SoCal meets Tejas

A note to my hubby

2011-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

I've been following a blog written by a couple who attends my awesome church. Our church happens to have an amazing pre-marital ministry, which has made me and my husband stronger together. Over the past year, we've had our share of struggles.. but through it all, we've been prepared to communicate well and most importantly to put the other above ourselves, and 2nd to our Lord Jesus Christ..

I wish I had taken a picture to make it a really awesome blog post...

Dear hubby,

Today I opened my lunch and saw “cut-up” cherry tomatoes in my “eat grass until we go on vacation” salad! The attention you put into even the smallest things and the fact that you humor my crazy diet are just two of the reasons why I love you so much!

Love,

Wifey

Death and Hope

2011-08-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy few months since my last post. They say that your first year of marriage is tough. But over the last few months, Darren and I have experienced two significant losses: our friend David in April, and Darren's grandfather this past Saturday...Two very different lives but beautiful in their own right...

David
On April 15th, we lost a good friend of ours, David to a 10 month battle with lung cancer. David was the first our my friends from Ross who met Darren and welcomed him with open arms. I have great memories of David, whether it was going to football games with him and his wife Grace in Ann Arbor, or asking him for recommendations on whatever gadget I was about to buy, or telling him about this new amazing guy I was dating.. My memories of David span Dallas, Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Napa. David was truly a great friend. Most importantly, he loved the Lord and treasured his wife like no other.

I have this clear memory of telling David about my acceptance to work at Frito-Lay. I explained that I made my decision based on whether or not I should work in a big city like Dallas or work in a small city in Michigan. And I remember David saying, "It's better this way.. the fewer options the better. God's direction is clear."

When I think of David, I think of Jeremiah 17:7-8:

"But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

David's memorial was beautiful;anchored by his incredibly strong, beautiful and 36-week pregnant wife. People shared about David's love of food, gadgets, and the great friend he was. God's presence was known as the gospel was shared to the hundreds of those in attendance...

Grandpa
Early Saturday morning, Darren lost his grandfather, Anthony Antoniello who was 91 years old. Grandpa had had a long battle with Parkinson's. When I met grandpa, he and grandma were on their way to moving to assisted living. We went to his funeral today, which was small but beautiful. All 5 grandchildren were in attendance and each family member spoke about memories about Mr A- his love of family, children, his corny jokes, and his love for the "love of his life" Mrs. Antoniello.

Darren shared about how grandpa was his friend, even as a child, and he shared that he knew his grandpa was in a better place. He also shared about the following verse he shared with grandpa on his last two visits to hospice that encouraged everyone to remember that Grandpa's body was only temporal..

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

My favorite memory of Grandpa was just two weeks ago when we were visiting him in hospice; knowing that it would be the last time we'd see him. Darren had his arm around me and we were hugging each other. Grandpa said, "I see that you two are still madly in love, just like me and your grandma after 67 years of marriage."..

Our hope in the Lord
Two very different lives, two very different funerals..one was "too soon" and because of that, tragic... the other was "expected" yet sad because of the big hole left in our hearts..

Yet through all of this, we know that God has a great plan. We know that both David and Grandpa are in a better place in which they are without pain and without suffering at the feet of Jesus basking in his glory.

It really has brought Darren and I closer together. If anything it reminds us to not rely on each other but to keep our focus on Jesus and his work through the gospel...

1 Peter 1:3-9
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

Lord, we rest in our hope in You. May you continue to reveal yourself to us..

More Catching Up

2011-04-06T20:34:00.001-07:00

One of the things I will always appreciate about my parents is teaching me to love travel..to see God's creation whether it be national parks or different countries. We always grew up traveling afar.

Well, it just dawned on me that I never posted our honeymoon pics.

Darren organized our whole trip by picking Hawaii, which he had never been to. We decided from the recommendation from a lot of friends that we would take a cruise and make it sort of our floating hotel.

So we had a great few days in Waikiki at the Moana Surfrider, which is an awesome hotel. Thanks Starwood points! We had a great time eating and walking up Diamond Head. Darren loved Pearl Harbor.

And then we began our cruise. Highlights include the Haleakala Crater in Maui, and sushi at the Ritz, Volcano national park and black sand beaches on the Hilo side of Hawaii, Kona Brewing Company, and seeing the Grand Waimea canyon and helicopter ride in Kauai. Such good times! I can't wait until we go again!

Words of Affirmation

2011-03-11T12:12:00.001-08:00

My awesome husband knows that words of affirmation is my love language. So he's always thinking of creative ways to give me words of affirmation.

This week he's gone for a digital conference for a total of 6 days from start to finish (Thursday-Tuesday). Since there are six letters in my name, he's decided to send me a text starting with a letter for my name.

My good friend encouraged me to record it so I would always remember. Check back for updates

M- I Miss You!
A- Stands for your new last name, but also stands for Amazed, which is how I feel when I think about how lucky I am to be married to you
I- Is for Independence; that is to say freedom in Christ, which you display everyday in your love, service and care and the way you are a wonderful helper suitable
S- Stands for second, which is the amount of time that goes by between my thoughts about you
I- stands for Incredible, which is the type of wife and Christian woman you are. It also stands for I love you!
E- Eternity, which is what we'll spend with Christ. But I'm so glad we're together in this life!

Catching up on photos - Ann Arbor

2011-03-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a few things on what we've done since our awesome honeymoon, which I recognize that I still need post photos of..

In November, Darren and I got to go to Ann Arbor. Darren had never been, and I had to go for recruiting so we decided to make a weekend out of it. We went to the Big House and saw Michigan get trampled by Wisconsin. But we also went to several brewpubs- Jolly Pumpkin (which is one of Darren's top 10), Arbor Brewing Company (which I had gone to in business school but never realized it was a big brewery in the beer world), and Grizzly Peak (still one of my favorites for food).

Also, I took Darren to Ashley's which made him super happy since he got to try a ton of Michigan beers.

I love the life of being a newlywed.

How's married life?

2011-02-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

The age old question that we’ve both gotten since September..My typical answer is "Good. Marriage is awesome" and if I have more than a second, I say "It's Great! Marriage is more fun but it’s a lot more work, but totally worth it."

And most of my single friends, ask how marriage is hard or how it is a transition. So without further ado, top reasons that make marriage hard, and the top fun things about marriage.

