Kenneth Cheung's Alpha Phi Omega Universe

Reverent Family Dinner

Report

A Day of Thanks

November 23, 2004 

            This dinner was the largest that I have ever been to. First of all, there were so many people. People from all families in the fraternity attended. Consequently, the Loyal Family had a dinner at the Elephant Bar on the same night. However, some Loyal members came, like Daphne Purisma and Curtis Chung. This was the way dinners should be. I do not think that these events should be family dinners. These events should be fraternity dinners. I do not mind if people from other families attend Reverent family dinners (however, they should come early enough and bring something to eat, too). On this night, there were an abundance of people and abundance of food, that this combination equals success. Everyone was very social and cordial to each other and we all had much fun.
            Barney told me that he expected that this dinner would have about 25 people. If it was only the Reverent family, then that number is a slight overestimate. I never would have expected so many people to come. Joey Traebol helped by bringing more plates from this apartment. I went to the Spartan Market to buy more forks when we ran out.
            When I was shopping for the napkins earlier in the day, I noticed that factories do not produce knives in packs of 24, so I bought a set of 51 knives (very little were used at the end). I had some plate and spoon reserves from the last Reverent Family Dinner (because the sale at Albertsons required buying 2 sets of plates).  It takes time to walk around the city to shop for goods. However, walking is better than driving a car, since there is no risk of accidents or traffic problems or buying more gas. Fortunately, on the way, I saw a new yellow Lotus Elise, which was a very rare European exotic roadster (when you see a picture of it, it will take your breath away). When I saw it, I thought that my day was complete; nothing could ever make me feel bad.
            It took a while for me to learn or relearn where Ben Ramos lived. Earlier, I called Joe Dungca and asked where Ben lived. From our conversation, I found that Joe moved out a while ago. I invited him to come anyways, since most of us had not seen him since the end of the Spring 2004 semester.  I thought that Ben lived in 429 9^th St. apartment #6, when he really lived in apartment #4. I made a website, as I tend to do for Reverent Family Dinners with the information the attendees need to know (see bottom guest list). Luckily, most people already knew where he lived.
            There was too much food and too many people. In addition to that, I did not take the initiative to record the names of everyone who attended. I will just mention who did anything I noticed that was appropriate to mention here. With that in mind, this is what happened…
            The turkey and ham were to be cooked on location in the apartment. Reed, Richwood, and Barney baked the ham in Pearl’s apartment. Pearl was also preparing deviled eggs. They baked the turkey in Ben’s oven. Beverly Wong brought bread and her self-made spinach dip. Her boyfriend Alex arrived much later, and that was when we finally had our drinks. Most people were waiting in line for the turkey, and the kitchen was the hot spot to be. I waited until the end to cut the turkey. By the time I finally decided to get turkey, it looked like it was dipped in an aquarium of piranhas.
            Mike Lynch also got to the turkey late. His group did their usual poker games. This poker group plays virtually every night at Will Chang’s apartment. The only difference here was the location and the food (which was healthier than the food that they usually eat). Someone brought game chips as well.
            Ky Troung arrived early, as he did not work at Costco that day, so he bought 2 pumpkin pies for us. Unfortunately, we were all too full to eat by the time we decided to eat desert. Ky claimed that he was blacker that most of us (other than Roy) and was playing with the idea of joining a black fraternity. He seemed well prepared for it and wanted others to join him.
            Joey brought a DVD movie from his apartment upstairs (which, as usual, many of us hoped was pornography). This movie was Ali G. This movie was quite educational, since it was a British film, so we learned about British politics and culture. If this was an American film, I would not even pay attention. Like most of the people, we glued to the TV set (which was why I did not record the names of everybody).  This movie was stupid funny. Sure, it demeaned sex in a way that you could use it as a defensive weapon. But because it was British, it was not so stupefying, as the British are very different from Americans and their humor is a step into another dimension.
            Many people enjoy playing ring around the Rosie. That is, they gang up on her and taunt her. However, seems that Rosanna Leung enjoys it when some people surround her and pick on her (except me of course, since I tend to be brutally direct. Because of this, I try to not talk to her on a personal level anymore). As long as it is consensual, it is perfectly fine.
