Fortune Cookies / Lame Weekend

For the past week and a half, I have become vegetarian in honor of Navartri, a religious holiday. In college when I was more religious, I knew the significance of the holiday and most other holidays. Now, I am pathetic and don’t even know why we are celebrating it. In any case, I usually get three calls now before any major holiday. Both of my sisters call me to remind me of the holiday and tell me avoid to eat any meat or eggs. Then my mom calls and reminds me not to eat omelettes. I think it’s hard for her to acknowledge that I eat chicken, so this is her way of telling me that.

It is amazing how much of my diet revolves around meat. Salads, burritos, sandwiches are just not as filling without chicken. As a result, I have resorted to eating burritos, Indian food and Chinese food every day. The one thing I have to admit to liking a lot is a chile relleno burrito. I never knew this existed... it is a chile relleno in a burrito with all the fixings….its the best thing ever…

For lunch, I have been going to this ghetto Chinese spot that makes great tofu dishes... Anyhow, at the end of the meal they always hook up some fortune cookies (i know this is common, but I have been to some where they dont give any out). Now, I know many people find these very cheesy, but for me this is best part of the meal. I know they just pull this shit out of a box, but I feel there is always a reason why I got the specific cookie that I got. I tend to pay attention to the fortunes and this type of shit. In fact, in the morning, I don’t grab the sports section or the business section - for me, there is nothing as peaceful as reading the comics, horoscope and the jumbles over eggs.

In any case, this week was weird because I had some friends say some fortune cookie like shit to me. Normally 75% of the things that come out of our mouth is all bullshit, but every so often I hear some advice or a saying that really sticks to me. No I am not talking about SIE, EAD, or GFY (suck it easy, eat a dick or go fuck yourself, respectively), but some real shit.

Incident # 1
After spending the last two weeks cranking on a deal which finally announced on Thursday, I finally got to chill with some friends. Despite waking up for a 4:30AM call, I had the urge to go out and enjoy my new found freedom. Around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, I bounced to watch the NCAA tourney at a bar with some of my work buddies.

After grabbing a quick dinner at a friends pad, I bounced to meet my friend from out of town. I wanted to show him a good time in the city, and sent to texts to a bunch of people to see if anyone had plans. Of course, the only one who responded was T, who said he was at Bayside. I called up my boy and he said he was not done eating dinner, so I decided to roll to Bayside solo. Even though we were the last party in the bar, it turned out to be a decent time. One of the highlights was seeing an old friend who I had not seen in over 3 years. The best part @ hanging with her is the fact that we all make fun of her for going to HBS, being Asian, pretty much anything and everything. The fact she is so sensitive about this stuff and gets all defensive makes it only better.

Anyhow, as we were catching up, I guess I started talking about my work and how the hours were getting to me and just bitching in general. Given that most of the people I joined this industry have left to bigger and better things, sometimes I feel bad that I have not made the jump. Anyhow, she listened to me bitch and then reminded me "There is honor in every job."

While it does sound cheesy, for some reason this stuck to me. I think her point is valid. Each job has a purpose and needs to get done. A trash man can have honor and respect, because without him society would not function. Is his contribution less than someone who lets say is a Doctor? - arguably yes, but still I guess the point is that one still needs to remember that their role is needed. It is interesting that I compared my job to that of a trash man, but in any case it does make me feel better about being a banker.

Incident # 2
Later that night, my boy finally freed up and told me where he wanted to meet up. Gold Club. Now believe it or not, I was not too excited to roll to this spot, but given that my friend was there, I felt compelled to visit him. Now if you believe that last statement, we should really sit down and play some poker... Anyhow, my friend was here on business so he was comping all of our drinks and dances (I invited a couple of coworkers to roll). There were about six of us there, and I got to imagine he must have spent 1-1.5gs on us. As we were leaving, he looked to me to see if we could get some sort of receipts for the dances so he could expense it. I asked the manager and the best he could come up with is some business card. Now of course, if your business card has a half naked lady on it, it probably will not work. My friend was like "fuck it" and told me he would just eat the cost. I felt pretty bad because it was a substantial amount of scrilla and if I were in his shoes, I would want people to chip in. Anyhow, then I got my next "fortune". He responded "Friends don’t talk about money - they talk about good times…" Again, something that for me stuck.

The last year I got into a couple big arguments with some good friends about $$. For instance, I started to notice certain people would always disappear when it was their turn to by drinks, or never seemed to pay enough for their meals. Rather than letting it slide, I made an issue of it, and almost lost a couple important friendships. Anyhow it was good to reminded of what a true friend is and how much that is more valuable then a couple dollars, or in this case a couple hundred dollars.

The Lame Weekend
I think the combination of the deal, the vegetarian diet, and the shitty weather made me completely lazy this past weekend. Instead of the hitting the bars on Friday night, I went to yoga. (insert jokes here…..). My good friend from Cal had just opened up a yoga studio, so I thought this would be a good way to support her and destress.

The one highlight of the night was I found out the one of my boys got into b-school. This chintu did not tell any of his homies or even his parents that he was applying - as a result, when he told us we were shocked and happy. This guy has been around the city for the past 5 wknds and I think he has been at our pad at least every other weekend to drink, party or just watch the game. He is definitely a character and he will missed.

Even on Saturday, I did not do jack shit. After spending a several hours in the morning at work, I went to a bbq in the park for a friend’s party. Even though the weather was shitty, it did still feel good to be outdoors. We ended up killing some beers and watched the LA game and Borat. I then texted everyone I knew to come to a party the white boys was having at this place Butter, which is the quintessential SF dive bar. They serve 40's, jello shots and tater tots. Of course, no one replied except T, which in retrospect was good, because I ended up crashing and waking up at 12. I felt so bad for missing his party, I rolled over and got there by 12:30 only to find out that the bday boy had puked 3 times already and everyone went home. You have to love the white boys. They party hard.

I wish had more interesting stories for the rest of the wknd. Outside of some volunteer shit I did not Sunday, I spent the day at work. I honestly think this is the first time in a long time that I have not partied at least one night over the wknd. While it does feel good to catch up on sleep and save some $$, I do feel like I am a missing out and not taking advantage of being young and single. Hopefully, this wknd will be better - we are having the big farewell party for my boy. Models and Bottles. Models and Bottles.

To get you amped for this wknds games, check out the D2 Championship Game. This shit is unreal. Though I am out of both pools, all I got to say it’s about the Pac-10. You will see me rooting for the Bruins on Sat.