Some of the things that make marriage hard:

1.Expectations – Whether it is an expectation that I have for myself or expectations I have of him, expectations are always there and often they’re not met. Often times, they’re not spoken and I find myself having to figure out what my expectations were in the heat of the moment

2. Lack of quality time – We've just recently figured out but both our primary love language is quality time, which is extremely challenging give two demanding careers. We've had to learn to be intentional so that in the limited time we have together, we can be focused on each other. I'm guessing it will constantly be refined as life continues to change.

3. Our sinful nature- Whether it is pride, people pleasing/avoidance, or our tendency to get defensive, we've seen how ugly our sinful nature can be and how easily it can hurt the other person. "Owning our sin" and asking each other for forgiveness has been tough.

4. Communication- As much as I’d like for it to be, my husband isn't a mind reader nor am I. So we've learned to communicate, and more importantly, we are learning to listen to each other in a loving, open way.

Here are some of the things that have made marriage a ton of fun:

1. Being each other's biggest supporters- Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing my husband in his element with his jr high boys that he serves. Likewise when I shared my story at church, my husband was the proudest person in the room.

2. Serving each other- Learning to serve one another and knowing that you’re putting the other person ahead of yourself has been completely rewarding. My husband serves me all the time, he makes my lunch, he takes out the trash, and he takes care of the dog in the morning. We love serving each other.

3. Becoming students of each other- We both have loved learning more and more about each other. By no means, have we figured each other out yet, but it’s been fun getting to know each other more. Darren loves that I ordered a Live Oak Big Bark Amber on my own the other day.

4. Forgiving each other- Learning to forgive ourselves and each other is at the heart of our marriage. If God was able to forgive us for our sins, we must learn to forgive each other. Working through conflict has been one of the most fruitful things for our marriage.

So yes, in the wise words of my friend Christine who signed my wedding guestbook: "marriage is hard work but it is SO MUCH FUN!" So true..and we're not even six months in!

To plan or not to plan?

2011-02-20T19:17:00.001-08:00

I have neglected my blog..but lately I've had some thoughts. So I wanted to post some stuff as it's been floating around in my head.

So here goes. On September 11, 2010, I married my soul mate, my best friend, and the godliest man I know. And one of the questions I've gotten is: was all the planning worth it?

It was over nine months of planning (yes, we started planning our wedding before we were actually engaged).

Below are reasons to not plan a wedding:
1. Time consuming
2. Ridiculous spreadsheets
3. Stress in managing expectations

But there are a lot of reasons for enduring all the work to plan your wedding:

1. There is something inherently amazing about having everyone you love in one room together witnessing your special day. If, for nothing else, this is reason enough to have a wedding.

2. You let you have people see a glimpse of you on your wedding day. Some of the personal touches we put in our wedding included:

A guestbook with polaroids pictures that my friend designed. We wanted to be sure to remember everyone that came on our wedding day.

Lakers references for me.

Mavs cookie cake as Darren's grooms cake.

Our friends performing a song written specifically for us on our wedding day called "Love Full and Complete" written by Carina

A cookie bar honoring Darren's (and mine) love of cookies

Homebrew honoring Darren's love of beer by his good friends at Lakewood Brewing Company

We served wine that we made over a year ago (a gift Darren gave to me for my birthday); and our friends signed the bottle

3. You get to make whatever message to those you love about your wedding.

For Darren and I, we wanted to make sure that Christ was at the heart of our wedding. So we chose some Christian contemporary songs about for our wedding including:

- Unfailing Love by Chris Tomlin for when our parents came down the aisle
- Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath for bridesmaid's processional
- O Happy Day by Tim Hughes for our recessional
- When I Say I Do by Matthew West for our first dance

Our friend Terrence officiated our wedding and wanted him to communicate God's faithfulness in bringing us together and Christ and his church at the heart of marriage.

You get to serve Christ by being an example of his love for the church:

This picture may be one of my favorites. We had just finished the ceremony and we had just walked out of the recessional, and I asked him to kiss me before everyone else got there. It was a mix of happiness because we were finally husband and wife, and relief because it was all over. It was one of those moments we'll always remember and we're so glad a photographer captured the moment

So yes, at the end of the day, it's completely worth "to plan". I wouldn't have changed a thing even amongst the ups and downs. Most importantly, I married the love of my life and God was honored.

Reflective - Holy Moly..that's a lot of life!

2010-12-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I started this in March 2005, as a way to voice out things in my head and stay connected with people.

So I thought I would map out some of the big things that have happened in the past 5 years since this blog has been around. A lot has happened, and I'm so thankful that God had bigger plans than I could see!

Technology (and if you look back in time, some of these websites are still around and some aren't)
1. Xanga
2. Blogger
3. Picasa
4. Dropshots
5. Twitter
6. Facebook
7. Twitter
8. Foursquare
9. Gowalla
10. iPhone

Cities I've lived in
1. Torrance, CA
2. Arcadia, CA (if you count this as time in between major cities)
3. Ann Arbor, MI
4. Hong Kong (if you count a consulting gig)
5. Kalamazoo, MI
6. Dallas, TX

Places I've visited and documented on this blog
1. New York, NY (3x)
2. Chicago, IL (multiple times)
3. Jackson Hole, WY
4. Miami, FL
5. Boston, MA
6. San Juan, PR
7. All over Spain and Portugal
8. Athens, Santorini, Mykonos Greece
9. Paris, France
10. Las Vegas, NV (2x)
11. El Salvador
12. Portland, OR
13. Hot Springs, AR
14. Mangalore and Kerala India
15. The Amazon Jungle
There are actually a few more but more to come on that!

Major Milestones (including some that haven't made its way to the blog just yet)
1. Going to grad school
2. Getting my MBA
3. Starting my post MBA career
4. Finding community in Dallas and rediscovering my love for Christ
5. Becoming a homeowner
6. Celebrate Recovery
7. Going on short term missions to the Amazon Jungle
8. Meeting and falling in love with the love of my life!
9. Getting engaged
10. Getting married

Other verses that are encouraging me right now

2010-07-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)
¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

Isaiah 40:4 (NIV)

⁴ Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

Isaiah 42:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.

Psalm 34:17-19 (NIV)

¹⁷ The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.

¹⁸ The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;

It's been forever

2010-07-27T21:43:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in over 8 months, mainly because I'm too busy to blog and upload pictures, etc. And other social media outlets are quicker.

A lot can happen in 8 months.

