Peng Peng's Episodes

First, I would like to clear up the mess caused by my man rating system before you can enjoy my story today. Please please do not take the rating serious; anybody, who is intelligent enough, shouldn’t worry how many stars they get from a married woman. Calm down and take a deep breath. Rejecting the rating or trading stars (E) in public domain (sending emails to all my friends) will just lead you nowhere. It only proves two things:

1. These bachelors definitely need some discipline.
2. My husband Shao po, who keeps quiet and well-behaved since the first episode, really deserves one more star (even he does not care).

For the person who breaks the rule and expects to be punished in the following episode, we should not let him disappointed. Ok, lets talk about E, who introduces the idea of owning a mobile phone, a convertible, and so on– to my husband and gradually transforming Shao po into an alien: simply speaking, a bad-influence friend. He has an interesting job called “partnership development" in a French company; from the strong friendship he is able to build up with my husband within the very short term, I think he should be promoted every week.

Next time, if you happen to stop beside a convertible in front of the signal, pay attention to the driver. Be old or young, fat or thin, tall or short, bold or with hair, man or woman, must they have one thing in common: they care so much about the WEATHER. By checking all the weather information available, E, a red convertible owner, knows exactly what kind of the weather we are going to get for the next seven days. His schedule is totally dominated by the weather: for example, he would tell you he doesn’t think it is a good idea to watch movie on Wed night for it is the only dry day this week so he and my husband should play tennis. Thursday will be rainy, good for movie—- He will be depressed for the whole week if the next weekend won’t be a sunny one. Although living in Menlo Park, he is able to inform you today’s temperature in San Diego. With his broad knowledge in California weather, E really deserves a Ph.D.. (p.s.: before I can finish this episode, he has already extended his interest to the East Coast and Chicago; I can hardly catch up with his research.)

One thing I cannot figure out is there are all these different versions of weather forecasts, it must be a tough job for E to conclude an optimum one. I asked for the methodology of his evaluation on the credibility of those reports, E gave me a simple, confident, philosophical insight: I trust the one which offers the BEST weather. Now I know why French are the happiest people in the world.

After eating Turkey and drinking a lot of wine on Thanksgiving Day at my aunt’s place, E, using his sensitive weather instinct, suggested that we should head to Los Angeles for some sunshine. (Here I owe you an explanation, why invite E to my aunt’s dilicious Thanksgiving dinner???? Believe or not, Taiwanese are the most peaceful human beings for we are educated to treat our enemies like families.) For those of you in the Bay Area during Thanksgiving holiday, it is not hard to imagine that we desperately wanted to get away from the gloomy sky for this biggest holiday of the year, and gave full trust to our weather expert E.

We left wet, grey, sad Menlo Park the next morning with our rollerblades, sunglasses, sun lotion, and big smiles. Sitting in the back seat of E’s Sebring and leaving our Miata and Altima at home, I had never been so sure in my life that we made the right choice. In five hours, we are going to rollerblade in Sunny Santa Monica (put “sunny" in front of Santa Monica seems so redundant). Most of all, I don’t have to drive since two five-star gentlemen will take turn and agree peng peng’s excellent driving ability should be saved for emergency only.

For this long trip, E brought his dear cowgirl Mooh to keep me company in the back seat while they conducted never-ending man conversation. Mooh is a lovely stuffed toy cow who ran away with E from Paris six months ago. Born in Indonesia, adopted in France, and educated in USA, Mooh has quite special experience for her age (7 months) and speaks with no French accent. I knew right away we will get along (just like Shao po and E). In addition to rollerblading in Santa Monica, another mission of the trip is to go to the huge Hollywood sign and have a picture of cute Mooh in front of it. (* I am not kidding. E is very serious about his series of Mooh in USA; the picture of Mooh in front of the Golden Gate Bridge is framed and hung in his living room. )

On highway 5, those endless cloud covered the sky (all the way to LA? nobody dared to say that). Even E, an optimistic French, started worrying. By the time we arrived LA, it was already dark (we never thought sunset could be so early there). We tried to convinced ourselves that it had been a beautiful day, while walking along Santa Monica beach and looking at those huge waves. With the help of a nice dinner and some alcohol, we regained more confidence in tomorrow.

