i was just reading through my friendster profile and i scroll down to discover that someone left me a little surprise. in the "about me" section, after what i'd typed, someone else typed in a little surprise. i have a pretty good sense of humor, so i laughed. and then i realized, i haven't been on friendster in months...MONTHS. that's a really long time for that to have been up. oh well, it's not like people actually read all that stuff anyway. but now i'm on a quest to find out the identity of the prankster. if you know, you may e-mail me, i will be discreet. that person will never know you're the one who ratted him/her out.

i'm at home and it's snowing!!! woohoo. i saw big fish and i liked it. i've also watched mona lisa smile and return of the king while i've been home. i'm making up for lost time. and i've been sleeping in. it's blissful. and we're rapidly approaching the end of this year and the start of a new one. i wonder if that means the gym will be crazy busy, with new year's resolutions and all.

i watched primetime with diane sawyer - the "oprah in africa" special. it's oprah giving kids in africa gifts, spending time at orphanages, and making sure that each child knows that they are cared for. ok, i know giving away presents, etc doesn't solve any real problems, but i do think that it creates a moment, however short-lived, of kindness and love that they can look back on and remember.

speaking of presents...christmas is a week away. what i need are elves for my workshop/sweatshop.

it is not a good feeling when your whole body just isn't working like it's supposed to be. i'm not sleeping enough. not eating right. not exercising nearly enough...or at all. it's like being a student in finals week, except i don't get to use that since i'm no longer a student. but 6 months later, i'm still living like one.

two weeks notice is still missing, as is my uw webspace, but i know where that went - uw took it back. i'm in the process of moving things over to my new domain, but it is slow going. partly it is because i'm lazy. i think about all the blood, sweat, tears, and time that it will take to revamp it and it makes me want to scream and pass out. the main reason is because christmas is like two and a half weeks away, which i feel like snuck up all of a sudden [that stealthy christmas]. so i am furiously creating and making stuff in time for christmas. after all the supplies i bought for card-making last year, i have to put it to use, or else all the money i thought i'd save by making my own cards rather than purchase boxed cards will really have been wasted. and we can't have that. i'm like my own sweat shop.

yesterday, a patient walked into the office and asked me if i went to uw, to which i answered yes. and then he knew my name. at this point i was like "did i have class with this guy?" although he seemed a little on the older side. but before i could ask, he said, "and you speak mandarin" and he said it in mandarin. and then he laughed at me, but not in an evil bad guy way. i had a brief tangle with my fight or flight instinct, but then he explained himself. apparently, he was trying to find the number for our office and googled it before uw stripped me of my webspace, i had had my resume posted as part of an IS course, which is what this guy stumbled upon and decided to read. the incident has now become a bizarre story, but i was this close to yelling "fire" [which is what they teach you to yell if you're in trouble because no one responds to "help" these days].

it's late. i've been crafting since 8:30 and i'm hungry.

officially missing: two weeks notice. if anyone has seen my copy of this movie on dvd, or knows where it has gone, please tell it to come on home. seriously. it's disappeared and i really like this movie, which equals sadness for me.

sometimes, i feel like people can almost be a waste of space. not all people, just some people...like, maybe paris hilton and nicole richie. [there's a conversation where norm macdonald continually asks her if she's black and it's funny. read it here.] and yet, i almost want to give in and watch the show. i shake my fists at the executives at fox - those programming geniuses.

before you ask, my new place in cyberspace [look! i made a rhyme!] isn't ready yet. all in due time.

thanksgiving was the usual affair. dinner in chinatown and then hanging out at somebody's home. this year, the adults went to my grandma's house and the kids came over to my family's house. normally, everybody would come over, but my dad was in seattle participating in a basketball tournament held in seattle. [yao ming's mommy and daddy were there too.] so since he wasn't here, the uncles did not have their annual mahjong and hard liquor night. instead, us kiddies played poker, texas hold 'em to be exact, and played with chips that had monetary values of $1000, $5000, and $10,000. obviously it was fake money, which prompted many "all-ins." i was told never to go to vegas...hahaha. after i lost all my chips, i made each of my brothers and my cousin give me "pity" chips so i could still keep playing. but after one too many losses, they cut me off. party poopers. then we changed the game to thirteen, with one chip per card left in your hand given to the winner of said hand. 'twas fun.

earlier this evening, i went to a wine bar with a friend from high school, and it was a place with posh decor, as expected from a wine bar since wine does tend to conjure mental pictures of snootiness and upscale ambiance. the host/waiter/wine guy remembered my friend from her previous visits - actually, he remembered her exact order. she threw me a semi-horrified look that pretty much said "scary" and i couldn't contain my spontaneous spurt of laughter, which was not at all polite, since he was still standing there. whoops. anyway, he looked like mr. sark from alias. who's obsessed with alias? that would be me. new episode this week kids.

i signed up for a hosting service at 1&1 and bought myself a domain at GoDaddy - all for just $7.95. so be on the lookout for the launch of my very own domain!

as for the actual name, all will be revealed in time. i have to say it was a lot of pressure picking out my .com name. there were several drafts and rewrites. props to my editor wendy. in the meantime, you may notice errors with photos from past entries - buck up and be patient, it will come back...eventually.

uw is officially kicking me out of their system in just a few short weeks. i am in the midst of deciding where to move all my web stuff.

i finally got to watch elf! will ferrell is a funny, funny man.

it's snowing...right now! right now, it is snowing!!! oh please, oh please, oh please let it stick and make it a snow day!

i went out to my car this morning and discovered that it had snowed! snow! and the weather people didn't even mention it last night. you can read about it here. and it's only november!

i went to old navy yesterday to buy a sweater i had seen online. i tried on the sweater and realized that i had been hoodwinked. it was not the cute sweater i had imagined. the disappointment was monumental. ok, it wasn't really, but i like to make hyperbolic statements because it is fun. and the check-out person looked sounded like britney. seriously, it was uncanny - i kept waiting for her to bust out in lip-sync song and dance. [no pun intended and no exaggerations either.]

:current media in play:

music

switchfoot : the beautiful letdown

sarah mclachlan : afterglow

justin timberlake : justified <--- this boy just gets cuter and cuter.

movies

love actually <--- it's british and a romantic comedy! you don't need any more reasons than that.

elf <--- i need to get into a theater to see this and so do you.

master and commander <--- i need to see this one too...

what? lack of a book list you say? well that's because i'm not reading any. my brain is turning to rot. brain activity is at an all-time low.

i had a whole list of things i was going to mention, but i can't seem to remember any of them. i shall assume that they were not altogether important, because logically, if they were, i would remember. my apologies - there is nothing for you here today.

this is the rental i was driving for two weeks:
[edit] the picture of the toyota camery has disappeared. [/edit]

i've made another step towards becoming a bonafide adult - i received my very own health insurance card! i'm quite excited about it. i can go and see the doctor whenever i want. this is great because growing up, after the pediatric years, my parents stopped taking us to the doctor. where most kids had physical exams on an annual basis, we only had them if participating in a school sport required them. why? because my parents are chinese and believe it is unnecessary to see a doctor unless you're showing proof of pain and suffering - like a bleeding gash on your head, and even then, i bet my parents would try to sew the cut back together. they're funny like that.

i spent the evening babysitting the kids of married peoples at church. we watched finding nemo and made shrinky dinks. those were a big hit with the kids, and an even bigger hit with the married couples. i think it was a tame night because i did not have to change a single diaper and baby ben did not have exploding poo. [i am impressed by parents because their kids do some pretty gross things.]

afterwards, i stopped by to watch the guys from my church play basketball in play-off game 1. it was an intense and physical game. our church guys lost, but i'm sure there's some character being built there somewhere. the refs were cool. i want to be a ref. they rule, with their black and white striped shirts and the authoritative whistle - their word is law.

coach dan makes a comment
ref: excuse me?
coach dan: -silence-
ref: i didn't think so.

awesome. there is so much power in that shirt and whistle. i am contemplating a possible career move.

i finally got my car back on tuesday afternoon. during the early portion of tuesday, i was productive - as i was not at all productive on monday. siobhan and i went to michaels in lynnwood, and then spent a long time at 99 ranch - asian grocery superstore. siobhan made note of the wide aisles, so that on a busy day, all the shoppers would not be pressed against one another. it was beautiful. the store was all nice and new and smelled good - no weird food smells. i'm adding 99 ranch to my list of happy places, right up there with best buy, target, and ikea. i could spend hours there.

also on tuesday, our volleyball team, 3 ugly ones [questions about the team name may be directed to one of our team captains, ryan] had a potluck dinner celebration for a fun and fairly successful season. we ate japanese chicken curry, teriyaki meatloaf, asparagus, veggie platter, a pork dish, thomas kemper soda, and chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate chip ice cream. 'twas a feast. then we played apples to apples - a fun word association game. i have a feeling that not everyone was as enthused by the game as i and some others were. but that's ok, in my mind i like to think that everyone had fun. there were some awkward patches though...i think we were maybe a little confused about social interaction rules outside of volleyball.

on a different note, the oc is great. great, i tell you. as are all the other shows i watch :D

sometimes, when i least expect it, i am assaulted by my childhood. i'm thinking of suing.

