themeltingpot

There was a weird feeling I had before I am going to my friend’s wedding today. I envisioned myself sitting there myself alone with no one to talk to, since most of the his guests speak Vietnamese. The invitation time is around 7:00 p.m. but I knew the dinner will be served around 8:30 or after the long speech. In addition, the girl I invited to go with me, stood me up, she called me and make up some lame excuse. I knew that she won’t go, so I have to be understandable this time.

So, I went to the wedding alone. Fortunately, another friend of mine was also invited to the wedding. I have company finally. The wedding as I expected, taking 1 and half hour wait to serve the dinner. We waited and chatted, regardless some other Vietnamese constantly looking at us. According to Vietnamese culture, groom and bride both side families must make a speech to introduce the family members to every invited guest. Then the newly wedded couple exchange champagne and cut the cake. After the show, the dinner served. 10 items were on the menu, and they all included seafood combination. During the main course, there were always some people get on stage, and singing along the dinner. It was also VietNamese tradition I guess.

Today, it is my friend happiest day. I guess that he will be drunk and too exhausted. After all the work and serving all the guests, he should start his new life course from today. He will take on bigger responsibility. In here, I bless him, and hope that he will have a happy family, ever after. For me, I am still alone, I always question myself, when will I find the love of my life?

My younger just graduated from college 2 years ago, and she met this guy who she deeply felt in love with. She has a stable job, but he is between jobs from time to time, I guess. Her boyfriend urge her to get married at the end of this year, but my cousin’s family fiercely disagree the hasty. They only been together for a little more than 2 years. My aunt has discouraged their proposal on marriage, because he doesn’t provide financial stableness once they start their family together.

The conditions my aunt wants from their marriage are: first of all, he must be able to provide housing for my cousin. It seems impossible. He doesn’t have a stable job, and he wasn’t a saving type of person. As matter of fact, both my cousin and him weren’t the saving type. They won’t able to afford a house just now. Even with the downpayment, they couldn’t borrow money from the bank that easy with their current credit scores. Second of all, he should reconsider his career path, to find a stable job, and regardless the recent economic condition, he should having a special skill for his own. For the future sake, he should learn a special skill of his own, so he can find a better job in the future. The only encouragement is to go to night school or vocational school whenever he has time for it. Finally, he has to pay for all the wedding expenses as part of the tradition. Groom has to pay for all the expenses of the wedding.

I believe that my cousin really wants to marry this man, and she was in dilemma. Facing her family, she wasn’t able to argue with her mom and her father. Facing her boyfriend, she is in love, and she really wants to be with this man from her eyes. The only advise I can give her is follow her heart, or just delay her marriage for a couple of more years. After her boyfriend fulfilled his promise to her mom.

Everyone might have a satellite TV program installed in their houses, and the program package is chosen according to everyone’s preference. My parents chose a program that’s not so expensive, nor cheap, but we have all the basic programs that we need. The promotion package will be free installation, and a the first six months with $100 off. So every month, we only pay $25 for the first half year. After this period, the price is going back up to $35 or higher. This is a contract deal I believe. If you cut the service before the contract abide period, you might be charged penalty. Whatever reason, this business is profitable for the satellite TV company, but not for us.

Problems arisen after the promotion period. There was a period of time during the afternoon, the modem and the satellite dish has no signal at all. So my mom who stay home, she needs to watch her programs. There was absolutely no signal, and no reception. The signal will be back on at the evening time. She was infuriated with the incompetence of these machines. So, we called the customer service, if they can help solve the problem. Unfortunately, the answer they provided, that we have reasonable reception signal. If we request some technician come over to check it out. We will be charged. That seems not right, because we pay that much money, and we couldn’t watch the program we want.

That’s definitely not our fault. It is their devices failure, and they should reimburse our loss. In addition, sending out technicians might cause money, but they should satisfy our customers rights. We should get better service other than charged money constantly.

On the way I was taking a friend of mine to a clinic, we were stuck in the traffic for while, because of rush hour. We saw a billboard of GA lotto, 111 million dollars for the next lotto prize. We were gawking at the sign, and start our daydreaming. She start with a “awe”, we need to win this prize, because 111 million dollars is such a big number for us. If we win, we could do a lot of things that we never dream about before, and we can achieve our dreams sooner. I too, was fall into her daydreaming. I also share my thoughts with her.

