Christmas at home...

There's nothing like spending Christmas- even for a few days- at home. It flew by so quickly. Now I'm back in Baltimore... homesick again like I always get when I come back here... even though I've been living here for 4.5 years. A few things I did when I was home:
- Talked a lot with my brother and my mom. My dad was in Indonesia for a business trip. Thank God he got home safely today.
- Ate a lot of good food. What else is new?
- Played with my dog. He is so cute... and he remembers me. He peed as I was petting him because he got so excited to see me when I first arrived home.
- Made Christmas dinner (roast beef) with my mom and had dinner with my piano teacher's family.
- Watched HERO again, and THE TERMINAL.
- Found great deals at the mall with my mom.
- Played my piano.
- Slept really little because of jetlag... yes a mere 3 hours of time difference can make a whole lot of difference. I woke up everyday at 6am.

Well... that's my extended weekend in brief. Have a good week everyone, where ever you are.

Two more days...

You know it's REALLY cold outside when the water in a water bottle becomes frozen and stays frozen even though the heat in your car has been on for 30 minutes. According to the radio, it was -15 degrees this morning with the wind chill. It was SO cold that it was physically painful just to be outside. I didn't think my car would start. It took four times longer than usual just to start my car. I even passed on all cold foods today- even ice cream.

I've decided... next year, I'm going to do my Christmas shopping online. It's so much easier online. People are not nice at the mall. What ever happened to Christmas? It's sad to me that often its meaning gets lost in the midst of Christmas shopping sprees.

I'm looking forward to this weekend! I get to go home for a few days... I need a break from work. The weather has been helping in some ways... It's been so cold that people haven't been coming in to the office to get seen. I wouldn't... unless I'm really sick.

I started taking calls at the nursery in the local hospital last week. I saw a total of seven babies over a span of 6 days. I guess it's busy at the nursery. Anyway... it's still a wonder to me how God can create a baby from a sincle cell, with every organ, hair, and every cell in their exact place. :) There were really cute babies that made me smiled as I examined them. Sometimes I forget how cute babies can be after seeing 20 sick, crying ones day after day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

This mom brought in her child to the office today with the complaint that everytime she touches his nose, he'd cry. When I shined a light into his nose, there was this black thing stuck inside. It ended up being this (pretty big) black rubber thing that goes over the wheel of his little toy car. It was pretty funny... and a relief for the mom when it was pulled out. The things kids stick in their noses...

Eric and I met up with a few friends up at New York City this past weekend- Steve, Ely, & Karl. They are his friends from home, and my friends from a missions trip to a Taiwan orphanage 5 years ago. I met them all before I met him. It's amazing just thinking how God works. If I didn't go on that missions trip five years ago, I wouldn't have met Steve, which means I probably wouldn't have met Eric. Isn't that interesting and amazing how God brought me on that missions trip? Not only was I blessed from the whole experience reaching out to those children, who would've known I would meet Eric years later?

New York City is a city that is so unique. Everybody walks so fast there. The city is packed with so many people. The lifestyle of city-living is so different than how I live now. It's nice once in awhile to walk around everywhere. It was also nice to have a variety of authentic ethnic restaurants to choose from, and things to do at night. We stopped by for a little bit at the World Trade Center site... It really tugs at your heart... how frail humans are.

One more work day until Thanksgiving! WOOHOO! I get a day off... then I work again on Friday. Looking forward to some time off from work. Happy Thanksgiving!

My Cough

Yesterday at the election polling place, there was a man who stood in front of me reading his newspaper as we were all waiting in line to get our electronic voting cards. As I coughed (with my mouth covered), he said "Why don't you go ahead of me. I don't want you to cough on me." Can you believe that?! I have never heard anyone say something like that before. Then after we got our cards, we had to wait in another line for a voting machine to become available. He happened to be behind me... for a few seconds. As another lady lined up behind him, he said "why don't you go ahead of me"... so that he woudn't catch my germs. So rude. It's not like I was coughing with my mouth wide open and he was in a public place. There are germs floating around everywhere all the time. Anyway... that was my voting experience. What an unfriendly man.

A Tribute to the Yellow Jackets... This is pretty funny. I guess we're not so nerdy at Cal.

Here's the link to an article on ESPN.com- "Football as rocket science"

A Weekend Away...

It was a nice weekend to getaway from the busyness of work here in Maryland (and the cold). We went to a friend's wedding in Atlanta, one of Eric's childhood friends who was also in our small group. I saw a couple of old faces from California (high school & college) at the wedding... It's funny how small the Asian Christian circle is. It's like two degrees. They gave out one of the coolest wedding favors I have ever seen... we got an ice cream scooper with a tag of green tea ice cream recipe on it. Isn't that neat? At the end of the ceremony, that had a gospel choir from their college lead "Amazing Grace". It was really upbeat and different.