i stopped by fred meyer to pick up the aquaphor mentioned earlier and i passed by the shoe department when flashes of memory hit me. i used to go to freddy's as a kid with my family, back when british knights and la gear were the must-haves. i just remember how much fun it was to be there and how excited i was whenever my parents asked if we wanted to go to freddy's [this was of course, before target.] it was a family event. just like going to k-mart and jefco, which became best, which went out of business and became uwajimaya in beaverton. i miss being little, being bratty kids with my brothers and begging our parents to buy everything...and then some - ok, that part still happens. i can't wait to go home for thanksgiving. as i get older, all my memories get glossed over with happy powder, which basically means that i forget all the things that used to bother me and just remember the good feelings. because really, that's all that matters.

breaking news: eczema has claimed its lastest victim - me. i went to see my doctor this morning and apparently the dry, cold weather in seattle has caused an eczema epidemic. aquaphor is my new best friend. and it should be yours too if you're prone to dry skin and chapped lips. my consolation is that i was able to dodge eczema for a good 22 years until now. not too shabby.

i am so excited not to work for the next two days. i hope to use my time off wisely. this means not sleeping until noon and then being unproductive. i hope to finish off a couple of knitting projects, send out two care packages, paint some frames, and perhaps even make a few christmas cards. ambitious, i know. last year, i purchased a whole slew of card making tools, thinking that i would save so much money by making my own cards instead of buying the boxed cards from the store. obviously, i didn't really think through my plan logically. but, if i make my own christmas cards for the rest of my life, i will have achieved my original goal of saving money.

this weekend was filled with busyness. mindy and wendy visited, so of course there was lots of food and hanging out with lot of people. good fun. we all went to see love actually. i loved it. it's the best of all my worlds - it's british AND a romantic comedy with the likes of colin firth and hugh grant. what's not to love? i think that i shall see it again. plus, i really want to watch elf, with will ferrell. it looks like a funny and lovable movie.

my friend che is in west africa for the next two years volunteering with the peace corp. she just sent an e-mail because of an emergency tea shortage. [she loves tea] and she mentioned that in cape verde, they have my most favorite sandals/flip-flops in the whole wide world - havaianas. these are sandals made in brasil. i think she's sending me a pair! i have my beat up old gray ones from my summer 2000 trip to brasil and my blue ones with the flag of brasil [from one of the students at english camp]. i love these sandals. i am, however, a little sad to find them appearing all over the place, like at urban outfitters, or in magazines like Us. i'm happy for their success, but sad it's becoming a trend/fad. i liked having them to myself and the other SAM alums - and the millions of people in brasil. the best part is that your feet don't get stinky - unlike say...teva sandals...

anyway... so this weekend as wendy and mindy come and visit, we're going to put together a care package and send it to her. i'm thinking since she's gone for 2 years, we'll be sending her supplies often. :)

our volleyball teams last round of play-offs was tonight. we played the top team in the first set of games and though we didn't win, we made them work for their win. all in all, it was fun and i feel ok about losing to them. they were nice, and that counts. the second set of games was junk. we won, but we so totally should've won a lot faster than we did. at the end it looked like we were going to lose, but somehow, we pulled a win from out of somewhere. the cost of being 3rd place? my whole person feels achy and in pain. as somebody commented, i cleaned half the floor. gross.

but earlier today, since i didn't have to work, i went to target and best buy, my happy places, and picked up finding nemo, legally blonde 2 [it's cute and funny...seriously], and the new sarah m. cd. i also got an update on my car, parts are still not in, so i'm driving the camry for another couple of days. the man at lexus of seattle, let's call him mark, keeps saying he'll keep me updated, but not once has he called me. every single time, i've had to hunt that man down to get a progress report, and still he can't explain to me why the transmission broke. essentially, i have to stalk him to get some answers, which turn out to be pretty lame - "Well, don't worry about why, it's covered under warranty so it's fine." uh no. it is not fine. i want a reason, so that i can know how to not let this happen again [as if it were actually under my realm of control]. if i were a confrontational person in real life, some of my annoyance would be communicated to mark of lexus. but since i'm not, i say "thank you" a lot and am very accomodating - i might as well offer to bake him cookies and muffins. boo.

it sucks to pull up to the gas pump and realize you don't know how to get the gas tank door thing open. then after you figure it out, it sucks again when you realize that the actual gas cap is giving you trouble too. i was at costco, gassing up the rental camry when all of this occurred. during my search for the right lever, i popped the trunk open a couple of times and had to get out to shut it. i think the other gas patrons may have been wondering what i was doing. i called cora for assistance since i know her fam has a camry. i even had to scramble and consult the owner's manuel [which i prayed to be in the glove compartment] while inching forward in line. i'm such a tool.

the gilmore girls episode on tuesday had emily gilmore being upset that a new family in their ritzy neighborhood was giving out king-size candy bars. this reminded me of when i was 12 and my family moved to this nice neighborhood. most of the houses were handing out larger candy bars [not quite king-size, but full-size]. haha...but not my parents - fun-size all the way - because we're chinese and because we're cheap. way to perpetuate stereotypes!

did i mention my knitting instincts have kicked in? it's all about the scarves and beanies. i may give mittens a shot this year. seriously...i will knit a real sweater before i turn... 30... i think that's a safe number that would not be setting myself up for failure.

.:current media:.

music

dido : life for rent <--- thank you wendy.

josh kelley : for the ride home <--- thank you cora.

mandy moore : coverage - before you mock, give it a listen :D then you can mock.

movies

kill bill volume 1

the italian job - i really like this movie

a fatty list of movies to rent

books

the dirty girls social club - yay for books about different minority people groups

knitting articles - ok...it's not a book, but i am reading...

i picked up the loaner car this morning and it's a toyota camry. it's fun to drive a different car. as i drove from lexus of seattle to work, i was zipping down I-5... it was almost like being in the italian job and one of the mini coopers - so much fun of my own creation. but then i realized that i was speeding quite a bit, so i had to snap out of my movie sequence.

i purchased a couple of sweaters from target and i am now spreading the word about them [because they're such a great deal!] pretty soon, bunches of people will have matching sweater cardigans. i think that as i get older, i become more "chinese old lady" who spots a good deal and has to purchase the cheap products in mass quantity. it's not enough to just get one, i must buy many in order to really feel the benefits of the "cheap deal" i've discovered. it's the costco mentality. sigh.

another praise! the good people at lexus of seattle called me and said that it is indeed the transmission that went all sorts of bad and that they are ordering another one for me. but the best part is, it's under warranty! a 70,000 mile warranty and i'm at 67,500! woohoo!!! and they're getting me a loaner while they've got the car to be fixed. so yippee!

last night was all about victory and defeat. our volleyball team had our play-off game and we won our first one pretty quickly. this allowed us to advance to the set of games at the 9pm hour, where we faced "the ballers" or as i like to call them, the evil luke team [these are terms from the oc in case you hadn't guessed - which is back on tonight at 9pm folks] anywho...we wanted to redeem ourselves so badly since they won last time we played in a cheap manner. we were down by 5 in the beginning, mostly because we wanted to win so badly we psyched ourselves out. then our team really hit our stride and we beat them, both games. and they played dirty again, like stepping way into our court, causing our players to stumble around, or saying a hit went out of bounds when it was clearly in. but we beat them anyway, fair and square. that was victory. now on to defeat...

as i went to get in my car and go somewhere, my car started and i could put the shifter into different gears, but the car would not physically move. but luckily, i was not by myself, my volleyball team stayed around and hung out while we tried to figure out what was wrong [oh and thanks abe for being our sounding board and answer man] - and waited while i called AAA, and waited while i called my parents to add me onto their AAA plan, and waited again for the tow truck to come and take my car home. they are the bestest teammates in the world. plus, secretly, i think they all had fun standing around in the freezing air. it was like team bonding. :D the silver lining is that the car broke as i was parked at ingram high school, rather than while i was driving home from work last night or on the highway or somewhere else much more dangerous. i like to think it was divine intervention that it occurred in a "safe" environment.

so now i'm waiting for AAA again to tow it to the dealership for some good fixin'. stupid car.

last thursday, i filled in for kristie's bowling team through the seattle sports league and i bowled a 181! but i have to say that the way the scoring was helped a lot; they counted hitting nine pins at the beginning of the frame as an "NT" strike. but even so, i was good people.

last night, we had hot pot and chocolate fondue for dessert. it was so yummy! we all pigged out like none other. and speaking of pigging out, we went to lunch at the malay satay hut up from the international district and it was good too. i love when people visit because it means good food.

we won our volleyball game and made it to the playoffs. yay! although, maybe every team makes it. hmm. i am however feeling much though. i think moving around and being active and sweating out the disease is a good thing. our team even went out to the outback steakhouse [proud sponsors of the seattle sports league] for some team bonding before we went back to play some more on an open court.

did i mention i watched kill bill on friday? i liked it. it was different, entertaining, and oddly, funny at times. and then i watched intolerable cruelty too. it was funny, but i expected more from the coen brothers.

i am sick. i got to leave work early, but i sat in traffic for over an hour, which allowed me to accumulate a lot of snot-filled tissues. gross, no?

now i'm pumped full of tylenol cold and hoping my nose will stop running and stop being stuffed up.

i dropped my mini swiss army knife into the toilet. i was about to suck it up and go in after it with my bare hands, but then i pulled a macgyver and made a little "fishing pole" out of floral wire. i was able to catch the knife on the little ring [usually meant to be used with your key ring] and lift it out of the water. i should have left it at that, but instead, i thought, "hey, i'll shake off a little excess water before i take it to the sink. wouldn't you know...it drops back in, but with the little ring to the back of the toilet. nothing with the fishing pole worked. so, in went my hand. and then there was a lot of hot water and antibacterial soap. a lot.