This crazy daydreaming just start with we both going to buy a big house, and a couple of brand name cars, and travel everywhere in the world. We also need to contribute to charity if we can. She wants to help out those African children who lost homes, families, and who has no food. I wants to build a school in Mexico. Because she is a Mexican, and she is my friend too. The only problem is, she is not educated enough, and she has no interest in been educated whatsoever. I might want to build a school to help out people like that.

One more crazy thought, if either of us win the prize, we will share the money with each other. I secretly have a feeling for her for while, so I bravely say it out loud. If I win, I will take a dozen roses, kneel in front of her doorstep, and ask her to marry me. She didn’t answer me. the response I got if she win, she will share 11 million with me. After the clinic, we both bought 2 lotto tickets.

Actually, I really want to go back to school if I have that much money. I can self - finance myself, and better - educate myself. I really want to do something grand just like Bill Gate. These successful people all make a fortune by hard - work. I also want to contribute myself to hard - work.

What a frustrating day today. My mom was without a work for more half year already. She was working for a Chinese restaurant, and because of economy is dwindling. Her restaurant was facing financial difficulty. Her boss told her that they don’t need that many people currently, so my mom has to go. I was trying to find jobs for her, but she is not a good driver, and she doesn’t speak English. That’s the most difficult situation we are facing right now. So, right after she lost her job, she applied for the Unemployment insurance from the department of labor. I have to report her status weekly on the computer, in order to receive the $60 per week benefits.

Today, she receive her check again from the mail. The check only paid $30, half less than the previous checks. What is going on with the government. They said that they going to extend the benefit under Bush’s administration. Now, they are going to cut back on the regular check she receive weekly. I also doubt that is government exhaust all of its financial sources already? I was afraid. A friend of mine also file a financial help from the department of labor, and hopefully he is doing all right. Nowadays, financial situation is in disaster, we have find a way to cut back on everything, and find a way to earn extra cash for saving.

There was culture difference. Some People from Eastern Hemisphere I knew, they would do anything they can for their children. Even they have an unhappy marriage, they would rather sacrifice their happiness for the sake of their children. Because they knew that for a child to grow healthily, mentally mainly, they should have a complete family. A complete family usually constitute of a father, and a mother. On the other hand, some people from the Western Hemisphere I knew. They do everything totally opposite. I am saying that they don’t want to provide a complete family for their children. They would rather pursue the love of their lives, and in attempting to find another alternative for their children. Some might be a case of exception as you can see them in the news.

Now here is the question, morally, do you think that you should go after your happiness? Because you no longer love the man you have been with now. But what about your child? Would he/she accept the new family or would he/she disappointed with your both failed marriage? Sometimes, that is a tough choice for both parents. A friend of mine told me once. His father doesn’t really love his mom, because of the children. They rather sacrifice their dream to be happy again. They decided to stay together. Another opposite I found is that another friend of mine just go through divorce. He loves his wife; on the other hand, his wife told him that she no longer loves him again. So, one day, she took their daughter and a suitcase move out of the house. She found another love of her life we guess. His daughter got to see him once in two weeks.

I guess there is no right or wrong answer. The only answer is yourselves. We all make our own decision, what is best for your child and what is best for you.

Yesterday, my friends invited me to watch the movie “Twilight”. We thought that movie was more actions than romantic scenes. In contrary, it is such a teen romantic movie. A vampire falls in love with a regular human girl. He couldn’t make her to become vampire because he loves her so much. Otherwise, they can be immortal together, forever. Love sometimes have to learn to let go, I guess that is what he meant about it.

In our real life, love has to let go too+ sometimes, for the sake of love. There is a girl I love for while. I tried express my love to her a couple of times, at the end, it was a disaster. I failed so miserably. She treated me as one of her best friend, since I help her a lot. Maybe a cultural difference is the biggest barrier. She hardly understood my point of view on discussion, and sometimes, I have hard time communicate with her. Somehow, I still like her beyond all the stuff. I can sacrifice my time, and my stigma on helping her out on everything. At the end, I guess that I love her, that’s why I won’t calculate the reward I should get.

