patience

"did you think that God was going to make TLC leading easy?"

lisa asked me this this morning and the obvious answer is "no" but i guess i didn't realize which ways it would be difficult.  or it's more like, i didn't think that getting the ball rolling would be so arduous.

perhaps God is trying to teach me patience (as always), particularly with flexibility (i have none) and with people who require a lot of it.  i think i've always disliked options, both for myself and in general, but this whole shopping period for small groups has me confused week to week.  you work so hard to woo people, and here we are, the morning of tlc, and we have no idea who's coming tonight.  or rather, we know the majority of people are not, there are a handful of people who haven't responded (ugh, non-responding is such a major pet peeve of mine) and a couple maybes.  we have one 'yes' and i'm just hoping he won't be scared off if he's the only one. 

i have serious faith issues - God will give us a group regardless of our efforts.  and God will force me to be patient regardless of my desire to not be driven to it. 

yeehaw.

wearing different hats

my boy took his first promotion test yesterday - it's interesting being on the other side of things, i suppose this is about as close as i'm going to get to being a parent.  on the one hand, you're proud that he's doing well and not melting down, and that he's made so much progress.  on the other hand - it could have been better.  haha.  he's still young enough and so darn cute that it doesn't really matter - but i also found myself wishing that i could have brought him more often or that i still lived with them so that we could have practiced more. 

that being said, we had a major cram session an hour before the test, since my cousin didn't bring him to class last weekend and i knew he would be rusty.  boy was i worried when i started reviewing blocks and turning around and he was totally flubbing.  sigh.  but we went through everything until it was good enough (though not perfect) and i just prayed that he would remember when he took the test. 

after all that, we were sitting down and i realized ... he's only 6.  and he doesn't come as often as he should.  wearing the teacher hat and eemoh hat at the same time is tough. 

so i put on my eemoh hat

me:  "hey buddy, you know i love you"

i-man:  "i know.  i love you too"

me:  "sorry i had to yell at you, but you're going to be great at your test"

i-man:  "that's nothing ... you should hear mommy.  THAT's yelling"

haha, at least he's conditioned to know that drilling isn't a bad thing.  and uh, conditioned to throw his mother under the bus. 

vacation planning

i know, i know, i should probably go on my current vacation before i start planning the next one.  al laughed at me this morning because i was trying to make sense of the european train system and figure out the best way to maximize a future italy/france vacation.

but ... i'm already done planning our greek isles trip.  (or everything is 90% nailed down and paid for, save the 10% of time i scheduled for relaxing and spontanaeity).  all that's left to do is to go! 

i think vacation planning is the trifecta of how i enjoy spending my time:

1)  planning
2)  maximizing
3)  travelling

taking the vast array of options and flow-charting them down to the best way to spend my time and money, while getting the best pictures. 

that being said, while doing research, i came across some good tips and insights.  i liked this blog because it had a pretty diverse range of places visited:  http://www.thecitytraveler.com/

i think al also thinks i'm weird because i start packing for vacations 2 weeks before we leave.  (inevitably i still end up forgetting something) - but our suitcases have been ready to go since last weekend (save our electric toothbrushes and stuff that you have to pack at the last minute).

that being said, here's the run-down of the upcoming trip:

day 1:  depart from nyc

day 2:  arrive in rhodes (evening), pick up car, relax and settle at the hotel.

day 3:  northern rhodes:  ancient kamari, rhodes town, faliraki beach, possible horseback riding

day 4:  southern rhodes:  lindos, southern beaches, monolithos castle

day 5:  valley of butterflies, fly from rhodes to santorini, dinner in pyrgos

day 6:  explore fira, caldera cruise (volcano, hot springs, thirasia, sunset over oia)

day 7:  pick up car/atv, black beach, red beach, explore oia, hike from fira to oia, sunset picnic on the beach in oia

day 8:  last swim at hotel, ferry santorini to mykonos, mykonos town

day 9:  south coast cruise (dragonissi, frangias, kalfati, paradise beaches), mykonos town


day 10:  delos, rent car/atv, explore beaches around island

day 11:  relax at hotel, explore island, possible horseback riding, return car, ferry to athens

day 12:  depart athens to nyc

yay!  :)

paper anniversary

jungkryu told me i should have a blog, and then i realized ... i do have a blog!  i just haven't frequented it in awhile.  and i'm pretty sure that almost no one reads it, though i have to admit, it's nice to have a record of my thoughts (however nonsensical they may be) to look back upon.

our first anniversary came and went this weekend - hard to believe that just a year ago there was utter madness, an impending thunderstorm, and a bevy of mishaps (including our primary officiant being stuck on a tarmac in chicago). 

i was informed that anniversary gifts have themes - now, who came up with these themes, i don't know, because they're somewhat outdated, but alas, tradition is tradition.  so for the 1st anniv, the theme is paper. 

huh.

what to do about that.  so my cousin gave me the brilliant suggestion (or so she thought) to get him tickets.  cuz tickets are made of paper.  except we just went to see a show last week, and a play the week before that.  i have a tendency to just buy him stuff when i see it (on sale) and so having to think of explicit gifts has been somewhat difficult. 

