Fuck The Navy.

I am really mad at the navy right now. Because of their lateasses, the money hasn’t come through and that means surgery is gonna have to be postponed. I feel really bad that my doctor has already reserved the date and facility for me for surgery and yet his kindness has not be reciprocated because we are unable to pay since the bonus hasn’t come in.

!@#$%^&*

I just wrote an email to his assistant ( and wife I think ) to tell her about our situation, to make matters more complicated Pat and I are in singapore so if the money does come in, how are we able to pay the doctor?? Ahh!

I have given up waiting for the money. Everyday I egg Patrick on to check if the money has appeared in his bank account and I feel like my own vested hope and moneylust has made a parody out of me. I shall instead deign to be impossibly pessimistic about this money and pretend like the Navy has forgotten about us. Even though they haven’t because they had indicated earlier on that the money was in process.

PATRICK GETS HERE TONIGHT YAY!

( update )

The money from the bonus and travel claims finally came in, and as expected it came as insidiously and unsuspectingly as I knew it would the morning after Patrick arrived Also NFCU gave me back $25, and since then they are back in my books

Why the hell did Pat and I spend thousands coming back for chinese new year only to be harangue by idiots asking for red packets??

I am livid for a couple of reasons.

#1 : It is RUDE to ask for red packets

#2 : Especially so from your peers who are 1 to 3 years younger /older please la

Have a bit of shame can?

#3: I feel picked on. Because there are other people like aileen and sarah cheng who are married, so why is it that nobody has been hounding them for red packets???

Perhaps because Patrick is white??

#4: I spent so much fricking money to come to singapore on air tickets and I am still apparently supposed to give my peers and all unmarried people in my family, MONEY??

This is absurd and I can’t say how angry I get when I think of said situation. Where are good old manners? I don’t care if people are just ‘joking’. It is beyond funny. It is especially infuriating when asses come up to me in school to ASK for it even before saying hi. And when I come on msn, they ask again.

TWICE, AND BOTH JOKINGLY?

I don’t think so.

This is what’s going to happen ladies and gentlemen, this shall be the last time I am coming back for chinese new year. This year, I shall give money to little kids below the age of 12 and I will not hesitate to rebuke anyone in my age group who has the audacity to ask for money in my own house, infront of my parents and husband. People like these should be put in their place and I have no qualms to do so.

You have been warned .

Seriously, coming back to singapore is fricking stressful. Living with parents is exhausting and my father is being more of an asshole than usual.So much so that I find myself counting down to the days I go back home. How stupid of me to think that they would be a little nicer seeing  how we spent so much money and time flying to singapore. My dad is so obsessed with money typical chinaman, keep asking me about the dowry.  I know for sure he is doing this to pick on patrick because he is white. Yup rip the white man off why dont we all? This is coming from the man who showed up at the wedding just to eat, stayed for free and whose family was driven around and treated very well by the in laws. All they paid for is their shopping expenses and 300 usd of air tickets from Los Angeles to Portland. My dad wants Patrick to pay for their whole family’s air tickets from SIN – LA – PORTLAND. Of course I said fuck no, they were in LA for 2 weeks and only 1 week in Portland. Quite obvious where their priorities were right? Still dare to complain that they kept being whisked around to do wedding stuff in portland so why should we pay for your vacationing? That man dared to complain to me on tuesday that they didn’t do anything but do wedding stuff and shop in portland.

HELLO THEY WERE THERE FOR A WEDDING!!

Patrick’s dad paid 30,000 USD for the wedding  and Patrick pays for all my air tickets home so I don’t know why my dad is being so anal of money. He enjoys nagging me about repaying back my student loan even when I am not even legal to work in america and too newly married to leave my husband for sillypore. He said I should’ve stayed in sg because the government will give me a job since I owe them money.

Umm.. no pa there is such a thing as interest.

Bloody hell. Should’ve spent the money on ourselves instead of coming back to ingrates and leeches.

I am peeved.

I’ve had 4 date cancellations yesterday and today, and aside from feeling like a jilted lover I am starting to doubt my ability to hold a decent conversation. Really, am I that boring to have 2 people cancel on me today and yesterday each? Amazingly, 3 out of the 4 seem to have fallen mysteriously ill. 45 minutes before we were due to meet, A cancelled on me after her usp class and when I responded saying that I was already out, she nonplussed reiterated that she wasn’t feeling good and acn we please meet another day please?

-_-

And what makes her think I’ll wanna spend another day playing this game and waiting to be pang seh in the end? Fuck that.

Anyway I was already out with my folks in chinatown for dim sum, chinese new year shopping and bead errands so I wouldn’t have been as livid as if I was already on my way out of my house. On the same day, and on a similar note somebody else decided that she wasn’t able to make the date either for lack of a sitter. I wasnt as annoyed because I had earlier decided I wasn’t gonna go for this trial yoga class at trueyoga ( yah have they been calling u up also? ) it just so happened that she wasn’t either so it kinda worked out. Plus she had informed me 2 hrs before and I had already decided to go for dinner with my present company of 2.

