25 more things

1. When I drive on bridges, like the one that connects N183 to South Mopac or 35 to N183, I think about the bridge collapsing and how helpless I would be. There is absolutely nothing you can do in that situation to make it better. Your options are stay in the vehicle or jump out of the vehicle.

2. Like many others, I also hate PDA. It's gross. Don't talk to eachother like babies! The only PDA I will ever tolerate is beautiful celebrity/pornstar PDA. If you don't look like Brangelina, don't even think about it.

3. I touch my head/face a lot. I think I have a fixation on my nose, mouth, hair, skin, etc.

4. I can't sit still. In class, I used to fidget uncontrollably.

5. I am the product of two Vietnamese immigrants. I used to not like this fact about myself, but I've grown to embrace my culture, and I get offended when it doesn't embrace me. I can't speak Vietnamese, but that doesn't make me any less. I should be classified not by my fluency...but by how much I love durian and balut.

6. I used to be rich. My parents were those young, 90's Vietnamese, shoulder pads, remy martin parties all the time types. I'd compare them to today's rappers who start off with nothing and then have everything but don't know how to manage it all.

My understanding is that the company they worked for went bankrupt, and soon, everything went to shit. I was young enough to not realize how much we had at the time, but old enough to realize life got shitty. I used to be embarrassed to go to places like Cici's pizza because I thought it was an indication of poverty. I would be horrified if someone I knew saw us there.

My parents work really hard. My mom works like 70hrs a week, comes home, cooks, and works some more.

7. I hate when people use the word "gay" as a synonym for "stupid." That's so 90's suburbia. Even Hillary Duff knows that. I only use it in reference to things like Rent, 4th St, and Luis Miguel.

8. It worries me when people are comfortable being ignorant. I don't know everything, but I try to learn when the opportunity arises. Some people don't know where Mumbai or Darfur are. Some people don't know anything outside of their own lives.

9. I have 4 siblings, 1 brother, 3 sisters.

My brother, the oldest, was born with a tumor on his brain. The doctors had to remove it, but in doing so, his mental and physical growth was significantly stunted. He lived in a special needs facility in Corpus Christi throughout my lifetime. We'd visit occasionally, but I never really knew him. I don't even know if he knows who I am, and I don't expect him to. My only hope is that he is comfortable. Currently, he lives in a group home in Arlington by my parents.

My oldest sister has a baby. It's freakin cute too. The father was unreliable so I never met him, which is probably a good thing. Growing up, we didn't interact much because of the age difference. She was really good at the piano, and her boyfriends would give me free shit like comic books and toys.

My older sister and I didn't get along well as teenagers. As the only boy in the house, I got a lot of special treatment that the girls didn't. This caused a rift between us. Eventually, we became adults so this is all in the past. She is currently in Houston with aspirations of going to law school.

My younger sister and I also didn't get along well as teenagers. I assume that we are all individualists and when you put that many together in one house, there's bound to be conflict. We're all good friends now though. She is currently attending school in Richmond, England, studying to be some uber-philanthropist.

10. I don't talk about my family a lot because it's complicated like many other people's. That explanation above is just surface. Also, I get off on being withholding.

11. I think I developed my sense of humor early on while watching The Simpsons. Then later by watching Chris Rock and the Original Kings of Comedy. Then in college by watching Arrested Development and Kyle Umlang(for all the vulgar stuff). My friends are burgeoning with jokes. I value wit in a friend more than anything else. It is always accompanied by thoughtfulness and intelligence.

12. My parents could not attend my college graduation due to familial complications. I didn't intend to go to any of the ceremonies because noone would be there to see me and because I wasn't really graduating until I complete the summer courses. I didn't even have any regalia so what was the point. This all changed when I received a text message(or call) from two friends saying that I WAS going to graduation because they scavenged a cap and gown for me. I was so touched that I layed(laid? lied? lay?) in bed for an hour speechless. I was so happy that I got to go, definitely one of the most memorable moments of my life.

My friends have a tendency of saving my life when I least expect it.

13. During my freshman-junior years of college, I threw my own surprise birthday parties. I just didn't trust anyone else to do it for me.

14. On my 21st birthday during senior year, I drank so much downtown that I fell asleep in a Whataburger restroom, with my pants down on the toilet(there's a photo out there somewhere). Later that night, I urinated on my roommates bedroom floor while he was studing. It was awesome!!

15. On my 23rd birthday(I don't remember my 22nd for some reason), I had a combined dinner with the legendary Rachel Acevedo at Kenobi, best sushi in town. Then we went downtown, and then we went to Korea for Karaoke! This was the second best birthday!

16. I never threw up in college until my summer 08, my last semester. It was gross.

17. While growing up in the suburbs, I developed an aversion to the word "Christian." As a teenager, I went to a church with my best friend because I wanted to be accepted by society. During one of the small group discussions, someone brought up Jews, and how they aren't going to heaven. This kinda blew up everything for me, and I was done with it. I just can't accept a "loving God" who punishes human beings who won't accept a man born of immaculate conception and who claims to be the son of God. It's all a little too lovey dovey for me. I think I would have an aversion for the word Muslim if I lived in Indonesia, and the same with the word Jewish if I lived in Israel. I can't commit to any organized religion because from an outside perspective, it all just looks like a bunch of segregation. Even within each religion, there is segregation among the different denominations, different races, different languages. Very few integrated churches are successful, and the ones that are require that one group of people conform to the worship style of another group. And the whole my god has a bigger penis than your god thing is a little offputting. Anyways, I will live and let live because many of my friends are religious, and I respect them as individuals who have made a conscious effort to evaluate their various faiths. And honestly, if America becomes a theocracy, I am not too proud to fake it if it keeps me from the internment camps.


18. I don't need the people around me to talk about pretentious, intellectual topics all the time...but I would like the option of discussing these things when appropriate. This is why I like to surround myself with well-informed, well-read, and open-minded individuals. Even though I know Twilight does not count as being well-read, I like to think I'm just taking a break from Nabokov.


19. My favorite book from my adult life was Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Thanks to my roommate and friend Phil from whom I borrowed this masterpiece, I was able to read the book in its entirety in the comforts of my restroom over the course of a couple months. I never read anything while on the pot until this book so it was pretty monumental for me.


20. When on the highway, I'm the asshole who speeds up when the vehicle behind him changes lanes then wishes to re-enter the lane except in front of him. I only speed up when the driver is right next to me...so it's like the movies. I don't look directly at them, but I can feel the anguish as they return to their spot behind my car. Then I say things like, "KNOW YOUR ROLE" a la The Rock.


21. After watching Blood Diamond, I acquired a fear of machetes.


22. I like to like things when the people around me dislike them such as Sanjaya.


23. I feel like I've spent my whole life with people leaving me. I think everybody feels this way. The important ones always come back though.


24. These things define my character: my family, zoomkids, anytown, and longhorn singers.


25. 3 or 4 times a week while I was reading Fast Food Nation for class, I would visit McDonald's because the book gave me an insatiable craving.


tag: Melissa Nguyen