Last night, I went with Belinda, et al to this Mexican restaurant for karaoke. The place was small and a bit cramped with all the people there. All Latinos. Belinda sang a song or two. I sang a Paulina Rubio song. And Belinda and I did one of our famous :) duets: "Always" by Atlantic Starr. We did the only English song that night, heh.

When I entered the place, I saw this guy sitting at a table and I thought to myself, he looks familiar; I think I know him... And I thought back and decided he was probably this guy I met last year when I went to Tammy's birthday party at the restaurant her sister works at. It was this guy that worked there who I thought was kinda cute. Later on that night before he was about to leave, when he walked by me I touched his arm. And he looked at me and was like, "hey, wassup, girl." lol. So cute in his fob accent. :) So we spoke briefly asking how the other was doing. Then he asks if I have a cell now to get my number. I'm thinkin' - this fool ain't call me the last time I gave him my number! :-P But he goes into his phone and my name was in there, then I give him my digits. Wonder if he'll call this time. His English seemed pretty good. I don't remember if he really spoke it that well the last time I saw him. But then, I just spoke to him in Spanish that one time.

So when I first walked into the place and we're heading to a table, this guy stops me talkin' 'bout he likes hair like mine, with curls and what not. I think he gave me some line, and even touched my face. I just smiled and said thank you. And he was sweatin' me the whole evening. You should have seen him. He asked if we could get to know each other outside of the bar. I said maybe, but I suppose I'm leaning more towards "maybe not." I tell ya, I need to learn to say what I really mean and stop being too nice. He also told me I spoke Spanish very well, that I spoke it better then all the Central and South Americans and Boriquas and Dominicans and what not, that he understand everything I was saying. I think he was just referring to how I enunciate and mostly speak "proper" Spanish. Weirdo. When he asked me what I was, I told him to guess. First he guessed the Philippines... He also said Peru. Ha.

Anyway, at least Belinda didn't get arrested this time. :) haha. Got home around 2 or 3, I think. I woke up about 7 for some reason, the alarm on my phone went off. I don't remember setting it. So I let my dog out and fed him. Then I went back to sleep cuz I'm lazy like that. I was in and out of sleep during that time. And funny, I think I kinda started thinking about that Cambodian guy I met the other night and then he called. This was around 10:30 this morning and we spoke for two hours. Still don't know how I should feel about him. But he seems like cool peeps.

He's told me several times how he perceived me as a conservative person. Good observation. :) He also told me he thought I was Cambodian when he saw me. He even said that he knows this one Cambodian girl that looks just like me. And it turns out he's not full-blooded Khmer. He was born in Phnom Penh and speaks the language, but his dad is actually Chinese/Vietnamese and his mom Chinese/Khmer. He wants to learn Spanish and I wanna learn Khmer, so we got a good trade off. I'm gonna impress my mom now. :)

Hmm... I wonder what today will hold in terms of what I end up doing. There's a chance I'll go to the movies with Tara and Taneka. I should try to be studious and read some books.

This week was the worse in terms of commuting for me. Getting him between 9:30 and 10:30 every night this week and having to wait for my stupid parents to pick me up is a pain in the ASS!! Although, Tara was kind enough to get me last night and I got home "early". Like 9:15. :-P

Wednesday I went back to the deli in the building down from mine since the one in my building was closed. This time I talked to the brother of the one Palestinian guy I was chatting with last time. We were talking about Arabic and accents and stuff. He said my accent was nice - not Gulfi (the countries in the Gulf, e.g. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait), but that it was more Levantine (FYI: the Levant is the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine). Heh. That's funny, cuz I didn't think I had really developed an accent yet, at this point. But I guess since my dear friend Nadine is Lebanese, perhaps some of her speech has rubbed off on me.

Yo, last night was a crazy night. I ended up going to the club with Belinda. Danced a tiny bit of salsa, a bunch of merengue, then some bachata. And then danced to reggaeton. Got tired of all that and went to look for Belinda, who hadn't come back from the bathroom like she said she was going. Found her in another room. Ended up dancing to some old school joints - eighties/early nineties jams. Met some Cambodian peeps. There was a rack of 'em. I gave my number to one cuz he was askin' if we could hang out some time. I'm cool with that. I wanna be with my Asian peeps some time. And there was this other Khmer guy. And I thought he was kinda peepin' me so I made an excuse to go over to him. Examined his necklace and either asked him if it was Buddha or if he was Buddhist - it was kinda dark in there.