so one thing i noticed recently was that while al and i spend a lot of quality time together, the specifics of how we spend that time is usually dictated by me.  mostly because i tend to have very definite opinions on what i do/don't want to do, and he tends to be ambivalent or just generally much more flexible.

that being said, i wonder if that sometimes means that he doesn't get to do what he wants to do. 

one time he made an off-handed comment that before we met, he used to go to a lot of concerts.  it's no secret that i'm not really a fan of rock, alternative, or otherwise loud music venues, and since he hasn't really pushed for such things, we've never gone.

thus my idea - i gave him a gift offer of 2 tickets to any concert of his choice, with the condition on myself that i wouldn't complain about how loud it was, and i'd even pretend to like it even if i didn't.

my cousin promptly yelled at me for being unromantic (thanks unnee).  but i don't get it - isn't love about sacrifice?  i thought it would be more meaningful that i was willing to do something that i probably wouldn't enjoy, just because it would make him happy. 

in any event, when i presented said gift, his response was interesting.  he thought it was thoughtful, yes, but then he said something along the lines of "well, when i was single, i wanted to go to concerts and meet people and be in a crowded place and all that.  i kind of don't need that anymore".

huh.

maybe pastor danny was right ... he said to us the other day that for most men, when they get married, all or most of their emotional and social needs are met by their wives.  (the reverse is apparently not necessarily true, which is why women need to have friends outside of their spouse).  but i suppose that makes sense why guys tend to fall off the face of the earth when they start dating or get married...

anyways, i hope he picks a good concert. 

t-minus 4 days till greece! 

welcome to the party

"hello, IT band, welcome to the party" -daja

i found this statement hilarious last night during an impromptu poomsae workout - whilst we were in the midst of some strenuous sidekick stretching drills.  the new way of practicing poomsae has definitely changed my course of tkd training - namely, with my joints and muscles in mind rather than forcing them to perform and nursing injuries later.  if only i knew then what i know now ... could have saved myself extensive PT bills. 

that being said, i still find poomsae to be a poor substitute for sparring training.  it's not that it isn't difficult, because i'm discovering a billion little muscles that i never knew i didn't have - but it's just not...the same.  i wouldn't call it the "poor man's sparring" because by nature, poomsae athletes tend to be the more intelligent/technical/educated/analytical than the sparring crowd.  that would be a misnomer for sure.  but in the context of the thrill and satisfaction and enjoyment?  definitely pales in comparison.  hitting a great sidekick is really no substitute for hitting a great badachagi on an opponent.  and this sheer difference makes it so much harder to motivate myself to train hard for it, particularly if i'm self-training. 

i realized the other night that it really just comes down to adrenaline.  coupled with the current books i'm reading (brain rules and drop dead healthy) - i realize how much of my life and the busy-ness i was able to maintain was linked to the sheer amount of endorphins and adrenaline i got from the 2-6 hours of intense training every day. 

aside from the extreme weight gain (to which even my love of my couch has now looked in the mirror and put its proverbial foot down), i've noticed lately that i'm always tired, and generally have a dull headache.  i attributed it at first to al's sleep apnea and the fact that being married and having a roommate has changed my otherwise predictable lifestyle and made it more busy.  (the only time i get a good night's sleep is when i'm travelling for work and he's not around, sadly).  but i realized more recently that part of it is a lack of endorphins since i retired from sparring.  makes sense, it's a drug, albeit a natural one, and i effectively cut my supply short in favor of the couch (though in its defense, that couch is really comfy and i work a lot). 

ever since al hit the crunch time of the end of the year, i've found myself reverting to my single life:  work till evening, head to the dojang, work out till late, come home and eat something and veg for an hour in front of the tv and sleep.  and while my body is sore most of the time, i think my headaches have subsided a bit and my mood is generally better.  go figure.

i also appear to be unmotivated without clear goals, mostly centered around some sort of competition.  i knew this about myself, but perhaps not how deeply it permeated ... but i really function better with less options. 

anyways back to the orig thought ... my IT band has always been tight, it only took me about 5 years of wrenching it to figure out what it was.  hopefully this will be a good poomsae year, with all these trips to bos and cross training, i hope it also heals instead of hurting my already battered joints. 

insensitive

After you get married, the first question people ask you is "how's married life?"  For which there isn't really a good pithy answer - I mean, I sort of go with the "can't complain...or I CAN complain but I won't" - which usually elicits a laugh and is vague enough to feel like the question was answered but not specific enough to be personal or continue conversation in that direction. 

The second question is always "so...any good news?" (as a euphemism for "are you pregnant?") 

I find it deeply annoying that "good news" equals pregnancy - I mean, it's good news in a sense, and how blessed are those who can get pregnant easily - but realistically, it's also the end of your life as you know it, and the beginning of a lot of stress and severe financial burden.  Not to mention 9 months of varying discomfort and an excrutiating torturous finale.  (If my future child or children ever find this blog, just a disclaimer not to take any of this personally - in fact this should be proof of how much I love you because bringing you into existenc was a long and sucky process.  You can thank me later - I love vacations on the beach - no flowers please.)

