Phu Pham's Day Off

I've been in a weird work schedule for the past month, with Mondays and Tuesdays off, this has allowed me the luxury of cruising around Denver, CO when most people are at work.

Typically, in these situations different people do different things, women would like to go to the spa, get a mani-pedi (neither thankfully with the grace of God, I've never experienced nor have the desire to), or shopping, which I don't get because that sounds stressful.  Others, perhaps head to the mountains for snow or other mountainous recreational activities, which unfortunately I haven't gotten a chance to yet.

Me, I intentionally left the cell phone home today, and in all honesty-it felt liberating, and just treat myself.  Have you ever went to a Dim Sum restaurant on a weekday?  It is incredible, there is no aggravating 45 min wait, there is no ridiculous amount of noise from the crowd, and the carts are stocked ready to go.  Now have you ever had Dim Sum by yourself?  It is incredible because sometimes you're like damn, "I really like this shrimp/lobster dumpling and probably want some more but I feel like I should save some for others".  I didn't have to fight that moral battle today, I consumed $25 worth of Dim Sum, that's a LOT of food, and I was happy.  I thought to myself, no sharing etiquette (I doubled dipped), no food divide and conquer strategies, all me.

I then headed over to Stranahan's inhouse Pub and had myself a glass of Colorado's finest microdistilled whiskey, on the rocks.  I was feeling real nice on 47% alc whiskey.  I sat there and took in the atmosphere, it is a nice place.  So many times, we've been conditioned into thinking being alone is unacceptable, and if at the worst, you are, look like you're busy fumbling around your phone checking Facebook to look at people's irrelevant posts so no one thinks you're lonely.  I was conditioned into this socialization shame and have always had strong aversion to eating or drinking alone, which is stupid.  It is fantastic!  No pointless small talk, no hearing about drama that has nothing to do with your life, no worrying about anything other than should I get another drink?  At one point I was just praying these two dudes wouldn't talk to me because I'm really not feelin' any of that mumbo jumbo.  I feel like if you don't have to talk about things, you can enjoy things more, for the first time I could enjoy whiskey neat and taste the niceness of it.

I've been wanting to see the movie 21 & Over because I appreciated the perceived Asian representation, and without any drawn out voting, compromise nor judgement, that's what I saw.  No compromise is sweet, but I did miss the matinee showing which wasn't...
Not going to do a review of the movie, thought it had its funny parts.  Only takeaway, when I watched the movie I feel like they are taking the dialogue from my daily life and put it on screen.  I need to evolve and change my colloquial speech from a 21 yrs old bro to an adult, ebrolution is still a bad look, but oh well, only God can judge me.

All in all, fantastic day, nothing crazy, nothing a movie is going to be made about, but whatever, I even squeezed in a sweetass run after the movie.  I felt like I just took myself out on a day date, and you know what?  I had a great time and I'd love to see me again soon.
We're all social beings, but sometimes we all need a day where it's just all me, all day.  Treat yo' self.
Or maybe it's just me because...the only thing Phu loves more is maybe a little more of Phu.

Bicycling.

I love bicycling even as a kid.  One of the earliest memory with bicycling was as a kid,  8 or so, I tried to give my little sister a ride on the back of the bike and she fell off and now she still has a scar on her Achilles.  I think this was before Park Side, I can't remember the exact time.  I do remembered one of the earliest bike I got was one of these that my parents bought from the flea market:

and they were gay as hell...
But when you were like 10 and  FOB it's no big.
I think the thing that was most aggravating at the time was not that it looks gay, nor that you have to press back to brake and but that the stem and handle were super shitty, I mean who doesn't like to hop on sidewalks and pop wheelies if you're a boy.  But what ends up happening is that the handles would slip loose and eventually roll around in the stem after a couple of hard wheelies.  I remembered that Huffy BMX was the shit, but it cost like $100 and these were like $20 at the flea market, so needless to say, all us Asian kids in Park side were rocking one of these.
Yet we went everywhere with it, we used to ride from Ivy Lane to Market st general store  for fun, on a one speed bike, that looks gay...on the crazy Harrisburg streets...with flip flops, shorts, tee shirts, of course no helmets-those are for puss.
I think the thing with bicycling is similar to the notion of owning a car, the concept of being able to go anywhere our hearts desire whenever, wherever we want to.  It's also a social tool as kids would get together and we would ride to places together, shooting the shit.  These were the best times...but it could be better on a 10-speed bike.

All that changed one day, I think this was when I was touched by an angel because this one day in Park Side, a guy was throwing away his mountain bike, I remembered it very specifically, it was a yellow Murray Mountain bike w/like... gears...I mean that's insane!  To this day I'm convinced that was an angel, and he was just throwing it away (who throws away a working bike in the projects?!), so of course I asked if I can have it and the angel gave it to me.  Man I felt so awesome, multiple speeds (it was so fast!), line brakes, a non rotating handle/stem, I felt like king of the world, F U in your banana seat bikes, punkass bitches...was how I felt at the time, if those words were in my lexicon at the time.

Then one day and to this day, my mom said this is the reason why we moved out of the ghetto, I was getting ready to bring my bike up 3 flights of stairs and these kids, being hoodrats, jumped me to take my most prized possession at the time.  I put up a fight and eventually they gave up and I kept my bike, w/cuts in my mouth and multiple bruise and bumps on my head.  I kept my bike, and this happened I think one more time, i forgot, but I still kept my bike through it all.  I never conceded my most prized possession.

The best part of the story is that the conclusion of the story was that I lend the bike to this kid (whom I still hate to this day and am NOT friends with) to go to the corner store, he came back saying someone stole it when he left it to go inside.  Man I was devastated, all that fight, for nothing and this kid never paid me back for it or anything.  I hate that kid.

All these memories came back because here in Colorado, there are more bike paths and bicycling is more common than it was back in the 17112.  I am able to get from my apt to places and see/do things w/o the need for my car, it is nice, especially in a lightweight bike with more than one speed.
So now it's like as I get older and can afford nicer things, I remembered all the things I've dreamed of having as a kid, and I enjoy what I have now a lot because they were once things I coveted.  That's pretty sweet, I'm glad I was able to grow up wanting things and then as an adult making it happen with my own hands, I'm glad that my parents didn't deprive me of that.  Having a goal and dream then making it reality is one of the best human emotion one can experience.  Now if only I can find bros to go riding together...