Memories, please STAY in my head

Additional quotes:
Me (about Eric helping Regina buy Owen's gift): Wow I guess guys really do know how buy for each other
Eric: Yeah. Borders? YOU'RE IN THE WRONG PLACE.

Frances L: I think if one of the guys turned out to be gay, the girls wouldn't care at all
Eric: What if one of you girls turned out to be a lesbian?
Guys: THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.

It's freaking 4:51 am right now and I came home ready to sleep but sometime between the changing into pajamas and brushing of teeth, I realized that I have to blog NOW or I will lose out on a lot of awesome blogging moments.

So today was TMV dinner. It was the first dinner with all 12 of us, PLUS an additional Alvin, whose house we actually used. So many play areas in that house. A real dining room with enough space for everyone to eat without having to maneuver elbows, a living room with clean floors to sit on and chat in large groups, a giant kitchen for the boys to cook delicious foods in, and a tv room with an awesome couch for chats to last until very early morning.

I'll just skip the day's events to the actual arriving at Alvin's house. Some girls (me, Jackie, Frances and Frances) arrived at Alvin's 5 minutes earlier than they told us to. We decided to sneak up from the back door, because then we could surprise them. Instead, we started amusing ourselves for what must have been 10-15 minutes of just watching the boys "frantically" cook and finish a dinner that was scheduled for an hour and a half ago. Frances Chen has a wonderful video of it on her camcorder that we forgot to watch. Let's just say it was wonderfully entertaining, especially because the boys did things we could have all expected. Namely:

Henry steadfastly cooking, not letting anything distract him
Alvin randomly coming in to perform judo moves before running off
Owen and Will were not really seen, I believe because they were finishing off sushi in the separate kitchen
Eric walking around, helping out at random places and sometimes just chilling
and our hands down favorite...

Danny who was given the sole task of cleaning out crystal glasses for use. He sat and just wiped the glasses with paper towels on a bar stool. Eric sometimes came over to check up on his progress. It was so amusing to watch because you could imagine how he ended up with the task that involves absolutely no contact with food.

Other great observations we made:
The TV that was on and playing some music CD that I guessed correctly was Eric's. What we did not know was that they had listened to it five times through and now hated it.
A fireplace that was just really cute to imagine someone turning it on with the thought of the girls in mind, but in reality, was probably Owen just fiddling with some buttons for the hell of it

We called Danny to tell the boys we were coming in "one minute," but the effect of his announcement "Guys, they're coming in one minute" didn't have much of an effect. In fact, none of the boys seemed to speed up their pace, which we found funny as well. In the end, Danny finally saw that five girls (Connie Y had joined us at some point) were staring from the glass sliding door.

While waiting for the boys to finish up, we entertained ourselves by taking group pictures. Although around 3am we realized that this was BEFORE Regina arrived, which a major point of getting together in winter break is to ACTUALLY SEE Regina. Sigh. At least we have those great staircase pictures. WHICH are on my memory card that is in Connie Yu's camera!

Finally we were told to be seated where Henry slowly poured very Asian-style soup into our bowls. Then Owen broke out the $10 champagne, which Danny had bought (CUTE!).

Owen: How do you pop open a champagne bottle-- *POP* AHHHHH

FINALLY we began dinner at 9:22 which is about 2 and 1/2 hours after the scheduled eating time. That's ok though. Even if they said the food was cold, I thought it tasted great. Before we could eat though, Henry made a speech, where he told us about the theme of the dinner, where each dish represented a girl.

Connie L - Quiche because she is the baker
Connie Y - Taiwanese green onion-like pancakes with meat, which turned out to look a lot like Mexican quesadillas
Frances L - Soup because she likes tofu
Me - Crazy delicious paninis because I fucking love paninis and I am now addicted
Frances C - Sushi because she is Japanese-like
Regina - Chocolate chip cookies that are round, cute and sweet that ended up somewhat burnt because the following conversation took place: "We need to keep the cookies warm!" "The oven is warm! Just keep them in the oven!"
Jackie - Crepes with pears that are French-like and also sweet

Delicious, wonderful, and awesome.

Connie Y: What drugs or pills are you taking, meltang?
Me (without missing a beat): Birth control.