i color inside the lines. my closet is organized by type of clothing and there was a time when the hangers were spaced one inch apart. when i'm told that i have a set list of duties, i like to stick to that list. i can check things off and feel like things are being accomplished. so, when the balance is upset, it drives me all sorts of crazy and i turn all anger-ball.

at work, on everyday except friday, i am the person that sits at the front desk doing all of the data entry and generating fee slips for the day and answering phones, etc. only on fridays am i the optical person. i prefer sitting at the desk because i then i don't have to interact with the difficult people as much. the point to these assigned duties is to make things consistent and efficient - to keep one person entering in all the financial and patient information to ensure that the accounting balances at the end of the day. when too many people were entering info, it caused wasted time and energy figuring out why things didn't balance at the day's end.

today was my desk day. but unfortunately, i did not spend much time at the desk. rather, i was forced to become a nomad. i was also not the only person entering things in. it's not like i'm not about the sharing, but at the end of the day, if something is not right, it's much faster to fix when i'm familiar with what's been entered. so, i'll say things like, "please feel free to leave it in the pile and i'll enter it in" but she will say, "oh that's ok, i'll enter it." inside i am like, "argggg." maybe she did not get the memo about our assigned duties. we did not balance today. i sat and went through each transaction until i found the errors. i'm just irked because this happens a lot and i often get shafted and have to figure it out. i just prefer it when i have control over this portion.

but in happy fun news, kristie, shiv, abe, noah, and cora took me to el camino for dinner last night and it was yummy! yay birthday dinners. thanks friends.

and on saturday, the power went out. i was momentarily frightened, until i called kristie and located a flashlight and lit candles everywhere until the power came back on.

apparently the new fun thing to do is to get yourself a new name using the "captain underpants and the perilous plot of professor poopypants" method. which goes like this:

Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name: crusty

Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name: chicken

Use the fourth letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name: [...] this is like discrimination...i only have 3 letters in my last name. what a rip. so i decided to just start at the first letter again. hence, i get: fanny

my new name, according to this, is crusty chicken fanny

well...that sucks. other people get cute names like "zippy apple sprinkles" and i get crusty chicken fanny.

on monday afternoon, while i was still at home in portland, i went to nw portland to meet up with some of the bridesmaids [those of us not working on that particular day]. i arrived and coffee people and saw jenny in line buying coffee. i stood in line and got a milkshake. the person at the cash register asked me which care bear was on my shirt. i said it was good luck bear. i have no idea if that's the bear's real name, but the bear is green and has a shamrock on its belly. anyway, the cashier guy thought it was cool. i sit down and wait for my name to be called so i can get my milkshake. as i walk up to pick it up, the following conversation occurs:

coffee guy: "are you 21?"
me: [internally i think - did i order something with alcohol in it? i am now confused] "...yes."
coffee guy: "have you heard of om?"
me: [again internally, i think - does he mean like the spiritual/chanting om? probably not.] "um...what is that?"
coffee guy: "it's a club."
me: "oh...yea... no, i don't do that." [but said with a smile so as not to seem mean]
coffee guy: "oh ok."

i felt lame and uncool...not having known what om was.

-

today at work, a man came in and asked if we had any work. i didn't expect that request so i was confused [a common theme this week] and said no. i guess all he needed was 50 cents and was looking for a small job to do to earn it. i have no idea why i didn't just give him 50 cents. i think he caught me off guard at work...but as soon as he left, common sense snapped back in and said to me, "hey dork...why didn't you just get change from your bag?" so all the rest of the day, this has been on my mind. he asked to earn it. i wish that that kind of generosity was automatic to me. as today's event testifies, it is not. sad.

on monday evening, i went to dinner with a portion of the adult relatives and wendy. one conversation topic was, of course, chris and david's wedding. naturally, they were commenting on various aspects of the wedding. the adult ladies told wendy at lunch earlier that day that they thought one of the groomsmen was a very nice boy [by nice they mean he's chinese, speaks mandarin, and is tall]. i knew wendy would throw me to the wolves [the aunts] so i threw her in first. but she retaliated. there is no loyalty here. i had to preemptively strike. it is survival of the fittest with these wolves. oh...but she knows...she's going down. and she knows why. i will steal her new phrase and say to her, "blast you."

click here for photos from the wedding.

if you'd like the full-size, e-mail me

24 bobby pins and 30 hair pins later, i am almost fully recovered from chris and david's wedding, which took place on saturday. it was a full day event and our dresses looked better than we thought. hooray for compliments. the lame thing is, some of our dresses tore on the seam of the organza/sheer layer that went over the satin-y layer. the bridesmaids will be making a trip to see anna, of anna's bridal.

the wedding was thoroughly enjoyable and i hope that everybody there had a pretty good time. there was a lot of folks dancing...more than i've ever seen at a wedding. usually, you have to drag people and coerce them onto the dance floor. on saturday, we couldn't kick people off :) one of the bridesmaids, jenny, remarked that it was like a dance club, without the groping. ah, if only all clubs were like that. (i only assume that actual clubs are full of dirty groping, no actual experience here)

photos will follow once i'm back in seattle and have my little cable to connect my camera to computer. hooray. and...happy birthday to me :D

we totally won our volleyball game. it doesn't eliminate the crushing loss we had last week, but it does go a long way towards making us feel better. but i did have an unfortunate incident, as we were moving courts, i grabbed a set of VW keys which i thought were ryan's...turns out they belonged to another guy, who was so not happy with me. whoops. i was just trying to be on the lookout for my team. besides, who just leaves their car keys on the floor like that? in the parking lot, i made helen and ryan hide me from him as he drove away. i talk big, like i'd actually brawl, but really, i'm more likely to hide until they go away.

i seriously look forward to our games. it is so much fun to be out there and playing and hitting. :D it's almost like the IMA, but more expensive and without the refs and with a lot of emphasis on post-game drinking at the outback steakhouse. i wish 24 hour fitness has sports leagues...that would make my 3-year membership much more worthwhile. it's just so exhilirating and more so when we're winning.

i have also decided that at work, patients/customers are no longer the enemy. there was a period of 2-3 weeks where i was in no mood to deal with patients/customers at all. i think it may have been just a thing...like the novelty of working there has worn off, as it has almost been a year since i started working. but now, i'm all better and can answer the phone with some semblance of cheerfulness.

i saw the rundown on saturday and i have to say, it was quite entertaining. and currently, i'm watching the rock on the craig kilborn show, and dude, i really like the rock. now i feel like watching the scorpion king. :D

the tonight show's "jay-walk all-stars" is the best!

i drove 3 hours to seattle today and made it just in time for our 7 o'clock volleyball game. sadly, we were not victorious today. let me draw a picture for you - in "The OC" terms. our team will be ryan from chino. the other team, let's call them evil luke the waterpolo player. our team wasn't exactly the underdog team, we were just way shorter [just like ryan from chino!], but we were nice and called the mistakes that we made, like being in the net, etc. the other team, not so much. [we 'fessed up just like ryan when he burned down the house] and there was a moment where one of the girls on the other team hit it twice [double hit] and we called them on it. then a wee bit later, a guy on our team blocks it, then hits it [totally legal]. so a guy on the other team makes a huge deal out of it, and in the end, he's wrong[just like how evil luke is so often wrong]. he said, "sorry, we don't know the rules like you guys." umm...right. it was a disappointing loss, because, they so weren't better than we were, just taller and not as forthright [just like luke]. at the end of the day, we lost, but at least we lost with integrity. but i wanted to kick somebody in the head [just like how ryan feels towards luke] ok, i'm done. can you tell i'm having oc-withdrawal?

good thing more shows are premiering this week, like one tree hill. woohoo! it is an entertaining show. it is not in the same league as gilmore girls/everwood or the oc, but it has it's moments. the popular brother on the show is horrible. i don't know if it's the writers that make him sound so unbelievably lame, or if he just stinks as an actor. his portrayal of a jerk-jock boy is a little over the top, but everybody else is cool. and now to watch my taped gilmore girls - yay!

i am home in portland for the weekend and it has been busy. a wedding on saturday that was great. as the bride and groom walked out of the sanctuary of the church, they blasted a hip hop/pop song from the 90s...i think. anyway, the groomsmen and bridesmaids donned sunglasses and strutted along to the music. it was totally funny. and yesterday we had the bridal shower for chris and then a bunch of us helped paint some tiles, which was fun and according to some, therapeutic. we watched a little bit of the emmys as we were painting.

so i was reading through the list of winners and one category was "outstanding variety, music or comedy special" when i read the title of the category, all i saw was "outstanding comedy special" and the winner: cher: the farewell tour. i did a double take and then saw "variety and music". whoops. sorry cher.

i set up my uw e-mail to work within outlook express since i know uw is going to cut back my storage capacity or get rid of it altogether. and as i was doing that, i had time to look through e-mails from the last four years and it's funny to discover that i've corresponded with many different, and often random, people. even better is that as i read through some of the e-mails, it triggered some good memories. this then caused me to think on how over the last couple of weeks, my memory has been triggered a lot, by a time of day and a certain amount of light in the nightsky, the way the air smells after the rain we've been having, the temperature outside. maybe it's the changing of the seasons, both weather-wise and life-wise.

