Kenneth Cheung's Alpha Phi Omega Universe

Reverent Family Dinner

Report

Another Little Welcome

October 28, 2004

        What another pleasant Thursday night to gather and have another Reverent family gathering. This time it was to welcome the little siblings in the family so that they can see how the Reverent family functions. Julie’s San Jose residence owns the record for hosting the most Reverent Family dinners, as this was the third. Julie chose the theme to be ethnic food. With that in mind, I had the feeling that there was going to be so much Filipino food that we would get sick of it at the end. I was in charge of plates, cups, and spoons. I somehow thought that Julie said that we did not need forks, so thus I purposely did not buy forks. She was fine with the fork-free cutlery and I did not have to obtain more forks. Her housemate had some forks and was nice enough to allow us to use them.
        Since my vehicle was out of commission due to an accident, I asked Richwood if he could transport me to the dinner setting. At the Driftstone Apts. #12 (called 12^th wonder, which the name itself makes me wonder about it). Over there, Richwood, Nino and Reed were loitering and explicating their stories of drunkenness at Long’s birthday celebration on October 16. Reed, as usual, could not remember what he did that night. Luckily (or not), Richwood had pictures to show us what happened. Four of us were chatting until Julie called me at about 7:10 pm. The dinner officially started at 7pm and I am usually early at these dinners.  Julie urgently needed the supplies to be at the place and told me to tell Richwood that we should leave immediately. She was very dedicated to having a successful dinner and wanted to be the best hostess that she could be. Reed drove his own car, since he had to leave early. Richwood, Nino, and I sat in the suped up Rav 4 and drove.
        The turn out was very high. We had a lot of food. Richwood cooked his meat on the spot. The early attendees were Julie Chou (duh), Jennifer Say, John Chang, and Mark Saitong. Later, Jeff Carrillo, Long Huynh, Christina Penn, Jerold Aoay, Yman Tamasin, Andrea Paquia (who we have not seen in a long while. She paid her active dues, then disappeared, only to reappear that night.), Ky Troung, Anna Palileo, Stephanie Valencia, Derrik Cosca (the pretend pimp) came. Cathy Catalon came with her devoted boyfriend and she purchased a 65^th Anniversary t-shirt.
        Unexpected guest form other families included Jeffrey-Scott Tonel (it was not really a surprise, considering that he is locked in arms with Stephanie), Diana Quach, Mike Nguyen, Cynthia Tran, Bennie Huang (who later described himself as a gangster), and Jeff Yip (who did not want to be a gangster).
        What did we do? Well, it was mostly chatting. We certainly had a lot of food (some of it too spicy, my tongue told me). The pledges took advantage of the time interviewing. Most people seemed to have a fun time by relaxing and eating with their fraternal friends. I learned how to play Texas Hold ‘em from Mark Saitong. We used pennies because we could not use the poker chips without the owner’s permission (sorry about that). The pennies were for the penny wars going on. Reed had the bottle, but did not bring it in. At least he parked more carefully this time, avoiding the $70 ticket he received last time.
        The dog, Georgia, certainly had a lot of fun, running around, sniffing everyone, making more pals and defying Mistress Julie. That dog liked to enter the first bedroom, so I knocked the door twice to allow the occupants to let her in.
        We took a lot of pictures too. If I had one, I would post it here.
        Lastly, the non-pledge group held a special meeting concerning Lian Chang, a member from the University of Pacific, Alpha Alpha Xi chapter in Stockton. The concern that we discussed was her being an official member of the family and giving her a number. Yman had very strong feelings about this, as he does with most things that concern him and the fraternity and about life in general. He openly voiced his support for this new member of the family. Other than José and Yman, everyone had little to say. Personally, I did not have enough information to make an intelligent decision. I did not know what the numbers in our families or the purpose of having them in the first place. Even Long, my big sibling, did not know his number. Barney explained that the number is based on the order of conception and generation of joining the family. Other families have different numbering systems, but they serve similar purposes. Long took some responsibility for starting the numbering system, since he asked Cathy about numbering a long time ago. Another family had a numbering system and he wondered if the Reverent family has a numbering system. Because of Long’s expectation of the numbering system, the Reverent family created this numbering system to identify all the members.
        It turned out that the Filipino food was not that bad and not that monotonous. I enjoyed the meal, with the exception of the fiery flavors. Jen Say definitely has a strong sense of taste.

11.15.2004