1. You can get engaged.

New York engagement weekend

2. Your project can launch

3. You can get new roles and responsibility at work that overwhelm you at times..

4. You can even sprain your ankle.

I've been going though a lot lately and much of it, not according to the plan I had designed for myself, but I meditated (and by meditating, I mean that I had to keep typing it into my iphone because the app wouldn't save it) on a verse that resonated with me in the midst of my insanity.

Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
²² Give your burdens to the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

After I meditated on that verse, I saw a double rainbow on my way home. God is faithful to send us little reminders!

Our birthday gift update- Cooking Classes

2009-12-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

As you may recall Darren and I took some cooking lessons at Sur La Table. Below are pictures of a few things that we made!

The first class was called Each and Every Recipe and we made a ton of good food. Including a Roasted Beet Salad with Fennel, Orange, and Goat cheese, Pan Seared Salmon, a Potato Celeriac Puree (I didn't even know what Celeriac was), and a Sublime Lemon Mousse (not pictured)! It was awesome and a delicious meal! As an added bonus, our teacher showed us an appetizer making pinwheels using puff pastry and cheese (also pictured). This puff pastry dish has become our signature appetizer for any party we go to. We've made dishes for Darren's family's Thanksgiving and my family's Christmas!

Our 2nd class was holiday desserts. We learned to make White Chocolate Souffle Cakes with a Raspberry Chocolate Sauce, Pecan Rum Tart, Cranberry Upside down cake, Dried Fruit and Nut bark, and Orange- Chocolate Biscotti! Those were delicious. The cranberry Upside down cake was our favorite. This yielded mixed successes. We were able to make it successfully for Christmas with Darren's parents but not as much for Christmas with my family. But that's what cooking is all about!

My dog can text!

2009-10-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Below is a text that I got from Portland on my iphone before Darren took me out on my birthday date.

Happy birthday. I hope you enjoy your birthday dinner!

Love,
Portland

And my response:

To the cutest puppy ever!

Thanks for my birthday note. I'm excited about dinner. I even got my nails done. I wish you could come with your daddy and me but it would probably be boring for you.

Love,

Mommy

Yes folks! I've officially gone off the deep end!

October Birthdays

2009-10-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

What happens when you and your S.O. have birthdays in the same month? It turns into a month long celebration of fun, drinks, and lots of good eats!

On my actual birthday, my coworkers took me out to a Thai lunch which was delicious.. And then Darren and I flew back to LA to meet family and friends. I was so proud of Darren for eating a full 10 course meal, meeting a ton of friends and kids, and meeting my family too. Fortunately, it went well. Other highlights from LA include visiting his cousin and seeing the set of Heroes, walking the hollywood hills via runyon canyon, and introducing Darren to his new favorite pub.

Here are some pics from Runyon Canyon. We wish we had Portland with us.

Then the following weekend it was Darren's birthday. I took Darren to an amazing dinner at Nick&Sam's which was awesome. They prepared a great dinner and provided complimentary champagne and a port wine. They also gave us a free bottle of wine after a mix-up in which we weren't allowed to use our own bottle that we brought in. For those in Dallas, the steak was incredible and the customer service is unparallel.

We finished up dinner and little did Darren know that I had planned a surprise party for him at my house, in which I invited all his closest friends. Fortunately, it was a complete success and Darren was blown away. I even got Darren's friends to bring some of the homebrew. Below are pics. Darren's friend Jenn got the cake, which I loved, making fun of Darren's use of social media...

We also spent Sunday with Darren's family, which was a nice time to sit around and celebrate our birthdays. I'm fortunate that they've embraced me wholeheartedly..

This past weekend Darren took me eat at Lola , which was an adorable French restaurant in a cute little house. We had four courses which included a duck breast and lamb loin. It was delicious.

The moral of the story, folk, is if you're going to share a birth month with your significant other, be sure to milk it for all its worth in that month or beyond.

I can't wait to celebrate our gifts for each other. Darren got me a wine making session at Swirll, which will be so fun when we make our own wine. And I got Darren two cooking classes for us at Sur la Table. I can't wait to post those pictures.

Can you see a theme: homebrew, wine, and amazing dinners! Yes that's why Darren and I are hurting to work it out.. :)

What I haven't been posting..

2009-09-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

I know my few faithful loyal readers have noticed a certain piece of information missing on this blog.

A little over two months before I went to Brazil, one of my trip leaders wanted to get the troops rallied and he said something like "You're in marketing...can you come up with a rally cry or even a t-shirt logo to get our team unified?"

The first rule in marketing is that you never do things on your own. You always collaborate with someone. So I reached out to my team member, Darren, who works in advertising.

On a rainy day in March, we got together to brainstorm ideas for our trip to Brazil. Three hours later, we never even talked about our ideas. Six weeks later, he asked me out on our first date.. and the rest is history...

Who would've ever thought that going on a missions trip that I signed up for just because all my friends did, would've turned out this way? God is good!

Oh, and we never did get to those t-shirts!

Long Time No Blog

2009-09-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

My friend, Christine, recently commented to me at an F-L meeting how I hadn't blogged in months. I have no real good excuse except that the perfectionist in me started getting daunted about blogging the perfect thing about Brazil.. and what if I wrote a last follow-up thank you email to my Brazil supporters.. how would that differ from a thank you card I send to them.. and how would that differ from what I write in my blog..

I ended up freezing up..I know, I know.. so silly for just a mere update in my life.

God has been doing a lot of amazing things in my life and revealing tons to me about myself and how much I need Him more. I'm just going to start blogging.. so pardon the randomness that is to come!

Top 5 Things I miss about Brazil

2009-06-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a month since I left for Brazil. I'm still getting my photos organized and thinking through everything. I still have a ton to process through..but in the meantime, I thought I would write about the top 5 things I miss from Brazil.

5. Siesta- We had one every day after lunch for at least an hour. And I always took advantage of that time. :-) There's something about being in that heat that makes you really tired and sleepy.

4. Simplicity of life - Believe me, when I got back, I was excited to take a hot shower, head out to the gym, and wear my high heels, but there was something very refreshing about just being out in the Amazon without a worry in the world and completely remote

3. The beautiful Amazon Jungle- It's hard not love God's creation when you see these things..

Along the Solimoes river

Cuinha

Cuinha at Sunset

2. My new family- When you're in the Amazon with 16 other people on a boat, you become pretty close with everyone. It's like having a new family. And they're the only other 16 people who know exactly what you've been through.