this past weekend's main event - garrett's bon voyage to japan bbq:


here are dennis, simon, chong, siobhan, and guest of honor garrett


that's abe, dennis, garrett, and melvin


people milling around and eating


down a pathway lies this tiny stretch of sand/beach. it was mentioned that the background looks fake. against said background are noah, cassie, helen, stuart, and abe


garrett and his sister ginger


the mandatory group photo


a fun version of the mandatory group photo

mariners won!!! it was such an awesome game! i'm not a huge/die-hard baseball fan, but i definitely support the mariners and it's so much fun going to safeco field for games. edgar martinez made it to 2nd base - with a busted toe no less. the whole stadium stood and cheered. seattle loves their edgar. and randy winn with the grand slam! i think he's earned a better nickname than "winnie." the other fun part of the game was some people a few rows in front of us were busted by the alcohol monitor guys for having brought in a flask. tsk tsk.

last night i was at my church fellowship and after the study, we sat around and pigged out on ice cream and other snacks. while pigging out, we started some interested discussions. i learned quite a lot about people's feet. some people have a bigger 2nd toe than big toe. apparently that means they have tempers. a couple of the guys are flat-footed, which means they'll never be drafted, so i'm told. one guy has big feet and can spread his toes really far apart...he says that he can stabilize himself that way in case it's windy. hahaha. this all reminds me of another person, and i can't remember who it is, but they are able to interlock their toes, as people would do with their hands while praying for example. how's that for a neat human trick?

in other exciting news, my roommate went to canada and got the "magic straight perm" or as some call it, "the japanese ion straight perm" done. it looks fantastic. she says people keep trying to pet and touch her hair. i can relate and when it happens to be, sometimes i just want to turn and bite their hand off. :) i'm a little anger ball when it comes to certain things. i'm unpredictable.

currently listening to:

john mayer - heavier things

lillix - falling uphill

michelle branch - hotel paper

freaky friday soundtrack

currently watching:

angel season 2 on dvd

the oc

newlyweds: nick and jessica

so this friendster phenomenon is getting out of control. it was cool in the beginning to see how people were linked through theirs friends and stuff like that, but now i'm feeling a little cynical about it. i've come across people with like 100+ friends on their "friends" list and i wonder how many of those people are really friends? the testimonials on friendster are interesting too. people only have good testimonials. i mean, have you ever read a bad testimonial about someone? it's not like they'd approve a bad testimonial that someone had written about them. and, sometimes, you get requests from people that you kinda don't want to approve and add to your list, but to reject their request for "friendship" just seems so mean. the other person would get a rejection e-mail and pretty much says, "so and so doesn't want to be your friend." and then they'll know you rejected them. and, the majority of friendster seems to be occupied by asiany people, which is ok i suppose... but i feel like i know enough asians, you know?

i just called my cousin and my mom was there hanging out with her mom. while my mom was there, my brother im-ed my cousin to ask my mom to get him some drive-through taco bell on the way home. my mom was like, "no, i don't want to go to the drive-through." my brother responds with, "you just don't want to go because you can't say chalupa!" hahaha...how funny is that? so i made my mom get on the phone and say "chalupa." in case you're wondering, she said it just fine. we had a good laugh. then my mom called my target dress tacky [well, the chinese equivalent to tacky.] and i'm trying to get her to pay for my bridesmaid dress because it's stinkin' $224. if i didn't have to get shoes to go with the dress, a bridal shower gift, and 2 wedding gifts, i would pay for it...maybe. and her response is, "i'm poor." it's really funny if you know my family...or even me. :D but my mom's like, "why can't you pay for it?" it's because she's got no idea i joined 24 hour fitness and had to pay buttloads of money upfront. she'd freakout if she knew, but that's only because one summer when i was in high school, i joined nautilus for a summer membership at $75 and i only ended up going 3 times. she was quite mad. so there's no way i can tell her i'm signed up for 3 years... maybe i'll ask convince my dad to front the money for the dress. afterall, i am they only daughter and oldest kid... :)

to finish the wedding recap, we sang, they lit the unity candle and then went to greet/hug the parents. this is where the waterworks really started kicking in [they sort of started when the couple read their own vows...] all in all, it was a fabulous ceremony and the message portion was quite funny - solomon was funny at wing onn and joyce's wedding last week too. and then on to the reception at the bellevue hyatt hotel where they had wonderful people with trays of snacks and an open bar, which was emphasized by the mc tim [brother of the bride, who can be seen in a photo from the Sept. 1st entry with a drink in hand] several times. one of the fun events during the evening was a special performance by "the soy boys" - tim, chris, james, parker, and steve. the guys sang "wonderful" by damaged [or so i'm told] and then they played music for steve as he sang "grow old with you" song from "the wedding singer" with his own lyrics and a funny slide show. good times.

and then there was dancing. marie, the flower girl, had the dance floor all to herself as she did her little dance and had all the guests' attention as they applauded her. as the evening continued, the boys of sfcc got their funky groove on. sometimes...too funky. one of the funnier comments during the dancing time occurred while i was holding lydia, one of the flower girls from last week's wedding. [keep in mind she was tired] a guy from my church asked lydia if she wanted to dance since a bunch of the other kids were out there and she said no. he says, "story of my life." hahaha...how funny is that? us girls thought that was quite funny because it was said in such a self-deprecating kind of way.

anywho...on to the photos:


here are james and joana - they are super fun!


dan, william, and their friend richard [dan was the self-deprecating comment guy]


parker and melissa - approx. 3.5 years and counting [i think...]


after two nice pictures, julie requested that they strike some poses... haha.


melissa and me - lander 8 roommies


vern, baby ben [who's about to wail] and awesome mel

wedding number 2 of 4 took place yesterday. it was a fun event. we were part of their wedding choir and we sang "arms of love" and since the bride and groom didn't cry or look horrified, we safely assumed that the sounds were favorable.

side note before i continue with the wedding recap: "charlie apparently work for the washington county road services and while watching delinquent youths pick up trash along the side of the road, found my wallet a ditch." this is an excerpt from my, cousin's blog. i pointed out that she incorrectly conjugated the verb "to work" she said, "what? what's wrong with it?" i was like, "i work, you work, she/he works..." and she said, "i don't get it." and then she thinks about it for a second, and says, "shoot...i'm such a fob." hahahaha...her grammer has really gone down the tubes in this last year. oh yea...and she forgot the "in" in the phrase "wallet in a ditch" but if you check now, she's gone back and fixed it so she will look smart.

i was at northgate mall on friday evening and i stopped by the bon. my goal was to find a cheap dress to wear for a wedding and the bon happened to be having the "one-day" sale that really lasts two days. as i was standing near the checkout counter, i noticed three guys walking toward another section with piles of clothing in their hands. my thoughts were the following: "gosh, that's a lot of clothes to try on...do they know that the fitting rooms have a 4 garment limit?" "wait...where are they going? that section is for older women... eh, whatever." "hmm...not to stereotype, but...what if they're like punk kids... yea, better not to stereotype. i'm sure they're just adding to their wardrobe." seconds later...i hear a security guard yell, "STOP" and some other stuff that sounded like warnings and was said in a threatening tone. apparently, these 3 guys, and a couple of other guys, were pulling a "grab and run" and were thwarted by a salesguy that found them a bit suspicious and called in security just in case. all the clothes were dropped and all but one guy got away. i'm mystified...it was so...blatant of these guys. they just had mounds of clothes and were just going to walk right out the door. inconceivable.

today i went to work and after work, i wasted some time at bell sq. before i had to be at a wedding rehearsal. while at the mall, i ran into some friends from dorm/early college years. it was really nice to catch up. ever since i moved out of the dorms/off-campus, and stopped frequenting by george, i don't get many chances to see that group of people anymore. at the wedding rehearsal, we watched them run through the ceremony and then we [as the choir] sang "arms of love." i can't tell if we suck or not, but angela [the bride] said we sounded great. as long as she's happy with the result, that's all that matters. and then it was on to dinner at hunan garden in bellevue. it was several courses...fitting since angela and steve are both chinese [well...taiwanese if you want to be technical about it] and are having a wedding. get it? lots of food...like a chinese wedding? ok fine, i'm not funny.

during dinner, there was lots of fun to be had. lots of laughter and catching up with people. it was great. towards the end of the night, one of my pastors daughters [who is severely allergic to nuts] accidentally touched a piece of the dessert, which is like a thick and sweet peanutty soup with soft mochi like balls in it. she just touched a bit of the mochi ball and broke out in rashes and her face started to swell. her mom busted out the benedryl and was waiting to see if you had to pull out the pen looking medicine shot thing that gets jammed into the upper thigh of the person with the allergic reaction. thankfully, the benedryl started working almost instantly. it was kinda scary for a moment there. lydia's [the child in question] sister, apphia, walked over, and quietly asked me if i would pray for lydia. i think that's the highlight of my day. apphia is only 4 and i was extremely touched and blessed by her love and concern for her little sister. these kids are so much fun to babysit. plus, they think we're funny. :D

sometimes, work really sucks. there are moments when i just want to tell people who walk in to turn around and walk right on out. but, i can't. boo.

fun summer tv: the oc [tuesdays 9pm on fox] and newlyweds: nick and jessica [tuesdays 10:30pm on mtv] the nick and jessica show is stinkin' hilarious. i could explain it, but it's just not as funny. watch it. you will be amused.