            Mike Huen refused to sleep because he conditioned himself to sleep very late. He acted like a zombie throughout the whole night, fighting both work and sleep, like in a state of purgatory. He postponed the 65^th Anniversary interview that I wanted to do with him for that reason.
            After the movie, there was an arcade session with Ben’s favorite fighting games. Jeff Lo, Jeff Yip, Bennie Huang, Alex challenged Ben, but to no avail. I could tell that not only he they liked to play, he liked to dominate.
            Two rare gems who appeared were Pearl Yuan, Marissa and Mariecris Tolentino. Pearl was trying learning the names and faces of the new little siblings. As usal, richwood made sure his arms wrapped around every woman’s hips.
            Nino and Jen Sarimiento are very close friends (but not as close as Reed and Jen Lin, who collectively looked like a beast with two backs). I could tell by the amount of physical contact they inflict on each other and the names they give each other. Nino is a very easy-going guy. He gave me an early impression that he was stoned or drunk (the latter proved to be true). He is as mellow as his big sibling, Reed (who is as cool as ice). If you saw him for the first time, you would thing that he is a gang member. However, he is a nice guy— very horny and perverted, but nice. He is comfortable to be around if you do not mind his constant references to sex.
            Jen Sarimiento is quite a rebellious, outstanding type of woman. At first sight, I thought that she was a Goth, with her black nails, skull and bones clothing, uncommon piercing to the lip, sharp hair, and pale skin outlined with black makeup akin to death itself. After talking to her, I found out that she is not what she seems (she is certainly living). She is a very social and open individual. This young woman is quite a curious creature who wants to learn more about her surroundings, and is very good at doing it. I was surprised when she asked me of my observations about her. Usually people do not want to know what I think about them because it may offend them due to my pessimistic attitude. I do not think entirely of the negative aspects. The reason why is because I want to provoke the people in question to reveal more about themselves so that I can find out the truth about them. I want to understand why people act the way I do to either substantiate or disprove my initial claims about them. I admit that some of my assumptions are inappropriate, so I try to restrain from talking to other people about themselves when I can. However, Jen did help me see life in a new way. Her persistence in begging the question to make me answer caught me by surprise and made me stop and think about what I was doing, but she was very polite about it. She laughs a lot too, which is a very attractive quality in a friend. Despite her appearance, she is very comfortable to be around. I did not know she was this cool before today (well, I talked to her shortly on that disaster relief fundraiser during Homecoming week, and that is when she dispelled my initial impressions). So are my actions contributing to more sadness than happiness? If so, I must stop and take the time to rethink. Overall, Sarimiento was that I would consider an ideal fraternity member, always friendly and always made others feel welcome like they were a part of the family.
            Ben, Beverly, Nino, Sarimiento, Barney and I played Cranium. It was tremendously fun. As long as we had the knowledge, we had a good time. It is just those old pop culture questions that stumped us. Cranium is really made for American adults into their 30’s.  I do not know AC/DC very well. There was a question of adding all the number from 1 to 100, which I learned in a math class but needed an unavailable paper and pencil (the answer turned out to be 101 * 50 = 5,050). The game does stimulate the brain in old ways. I cannot believe that they make expansion packs, too. Cranium will not be my game.
            Someone’s car broke, so Barney, Lynch, Ky, Roy and the other poker player helped push it form this apartment to the Collonades, which was approximately .75 of a mile away. They came back by the time I was about to leave and some soda home.
            Ben was great host, keeping everything in order and taking out the trash quickly and often. I helped him clean up after everyone else left. He is very cleanly and enjoys using Clorox wipes because they make the area smell good.
            Overall, everybody was very cooperative and helpful in fulfilling each other’s needs. It was a great day to show our thanks to all those who we consider our friends and family. I hope that we will witness many more casual gatherings like this to come. I give my sincerest gratitude to everybody who participated in this most magnificent event.

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11.25.2004