I thought we were in Universal Studio when I woke up the next morning and saw the Hurricane scene through our big window. Those tall palm trees are shaking like drunk men. Is it some kind of special effect? If yes, then it is really a bargain bcs we paid nothing and enjoyed this special effect for the whole day. Everything can happen in the home of Hollywood.

It is not necessarily a bad news for me. Without other options, we can have some intellectual indoor activities: going to MOCA (museum of contemporary art). The exhibition there, Charles Ray, goes very well with rainy LA: you have no idea what is in his mind but you like to be confused once a while. Without an umbrella (I guess sun block won’t work, even it is water-proof ), we were just like three wet chickens escaping from soup when we arrive GC, MOCA for Richard Serra’s show. I was totally overwhelmed by his large-scale steel sculptures-ultimate simplicity and beauty. Getting used to live in the space divided by straight lines, I was so delighted to be surrounded by those 13 foot-high steel walls, which magically convey subtle curve and color. I really admire his ability of achieving such a feminine sensation with the very masculine material. It is really a must-see show for me (until Jan 3, 1999) even it snows in LA.—-Oh, sorry, I am off the point. What are we talking today? ————-oh, E. Here comes the real story.

I was pretty satisfied with what we had achieved so far in rainy LA. So for the rest of the trip, basically, these two gentlemen can do whatever they wanted. Actually, it is quite straightforward: searching for the Hollywood sign (like I told you before, E is not kidding). My husband, Shao po who just turned 30, seems to have no goals in his life at this moment, so he usually follows whatever E said. They used their male sense of direction and drove toward the hill, covered by dense fog. Eventually we ended up in an residential area with very narrow roads. Who says men never ask for direction? Shao po walked into a private yard and asked a nice couple there how to get close to the SIGN. They began their answer with “oh, my God" and ended it with " God bless you". However, we followed their slightly confusing direction and made a couple of U turns, still No SIGN. The bad weather doesn’t seem to change a bit the strong will of these two gentlemen. They finally found the right person for the direction: a postman. Mr. Postman was so kind and proud to explain the way but he doubt the visibility of the SIGN today.

After another U turn, I fell into a deep thought: Among all these strange behaviors my husband had these days, searching for the SIGN is definitely the most incomprehensible one. Starting from mobile phone, convertible, to the SIGN, all I can say is that my husband’s mid-aged delusion has reached the spiritual level. But why HOLLYWOOD SIGN???? ——————- Before I could figure out, my thought was completely interrupted by the loud scream from front seats. Have you heard men screaming? You are lucky if you have not for I could not stop laughing to tears, stomachache, and death. I know I shouldn’t for this is such a historical moment that two persistent gentlemen found their holy HOLLYWOOD SIGN. It is painted white, sitting on the top of hill, and overlooking its admirers. Having seen this SIGN in movies all my life, I have to say it is such a different experience to get sight of it in person. Before long I grabbed cameras, taking pictures of (Mooh and SIGN), (Mooh, E, and SIGN), and (Mooh, E, Shao po, and SIGN).

Now we were all very happy what we had done within 22 hours of stay in LA, time to head home. I am not sure if E made any wish in front of the SIGN, but It was like a miracle that we got to see the first piece of blue sky and beautiful sunset before we left LA region. The pleasant afterglow accompanied us for quite a while. When it got dark, E entertained us with his romances: just browsing through, bcs the full descriptions might last to Seattle. He made a very strange comment on his own stories: Girls are mean to each other. I was a bit annoyed by this conclusion but trying to reason him would just take forever. It is the last thing I wanted to do after a ridiculous 36-hour trip.

That is how I spent “part" of my favorite holiday this year. There was one more day left and E has certainly the talent of making it into a hell. Like typical Hollywood movies, you always give an ending with enough room for the sequel. It will take a while for that for I am totally exhausted after the production of this grand episode.

In case I don’t see you by the end of the year, Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all my friends and enemies.

peng peng