this weekend, i attended the wedding of wing onn and joyce. they had a very, very, very nice wedding and reception.

tim and parker, were on round 4 of drinks before we were even seated for dinner. they were quite boisterous in their enthusiasm during the reception.

i'm sure you can guess that we all had a ton of fun. the whole thing was pretty ritzy and we got nifty and creative party favors as shiv and garrett are modeling. it's a watch battery [or something along those lines], wire and a blue bulb on top. something sciency and having to do with completing the circuit to make it light up.


we left at 11:30pm and they had the place until 2am...i have no doubt that the party continued on until the wee hours. weddings are so much fun! and i have 3 more to go to in the next month! the first of the next three being this coming sunday - steve and angela from my church. a group of us get to be part of the wedding ceremony as a "choir" and i use the term loosely. :) another packed week and weekend.

in the last week or so, it feels like i've had no time to sit and rest/veg. the other day, after two hours at ikea [i caved in the face of temptation...i purchased stuff that i don't really need. i may need to enter retail rehab, but only after my friend coralie goes because she's way more of a retail addict than i] i was drained. my cousin asked me what would fix my lack of energy and i responded with "time by myself." haha...she glared at me. but honestly, doesn't being around too many people [like at the mall...or ikea during labor day weekend] just suck the life right out of you? [don't deny it - you know it's true] my remedy is to take a nap and veg in front of the tv for a bit until i feel better - which is just what i did all afternoon and it was wonderful.

it's been 4 years since i moved away from home and went to college. now i'm graduated and i'm seeing other folks packing up for their first year of college. i know i'm not old, but i suddenly feel like a geezer. shara [from my church] is leaving wednesday morning for providence, rhode island for art school, so we had a suprise going away party for her/birthday surprise party for her and her brother. i am feeling all wistful for that whole "going off to college" feeling and all the fun and excitement that came with it. now i'm all bummed that in a month, as everyone else heads back to classes, i won't be hanging out at the hub or on campus anymore. it's official...i'm sad to be out of college. they were right; enjoy college while you can. of course, nobody ever really believes that, and it is only when you're done with school that the realization of it's truth smacks you across the forehead. lame.

but here's a happy thought for me to cling to, i do not have to work tomorrow and therefore, will enjoy my first saturday off in eons! i will go to ikea and resist the temptation to spend money of things i don't need - it will be a test of my will power and discipline. [it won't count as a weakness if i purchase something i really do need] :D and then on sunday, i get to go to a wedding where i will see may [i attended her wedding last summer in LA and i've not seen her since]. so exciting!

i think that ever since i got a digital camera, that i've actually taken less pictures. it would seem like digital camera ownership would increase the amount of photos taken due to the sheer convenience, but for me, this is not so. eh. moving on...some photos from warm beach 2003 here.

and last week, ryan ko's 26th birthday was celebrated at his very own condo. these kids took to hanging out in the loft, aka dave's room.

if you're wondering who these people are, then folllow along (L to R): dave, jen, noah, noami, and abe. you may have not recognized abe because he's smiling... he doesn't usually smile that big.

and here's one of the birfday (as garrett chan would say) boy himself (in case you're wondering, he's pointing at the name of his gift, "thrustmaster" he seemed rather taken with this gift.


and from ray choi's "moving to portland for seminary" dinner at claimjumpers, the obligatory and inevitable group photo:


and last, what i like to call the pièce de résistance (for this, i'm sure both garrett and garett will kill me later):
. you'll have to ask them what they were about. my suspicion is that they were just goofing around and i was too quick for them. haha...too bad for them. this wll definitely end up in somebody's wedding slide show - it's way too funny not to.

enjoy!

i was at work today, like everyday (not to sound bleak), and a patient comes in and has his exam and he happens to be friends with the dr. he comes out and looks at me and we have the following piece of conversation:

him: "have i met you before?"
me: "umm...maybe" [given that he's asian and is familiar due to the asian christian circle]
him: "oh i know, i've seen you in the cohi video."
me: [inner monologue says "NOOOOOOOO!!!" - with anguish] i really say: "oh... yea... heh...heh..."

i think that mr. ahn and mr. chan owe me...big time. it's funny when people you know bring it up, and even people you don't know as well. but, when virtual strangers recognize you from the cohi video, then i think it's just weird and embarrassing. for real, if chong gets famous one day in hollywood or wherever in film, i'm calling in a phatty favor. :) same goes to garrett.

today, i was reminded of a time in high school. back then my school friends classified me as a "smart kid" in advanced classes and etc (but not as smart as the "ultra smarty-little social skills kids"). anywho, my church/youth group friends had no idea. one day, at lunch after church we were sitting around and our friend ken (who's like the epitome of business man who schmoozes with the best of them) asks me, "so what classes are you taking this year?" i think that at this time, he was already in college or something. anyway, i list my classes, which consisted of a bunch of AP/advanced classes, and he says, "huh...wow...i thought you were like wendy." now, wendy is my cousin who is also a smart girl and who happened to be sitting next to him. i think she smacked him. or maybe she was just like "what is that supposed to mean?" i can't remember and it matters not. the point is, i find that often times, i am perceived as...shall we say, "ditzy." and that's fine, as i'm sure i have speech and behavioral patterns to support such a conclusion. i have made my peace with it - i'm book smart...not always "common sense" smart/street smart.

the above was prompted by a friend's joking comment that i can come across as "ditzy." but i say, hey, whatever...that's cool. it's ok to be me. (the actual poster says, "it's ok to be you" and is located at a red robin's near you. find it if you need some affirmation.)

i'm back from being MIA. since i started working, i've not been online as much as when i was still in school. of course, if my work had broadband access rather than dial-up, it might be a different story.

in the little over two months that i have been away, nothing much has happened...nothing major anyway. i still do not have a "real job" and instead, i work a "survival job." but this is ok with me, but perhaps hard for my parents, seeing as how they've paid for 4 years of higher education. i suspect that they'd prefer to see a more significant return on their investment.

while i've been away, i joined 24 hour fitness and started exercising regularly. i have heard that people who work out and exercise regularly often feel more energetic and happy because of the endorphins being produced. i have not felt this endorphin-driven euphoria and thus, i feel cheated. i have been told that i need to give it a few more weeks. we shall see.

working everyday is different. a bit weird, but not all bad since i get paid to be there. :D

10 hours of starvation, 4 hours in the sun, and 1 sunburn later, i am a college graduate!!! it's so crazy. i'm not longer a student. it is the absolute weirdest feeling...the loss of the student identity. for the past 17 years of my life, i have been defined by the word "student." it was the answer to most questions, such as, "what do you do?" answer: "oh, i'm a college student." now...it's more like, "umm...yea...i'm not really sure what i'll be doing with my life." which generally causes the other person to say, "oh...ok...good for you!" with false enthusiasm. on the inside they're really thinking "oh poor you...no job...how sad." but eh...it just rolls right off :D i have the rest of the weekend before i start working semi-full-time at eyeworks

it's 6:22am. i just finished my big 8pg spanish paper. while i'm definitely tired...so tired i'd...nevermind. the point is, i'm tired, but i feel so accomplished because i just wrote an 8 page spanish paper comparing ballad poetry. i'm basking in the glow of my accomplishments before i fall off my pilates ball (which i used instead of my chair because my butt was going numb from sitting in that chair since 7pm).

new word: trollop
as in, "demi moore is a trollop," says wendy, "traversing with the likes of ashton kutcher." but we all know it's just a publicity stunt because he wants to be a-list and she's desperate for media attention.

new fun: play mash
it's only fun because it's just one more thing keeping me away from my paper.

too cute. check out this kid...

2 papers:
1 - 8pg paper in spanish about a ballad (poem - the original and the 23 modern versiones)
1 - 5pg paper in spanish about spanish enlightenment literature - a comparison between 3 works

1 test:
music 185 aka "clapping for credits"

the aacf senior send-off was last night. it's slowly starting to hit me that i won't be a college student anymore. and having to answer the inevitable "what are your plans after graduation?" is getting just plain sad...seeing as how i have no real concrete plans. college grad and no plans. lame.

two weeks and my life as a college student is over. i'm excited - because i am seriously tired of having to sit through class and study/do homework. i've been searching for jobs that might actually utilize my college degree, but alas, it is a futile search. not much for entry-level that i actually qualify for - so if any of you out there hear of anything, send it my way please!

it's been a month. odd how much life can change. as i approach grad day...the all-consuming "deer caught in the headlights" fear grows. bleh.
chris and david's proposal dinner photos taken with my new toy.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i just bought a digital camera! i'm soooo excited. i've been looking around forever and drooling each time i see one...and now...i've finally given in. it was such a super duper good deal from dell. i love dell. :) oh yea...it's the canon s400 digital elph...'twas an insanely good deal.

remember mash? that game we all used to play in elementary school? you can now play online! woohoo for when you're totally bored...or procrastinating :)

i should be writing my paper. it's due tomorrow. it's supposed to be 4-pages and based on a reading. i haven't read it or written anything other than my name. and it's already past 10pm. whoops.

my brother quit that college painting "internship" - internship is in quotes because really, the whole thing sounds like a scam/legal pyramid scheme-y thing. he went to like 40 houses one afternoon, and got a crappy 4 potential leads. that seriously sucks. and his little territory is way far from where we live...far. like 30-35 minutes. before the unfortunate afternoon in question, he was all like defending this lame job. i'm glad he finally came to his senses and realized how much it actually sucks. there is real potential to make a large sum of money, but as i've heard over and over again from people who've participated, the money is so not worth the blood, sweat, and tears.