The only picture I have of everyone. Well except for me, since I took the photo

1. Total Dependence on God - There several times on the trip where I would be frustrated or I felt like things weren't going well. But God always shined through. Whether it was feeding the 5000 or me sharing my testimony and encouraging other women who were struggling. It was pretty awesome!

Me gearing up to share my testimony

Feeding the 5000

2009-06-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

One awesome story from Brazil...

I was on the women's team and we got the opportunity to give talks to the women about hygiene and parlay that into how God created women as his most perfect creation..and encourage these women in telling them that they were beautiful.

The typical run down would be:
Hygiene
Testimony
Gospel presentation
Prayer and Gifts

Our gifts were goodie bags full of travel sized shampoos, toothbrushes, nail polish, lotion, etc..

At our 2nd to last village, we had run out of goodie bags and we still had one last session to go to. So just before we entered the last village, my leader, Holly, encouraged us to take our ministry kits (armed with a handful of items should we happen to run into someone on our own) and break them down. We made 21 additional bags. Holly said that we were feeding the 5000. We just prayed that the 21 bags would be enough.

So we had our last session in which ended with a woman weeping on the floor. After we prayed for her it was time to give away the gifts. I counted and told Holly we had 23 women, not enough.. And then she said, "No we have 23! That's a God thing!" It turns out she had found an extra 2 bags at the last minute. God had it all worked out!

It was a great reminder for me to see how God always provides!

The Trip of a Lifetime

2009-05-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your prayers. I got back a few days ago and I have to say that the Amazon might just be the most beautiful place on earth!

It was an honor and privilege to serve and minister to the "Forgotten people" on the Amazon River. It was the biggest blessing to me.

Keep checking my blog. I took about 350 photos so I need to filter through some of those before posting them. In addition, I'm still processing through a lot of what I learned.. So keep checking back.

Thanks!

The Amazon

2009-05-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

It's been 7 months since I first applied to go on short term missions in Brazil with my church, and now it's finally here! I leave today! I'll be returning on Saturday, May 23rd. I'll be serving on the women's ministry team educating women on healthy living and more importantly, sharing the message of God's grace and healing.

I've said it time and time again. I've received such blessings (including receiving full financial support, healing from past relationships, and beginning new ones) prior to even embarking on this journey . I can't wait to see what will happen when I'm actually in the Amazon with my team!

We still need your continued prayers. Please continue to pray for:
- People of the Amazon; that they will be open to hearing the Gospel
- Our team to have unity, boldness, and desire to share the Word; and open hearts to hear God's direction
- The Church in Brazil that we're partnering with and our translators.

Lastly, attached is a blog that is updated daily summarzing our adventures. (Our trip leader calls the States every day from a satellite phone to send updates back in Dallas). http://www.watermarkinbrazil.blogspot.com/ Note, the first Watermark team is already out there. They return to Dallas the same day we leave. You can start reading about their journey. Our trip will be very similar.

Scatterbrained

2009-04-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

I don’t know if it’s the schizophrenic weather or my memory fading at the ripe age of 32, but I have been very scatterbrained lately.

Here is the evidence
-In the past month, I have misplaced my phone at least three or four times
-Last Friday, I left my wallet at work and had to drive up on Saturday to get it
- I can’t find the special toothpaste floss my dentist gave me
- I can’t find my camera, part of the reason why my blogging is so sparse..
- I keep forgetting where I parked my car
- This morning I forgot I had a morning meeting and then ended up walking late into the WRONG meeting
- And as I type this blog, I realized I just sent off an email to the wrong person

However, I think the biggest evidence of my scatterbrainedness (if that’s a word)/ klutziness is a few weeks ago, I was late to a meeting that I was running. My black patent leather heel got caught in my cuffed pants. I took a spill on the Frito-Lay 2A stairs.

I’m not sure what’s happening. The only thing I can think is that I just finished riding a pretty intense wave at work.. Or another part of it is that I’ve been very focused on working out, so a lot of my energies are being thrown that way. So in the mornings, it’s extra hectic as I pack my gym bag or head out to the gym in morning..

Whatever it is, I hope I get out of it soon. I really don’t like being so nutty..

I'm a REAL homeowner..

2009-03-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

So many of you know how hard and scary it was for me to purchase my townhouse. Under the very wise advice of my parents they told me to purchase a house that was new enough that it wouldn't need a lot of repairs, but not brand new so that someone else has broken it in. And, even now, I'm still not done furnishing my house.

Anyways, about 8 months ago, I had my first repair..dunh, dunh, dunh (loud trepidation music). The lights and my alarm clock in my bedroom weren't working. At first I had assumed it was a power outage but when I realized that the bedroom TV and the bathroom lights still worked, I realized something else was up. It was late at night..like midnight or so.. and I finally deduced that something must be wrong with the circuit breakers. (Note I only remember this from living on Camino Lindo when two hairdryers were going at the same time and would suddenly die)..So I ran out to my garage and checked..sure enough I was right..Crisis averted! I was Miss Fix-It! :-)

Well, tonight the same thing happened. I was doing the dishes and my garbage disposal didn't work. It definitely seemed clogged. So, of couse, I did the thing you're not supposed to and started cleaning out the remnants of the clogging with my newly manicured nails, which was disgusting... Suffice it to say it didn't work; and my hands now smelled like curry. Yuck! It was like 11:30, and I don't have a handyman because well, I haven't needed it yet..I'm Miss Fix-It after all..

So I reset the garbage disposal, plugged and unplugged, and unclogged as best as I could.

Finally, out of desperation, I googled "garbage disposal problems" and came upon this website

http://homerepair.about.com/od/plumbingrepair/ss/fix_disposal.htm

It turns out I had a stuck flywheel, which I have never heard of, but I was able to find the wrench that came with the garbage disposal (the wrench was taped under the sink).. And it's working now.. Look out Tim "the Toolman" Taylor!

I think the bigger lesson is to buy semi-new if you can.. for crying out loud, the wrench was still there, talk about making it easy for the homeowner

Cartoon..

2009-03-13T15:19:00.001-07:00

I always wondered what I'd look like as a cartoon and now I know...Cheetos wasn't an option or I would've chosen those!

I'm blessed

2009-03-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today I spent all day being upset about something and dwelled on my own issues.

And then throughout my day, I kept getting news about a few different loved ones who are going through their own difficulties. My problems seemed to pale in comparison to theirs...

