Category: Daily Life

My niece was born on Sunday at 2:02 PM. She is looks amazingly like my sister. So cute. Unfortunately, every time I’ve visited she’s been asleep.

My mom has been visiting Laura and baby every day as well. She’s been calling herself mom’s mom because grandmother made her feel too old. She finally conceded to being called grandmother today.

My dad visited Laura on Monday. He said that baby is cute as well. Laura and Steven told me that he looked a little uncomfortable around baby, and that he didn’t want to pick her up until she could be dropped without breaking. Hehe. My dad is funny.

I didn’t visit baby today. I wanted to go do some grocery shopping and buy some flannel pajama pants because it’s been too cold lately. I only got to go grocery shopping. No flannel PJ pants from Gap for me. I didn’t get out from work until 8:30ish.

Maybe I go visit baby tomorrow. Maybe too much Erika? Need rest from people? I want to visit on Saturday or Sunday when baby is awake.

(I’m currently waiting on news about my sister. She’s at the hospital waiting to give birth.)

This year, my mom and I decided to accept Mr and Mrs Wasserman’s invitation to their Thanksgiving dinner. My mom made green beans and sesame seeds as our contribution. They had standard Thanksgiving fare like turkey, corned beef, and ham. I don’t like turkey and corned beef, so I had ham. Well, I’m not a fan of ham either, but it was tasty.

I kept on rubbing Laura’s belly. I also played with Korokke (the nickname I’m going to give for Laura’s newphew from the Wasserman side). A very hyperactive 2 year old. I think he’s going to be left handed. He kept on tossing his lion toy with his left hand.

I was supposed to go see Harry Potter with Adam, but that didn’t work out.

I did finally see Harry Potter last night. It was good and where they split up the last book was good. I walked away very satisfied.

The game I’ve been working on for most of the year was finally released this Tuesday. There weren’t any fanfare for the Wii version, but quite a lot for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 versions.

Monday night I went to the Gamestop midnight launch event in West Hollywood. There were a bunch of my coworkers there as well. We signed a lot of stuff and it felt very surreal. I was the only Wii person there.

Call of Duty: Black Ops. Buy it.

Halloween this year fell on a Sunday, so the party night was the 30th.

A friend of mine threw a party at his new condo near the Hollywood Bowl, so that’s where I headed with Adam. Overall, it was a good party, but not a lot of food. The cohost of the party was baking pigs-in-a-blanket all night, which were good, but way salty. I also helped make punch, but it kinda got ruined when someone kept on poking and playing with the frozen hand in the punch. Hello! That’s not exactly decoration! It’s food! No seconds for me with the punch.

We left around midnight. I didn’t do much the entire day, but I was still tired. Being around people I’m unfamiliar with tires me out as well.

Sunday, I went to Costco to buy candy for the trick or treaters. Afterwards I went to Mitsuwa to eat cake with my mom. I haven’t done that in a really long time, so I thought I’d take her there. I had a cheesecake. My mom had something with a lot of fruit on top. We also had a chestnut and rice bento. I forgot that there was ramen there. No ramen for me. Sadness.

When night fell… The kids came out… Ok, there weren’t a lot of kids, and I knew that my area doesn’t have a lot of kiddies, so for each trick or treater, I gave a nice handful. Some of them must have been in middle school. I don’t think there were any high schoolers tonight. There were a few really shy kids, too. I really liked the small, shy kids. Toddlers, really. They were really cute.

Woohoo! I made it through the baby shower!

Well, once that started it wasn’t that difficult. I had awesome friends helping me. I tend to get confused with a lot of people around, sorta ADD like and they helped quite a bit. Laura’s mother-in-law (I’ll call her W-obasan) was super helpful, too. She brought so much food! And Jody’s grandmother brought such delicious chicken salad. Shiz brought yummy cream puffs and tarts. There was a pumpkin pie from Chiaki (I think), but we didn’t get to crack that open. Sadness, because I love pumpkin pie. My mom made futomaki and inari zushi, her specialities. Everything was really delicious! 美味しかった。

Since I spent most of the week cleaning house (and sneaking in SC2), and that left me little time to plan any games. I googled baby shower games and picked the first few that required a pencil and paper at the most. I never realized how many silly and weird games there were. Also found out that a baby eel is called an elver.