there was a jems concert on saturday and that was fun - though it was a bit...lengthy. and on sunday, it was good times celebrating the birthdays of amy and june! the present-opening part of the evening was great! lots of funny moments. very similar to the christmas gift scene in about a boy. amy opens her banana republic box and screams "it's a shirt!" (as if the rest of us were confused about what it was) :) and then june opened her harry potter dvds, and as she opened her next present, which is a large and flat box, she's like "what is it?" (the rest of us are thinking...does she not see DVD-some model number written on the box?) then she asks, "is it a car deck?" since we all chipped in for the gift, we all know what it is already, and we're just cracking up because we have no idea where her train of thought is going...or coming from. she felt silly when she realized it was a dvd player. and i think somebody got that captured on digital camera movie mode! woohoo! you can't buy this kind of entertainment :)

i'm finally back in a small group where i get to be a participant and not a leader! woohoo! i haven't been in a women's small group in FOREVER! i was seriously giddy yesterday...i think i even did a happy dance :) meeting up with christine (the small group leader) and other girls who are graduating from college or have just graduated is so great, especially since we're all in the same situation, which is like total confusion and soon-to-be chaos. yippee!

this morning, i woke up earlier than usual so i could haul it over to redmond town center for an early coffee meeting with the mentor i'm paired up with through this IS class at UW. sadly, i got lost on the way there, which is odd, since i usually figure out directions in relation to major areas of shopping and consumerism. :) anyway, it was great to meet both the mentor guy and his coworker/friend. i have to say, working people are pretty fun. i know, that sounds horrible, as if people with jobs automatically have all fun sucked out of them, but my perceptions have been seriously distorted since i've had my own anxieties about the post-college job hunt. as much as i complain about studying and homework, school is this total safe haven and the mental picture i've had of working has been like i'll to heading toward prison. so, it was really nice to get some real perspective and proof that work can be pretty cool, as long as you like what you do. so simple, yet not, since not everyone gets to do what they like.

and today was also a good day because i got an ego boost! i had applied for this internship thing working with international companies to facilitate employee exchanges (think student exchanges within a business/corporation context) and i spoke with the executive director of the program and he was telling me that i seem like a great fit for the job. it doesn't even matter that i may not get hired because i'm graduating in june, but the fact that they like me and see me as someone they'd want working for them is enough for me. woohoo. ha...apparently i'm more of a business kid than i thought. ;)

i just signed up for a self-defense class with the women at my church. sounds like fun! and if i ever find myself in such a precarious situation, let's hope i retain the instinctual knowledge of self-preservation combined with stuff from this class.

am recovered.

first week of school was alright. it's a bit weird because i don't have a groove yet of what is expected of me in class. actually...i'm not even sure what we're supposed to be doing. it's quite ambiguous and the profs lecture for 2 full hours (that's 4 straight hours of spanish lecture) and there's no classroom interaction so it's weird...it's throwing me off.

it hasn't been stressful at all yet...so i'm glad. on saturday, i watched some kids so that my church's married couples fellowship could have well...fellowship, without their kids :) i changed two poopy diapers...and i was pretty good, and by pretty good i mean that the diapers stayed on and there weren't any accidents that occurred outside the diaper during the changing. the baby, ben, is the absolute cutest and bestest baby. he doesn't cry at all and he's fun...well, actually, he doesn't do much since he's only 9 weeks old, but just holding him and looking at him is fun because he's so darn cute! :D

i was sick...yet again. boo.

and now i'm watching letterman and colin farrell is on. :D

during spring break, i had time to rest and sleep and veg. yippee. i also hung out with friends that i hadn't seen in awhile. i got to see jessica, probably the only person from high school that i actually keep in touch with, and it was fun catching up and hearing about how she got pooped on by a 10-month old baby while she was nannying :) it made me feel better when i realized during our dinner at old chicago (a sports bar) with her and her friend, that the ND in ND vs. ARIZ (of college basketball) does not stand for north dakota, but rather, duh...notre dame. am i tool? ...yea, i am. whoops. i also saw some old friends from youth group days and that was fun times too, though i felt ultra-americanized since all of them were intermixing japanese. i offered up my one meager "punny" joke in japanese. i think i need to learn some new fun things to say so that next time they'll be amused and impressed. :)

watch bend it like beckham...it's great!

i watched shanghai knights earlier this evening at pacific place downtown. the movie was funny and i liked it. the important thing here isn't how good the movie was/is, but that pacific place is a total rip-off and no one should ever see a movie there ever again. sometime recently, they changed their prices. they no longer have student discounts, or even the "rush hour from 4pm-6pm" special discounted movie ticket price. it cost $7 for a matinee...that's even more expensive than stinkin' regal cinemas. AND, they don't validate parking (well, they never have - but movie tickets used to be cheaper so it wasn't as bad paying for parking), so it cost $13 bucks total to see a matinee at pacific place...crazy, no? i too was flabbergasted by the price jump. it was a big suck. this is so why i'm all about oak tree, and it's not as ghetto as people make it sound - just smaller.

in my break from studying, i just caught some of conan o'brien. wow...too funny. it's st. patrick's day, well, it was... anyway, i think was from last year, but conan was talking about going to find some people who didn't celebrate st. patrick's day and guess where the segment was filmed? haha...chinatown! woohoo! it was hilarious. he visited various stores, mostly full of chinese medicines or what i like to call "weird, smelly stuff" and quizzed them on their knowledge of st. patrick's day. one guy was like, "i know about the green." i think one of the funnier ones was where he went into a store asked a chinese girl to ask the female store owner what she thought about st. patrick's day and the whole exchange was taking place in mandarin and it was just funny.

store owner says like one word or two.
conan: "she just called me an irish bastard, didn't she?
the girl: "oh no, she said you're very handsome."
conan: "she didn't say that..."
the girl starts laughing
conan: "you just lied to me" (laughing)
later
store owner: "i don't know how to say it (i think she means in english), you say it."
the girl is like, "i'll translate for you..."
conan looks confused.
again later
conan: "just ask her if she thinks i'm handsome"
the girl: "do you think he's handsome?"
store owner: (laughs) "yes"
conan cheers in triumph

ok...the other super funny thing is there was this shot of two elderly men playing a violin and what looked like a banjo-type instrument - they're playing chinese-sounding music...old school...think kung-fu film tracks. anyway, then it pans to conan with a hat and bright green sport coat dancing around like a leprechaun. and later he's running down the streets of chinatown yelling "happy st. patrick's day" to random chinese people.

why did i find this sooo funny? it could be because i'm tired, and a bit stressed. but i think it's more that it just brightened my day - hooray for humor.

1 down, 3 to go.

my parents came up to seattle on a whim, apparently. are they weird? yes...yes they are.
back to reviewing/studying.

my last day of classes was thursday. it was a very, very, very long day. my last class of the day was spanish - the drama class. eh. we did class evaluations on the class session before - and i volunteered to take them and drop them off in campus mail. i've never written so many comments about a class or a teacher before. i've had tons and tons of crappy professors in college, more than i should've, and in all my years at UW, this is the first time that i've had to use the back of the page too. i think the final straw was when he told me that i wasn't allowed the option of writing one 6-page essay in place of two 3-page essays. the reason was that my previous grades did not meet the minimum requirement that he'd set. i felt like i could've done the 6-page essay, especially since just one of my "short" essays turned out to be 5 full pages. so on thursday, my attitude became progressively worse and by the end of class, i'd stopped paying attention and participating and sat back with my arms crossed sending him angry vibes. i thought teachers were supposed to encourage students, even the not so great ones. i've never had a teacher make me feel dumb, or rather, incapable of improving. at least i have the wonderful knowledge that i'll never have to take another class with him ever again.

i sound whiny and complainy, but i don't care. i can whine and complain if i want to.

in other news: pollen is out to get me.

as my last winter quarter in college slowly comes to an end, i have to start thinking about post-college plans much more seriously. what a bummer. i honestly have no idea what i want to do or even where i want to be. i keep getting asked about whether or not i'll stay in seattle. well, the answer to where i'll be i think definitely depends on what i'll be doing. if the answer is absolutely nothing, then i'll probably be moving back home. one more quarter and then my whole comfortable world goes nuts.