Third person and I were suppose to go out today for lunch at a malay chicken rice place having made prior arrangements on Monday. This person cancels a lot, she tried to pull a fast one on me on monday when we were suppose to meet for tea by smsing literally an hour before the date something about work. So irritating. That was the THIRD bloody time it happened and of course I was already out in school running some errands so in the end she said ok. We had a great time after but when she suggested today for lunch I was skeptical. Turns out I was right today when she texted me at quarter to 8 am telling me that she was sick and calling off from work.

Fourth person made an appointment for tea yesterday and cancelled last night, I am impressed how frivolous people can be with time. They seem not to understand that I am here only for a limited period of time only and I have to see as many people as possible. Gah.

On a sidenote, I never fail to marvel at how small and interconnected singapore truly is. The insecure bitch who lied about the weather knows another psycho that I went to school with in JC. How peculiar because I was just thinking to myself the other day, how those 2 were soo similar in their bitterness and envy of me. The fat one almost reminds me of the little one, in her disgruntledness and her flickering eyes all over my body.

Freaks.

So today is turning out to be quite a marvellous tuesday. Aside from being beautiful and breezy outside, I am no longer broke. That is correct, ladies and gentlemen Natalie Moore is no longer broke. Thanks to her parents mostly, etsy and Patrick. As some of you may know I’ve had a terrible harangue with navy federal over the loss of my PIN. After much grumbling and chatisement of my unemployment and assumed laziness , my dad finally brought me to the sembawang navy base. At navy federal I withdrew out most of my money that Pat gave me for singy and changed my PIN. Yay!!! Totally fuss free and so deceptively easy that I slowly chilled out, having almost had a seizure this morning. SO I can finally return crystal her 250 bucks that she sooo very kindly lent me on saturday when I was at my wits end because of a PIN loss. Anyway my mom took pity on me and gave me 50 bucks to buy more beads ( yay ) and I made a couple of sales today. Nothing spectacular but I am very grateful for all the money thats coming in from my customers and family. I was down to zero dollars and coins yesterday night. Shitty feeling I tell you. Right now I am VERY tempted to hit chinatown again and splurge on beads since they are having a sale and I have money now. Dont know if its a wise thing to do since sales have been slooow on etsy right now and I dont wanna keep asking money from parents and patrick.Anyway the navy base is fricking awesome. Alcohol and other food prices are pegged to that of the US, thats including things like budweiser and ben n jerry’s. AWESOME. They sell coach at US prices too and VS lotions etc. I’m loving it. Too bad I shan’t be here long enough to enjoy the novelty of it all here. Not that I’d be hurting in the US lol!

PAT GETS HERE IN 4 DAYS.

Back to business considerations. Ok I shall hold off on beads now, no matter how tempting and wait for thursday to see how things go. I might just spend like maybe 30 bucks on beads for the rest of this week until Pat gets here. Hmmmmmm. Or should we wait in case the fucking navy doesnt give us our bonus? Then at least we will have money to eat and spend on singy. We are furious at the navy. Owe $$ pay $$! 18,000 USD ok!

ARGH

So in case the navy forgets about us, Pat and I will still have money to spend. Its best to wait I think. I’ve still got a shit ton of beads sitting here in my room anyway :0)

coffee with ambreen later yayuh.

Singapore is 4 days woohoo!

I’ve bought 3 dresses rom BCBG for a great price of $100 usd for chinese new year because i refuse to participate in the mad retail rush right before cny. Last year, my dress was severely overpriced, what I had paid for a brandless chiffon dress last year is how much I’m paying for all 3  of my dresses this year. If there’s anything I hate more in retail, its getting ripped off. And sassy staff. Both of which I get in copious amounts in singapore. Inspite of that, I’m looking forward to singapore with the firm resolve of not buying any clothes there. I shall spend all my money on beads with the happy guarantee that I will make a tidy little profit. I shall also spend the meagre remainings of my cash on food. Beads and amazing local food — the two things that I can’t get in Maryland.

I found out something sad today. Sephora doesn’t ship to APO or AP addresses That really sucks. I can’t believe singapore will have a sephora and Japan doesn’t. Really? Japan, the make up capitol of the world doesn’t have sephora astounds me. I suppose I can either buy a shit ton of make up before I leave in may or online purchase make up everytime i need it and get it shipped to my MIL’s place. I don’t know. They do have several make up counters in Japan though so that is some consolation since I do get my make up there. The price will be astronomically high of course, seeing how asia likes to rip people off. I’m probably gonna get like 4 of the 1. foundation 2. concealer 3. benetint. Really these are all staples I need. Oh yeah and mac eye make up. SIGH.

oh well, i’m still a trooper despite this heart wrenching news. starving african kids have it better.

just joking la.

