All Memories of Eddie K Au

I don't remember exactly when this was, but it had to be sometime in 2004.  Eddie was in town, most likely for a holiday visit.  While working at a large financial institution, a few employees had to work half a day during a holiday.  This was to support other countries that did not celebrate the same holiday as the United States. 

Well, at some point it was my turn to work over the holiday and I suggested to Eddie that we meet up for lunch since he was going to walk around downtown that day anyway.  When Eddie arrived at the lobby, he gave me a call.  I told him which floor to request access to and he was on his way up.  I met him at the elevators and proceeded to show him around the floors.

One of the floors I took him to was the trading floor.  To me, it wasn't much, since I saw it everyday.  It was a room full of long tables with chairs and LCD monitors running along them where people looked at the current trading trends.  Though Eddie was a Computer Engineer, he had a strong affinity to the financial market, so his eyes lit up when he first gazed upon the floor.  I remember him saying somethng along the lines of, "this is pretty cool."  And I just looked at him and responded, "I guess?"

I didn't show it to Eddie, but it made me really happy to know something I thought was so simple and small could bring him such joy.  Afterwards, I think we went to McDonald's to grab some lunch and then went home.

Along with my last post, Eddie and I had somewhat similar personalities.  At times, we would notice events/details that others may not.  I remember whenever I noticed some comical event I would slowly turn to Eddie with a grin and to my surprise he's turning his head to face me as well.  We would then just start chuckling, not  simply because of the event, but because how we both had the same reaction at the same time.

Man, I truly miss these small experiences I had with him.

Eddie and I had similar tastes in humor.  At times his jokes would fly over my head or I simply would not find them funny.  A lot of times he would understand my jokes, but simply would not find them funny and he would proceed to tell me, "stop being an idiot".  However, the moments when we made each other laugh are priceless. 

I have so many fond memories of Eddie and we shared many moments together.  Of those, it'll always be the funniest which will stand out the most. 

We were both young and mischevious and we lived together which was a combination for trouble. 

To be responsible, I would NOT recommend that anyone do this.

But, one day, we got a hold of some lighter fluid.  I think it was for a lighter I had just got, maybe a zippo.  Anyways, I'm really not sure how it started, I think we were talking about lighting pennies, or something, and moved on to setting things on fire with lighter fluid.  It started small, in our living room with mini rolled up tissue paper, dipped in lighter fluid, extinguished in the ashtray.  But the thing is, the bigger the flame got the more excited we became.  However, we were sane people and we didn't feel like burning our apartment down so we kept it in control.  We moved the operation to the bathroom where we could light bigger wads of paper on fire and then immediately flush it down the toilet.  So here we are, squished in the bathroom, lurched over the toilet, lighting paper dipped in lighter fluid on fire getting more and more excited.  I think that it was also cool to see how quickly the fire would go out once we flushed the toilet.  It kept getting bigger and bigger with different types of paper, different set ups, more lighter fluid.  It  got  to the point, and this is the last thing we did,  where we actually took the time to figure out how to build an orgami boat, fill it with wadded lighter fluid paper, light that shit on fire and watch our little origami boat burn a little before it went spiralling down the toilet, and for some reason, this was a lot of fun to us. 

I think that this was probably the most dangerous thing we did there.  We had so many toys up in that spot, I mean, it was crazy...

Later on I moved to another place with a fireplace, I remember sitting in front of that with Eddie chatting, laughing, and watching the wood burn. 

  

It must have been 1992 when the movie, Sneakers, came out in theaters.  Eddie went to watch it with a few of his friends and couldn't get enough of it.  So the same night he watched the movie with his friends he told me that he wanted to take me to watch it as well.  The act alone of Eddie wanting to take me somewhere made me happy, since at the time I knew he saw me more of a nuisance than anything else.

