2004.04.29

In Japan, where people know when to take breaks and avoid overworking themselves, there's this one week at the beginning of May called the "Golden Week" or something like that, during which most Japanese-based companies give their employees a week off. This year, Masato (of Norton Summer '98 fame) is taking this week to return to his native California, and prove to us that he hasn't forgotten the joys of eating a giant, juicy, greasy, fattening American meal. And so this ended up being a reunion of sorts for those of us Summer 1998 alums who are still in the Bay Area.

For this, we met up in Palo Alto (the cesspool of strip malls and SUVs) in a Cheesecake Factory situated in the ritziest University Ave. setting I've ever seen.

From left to right: Robert, Lily, Masato, me!, Donald, and Yana. This is the "before" shot of us I managed to con Phil, our waiter, into taking. Later on, I realised that we forgot to take the "after" shot.

For most, it was their first time at a Cheesecake Factory, and most the fun was had wading through the gargantuan menu they had. Once all the food details were squared away, it was just good times as usual, with a few unusual highlights, including (sorry, these aren't pictured because my camera-happy hand isn't as quick to the punch as it used to be):

• the mysterious hair that Lily picked off the appetizer plate
• morphine! and getting shots for cooties! (and not to mention, Phil the waiter getting as into it as we were when we were cracking up for no reason!)
• Donald holding a cup of water in mid-air for a full three minutes while we all watched an ant crawling around on the bottom of the glass.
• adventures with a piece of white chocolate on top of a slice of cheesecake.
• "how many engineers does it take to cut an avocado in half?"

Afterward, true to her flighty nature, Yana was off to LA(la-land) while the rest of us ended up at Donald's place in Escondido killing time for a few hours, which included the discovery of a picture of Donald in a dress in his high school yearbook. Woo hoo!

All in all - just another goofy night of regression as a nice hiatus from our otherwise hectic lives.

updates

So what the heck are we all doing these days?

• I'm currently writing this web page. More details about my life can be found by clicking around this website.
• Donald is still in grad school, and will have his MS in CS from Stanfurd shortly, pending his advisor's feedback on his work. He's still the keeper of the Clock Tower keys, and still does not drive.
• Yana, other than wearing a red shirt to try to fit in with the yuppie Palo Alto crowd, spends her days in Moses Hall, working on some legal-administrative-cyberslacking stuff for one of the academic departments that's housed there (sorry, I don't remember which one exactly!). She drives a 1994 Toyota Tercel.

• Robert is still deciding where he will attend grad school in the fall in Computer Engineering. He's currently recovering from a ruptured tendon in his ankle, and we wish him a speedy recovery. He and Lily will be married in a little over a year.
• Lily will begin a Masters in Education/teaching credential program at Stanfurd in the Summer. Donald is trying to pass the Tower duties onto her as he is graduating soon, but Lily has yet to be convinced that she wants to do it (or whether she can resist the urge to paint the thing blue). She drives a 2-door silver Civic.
• Masato works for Toshiba in Tokyo, selling semiconductor products to hapless Americans who don't really know what they're buying (ok, I made this up; Masato would never say this himself).