What a rude awakening to have at 1.35am in the morning.

Sleepless as I was, I made the mistake of facebook browsing through the profiles of old classmates. Happy as I am in the US, the rest of the world has ventured within my reach leaving me gaping, in the dust. I found out today that 2 people I knoware working for 2 of the big four accounting companies, apparently Singapore isn’t having a recession as bad as I thought if auditing firms are still hiring. Presented with that, I feel somewhat occupationally inadequate and my jobless state is overwhelming ( albeit enviable to some ).  Well I suppose political science really isn’t all that marketable is it? Not so compared to engineering, accounting or law. I want someone – preferably Patrick who is sleeping, to assure me that all will be well in the end. Instead I have my mother bugging me incessantly on msn about my new year resolution all of which I’ve either already blogged about or wish to keep private for superstitious reasons.

It is times like these that I have to put my thoughts into perspective and force myself to deliberately recount all of my blessings, one by one. Like how happy I am with Patrick, how great he is to me, the excitement of moving to Japan, the awesomeness of having someone to support me instead of working (haha ), my cute puppy, going back to singapore. My plans for the future should also encourage me. The trouble with that is it isn’t in the present. I belong to the mtv generation of  instant gratification, where waiting has been superceded by desire, where the consumer reigns supreme. In spite of it all, although the thought of having a pity party is very tempting, it is too late in the night to indulge in melancholy. Makes for a crummy morning.  So as it is, I find it impossibly heart wrenching to tell myself that there is a wait to all things good, and that my path shall be a little different and far less glamorous in the 3 years to come. To be brutally honest, I am quite worried that I shall possibly remain unemployed in Japan if the economy does not improve.

Oh perhaps things will change, afterall life isn’t always nearly as bad as we’d imagine it to be, right? Yes. I’d like to think that a year from now I will remember this entry and laugh at my sordid pessimism because things turned out in the exact opposite.

Meh.

Singapore in a week, hurrah! I have to admit that I’ve never been so glad that I’m going back to singapore. While I do like the cold for shallow reasons like how my make up stays on better and I don’t perspire as much or look gross in my pictures, I’m kinda tired of winterwear. There’s always my coat over whatever outfit I wear — cute or hideous and because my wardrobe has a grand total of 3 coats, two of which are grey and hence look the same. One is a peacoat and the other is from target. Actually all of them are grey except the third one is a lighter shade and is kinda pleated. ANYWAY, the point is that I miss wearing my dresses, shorts, cute sleeveless tops and tube tops. And my birkenstocks. I do however like wearing my turtle neck dresses and black leggings — very sophisticated looking. So since Pat and I are gonna be back together this time, here are the things we or i shall do

1. bead shop like crazy

2. lychee martini ice cream from pluck and say hi to the owner who is my friend

3. waraku!!

4. steam boat omgod

5. sze chuan steam boat

6. chicken rice, duck rice, pak chor mee,  hor fun and assorted hawker delectables

7. dim sum at yum char ( xiao long bao and mango shrimp omg omg ! )

8. shop and buy more dresses

9. torture my little brother with pictures of my exceedingly cute puppy

10. island creamery with Patrick, yayers

11. BUBBLE TEA!

12. buy a shit ton of food to bring back

13. He must meet my friends!!

14. Do my hair in sg

15. Eat at Newton’s despite being stupidly overpriced and a rip off for white people but their stingray is good

16. do my passport update, bloody hell gotta waste $60 again just for change of my name when I JUST did mine in august before I left. Gah.

17. Gotta eat roast pork and char siew, as well as soy sauce chicken while I am there

18. make my mom make curry for Pat since he loves it

19. make pineapple tarts for pat since he loves it

20. eat more bak kwa

Yeah.. I need to pack light this time around considering the amount of shit I plan to take back including my envelops for my business and beads I am buying there in massive amounts. Right now I am debating if I should bring my present stash of beads with me to earn extra money while I’m there. Should I be thick skinned instead and get money from my parents? HUR HUR.

I was even bloody happy to hear singlish today when I called ICA about changing my IC. Shit, can you tell I am excited or what, first time ever.

As I knew it would, 2009 began with a delightful start. Not only did Pat and I have a fabulous time with the Gills with lots of eating and champagne drinking, but I also bought my round trip ticket to Singapore for only USD$758, with 20,000 miles deducted from the initial 75,800. I’m getting there earlier to facilitate name changing paperwork, business and to see friends and family. Of course Patrick shall join our family for chinese new year a week after I get there and my grandma flies down from Canada on the 19th. This is like thanksgiving and christmas all rolled up in one. Simply divine.