So we walked over to our regular bus stop corner and after about a minute of waiting Eddie turns to me and says, "I told you I would take you to watch Sneakers.  Here it is."  I was a bit confused and didn't know what he was talking about.  He then pointed above to a sign that read "Sneakers".  It was the name of the bar on the corner.  I started to smile and laugh as did Eddie.

The bus came a few minutes after that and we headed to the movie theater to watch the real Sneakers after that.

Back in late 2002, I remember the dot com company I had been working for had to lay off all but the top three executives.  Even though I was only working minimum hours and was paid a low hourly rate, I still felt down that I no longer had a job to go to after my classes each day.

The first person I called was Eddie to break the news.  I can't remember verbatim what his first response was, but I think it was something along the lines of, "so what?".  And at which point I either got taken aback and got quieter or I yelled at him for his lack of emotional support.  Whichever reaction I had, he followed with, "Do you think you won't be able to find another job?  Does this mean your life is over?"  With my meek response of, "no", he followed with some sound reasoning, "things will work themselves out in the end.  Things are never as bad as they seem." 

His statement carried with me through college and even now, even though I just remembered this last night.  It's always been my underlying approach to all the crappy things that happen and to all the good things that don't.  This just goes to add how much of an influence Eddie has over me.

I remember when I was in fourth grade and on the "safety patrol".  One of our duties was to wake up early in the morning and leave a little earlier before school ended to help other kids cross the street.  This is around the time I first heard the term "J walking".  I had no idea what it was and asked Eddie if he could tell me.

He straight out said, "J walking is when you walk in a shape of a J in the street." And I completely believed him.

Fortuntely and unfortunately I have a lot of these stories involving Eddie ... =)

I remember Eddie telling me about how there was a period at work where he would consistently receive one ring calls which the caller would immediately hand up.  Apparently, his company had one of those voice command recognition systems - you know, "please say the person's name that you're trying to reach".  So, a majority of the callers would initally say "hello" and since our last name, when pronounced by a computer is similiar to "oh" it would instantly direct the call to Eddie's line.

It's funny because my office just installed the voice recognition number as well, but luckily I'm not receiving numerous amounts of wrong dials or speaking.

I remember many winters back,  I want to say the Winter of 1990, Eddie and I started to build an igloo in our backyard.  Eddie was naturally gifted with not just the skill but the curiosity of how to build things.  This was also why he was the main person constructing "our" igloo.

It was about half way done when I had a couple of my friends come over to play and suggested that we continue building the igloo without Eddie's knowledge.  We ended up modifying the wall so that it would be at a 90 degree angle, rather than the curved form Eddie had started.  It began to resemble that of a fort, rather than an igloo.  At some point my friends had to go home and I went in and told Eddie what we had done. He was upset. 

When I think about it now, I believe he was a combination of pissed (because the architecture was completely wrong) and disappointed because it was an activity he and I were doing together.  When I brought my friends into the picture it took away from the enjoyment.  Eddie nor I ever completed that igloo that Winter.

One of my fondest memories of Eddie and I was invovled during Halloween of 1986.  I was in the first grade, while Eddie was in the fourth.  During the Halloween season, our elementary school gave the option for the students to dress up in their costumes and have a class party.  I opted to bring mine, as did others in my class.

In 1986, Halloween actually fell on a Friday, so I was anxious to get home and start trick or treating that evening.  I rush home once school let out around 2:30pm and did whatever it was I did during those time (probably watched television) and was finally ready to be taken out to go trick-or-treating.  Before we headed out, Eddie asked where my costume was.  To my dismay, I had forgotten my costume at the school!  We run over to the school to find out that the doors had already been locked and there would be no way for me to get in.

I can't remember for sure, but I can only assume I was very distraught about not having a costume to go trick-or-treating in.  So, Eddie seeing how sad I was about it decided to help me out.  We went home and he started to cut out a mask from card board and colored in the mask with purple crayola marker.  He then went over to an old box withiin our porch and brought out a beige corduroy brimmed hat that our father used to wear.  With those two pieces he told me that I can go as a cowboy bandit.  I was happy that Eddie had helped me out and we proceeded to go trick-or-treating at the local corner store, Tooty's.