I'm so thankful in this day and age to have my health, friends and family that love me and support me no matter what, and a steady job. Thanks God for never giving me more than I can handle..and for being in control.

Yesterday at church, this was one of the verses that popped to me during our time of prayer..

Matthew 6:25-34
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own

Ahhh.. bed head...

2009-02-25T10:59:00.001-08:00

Again, i apologize because it's been a while. Things at work have been crazy lately.. but the latest news is that my hairdresser cut my hair super short into this little bob... The response has been very positive. Everyone thinks that it looks really cute. I should also point out that i haven't had it this short in like 10 years and even then I thought it made my face look fat.. but people have been complimentary..

Anyways, after working out late last night and showering and my hair looked like a terror! Major bedhead.. Normally, I could have done the trusty old ponytail but with my short hair this is no longer possible. I should have taken a picture but it wouldn't have been safe for work.

I'll post a picture soon of the new do..

From the Inside Out

2009-02-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is a song that we've been singing a lot at church lately. It's been a great blessing to me. I hope it blesses you too.

A thousand times I've failed

Still Your mercy remains

And should I stumble again

I'm caught in Your grace

Everlasting

Your light will shine when all else fades

Never ending

Your glory goes beyond all fame

Your will above all else

My purpose remains

The art of losing myself

In bringing You praise

Everlasting

Your light will shine when all else fades

Never ending

Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul

Lord I give You control

Consume me from the inside out

Lord let justice and praise

Become my embrace

To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else

My purpose remains

The art of losing myself

In bringing You praise

Everlasting

Your light will shine when all else fades

Never ending

Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul

Lord I give You control

Consume me from the inside out

Lord let justice and praise

Become my embrace

To love You from the inside out

Everlasting

Your light will shine when all else fades

Never ending

Your glory goes beyond all fame

And the cry of my heart

Is to bring You praise

From the inside out

Lord my soul cries out

In my heart and my soul

Lord I give You control

Consume me from the inside out

Lord let justice and praise

Become my embraceTo love You from the inside out

EverlastingYour light will shine when all else fades

Never ending

Your glory goes beyond all fame

And the cry of my heart

Is to bringYou praise

From the inside out

Lord my soul cries out

Out of Touch

2009-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I've been so out of pocket for a while. The past few weeks have been really hectic personally and professionally.. My family has been giving me a hard time because they have absolutely no clue as to what's been going on in my life.

Recently things have been busy at work.. Somehow things are just more intense right now. And I've been busy with church lately as well as I begin to prepare for a trip to Brazil. Part of my training was a class called "Finding Your Mission" Class which recently ended. It was really enjoyable. I felt like I learned more about myself through the process. I've also been attending Celebrate Recovery, which has been awesome..

More to come about some of the neat things going on in my life..

Congrats!

2009-01-21T22:17:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, my girlfriend from my community group, Kelly, got married. By the way, since I joined the group in November 2007, she's now the 2nd one to get married and there's a 3rd one who will get married in August.

My community group has been one of my mainstays in Dallas and Kelly, in particular was one of the first people I connected with at Watermark. If it wasn't for her, who knows if I even would have stayed at Watermark as my church? And she always reached out to me over the past year when I was going through my struggles. I'm so thankful for her friendship and I'm so happy for her!
Congrats to Kelly and Joel!

PS. This is the only picture that has everyone from my community group..We're usually always missing at least one person!

Fiesta Bowl

2009-01-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

I must admit that one of the best perks about working for a big company is that..well, it's big. My former team got an award for turning around our business, and as a result we all got to go to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix.

Going to the game alone would have been awesome.. But then we got tickets at the 50 yard line and in the 3rd row..And then we got the rock star treatment.. And then to top it all off, I got to bring a friend with me. So I brought one of the girls from my community group, Liz who is a die hard Texas fan.

Here's a rundown of the day:
Saturday (Jan 3)- Walked around the resort and we had an awards ceremony that night for everyone (especially from the sales side). And my old team got special recognition..
The best part of the awards night was hearing coaches from both teams speak. Most of my friends were in awe of Mack Brown, the coach from Texas.

Sunday (Jan 4) - Spa day and then program focused on tailgating through the ages..with all kinds of yummy food... We also got to hear the Fox Sports Announcers break down the game..

Monday (Jan 5)- The big game. Not only did we get to go to the VIP tailgate, but we had the best seats in the house! It was awesome! The only unfortunate part is that the seats were in the ohio state section, but other than that, it was a great game. BTW, I bought a burnt orange t-shirt. I just couldn't root for Ohio State. I really wanted to wear my Maize and Blue, but i thought for sure I would get my butt kicked..

Check out the pics below...

My dad is famous

2009-01-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

Remember how I mentioned in my previous post that my parents went to the pawn shop in Vegas. Well, it turns out my dad got interviewed when he went the day after Christmas.. Check it out!

Home and then some for the holidays (Now with Photos!)

2009-01-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last week and a half or so back home in Southern California visiting and reconnecting with people from all walks of my life, which has been really nice.

However, one quick story about the holidays... Our family dinner was on Christmas Eve. We hosted a few of our family friends. As usual, Mom made her prime rib, which is always delicious. On Christmas morning, after we had opened our presents, we decided to go to an impromptu trip to Vegas...

Mom and Dad had just come back from there a few weeks ago and had a great time. We figured that no one would be in Vegas for Christmas..Who would want to drive all that distance on Christmas day?
My faithful Chinese readers know that I'm setting up the story because a lot of Chinese people go to Vegas for Christmas. In fact, there are even concerts with Chinese big name performers to address this clientele!

We hopped into our 13 year old Toyota Previa at 1:30pm and after a 6.5 hour drive in which my sister had to drive through the snow, that's right.. the SNOW.. we finally arrived in Vegas..

And where do we go, once we arrive in Vegas? To Spring Mountain Road (also known as Chinatown). My parents insisted that we go to this noodle house to have some won ton mein (English translation: won ton noodles). After all, we ate American food the night before and after a long drive, we had to have some Chinese food because it's qing qing dei (English translation: light) and as my mother always says it makes us very shue-fuk (English translation: soothing or comfortable).

For those who know me, I've blogged in the past that won ton mein is one of my favorite comfort foods. Fortunately, it was really good, better than how it is in LA.

After checking into our hotel, I went down to the casino to gamble..and yes, I lost some money..$3 in penny slots.. The good news is that I did pick up a couple of items at the Las Vegas premium outlets and I even ran into two of my b-school classmates, Katy and Michele, there! It was awesome to run into them...

