this vacation concept is a keeper

oh man, i don't know what i was doing all this time spending my vacation days on tournaments, getting hospitalized, and coming back all stressed out. i could sure get used to this vacation thing.

in short, we've been in thailand for about 4 days, and it's been a whirlwind of food (khao gin gai is my new favorite), family (alan has A LOT of family. they all seem to drink from the fountain of youth because they all look and act 10 yrs younger than they actually are) and fun stuff to do.

the highlight so far was the gibbon ziplining adventure in chonburi ... definitely the scariest and coolest thing ever. would recommend it to anyone who has control issues ... haha bc there's nothing you can do when you're thrown off a 50 m platform and soaring through the jungle on a zipline. probably good that i didn't look into it too closely with respect to my fear of heights before signing up. haha.

rent-a-child

early on in our relationship, al was overwhelmed by the love of ... my nieces and nephews. it was actually a pretty good litmus test as to whether he was a keeper ... kids can be good at sniffing out character.

in fact, i think the first notable instance was the first night he stayed over at my cousin's place - i woke up in the morning and went downstairs to the guest room to find him hanging with syd. now the kids are all great: friendly, affectionate, outgoing, and generally just used to being around a lot of people - but of the 3, syd is the hardest to crack. sam and i-man, they're kind of the same ... sam is super friendly and i-man is so doggone lovable and dispenses hugs indiscriminately. but syd - she's much more picky about who she warms up to, and she has a definite circle of ins and outs.

so the guest room downstairs has a tv mounted in the corner, and that's where the kids generally watch their saturday morning cartoons. apparently that day syd went in to find someone sleeping in that bed. al rolled over and sees her in front of him and says good morning. she then proceeds to run over and give him a big hug saying "i missed you!"

according to him, he melted. (haha. when he told me i was like...dude, did you just say "i melted??")

i love the kids and the kids love me ... but as time went on i would find that they loved him more. seriously, chopped liver over here. one time i decided to put it to the test. we came in the door at the same time, and i-man was in the computer room. i made sure to separate myself from al, maybe a few feet apart, and sure enough, when issac came running over to hug hello, he made a beeline straight to alan.

as time went on, we grew to have lots of good times with the kids, frequently getting mistaken for their parents. i'd almost always get smiles when taking issac grocery shopping and having ridiculous conversations with him, that people would comment on multiple occasions "your son is so cute!" and then i'd reply "thanks, he's not mine!"

one night, after some particularly cute incident, we started joking around that the chongs should start a rent-a-child program for couples who are having cold feet about having kids. the idea being that their kids are so endearing that you could take the most committment phobe curmudgeonly dude - and he'd buck up and start giving hugs and pony rides.

so here we are, the poster parents for the program:



as family, i guess you could say we get free rentals. or, uh, i guess you can call it free babysitting for the parents. =)

revenge of the claw

well, with surgery #4 coming 'round the corner ... i found this picture that someone took of me and scott this past summer. i had wanted to frame it for our hand surgeon for christmas, but just got my hands on it today. whoops. maybe later in the year... scott crushed his finger in a printing press maybe 4 years ago and dr. r had to emergency put his bone back together. yeah, it was pretty crazy. (i remember when maryann called me and i was like ... he did what?!?)

except then i became bff with dr. r after "the claw" (when he reconstructed my smashed up hand and nailed me up), "the claw returns" (popped the nails out), "the claw - the threequel" (lopped off the scar and cleaned out the scar tissue). seriously, orthopaedic surgery is like sterlized carpentry, it's really quite disturbing.

despite the fact that the claw is still ... a claw. this picture gives me a little hope that scott and i can still compete and look decent despite the injuries. well, his wasn't that big a deal in the end - for how badly he smashed the tip of his finger, you'd never be able to tell. that dr. r...miracle worker, he is.

i've had enough. this hand has been smashed, pulled, stretched, nailed, unnailed, scraped, sawn, cut, stitched, injected ... please God, can you just heal it? pretty please? with sugar on top? and molasses on the side?

as bummed as i was about this cyst, and as annoyed as i am that it keeps growing and bugging me ... i'm hoping that surgery #4 (aka "revenge of the claw") will heal it once and for all.