It wasn't until last week that I remembered this.  Even though I know Eddie saw me as an annoyance when we were kids (as he had every right to), he still cared about me a lot to help me whenever possible, just so his little brother didn't feel disappointed.

I actually wrote an entry earlier but somehow I lost it during the "post" hmm... arrrggg hahahaa... Funny because it wasn't until after I finished writing the memory that I realized why it stood out in my mind. Eddie had this really wonderfully quircky humor about him. Regardless of what we were doing, we would be laughing about it whole heartedly the entire way. I shared many adventures with Eddie into the unknown and I think those moments at that stage in our lives, especially in my own life, will always be special. Sophmore year 1996, thanksgiving, Eddie, Allen, Winnie, and myself were going to Killington to join my family for a 3 day ski trip. We had agreed to cook Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment before making the 3+ hr drive to Killington. We went out to Star Market on Comm. Ave to pick up the frozen bird and all the other goodies that came with a Thanksgiving dinner. Upon bringing the bird home we started thawing it and prepping the other food. This was late afternoon and I think it was Eddie and myself, for the most part, who were working in the kitchen. It wasn't long before we realized the bird wasn't thawing as quick as we needed it to. Eddie and I probably looked at each other with this "oh man, what do we do now" sorta way. We would be laughing no doubt. Well, at this point, someone suggested we run it under cold water which is what we did but it still wasn't thawing fast enough which is when we decided to just bath it in hot water. Figuring half an hour under hot water was enough, we dropped the bird into a pan and then into the oven. I remember the patriots game was on, at the time Bill Parcells was the head coach and they were having a great season. I think they ended up making the superbowl that year but on that particular day, I think they lost. After an X amount of time, we figured the turkey to be done. I mean, it looked done, and to be honest, very beautiful. The skin was a beautiful golden brown and we were no doubt all looking on hungrily. We took out our best knife, which at the time was probably no better than a butter knife, and carved into our bird piercing the crisp skin, cutting the tender flesh, into bone? We tried again, another spot, hmmm, more bone? That seemed a bit unusual. We ended up carving the entire outer layer off only to realize that it was solid ice inside! This is after like 6 hours of work, so at this point we should have been frustrated but all I could remember was us laughing about it. It was our first thanksgiving together away from home and eating semi frozen turkey was still a humorous delight. I wonder how tolerant we would be of that now... Actually, I think Eddie would have a good laugh at it even if it was just yesterday. This story stands out to me because it was probably one of our first adventures together. We were just playing around, laughing more than cooking. In years past, we would share this memory on more than one occasion. For myself, this event could define so many of the things we did together in future years. Whatever it was, whether we succeeded or failed, we would be laughing. We shared a very similar humor and it's times like the one above that make me miss him so much.

During Thanksgiving, sophmore year 1996, Eddie, Allen, Winnie, and myself decided to stay in Boston.  Actually, more accurately, we were going to join my family in Killington for a 3 day ski trip.  I think it was our first "road trip" together.  This in itself made everything seem more exciting.  However, before the 3+ hour drive to Killington, we had all agreed to have Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment in Boston.  We bought a fat turkey from Star Market on Comm Ave the day before. The thing was completely frozen, and, as with most people cooking a turkey for the first time, we'd figured a few hours prior to baking would be enough to thaw the damn bird.  So, that Thursday, sometime late afternoon, we began prepping all the other food and thawing the turkey.  We didn't want to leave too late, since we still had a fairly long drive ahead of us.  Eddie and I were doing most of the cooking and we soon realized that a few hours was simply not enough time to thaw an entire turkey.  I remember Eddie looking at me looking at him with that "oh shit, what now" expression.  we were like "man, we don't have time for this, we gotta figure something out"  And I can't remember who's idea it was, but in the end we decided to run the turkey through some cold water.  To our mutual astonishment, this did nothing to thaw the bird and in no time, we were bathing it under hot water trying to get the thing to thaw.  After some time, we felt the bird was ready to bake and we shoved it into the oven at 350 degrees f or so.  In the meantime, we just sat around getting ready to leave and waiting for the turkey.  When we finally took it out, it looked like the most beautiful thing to us.  The skin was a crisp golden brown and there was a mutual satisfaction amongst us all on a job well done.  With our carving knife, we pierced the crisp skin and carved about an inch into the turkey before hitting something hard.  Figuring it for a bone our something we tried again with the same result.  carving away the top inch, we realized that what lay underneath was nothing less than a brick of ice.  This was it, we could do no more, and in the end we ended up just eating the surface of the turkey. 