Oh yes, while I was outlet shopping, mom, dad and auntie were at a pawn shop.. That's their thing going to a pawn shop. But what's really funny, is that my dad got interviewed for the local news. I'm trying to find the footage online. If I find it, I'll post it!

Of course, after a long rigorous morning of shopping , we reconvened at the Japanese buffet at the mall, Makino,... and then hopped in our Previa.

So just to recap.. that's how the Chinese roll when doing Christmas:
1. Driving in a minivan
2. Eating Chinese food
3. Gambling
4. Waking up early to go shopping
5. Eating buffets
6. Driving home..
Sometimes there's more gambling involved, but that's what we do for Christmas

Here are some photos from Christmas and New Year's that my sister took!

Vacation in India (long post)

2008-12-07T20:53:00.000-08:00

After working for 15 months, I finally took my first real vacation while at Frito. One of my closest friends from business school, Srinivas, got married over Thanksgiving weekend in India which gave me the perfect excuse to go. Here's a quick rundown of my trip.

Wednesday, November 26th- I left Dallas. I only mention this because as I was getting on the plane, the attacks in Mumbai were happening. I didn't even know until I landed on my layover in London. Fortunately, I was flying to Bangalore and so I was not impacted at all. Of course, this was a heavy topic throughout the trip, but I feel fortunate to have made it safely. God's traveling mercies were definitely upon me.

Friday, November 28th- Another friend from business school, Eric, and I met up in the London airport and flew to Bangalore. Once we got to Bangalore, we took another flight to Mangalore, which is actually a really small town about an hour's flight away. A driver picked us up, and took us straight to Sneha's (Srinivas' fiance's house).

It was great meeting Sneha and I was very impressed by her family. We got there at 8:30 and there was a whole spread of food ready for us to eat, including some spicy curry. :-) I think Indian people are a little bit like Chinese people, in that they're constantly feeding you. I appreciated the hospitality. While we were eating, Srinivas showed up and we had a nice visit.

In the afternoon, we were reunited with Joyce, another classmate, who managed to travel some 36 hours from another wedding in Thailand. As you know, there has been quite a bit of controversy in Thailand as well, with the Bangkok airport shut down. So we felt fortunate that Joyce not only made it, but she made it in time for all the other festivities. The reunited bunch along with two of Sneha's aunts took us to the local mall to go shopping so we could wear the appropriate attire for the festivities.

When we came back from the hotel, our other classmate, Margot and her mother, Mary, who had been traveling in Wayanad and Mysore before the wedding ,joined us. So we were all there, 4 Ross Friends plus a mom!

In the evening, two families hosted a Henna Party, which was a time for the families to get together and hang out. It was sort of like a rehearsal dinner. There was an open bar and some roasting of the bride and groom. In addition there was a dance floor on which we got our boogie on. Meanwhile, there were 4 women doing Henna for all the female partygoers. I was told that the Henna party is not very traditional but showcases how the families are so liberal. It was a ton of fun.

Saturday, November 29th- We spent the morning relaxed getting pedicures at a local salon and in the evening was the official engagement ceremony, which symbolized the two Indian families meeting for the first time. There were all these rituals where the groom is greeted by the brides' parents but I just thought it was lovely to see all these women in their sarees.

Another highlight was eating off a banana leaf with my hands directly. Srinivas said I was a natural. I just wanted that darn food in my mouth!

Sunday, November 30th- The actual wedding day. The ceremony went from 8-3:30. Unfortunately, my camera battery died pretty early on so I don't have a picture of the clothing I wore on the wedding day. Suffice it to say that it was really nice..not nearly as beautiful as the custom made sarees, but nice nonetheless.

It's actually interesting. No one was there when the ceremony started. And this ceremony was very ritual based with a lot of symbolism. There was even a point when Srinivas had to act like he was fed up with the idea of marriage and wanted to leave and study for enlightenment. Now, it is just an act, and Sneha's parents had to pretend to guide him back. It was actually pretty funny...all this melodrama.

The wedding ceremony culminated at 11:52 which was the auspicious moment picked by the fortune teller. Coincidentally, the wedding got very full at this time. I suppose everyone showed up for some free lunch, which was again, food on a banana leaf that had to be eaten by hand. And, of course, all these people took off after lunch too. I think that's just the custom at these big weddings.

Meanwhile, there was still about 2.5 hours worth of rituals. By 3pm we were done and we decided to explore Mangalore and ended up eating ice cream at Pabba's, which was THE place to be. I suppose it gets so hot in India, that ice cream is something people consume all the time.

That night, Srinivas' uncle hosted a 50 year anniversary party at the Mangalore club. With all the relatives in town, it made sense to have a party even if the anniversary wasn't until next year. It was nice because we got to have some downtime with Srinivas and Sneha and relax.

Monday, December 1st- Believe it or not there were still more ceremonies. However, Srinivas and Sneha were nice enough to advise us that it wasn't a mandatory. Margot and her mom headed back to the States. So Eric, Joyce, and I hopped in an autorickshaw to this one hill in Mangalore that had a chapel and a school combined called St Aloysius College Chapel. Near it, was a nice little park called Tagore Park. We did join the festivities just in time for lunch and then we headed to Pabba's again, this time with Srinivas and Sneha. They were very nice in treating us for dessert. This was the last time we saw Srinivas and Sneha. With warm hugs goodbye, we all went our separate ways.

Srinivas and Sneha were headed to Chennai while the rest of us took off for the Mangalore airport. Joyce was headed back to the States, while Eric and I were headed to Cochin and Kerala.

Tuesday, December 2nd- Eric and I met our driver from Cochin and headed to Alleppey where we hopped on a houseboat on the backwaters of Kerala. If you ever get a chance to go to India, this is an experience of a lifetime. We were on this amazing houseboat where they cooked food for us and all we did was ride these rivers by these tiny villages. It was absolutely breathtaking and an experience I'll never forget.

Wednesday, December 3rd- After an overnight stay on the houseboat, we got picked up by a driver again and toured Cochin. The most interesting part about Cochin is that it was a port town and therefore has influences from the Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch. There is even a Jewish Synagogue. After driving around all day, we headed out to the airport and flew to Bangalore. Because our flight didn't get in until 11pm and we had a 745 flight in the morning, we crashed at the airport.. beginning a long day of travels..