ちょっとできますよ。。。

日本語わちょっと難しいですねえ。。。

ひらがな尾書いていますけど。。。ひらがな尾書いてません。。。露マジ尾かいています。

ok so seriously - i feel like i'm cheating writing all this japanese because it looks like i know what i'm doing when in reality - not so much. i just discovered that in order to type in japanese, all you have to do is type in romaji (the english romanization of the japanese pronunciations) and the computer does it for you. what the heck?? eesh after all that practice getting good at typing in korean, and the japanese give me a cheating way.

the sheer gluttony that comes from biz trips is astounding. i wish i had brought some running shoes because i feel downright slothful. and perhaps i'm too simple at heart, but after a week of fancy meals which probably cost on the order of $200+ per head ... i'd be happy to have a bowl of noodles by myself and not have to have the same conversations over and over again. not that i disliked any of the people we met with ... just the formality of it all and the extension of "work" into lunches and dinners was just draining.

other than finally finally understanding what the heck we're doing (i swear, i need a whiteboard to understand things. i'm going to ask if i can order one and install it in my cube) japan came with some interesting observations.

-my boss thinks i'm really weird for eating curry for breakfast. i love the hotel breakfast in hitachi city ... they have a western and japanese spread, of which i totally go for salad, curry, miso soup, and various fishes and picked vegetables in the morning. why on earth would i eat runny scrambled eggs and cereal? but seriously, i could eat that curry every day for breakfast for the rest of my life. maybe with a little kimchi...

-japanese drugs - there was a commercial last night for what i assume was cold medicine ... or magical superpowers. it's kind of entertaining watching a commercial where you don't have a clue what they're talking about.

-twin beds in hotels? seriously?? my boss's feet must stick over the ends. what am i supposed to do with 2 twin beds? i actually stole the covers from the second bed because i was cold one of the nights ... i haven't slept in a twin bed since college.

-japanese toilet technology is beyond impressive. except now I want heated toilet seats at home...seriously.

-there are bikes everywhere - without locks on them. apparently theft is not a problem here

-food is less appetizing when its head is chopped off and put on the plate for presentation. i swear that fish was looking at me, and its head was the size of a small child's head.

-having a language barrier with the top researcher has resulted in a lot of drawing on the white board. move over english - math is the real universal language. except no one could draw the vectors straight enough that i could REALLY understand where exactly they were getting the sine equation from but...eh, i got the gist. even that was more than i thought i'd follow. sometimes it's depressing to realize just how much knowledge you've lost over the years.

-fake competancy is...fake. so between rosetta stone, 3 semesters in college, and this being my third trip to japan - i've developed some competancy at basic phrases, numbers, etc. it's really quite pathetic. but now i feel confident enough to try them out, at least at restaurants and while shopping. the problem is, when you're good at faking the beginnings of conversations...people start talking fast and having real conversations with you. and then you have to admit that you're lost and ask if they speak english. fail.

-i haven't slept more than 4 hours straight in a week. i hope this corrects itself when i get home...

year in review

revisiting the status of new year's resolutions for 2010:

1) return to the state of fitness i was in before i broke my hand (aka "return of the claw")

THIS HAS BEEN PRETTY BAD. MY LACK OF ATHLETICISM, STAMINA, AND THE SHEER FATNESS HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING FOR MOST OF THIS YEAR. THOUGH I GUESS THE CLAW IS STILL HOLDING ME BACK. I PARTIALLY BLAME ALAN, SINCE HE HAS NOW REPLACED MY PREVIOUS BOYFRIEND, TAEKWONDO. (though to be fair, he treats me much better)

2) apply for (and if ambitious, take) my PE licensing exam

NO MOTIVATION WHATSOEVER. THOUGH I DID GET PROMOTED THIS YEAR SO TECHNICALLY I HAVE TO DO THIS BEFORE I CAN GET PROMOTED AGAIN ANYTIME IN THE FUTURE SINCE LEVEL 5'S HAVE TO HAVE A PE. YOU'D THINK THAT'D BE MOTIVATION...

3) keep all of my electronic devices. in recent history, i've managed to lose or have stolen: 2 phones, 1 camera, 1 ipod, 1 blackberry. very bad track record.

I CAN'T FIND MY SHUFFLE, BUT OTHERWISE I THINK EVERYTHING IS ACCOUNTED FOR.