Some thoughts from the weekend:
* Everything is so far away in Atlanta. It's a lot bigger than what most people would think of the area. You have to drive for a long time to get from one place to another. Kind of reminds me of LA.

* There are a lot more Chinese people that one would think. They actually have this road called Buford Highway with a bunch of Chinese plazas like Valley in San Gabriel/Monterey Park. They have Ranch 99 there!! We don't even have it here.

* The weather was great! Mid-60's to low-70's. Perfect fall weather.

* Flying on Independence Air for the second time out of Dulles was... um... a bit far of a drive from Baltimore. Thanks Jeanne for the ride and the company!

* I know somebody who turned 30 this weekend!!

* Eric's nephew is really cute. He's almost a replica of Eric and his brother (they both look alike). They all have the same hair. He sat through the entire wedding ceremony without making any noise (so good for a 2 year-old)... ok... except for saying "choo-choo" (like a train) really softly each time before he puts a piece of fortune cookie in his mouth.

* Picking pictures from Eric's parents' albums for the slideshow for our wedding was funny. His brother and him look very similar when they were growing up... so I'd say "pick this," thinking that it's a picture of Eric and his mom or Eric and his dad... but he would say "uh... that's not me. that's my brother." Haha! His nephew even calls them "two daddies!"

* I need to exercise more! *sigh*

* An old friend asked me a thought-provoking question this weekend: What are you excited about?

What are you excited about?

It's Saturday and I'm TIRED. I'm SO tired. I got woken up this morning at 7, and my pager just keeps going off, especially when you're about to fall back to sleep. SO after a couple of attempts, I'm up now. I've finished eating breakfast... Now what? Pray for no sick children and no worried parents this weekend! :)

I'm glad I can amuse a few people with my efforts on Saturday in attempting to watch the Cal vs. USC game. I really DID want to watch the game. I even canceled my Saturday afternoon errand-running hangout with a friend. Ev, O, Matt, and I went to ESPNZone to try to watch the game there since it was not broadcasted here in Maryland (but in New York?! go figure...). We found out that they charged $10 per person per hour... what a rip off! We ended up ordering it and watching it on digital cable from Eric's place. What a true Cal fan!! Haha.. so there... for all of you who think I don't watch football. :)

This made me laugh... I received it from my friend Jeanne.

------------------------------------------------
Memo

To: All Employees

From: Human Resources

CC:

Date: 7/19/2004

Re: Important Message from Human Resources

Dear Staff,

Please be advised that there are new rules and regulations implemented to
raise the efficiency of our company.

ATTIRE:

It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary. If we
see you wearing Adidas sneakers & carrying a Gucci bag, we assume you are
doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise. If you dress
poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy
nicer clothes and therefore you don't need a raise. If you dress in-between,
you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

PERSONAL DAYS:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called
Saturday & Sunday.

LUNCH BREAK:

Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more so that
they can look healthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a
balanced meal to maintain their average figure. Overweight people get 5
minutes for lunch, because that is all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast
and take a diet pill.

SICK DAYS:

We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are
able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

RESTROOM USE:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. There is now a strict
3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm
will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open and
a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be
posted on the company bulletin board under the "Chronic Offenders" category.

SURGERY:

As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should
not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something
removed constitutes a breach of employment.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive
employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns,
complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations,
allegations, accusations, contemplation, consternation and input should be
directed to the Unemployment Offices.

Have a nice day. Human Resources.

It's going to be October soon. It definitely feels like fall is here. Leaves are starting to change color around here. The weather is getting cooler... I had to dig out my long-sleeves today. My little room can only hold so much, so all of my long-sleeves and winter clothes have been sitting in a suitcase in my closet. It's getting darker earlier too... I'm going to miss summer.

There are so much details to planning a wedding. I'm starting to appreciate little details others have put into their weddings. For example, the font for the invitation, how you word certain things in an invitation, or flower arrangements for the church. There are still a lot to be done... It's easy to get overwhelmed and distracted by the details of one day... but really when you think about it, it's only *one* day of your life.

Home was great... as always. Labor Day weekend felt really rushed though. California was actually a lot hotter than Baltimore. What's up with that?! I got great Chinese food all weekend long. For those of you in the Bay Area... these are restaurants to try: (1) Chu-Kang on El Camio Real in Millbrae. It's this hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant with the best Cantonese food at a reasonable price. I recommend their shrimp ball soup, fish juk, their special crabs. (2) Shanghai Gourmet on Main Street in Los Altos. They have really good noodles and rice cakes.