OH NO I can't think of more right now. Comment with quotes if you remember

After dinner, when we were all beyond full, we cleaned up and washed dishes. In the very end, I realized that several people had not been seen, and they were sitting on Alvin's staircase gossiping. I joined them, and slowly, one by one the entire group was congregated there. We took really cute staircase pictures (we should just have a staircase that leads to nowhere for camera backdrops) and then started on our Secret Santa exchange.

I wanted people to guess who they thought had given them the gift, because it seemed far more fun than just handing them out. Alvin and Eric didn't have secret santas, so they had to hand out presents. After much discussion over how to proceed, we ended up lining up the presents in a line on the table, and then lining up in a single file line with our backs turned against them, where Henry commented that it felt very much like we were about to get shot. Alvin went around and asked who got who which present, and then we were handed them it.

I was handed my gift and the second I looked at what I was holding at, I said something like "OMG DANNY. YOU ARE MY SECRET SANTA?!" It was hilarious because just earlier, I had found his insanely cute gift bag on the table of gifts, and had gone "WHOSE GIFT IS THIS?!" and Danny was like "It's mine. I actually rebagged it" but it was so effing cute and so Danny-like that all the girls laughed about it. AND I ended up with it. I swear, that bag is going to stay with me until my death. Maybe I will be buried with that bag.

How the gift bag is Danny-like:
1) It has a bunch of Sesame Street characters on it, and is obviously for little children
2) It has been used before (although this is generally very Asian-like)
3) My gift had been thrown in without any wrapping around it, even though the gift was a rectangular shape, which is the EASIEST thing to wrap EVER

Will opened his gift of alcohol and a drinking game, and because of a previous comment I had made, assumed it was mine. I went along with it, getting a hug from him and a very kind thank you. Connie Y, his real secret santa, got angry and started banging her gift on the table and making a pouty face. It was awesome.

Regina opened my gift and it was pretty obviously mine because it was a DVD. It is also the DVD that I put on my own wishlist, and ended up having my brother buy for me, and I forgot to take it off my wishlist, which was STUPID because then DANNY bought it for me. The second he saw what Regina got, he was like "WHY did you buy a gift that you put on your own wishlist?!" so I knew what my gift was, even though I had already known who gave it to me. But AWW I still think it's so nice of Danny to have actually clicked on my wishlist to see if I had listed anything.

Jackie got Frances L's gift, but after she opened it, she knew it had to be either Connie L or Frances L because her gift was DVDs and books. She pointed at the both of them, which I thought was very funny

Connie Y got a scarf and a gift card from Connie L and I think she already knew who had had her even though for a week before the exchange, she kept asking people "DO YOU KNOW WHO MY SECRET SANTA IS?"

Danny, whose gift was in a Bath and Body Works bag, had immediately said "WHO BOUGHT ME SOMETHING from BATH AND BODY WORKS?!" You could tell he was going to be very disappointed as he opened his bag. Then a gift WITHIN the bag fell out, which was a (wrapped?) rectangular box. He opened it, finding a game for his Nintendo DS, and you could clearly see the pure delight in his face. HAHA Will is genius for that B&BW trick wrapping

Frances C got a gift from Owen (which Eric, Alvin and I were present at the purchase) that was a vibrating Totoro stuffed animal and some lanterns that she could string up around the room. She responded with a "OMGGG I've always wanted a Totoro" which made me think more highly of Owen, because he knew that she liked Totoro. Also, there are great memories where Owen told us who his secret santa was and basically this would go down:

Guys: WHAT Frances C is EASY to buy for
Me: UH WHAT?! NO SHE'S NOT. She's one of the hardest!
Guys: Just get her something Japanese-y
Me: UH... I would just get her some jewelry or something

*at the mall*
Guys: Let's go to Brookstone
Me: Brookstone?! You guys aren't going to find anything in Brookstone for her
(hour later)
Guys: I don't think there's anything we can get here. What about jewelry?
Me: Is ANYONE LISTENING TO ME?!
Guys: Frances C is freaking hard to buy for!