4) finish my movie

DEFINITELY DROPPED THE BALL ON THIS ONE. DOH.

5) substantially outline/write draft of my book

SERIOUSLY DROPPED THE BALL HERE TOO.

6) learn how to put on my own makeup

THIS I'VE ACTUALLY DONE ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS ... WELL, ENOUGH TO NOT HAVE TO CALL SOMEONE AND HAVE THEM DO IT FOR ME BEFORE A WEDDING. I'M STILL WARY OF PUTTING SO MANY THINGS CLOSE TO MY EYEBALLS, AND NOT BEING ABLE TO RUB MY EYES FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME...EH BUT YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.

7) learn how to play guitar

FAIL. WILL HAVE TO PUT BACK ON THE LIST.

8) pick the violin and piano back up, especially while i'm living with the chongs. play gwinston's canon with some degree of fluidity.

I PRACTICED VIOLIN FOR A GOOD MONTH OR SO IN PREPARATION FOR AN ORCHESTRA AUDITION. AND THEN I WENT AND PLAYED SO HORRIBLY IT WAS BEYOND EMBARASSING. ESPECIALLY SINCE I HAD TO AUDITION ON STAGE IN FRONT OF LIKE, 20 PEOPLE. DIDN'T HELP THAT THE WOMAN WHO WENT BEFORE ME WAS FREAKING AMAZING. IT WAS SAD. I WAS PRETTY BUMMED ABOUT BEING REJECTED UNTIL THE FALL SEMESTER HIT ME FULL BLAST AND I WAS DROWNING UNDER EVERYTHING ELSE AND HAD NO TIME TO BREATHE. THEN I WAS THANKFUL THAT AT LEAST THAT DECISION HAD BEEN MADE FOR ME.

9) prep and give the seminar series on inductive bible study

THIS ONE WAS ALMOST DONE, THOUGH I NEVER REALLY GOT THE GREEN LIGHT FROM CHURCH TO DO IT. BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, FILLED MY SCHEDULE WITH OTHER THINGS SO I GUESS THIS WILL GET PUSHED TO LATER. THOUGH AL DID MENTION THAT IF I BECAME A MEMBER AT HIS CHURCH I'D BE WELCOME TO TEACH SUCH A SEMINAR. HRMM...

10) go on a blind date (fully anticipating this to be disastrous)

WELL DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU CALL BLIND, IT WAS, AS ANTICIPATED, DISASTROUS. (CAR TOWED, ALL THAT). THOUGH IT WAS ALSO EVENTUALLY WONDERFUL. SO I GUESS EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T CHECK OFF MUCH ON THIS LIST ... I GOT THE MOST IMPT ONE. IRONICALLY, THIS RESOLUTION WAS INITIALLY TO BE DATING, BUT I THOUGHT THAT WAS TOO AMBITIOUS SO I SCALED IT DOWN TO GOING ON A BLIND DATE. CHECK AND CHECK.

11) take a road trip

I'M NOT SURE WHAT COUNTS AS A ROAD TRIP. I DID MAKE A FEW TRIPS TO BOSTON, AND ONE TO CT. THOUGH I WAS REALLY THINKING OF SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF DC OR MAINE. NOT SURE WHETHER TO GIVE CREDIT FOR THIS ONE...

12) go on a real vacation (ie. not for tournament purposes)

THAILAND, HERE WE COME! NO ATHLETIC ACTIVITY UNLESS I FEEL LIKE IT. SOUNDS GLORIOUS.

13) go out more (try to do something social at least once a week - as in a dinner or event that is not for explicit church or organizational purposes. frivolous and expendable only.)

THIS LASTED FOR AWHILE, AND THEN I STARTED DATING AND OUR SCHEDULES BECAME SO FULL THAT NOW WE JUST WANT TO BE COUCH POTATOES MOST OF THE TIME. WHICH WAS REALLY WHAT I WAS LIKE BEFORE. I JUST FORCED MYSELF TO GO OUT SO THAT I WOULD MEET PEOPLE.

