Be Mine

I checked my mailbox at school this morning and was pleasantly surprised by a Hershey's chocolate bar from Steph and a box of Nerds from Tina.  Unfortunately, the Nerds came with one of those elementary school Valentine's Day cards, and this one in particular didn't necessarily do much to reaffirm my sense of masculinity.  Thanks a lot, Tina...

And, completely unrelated to the above, I was kind of in a funk all day today.  I can't exactly pinpoint what it was that put me in a bad mood, but I dunno, maybe it had something to do with the, oh, TERRIBLE HEMATOLOGY LECTURES or the IMPENDING DOOM OF CUMULATIVE FINAL EXAMS or the OMNIPRESENT THREAT OF BOARDS.  Whatever the cause, I'm issuing a blanket apology to anyone that I may have annoyed with my sourpuss demeanor.

On the bright side, all of my anger disappeared after I got off of the phone with Dia Dia and Niang Niang, which is what I call my maternal grandparents.  I had called them earlier tonight to wish them a happy Chinese New Year.  As it turns out, several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were already at the house, getting ready for New Year's Eve dinner.  Naturally, they passed the phone around until I got to catch up a little bit with everyone that was there, which took over half an hour.  It's been over two and a half years now since I last saw any of them, and talking to them just now made me realize how much I miss everybody.  Apparently they don't miss me quite as much, though: my uncle won't permit me to come back until I've found a girlfriend AND taught her how to greet him properly in our village dialect.  Such typically high Asian standards...