I remember sharing this story with Eddie many times as the years past.  I think something about it will always shine in my heart because it defined so many of our future adventures together into the unknown.  We had so much fun that day, I doubt there's another thanksgiving I remember so clearly.  Eddie had this great sense of humor about him and no matter what we were doing, we were doing it laughing whole heartedly all the way.  He had such a wonderfully quirky humor which I miss so much. 

Back in 1998, Eddie, Brian, Jaime, and I took a trip up to either Mount Snow or Killington, Vermont. It's hard for me to remember exactly which one it was, I think on this particular trip though, it was Mount Snow. We were skiing during the day and playing cards/gambling at night. At the time, Brian and I were really into Big 2, a Chinese game based on Poker Hands (ie, 2 pair, 3 pair, straight, flush, four of a kind, straight flush, etc.). The idea is to throw out as many cards as possible with the winner being the first person to throw out all their cards. Brian and I were pretty much veterans of the game while Jaime and Eddie had basically just picked it up on this trip (at least the gambling version which employs a different strategy vs the non gambling virgin version). It's not unusual for new players to make mistakes and get stomped. In Cantonese, when you lose in a new gambling game, we call it a "tuition fee". All newbies to the game typically pay this fee. I did when I started and I know Brian did as well, and as sure as rice (real rice now, not that brown sh$t) is white, Jaime and Eddie were paying this fee now. Halfway through the game, I remember thinking, "wow, we're really kicking their asses". Literally, as soon as that thought passed and the next hand of cards were delt out, Eddie had a miraculous hand and made a play that would eventually make him the ultimate winner for the night. In that one hand, he held a straight flush, four of a kind, and 3 of a kind. In one swift motion none of us could do a thing. He threw out his entire hand before any of us could throw out more than a single card. This was almost 10 years ago, and I have many fond memories of Eddie, many more based on merit than luck, but there was something to this as well. In that time, I've stomped, and been stomped in the same game but I have NEVER seen anyone stomp like Eddie in that one hand. I think that he knew himself that the odds of landing that hand were extremely slim and I remember very clearly the satisfied look on his face after thowing down. I've uploaded a photograph from that trip. Eddie's play was the most memorable event on that entire ski trip.

I remember tutoring Eddie math when he was probably 8 years old.  He wasn't doing too well in math in elementary school.  Being his cousin, I created the most complicated long division math problems for him to do.  It seemed impossible for a kid at that age.  He dove into the math problems with no questions asked.  At that young age, he didn't let any obstacles prevent him to suceed.  He never had problem with math again. 

I remember my last recreational trip to Boston when Eddie was still around.  I was in the airport waiting for my flight to board.  I got some McDonald's food and sat in one of the chairs.  As I sat I received a call on my cell phone, it was Eddie.  He wanted to let me know that he was back in the hospital because the doctors noticed a rise in white blood cells and had to stay a few nights for observation.  He told me that he had already been in the hospital for about a day up to that point, but was not able to call me until then.