That being said, I think it's highly insensitive to ask about pregnancies.  Not that I'm pregnant.  But I know a lot of people who are, and a lot of people who'd like to be.  And a lot of people who had or are having trouble. 

It's like ... why would you ask a single girl when she's getting married?  Or how things are going on the dating front?  Unless you're a close friend, I don't think there's much right to ask such things.  It's like asking someone what their salary is, or what a student scored on his/her SAT's.  Or how much you weigh.  (I personally don't mind divulging my weight, but apparently others do). 

Here's my litmus:  if we're not close enough that I know either your salary, your test scores, or your true weight - then I'm not going to ask someone if they're pregnant.  I mean seriously, I was getting really annoyed for my friends who were trying to get prego and couldn't, but were constantly getting asked. 

As for my parents I just told them that the more they asked, the less I was inclined.  Since I've been known to spite them (reference the standing threat to marry a white guy if they kept pestering me about getting married), they've backed off.

Speaking of which - that irked me to no end as well.  When I was single, my parents would constantly harass me about dating.  As if I was slamming the door in the faces of the suitors lined up at my doorstep to court me.  Please.  The constant reminders were so unhelpful - sheez they're lucky I got married at all. 

Anyhow, that would be the peeve of the day.  Seriously people - a little noonchi please. 

That being said, I've also realized that along with seasonal affectedness, I have workout withdrawal that borders on uselessness.  I forget that endorphins give you a high - and apparently just how much of my nonstop life was dependent on those workouts in order to have enough energy to get thru everything else.  Who would've thought?  But there's just nothing like that feeling of dripping with sweat and knowing you have no energy left ... or rather, nothing like the feeling AFTER that when you can stop and just let the sweat drip and feel everything burn.  Hopefully the new jump rope workout on Thursdays will bring some of that back ... it's a little sad how we can't do everything we used to do, but fun to have dodo back in the dj.

school and debt

good gosh tuition is expensive - after having gotten married and effectively having to pay al's tuition ... i asked him today if the next time he goes to school, if it could be for something that's going to increase his income. sigh. i just have a hard time seeing the value of a liberal arts degree, given how much it costs these days.

on a slightly related note, i had a fleeting thought today that i might reconsider the idea of homeschooling my kids. perhaps this is a product of reading tebow's book, or hearing about the mean kids and bullying that goes on at my niece's/newphew's elementary schools, but ... sure i could teach my kids better than someone else. and faster. and for sure if we still live in manhattan - cheaper.

and on a slightly related tangent to that - my dentist asked me the other day, while we were discussing various scandals in the news, if i had a chance to set my kids up for life, give them $20million (or some other astronomical sum of money) through extortion or some other underhanded means - but that i'd be in jail after the age of 60 for the rest of my life, would i do it?

absolutely not!

i think he was fascinated by my answer though.

a) it's morally/ethically wrong to cheat someone else

b) why would i want to spend the end of my life in jail? that's the part of life i'm supposed to be enjoying. it's just depressing thinking about waiting to die in jail.

c) and i think this was actually my gut reaction. why on earth would i want to do that to my kids? i think we do a great disservice to children to "set them up" and give them piles of money with which to be reckless, unrealistic, entitled, and worst of all: LAZY. i would slap myself across the face if i ever induced laziness upon my progeny.

after seeing all the different ways parents have triumphed and made mistakes around me...one thing i know is, my kids are going to get all the love and support they need while they're young, and as much as we can afford it we will pay for their education through college - but they'd better get an idea of what they want to do with their lives and how to support themselves because no self respecting 22 year old should be clueless without a path to providing for themselves.

hopefully the economy picks itself up by then so it's not as dire as it is now for graduates, but on principle - if you're an adult, then you buck up and take some responsibility, work hard, and forge your own way.

and as much as it was tough to pay for every penny of our wedding ourselves - i actually think that you should. it helps you make tough choices and good decisions, because the sacrifice is, in the end, your own.

good Lord, leaving my kids a trust fund. maybe giving them an investment in a home or a business to get them started, if they could sufficiently present why such an investment is wise - but seriously? the number of priveleged entitled snotty kids and families in nyc is just gross. i should hope that my kids don't suffer - but i also hope they find a purpose in their lives and work hard at something to be contributions to society somehow.

wanderlust

ever since i met alan - or rather, ever since i had someone to go travel with for trips that don't involve ministry or tkd - i've been totally struck by wanderlust. my passport is actually quite decorated with cool stamps from all sorts of cool countries - but in reality i've seen and enjoyed very few of them. maybe a day of sightseeing here or there, but for the most part, cooped up in second rate hotels or dorms, and confined to gyms and stadiums. not that those weren't fun in and of themselves - they were experiences i would never trade in for the world. but as someone who has money and works damn hard for it - i need to relax on a regular basis.

when al and i first met, we talked about all these places we wanted to go. well, no that's not true. we talked about all the places *i* wanted to go. =) at the time he was still in his whole pious phase of judging people who went on vacation and needing nothing but a cardboard box for himself. he has since come to his senses ... perhaps on a beach somewhere when he realized vacations are awesome.