Thursday, December 4th- After staying up all night at the Bangalore airport, Eric and i crashed on our flight from Bangalore to London. Fortunately, our flight was really empty so we both got rows to sleep on. We had a 2.5 hour layover in London and then flew from London to Chicago. I managed to stay awake on this leg to get myself readjusted to time in the States. Eric and I parted ways as I still had to fly back to Dallas. Fortunately, I managed to find a shower at the Admirals Club in O'Hare, thanks to my Aairpass from my employer! i was never so happy to take a shower! After that I made my way back to Dallas. So I started the day at 7:45am in Bangalore and arrived in Dallas at 11:30pm. Including the flight from Cochin to Bangalore, it was some 42 hours of travel! I'm just happy I survived and made it home safely.

All in all a fun trip! I'll write a separate blog about some thoughts afterwards.. but enjoy the pics!

I am blessed.

2008-11-23T12:36:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I would write some of things that I'm thankful for:

A God who loves me despite all my imperfections and demands. He forgives and understands me like no other. He looks out for me in ways I could never see on my own.
A family who is loving and supportive. This past year, I've seen us come and rally together.
Friends across the country who will pick up the phone and listen to my rantings and ravings at a moment's notice; And most importantly, they constantly pray for and support me by providing words of encouragement
An education that has helped to open doors.
A job in this economy, that not only pays the bills, but constantly stretches me by providing me opportunities and people to learn from. And, every so often, the occasional perk comes my way to make me love my company even more.. (sadly, I do love the bones thrown at me. :-) )
A roof over my head in a house that is everything I could have ever dreamed or wished for.
A city that allows me to live an amazing lifestyle
A beautiful world that I've had the privilege to see pockets of - These past few years, I've gotten to see so much and I'll get to see more of it in a few days. I can't wait..

I was challenged last week to think about things that are eternal and to squeeze in the temporal. So in those days that are tough, I pray that you think about those bigger picture things that can help keep you going. After all, life is about both the journey and the destination.

Have a happy thanksgiving!

Tracking progress..

2008-11-20T05:52:00.001-08:00

Part of working at my company has made me much more results oriented.

After 10 weeks of working out with a trainer here's the latest:
Weight down 1.2 lbs
Body Fat% decrease- 3.5%
Fat loss- 4.2 lbs
Lean Mass gain- 3 lbs

In inches
Waist- down 1.75 inches
Hips - down 0.75 inches
Thigh- same (originally, i went down by 1 inch, but I've gained it back..the trainer thinks its the muscle gain)
Calf, biceps, and forearms are all slightly up

It's so cool to be able to see progress!

Huffin' and Puffin' in Austin

2008-11-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

What do you do after a surviving a series of layoffs at work? In my case, you hop in the car with your friend from work and hang out in Austin!

Back in the middle of October, my friend from business school, Eric, was the executive producer of a movie being shown at the Austin Film Festival. So, on Thursday night, my friend, Laura, and I decided to go and on Friday, we hopped in the car and took off and caught a showing of Agent 5.

Thank God Laura is sooo organized. She booked a room and had our Saturday all organized. We went out to Enchanted Rock. At only 1/2 a mile and elevating 400 feet, I didn't think it would be bad, but it was intense. I was huffin and puffin like no other.

Then we stopped off in Fredericksburg and stopped off a several wineries on the way back to Austin.

On Sunday, we stopped for breakfast and randomly ran into one of my old classmate's older brother so we all had brunch together.

Check out the photos!

A marketer's view of the election

2008-11-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

One of the parts in my new role that I love to read different points of view about marketing. You learn a lot about consumers and the way they think.

I read this blog today and found it completely fascinating. Enjoy!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/marketing-lesso.html

Staying Humble

2008-10-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

I've been working out with a trainer for the past two months and it's been great. I feel better about myself.. I've been working out regularly, eating better, and feeling better.

On Thursday, we went to assess. Over the past 7 weeks, I've lost all of 1 pound in total but my body fat percentage has gone down by 1.7%. Most importantly, my waist has gone down 1.5 inches, my hips are down by 7/8 of an inch and my thighs have gone down by 1 inch too.

So as you can imagine I was feeling pretty good about myself...until the next day..

On Friday, I was at the gym again, looking for a treadmill. I was so preoccupied to find a treadmill with a working TV that I didn't notice that it was still going. So I got on and promptly fell flat on my face. I now have bruises and cuts on both knees and on my left wrist. My chin also took a beating. Talk about staying humble..

God definitely didn't want the working out to get to my head. My klutziness never fails!

A forgone summer highlight

2008-10-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Halloween is almost here. I did want to blog about one of my highlights over the summer which is when my family came out to Dallas to visit me back in August. We had a great time. Here's how it went down:

Friday night- They arrive and rested at home

Saturday morning- Saw some of the Olympics action. My family was particularly impressed with my TV and DVR.

Saturday brunch- at La Duni

Saturday afternoon- Visited Dallas' museum's row including The Crow Collection (Dallas' Asian Art Collection, which mom and dad loved), Nasher Sculpture Garden, and the 6th floor museum discussing JFK's assassination, which was awesome. (I really liked it since I had just gone to the JFK library in Boston)

Saturday night- Dinner at the Mansion at Turtle Creek, one of the nicest restaurants in Dallas, courtesy of an award I received at work.

Sunday morning- Church

Sunday afternoon- An open house so that my family could meet friends from church and work.

Sunday night- a light dinner

Monday morning- they were off again.

It was really fun having them in my house and having breakfast and resting in MY house. It was fun staying in this guest bedroom with my sisters. I was really sad to see them go on Monday, but it was a fun visit.

Here are pics from their visit:

How to Stretch Out Your Birthday..

2008-10-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged and I've finally uploaded 3 months of photos. So expect some more posts on the way... Today I thought I'd blog about how to expand your birthday from one day to a week. In case, you didn't know, I just turned 29 for the 4th year in a row and I managed to celebrate from Thursday, September 25 through, Friday, October 3.

Thursday, Sept 25- Fly out to LA and be greeted by mom and her niu-rou mein (beef noodle soup)- Stupid me forgot to take a photo, but it was delish!

Friday, Sept 26- Wake up, drive in traffic for 2 hours to go running on the Strand with Elijah. Also, go to dinner at Roy's in Anaheim with my college roommates, more affectionately known as the family. (Cecilia took photos. I'll post as soon as i have them)

Saturday, Sept 27- My parents hosted a dinner for me. Mom made some of her famous prime rib along with this really delicious seafood medley. Here are some awesome photos!