14) NOT end up in the ER

TECHNICALLY I DID NOT END UP IN THE ER. THOUGH I DID HAVE SURGERY THIS YEAR, AND WILL HAVE ANOTHER ONE NEXT YEAR (THEREBY ALREADY BREAKING MY RESOLUTION #1 FOR 2011, WHICH WAS "DO NOT GET HOSPITALIZED") BOO...


all in all - not bad. maybe 50% or so, but more progress than previous years. will have to be more specific for next year...

i came to dance, dance, dance, dance...

yes i happen to be a glutton for pop music, but that song dynamitejust puts me in a good mood.

al and i came to an interesting realization last week. for context, he works for some ny financial risk management company, and like any other finance company in the city, there's a fancy schmancy holiday party at the end of the year. (he's not in finance, btw, he's a programmer). so being a dude, he was super excited about this party and the prospect that it was an excuse to make me dress up, wear impractical shoes that would make me want to chop my feet off, and throw some makeup on my face, etc.

so like the good gf i should be, i promised to go the 9 yards, which i must admit i despise less and less as time goes on. so we get to the venue and find that it's fancy of all fancies. (we immediately took a bet at how much it would cost per head to have a wedding reception there. $400, he hit it on the nose.) two floors, two open bars, cocktails, buffets, deejays, dance floor ... it was a wedding without the wedding.

his only wish was that i got all decked out to wow his coworkers, though really i think he just wanted me to wow him. not so hard when my general apparel consists of athletic wear or jeans. (keep the expectations low, people!) anyways, so i met his coworkers and their wives, who were pretty cool ... we ate a crazy amount of food which was delicious. and then we look over to this hubbub of people in plastic shades, epilepsy-inducing fake ipods that blinked fluorescent colors, and glow bracelets on the dance floor.

now, neither al nor i are dancers. i think up until now we were both the type to prefer to sit on the sides at weddings and generally avoiding dancing at all costs. at least, i was. i secretly don't mind, and perhaps sometimes enjoy dancing - but only by myself. in public, only at weddings of college friends. otherwise ... just generally not a fan. i was notorious at remnant for being the girl who wouldn't dance - though honestly much of that was induced by the fact that people labelled me as such. i don't mind dancing - i just don't like people watching me dance.

al has some similar sentiments, and though i find it amusing/endearing when he dances around my apt sometimes just to make me laugh (um, it looks normal, i don't see why he's self-conscious) ... apparently it's not his thing in public.

so i'm not sure what compelled me, maybe it was his coworker and his wife who got out there and looked like they were having fun - or the fact that there were old people out there (drunk) and clearly we couldn't look any more foolish than they ... or the fact that unlike him, i knew no one at this party and therefore had no shame. but i dragged him out to go dance with me. (one advantage of the impracticalities of dressing up is that i could probably ask him for anything. huh. i'll have to remember that.)

much to our surprise - it was really fun. somewhere in the course of the night he commented that dancing is actually fun when you have someone to dance with.

huh. i guess that's what it was. perhaps that's why i didn't like dancing before - because inevitably it gets awkward if you don't have a partner. you either have to make new friends with strangers, or hang out in a group (forming the inevitable circle) or something. in any event, we had a good time.

my feet paid for it afterwards, but he's a champion foot massager. i got lucky on that one.

the prom picture:



glad i finally got some use out of that dress. bought it on sale a few years ago and thought it looked nice and maybe i'd have an occasion to wear it one day. i think these are the only times al approves of my habit of buying things i don't need just because i found a fabulous deal. but rest assured - it was one fabulous deal.

don't eat the sheep

i love iv. i find it almost laughable when churches knock on the parachurch, because for the most part, it's like a smartcar telling an suv how to go faster.

one thing i realized, having been a product of iv, is that i took a lot of the leadership and staff training for granted. or, more accurately, i assumed that these things were normal, and that every organization has them available and effectively implemented for their staff.

i remember being so supremely annoyed and discouraged at fundraising while i was on staff - and having to meet looming deadlines in order to stay on campus and work with the students. (if you didn't meet your goals, you were kicked off campus and supposed to use that time to fundraise, to get yourself back to work). i thought it was so silly at the time - forcing me to raise money instead of spending my time with the students, which was what i was there and called to do.