"Cradle 2 the Grave" will, however, be a box office hit, I imagine, and that will be demographically interesting because it demonstrates that a savvy producer like Silver now believes a white star is completely unnecessary in a mega-budget action picture. At one point, there were only white stars. Then they got to have black buddies. Then they got to have Asian buddies. Then "Rush Hour" proved that black and Asian buddies could haul in the mass audience. Long ago a movie like this used a black character for comic relief. Then an Asian character. Now the white character is the comic relief. May the circle be unbroken.

just last night i was watching jeopardy, and the contestants were 2 white guys and 1 white lady - all middle-aged. the guys were from bellingham, wa and brooklyn, ny and i can't remember where the lady's from. anyway, the point is that there was this category, "Yale Drama School" and they were able to answer most of the questions, where the answer was sigourney weaver or meryl streep, they were stumped on some other ones. one was a visual clue and all they had to do was get the name of the actor - which was david alan grier (think in living color). the other clue was something like "she "got her groove back" studying...blah blah" and it's angela bassett. there was bewildered confusion on the faces of all 3 contestants. and in light of having watched undercover brother just the other day, i found this review by roger ebert amusing. so, may minorities continue to make strides into mainstream america and may the asian kids keep on keepin' on and doing the whole "movin' on up" thing. :D

i'm on the road to recovery, which means my voice no longer sounds like that of a man, and that's always a good thing. :) for the last couple of weeks, classes and homework load have been a bit intense, so that's where i've been slaving away. i'm trying to actually get some good grades these last few quarters and actually learn something useful since the job market is not exactly college-grad friendly these days.

and as if i don't already have enough things to juggle, my mom calls me to tell me that she gave my aunt (my dad's sister in san francisco - the "psycho" matchmaking aunt) my cell phone number. needless to say, i was not happy with my mom. but i told my mom that if i recognize a phone number with an area code from the bay area, that i am NOT picking it up. and not only that, but i will NOT call her back either. i'm done with this crap my aunt and mom are trying to do. was is that saying...take no prisoners? or all's fair in war? well, the point is that i will no longer stand for these lame attempts - not even pretend to indulge. i've gone militant and i will launch a full-out attack if i'm pushed to do it. so aunt cath beware. you're going down. i can admit that it's a funny situation, but it would be sooo much funnier if it wasn't happening to me.

in other news, i was at the uvillage starbucks and i fell in love - with a vespa scooter. it was beautiful! scooters are just so darn cool. they're giving customers chances to win them in some kind of drawing every time you use a starbucks gift card to make a purchase. neat, huh?

MIA: where i've been because i've been ill for almost two weeks. bleh.

i'm figuring out that going to a prof's office hours counts for a lot. it shows effort and possibly a commitment to really learn the subject, whatever it may be. too bad i'm learning this so close to finishing college. eh. better late than never, right? i stopped by my prof from last quarter's office to get my essays back, and i just as i thought, i'm not as bad as a writer as i thought, in spanish anyway. i did quite well on my essays and my grammer and syntactical mistakes were kept to a minimum. well, it's that or she just got tired of correcting the mistakes. :)

it's funny, i'm so much more diligent [which really isn't all that diligent at all] this year than the sum of the last three years. maybe it's the whole finishing out college strong, on a high note. or maybe i got tired of getting by and putting in mediocre effort, and not just in school. i've yet to figure it all out. the wonderful thing about my impending graduation is that it brings up a lot of things to ponder. what am i doing to do after? where will i be? better yet, where does God want to send me? [and please don't say kansas city, missouri] i'm starting to get a small taste of what all the college grads talk about...that scary place after graduation and in between the "rest of your life." wonderful - heavy on the sarcasm with a hint of wry humor.

i just finished my essay for my spanish drama class. if when i get it back next week, the grade is just as poor as my first essay, i'm going to go postal on my prof...seriously. i worked pretty diligently on this paper, painstakingly choosing the right words too. i mean, how am i supposed to improve when he doesn't even give any helpful insights?

oi...i just need to make it to thursday afternoon and i'm off for portland!!! wahoo...relaxing with my fam! and mike's coming back from uo too and andy has districts this weekend so i'll get to see him wrestle for the first time. good ol' family bonding time; i miss it a lot more these days, especially with the whole graduating college thing and not knowing if i'll end up close to home or far, far away.

how to lose a guy in 10 days is one funny movie. it takes the whole romantic comedy/chick flick genre and puts a new spin on it, sort of. the audience was practically rolling on the floor with laughter during the majority of the movie. i got to see it with melissa and after the movie, we pigged out on korean food. yay!

i'm slowly accumulating this long list of movies that i have to see eventually. as well as books to read too. i think i might start a list, like those "50 things to do before i get old...or die" lists. but first i have to finish my homework :)

following a fairly good week, was a week of academic disaster. midterms did not go well. it was actually really hectic and i was all off kilter...entirely no good. but hooray for the weekend. and i'm still thinking...what is there in kansas city? i'm sure people say that about portland too, but at least portland's close to the water and in a state on a major coast. bah.

oooh, and i got a postcard from cora in spain! so that was a nice surprise to find in the mail and so awesome! and i've been browsing her photos from her travels around various parts of spain - way cool.

o how the mighty hath fallen...

so...i got my paper back from my spanish drama class and it was a total massacre, with me on the receiving end of the afore mentioned massacre. it was a dark day in class. :) but i can see the prof's points about my essay it had promise, but poor development, which essentially turned good ideas into crap. ah well. what goes up, must come back down.

but to balance out the bad, i bought sweet home alabama and got an interview for cerner...some health IS company on campus next week. the only thing about the job is that it requires moving to kansas city, missouri for like two years. i'm thinking that location will be a major determining factor.

this week has been, by far, one of the more interesting weeks of the quarter. like i mentioned, academic triumph, which is always good and just having tons of fun, which is good too. and i have to say, my favorite quote of the week "you were right all along." doesn't that have a nice ring to it? i don't think anyone gets sick of hearing that...unless it's being right about something horrible. i basked in the glow of being right. and it is so much fun to gloat!!!

the weekend in review:


• friday: worked. and then i was given the idea that i might have been able to take saturday off, meaning that i had a chance to go home for chinese new year and surprise my fam...but then my hopes were crushed because i did have to go to work on saturday.
  
  
• saturday: worked. :( hung out at home and went to target with abe and shiv. later, people came over to play apples to apples! word(s) association courtesy of ryan ko: helen keller : crazed. it was a barrel full of laughs - the whole game, not ryan's inappropriate association.
  
  
• sunday: church! old navy spree. went to see abe and dennis play basketball in some league with visiting from CA friends angel and her friend micah. us girls had tons of fun making our own commentary. i think we might have embarrassed abe a little when we clapped giddily every time he made a basket. :D then once again, people came over to play and watch ALIAS...the bestest show - among all my other bestest shows
  

big yippee of the day: academic triumph

i actually went to a professor's office hours today and i got some great and helpful insight into my project for the class. for all you IS kids...i got some ERD help. :) i also had a midterm for classics 101, a vocab-type class and i kicked butt on it...at least i think i did. i felt i had the latin stems and meanings committed to memory. i feel like the dad from my big fat greek wedding who was always taking words back to their greek origins...except i can do it in latin, yahoo!

and remember that spanish drama class i'm in? the one where i just thought it was soooo hard? well, turns out, it's not so bad. i even contributed in class today. we're reading a play by lope de vega called fuente ovejuna, which is a place/city in spain. the essence is that there's this commander (aka dictator) guy who is the big villain. we were reading a short scene between him and another character, Laurencia. basically...he was trying to put the moves on her and not in a smooth way; he very forcefully commanding her to obey him in whatever capacity he wanted. so anyway, he says like four lines and those four lines happen to be a metaphor. anywho, we were working in small groups of three people and i called the prof over because i wanted to run a thought by him, and he just happened to find that thought to be very very interesting. i think i was preening. :D and to top it off, my classmate mauricio told me it was a very profound thought - and it only matters because he's like a smartie, which caused to me to continue the bask in the praise of my peers. ok...i think my esteem is high enough now.

ok...and the last highlight to my day was the Bible study with steph lin. so...it's not a small group, since it's just me and her. anyway, i think it went really well! we chatted and got to know each other and did all that typical get-to-know-each-other thing and shared some prayer requests and prayed. oh...and did an overview of what we'd be studying together, which is the book of Esther...great book. y'all should read it. i'm thinking after we're done, we should rent the veggietales version of it. :D

i found out yesterday that my friend justin is going to be deployed to kuwait. he's just not sure when. right now, he's just waiting for his call, and once he gets the call, he's got just 72 hours to tie up whatever he has to here in seattle...including school, work, family, and friends. it's a little scary...he's a marine reserve. and it was news to me because i prefer to ignore the impending war that looms over this nation, but the reserves are being called up. and it's even scarier because marines are like the first ones in and last ones out. kind of puts all of my crap into perspective.

the bestest medicine for feeling crappy: milk and cookies

every fiber of my being is crying for rest and sleep...or at least for this week to be over. this is midterm week. blech. a paper, from which i am taking a break, two midterms and a quiz - this is my life for the week.

but on a brighter thought, i start my small group - very very small group since it's just me and one other girl. we're going to study the book of esther, so that should be pretty cool. oh, and koti hu is coming to aacf this week, so tell your friends :D

friday: worked...what a horribly long day. and then watched chicago! it was awesome! i'm extremely impressed with the talented singing by the actors...and the dancing too.

saturday: worked...another long day. met with my IS mentor from deloitte consulting. went to bellevue starbucks and listened to shawn mcdonald play. hung out at hi-d land.

just learned about awesome game - apples to apples. must buy.

holy celebrity-sighting, batman!

brace yourselves people. i have just come from a Q & A session with KEVIN SPACEY, yes...THE Kevin Spacey of The Usual Suspects, Seven, American Beauty, etc - fame!!! is that not just insane?!?

