drama

so che comes home [oh, she's engaged by the way! and no, that is not the drama of which i speak] and she's like, "there are police cars in front of our house." minutes before, we heard a noise and a car alarm go off for a minute or two. so, hearing that there are police cars outside, i run to her window, which faces the street, and the two of us are peering out to see if we can figure out what's going on. we see several policemen and one of them is talking to a woman and we determine that she's been asked to prove she's sober. i'm giving kristie the play by play since she was in her room. after some time, i tell kristie that they're making her walk with her hands behind her back as another sobriety test. kristie said that it was handcuffs. and lo and behold, she was correct. the cops cuffed her and walked her to the back of the police cruiser. we think that she was in her car and possibly hit either someone's mailbox loud enough to set off a car alarm, or she hit a car parked on the street. it was too dark to tell what really happened. that was the big excitement of the evening.

and totally unrelated... yesterday, i went with shiv as she drove to bellevue to drop off garrett's wallet at a restaurant. when we walked in, i saw joana, james, and owen [whose 1st birthday party is coming up this weekend]. oh i love that owen, and jo and james too of course. :) owen was in his high chair and he started to reach for me and started to cry because i couldn't free him from the chair. if i had been able to stay at the restaurant, it would've been ok to free him, but since i couldn't, he had to stay in the chair, or else he'd never willingly go back in. it was so sad to see him cry a little. but i did feel loved since he wanted me to pick him up and play, though it might have had more to do with getting out of the chair than with me, but i like to think that he recognized me and wanted to play. i felt so bad that i couldn't play and that he had to stay in the chair. in a calm moment, shiv and i made our exit and on the way out, i waved a quick bye to the guys, whom i'd forgotten about the moment i saw owen...sorry guys.

He has risen.

easter seemed to sneak up quickly this year. i don't know that i gave it much thought in the days before, but i did have some time to reflect on sunday. easter marks the time of year when i first became a christian [11 years ago] and when i got baptized [7 years ago]. it's kind of amazing to look back and see how much i've changed, and stayed the same. :)

sunday service was great. we had a slide show and sharing from tim, a dentist from church who had been in stationed in fallujah. people got baptized, lots of people were in attendance - it is easter afterall.

after service, i had a church meeting for the worship team. here's a funny story that might be familiar to you if you've served in a church or fellowship before. a month and a half ago, i was asked if i would be open to participating in the worship ministry and possibly leading on occasion. my response was that i would be open to the idea. i think the worship ministry is changing some things up. so...last week, i get this e-mail about a worship leaders meeting. and i found out that i'm part of a regular rotation of worship leaders and that we'll be forming a vision and purpose for the worship ministry as well as doing a study together. my "sure, i'd be open to the idea" somehow morphed into a "sign me up and commit me to this ministry." but now, it's back to allowing me to sit in on the worship meetings and seeing how things happen and then a choice to be in or out.

after church, a few of us went to this new place on the ave, the green zone, to have tea and egg balls. i had never had an egg ball before - they're like belgian waffles, except it's egg shaped, rather than waffled, and the batter tastes better. the man behind the counter had me point out what i wanted on a menu that had chinese subtitles. i meant to point at a honey milk tea, but i think my finger drifted upwards toward lemon tea, because that's what i got. it was made with real lemons and tasted like lemonade green tea. it was really good and plus, i didn't have the heart to communicate that it was something else i wanted and it just didn't matter that much. and it turned out that everybody else ordered the same drink because it was that good.

he wrote my total on a small slip of paper and slid it across the counter to me. this confirmed my suspicion that he didn't speak english, or at least, not very fluently. it then made me want to figure out how we could make things easier. i suggested to jeanette that she try mandarin, but we saw that mandarin wasn't really working and his accent seemed to have some cantonese to it. so when joyce and wing-onn got there, i asked joyce to try cantonese, which worked. the man was definitely more at ease and in a very short time, we learned that he pretty much only speaks cantonese, he's from vancouver, ca and the shop belongs to his son and he was just filling in for the day to give his son a day off, and the cute posters advertising the egg balls were designed by his son's friend. joyce really wanted one and he said he would ask his son to get one for her for the next time she came by. i just thought it was so great of him to work for his son despite the fact that it might have been tough communicating with customers. it really made my day.

