Seattle usually means work and a lot of that entails driving my parents around.

Today, in the midst of our flurry of errands, we stopped by Safeway to buy some fruit, because that's what Koreans do, we purchase and eat a lot of fruit. But this is all beside the point.

Coming out of the store, we walked by a dude who wasn't quite actively peddling for hand-outs because he didn't approach me for my spare change, but it seems that when he saw my dad, he piped up and asked, "Got any spare change?"

I kept walking, as I usually do, but, my dad seemed startled by the man, audibly gasped and stepped back at the request. I looked back to make sure he kept walking, only to see my dad frantically patting his empty pockets and searching for spare change as if he were being held at gunpoint. I just chuckled to myself and kept walking while my dad kept looking for something to give the man. Eventually, my dad made it to the car. I asked him how much he gave the guy and he said, "I had only very little spare change. I only gave him $0.22."

All I could say was, "That's good enough dad." That poor guy probably had his hopes up high, only to get $0.22 and a cute smile from daddy Oh.

Made me laugh.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Riders on the Bus...

Since I ride the bus almost everyday to get to school, I notice that I spend my time with a vast variety of people that I normally would not spend time with, unless -- I was sitting on a bus with them. I will say, in the beginning, it was quite an enjoyable experience to sit in the back of the bus and observe the different types of people with whom I share a ride with between my apartment and campus. It was almost humorous and sometimes even put a smile on my face. But after five months as an avid "busser", much of that novelty has worn off. Here are a few of my keen observations, gripes and daily experiences:

1. Mr. Dry-Oatmeal-in-a-Large-Tupperware-Container in a Brown-Paper-Bag Man" disgusts me now.

2. Playing the "From Where, or Whom, Is That Smell Coming?" game has lost its luster and is no longer a game, but more like intuitive curiosity. Kind of like when someone says, "Who farted?" then everyone in the room sniffs real big to 1) confirm that someone farted by smelling the fart for themselves, then 2) saying, "I don't know, it wasn't me, but yeah, someone definiitely farted."

3. Just when I thought there was no other combination to add to 1) cigarette smoke, BO and onions, 2) cigarette smoke, BO and pastrami, and 3) cigarette smoke, BO and BO, just yesterday I discovered a new combo: cigarette smoke, BO and whiskey.

4. The riders who scream while on the bus annoy me the most. Luckily that has only happened a few times.

I do give Lane Transit Authority as an entity props though for having some of the nicest bus drivers around. I miss my old bus driver from fall quarter who would always yell from the front of the bus, "Have a nice day!" whenever anyone got off the bus, or "Study hard!" when he made his drop at campus. Most of the bus drivers say "Thank you" when people depart the bus and I have not yet once had a bus come late or depart behind schedule. They do a good job here.

I guess another positive observation are the mornings where I sit on the bus and try to imagine what kind of lives these people live or have lived. How did they get here? What kind of life experiences have they had? What talents do they have that I don't? There are many fellow riders who seem very interesting to me.

In particular, we pick up several mentally challenged regulars. Same time, same place. I look at them and I see how content and happy they are. They all have some kind of carrying case for their lunch. They get off at various stops around town and I wonder where they go. Work? School? I listened to one of the girls read a story about her cat to another passenger and though I thought the story was weird and lame and feared that one day I would revert to writing a story about my cat, I was enamored by her simple affections for her fuzzy friend and the pride she took in the story she wrote.

Observing the people on the bus has become a normal part of my day and when I am not totally disgusted by the smells and the crazy things people do to their hair, it is actually an entertaining and interesting experience.