Owen got a gift from Regina that was actually REALLY well wrapped, which I did not expect. HAHA JK. It was such clear evidence of the difference between girls and guys because Owen got a snowboarding calendar and a completely useless toy where two ninjas were attached to springs on a plastic ninja-star shaped base, where you basically spun it around to see them "fight" each other. All the girls had "WTF" looks while all the boys quickly gathered around, going "WHOAAA AWESOMEEEEEE." Apparently Regina had asked Eric wtf to get Owen, and he was like "there is this store in the mall. Go there." HAHA

Frances L got a gift from Henry, and before "unwrapping" it, she was like "this is clearly a guy, because of the wrapping. But I'm sorry if it turns out to be a girl." It was a DVD in a Christmas-decorated paper bag. I'm wondering if Henry happened to have a Christmas-decorated paper bag sitting around in his house, or if he actually had to buy a pack of them. Also, much like Danny, he had put a SIMPLE RECTANGULAR OBJECT into a BAG. HAHAH

Connie L got assorted foods from Jackie, which she had taken care to wrap, only to have it ruined by my terrible driving. SORRY JACKIE! We ended up drinking Connie's gift of Trader Joe's apple cider.

Secret Santa exchange was awesomely fun. I loved it. Apparently awesomely is a word but blonde is not. Lamesauce.

Then began our fun conversations of the night. Will and Connie Y broke off but we sat on chairs and on the floor and just asked each other questions. Danny immediately started playing his new DS game, as anyone would expect.

Fun parts:

Frances L: If we were all stranded on an island, who in TMV would you eat first?
All: NOT Danny
*This somehow leads into a conversation of what part of the body would be best to eat, and Owen explaining that the ribs would be the tastiest*
Frances L: Well I just know that you wouldn't eat Henry because he could gather fish and meat for us
Me: Wait, when you asked that question, did you guys think of it as "who would be most expendable" or "who would be tastiest?"
*Almost everyone goes "who would be tastiest" while I think three say "who would be most expendable" which I thought was hilarious

Frances L: Would you guys date a girl if she left your friend to be with you?
Guys: It depends on how much you like the girl and who the friend is
Me: Wait, Owen, didn't you do that to Eric? Or was it Eric who did it to Owen?
Owen and Eric: DON'T BRING UP THE PAST. LET'S JUST DROP THIS.

Me: If someone who knew the future told you you would meet the love of your life ONLY if you had to be a janitor, would you do it?
Everyone: UHHHHH...
Connie L: I will settle for the second place love of my life

Eric: Do you think we will be life long friends?

Frances L: Well we have more convenient means of communication now. Before, our parents would have to write letters but now we can e-mail
Eric: E-mail is so SLOWWWW

Owen: Ok, conversation's gone on long enough. Let's play bang
Me: WHAT? We haven't even had an awkward silence yet! We can talk for so much longer
Some guy: Fine. Flatulence!
Frances L: WHAT? That's not even that awkward.
Danny: Let's talk about butt sex
*Awkward silence falls upon group*

Me (asking the guys): If you got really drunk and found yourself naked in bed with another man and you KNEW you two had had sex, WOULD YOU TELL TMV
All guys: WHOAAAA ... I don't know ...
(In the end, the boys agreed that it would never happen because they'd never be drunk enough to do it with a man, at least to get it up, but I think the general consensus was still a NO they would not tell TMV)

Owen, Danny and Alvin: Let's play Bang!
Most everyone else: NO / Then I'm going home / I'm not playing / Let's keep talking
Alvin (asking the magic 8 ball): Will we play bang tonight?
*Outcome comes out unclear*
Me: Will we play bang before we leave?
*Outcome unlikely*
Alvin: Will we play bang tonight?
*Outcome unclear*
Alvin: Will you answer whether we will play bang tonight?
*Outcome yes*
Alvin: Will we play bang tonight?
*Outcome unlikely*
Alvin: No! Will we play bang tonight?
*Outcome don't count on it*
Alvin: Will we play bang tonight?
*Outcome unlikely*
Me: OMG. IT'S SAID NO THREE TIMES. WE'RE GOING HOME
Alvin: Will we NOT play bang tonight?
*Outcome yes*

Things we realized today:
We almost always freeze up and say the stupidest randomest shit in front of people we really like, so that we are never that close to them
WD-40 stands for water displacer
TMV guys care more about face than body which maybe means I should spend less time at the gym and more time caking my face in makeup
Danny's stories are always about his cousins
Our parents are real people who have gone through some pretty fascinating experiences
Most of our families are kind of messed up
Nice and prettiness in a girl is not enough to make up for utter boringness
The chances of us all staying friends depends on how much we value vacation time with friends vs family vs significant others