I got to also catch up with some old college friends at Pamela & Andy's house. I still can't believe they're actually "settled" down.

Karen was here with us all of last week. It was fun having her around. She house-sat for us all week long. :) Thanks Karen! We went out to D.C. to finally see the monuments. The weather was great. It wasn't too hot. Last time she was here, we walked two blocks before we turned around back to Baltimore because it was so hot. I'm glad she got to see the monuments this time. As we were taking a walking break sitting on a bench by the reflection pool, we saw this one guy leisurely biking along the reflection pool then falling into the shallow water. He was really far away from us. We couldn't help but laugh. Poor guy. He did get a kiss from his biking campanion. After walking for an afternoon seeing the monuments, Karen's feet got really dirty. It was hilarious when she started wiping her feet with Lysol wipes (kind of like baby wipes, out of a plastic container, but meant for cleaning surfaces) at Eric's while we were watching a football game on TV. Anyway, it's always fun having visitors come. Who's next?

I spent my FIFTH birthday here in Baltimore this past week. I still can't believe it. I came here when i was ** year-old. Now I'm **+5 year-old. Craziness. I still remember my first birthday here. It was only a week or two after I moved here. I only had one friend back then- Nora, whom I met miraculously the summer before we moved out from Mustard Seed Missions. She took me out to Cheesecake Factory and celebrated with me. :) It was so nice of her. She reminded me this past week of our conversation at that dinner... how we were looking forward to what God had in store for us in Baltimore. Indeed He has blessed us in many ways... I'm still counting my blessings.

Randomness & Updates

- Things at work have finally quiet down. It's September and kids are back in school. No more crazy, stressed-out parents rushing in last minute to get school physical forms done. A few tips for all of you future parents:
* Please don't rush in the week before school starts to get school physicals done.
* Diaper rash that has been there for 4 days can wait until the office opens in the morning. It is not an emergency.
* When describing fevers, please don't just say "he felt warm". Take your child's temperature with a thermometer. Fever = 100.4 or higher, 98.8 is not.

- Going home this weekend! Woohoo! I need a dose of red bean pearl milk tea and good Chinese food, along with many other good things at home, like family (including Goofy) and friends. :) Bay Area here I come!

- Wedding planning is well underway. There are more and more things to do now. My current project is invitations, with the help of Cindy. 6.5 months to go...

- Watched "Hero" with Eric this past weekend. It's pretty good. It has a similar feel as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It's very well made.

- The new GLC church plant in downtown starts in October! Can't wait to see what it's going to be like, and to see how God moves.

- Next week, we have a very excited guest. Somebody who's really EXCITED about visiting Baltimore. :)

My thoughts on nursing...

I had an interesting conversation with a foreign-trained physician the other day, and became a bit disturbed from his comments regarding nurses in general. He made comments of nurses' intelligence, and questioned their abilities of obtaining higher degrees. Even though his comments pertained mostly to nurses in his country, I was still taken back by his comments. Having been trained in the discipline of nursing, and currently practicing in the field as a nurse practitioner, I spoke my mind. Anyway, here are my thoughts on nursing...

* Nurses have been trained to think critically, just like in other professions, and are able to problem-solve using a scientific process (trust me... they have made all nursing students nail this one down before graduating from nursing school. I have spent countless weekends as a student working on "care plans" for the patient I was caring for that week... and actually developing and using care plans for individual patients as a staff nurse in the hospital).

* There is a strong push right now for all nurses to be at the minimum bachelors-prepared. Many are also masters-prepared, and we also have a few doctorates.

* Many nurses enter the nursing as their second profession, obtaining a second degree. When I was in nursing school, more than half of my classmates were obtaining their second degrees.

* Nurses work collaboratively, but independently, with other healthcare professionals. Nurses do not "assist" physicians. It's all about team-work in the healthcare setting. Nurses are at patients' bedside longer than most other healthcare professionals on any given day. Therefore, they are able to provide care that is different (not necessarily better or worse, but different) than other healthcare professionals. Proper patient care cannot be provided without the involvement of ALL healthcare team members, not just the physicians.

* Nursing roles range from direct patient care to case management, quality assurance, establishing nursing practice guidelines, and business management. We don't just hang IV bags and bathe patients.

Anyway... these are just some of my opinions on nursing. Wow... maybe my time spent in nursing school was not really a waste of time afterall :p. Have a good week!

Gretchen and I have been wanting to watch girlie movies for awhile... our last one was awhile back with Grace, who for some reason had a craving for peanuts that night. That was funny. The movie we watched last time was *interesting* (I won't tell you the name of it), but let's just say that it was memorable. We ended up watching Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights this past weekend. It was surprisingly pretty good. I needed a dose of a chick-flick. Our next movie will be The Princess Diaries 2. Why is it that girls watch more guy-movies when they're with guys than the other way around? We should have more say in which movies to watch!

