End of the fifth...

Friday: Finally, with the passing of Physics, the handing in of my infamous 6-page term paper, and the finishing of every project I owe Mr. Rothenberg, the feeling of liberation (at long last) that I felt acutely in my diaphragm (the thing under your lungs, thank you very much) felt muchly like excitement as I sailed down to wifey's house in Queens. To my mild surprise, her mom was home (unlike what she'd told me online through devART notes), meaning what thus awaited me right away was a full-scale lunch with me treated the traditional Chinese way as the grand guest of the household. Slightly embarrassing, yes, and it gave me the usual guilty feelings for receiving so much attention; for a moment, I was slightly disturbed as I pondered the possibility that her mom had stayed home instead of having gone to work for the pure purpose of receiving me at her house. For those of you who don't know, she has always been resentful of the fact that wifey didn't get into Stuy some three years ago (but did manage Bronx Sci) while I did, thus I've automatically been classified as the (parent-)approved friend who is "welcome to drop by the house whenever I'd like", plus yadda yadda.

Anyway, when Jing was done happily filling herself with the variety of noodles plus chicken plus whatever else there was that she doesn't remember, I was guided straight away to wifey's computer...and facing me was the first Wacom tablet I have ever seen, and then touched, in my life. She made me testy-testy it out on Open Canvas for a while, although I could think of nothing to draw except scribbling curly lines and circles and random phrases of greeting and then being mesmerized at how smooth and easy all the lines made, were. And of course, I understood what people meant when they say it takes a while to adjust to: the pen in your hand, and the surface, felt too much like drawing with a real pencil on paper. I had to fight to make my eyes stare at the computer screen instead of looking down as I did anything. I wasn't compelled to sit down and try my first Oekaki with a tablet, but instead looked and poked around the room, coming across wifey's art projects and being reminded of how much I miss having someone who could really draw, whose "style" can so easily blend in to/with my own. We spoke of doing online collabs via Open Canvas, again, and I decided that at the next chance I get, I will start to seriously practice my amature OC-skills instead of complaining about the system's rather-radical differences to Oekaki...

And I played Star Ocean: Til the End of Time...a lot. Or rather, in reality, I stared and played as Albel a lot. Dammit. >_<; His character design is just too awesome. Anyway, wifey helped me get into that mode where party characters get to fight each other and whatnot, so naturally I was Mr. Nox in his normal mode, while CP1 was Albel in a different costume, and CP2 was the ugly girl Sofia. Really, Star Ocean is quite sad a game...every single character looks just so incredibly ugly and untasteful, EXCEPT the one BIG EXCEPTION of Albel Nox. He looks clearly of a different (and way hotter) style than everyone else, it was more than just a wee bit ridiculous. Anyway...as I was saying. It was even sadder how in the three-way battle, the computer Albel wouldn't leave me alone for whatever reason, so I had to slash him back more than I had time to even get close to Sofia, while all the time she was raining long-range attacks on both of us...the end result being I was actually the first one killed, and then the computer Albel was also killed, and the ugly Sofia ended up winning. Shaddap.

I stayed until three forty or so in the afternoon, with the promise that I will be back Monday, if I get back from Faye's house in the morning that day... The weekend that faces me now is the most carefree one I've had in such a long time, I feel uncomfortable and even slightly scared at the thought that for once, I actually, truly, have no work do at all. Except to worry and look forward to Tuesday...the first day of the long-awaited-for spring term, and my new program, and--and nothing else, actually, since really about everything in my life would depend on that new program. Everything from college, to JaPhW. Actually, scratch that last part. Since it's spring term, and dangerously assuming I will see more of W as tradition in the last two years went, I wouldn't particularly care nearly as much about the other two... Juggling one Brother W would tire me mentally as well as physically to my extremes already. Yet, this isn't to say I'd be happy if the program office would happen to will that our paths to not cross three times during a spring term...

I think the real odd thing, as of now, is the fact that I'm at Faye's house while she herself isn't even here, and won't be until sometime Sunday. But eh, as we know, Chinese New Year...people would scarcely expect me to spend that time alone. I know my landlady would have invited me for perhaps a dinner or two, and so would perhaps have my neighbors, and even Laura's grandma had mentioned such a thing as she told me. Whee for the year of the dog. Whee.