America

Coming to America, I had many catching up to do. I tried to call Ping & Jim, but it seems like Ping is too busy with her newborn while Jim is on a business trip. So I did some catching up with my other friends.

There is this one Korean friend I wanted to catch up with, but unfortunately he’s caught a pretty nasty cold.

I hanged around with my Jewish friend who I have known for over 20 years. I knew him since grade school. He perhaps, one of the most pathetic life. He is a corporate accountant and tax attorney for Price Waterhouse Coopers. Don’t get me wrong, he is making very good money, but has no social life. He sat at home all day long and just work. I tried to convince him to go watch a Giants game with me, but his work is stealing his life away. He still drives that same car he had since high school and the paint is slowing chipping away. He can afford to buy himself a new car, but it’s too much of a hassle for him. Have any of you seen the movie, “The 40-year Old Virgin”? He is perhaps the closest thing. He is 35 years old and I don’t recall him having a girlfriend. 6th grade doesn’t count. His parents really worry about him, because he is so isolated. His father asked me to take him anywhere. His parents wanted him to have a life. Can you believe this? His parents wanted me to take him somewhere like Southeast Asia so he can at least experience something some of us might even take for granted, like “SEX”. Don’t get me wrong, he is not pathetic like Hideki, but extremely isolated. How often do you have a parent to ask me to take him somewhere so he can get laid? His younger bro is asking me to do the same thing for him. You have to understand this guy, he is so used to having a pathetic life. This guys loves America so much, he sometimes gets on my nerves. One time, I bought him a Soviet flag and he took this very personal. I bought it as a joke, but it took a long time for him to recover. He’s also a die hard Republican, whenever I tell him that I am going to vote for John Kerry, Al Gore or Hilary Clinton, he takes it so personal, but that is who he is. It’s because of him, I enjoy making dumb Jewish jokes.

I have this other friend I met in Bangkok, it was really weird because he is from my hometown. I never thought I would me someone from my hometown in Bangkok, which is weird. Actually I met this one friend of Deepak, who is a grad student at Harvard and she is from my hometown. Now that is weird.

Anyway, I hang around with my friend who I 1st met in Bangkok. I began to realize that I haven’t been staring at girls. Actually, I don’t do that in Japan anymore. One thing we always talk about is Thailand. Such place does not exist in the US. Coming back to America, there is really nothing much to do so my days gets longer, but I need that rest since my current job is really eating up my time and time just flies like crazy. Living in Japan, my weekend feels so short.

One thing about America, I watch as much movies I can possibly watch. In Japan, movies are always released couple months late. So far the best movie I watched is, “Just Like Heaven”.