I was anxious to see Eddie, hang out with him at the bars, and eat our "traditional" lobster meal during my time there.  When he told me that he was in the hospital again I felt bothered that my plans weren't going as well as I would have liked.  And so even though I had no intention of backing out from the trip, I asked him annoyed, "so do you still want me to come to Boston?" And his response was a meek "yes, please".

I didn't think anything of it then, but as I occassionally think about it now... my heart aches.  I can't believe how selfish I was being and how Eddie had to say "please" to me as though he had to be submissive to get me to visit him.  Throughout my life I have and will look up to him.  I regret having treated him that way. 

If only I could have that moment back... but ultimately I know he knows I love him and he loves me back.  You just can't help but feel like doing things differently though as that's natural.

I remember I was about seven years old and Eddie was around ten.  Just before we went to bed we watched this news report about how a particular religious group had predicted that night as the day of Armageddon.  Being seven years old I was scared of the thought, so I ended up climbing into the top bunk with Eddie.  I laid there for a moment still unable to sleep, so I nudge Eddie and let him know that I was scared of it.  His solution was for me to go to sleep.  The reason being that, "if you go to sleep now, it won't hurt as much if it's true."  His logic made sense to me, so I ended up sleeping comfortably and eventually woke up. 

Even at ten years old Eddie had a sound mind and knew how to ease my nerves.  Again, thanks for everything Eddie.

I remember some time during the Summer of 2003, I went on an impromptu trip to Boston to visit Eddie.  The reason being that I had just broken up with my girl friend from college and I felt like I needed to get away.  I called Eddie up as I was getting my plane ticket situation settled and he sounded glad to have me come out.  It was definitely a memorable visit.  I'm glad I had written down the the details (originally written on July 14, 2003):

On Friday night my brother picked me up from the airport and we went straight to a bar named Wonder Bar.  It's a really nice atmosphere, live jazz, good people, good service, and not to mention it was smoke free (it's illegal in Boston to smoke inside public establishments now, pretty damn cool).  Well, my brother and I simply kicked back in the bar where he introduced me to this waitress.  She's pretty cool cuz when we ordered two Red Deaths (a sweet shot, dunno what's in it though), she came back with 3, and so we proceeded to drink together.  She even gave us a complimentary KMX & Vodka (better than Red Bull & Vodka).  My brother is a semi-regular there, so that's probably why he knew the waitress and why we got all these little perks.  Well, after Wonder Bar we went back to his place, cleaned up, and went straight to bed

On Saturday, we woke up at 9:00am EST and I proceeded to wash up once again.  My brother's friends were coming to pick us up because we were headed to Newport, Rhode Island!  I didn't expect much from it really, I've heard of it of course but didn't know what to expect.  I'm told it's a much better version of Cape Cod, but I've never been there either heh.  The ride consisted of me, my brother, and his friends Aaron, Vanessa, and Helen.  Apparently Vanessa's (Vanny) parents, had purchased a condo right by the ocean, which is sooooo big and immaculate.  The drive took an hour, but I didn't care cause I was still so sleepy =).  When we got there we went straight to the condo and went to the roof deck, where we met Vanessa's parents (really cool people) and drank some iced tea.  When Vanny and Helen put on their beach wear, we headed out to the beach (the real beach, not like the man made North Ave), which took us like 30mins to get to.  Did you know that some parts of the ocean has a reddish tint to it (due to the red seaweed I believe)?  Interesting eh? hehe.  We simply lounged around and caught some sun and headed back to the condo about 2-3 hours later, where we washed up a bit.  Again, we headed out and went to the local little shops they had.  The first stop was at this huge antique store, where it even had a mint condition check written by Walt Disney himself for $30,000, selling for $2500.  I spent most of my time looking for a particular book though.  Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to look as thoroughly as I would have liked.  I did however, find the first edition (I think? Printed in 1952?) of Charlotte's Web.  After the that, the girls went around looking for sun dresses (or whatever), while my brother, me, and Aaron went to the only shopping place guys can really go there... the benches.  After a couple of more shops we decided to have dinner at this outside restaurant by the pier.  I figured since this was a rare opportunity I would splurge and go for the lobster and clam chowder.  It was simply declicous, so so fresh.  After eating, we headed back to the condo and nearly passed out, but we had to get back.  We arrived in Boston at like 9pm.  Where my brother and I washed up once again and got ready to go to an apartment party hosted by Aaron's friend.  For the people who know how apartment parties at C-U were... this was nothing like it.  To UIUC standards this would have been considered broke, but it was mainly for friends, with guests welcomed.  The hostess was names Asha, and she was a really cool person.  She proceeded to tell her story about her bad hair day, which if anyone else wants to hear it, just lemme know ... it's sorta sad =/.  All in all, it was a cool night, got to see how people party in a different atmosphere =).  We didn't stay at the apt for too long though because we were all pretty worn from RI.  So that ends my Saturday.  This description of this day has been severly abridged because there were too many things and feelings to type out.