So I was dancing with this dude and then I think I stopped and was talking to another one of the guys. Then the guy with the Buddha necklace later comes back for me to dance with him. He was tall and skinny. And he had cornrows! Imagine that. :) Anyways, we exchanged numbers and I've talked to him several times since. Hmm... We'll have to see wassup with that cuz I don't know what to think about him...

Okay, this is why last night was crazy - Belinda nearly got arrested! A-ha. It's kinda funny now lookin' back on it. Somehow a dude she was dating and his roommate started scrappin'. Dude was fed up with how his roommate would always try to get with the girls he was seeing. And Belinda had mentioned how the roommate had made passes at her. So, guess he couldn't take it no more and punched the guy. I didn't see it happen. I was busy talking to one of the guys that worked in the club. Then I heard a bit of a commotion behind me and saw some kind of scuffle but didn't think nothing of it, really. Later I saw the roommate and he didn't look to happy. I asked him what was the matter and he just shook his head. Then he told me my friend was outside getting arrested. I'm like, WHAT?!? Ya know?

So I go outside the club and see my girl pushed up on the hood of a police car being cuffed. I went over to her and she's all talking about her constitutional rights and how he needs to read her her rights cuz she hadn't done anything wrong. And the guy who was tryna cuff her was an asshole, naturally. Why do people think a fuckin' uniform gives them license to be jerks? Belinda told me to get her phone. I'm like, where is it? She said she dropped it on the floor inside. Luckily when I went back in and after I looked on the ground not seeing anything, I talked to a guy that worked there and told him my friend had dropped her phone when the fight broke out. So he produces from his pocket the cell phone.

I go back out to Belinda and she's just wondering if her neighbor/friend had called cuz she wants to know if she's alright (due to some other unrelated drama). So she has me listen to the voicemail. And that fake-ass cop tried to tell me to back up. I just looked at him and did not budge cuz I do not like to be talked to in any disrespectful way, especially since I wasn't doing anything wrong. Anyways, I bet if he wasn't tryna come off as some hardass, it would have been much easier to handle this whole biz.

Basically, according to Belinda, he cuffed her cuz she was trying to stop the guys from fighting. She said that when he grabbed her, she wasn't even doing anything, not touching anyone. And she said something about the cop guy saying that when a cop tells you to back up, you need to back the fuck up. Ugh. When I first saw Belinda, I was tryna tell her not to talk back so much, to chill. Of course it was futile to say it. But I was telling her, don't worry, I'm your witness, and some crap about my dad's a cop... lol. And I was telling her not to say anything and we'll take down his info and what not. She said she couldn't even see his badge and that she didn't think he was a cop.

And later the cop was saying he'd let her go if she stopped actin' up, but she was still tryna run her mouth and we're tryna hush her up still. Then another fight breaks out right by the cop car and Belinda's like - see? You're gonna arrest me and I haven't done anything and let those guys fight? Anyways, he eventually let her go so we were like, let's go. And on our way to the car, there was a police sitting in one of those police vans. Belinda wanted to ask her a question. Belinda goes, "Excuse, me officer. Sorry to bother you; I know you're really busy but..." And then she proceeds to ask the officer her opinion on if the asshole cop handled the situation correctly, or, if he was allowed to handle it the way he did. The lady was like, since she wasn't there to see it herself, she couldn't really say with certainty, but that basically the cop was allowed to do what he did. What the fuck ever.

Anyway, that dialogue with the cop was cut short when we nearly were hit by a rogue vehicle! Man, this guy crossed the street, hopped the curb and went up on the sidewalk and hit this fence. (I think a fence was there. I don't know how accurate my details of this story are cuz I did have a few drinks. :-P). Anyway, the guy quickly backed off the sidewalk and sped back onto the street, but then a cop car turned its lights on and the guy eventually stopped and got out the car and all. But we just were tryna get away. Belinda and her friend were tryna walk forward to where the car was parked. But I hesitated to move cuz I didn't wanna move forward and somehow be in the line of that crazy driver. I was ready to walk back to make sure I couldn't be in his path.

I ended up driving. Belinda couldn't drive. And I wasn't sure about the friend. So we started driving and the friend is like, we gotta go back for his roommate. Guess he cooled off a bit. We scoop him up. Drop him off at where they had parked there car. Then the original trio, we go to this diner and eat. Why does everyone ask if Belinda and I are sisters? We don't look alike? It happened at the club and diner. Anyway, I got to use my Arabic skills with this Jordanian guy that worked there. I thought he looked Arab, so I asked where he was from and then busted out an Arabic greeting to him. His eyes lit up, lol. And we began a convo. That was cool.

