The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself
A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley
Spring 2003
Week 21: Leaving Behind
6-2-2003
I’m not really at Berkeley, but I did spend two more days there which were not recorded in these archives, so I think that warrants one final entry before I close this chapter in my life.
It was a good day on the 24th. Shirley’s parents came up pretty early for her graduation. Cindy came a little later. Shirley had not gotten us tickets (Leon and I, that is) but we wanted to go, so I went first to hand in my paper beforehand while Leon waited for Cindy to get to Berkeley. California Hall was locked up for the weekend, so I slipped the paper under the door at the English office in Wheeler. My final assignment. Just slipped it under the door.
I bought a couple of cards; one for Shirley and another for Leon’s graduation the next day, and I was going to bring them back to the apartment and then go back to Zellerbach for the sociology commencement, but Leon called me. They were already inside and the tickets were going fast. I didn’t want to bring his card in there and let him see it, but I couldn’t give him any other good reason for going back to the apartment. Finally I just told him. Agh...
The graduation was cool... I didn’t have that good of a view so I sat there with my camera ready the whole time, waiting for Shirley to walk... it was a while.
Afterwards we all grouped back together, with her parents, and also Scott, and took a whole lot of pictures, then Mr. Wu drove us to this restaurant and we ate lots of food. There was a lot of food and somehow I was expected to eat it all when everyone was full. Also for some reason everyone threw bits of fortune cookies at me; I think it was something I said, but I can’t remember what, exactly.
Went back to the apartment and packed most of Shirley’s stuff into the van, and her parents left. It was pretty backbreaking work, I think. Not really backbreaking, but it was really hot and I got itchy.
I spent most of the remaining afternoon trying to get Shirley’s laptop to play Equilibrium when I hooked it up to the TV, but I couldn’t get it to work. So I hooked it up to Leon’s big monitor, finally... but then there was not divx codec on the laptop! So I installed divx, but it still didn’t work because it needed the xvid codec!! ARGH!!! This was even more complicated that I write it out to be. Anyway, I installed that, and FINALLY... we started watching it. Leon and Cindy went out to “return books;” but Shirley and I knew they were just going to dilly-dally, so we gave them permission to only “dilly” because there wasn’t enough time for dallying (we were all going to Sacramento later for the cell group at the RoL up there). They came back late, and they didn’t return books. They were just dallying the whole time like we told them not to. Sigh...
It was a long drive up to Sacramento, and traffic was sooo bad. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way (can you believe it). The cell was so cool; Wendy and Wayne were there, and a coupe other Berkeley people. Andrew and David from Davis were there, and John from Fly Young, and Angel Huang and her mom, and Steve and David from Sacramento. It was really great. Wendy gave a little message which was nice. So then we drove back. It was pretty late and I was planning on taking BART back but Cindy decided that she was going to drive back home instead of sleep over as she had planned. I got a ride with her and we talked for most of the time about important things. That was good.
Long day eh? Then on the 25th I did Redeemer twice for the children’s service. I didn’t think I was going to remember the part, but I got it almost all right! Whew! It turned out really well both times. It was with the Mexico team: Jason Hoerchler (sp?), Stephanie Jain (boy she really saved me because if she didn’t get those cues right, I would have missed them), Felix, and Sundah.
After service everyone said “Let’s go eat!” I said, “OK!” Tiffany asked “can you drive us?” I said “sure!” Then I went to my car and most of them had disappeared. Leslie was with me, and Kimmy, Jing, and Anqi. We just decided that we would do our OWN thing, since everyone ditched us, so we went to Carl’s Jr. and got some food, then brought it back to church for the cell leaders’ meeting. Good meeting, I talked a while (actually, a whole lot) during our sharing-thing and told many odd stories; I couldn’t seem to stop. Anyway, then I gave them a little talk on parents, and also about how to get people to answer questions.
Rented and watched Windtalkers that night. Mom was disturbed.
I need a job.
Monday, whatever...
Tuesday morning, John Kua picked me up and took me to Jonny’s house for some mad recording for Unveiled. MAD MAD recording. I laid down piano and vocal tracks... sounding cool!
Wednesday... ? At night I took Tim to Santana Row for his quartet performance before they screened The Matrix with this big projector. Man it was a NICE evening. I walked around Santana Row, looking at the super expensive designer stores and just having a relaxing night.