It was fun hanging out at Dave's this past Sunday, hearing the latest in everyone's lives. I've realized that my life has become pretty boring. Going to his place is like hanging out at my parents' house. There's always ice cream in the fridge... it's such a treat since O & I banned ice cream at our place awhile back. We have a rule that we can't buy any ice cream. The only time we can have ice cream at our place is when other people bring ice cream over...

Anyway...
We talked about the idea of "home"... I don't know why but I just can't call Baltimore my "home." I still consider the Bay Area as my home. Why is that? I've been here for so long. End of this month will be exactly 4 years! I get homesick whenever I come back from the Bay Area, especially if I'm there for a long time. I wonder if this will ever change... I guess we'll never feel "at home" anywhere, except for that one place.

Things are pretty quiet around here. Work is busy. Everyone is rushing in their kids to get school physicals. Hopefully things will quiet down when the school year starts up again. This is my last month before I have to start being on-call. Boohoohoo!

You know when you really need a break from work when you're introducing yourself by your first name and last name, followed by your title to a new friend. Haha! I did that today with Evelyn's friend who came by our place in the evening. I caught myself after I said my first name and last name, thinking that sounded really strange...I'm in my own kitchen, not in the office!!

I got to rest this weekend... and caught up with a lot of cooking and eating. Eric left to do a rotation in Atlanta for the next few weeks. I'm a little bummed, but I'll be ok. I had a relaxing day yesterday. After exercising at the gym, I went to the farmer's market and got Thai ice tea. While walking to that stall, I picked up some really good-looking tomatoes. They gave me 7 of them for $2. I just wanted only 2 to cook pasta for lunch... so i ended up picking up more stuff to make salsa with. I love farmer's market. It's always so lively. Walking through it just makes you want to eat healthy. For dinner, my friend Soo and I tried a recipe from the magazine Real Simple. We made fish cakes. They're kind of like crab cakes, but made with fish instead. We used this fish called "hake" because the guy at the market recommended it for the recipe. It was SO good. I think it was because the fish was so fresh.

Anyway... I had two visitors in the past month here in Baltimore. This past week, Tim came here for a business trip. Eric and I met him for Korean BBQ. Poor Tim gets no Asian food in Indiana. Makes me feel a little better about Baltimore. Jonathan was here a few weeks back vacationing around D.C. They remind me of good ol' college days... and those long carefree late night talks (with everyone sitting/lying around on the floor) about anything and everything. It's been eight years since I was a freshman! It's so much harder to stay up now. My bedtime keeps getting earlier and earlier.

Weekend in Atlanta...
 
Eric's parents and my parents met for the first time this past weekend in Atlanta. Everyone was very nice to each other. His parents were very hospitable. We spent the entire Saturday together. We went to Stone Mountain, and took the tram up to get a good city view. It's basically this big, gigantic rock sitting east of Atlanta (Atlanta's pretty flat). The park was packed. Then we hit the Coke Museum in downtown. The coolest part of the museum was where they let you sample different Coca Cola brand beverages from around the world. My favorite was the green apple flavored soda from China. There were some really really disgusting drinks. And of course, there was a lot of eating. After dinner, we went over to Eric's brother's house. His nephew looks so much like him... maybe even more than Eric's brother. Anyway, Ethan is a cute 2 year-old. We spent Sunday playing with him and discussing wedding stuff with his mom after my parents flew back.
 
And now I'm back... I think I'm pretty pooped from all the traveling in the past few weekends. I look foward to some rest this weekend.

It was a good day at work today. I went out to lunch and ate a real meal, PLUS I finished work today at 4pm today... probably *THE* earliest I've ever left work since I started working there not too long ago. I think it was because of the heavy rain we got this afternoon. Nobody wanted to come in to get seen. So to avoid driving in the storm, I went to the mall for an hour. There's some good sales going on right now.

I had a pretty good 4th of July weekend. I went to Ocean City with a couple of friends. Ocean City is like the vacation get-away town around here. A lot of the locals will go there for vacation in the summer time. It's basically a city with miles of beach, with miles of boardwalk along the beach. There are a lot of teeny-boppers. They make me feel old. Besides enjoying the Atlantic ocean, I got to ride roller coasters! I haven't done that probably since high school. It was so much fun screaming on the rides. I had to let it all out :). Sometimes it just feels good to scream... same with crying.

On the 4th, I watched fireworks from a friend's rooftop near downtown. It was great. The weather was nice. It had just stopped raining. It was a nice summer night with fireworks, watermelon, and good company.

