the last time i went home was for a day during spring break… it was andy’s birthday on the march 18th, but i was home on the 17th, so i went to liquor locker to buy him a bottle of hennessee for turning 21 and also a few cans of guinness beer to celebrate st. patrick’s day… while the few of us who gathered at andy’s house were all Asian, we felt a strong connection to the holiday because of john mayer’s st. patrick’s day… kinda silly/corny/outright stupid, but i dunno, try listening to it… we went to blockbusters and hollywood video to see if we could rent 21 grams, but these crappy video stores didn’t carry anything, so i ended up dropping $20 to buy the freaking dvd. it was a decent movie, so i wasn’t too bitter.

in 30 minutes, i will be on the 1 and 9 with albert heading back to edison, nj. this weekend, the second ever hba reunion will take place at hidden park. to see that hba has lasted this long – it was founded in december 2000 – is definitely something to cherish. i still vividly remember the day in december when a few of us brought out shovels to clear the court of the snow and ice just so our three teams – blue, red, and gray – could play our three-on-three games against each other while one team sat out and took stats. of course, we’ve come a long way and more and more people have become involved, but i feel like it’s still the same deal – just a bunch of guys who want to play some ball and see how well they do statistically. but in the larger frame of things, i guess hba has been one of those excuses to anticipate getting together with people you’d normally talk to less and less as the years go by. and the cool thing is, it’s become a lot more diverse as well, not only catering to the east asian male demographic, but expanding to caucasians and south asians [as for african-americans, it’s not that we purposely left them out, but our academically stratified high school experience – and not to be racist or anything, but there were NO black kids in my “honors” classes – made it impossible to make lasting friendships with black kids at jp stevens]… or maybe we’re all inherently a bit afraid to play with a race that we deem to be the BEST at the sport, but i hope that’s not the case – i mean, i’ve played ball with black people plenty of times at columbia. but racial issues aside (and it’s sad that it always has to be about race, right?), i’m pretty excited for what ought to be a competitive, well-organized (i hope) two-day event.

home. edison. new jersey. it looks like my family’s days in jersey are numbered, although i am not quite sure how long we’ll remain… i look forward to eating my grandma’s food while looking out into our underlit backyard, unique with the random fence going down the middle and splitting the yard into too – an eye-sore that is only ameliorated by its utility in hanging out laundry to air-dry. and then there’s the upstairs – my floor – two decent-sized rooms that get no cold air in the summer, but is a very nice place to do work/watch tv/sleep when the weather is nice. and that parking lot – a reminder that my family lives in what was a OB-GYN private practice office – the doctor now retired and serving as the landlord who took me a few times to philadelphia eagles games and is happy that i’ll be doing an internship at the NFL this summer… i guess a bbq at my place after hba wouldn’t be so bad, finally getting to see what the parking lot looks like filled with cars. ok jerz, here i come.

-pk