Drove to Jonny’s house for more recording. Not that much recording that night, but we decided on the rest of the songs for the CD. Awesome! “Day of Promise” got jack’d though... sniff. Oh well, it’s a good playlist.
Thursday I went back near home to get a dentist check up. They knew I graduated and I got a lot of jokes for being “young.”
NURSE 1: He just graduated, and he’s 20.
NURSE 2: Wow... like Doogie Howser.
NURSE 1: He probably doesn’t even know who Doogie Howser is.
JON: Hey, I know who Doogie Howser is!
Then the doctor came and looked at my teeth, and here’s where it gets crappy. He was checking all the cuts on my tongue (I’m guessing they’re from my retainer, but I don’t know).
DOCTOR: What’s all this...
NURSE 1: It’s [some medical jargon]... he might be biting his tongue.
DOCTOR: It’s all the hard drugs, is what it is.
JON: Gh. Oh, yah...
DOCTOR: Cocaine.
JON: Yah.
DOCTOR: Whoop – there, see that? That’s a cavity.
JON: Huh?
DOCTOR: A cavity.
JON: Huh?
DOCTOR: A cavity! You’re an English major, aren’t you??
I thought he was joking. I really have a cavity! Dang it!
It’s getting late so I’ll continue tomorrow.
6-4-2003
So anyway, cavity, I was pretty mad about that. I went back to Jonny’s house and spent the whole day there, recording and stuff. Tim did some rad electric guitaring and later Troy laid down most of the bass track, which sounded excellent. Trial and error, trial and error. We are going for perfection this time, and it is paying off.
Friday the 30th... Leon and I went up to Berkeley with his Dad to move out. Shirley was still there. It was a very sad thing, moving all the stuff out and seeing the apartment barren save the couches and furniture we were leaving behind, and the piles of stuff that Jason and Wayne left for next semester. I stuffed everything into boxes and bags... whoo, I had a lot of stuff to bring. It took a while. When everything was packed up, we brought them down to the car and loaded it all in. Oh man... so sad. I can’t believe it’s all over. Going home... so sad.
Lah dee dah... on Saturday the 31st, Dad decided that we could get a car!! Whoa?!? Initially I had planned to wait until I had a job, and then buy it myself without any help (that way I wouldn’t have to put up with any of the “well this car isn’t REALLY yours” crap), but we really need a third car, and it was the end of the month (plus Memorial Day week sales) so we had a good shot at getting a sweet deal. The paper said the Accord LX was going for $17, 743 (on all in stock) at 1.9% APR financing but when we got there it was a friggin’ different story. First of all, we thought we could knock off a few hundred bucks for going manual, but of course the $17,743 MEANT manual and they would ADD for automatic... sheesh... AND the 1.9% was on “selected vehicles,” AKA the Civics ONLY, even though the huge “1.9%” was plastered all over the darn ad. So we haggled for a long while; Dad tried to bring it down to 17 even but eventually they settled on $17,300. Bah. At 4.5% financing also. We should have checked with Nissan in that case, but oh well. It’s a silver Accord and it’s very nice, although it’s hardly unique on the road. Once I get a job and can take over the payments, it’ll be MINE.
Combined cell with Cupertino groups. It was really cool; I got to talk to the Cupertino kids, know them better, have fun; Jon Liao’s message was pretty impressive.
Sunday. Shirley’s final worship set. Sigh... all this sad stuff... sigh. It was a great set though, I loved singing in it and it was an excellent final bow. Afterwards a bunch of us went to Burger King to eat and that was cool... Then we went to Jonny’s house for more recording, but I didn’t need to be there; only Tim and Leedah, so Jonny took Shirley and me to his brother’s house for this barbecue thing, where we met his cousins. Then we went back. Wayne and Kimmy also came, and then Eric. We were all just randomly watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for no reason, and no one particularly wanted to watch it, so I said “Hey let’s watch Three Amigos” since Ritchie (Jonny’s sister’s fiancee) has a whole ton of DVDs and that was one of them. Unfortunately, no one thought it was that amusing. Actually, when I saw it again I didn’t find it all that funny... I suppose seeing it with Leedah in grade 7 probably attributed much to the humor, but STILL, it’s kind of sad that the pacing and humor of the 80's has no effect on the youth of today. I was afraid to admit that it WAS a little boring, but nevertheless, Three Amigos is still classic even if it doesn’t cater to today’s fast-food film diet.
More later...
6-6-2003
Bah... too late... I’ll sum it up another time.