The Big Day is Here

Well, it is now my wedding day. In about 12 hours I will be married. I just got home from my bachelor party. It was not the typical bachelor party with strippers and stuff. Instead, I got together with a few good friends at a Japanese restaurant I often hang out at. We ate great food and the beer and sake was flowing. After the shop closed, we busted out some scotch and bourbon whiskey. I love scotch. No, we did not get hammered. We are much too old for that and I don't want to have a hangover during the ceremony. Instead, I want to be a good looking accessory in the wedding. Yes, this day is the bride's day and not the groom's. I'm just an accessory and decoration. Anyways, the party was great. My buddy from Hawaii and I got to play some Hawaiian music together with him on the guitar and me on bass. We sang and played the night away. It has been so long since we played like that. I really miss those days.

My friend Robert made a really great and funny toast to me. He told me to "Honor her and honor her and when you fall off, get back honor her...so honor her". I was laughing so hard, my stomach was cramping! My friend Rene asked if I got three rings for the wedding. I asked what he meant by that. His reply was, "Engagement rings, wedding ring, suffering". We were all busting out laughing. Ah, tonight was great!

Anyways, this is my last night of being a bachelor. I'm turning my back on singlehood and headed towards the married life. I just hope I don't end up like Al Bundy, selling women's shoes and having stinky feet. Well, ok, since I have stinky feet, then I just don't want to end up selling women's shoes. As I sit here blogging away, it has started to really sink in that I'm no longer going to be single anymore. For 38 years, I have been single and now I'm going to have a shared life. Wow, this is a trip! I really am looking forward to this moment of sharing my life with my wife. Hmm..does this mean I can still run around with just my underwear on? I guess it's ok. I just can't do it when I cook bacon. Now that gets painful.

I'm really looking towards our honeymoon in Hawaii. No, not just because it is huba huba time. Being from the islands, I really miss it. Hawaii will always be home to me. Somehow, I feel so connected to the land there and I feel recharged and energized whenever I return there. The islands are just so beautiful with all shades of green and crystal clear waters. I love Hawaii!

Well, I guess this is my last entry until I return from my honeymoon. I highly doubt I will take my laptop with me so it will be next to impossible to blog. I will update everyone as soon as I get back. Until next time, ALOHA!

General Motors Still Sucks!

It has been almost a month since I last took my work van, a Chevy Uplander, to the dealer for repair and they still have not received the part in which they need to replace. As a result, I'm left up to chance on whether the entertainment system will work or not every time I start up my van. It really sucks when I have to drive all over the LA basin and cannot hear the traffic reports. As a result of this, there are times when I get totally stuck in traffic.

I just can't believe that Chevrolet cannot get my part after one month has passed. I have called the dealer several times to ask if they got the part in yet and I get the same old response that it is still on backorder. I highly doubt that I would get that sort of response from Honda, Nissan, or Toyota. My van is brand new and you would think that they would have adequate spares or would be able to pull a part from their production line. When it comes to vehicle reliability and customer service, General Motors suck. If I treated my customers the way GM has been treating me, I would be fired immediately from my job. It is no wonder that GM is losing money in which their stocks are almost at the junk bond level.

For those of you that are thinking of purchasing a vehicle, don't even bother to look at a GM product. You will end up with an unreliable vehicle and poor customer service. Instead, look to a Japanese manufacturer. They have more standard features, better reliability, and great customer service. Yeah, imports cost more but they won't give you the kind of headaches I'm going through. General Motors sucks!

The Parents

So far I'm surviving rather well with my parents staying with me. Well, it only has been a couple of days so things may change but for the most part it has been good.

Sunday was a rather tiring day in which my parent, fiance, and I went shopping for a dining table and chairs. As I mentioned during my previous post that my dining table and chairs were on their last legs...literally. Anyways, we looked at various stores and finally settled on getting a dining table and four chairs from IKEA. My parents were fascinated with IKEA since they don't have one in Hawaii. The chairs and table were quite a deal. On top of the dining set, we also purchased a shoes cabinet from a local Japanese store. If you are wondering what a shoe cabinet is, it is a small cabinet made specifically for storing shoes. I'm sure it will fill up once my fiance moves in. Let's just say that she has similarities to Imelda Marcos in the shoes department.