Finally, Sunday, my last day in Boston.  My brother and I woke up at 10am?  Where we started laundry, and watched the Bourne Identity.  It hit around 1pm where we then headed out to the Copley Place (a mall).  We first went to Legal Seafood, where I again bought clam chowder and Lobster (still goooooood).  My waiter even congratulated me on being able to completely finish the 1.6lbs.  Afterwards, I was intending to buy a single outfit (shoes, pants, and a shirt), but I didn't get anything because I didn't see anything I really liked, except for these slacks from fcuk ($70).  Since all the pants were the same length, they would need to tailor them for me, of course I wouldn't be around long enough for that, so I plan to go to the fcuk here in Chicago.  After more looking around, we headed to Newberry street were we checked out the Guess store, but as most guys know, they pretty much only have a hole in the wall for men's clothes =P.  So we walked around Newberry for a while until it hit 4pm where we had to go back to my brother's place and head to the airport.

Below is the playlist for Eddie's Fav's compilation CD.  Of course Eddie had a lot more songs he would consider his favorites, but I hope you all enjoy this small sample.  This list comes courtesy from Andrew (thanks again man!).

1. Dankeschein - Wayne Newton (as a kid)
2. Foundations - Fill Me Up Buttercup
3. Video Killed the Radiostar
4. Take On Me - a-ha
5. Don't You Forget About Me - Simple Minds
6. Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode
7. Girlfriend in a Coma - the Smiths
8. Friday's I'm in Love - the Cure
9. SOS - Erasure
10. Always on My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
11. These are the Days - Natalie Merchant/ or 10,000 Maniacs
12. Perfect Kiss - New Order
13. Today - Smashing Pumpkins
14. In God's Country - U2
15. Beautiful Stranger - Madonna
16. What's the Frequency Kenneth - REM
17. I want you to want me - Letters to Cleo
18. Love at first sight - Kylie Minouge
19. Yellow - Coldplay
20. Last Night - The Strokes
21. the Middle - Jimmy eats World
22. Good Riddance (Time of your Life) - Green Day

The photo with the three of us was taken on Eddie's 6th birthday. Eddie was really big on Garfield and quietly wanted a stuffed version of him for sometime. I don't think he conveyed it to anyone but to me that he really wanted one. One that was in a relaxing pose. Garfield was really popular back then. I remember running around to different stores looking for the one he wanted and it was difficult since the smaller versions of him in different poses were more readily available. Finally, one was located at a Hallmark store ( I think it was at Water Tower Place) and it was the last one on the shelf stuffed behind some other versions of Garfield. I was really glad that I was able to get him something he would really like.

On the day of his birthday, it wasn't hard for Eddie to see that he was getting a Garfield. The way it was wrapped gave it away since it was shaped like a cat. I remember his face lit up with a big smile after he neatly unwrapped it. Eddie slept with it for a few years but afterwards always kept it in his room. That cat has never been thrown out and still remains with the family. 

