my sister bought me a miniature bamboo plant last week. i was supposed to buy it myself but my sister said that it was a lucky plant and should be given as a present ergo she paid for it. i super looove the plant. i like the thought that another living thing inhabits our apartment. i named it fred, after the weasley twin, the fallen hero at the battle of hogwarts. i am hoping to get the wealth he’d made from his joke shop. what’s nice about fred the plant is that it fits nicely to the overall asian theme of our apartment.

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i was walking the other day to work when i saw something amazing, one that i hadn’t seen since i was a young kid. i saw a flock of birds flying in the morning sky in formation. it was truly a sight to behold. incidentally, i dreamt of a bird last night. i’m not sure what type of bird it is but it looks like a cross between an eagle and a seagull but it’s multicolored with blue as its body’s dominant hue. it was flying around my head but i wasn’t scared of it. i googled the meaning of my dream and i found this: birds are usually considered a very good omen for the dreamer to receive and this is doubly true if the birds are brightly colored, singing, and flying about (from www.sleeps.com/dictionary/bbb.html). well, i can use a good omen.

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i saw this headline on cnn last week: woman attacked by a rat in a public bathroom. just imagining how it could have happened scared the hell out of me. the imagery in the book 1984 came to my mind. needless to say, i did not read (nor watch the video) the story in cnn. but it made me think now of how safe public toilets are especially here in new york. maybe i should get myself a diaper.

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we were playing the what if game in my office last friday when my co-worker asked this question: if you were a superhero, what kind of power would you have. without batting an eyelash, i told them i would like to have the ability to transform into any form of animal. anthropomorphism, my co-worker said. too scientific, i thought. it’s all plain and simple to me and to anyone who can relate with me. i call myself an animagus. sirius-ly.

my friend from work got a part of his ear sliced while moving our vending machine. (i know it’s not funny but i couldn’t stop myself from thinking about george weasley. it’s a good thing, he doesn’t seem to read the harry potter series otherwise i wouldn’t be able to refrain myself from making weasley jokes). anyway, back to this friend of mine. his boss who asked him to move the vending machine didn’t think it was that bad and so, he even asked him to get back to work. my friend fought off the dizziness that he was feeling and pretended to check his emails. soon after his boss left, he took off and went to the emergency room where he was diagnosed to be suffering from a minor concussion. naturally, he took a sick leave for a couple of days and all the while, people from corporate america (people whose names he didn’t recognize) kept calling him and telling him how he was a valuable member of the team. of course, we knew better that these calls were a preventive action on their part as he can easily sue them for what happened.

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my other friend of mine from work got promoted, or at least that was how we perceive it. from being the office manager and student services coordinator, he will now be the student services support manager taking greater responsibilities. we thought that as a result of this promotion, he would get a fat raise. no, he didn’t. he only got 2.3% increase. his boss (the same one from above’s incident) calls it a lateral move, but which he didn’t explain to my friend when the latter accepted the position. i got 3% increase this year. i don’t know if i should feel lucky.

it’s hard to believe that at this age of living in the so-called global community, racial discrimination still exists. after all, one would think that the ever expanding presence of international diaspora worldwide has led people to be more understanding and tolerant of other people’s racial, ethnic and cultural background.

yesterday, i witnessed discrimination against Afro-Americans, in our school most unfortunately. this western european girl who started her ESL course this week wanted to leave new york because she didn’t like it, mostly due to the presence of the blacks. she was very rude to members of the school personnel who were of African descent. worst, she threw a rag at one of these school staff who is the academic coordinator and called her a stupid black in her face. of course, being an international school, we did not tolerate such uncouth behavior even from a paying student. she was escorted out of the empire state and the security in the building were advised not to let her back in the premises.

this was not the first time at work that i have seen or heard of such prejudiced opinions towards people of other racial or ethnic background. i get requests for host families who are ‘native’ americans; i sometimes get complaints if the host families aren’t. students panic when the host family or the residence we pick for them are in the bronx or harlem, insisting that both are unsafe areas due to the presence of blacks. and every time this happen, they receive the same speech from me. that part of studying in the US (new york most especially) is embracing the diversity that is the essence of modern america. learning english is not only about mastering the language but understanding the culture that surrounds it. because really, how do you define a native american in the context of today’s world?

incidentally, i am reading anne frank: the diary of a young girl. it’s so sad and disturbing at the same time to think of how this child’s life was wasted because of an ideology that was simply inhumane. she could have been a great writer, or a fulfilled mother now had not been because of the war. i hope i never have to witness such tragedy and magnitude of racism in this lifetime or the next.

and while i’m in this mood, let me end my entry with this: obama for president.

i spent 4 consecutive days dog-sitting my officemate shari’s poodle. her name is mimi (named after the character in the musical rent) and she was such a sweetheart. she was always energetic and hyper save for the first night. she was unusually quiet and aki and i thought that she may be sick. the next day though she was all up and running. we even took her to the park and played catch with her. when we came back home, she was still tireless and continued to beg for our attention. she knew how to make lambing and when to behave. when i was watching american idol, she cuddled close to me and remained still until the show was finished, after which she began playing again. she was also a funny dog. one time, she pooped and it smelled so bad that aki and i started laughing out loud. realizing that we were laughing at her, she went inside her bag like an embarrassed child.

so how much did we get paid for dog-sitting? nada. we did it as a big favor to shari who’s always been nice to us. that, and in order to get the chance to stay at her very cool place with huge windows overlooking the empire state. her building has a gym and a lounge with pool table inside. it’s a classy apartment in an upscale neighborhood. very chic. except that the smell of the building whenever i entered reminded me of AP house 2.