we went to thailand last winter to visit his family - as with most destinations, it's better when you know the locals. it was a fantastic trip thru the city and the country, we got to zipline thru the forests and also powerboat and snorkel out on the beautiful beaches. definitely going back.

for our honeymoon we went to tahiti and bora bora. singlehandedly the most disgustingly expensive trip, but totally worth it. that was just gorgeous, if you didn't mind being around a bunch of other googly eyed honeymooners and anniversary celebrators who just threw down a ridiculous sum of money for a week.

so in the time between now and when we start thinking about having kids (ie. when spending money on travel will probably not be an option anymore) - i was looking at all sorts of places to go. many to which i've already been, but had never gotten to really see or eat my way through.

greece/turkey/italy
iceland
costa rica
st. lucia
korea/thailand

hopefully good deals will pop up and i'll have accrued enough miles to make these happen =) next on the list, bahamas in december! unless you count california for thanksgiving, but that's visiting parents so it might not exactly be relaxing...

parkfam xmas - remixed

so every year, my cousins on my dad's side (well, those of us who are still in ny, which is actually most of us) get together for a christmas party. i think this year will be the 5th year running, and it's the one time of the year that i see some of my cousins (and their kids).

i don't recall when this started, but i think from the first year, there was a tradition of gift-giving (not uncommon for xmas) - so each family would bring a gift for each child, and there would be a torrent of wrapping paper carnage as the kids tore through the piles of gifts, unearthing a whole lot of nerf guns, pillow pets, and the like.

now that there are 15 kids and counting in the bunch, and since we're in a recession, someone came up with this bright idea last year that we should do some sort of organized name-drawing, and that each child would get one gift. (the older kids got together and came up with a consolidated protest, since the thought of 8 gifts becoming one gift is pretty lame - but they were overruled by the payers of said gifts).

now it's true, this whole process favored families with more kids than those with less (or none, in my case), since every child got a gift from every family. being childless, most everyone brought a gift for me (i was getting to the point where i could count on a scarf, a starbucks gift card, and something from williams sonoma). while that wasn't really necessary, it was nice to be included - and did i mention i live for gift exchanges? it's my favorite time of the year.

so upon the changing of the rules for 2011, it was decided that being childless, i was not a participant any longer. to which i was sad. =( so my cousin ellen decided to make me work for my participation - apparently i now became the coordinator of the gift exchange.

fast forward to november - i was unaware that i was actually supposed to coordinate the shenanigans until a few days ago. whoops. so i sent out some emails to see if everyone remembered whose names they drew - lest we show up and have christmas disaster because some kid is left out and doesn't get a present.

it's a poor replacement of actually getting gifts for the kids, which i genuinely enjoyed. but the parents are right - the kids get a ton of gifts every year and they really don't need that kind of extravagence. (i personally thought it would be nice if we implemented a secret santa amongst the adults as well, but i don't think that's going to happen)

so i'm not sure when this event is going to happen, but it's another sign that the holidays are approaching. and fast. good thing christmas corner is almost finished. i really want to get a tree this year - i say this every year and every year i forget to buy one of those fake tree things...

kids these days

it's funny, all my friends are getting pregnant, and while i would love to have a kid around and all that, i find myself crippled by two things: the fear of the misery of pregnancy and labor (regular invasive exams scares the bejesus out of me), and the fear of what will happen if my kid doesn't listen to me.

al once told me that if he could bear the kids, he would. a nice sentiment, though convenient to say since it's impossible. that being said, i made him the offer that if he ever found a way to give birth and i wouldn't have to - i'd work and make all the money for the rest of our lives.

but the second fear actually is worse, in my mind. as i tutor my kids, i see firsthand the effects of all the good things the parents have done - and all the mistakes they've made. pushing kids too hard, not pushing them enough, not establishing authority or boundaries at an early age, putting them in the wrong schools...

this all came to the forefront of my mind last week when i went to help my cousin with a costco run since she was sick. i always take my nephew with me when i go shopping, it's our bonding time - but now that he's in kindergarten and exposed to other children (ie. boys), he's picked up some rebellion and obnoxious tendencies. i forgot that boys were cute and cuddly until they became, well, boys.

so he's testing his limits on how far the opposite of what i say he can get away with, when suddenly out of nowhere he slaps me across the face! so here i am, in a crowded costco, surrounded by all these white people who would surely judge me for smacking down my nephew - who, by the way, i don't totally feel comfortable spanking in the first place since he's not my child - nor do i have any place to give him a timeout.

so i try and talk to him. not that i really believe reasoning with a child that age actually works, but i was left with no choice at that point. so i said to him, that wasn't very nice, you shouldn't hit people, and told him he had to apologize. at which point he tried to laugh it off. second try led to him covering his face and hiding from me, thinking we're playing some game. after i removed his hands and made him look at me, he outright lied "i didn't do it!" and then proceeded to call me a liar.

