The house is quiet again. Life is back to normal. Just me and daddy sitting at our respective computers typing away. We took Blanca to the airport last night, with me serving as translator the whole way there. My dad for some reason decided that he would speak only in Chinese, so I decided to make it more interesting and translate from Chinese to Spanish. Blanca and I had visited Hsi Lai Si earlier in the day, which was really peaceful and relaxing and the first time Blanca had ever visited a Buddhist temple, so my dad was explaining a lot of Buddhist traditions and legends in Chinese so I could translate them to Spanish. Having Blanca around was really fun--we went somewhere basically every day, which is unheard of in my life! Let's see.. where did we end up going: Getty Center, Pasadena, Angels game, San Juan Capistrano Mission, the Richard Nixon Library, Hsi Lai Si, Mt. Baldy, Lake Arrowhead... and Troy. Haha. It seems so quiet here now without either Vicki or Blanca. Having them around made me think about what my life would have been like had I had siblings. Obviously, friends and siblings are rather different, as in you actually choose your friends (for the most part), but I just wondered what it would have been like growing up in a noisier, more chaotic world. Less attention and more conflicts for Elaine. Interesting effects. I'm sure I would have been an extremely different person, perhaps better, perhaps not.

I just finished an AMAZING book: La sombra del viento. I'm debating whether or not to read it over in English (The Shadow of the Wind) if anyone's interested (and I highly recommend), because although I understood and feel like I comprehended about 90% of what was going on in the book, I'm sure there are lots of subtleties I missed. Anyway, I'm slightly addicted and can't stop thinking about it. My dad actually got mad at me last night for reading it too much and wanted me to read Chinese with the same enthusiasm.

Things to do this week:
-See Brian before he goes off to Korea
-Hang out with Kathleen over the weekend before she goes gallivanting back to UCLA