I understand that even I forced her to marry her, she won’t get her happiness, and she won’t be smiling like now. She is more talkative with her friends than I do, because it will be more easier for her to communicate with them. For me, she can tell me everything, but the vibe I felt, she is not that talkative around me. Somehow, I think that, I should let her go. She will be more happier I guess, around her friends, her similar being. I didn’t let go, because without her, I felt that I will be missing her a lot.

After I saw “Twilight”, love has to let go sometimes. When it is right for you, you have to make your own sacrifice. Although it is painful for you, you have to make that decision.

On the upcoming week, a good friend of mine is getting married. He sent me an invitation a month ago, and I truly congratulated him both on phone and facebook instant message. I guess that I will be the last one to tie knot among the 4 of us.

We have been friends for 10 years, and we met on college because we all took on the same classes. He was a smart guy. Actually, we considered him as a nerd back then. He was so good at computer, I actually learned a lot from him. We never thought that he will be the first one getting married, ahead of all of us here. Now, he going to tie the knot, and not surprising, he is a truly lucky guy.

Another friend of mine, he was married before, but for some reason, he left his wife. Probably the marriage was arranged by his parents, finally he called it off. He had child, probably he is 10 now, he kept on paying child support. Now, he met this girl, who he really loves. She got a baby boy with him, and finally he has to marry her. Their wedding will be on January 2009.

Both of them also send me an invitation. And they both asked me the same question. When will be my turn to tie a knot. Actually, the girl I am with now. She is not my girlfriend at all. I just want to save my face and telling a lie. I wanted her to be my girlfriend, but she never treated me as one. Sometimes, I kept asking myself, why I still be on her side. I should leave. She only treated me just like a male friend. When will I find the love of my life? Constantly, I felt disappointed, and frustrated with these questions surrounding me.

I already posted a writing before, there were numerous scamsters out there in trying to take away people’s money by all types of method. Can you ever imagine that, your friend can be one of them, even you thought that they never scam you, and you trust them all the way.

A year ago, a couple of good friends were working together. While in a conversation, they discussing how rich other people can be, and they suddenly have a whim. Why not try on a side business, to see how it goes. No matter how hard you work for somebody, you still helping other people getting rich and richer. While your salary remains the same month after month. There is no potential just working like a “slave”. They were young and energetic, and they all have their own ambitions.

In the business initialization process, they all put out some savings into the business. One of them is an accountant major, so they all trusted him to manage the money, while the others have their own duty respectively. They also apply for a discover card to pay for the necessary fees in case of operation out there. After half of a year, their business wasn’t so success. They might restart on something new.

Then, one of them received a Discover Card’s collector letter. The letter demands a repayment of $5780.00 for a past due amount. But he never use the discover card, and he has no idea of whatsoever that much money was spent. He couldn’t pay for it. He doubt that the person who manage the money is the only person who apply for this credit card. And he holds the all the information of all three of them.

Nowadays, you can’t even trust your friends. They all be scamsters, what a scary story to tell.

With downturn economy affecting all aspect of our lives, we are trying to save as much money as we can. Or we will unlikely to spend extra cash for the holidays to come. Especially there are only two major holidays left, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The retailers estimated that their sales will be slower than previous years.

Within the years of slow economy, most consumers will cut back on their unnecessary expenses. Even I too, trying not to spend too much money on something trivial. I even trying not to buy gifts for some people I barely knew, or not even good friend with. I only send gifts to those people I am well - known, and we hang out a lot. Even the restaurants too. During the Thanksgiving season, people tend to go out for dinner was less and less. Some restaurants even cut back on their staff, since there was not many people go out for dinner any more. At one time, I went to a restaurant where the owner was the wait person, and only one bus boy helping along the side.

At mall too. There were a lot of not - sold items on stock. There were many percentage off for items; but still, not many people going to buy them. even with continuous advertising. Economy really do a big turn - around on my favorite holidays. Should government distribute the stimulus package to all of us instead of those giant corporations?