Was feeling a little down the other day and this thought popped into my head. “It would be real nice if I could get a big honking hug from Brian Murray.”

I really miss my friends in San Diego. Life always just seemed happier, more care free, less complicated back then. And that’s how I feel moments should be lived.

Unlike here in Malaysia, hugging was a natural custom that was practiced in SD. We would hug when we greeted each other, we would hug when we said good bye, we would hug to just say “Hey, how’s it goin’?” And I’m not talking about the sort of lame hugs high society gives each other with the air kisses. I’m talking about big manly hugs here, the sort that gets exchanged in battle after victory.

Upon leaving Amphibia Digital here in Malaysia, I walked around to give everyone a hug, and it was the most awkward experience. Every time I moved in to deliver a hug, I got a quizzical look, sort of a “What is this guy doing?” expression. And the embrace always ended up feeling forced, their bodies unbending, stiff like corpses gone into rigor mortis.  Compared to some of the guys I hugged on my final day, Frankenstein would probably rank as cuddly.

I’ve always felt that hugs are a bridge between two people’s souls, a connection that allowed one to share their happy moments, and diffuse their unhappy ones. Joy is always many fold sweeter when shared, if only with one person. And it is the same with the burden of sadness.  It becomes many fold lighter when shared, if only with one person. Almost like in a ‘two hands make light work’ kinda way.

It was my first time down to San Diego in the longest time. The band had moved out of Casa La Mesa; Bob, Mark and Kevin now had a three bedroom in Grossmont and Brian had moved in with two girls from his work place. We decided to crash at Brian’s because his two roomates (they were sisters), were in Colorado visiting their stepdad.

Brian had forgotten to give us his address so Hui Chin and I spent a few minutes hollering out his name in the parking lot. We eventually found a phone and called him.

Brian’s new place definitely had a female touch to it (everything was color coordinated and the place did not smell like old socks and stale pizza.) In the apartment with him was Brian’s new squeeze, Elena. It was my first time meeting her. Just tought I’d mention that.

To cut to the chase, Hui Chin and I were down in San Diego to catch a Chargers-Rams pre-season game. I had not caught a live NFL game before and it was the closest the Rams were going to get to LA this season.

Qualcomm stadium was packed when we got there and it took us a good hour just to park. As a result, we missed the coin toss. Bummer.

The St Louis Rams, a.k.a. the greatest show on earth, s.k.a. the LA Rams, packed Qualcomm with more Ram fans than Charger fans. In the stands, Ram jerseys outnumbered the home jerseys by about 5 to 1 and a Ram firstdown brought a lot more people to their feet than a Charger touchdown.

The game started off really slow and it was tied at 0-0 up until midway through the second quarter when Warner rolled left on the 15 yard line and completed a pass to the tight end Ernie Conwell. Touchdown St Louis, and we were about 6 rows behind the uprights where all this happened.

At half-time, because it was a pre-season game, Rams coach Mike Martz took back to back MVPs Warner and Faulk out of the game as they marched into the locker room with a slim lead. Trung Canidate took over for Faulk and some yet-to-be-heard-of guy took over for Warner. San Diego scored a late touch down in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 10-10. In the final minutes of the game, St Louis marched the ball the other way to the 1 yard line and find themselves with a 20 yard field goal and 5 seconds on the clock. Jeff Wilkins kicks the ball through the uprights, the clock runs out and St Louis is charged for holding. The play is negated and they go into extra time. San Diego scores a field goal in extra time and the Rams lose.

But, hey, I got to see a Warner touchdown.

The whole of last week was dedicated to keeping Su Ling as entertained as possible, a task both tiring and weirdly entertaining; tiring because I work in the day and all I want to do on weekends or when I get home is be brain dead on the couch; and weirdly entertaining because, eventhough I’ve done the LA tour like a zillion times, it’s interesting to see the reaction or non-reaction to LA by someone new to LA. I met up with Su Ling fairly recently when I back in Malaysia last summer but it was nice to see her again so soon. Plus I think a break in work life monotony did me some good.

Hui Chin and I headed for San Diego after dropping Su Ling off at the airport on Saturday. We reached at 2 in the afternoon and headed straight for the ever charming 976 coffee house in Pacific Beach for hot chocolate. Hui Chin and I got into a lengthy discussion about religion and it got dark in a blink of an eye. We dashed over to the Grossmont Mall to get Brian’s birthday present; 4 bags of Hershey’s Hugs & Kisses stuffed into 10 pairs of white socks. Pick Up Stix, a Nouvelle Chinese food place, served up a pleasant surprise. We had Chow Mein and the House Chicken.

Hui Chin and I made a late entrance at the Other Side where RCR was performing, and missed Brian’s birthday drum-off in the process. It was interesting how this one young girl was so taken with the band members and was trying her best to get noticed by Brian.

Oh, Ketty has a new nose ring. Nope, not a stud that goes onto the meat of your nose, but a double-balled hoop that is driven through the center divider that connects your nose with your upper lip. Kids these days. I never thought I’d find myself saying that.

We adjourned to the apartment after the Other Side. The whole gang was there. Dan looked bigger than the last time I saw him. Hui Chin was really exhausted so she retired to the back set of my cramped car after meeting the bunch. There were lots of goodies this year as compared to last year – Sayre’s sinful, semi gooey chocolate cake and Jen’s lemon crusted pie that just made your eyes pop open with a look that says it all.

Jen did not pour beer on my face this year.

Ketty danced around in Brian’s glittery G-string, a birthday gift from Victoria, who wasn’t too amused with the fact that someone else was wearing the present she had bought specifically for Brian. I didn’t see a reason for her disamusement given that Brian was probably never going to wear that piece of cloth, and that the gift’s worth was the shock value that it possessed.

The party was winding down when I met Gavin, a long-haired Filipino guy that works with Brian. He was okay to talk to at first but his mouth was like a train that had lost its brakes. Gavin was proud of the fact that he knew how to say “I love you” in 22 different languages and never hesitated to demonstrate his language skills, over and over and…

Hui Chin rejoined the party at 3 in the morning when it was just about time for bed. Mama Skanky laid out a nice cushy make-shift bed smack in the middle of the living room for us. Duracell mouth Gavin, Carlos and some drunk chick who were still in the apartment obliged us with a loud annoying argument on who would be able to stay up the longest. Brian moved us into the bedroom and it was lights out.

Iron Chef Justin and Iron Chef Brian had breakfast going at noon. Bacon, eggs and cinnamon pancakes as we watched Terminator 2 on DVD. The guys were planning to play football at 3:30. We had planned to pay Thom a visit in his new home but he was at the flower farm in Carlsbad. So we got on the 5 and the compass needle pointed North for the next two and a half hours.