It was quite fun putting together the stuff we had bought. I was impressed with my fiance's skill at assembling furniture though she needs to change her opinions about power tools. She was telling me that you don't need a drill to assemble the furniture but of course any man with power tools will say otherwise. I think I impressed her with my use of the screwdriver attachment to screw in the screws to the table...then again, maybe not since she was so focused on getting the table together. Of course, my dad was being a spectator in the assembly process. In a way, it was good that he did not participate in putting the stuff together since he is a bit mechanically challenged.

It is funny with my family. My mom is the actual one who does a lot of the mechanical work around the house and is kind of like a handyman. My dad thinks he can fix stuff but ends up breaking stuff more often. I guess I get my mechanical skills from my mom.

My dad did drive me a little crazy on Monday night. He kept bugging me about stuff that I need to do and told him that things were already taken care of. Then 10 minutes later, he starts again. Of course, I'm trying to hold my temper but then after the third time, I had to slam it home and told him that enough is enough. Ugh!

It was nice though that when I got home, my mom had warmed up my dinner and had stuff ready for me to eat. It was great having mom's home cooking. I can make the same stuff she does but it always tastes better when mom makes it.

Tomorrow, my parents and I are going over for dinner to my future in-law's place. It should be an interesting day tomorrow since I have work scheduled for the afternoon way across town and then I have to race home to take my parents over for dinner. I think I'm starting to feel the premarital stress now. Oh well, I guess I just have to go with the flow and try to do the best I can. Well, that's all for now.

The Family Pow Wow

Well, my parents finally arrived to be with me prior to the big day. They will be here for a week or so. They liked how the place was so clean and all of my junk was gone. I was rather pleased that they liked it. I have to give major credit to my fiance for directing and assisting me on cleaning this place up. I know I have mentioned this before but cleaning is obstacle for me so it is a big thing to me.

Anyways, my parents got to meet my fiance's family. The dinner was great and there was good conversation going. I was glad that my parents felt very comfortable and they mentioned to me that it felt like they were meeting old friends. Whew, that was a relief!

One disadvantage of my parents being here at my place is that they feel that the weather here is cold. They live in Hawaii where it is 86 degrees in the daytime unlike the chilly 65 degrees we have been experiencing lately. Thus, I have to turn the heat up in my apartment to 75 degrees. I, of course, like the room at around 70 degrees where I can sleep comfortably. Well, I guess it's just a minor inconvinience. The big plus is that they are here. Then again, I can't spend my last days of bachelorhood laying about in my apartment in my underwear like I used to when I was by my self. Ok, don't get an image. It may cause major mental health issues.

Sunday should be quite the adventure since my parents, fiance and me are going to go shopping for a dining room set. As much as I hate shopping, I guess this is necessary since my dining table and chairs are on its last legs. I had to a major glue job to hold the chairs together and use lots of tape. Hey, at least I got the table for free and have been using it for about 10 years. Well, it is time to retire the table and send it to furniture heaven. Hopefully, the shopping process won't be too long and relatively pain free. One can only hope.

Big Day Around the Corner

I have eight more days of being a bachelor and then I am taking the big plunge. Why do some people call marriage the "big plunge"? Is it because they feel the guy is tied to a ball and chain and is ready to jump into a lake? I don't feel like I'm being tied to a ball and chain. I'm actually looking forward to marriage and have no cold feet about it. People have been asking me if I am nervous about the wedding day. Well, right now I am not but I won't know until that day. After all, I am just the decoration because the wedding is really more for the bride while the honeymoon is more for the guy...hehe.

It does feel strange knowing that my days of bachelorhood is coming to an end. For so many years I have been living by myself and now I will be living with someone else for the rest of my life. I know there will be changes in my lifestyle and at times it won't be easy but marriage is something I have been looking forward to for a long time. I'm not saying that I was eagerly waiting and was desperate to get married. I was content with being single but I still wished to find that someone special. I know I can be a difficult person to live with but I am willing to make compromises so I guess that's a plus. No longer can I live as a slob.

Speaking of being a slob, my place is finally clean! It has been about 2 years since my place had been thoroughly cleaned. Many thanks go to my fiance for helping me out. The cool thing is that she never once teased my about my cleaning habits. It's so great that I can actually see carpet in my office space and that my desktop is actually clean! You know it's pretty bad when you lift a pen off of a desk and you see the pen's outline on the desktop. Well, I have turned from my wicked, dirty ways...praise God!