I ALMOST got into a car accident over the long weekend. I don't think I've ever came close to another car. I was driving on the outer right lane of the beltway. As I came close to an exit (not mine), this car tried to make that exit by changing a couple of lanes at one time. I guess she didn't see me or something... and came within INCHES of hitting me in the hood. I braked and lost control for a few seconds (which seemed forever), skidded, and swirved to the right. Thank goodness I somehow ended up on the exit ramp, exiting the beltway. She pulled up next to me at the stoplight and apologized. That was scary... but I KNEW God was watching over me... because it really seemed like she was going to hit me... and yet, nothing bad happened to anyone. *Whew*.

It's a short week this week!! Two more work days to go before the weekend comes. Woohoo!

We've moved!

The funny thing is... our new place looks EXACTLY like our old place (even where the shelves and cabinets are)... except we have an extra little den, which is now my room. I've downsized from a huge masters bedroom to a little room now. It's nice and cozy. It took a total of 3 hours to move down the block with 8 people. We're now on the third floor. It was painful moving up and down those stairs carrying boxes in the heat and humidity. We also met our downstairs neighbor... who has already warned us not to run in our apartment, nor up and down the stairs (and not to park in the firelane right outside of our buidling). We have a new roomate now... Welcome, Evelyn, to Baltimore... the city that just kind of sucks you in, like a blackhole. :) I can't believe I've been here for 4 years.

Weekend in SoCal:

I got to spent the past weekend in sunny California. Woohoo!! My bro graduated from college. It was a fun graduation. I miss UC graduations. It's almost like going to a sporting event. I stood up and cheered for him as loud as I could when his name was called... my parents followed too. It was funny when my dad had to apologize to the guy in front of him because he was so loud. Haha!

After his graduation lunch, we headed off to Temple City. There are so many wedding boutiques down there... like 20-30 in a 2-3 mile stretch. I ordered my dress... :) and also looked at a few bridesmaids' dresses. 9 more months to go... I got to hangout with Alice & Tomio for a little bit over shaved ice. They happened to be in LA too. Lucky them... they're in Mexico right now for vacation. I want a vacation!

Food in LA... yum. I got my yummy Mexican food and Chinese food. I miss spending 3 bucks for a burrito (instead of 10 out here). *sigh* I miss California.

Today a cicada larva fell on me as I was walking to my car from my apartment. I saw it because it felt on my black shirt (it's white). EWW!!! SO GROSS! It's raining cicada larvae around here.

Exerpt from Grace Awakening, by Charles Swindoll:

"Don't give me your personal list of do's and don'ts to live by! And you can count on this: I will never give you my personal list of do's and don'ts to follow! Being free means you have no reason whatsoever to agree with my personal list; nor should you slander me because it isn't exactly like yours. That is one of the ways Christians can live in harmony. It is called living by grace... and it is the only way to fly" (p. 136).

Wow.

Here's another exerpt that I find very inspiring:

"Who wrote the 'let's compare' rulebook? Will you please show me from Scripture where God is pleased with such negative attiudes? Why can't a person be spiritual and enjoy expressions of music or art totally different from those you like? Who says it is carnal to have nice things or enjoy a few extravagant luxuries, especially if one's generosity is also extravagant? Why can't people drive any car they can afford or vacation anywhere they please or live in whatever size home they enjoy or wear whatever clothing they prefer? Just because you or I can't or don't choose to or would prefer not to doesn't mean others can't or shouldn't. Comparison fuels the fire of envy within people. It prompts the tendency to judge... it makes us prejudiced people. The worst part of all is that it nullifies grace. It was never God's intention for all His children to look alike or embrace identical lifestyles. Look at the natural world He created. What variety! The buzzard and the butterly... the dog and the deer... the zinnia and the orchid... the wriggling minnow and the sleek shark" (p. 159-160).

Isn't it funny how we often fall into the trap of legalism? We need to be reminded everyday of the liberty that God's grace provides for us.

It's been a bit crazy here for the past few weeks...

On the not-so-fun side
- My computer got sick and nearly died on me. It's already a bit slow, and it nearly got choked by those adwares and maybe a virus or two. Thankfully, my coworker's roomate is computer-saavy and helped fixed it yesterday. It *only* took 6 hours. More appreciation to all of you who work with computers. There's so much waiting time while you're fixing a computer it.

- My car... yes... I think my car has hit that point where I'm beginning to have to replace parts here and there. It's getting expensive.

- Cicadas are EVERYWHERE. It's been 2 weeks now and I heard it's not even peak season yet. There are some areas where it's deafening. They can be so loud. I think I must have hit hundreds of them driving on the freeway. They kind of just fly into your windshield, sometimes even when you're stopped at a light. I heard in 2 weeks when the females lay eggs in the trees, the larvae are going to fall down from the trees (into the soil)... Yuck! No standing under trees then, or larvae will fall into my hair.