oh boy. it's like that moment that a puppy pees or a baby explodes in his diaper and you're glad that it's not yours and call the parents over to take care of the problem. except in this situation, i didn't have the parent. i knew what the parent would do, but also that the parent had the authority that this kid respected enough to obey - the wrath of mommy is not to be questioned.

but again, in this public place i argued with him for awhile, then found his father who immediately made him apologize for hitting me. fine. i didn't tell him the full story because i had meant to do it later, but for the time being i had an apology, even if it was for self-preservation.

the house was so chaotic when we got back that i didn't get a chance to talk to my cousin, until a couple days later i remembered and sent her an email. boy did he get it at that point - apparently he had two meh-meh's and a timeout before he came out, called me to apologize, and also recorded a video message. (which btw was insanely cute despite his clear misery).

we're nowhere close to becoming parents, but episodes like this make me fear the day when i have to discipline my own kids. not because i can't do it - but because they might not "get" it and that authority may just be discarded. and then what?

some things never change

playing quarterback this year, i realize that some things never change. i'm not sure why it wasn't like this in years past, perhaps playing linebacker or wide receiver just didn't put enough responsibility into my hands - or choices. i think it's the choices. but this year, having to know the entire playbook inside out, including where everybody runs or blocks, having to know my receivers each personally so much as to say heesun likes the handoffs stuck out there so she can grab them whereas joyce likes them pounded into her gut, sophia runs the fastest and most consistently while anna will jump for any ball remotely near her ... all the code words to remind everyone whether we're going left or right, whether the line should pull, pass protect, or open a hole...and then read the defense on top of all that, know the other teams, analyze mismatches, scramble out of the way of 1-4 girls bearing down at me, and get these throws off...

that's a lot of decision-making to be had in 5 seconds.

as i underperformed in our first scrimmage, i realized all of the things that were hard about tkd competition - namely, everything mental - still rings true for football. i almost preferred it when i had a robotic position and my job was just to run from here to there and catch the ball if it came to me.

and it's true - everyone always blames the qb if you lose. i guess you get a good chunk of glory if you win, too, but that doesn't matter so much as the responsibility of managing the field of running chess pieces out there. it's pretty wild.

but i also realized there's a small part of me that loves learning new things, and loves milestones. i forgot about that, perhaps since it's been awhile since i've been in this arena. the same feeling of agony when i'm playing poorly is the same thrill when i'm playing well - or just the same anxiety and excitement that comes from realizing that there's potential to be unlocked.

it's nice to know that at age 30, there's still more out there. that after busting my hand and sorta putting it back together, having an achy hip that never quite feels right, and whatever else says it's retirement time or the best years have gone by...that there's always something new. i mean, besides birthing a child, which has got to be the single biggest thing i'm dreading for all time.

hopefully things keep getting better ... positive thinking is a funny thing. i was never really good at it in tkd, but with a team behind me and needing to be a leader on the field, i'm suddenly motivated to actually try to think less and have a short memory. while simultaneously remembering everything. it's weird like that...

so how's married life?

d asked me yesterday "so how's married life?" actually, i get that question a lot. i generally tell people that it's not too different, except that now it's socially acceptable/expected that you have sex. (that's a whole nother topic for a whole nother time ... if i didn't want all the attention i'd write a book on how the church creates unhealthy repression).

overall, about 6 weeks post-wedding ... i think the moment that it hit me we were married was when i got our new checks in the mail. i suppose i'm uber practical like that - the symbol of being financially bound made me feel all committed and realize the benign tumor (ie the spouse) is here to stay.

i find it nonsensical that it will be cheaper for us to file our taxes separately than jointly next year - some clause about if you make similar incomes, getting taxed higher. whaaaaat? and here i was all excited that we only had to do one tax return. i suppose it doesn't matter since we have an accountant anyways, but still - on principle i feel like this doesn't make sense.

domestically, living with a roommate has been interesting. for the most part, i like it - it's nice to come home to somebody, particularly if that somebody makes dinner =) i realize i'm pretty lucky on that front, that he likes to cook and is willing to do it pretty much all the time, minus my occasional forays with ramen or jjajang myun. that being said, i feel like i'm folding laundry constantly - and getting annoyed that there are a billion and one things in his pockets. i don't understand how someone who rarely plays the guitar manages to always carry picks in his pockets.

our new shower tension rode caddy thing came yesterday, which is my current wedding gift of the week. it's really quite amazing how some gifts get used all the time...like our salad spinner. it was a total impulse add to the registry, but in the end probably the most frequently used item, aside from the knives.

speaking of wedding gifts, the return/exchange scene has been quite the zoo. after careful deliberation (and staring at the mounds of boxes and sheer amount of "stuff" piling up) we decided on a chunk of things to forego (like the portable grill, which seemed like a great idea and use of our balcony...but would rarely get used and then rust on said balcony). trying to consolidate and purge has been a crazy process for a semi-hoarder like myself ... i've unearthed things from under my bed that i've had since college, and it's still hard to throw them away. i'd feel a lot better if someone was getting use out of my stuff, especially since a lot of things are unused...