My parents are coming in tomorrow afternoon and will be staying at my place for the week. That will be quite the adventure. I guess that's for another blog at another time. Well, off to get some sashimi(raw fish)at my old bachelor Friday night hang out. Until then...Aloha!

This is Crazy

Well, I finally found some time to blog again. It is such a drag that I can't blog on a regular basis this past few weeks. I have so many things to blog about but it just seems that there isn't enough time to do it with so many things going on.

The cleaning of the apartment is going rather well with my fiance leading the way. She has been like my cleaning savior. I finally can see the carpet in some of my rooms! She is such a great lady in that she could easily tease me about my lack of upkeep of my apartment or be totally disgusted with my tendency to be like the character "Oscar" in the old TV series, "The Odd Couple". My biggest fear is that my parents will complain about my apartment being so messy even though it's been cleaned. Yeah, my mom is kind of a neat freak and growing up, it was a bit difficult but at the same time she was not being unreasonable. Somehow, I managed to keep my room nice and clean but I've kind of lost that touch after I moved away from home. I now have been reacquainted with that mentality now that I'm getting married...well, I better have or I'll know I won't hear the end of it from her...hehe.

I can't believe it but the marriage is just around the corner. In 16 days I will be married. No longer single...no longer being able to take of the socks and plop them in the living room while I scratch my...oh never mind. At least I won't be coming home to an empty and messy apartment after I am done with work for the day. Ever since I left home, I hated that feeling of coming back to where I was living...alone. I got used to it over the years but it sure is a great feeling of returning to your home when someone you love is there. Ok, enough of the mushiness.

My main concern after the honeymoon is the femanization of my apartment. I mean, I'm sure she will be decorating the place with her feminine touch. You know, like candles, pictures, knicknacks. I'm just so used to having bare walls with the occassional decoration on the coffee table of stack of empty pizza boxes and a pyramid of beer cans. I once decorated a ceiling of an apartment with beer bottle caps. I had a great design going of various circles and other geometric shapes. Yeah, such a bachelor. Well, I guess my places does need major decorating to make it feel more warm and inviting.

I'm So Busy, I'm Freaking Out

I have been so busy lately that it is just freaking me out. I finally found some time to catch a breather and do some relaxing. I find blogging to be very relaxing and makes my creative juices flow. Actually, my body is trying to recover from eating too much prime rib from the Outback Steakhouse. Mmmm...nothing like eating some rare prime rib...so juicy and red...hehe, can anyone say, "Moo"?

The wedding is only 23 days away and that is adding to my stress level. It's not from cold feet but just the preparation and stuff. And the same old story of me trying to clean up my apartment. I really have to get my act together on that one or else my parents will really freak if they see it in the condition it is. No, it is not like what you would see on the TV show Animal Planet with the lady living with 30 cats with garbage piled up in the house. No, I don't have to make any trails to go to one room from another. I just have stuff all over the place and a kitchen that needs some serious cleaning. Too bad I can't use a massive steam cleaner and flood the entire kitchen to clean it. I've been trying to clean the apartment in the morning before any service calls come in but it has been difficult in the past few days since I've been out of the house for work by 10 AM.

Did I say 23 days...oh my, 23 days...3 weeks and 2 days away. Dang, I'm leaving the single life in 3 weeks and 2 days. That means I can't sit in the living room naked while I eat bacon and eggs and watch TV after 23 days. Actually, it is not advisable to cook bacon while nude unless you have major nerve damage. Anyways, I guess I'm going to have to get used to doing things differently once I'm married. It's not like I live this wild, crazy life right now but I'm guessing there will be changes. At least in the beginning...hehe.

It seems that with any relationship, there is modesty in the beginning. I mean, most people didn't fart or burp in front of the other person in the beginning but later on, the gas just flies. Do people do this because they become comfortable with the other person or is it because we just don't care anymore? I can understand sometimes, especially when you have a major gas attack, that you just can't contain it anymore and it just escapes no matter how hard you try. I guess for me, I just feel real comfortable and am not in fear of being judged with my fiance, that I just let it rip. I don't know, I might just be thinking nonsense but this thought came to me the other day if I was just comfortable or if I just didn't care anymore what she thought when it comes to farting. What do you think?