After food, and games, there were cake! I bought a strawberry cake from Cake Kobo and I was sorely tempted to write something silly on the cake, like “Aliens!!!” or the like. I didn’t think Laura would like that, so I had them write, “Congratulations on the baby girl!” So I couldn’t think of anything else. I thought it was weird to write, “Welcome Baby Ume*” when she wasn’t even born yet.

Everyone loved the cake. Some people got seconds. Me included.

Still running around like a chicken with her head cut off. I tell you, ADD.

Finally, we get around to unwrapping all the gifts people brought. Laura got a high chair, swaddling blankets, lots of cute clothes and diapers. People were so kind. :)

After the unwrapping, that’s when most of the people left. A few left earlier. I handed out a lot of baby shower favors. Soap again. You’d think I’m obsessed with cleanliness since this is the 2nd time I’ve given soap away as a favor. No, I just don’t like giving away things that aren’t useful. And aside from nicely packaged soap, I don’t know what else would be useful. If anyone can think of something else that could be useful, please do let me know!

*Ume is not the baby’s real name. I’m just using it as a blog nickname for her.

There’s only one more day left before Laura’s baby shower. I need to go look up games. I need to go pick up favor bags.

Most importantly… I need to finish cleaning!

I did such a good job cleaning the counter tops in the kitchen. Can I eat off of it? I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s still not done either. I need to mob the kitchen floor and vacuum the living room. After that I can put up the decorations.

I’m also spending the morning with Laura to see the baby in her tummy.

I guess there won’t be a lot of SC2 tomorrow. How sad.

Aside from going in to work for a little bit on Monday, I am on call for the week. That means I’m going to be playing a lot of FFXI, FFXIV, and SC2. Now you may be asking, Erika, how are you going to play 2 MMOs and an RTS at the same time? Well… I’ll get back to you on that one.

Since I don’t have work, I decided to make a trip down to Irvine for some fun with the UCI Anteater Band. So I was a little late. And I think I was the only non-freshman in the flute section. There was no one I recognized in the section. :(

I did get a free t-shirt. Its says in large letters on front: Antourage

Entourage. Get it? …Yeah, what the hell?!

Other things I need to do. Clean the kitchen. I think I’ll work on that Wednesday morning. Hopefully, I’ll be able to wake up at a decent hour. Like by 9 AM. Maybe I should set an alarm.

I also bought some baby shower decoration at party city as well. Half the store was covered in Halloween gear. Halloween baby shower? Laura’s giving birth to a half-vampire alien child!!! I would have totally gone for that, but I doubt Laura would have liked it…

I finally get a day off on Sunday. I think it’s the first one since August.

Well, technically, I’m on call, so I’ll have to keep my cell phone nearby and be ready to go to work if I’m needed.

My mom wants to go to the 第１０回 Beauty Forum tomorrow at the Torrance Marriott Hotel. I think she’s too obsessed with how she looks. She thinks I’m not concerned enough about how I look. If I wasn’t concerned, I wouldn’t have sunblock to my face every day for the last 20 or so years. I just don’t care to present myself as something I’m not.

Some of the other things I need to do on Sunday… Buy more pellets for my bunny, start organizing baby shower stuff, clean house, install software on my new computer, and whatever else I need to do that I’m forgetting right now.

Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, work workworkwork, go home, shower, sleep.

My days are blurred together now. 今日、何日だっけ？I forgot.

(Gah! I hate it when a program crashes without saving)

(Gah! I hate it when it does it again!)

No, I did not run the Disney half-marathon, although I want to one day.

I went to the Disney Half-Marathon to cheer on the runners with the UC Irvine pep band. We cheered, we clapped, we played music. CSU Fullerton’s band was there, too, and the bands took turns with the music.

I think this was the only time where Fullerton and Irvine weren’t competing against each other. We even agreed… Long Beach sucks! (Sorry, Rocchan! Not like she reads my blog… Not like she even cares!)

After the half-marathon, I went to work. Yeay! Totally sleepy though, driving to work from Anaheim. Bleh.