And, hmm... Dropped dude off at his place then Belinda and I went to my house to crash. It was after 6 in the morning when we got home. Yeah, long evening. And she and I are heading out tonight. Hope she doesn't get into too much trouble at the karaoke bar. :-P

Alright. I've written enough. Bye-bye!

I HATE COMMUTING!!

I HATE COMMUTING!!

Anyway, we've got some treacherous weather. Black ice and shit. I left work and was walking to my mass transit stop and crap - I fawkin' fell! And then when I was riding home with my dad, the car skidded a bit. Dangerous.

I went to my Arabic class last night. And Hebrew kept seeping into my head, intruding my thoughts. I was thinking of Hebrew terms for the words I wanted in Arabic. I turned to my classmate for aid since he could understand how my mind was working since he studied Hebrew as well.

I have class tomorrow night. That means I gotta leave work early. I have yet to work a full 40 hours a week. So, I should go try and get to bed now so I can maybe, just maybe, get to work early.

Man, the weekend is already more than half over. I slept a lot of it away. I hope the rest of the day goes by slowly. Yesterday, accompanied Tara to run her errands. We ate at Quizno's. Had to use my coupon since it was the last day for it. Need to get more coupons cuz $2 off a sub is a pretty good deal.

Then in the evening, Shawn scooped me up to go to his party for a little gathering. It was cool. Got my drink on a little. Kept droppin' pretzel sticks. Staggered as I walked, lol. End of the evening, ended up having a "discussion" with the guys. A stupid one where I had to defend myself where race is an issue and the arguments being thrown at me were doo-doo. But I still handled myself AND I was drunk. And what? :-P

Ken took me home. It was around 5AM. We ended up sitting in the car for a while talking about race issues and politics and what not. Heh. Oh, and though Ken kept his mouth shut during the argument, he totally knew where I was coming from and basically, agreed with me. It's cool. Sometimes it's best not to say anything. How's that one saying go? Never argue with a fool cuz you'll never win? But Ken was about "being the better person." Hey, I am, too. But sometimes I just can't help myself!

It's funny, with this blog, I reveal a lot of what's on my mind or stuff that's happened and I write in my particular dialect. But... I do censor myself quite a bit due to cultural sensitivities. I know that some of my friends or even strangers who read this blog wouldn't understand certain forms of expression or concepts dealing with race and language. So sometimes I'm vague with what I say. Like I won't go into detail as to what the aforemention argument was. Gotta avoid contraversy for the sake of those who can't handle it...

Anyway, is everybody up on their current Middle East events? Well, I wanna bring ya'll up to date. Allow me to share with you a brief article:

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38 Palestinians Killed Since Last Suicide Bombing
AMJ Calls for an End to Selective Outrage over Mideast Civilian Deaths

(Washington, DC 01/29/04) Today's bombing in Jerusalem, which claimed the lives of 10 Israelis, was the first suicide bomb attack in over four weeks. During that period, reported by the media as a "lull" or "calm" in Mideast violence, Israeli occupation troops killed over 38 Palestinians and maimed over 314 others. Many children, along with two teenaged mechanics, were among the victims.

"The killing of innocent civilians is appalling and must end, regardless of who the perpetrators are," said AMJ Executive Director Khalid Turaani. "It is also appalling that many comatose pundits who have been silent as Israel has gone on with its daily killing of Palestinian civilians, have only today awakened to the terrible deaths of Israeli civilians."

Since the last suicide bombing, Israel has killed over 38 Palestinians and injured over 314 others. Only yesterday, over ten Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip. The UN reports that in the last two weeks alone in one Gaza refugee camp, almost 600 Palestinian refugees were made homeless when Israel bulldozed their homes.

"Where is the outrage over the continuous plundering of Palestinian land, of Israel's daily killing of Palestinian civilians? Why does our media find discussion of Palestinian deaths beyond the pale of the permissible and the politically acceptable?" asked Turaani.

When pundits claim that today's attack broke the "relative calm," it unfortunately makes clear that Palestinian lives are considered dispensable and their deaths unworthy of outrage. "Attacks on innocent civilians can never be justified or condoned, but we have witnessed selective outrage for too long. On a very basic level, media coverage could contribute to Mideast peace by expressing equal grief and outrage at all loss of life," concluded Turaani.

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And do you know what those asshole Israelis did after the latest suicide bombing? They go into Bethlehem and destroy the house of the suicide bomber. Now, what the hell? Yeah, I'm sure that'll solve things. I guess they're tryna intimidate and show that they won't stand for no mess. But sounds like something a kid would do; something immature. Anyways, how would you feel if one of your relatives committed a crime and so the government in retaliation demolishes YOUR house. Yeah, sounds logical. *rolls eyes* Everything's so fucked up with this world...