On the fun side
- I'm in between switching jobs right now. I'll be working full-time at another private pediatric practice nearby in about a week. Woohoo! Thank God how everything is working out. I'm still trying to get over the fact that I won't get those long vacations I used to get when I was in school. What do you mean I only have 2 weeks off a year?! However, I am enjoying not having to write papers or study after I get home from work.

- I've officially graduated last week!! They lined us up alphabetically before the ceremony, and told us that the seats for us had our names on them alphabetically. As we're walking into the auditorium to our section of the seats, our names were all out of order. It took some scrambling for all of us to sit down. They finally just told us to sit down. I felt bad for the musicians. They must have played "Pomp & Circumstance" for 20 minutes for 200 students to walk into the auditorium and find their seats. The funniest was when they called the first student with the last name of "A". She stood up from the student section and was in the middle of a row. This kind of summed up my experience in grad school. Haha!

- My parents flew out last week for my graduation. It was really nice and fun to hang out with them here. As always, we ate a lot. I think Eric is still shocked at how much we eat (Ok... just my dad and I... not my mom). My mom cooked SO much food to fill my fridge that I didn't even have to cook this week at all. I think it's enough to last a few months. We went to DC and saw the new WWII Memorial, and attempted to walk to the Capitol in humid, 90-degree temperature. We never made it. It was too hot.

On the funny side
A few weekends back, my friend Cindy and I saw a pop-up ad of a sample sale for wedding stuff at Vera Wang's webise, and on it said it was at "Pennsylvania Pavillion, near Penn Hotel". So somehow we thought it was in Philadelphia, which isn't far from here. So we drove there bright and early on that day with mapquest directions. We got there and there was no Penn hotel nor Pennsylvania Pavillion. We called Olivia and she googled "Pennsylvania Pavillion" and it turned out that it was in New York City. We were in the wrong state. It was pretty funny. We ended up going to Chinatown bright and early and got some yummy food instead.

It's funny how here they would close schools not only for snow, but for heat, too. The city has shut down some schools this week due to the heat wave. Some of the air conditioners in schools haven't been working properly. Unfortunately, our school didn't get shutdown today. We haven't had any students set fires this week either. I guess it's too hot for everyone to stand outside in the humidity. Thank goodness. Everyday I go to work prepared to stand outside for some part of my day. I've been using my sunscreen everyday. :) I just read an article about sun exposure. Do you know how sunblock and sunscreen are different from each other? Sunblock reflect sun's rays, while sunscreen absorb sun's rays. I also learned that anything above SPF 30 provides little additional benefit. Interesting facts, huh?

I was flattered at work today. A two year-old boy told me that I'm his best friend. :)

It's been awhile since my last post. I got this email thing from my friend Cindy. Read this when you get bored... especially for those of you who have computers at work... (lucky!):

1. What time do you get up? 8:10am on Mondays & Tuesdays, 7:30am Wednesdays to Fridays

2. If you could eat lunch with one person, who would it be? Any friend who I haven't talked to in a long time

3. Gold or silver? Silver

4. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? "Kill Bill 2"

5. What is your favorite TV show? Friends and The Bachelor

6. What did you have for breakfast? Black cherry yogurt

7. Who would you hate to be stuck in a room with? Someone who's not nice

8. What/who inspires you? Friends who are on fire for God, kids who grow up in the inner-city, Matt Redman's worship songs

9. What is your middle name? Ask me :)

10. Beach, City or Country? Beach!!

11. Favorite ice cream? Cookies and cream

12. Butter, plain or salted popcorn? Butter with no salt.

13. Favorite color? Currently?- Pink

14. What kind of car do you drive? Volvo

15. Favorite sandwich? Roast beef on french baguette

16. What characteristic do you despise? People who intentionally do harm to others

17. Favorite flower? White or pink orchids

18. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Italy, SE Asian Islands, China, Hawaii

19. What color is your bathroom? White

20. Favorite brand of clothing? Benneton, Ann Taylor, The Gap.

21. Where would you retire to? I don't know. I haven't thought that far yet... one step at a time.

22. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

23. What did you do for your last birthday? Celebrated my birthday with friends at Ocean City. They took me out to go go-carting. Haha! That was fun. I think I was always the slowest driver on the track. Another friend took me to Cheesecake Factory on my actual birthday, and got a nice dinner at Roy's with Eric.

24. Where were you born? Taiwan

25. Favorite sport to watch? hmm... when Cal football plays... that's about it.

26. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? I have no idea.