but for the time being, my new goal is to start using stuff up. i made a bin of hotel toiletries and it overflowed...perhaps i've been travelling too much and not camping enough. or perhaps if it's not supremely annoying to use teeny bottles, we can see how long we can last without buying real shampoo and conditioner...=)

hopefully the apt will stop throwing up soon. though that's wishful thinking considering christmas is coming...

worlds

well, russia and worlds has come and gone - hard to believe it had been 4 years since i was on one of these teams. but i have to say, poomsae team vs sparring team - totally different worlds. in many ways ... i liked poomsae team so much better. all around it's just ... so much more civilized. yes, civilized - there was no better way to put it than that.

rather than people playing poker and gambling in their spare time, stephany claire and i taught them how to play korean games (like king kong shower) for some hilarious times in the back of the bus. i really valued also that poomsae team spans all age ranges - and that you could really get the depth and the wisdom from your seniors (or have seniors, period) - rather than travelling with a bunch of hormonal 21 year olds who just wanted to drink on the side and cause trouble.

dan asked me on the morning of competition if i was nervous ... and you know what? i really wasn't. i'm not sure if it was time or age ... or as i told him, the reassurance that no one was going to hit me and i was likely not to get hurt - but it was really a different feeling towards competition. sure, you still want to puke in anticipation, but there's something vastly different about knowing that your results are entirely on your shoulders. (well, ok, mostly). that if you screw up - there really isn't much forgiveness and you've basically lost - but at least you've lost it for yourself and not because someone kicked you in the knee. (yes i'm still bitter about that)

overall, russia is at the bottom of my list of countries i've been to, and for $2000+ just to get there via crappy russian airlines, i would never voluntarily go again. but i think it was a valuable trip - eye-opening for sure, if only to see how far we've come and how much farther we have to go.

the new poomsae uniforms were ridiculous - actually, beyond ridiculous. i don't think anyone liked it, and seriously, who went back in time and brought back the cross-overs? sigh. but we made do, and it was kind of neat that all competitors from every country looked the same.

but i was just thrilled to have coaching, and to have teammates i got along with and had fun with. it's interesting being on the world stage again, but starting over to build a reputation in a whole new crowd. the familiarity that came with seeing the same competitors and coaches in the sparring world was no longer there. but i suppose everyone has to pay their dues, even if it means doing it from scratch again. hopefully this will better equip us to make the team again next year...

realism

alan thinks i'm cynical and i assume the worst. i think that if someone has not responded to your emails or phone calls for 4+ months - it's acceptable to be annoyed and take them off your wedding guestlist. if they don't give you a way to mail them an invite - then maybe they shouldn't get one. and if your contacts are so out of date that you can't get ahold of them - then perhaps we should all move on and invite someone else.

i don't think that's cynical - i think that's realistic.

speaking of which, i think if people are going to decline, they should do it quickly. i was talking with a friend about a wedding she was invited to - in oregon - where she didn't really know a lot of people and she and the guy have grown apart over the years. she definitely did not want to go, and minus some lingering feelings of guilt for saying no, was just biding her time to decline. having been in the middle of guestlist nonsense myself, i was like "send the decline. like, now." she thought she should wait till closer to the date, so that it didn't seem like she was rejecting the invite. but i was like "whether you reject it now or later, you're still rejecting it. at least give them a heads up so it makes their planning easier - and send them a nice note saying you decline with regrets"

ah, i wish many of my declines had either sent a note or declined faster. there are those who needed to think about it, sure, but there are definitely people who "intended to respond but it totally slipped my mind". and to them i say - good luck planning your wedding someday. every faux pas i've ever made as a guest has come back to bite me multiple times over, people ask some of the darndest questions...

in other news, alan went on a groupon ramapge and bought all these random coupons - one of them was for this anti-cellulite massage thing. (i think he's trying to tell me something). so yesterday i went and tried it out, and it was definitely NOT a relaxing massage - nor was it particularly pleasant in any way. first this chinese lady with a thick accent tries to explain to me the science behind cellulite removal therapy - which i'm already skeptical about even without considering the fact that her english left me guessing at every 3rd word. then she proceeds to mash me around like i'm a slab of pizza dough - luckily i have much experience in getting hit in my gut, so i just tried to think of it like a hogu drill. but i swear she bruised my ribs.

then she proceeds to wrap me up in saran wrap - no joke, like glad brand from the supermarket. the cream apparently is warming (yes, it was very hot) and i was supposed to wear this for 2 hours. imagine walking around a hot summer day, with a layer of saran wrap under your clothes, tourniquetted and inducing massive sweatage. this was worse than the sauna suits from weight cutting days.

and at the end, she hands me an envelope with her name on it. i was like, what is this, a business card? no - it was for tip. how subtle. as she then proceeds to tell me that the treatment is only effective in a series and tries to sell me a package. seriously?? i can't tell if this is legit or a scam ... you'd be surprised at what rich people on the uws will pay for without blinking an eye ...

i swear my legs are internally bruised from those suction cup things ... it was kind of like paying for civilized torture...

weekend in boston...

another weekend trip to boston, come and gone. sudanny took us to victoria's, where i had my heart's content of watercress - i don't know why i like it so much, but i just do. it's crunchy, not bitter, and almost always sauteed in tons of garlic - what's not to like?