During Thanksgiving 2004, a bunch of us met up at Ontourage. Although Fleming and I had been friends for years, I'd never met Eddie before. But the minute I saw him, I knew who he was. The resemblance between him and Fleming was striking! I immediately introduced myself to him as "Fleming's Best Friend, Charlene" and he just had this blank look on his face, as in, I've-never-heard-of-you-before... who-are-you? haha. But that's ok  =P I'm just really glad that I had at least that one opportunity to meet him... 

I have so many fond memories of Eddie. I was lucky to have met him after his college days, completely at random at a club in NYC. A Boston University alum, we hit it off pretty well and became fast friends. When I think of eddie, this what goes through my head.

- his love of Kylie Minouge and other small cute blondies
- 63 bagel bites, grand theft auto and fireworks with all his pals from his pad in Kenmore square
- six straight days of tennis till eddie sprained an ankle
- a cd compilation called eddie's favs
- not letting eddie drive his jetta at night....or at all really
- Chilling with Eddie and Fleming at the W in NYC, go-karting and other shenanigans in Montreal, getting the nickname "Nature Boy" at a cabin north of Toronto since eddie, as we know, is such as outdoorsman
- 2 awesome ski trips to Killington which i think he both organized
- my skydiving partner in Rhode Island, walking around in flightsuits singing "leaving on a jetplane", having a great lunch afterwards, and feeling that after doing that, there's nothing in this world that can't be done
- Guys Night Outs, watching him chat up a brick wall at Club nicole, his birthday party at the Living Room, escaping from angered cab drivers in the Civic, carrying me single handed back to safety after a crazy night at 33.
- How happy he was when he moved into his first condo

I will always remember eddie's non-stop energy, funny quotes and quirky mannerisms. I will also remember how he truly loved his family as he expressed it often. A truly incredible friend. Rest in Peace my man.

Nov 27, 2006

This goes back to a hot Fourth of July night where I remember when my cousins came home from their first China/Hong Kong trip. At that time we were only about nine or ten, so the horrible stories about the giant flying cockroaches and how all the rural roads were filled with cow dong were simple distractions to what was the real excitement outside. You see, my cousins and I were always big fans of things that went boom, especially to Eddie. As you see, Eddie, at a very young age, had a fascination with how and why things worked – especially with electronics, but that’s another story.

Anyhow, with all the commotion outside, the only thing that I can remember was that my cousins happen to bring home one case of bottle rockets straight from the mother-land. That’s right, one hundred beautiful little flying missiles that you can launch up to the air, up the alley, to the next door neighbors, up the pipes, you name it and it went Ka-Boom. Tonight was going to be mayhem, in our own personal celebration sort of way. We each lid an incense and went straight outside to the front porch. We placed the package on the steps and started to strip the fine plastic packaging, and with each precious piece we lay it down individually. I helped as much as I possibility could, hoping that I would atleast get a chance to light whatever piece they would throw my way – well, they did me one better, they cut me more than a generous share. We each took our turns to walked to our perfectly placed tin-can launching platforms and unleash the fury of each rocket for our own delight.

After about twenty or so, we launch another into the air, but this time we didn’t hear the trademark boom, this time there was a little glowing light that was in the background. Was this an imagination or a simple error of the eye? No, this was the doing of the rich kid that live across the street from our house. I guess he decided to take part of the celebration of our great nation with some tribute of his own. He had lid fireworks that would make children stand motionless with awe. Some had lights, some had whistles, some had lights and whistles, and some went ka-boom multiple times. With each flick of his lighter, he showed us that he was better than us, richer than us, and in some way, our fireworks were not even good enough to be on the same block as him. So we did what we had to do – we looked at each other and started to light our own fireworks again and simply appreciated the extra show in the back ground.