ok...so jessica isawa calls me last night around 10pm asking me if i want to go to a free screening of a new Kevin Spacey movie at the HUB. i'm like...of course...i love movies and i love free, so having the love of free movies - i totally wanted to go. she then told me it was going to be at 3pm and i was bummed because i have class until 3:30 on thursdays. so i declined, not wanting to skip class and all since it is a 2-hour, twice weekly class. and she mentioned that a VIP associated with the movie would be there to answer questions after the screening, and that it might be Kevin Spacey himself. i was thinking how cool that'd be, but also that it seemed a tad unlikely. so as of last night, i wasn't going. so earlier today, jessica and i had planned to meet up for lunch and when i walked into the HUB, people were already in line at 11:45am for the 3pm screening. it suddenly hits that Kevin Spacey is really coming to the HUB. so...after some inner conflict and struggle, i decided to skip class - which...i still feel kinda bad about. BUT, the thing is, this is like a once in a lifetime chance, and jessica had two tickets - one for her and one for me. and this is only a big deal because i guess the tickets were given out yesterday and not this morning like she thought. and when she went this morning, they told her that the giveaway was the previous day. BUT they did happen to have TWO tickets left! i don't know how to categorize that, but it put me over the edge of deciding in favor of the movie.

so, we waited in line from 12:45pm until screening time and we got emily chu and june nishimura to join us and when they finally let us in to the auditorium, we ran for some decent seats, which i think we got. so we saw the movie, The Life of David Gale and afterwards, Kevin Spacey came on stage and it was just sooooooo cool!!! he was totally funny, sarcastic, cracking jokes and telling stories, and answering questions. And he appeared to be pretty down to earth, well, at least that's what it felt like to me. it's funny listening to the people who asked questions, most of them would preface the question with some gushing of how much they love his movies, work, etc and then toss in "i'm an aspiring actor and so..." like seriously, who isn't an aspiring actor? yeesh. the questions were of the usual variety, probably stuff he's answered a bagillion times, but he made the answers fun and entertaining and added to them, which was great. at this point, i doubt there are a lot of original questions out there to even ask.

anywho...i suppose that i could've come up with something, but just ditching class to go there was enough "carpe diem" for one day. :) we were like 30-40 feet away from him, and granted, it's not close, but hey, we were all in the same room with the guy so that's pretty dang awesome. and i think jessica got some photos, so i'm getting double prints of those... *crossing my fingers that they turned out well*

and the movie was good too. really intense and graphic at times. the basic premise is that a philosophy professor who is also an advocate of getting rid of the death penalty finds himself on death row awaiting execution for rape and murder. it flashes back between the past and present to tell his story and it has so many levels and there is so much humanity and even commentary about the human condition and about how it is that people end up at point b from point a. i have to see it again just so pick apart some of the issues, ideas, and themes. it's totally a movie that you'd end up talking about as you're walking out of the theater because it provokes thinking about issues like capital punishment, etc. it's a great story - not because it's happy and makes you feel good, but because it's gritty and maybe controversial and shakes up our cozy little worlds.

i'm dazed.

career fair - usually an event that is completely depressing

i went to the uw minority career fair [though i did see quite a few non-minorities...at least they didn't look like minorities to me - and no, dating a minority does not automatically make you a minority]. it was suprisingly ok. i didn't leave feeling a ton of self-pity, which is a major step up from past career fairs. even if the recruiters were lying through their teeth about potential jobs and opportunities for me within their company, i still feel pretty good. at least they didn't just tell me that there were ZERO opportunities available - because that would have been very, very, very sad. this actually gives me a ray of hope, and even though it might just be crushed anyway, it's still nice to feel the possibility of it all. i did feel slightly cheapened at having to toss myself out there in the job pool and having to schmooze my way through the fair - but if it lands my foot in the door, it'll be worth it...i hope.

this weekend, i went to sambica for aacf's winter retreat 2003 - the three little pigs, which are faith, community, and leadership. all good themes that we can never learn too much about. i'd forgotten how important it is to be part of a community. i was so busy doing all my stuff that i was juggling that there wasn't much time to spend with other people. it was really refreshing - not only because the whole point of a retreat is to draw away from our daily life of toiling away, but because i enjoyed spending time with friends that i feel like i've lost a little touch with. it was also encouraging to see the new crop of aacf kids who are just crazy-enthusiastic about sharing Jesus with their friends...and strangers too. :) it makes me feel old and tired - because somewhere along the line, i lost that zest. the best thing about recognizing my own weaknesses is that they can then be fixed.

few and far between are my blogs as school gets underway. my first week was alright since i'm still trying to find my groove, ya know? i can say that for the most part, it's not too bad - except for this one class, spanish 440: drama of the golden age or in spanish, el teatro del siglo de oro. the prof is coo, and i understand him pretty well for the most part, but he speaks fast and jumps from subject to subject pretty quickly too, so it takes so much concentration to keep up. and the reading is crazy difficult. so like, taking a shakespeare class in english isn't exactly easy right? the language of the plays are different and there's the whole iambic pentameter thing...imagine taking a class in a second language where the written works aren't even modern day prose (which isn't easy either) but rather antiquated spanish and written in forms of lyric poetry. yea...exactly. this class owns me.

the other thing is that all the other people in the class are smarties - i think they've all studied abroad for at least 6 months and some are even hispanohablantes (native spanish speakers) so i have no desire to speak up in class. if i can get away with saying as little as possible i'll be happy. now...some people when presented with this type of challenge, would study harder and try harder just to keep up. so...my method would be the opposite of that...something akin to giving up. hmm...they say that these kinds of things are telling and given that, i'm not so much liking what my method says about me. eh...

in almost anyone's childhood experiences, there will almost always be the kid you remember that was the know-it-all, or again in spanish, el sabelotodo. and generally, with the know-it-all kid, the thing is that they don't know it all, but just think that they do - which sucks for them because there's less room for growth and learning. so...i remember those types of kids from my childhood...and big surprise, i still find them - in class, at the law library, etc. and while most times, it's seriously not worth my effort to argue points in those rare moments when i am actually right, there are times when i get a perverse satisfaction of saying "ha! i'm right and you're so wrong!!!" accompanied with a touchdown-like dance to rub it in their face. is that bad?

[thursday at work]

Rude Old Guy: 97 Pacific.
Me: 97 Pacific? You mean the Pacific Reporter?
ROG: 97 Pacific.
Me: Right. Let me check on that. Well, it looks like the Pacific Reporters are located in the Reading Room. [I point out the handy signs that label the various books...very visible]
ROG: Those are the 2nd series.
Me: Well, off the left of those, there's a sign that reads just "Pacific Reporter."
ROG: Those are the second series.
Me: My mistake. Let's take a look at the map.
ROG: They must be in the basement. [which they are so not...]
Me: They look like they've recently been put in the corner on the upper deck of the Reading Room. [i point it out]

the rude old guy walks away all huffy. but you have to understand that his whole attitude and body language was such that he thought he had some right to be served like he was someone really "important." then he has the nerve to come back later at noon and ask about basement retrievals when the sign clearly reads that the next trip is at 3pm. yea...and he all tried to be nice about it, as if that would magically cause someone to come back from lunch just to get the book. and as soon as i told him that it wouldn't be possible to go at that moment, he was visibly enraged - like his composure slipped - but he did the whole "i'm really a nice old guy...really i am..." routine to see if he could get things to go his way. too bad i can see right through him. apparently he's known around the library for his unbelievably rude behavior and treatment of staff. i was told that that's him on a good day. much like the guy in my spanish class from last quarter that i wanted to serve a beat-down to, my right foot was itching to give this guy a good, swift kick to the head. it wasn't that he was just rude - because at the law lib/law school there are tons of rude people that i encounter, but it was that he felt he was superior to all other people, that we're all here for the sole purpose of serving him or catering to him - it was his arrogance that was the kicker. [course, we're all arrogant on some level - but he was having the big ego...much like russell crowe.

i'm just been informed that "addictive personality" implies that people are addicted to my personality. but that's not what i meant. i meant that i seem to be prone to having addictions. :D

it's my first day back at the law library and big surprise, some old guy was like crazy rude. more on that later since i'm about to leave.

i'm a junkie and i think i might have an addictive personality [and obsessive too.]

i'm all about DVDs. i went to best buy and i did not come home empty-handed. and...i love all types of media...tv, music, movies, etc. i like to collect stuff. not anything in particular, but whatever happens to strike me. in high school there was a phase where i bought make-up. i never really used any of it, but if i saw something, i'd buy it. maybe the underlying addiction is shopping and spending. but it's only on certain things - not just anything.

oh...and this tiny, tiny mole popped up on my foot. it wasn't there yesterday...i don't think. but now it's there and it's all i see...it's like enrique's, but a way, way smaller. and...my right eyelid is folding all funny because i didn't sleep enough. today was not a pretty day. but tomorrow is another day. :D

i'm back in seattle as well as back in school. even though i only had one class today, there was all this anti-school sentiment within me. ah well. it's weird being back because i'm not sure what i should be doing. i don't have a routine yet - so once again, i'm all confused. but give me a week or two...

i take it back - i'd probably chew my own arm off if i was forced to move back home and live with my parents.

i'm not opposed to happy couples. really - though i'm sure some of my friends will find that a little hard to believe. i'm just slightly opposed to change - in the sense that it feels like i'm losing a friend, rather than gaining another friend in addition to my current friend. make sense? it's because of the whole sharing thing - because yes, sharing is good, and necessary - but change and sharing just happens to takes my stubborn self longer to adjust to than it does others, which is probably because i'm totally selfish, and at least i can admit that. but alas, this is a part of the whole growing [pains] process - yippie. so maybe if i start looking at it as getting to have another friend, then it won't be so hard to get used to. :)