every time i go back to boston i'm surprised at how un-nostalgic i get. maybe it's because the campus has changed so much, or that most of the people i know are gone ... but still.

three, 3-hour poomsae sessions later ... my butt is definitely not the same. i'm not sure what it is, and what i'm compensating for (probably my hips not being open) but i was way more sore and exhausted from all the poomsae than i ever was from sparring workouts. maybe because it's less cardiovascular and all muscle - particularly muscles i apparently didn't have. but it was great to practice hard, collaborate, and have all these eyes to watch and have high caliber workouts. i finally feel like we're moving away from basic errors like stances and techniques, and can get to the presentation side.

the main takeaways from this weekend, at least for me to try and fix before worlds:

-don't look down. i don't know where i got this habit of looking down, especially when i kick. perhaps it's from all the stance-fixing and having to constantly check my toes and knees so that they're pointed in the right direction...or maybe it's compensating for not being able to get my legs up so i'd hunch my upper body. but i realized (when people constantly pointed it out) that i do it ALL THE TIME. no good.

-relax my shoulders. apparently tension is a huge problem for me (shocking, i know) - i'm not sure how to generate power (when power is my strongest quality) without tensing my shoulders. though perhaps that's exactly the problem - i'm generating it from all the wrong places.

-turn from the hips. this whole delayed hip snap turn thing is so hard, but i must admit it's that 'je ne sais quoi' that i realize all the top athletes have. even in the US, most people don't do this, or certainly don't do it well - internationally it's much more prevalent. in any event, my messed up hip is going to have to work on this one to look like my teammates.

i think most of the other points fall under one of these categories, so in the interest of simplifying, i'm going to try and focus on these for the next 3 weeks. hard to believe we're leaving for russia so soon!

on an unrelated note, i got hooked on star wars this weekend while watching empire strikes back. i've never actually watched all of the trilogy without falling asleep before, so actually getting engrossed in the plot was fun. except now i want to watch all of them.

having a weekend away from my computer was particularly nice (for alan) bc it meant wedding stuff was on hold. haha. still trying to hunt down the 30-40 delinquent responders - hitting this head count was harder than i'd anticipated. including the fact that we already have backer-outers, which is totally not appreciated.

and now, the new ruler of the household:



yes, my mom took a picture after giving the dog a bath, perched all clean and pretty on the couch. seriously, everyone with mom difficulties should just get a puppy and watch all the tension melt away ...

disco balls and other random stuff

i commented that the light in my bedroom sucked (stupid contractors being so cheap) and how i wanted to install a ceiling fan with a light. not that i know how to do such things, and apparently that requires some electrical wiring as well - hrmm. but i think it would be a nice alternative to running the a/c, and i actually find ceiling fans to be more comfortable. anyways. so alan's response to that was ... "or we should just get a disco ball".

funny statement from the man who doesn't dance. though it reminds me of mastercho at cornell who was like, 40 and had a discoball in his living room. he would turn it on for parties and i'd be so confused ... "you're old ... why do you have a disco ball?"

anyways. that was weird.

in other random news, i almost severed my toe off today on a costco shopping cart. seriously, someone needs to redesign those wheels, they're lethal!

speaking of severing, mike had a huge dodgeball injury that almost looked like it severed his thumb - not sure how he got hit with the ball, but he needed stitches adn it was gross looking. i played against his team in softball this week and looked at his thumb - it's totally fine now! what the heck. i seriously envy people who don't scar poorly. =(

it's been one dramatic week or two. from the credit crisis (which, thank God, has been almost resolved by now) to the tickets for the tinted windows to the current dj issue of people defecting, creating their own dj, and stealing our students - it's been one drama after another. i'm not sure what possesses someone to ever think it's ok to test for a black belt at another school without permission, but ... logic and loyalty are i suppose not universal. sigh.

high drama indeed. in other news, graceshih finished the flower girl basket and ring bearer's pillow for the wedding. dang she's talented. that's my lil sis!

squeaky wheel

After 2 days of being on the phone nonstop trying to clear my credit score from the mud it's become after a miscommunication over an old medical bill (sigh, insurance!) - i've started to realize that useless people abound. they may as well have had automated services that tell you "we cannot and will not lift a finger to help you. sit around agitated and wait for someone to care". i've started phone calls by demanding to speak to a supervisor ... or their supervisor. double sigh.

in any event, it's amazing how you can think things are rolling, but you still have to call everyone and their mother to verify every little piece. if ever i distrusted people or thought people were incompetant - this whole process has unfortunately made me more paranoid. every step of the way that the ball could have been dropped - it was. today i spent about 3 hours getting someone to confirm that a letter had gotten from point A to point B - such that B could process it and send confirmation to C and freaking CLEAR MY NAME. B turned out to be a mess of incompetancy.

after many many phone calls and faxes, i finally got someone who gave two hoots to pull up my file and do something. though at this point i don't trust that anything will actually get done, so i demanded a timeframe by which i could call back to check if things were moving. please, interest rates, please stay low....

alan commented that i reminded him of a passage ... seen below. i read it, and asked if this gave me license to go and attack the people at company B if they didn't get moving...