in hindsight, i see the value of forcing staff to get their finances in order and take care of themselves before they focus on taking care of others. i guess it's something that's frequently lost in ministry, and something that's crucially important. with all the needs-based situations that come up - and the needy people everywhere - the bleeding heart will do just that: bleed itself dry.

i remember going over the "rules" of staff that year i jumped on board ... and someone (i think sly) told me one sort of facetiously. "the #1 rule of being a shepherd: don't eat the sheep".

i laughed - because it was funny - and as a female it was less of a risk, but that rule was put in place for a reason. we as staff - despite being perhaps just out of school ourselves - were called to shepherd the students. students being the key word here. that despite perhaps a nominal age difference, we were in a position of authority and care over them, and in a different stage of life. the explicit rule being that staff could not date students. among other rules like not being allowed to drink together, meeting students in public places, etc.

i can see how such things happen - all too well, actually. but i see clearer that boundaries are more important than ever. after all the ambiguity that comes with being asian and in an asian church ... i'm seeing more and more that clarity and intentionality are so important. and unfortunately - oftentimes lacking.

boca

one thing that i miss most about being in college is collegiate acapella.

maybe that's why i like glee so much ... in fact i generally like the glee versions of songs better than the originals ...

but seriously, kids just keep getting better and better ...

down

don't stop me now

holly jolly

it's december. what the heck - where did the year go?

this year's black friday extravaganza was ... fairly successful though i realize that alan is a) a good sport for indulging my need to black friday shop and b) not a good shopper. i put him on a line at a children's store (which is usually one of the mobbed places) and when he got to the front of the line, i signalled to him to let someone go in front of him. ie. to keep a perpetual place at the front of the line so that when i was ready, we could check out. (and if that sounds mean to him, well, i think he prefers that to wandering around with me in the store looking at tiny cargo shorts and such). he apparently misinterpreted my hand signals as directions to go to the back of the line and reset. now, i have to admit that i'm not one to have much patience, and i've got to get better at being impatient when such things happen but ... i had trouble understanding why he thought going to the back of the line would help us get out of there any faster.

i ended up having to leave that store bc at that point, i was ready to check out but he was at the back of the line. and then he was poopy that i got mad at him in the store for being nonsensical. i'm sure he has no desire to be trained in shopping strategy, though.

in any event, i had a mission of certain key items to find, which i was fairly pleased with. mostly new clothes for al and dad, including a suit, some nice winter coats, and plenty of sweaters. though after all the money and time spent getting a nice new winter wardrobe (at massive discount, i might add) - the only thing i bought him that he was interested in was a stitch stuffed animal from the disney store. he hasn't stopped doing the impersonation all week. it's cute, i must say, and a future useful skill to distract or appease a crying kid, but i do find it amusing that he likes to play make-believe with stuffed animals way more than i do. eh, though he also likes to cook more than i do so i suppose gender traditions aren't very important.

moving along.

so december is upon us and that means christmas parties. i love christmas. and despite the inevitably sucky weather, it's still the most wonderful time of the year. with cyber monday, i just finished my christmas shopping and hope to be done wrapping by next week. the pile of presents in the corner of my apt is growing impressively large, which makes me feel all holly jolly.

the first weekend of parties commences this friday, with tkd team secret ninja. invited some new people this year, which is good to bring them into the fold ... but makes it a little more difficult for gift exchanging considering people might not know each other. hopefully everyone gets to know each other a little better ... funny enough, i'm probably the one who's around the least at the dojang. sad.

saturday brings the park family xmas extravaganza, where each year the wrapping paper carnage as 14 kids unwrap no less than 8 gifts apiece is sheer chaos. but i love it, despite the fact that being the only unmarried and only childless cousin results in a very poor return on investment for me. but it's cool, i like buying kid gifts throughout the year. this will be al's debut with the rest of the cousin clan, which i'm not so much apprehensive about but still interested to see how he fits in. if nothing else he can give patrick some consolation that there's now a second non-korean in the bunch. eh, everyone's gotten so old they've all mellowed by now anyways, i think they'll just be fascinated to see who's actually willing to date me.

sunday = some sort of surprise thing that i suppose is not necessarily christmas but al says involves bry/carol and (much to my dismay) looking nice. i'm not sure if this is belated birthday or pre-xmas but yay for surprises.

and that would be week 1 of december. let the festivities begin.