for the evening, i went to my first easter dinner. chris and jason fong's parents invited people to join their family for dinner and it was a lot of fun. there were appetizers and lots and lots of food and dessert, including jello in the shape of eggs. after dinner we played apples to apples and uno. it was just a really great day, for so many reasons.

He has risen indeed.

TV DVD

i got hooked on re-watching dawson's creek on dvd. siobhan and kristie both have a number of seasons on DVD and i came home to shiv watching season 1. after she left, i kept watching and skipped over to season 3, and the next thing i know, it's close to 3am. 3AM people!!! too crazy. and...i just bought season 1 of the pretender. i loved that show.

bad news / good news

friday afternoon, i found a small envelope from columbia teachers college. never a good sign. so, i braced myself for bad news, and there it was.

I regret to inform you... blah blah blah and so on. i was mildly disappointed, but i knew columbia was kind of a reach. twice now columbia has denied me. i'm seeing the pattern for the lack of love from new york. and so, a door was clearly shut.

that evening, a bunch of the girls went out to spazzo's for happy hour to celebrate grace's engagement to the totally awesome joe. we had us some fun :)

today, robert (potential seattle u law student starting fall 2005) and i had lunch at gordito's and then visited the seattle u campus. it was smaller than i expected, and i'd been there twice before. we skipped over the education building since i've seen it and toured the law building, which is pretty swank. when i got back home, another letter was waiting for me from UCLA. and it was another small envelope. i didn't think that boded well for me, but at the urging of kristie and shiv, i ripped it open, and saw the following words:

I am very pleased to inform you...

and with a small envelope, a new door opens. this pretty much seals my future for the next couple of years. this fall, i'm bound for LA. funny, the one place i never wanted to go as an undergrad, california.

hay fever

every spring, my system turns against me and decides to freak out. this year is worse because of all the lovely weather we've been having. and, i have a new allergy reaction to add, coughing and weird throat issues. it feels like i can't breathe in and out as easily, like when you're sick or have asthma. this can in no way be good news. and since my eyes and sinuses are going crazy too, i need it to rain - ASAP and for many, many, many days.

bride and prejudice

i just got back from watching bride and prejudice, gurinder chadha's version of jane austen's pride and prejudice. it was cheesy fun. i loved every minute of it. what's not to love? there's singing, dancing, and a jane austen storyline. i'm so buying this movie on dvd.

as requested...

it feels weird taking a picture of yourself, but i suppose it's not any weirder than running to the mirror every few minutes to check out my own hair. haha. for wendy and chris:



huh. and now seeing the hair in a picture, it doesn't look as short as i thought. oh well.

bad eyes, shorter hair

i had my eyes examined today and sadly, i'm getting more nearsighted. boo.

in totally unrelated news, i cut my hair. i had maybe seven inches or so hacked off. it now falls just below the shoulders. and it's great! i would've gone shorter, but since i'm in a wedding in may, i kept it long enough for a wedding hair-do. i love it. shiv and garrett were laughing because i couldn't stop playing with it and running to the mirror to look at it.

update

i rested earlier, which means i'm feeling a little too awake now. so, i decided to change the look of the blog. wendy said it's very pink. picasso had his blue period and i'm having my pink. and i'm now using the commenting system offered by blogger. bye-bye previously posted comments.

feeling sickly

i am ill. who i caught this cold from i do not know. but they suck. my throat is scratchy and itchy and when i cough, it totally hurts. bah.

at robert's request, i have updated photos that can be viewed here. it's pictures from fall through last weekend. i need to start snapping more photos, but i always seem to forget my camera.