Luke 18
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

it's not worth having a car

so i got pulled over today on my way to work by an undercover cop - you would think that if he's special enough to get an unmarked car that he'd be higher up or something. no, he was no better than a meter maid. apparently he pulled me over because my windows were tinted beyond the transmittance threshold of NY. a law i had absolutely no idea about and uh, was pretty pissed that he was pulling me over and not the cabs and limos that are completely dark. i was praying that he'd have mercy on me and let me off with a warning to go get the tints reduced or removed (which btw i'm not sure came like that from the factory or not since i bought the car used) - but no. heartless bastard gave me a ticket and zoomed away to catch his next victim.

if it was within my power, i would cut off all the electricity to his house. unfortunately, i only work in generation, not transmittance. seriously, i hate cops who just patrol to catch people on random technicalities and give tickets rather than actually fighting crime and protecting the peace.

and not to racial profile but - seriously? asian girl in glasses driving at like 20 mph? seriously. do i need to start carrying my calculator around with me or something?

bah. not sure what to do now, this ticket is $130, and taking my car into the shop is going to cost a whole lot more. what is this nonsense about??

it's crazy

i think i'm officially drowning. poor alan isn't going to know what hit him when thsi meltdown actually hits. sad is the day when even i'm sick of multitasking.

insurance companies can bite me. (i never understood that phrase because why on earth would you ever want someone to bite you? don't we spend most of preschool teaching kids NOT to do that?) but seriously - what's the deal with finding ways to not pay for doctors so that hospitals come hunting the patient down all the time? my stacks of bills that people keep harassing me about just keeps piling up, and it's getting mighty tiring calling so many people to tell them to stop bothering me and balance billing me. not that i really understand what's going on with our healthcare system, and whether the new changes will make it any better (forgive the pessimism, it probably won't) - but it's definitely broken as of now.

fundraising for worlds has commenced, and i must say i'm thrilled with the way our staff has rallied and donated their time. that being said, i have to get the troops together and put this demo together - while under the naysaying of a certain sab who thought my demo was too long and i should nix the self-defense skit (ie. the funniest part of the whole demo) and the weapons (ie. the one thing most people haven't seen live). whatever, he's not going to be there anyways. as paula said, "i much prefer paul's way of doing things - 'do whatever you want' " whatever i want, i shall...

wedding planning is, as always, on the forefront, the back burner, and everywhere else. there's potential drama on the horizon involving a crotchety old uncle apparently refusing to come, and my parents getting offended. wonderful. i thought everyone had gotten all that out of their system by now, and that everyone was too old to be so cranky. seriously, i'm 30 and i'm too tired to induce unnecessary grief on people i would have picked apart 5 years ago ... how can someone who's like, 75, have so much energy to be so difficult? eesh. and what's up with my parents' friends having so many comments about our invitations? um, we didn't include rsvp cards for you to mail back because we're trying to be environmentally conscious, and because YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T BOTHER MAILING THEM BACK TO US ANYWAYS. seriously, someone needs to give them the memo that this wedding isn't about them. can't wait for the seating arrangements dilemmas to come - though at least at that point we'll theoretically know who's coming!

i love when doctors state the obvious. it's kind of like when someone says (on this 97 degree day) "boy it's hot today". today my hand surgeon said "wow, so you really keloid poorly" ... and then later my orthopedist said "wow, you're left hip is really inflexible". thanks everyone - now that we're all on the same page, can we come up with a solution?

i think i need a secretary. and a billing dept.

statistical significance

weddings are an interesting thing. guestlists in particular - you spend so much time agonizing over who you can and can't invite based on the constraints - but when the responses start coming in, you have a lot of data.

i have to say, it's been really interesting to see who says yes and who says no. or more specifically, if you compare people of similar life circumstances, who says yes and who says no.

for example, pregnancies. if i took all the couples i've invited so far who are pregnant and due +/- 3 months of our wedding and lumped them into the category of having a legitimate excuse to bail - it's surprising that some people say "i wouldn't miss it for the world, i'm definitely there!" and others, "i definitely can't".

i think it's hard not to take responses personally. i mean, honestly i've gone to probably only half the weddings i've been invited to, and the ones i haven't gone to, barring a "legitimate" conflict, have been due to an evaluation of closeness to that friend mixed with the cost/effort to attend. and i think most people decide somewhere along that persuasion.

i suppose it's inevitable that relationships are not always even. you may feel closer to someone than they feel to you, or vice versa. i think weddings are a pretty good litmus test of that ... of course it's not foolproof, but i was pleasantly surprised by some people who had no qualms about taking a day off of work or going out of their way to come - and others who i thought would never have missed it reply no without even giving a reason.

but perhaps that's just life, and there's a constant shifting and re-evaluating of relationships - and i'm not exempt from it either, i'm sure i've disappointed people along the way.

wedding conversation of the day:

friend: did you invite any of my close friends to your wedding?

me: um, are any of your close friends MY close friends?