I learned a lot that day – simply, there will always be a time where someone will be better than you, but when you look at yourself and your surroundings and appreciate it for what is worth, you should be contempt. That night, we might not have the better stuff, but I can tell you that we had something better than all the fireworks in the world – we had each other for company.

This goes to my cousin Eddie – I know that you are always in my company.

The most beautiful time in Boston is Spring. In April, around the third week, when all the snow is gone and the torrential rainfall makes the grass green and the flowers bloom. You begin to notice this amazing fragrance. As you walk or drive down Commonwealth Ave or Newbury Street, you see all the cherry blossoms in full bloom. This is my absolute favorite time of year. For those of you who has ever had the chance to live there or visit...you will understand. The outdoor tables and chairs begin to come out of hibernation. Students line the streets of Commonwealth Ave loitering outside class. The BU beach is the place to lounge.....and of course the site seeing on Newbury St.

One the first warmest day of the year....which by Eddie and I's standards is around 45 degrees. He would be the first person to call me. We make a date to have lunch....outside of course. Our drink of choice: mimosa's. Every year, we would have our first mimosa's of the season together. I miss that.

The tradition started 2 years ago when Eddie and I were meeting up one Tuesday evening after work. It was a beautiful day that day...we met at Sonsie on Newbury. Sonsie has gigantic patio doors that open up to the sidewalk, enabling prime people watching. We were having a quick drink and catching up. We were having a fantastic time and decided to stay for dinner. Our drink of choice mimosa's. Now for those of you who know us.....we both look like a couple of young college kids...barely even legal to drink. We placed out order...and 5 minutes elapsed and our waiter came over and whispered to us: "just to let you know, our mimosa's are 16 dollars a piece". Our reponse: we'll have two each.

It was a very expensive evening....but well worth the price.

I remember partying with Eddie at Ontourage, I think this was around Thanksgiving of 2004. Then at the end of the year, me, Fleming and Eddie paid for a hotel suite to pre-party on New Years before hitting up Room 22. Somehow the three of us paid for the room and none of us got to sleep on the bed. I think it was at the Marriott on Hubbard? Not sure now, maybe Fleming can help me fill in this memory. I don't remember who was there but we had a lot of people crammed into our suite. In any case, we had a good time with friends and it was a fun way to bring in New Years of '05.

I'm not sure if this constitutes as a "fond" memory, but it was definitely memorable and it involved Eddie.

When I was around 5 years old; Eddie, my cousin Zhen and I were sitting in the car waiting for our parents to come back from running into the grocery store. Eddie, being the oldest of the three, decided to light the car's cigarette lighter (yeah, it was a while ago) and dared my cousin Zhen to touch it. Zhen taking on the dare touched the hot lighter as Eddie laughed. And then he turned to me and dares me... yep, I touch it too. Well, I was a stupid kid and Eddie took advantage of it =). I remember we would occassionally laugh about that incident... when I was much older of course.

Some time during 2001 I was having a conversation with Eddie over the phone, he asked me if I've ever read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. I told I hadn't and he highly recommended that I did. I was relunctant to agree, but ultimately I told him I'd check it out. So, while I was in Champaign, I drove to the Borders and purchased a copy. I couldn't put it down. And to this day, that book is what opened up my mind to the concept of "having your money work for you." I have to thank Eddie for that, he was usually the catalyst of good lessons in my life.

I remember in kindergarten, I would receive assignments where I had to write out the word of the day like 5 times each within this box printed on a piece of paper. I didn't care much for following the instructions, so instead I just drew random pictures. Eddie noticed I was drawing stuff and he decided to label them for me (tree, car, cloud, etc). The next day I hand in my homework thinking I was going to get in trouble because that's not what the teacher asked for. Instead, my teacher was impressed because these were words we hadn't learned yet and congratulated me. Eddie continued to label all my pictures thereafter (in kindergarten).

So, essentially, Eddie helped me cheat through kindergarten and pass. Haha, didn't think of it in that until now!