Back for an update. Time's been passing really quickly lately. Or maybe it's that my schedule seems to be filling up. Either way, the days have been moving along more rapidly than I expected, given that summer's always supposed to be a reasonably languid period, during which people spend remarkable amounts of time doing absolutely nothing, or doing something so inconsequential that it basically amounts to doing nothing. But I digress.

Attended another farewell dinner on Saturday. CK left Austin for good after completeing grad school, to go back to Singapore where he apparently has an engineering job waiting for him. It was an interesting day, mostly spent driving round to a couple of music stores first to find a place to fix my busted amp (more about that later), before heading over to Jan's place to assist in moving (in reality I ended up sitting there eating watermelon pieces and catching up with Jana, who I hadn't seen in over a year, and who'd come in with some of the Houston folks). After the guys finished moving all the heavy furniture, we piled into a few cars and drove to the Chinese restaurant for CK's dinner.

It was a pretty big crowd there that night, more than I expected, and comprising of some people whom I hadn't seen in over a year or more. It would appear that just because you live in the same city as me, that doesn't necessarily equate to me seeing you on a regular basis. That said, it reminded me that I am due for a visit with a few of them, especially since I am no mobile and no longer rely on the kindness of Andre to take me places. Note to self: make phone calls next week and go pay old friends a visit.

In other interesting news, I had a couple of Mormons show up on my doorstep yesterday afternoon. Given that I'd been up since 6.30am in the morning for a prayer meeting, then working on decorations at the CHOP (Campus House of Prayer, I'm their interior designer, among other things), and hadn't really eaten anything except for a bagel in the morning, I wasn't really quite set on unexpected visitors, but still, the experience was rather interesting. It was one of those few times where I didn't check who was at the door before opening it, mostly because I was expecting Andre to arrive since we were supposed to go to Guitar Rez together, so you can imagine my shock when I opened the door, and instead of Dre, there stood two women, wearing black name tags and holding pamphlets in their hands.

I won't go into detail about our conversation, but I will say that it left me rather bemused. Having studied about Joseph Smith and the Mormons earlier in Spring in my Jesus in American Culture class with Dr. Miller, they seemed pleasantly surprised that I already knew about Mormonism, and we basically chatted for a few minutes about Jesus, and what church I attend and all that, and truth be told, they seemed like really nice people, save for the fact that they had it in their heads that the whole reason Mormonism exists is because after Jesus died, the only people who wanted to listen to him were the apostles, and since they died as well, God needed a new prophet.

Now obviously I definitely beg to differ to that, but it was hot and I was tired and about to drop dead from not having eaten anything in 7 hours, so we ended the conversation with me agreeing to consider visiting their website and that was that. Talk about strange and unexpected visits. Oh well, they could have been Jehovah's Witnesses, and things would really have gotten interesting. Anyway, so Dre showed up about twenty minutes later, and we headed to Guitar Rez, our favorite guitar store in Austin to have a look at some pick-ups and guitars. He's thinking about getting an electric guitar, and I'm in the process of considering a new acoustic with a built-in pickup.

It appears that though Dusty (my guitar. Yes, I named my guitars and my car) hs served me well in the time that I've had him, I'm getting to the point where I need something better. Now of course I'm not talking about going and buying a $2000 guitar, but an upgrade is definitely due really soon. So Dre and I tested out a few models, including a really nice Epiphone with a built-in pickup, so we'll see. I've got my eye on something, and I figure it'll be nice to have a decent acoustic, especially since I've already got the Gibson. Call me biased, but when it comes to electrics, Les Pauls are definitely one of the guitars I'll always name as being absolute dynamite.

And speaking of guitars, I'm now in two bands instead of just one. So far I've been playing for Extension, the college ministry band, as the lead vocalist and keyboardist, but come this Sunday, I'll be making my debut as the electric guitarist for the main band in church, meaning that from now on, every Sunday I'll be up on stage playing for the entire congregation. It's a little nerve wrecking, given that we have a really good band and gospel choir in my church, and I'm the youngest member and the only one in college since the rest are working adults, but it's been a really good experience so far. Next to Pastor Sandra, who's the worship pastor and plays keyboards and sings, I'm the only female musician, and the only Asian one too. As Dre said, yay for Asian Representation.

Which then of course brings me back to my amp, which so nicely managed to get busted last week when it fell over and is now in the shop. I'm hoping they'll have it repaired by next week (they have to order some parts), but in the meantime I'll be borrowing an amp and everything should work out just fine. It's different getting involved in church this way, because it's the first time I'm doing something in church that doesn't involve Dre, but I guess it's a good way to step out. Anyway, who knows, maybe he'll get up there soon too. With us already playing together in Extension, I know he'd have no problem playing in this band, and he said maybe next year, so we'll see.

Other than that, things have been pretty chill. Yesterday evening was spent throwing the football around with Jan and Dre, and working on some football plays for when we start playing regularly again in Fall. It felt really good to be out there in the park with the guys because I've really missed playing and am looking forward to getting back in the game. My only complaint at the moment is that it's searingly HOT right now, so I'm waiting for the weather to cool down. Oh well, at least we're playing later in the day when its cooler, so I guess I'll just keep layering on the sun block for the time being.

This Saturday there'll be a road trip to Dallas with Jan, Dre, Josh and Shin San to meet some lady that wants to get in touch with the Singaporeans at UT. It's quite funny really, since currently Dre and I are the only ones who really grew up in Singapore, but whatever. You're quite hardpressed to find Singaporeans at UT these days. We're a dying breed it seems. Anyway, so that's the exciting news for now. My shoulder's starting to scream at me from playing football and then playing guitar for a few hours, so I'll end here. Till next time then. Peace out.