27. Person you expect to send it back first? No clue.

28. What fabric detergent do you use? Tide

29. Coke or Pepsi? Diet coke

30. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night! But once in awhile it's nice to wake up early in the morning.

31.What is your shoe size? 6.5

32. Do you have any pets? No. But does Goofy count? He's really cute.

It's nice to be able to hang around the apartment during the day this week. I got to catch up on my daytime tv shows, do some readings, catch up with friends, play some speed scrabble, and cook. I love it! I am feeling refreshed to begin my work week next week. :) It's funny how a few days of rest can make such a big difference in your spirit.

We got a pleasant package in the mail yesterday. Jean sent us a box of Easter treats. She makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies. :) Thanks Jean! She's also an aunt now. Oh yah... and Amy and Mike are engaged too (after dating for almost TEN years)! There have already been lots of things happening this year and it's only April.

Last week when I was organizing things in my little office at work, I came across to UCB's "Wellness Letter" presenting "Healthy Eating." I don't know when it was printed, but it talked about chocolate... stating that there's an ongoing study of exercise showing evidence that men who eat chocolate in moderation (1-3 bars a month) live longer than those who don't eat chocolate. They don't know why. Interesting, huh? I guess moderation is the key. We lost that word somewhere in America, as obesity is becoming more and more of a health issue.

I love how I don't have to study or write papers on weekends now. It's great. I guess this is one of the benefits of my new working life. What's even better is that I get 3 days off this week!! Woohoo! It's spring break for the kids.

I got to catch up with Grace over dinner this past Friday night. She always makes me laugh everytime we hang out and is a very encouraging sister. This weekend was a "food finds" type of weekend. Eric and I went to eat at Chipotle. They opened one at Inner Harbor. It was pretty good... the portion was HUGE though. Eating burritos always reminds me of California. On Saturday night, I drove down to Rockville to meet Gretchen for dinner. She's down there for a conference. We went to try out a new Taiwanese restaurant down there. The restaurant was surprisingly clean, not your typical dirty-hole-in-the-wall Taiwanese eatery. Now I have to go to Rockville even more often. It was fun catching up with her as well. She's my chick-flick-movie-watching buddy, and my exercise-motivator.

Congrats to the Yellow Jackets for yesterday's game! Somebody's very happy. :p

Why is it so COLD in April? It was in the forties today, or maybe even thirties with the wind chill. It's not so cool having to wear a winter coat in April. I hope it gets warmer!!

Thursday Randomness

* Today was my first day at the school with no fire alarm going off.

* My hand hurts from writing so much at work. I wish they have computers.

* I started exercising again this week! I think I can manage exercising into my new schedule.

* Cell group potluck tonight turned out to be a meat-fest: hot wings, honey bbq wings, chunnie's chicken, Popye's chicken, chicken pot pie, leonard's spicy goat stew, ribs. We had a huge turn-out. It's amazing how food can bring people together.

* I found a Chinese restaurant close to DC with pretty decent dimsum and a Jamba Juice store close to it. There is hope for good food around here. :)

* They ran out of my favorite frozen udon at the supermarket :(

* The best hand moisturizer that I've found is actually vaseline.

* I need a haircut! The next available appointment is next Saturday... I guess now I have to wait like everyone else for the weekend to come to do this type of things. It's times like this that I miss being a student- it's much easier to run errands. There is no need drive in rush hour traffic to get to places and fight the crowd at the supermarket on weekends so that you can make lunch to bring to work for the week. Ai-yah.

* Tomorrow is Friday!!

I've completed my first 40-hour work week! Whew! I don't know how you guys all do it. I'm exhausted. Now I can really understand how people look forward to Friday and the weekend. I think I need a few more weeks to get into the swing of things, especially having a life after work.

Working at the private practice has been busy. They're scheduling patients like crazy now that they have a second person to see the patients. It's a strange feeling that I'm not a student anymore. On my second day, the physician I work had to step out for the morning, and left me alone to see all of the kids. Thankfully, the kids I seen were not all too sick.

Working at the high school has been... um... interesting. I like it for the most part. It's a nice variation to my work week since my other job keeps me on my feet all day with hardly no time for lunch. This one is more slow-paced, and I can take as much time as I want with each student. As far as the setting of the school, let's just say I didn't know the city's that big. I've never driven through certain parts of the city in my 3.5 years here until this week. It's a pretty rough inner-city high school, "militant," as one of my coworkers described. On my first day, I was told not to wander around the school by myself. In my 3 work days this week, we've had to evacuate the school 5 times becuase of fires. Let me repeat, FIRES, not fire drills. Yesterday, the fire alarm went off 3 times in 1.5 hours. Craziness. I guess some students just don't like their classes or something... so they keep setting fire in the school. Aside from all of this, working with these kids have been very insightful and eye-opening. I'm learning so much about their lives... it's very humbling.

YAY! It's the WEEKEND!!!

Yay! I PASSED!

Now I have 3 more days 'till I officially begin working... Happy Friday!

I took my exam last Thursday. My cell group got to watch The Passion of the Christ that night. It was difficult to sit through parts of it. Even though the movie depicted Jesus's death as that gruesome, no one can really say for sure if the movie was 100% accurate or not. But the possibility of Jesus's death being worse than how it was depicted in the movie makes me thank God more... Can you imagine putting your own son through a death like that in order to redeem people of their sins? He really really loves us. No denial of that.

On Saturday night, I got an awesome surprise- the best ever! If you want the details, email me or call me. :)

Nine more days left until my exam... I'll write more after i'm done.

Weekend in LA...

*I visited my grandma in Arcadia on Friday night with my brother. I haven't seen her in two years. She showed me pictures from her 80th year-old birthday party and from her most recent trip to Taiwan, along with explanations of who each person is in each pictures. Afterwards, we grabbed a late dinner in San Gabriel. Food in LA is so cheap! My brother ordered a bowl of this Chinese noodle for 99 cents.

*Saturday morning began with an early morning massage request from Karen, and Karen and Amy giggling in my bed at the hotel as they recounted their conversation with Alice about citrus fruits (see Karen's blog). Then we spent our morning hanging out with Reni, Jean, Alice, Andrea, Mike, and Maurice.

*Byron and Maria's wedding in the afternoon was beautiful. They looked so calm and happy. The reception was fun, too, hearing stories from their families of them and watching an entertaining skit describing how they got together.

*Joyce hung out with us on Saturday night, updating us with her life in LA. It's always so funny hearing her talk and tell her stories. Nobody can do it the way she does it. Only Joyce. I stayed with her on Sunday night and it was good catching up with her. I'm so proud and happy for her, that she's doing what she enjoys.

*Eric was also in LA this past weekend. It was good seeing him again since I've been away for 6 weeks now. We got to catch up with a friend who lived in Baltimore. He showed us around The Grove and Farmer's Market. We ate at Versailles, this Cuban restaurant in LA. It was good, but I think Miami has better Cuban food.

*My brother was kind enough to lend me his car to drive for the past few days. Just imagine me driving a lowered car around LA... I did it without a single scratch to his car! Woohoo! I stayed with him on Monday night. It was good seeing where he lives. He was kind enough to also give me his bed- with clean linens. :)

Now I come back to the reality of studying for my exam...

O and I got to hang out with some of the younger church moms (and their kids) the other day. They are in a completely different world than us, one of which we cannot comprehend at this point in time. They became very interested in sharing their pearls of wisdom with us in relationships, childbirth, and raising kids. I must say, some of what they shared we didn't even learn in nursing school. It was fun and good hearing them talk about their lives and relationships with their husbands changed after marriage and now with kids. For example, they say to never tell them to have another kid until after you have as many kids as they do... Here's an email forward Christina read to everyone. While all of the moms agreed in one voice, O and I got our bubbles bursted:

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy

SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and crackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

This past Christmas vacation will be one that I will never forget. An originally planned one-week family vacation across the ocean turned into a three-day vacation at local a 7-star hotel (Stanford Hospital), equipped with around-the-clock room service and three-meals provided for. My family is overwhelmed by God's provision and mercy. We are grateful for his kindness in answering our prayers, and providing us with so much support from our friends and family. My mom is doing well at home now. Words cannot express the things that we have learned and experienced in the past few weeks.

However, I must say that I had a good time hanging out at the hospital with my dad. I taught him how to recognize who's who by their coats and uniforms. In two days, he was able to recognize who's a phlebotomist, who's a resident, and who's a nurse. He shared with me of stories from his childhood and my grandpa. We ate really gross food in the cafeteria. I guess all hospital cafeteria foods are the same everywhere. However, there is this cool Dreyer's ice cream machine. It's like a soft-serve machine, but the consistency is like ice cream. Guess what I ate everyday there?!

Now I am cramming for my certification exam everyday at Border's. There are so many high school kids who go there after school. I don't remember hanging out at cafe's in high school, or even studying with my friends at a place like that. We would just study at someone's house. High school culture now seems so different than my high school days. Sometimes I even see kids studying at Tapioca Express when I go get my red bean tapioca milk tea. I don't think you can get any work done there. The music is so loud, and you see everyone you know there. I think I'm getting old...

Blessed Be Your Name
Written by Beth Redman & Matt Redman

Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me
When the world's "all as it should be"
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

© 2002 Kingsway's Thankyou Music