Wednesday, Oct 1- My real birthday. My new team at work took me out to sushi for lunch. And then for dinner I got to go out with my community group. These ladies have been my new family in Dallas. They've been an awesome support group for me and have truly encouraged me in my faith. I'm a blessed girl to spend my birthday with them. They've helped make Dallas truly wonderful.

Clockwise from right: Kristin, Kristen, Kelly, Me, Roseana, Audrey, and Liz

Friday, Oct 3- My real birthday party. We were able to celebrate at Havana Social Club, where Liz's boyfriend, Rick hooked us up. The guests were a mix of friends from work and my community group, but it was great. The bar was nice but quiet, so it was nice to actually be able to hear each other. Plus, I found an awesome dress at Forever 21. Woohoo! Here are some pics!

I'm a blessed girl to have such great family and friends who I can celebrate with. More on that later..it feel goods to blog again!

I'm such a lame blogger

2008-09-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

So many things have happened over the past few months (July-September) but I find myself completely unmotivated to blog for two reasons:

1. I've been busy with work
2. All my photos are on my b-school computer which is way past it's prime (D*mn you Dell...).. My computer is so slow..

Anyhow, many changes have happened over the past couple of months..but one quick thought...After the leadership summit, I prayed for God to "bring it", and has He brought it indeed! It's fine. I'm in the midst of a refining process of which I'm sure it'll be a sweet picture at the end.

I find myself clarifying my prayer in hindsight saying.. "When I said, 'Bring it!', it wasn't what I meant.. I meant this..." But lesson to all, be careful what you pray for because you just may get it!

The start of fall..I heart Michigan football

2008-09-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I've been such a terrible blogger. I've had plenty of highlights from the summer including a trip to Boston, a visit from the fam to Dallas in the middle of August (which I promise to post soon), a new role within my company, and a small flight over downtown Dallas (more photos to be posted soon too).

There are two great things about the start of fall:
- the fact that my birthday is coming soon!
- And that Michigan football is back! All my Saturdays are going to be devoted to college football! I miss Ann Arbor

Body Language

2008-08-29T08:11:00.001-07:00

Ever since I joined my current employer, I notice I've picked different phrases that everyone around the company seems to use. I won't bore you with the details because it won't make sense to you..but what IS funny is some of my coinciding body language that friends from work and friends from church have picked up on.

Hand on the hip - I totally stole this body language from someone at work and we always laugh when one of us does it.. If you look at one of my pictures from Portland, you can see me posing this way..I usually use this when I'm talking smack or giving attitude.

The Fingerpoint - I usually raise my finger up like a number 1 when I'm trying to make a point.

The Deadly Combo- When I decide to use my right hand with the fingerpoint and put my left hand on my hip, WATCH OUT! I'm definitely making my point and taking no prisoners!

You could say that The Deadly Combo might be the equivalent of a "Come to Jesus" Talk.

One Year..

2008-08-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my 1 year anniversary at my job! In some ways, it feels longer than a year and in other ways, it feels like I just got here..Woohoo!

Leadership Summit

2008-08-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been awesome. I got to attend the Leadership Summit of which Watermark was a satellite location. It was so inspiring to hear about all these speakers really use their passions for God and do amazing things with their gifts and talents. In the next couple of days, I'll update with more stuff, as it was so encouraging. But here are a few key thoughts from Gary Haugen, President and CEO of IJM.

If you want your leadership to matter, lead in things that matter to God. So evaluate the scriptures and find out what matters to him.
If the task seems hopeless, recenter your basis of hope. The task can be done if God is passionate about getting it done
If the task seems scary, remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe, but he came to make us brave. Don't take safe bets. You want the own adventure.. the entire climb.
When the task is hard, we must be in deep spiritual health.
When the task is hard, we must choose excellence. Execute with rigor.
When the task is hard, we must chosse to seize with joy.
In a world of suffering and hurt, we need to undertsand why we have been given so much..

I'll update more throughout the course of the week but it was definitely inspiring.. I feel refreshed and renewed.

I think I'm in love..

2008-08-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

With another city...My friends and I got to go to Portland for sales training. It gives us a better understanding of what it's like in the field. We had to go on our trucks and physically put the bags on shelf. Let me tell you. It is hard work. I started at 4 and ended at 3 and I was exhausted. But I learned a ton and had an awesome time. Here are some photos of my handiwork.

Check out these corrugate displays! This was the best to see product I actually worked on at headquarters in store.

In addition, to those days we got to meet a lot of people in our sales organization and we even got to present "Marketing 101" to the region business team. It really helped me understand how the things I work on get executed.

But onto the fun stuff.. we got there the weekend prior and had a great time... I especially loved running near the water and seeing the mountains. It was perfect weather. See below for a few highlights.

One of the highlights was being able to visit my cousin Vikki and her husband Birch. We had some great quaility time time together!

One of the things I'll remember most along Portland was running along the Waterfront.

From the vista house of the Columbia River Gorge.

The only picture of the 4 of us at Multnomah Falls

At Timberline Lodge where there still is snow, even in the summer.

Fede and Jamin trying the microbrews at Deschutes.

Wine tasting at Sokol Blosser winery in the Yamette Valley

At the Rose Garden

My only regret is that I didn't get to see the Japanese Garden which I heard is awesome! Here are all the pics from the trip.

Catching up!

2008-07-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged. My apologies...Expect to see a few photos. The past 3 weekends I was out of town. I was in Portland for the past two weeks and the weekend prior, I celebrated the 4th of July with my friend Roseana, and her gracious family in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

I was very touched by her family who opened their hearts out to me and welcomed me like I was member of their family. As I mentioned in my previous post (which now has a couple of pictures) I found it to be a great experience as I went with them on a houseboat. It was a great weekend of relaxing, meditating, and experiencing God's love from her family. It was just what my soul needed.

What I didn't post before was the fact that I also got to go on Roseana's family's farm. We got on the 4 wheeler (also a first for me) and toured around the farm. It was absolutely gorgeous as it bordered on a national forest. Below are some pictures.

A weekend of firsts...

2008-07-05T17:20:00.001-07:00

This 4th of July weekend has been a weekend of firsts for me:

My first time to Arkansas
My first time on a house boat

My first time riding and driving a SeaDoo

And the craziest one of all...

My first time to Sonic..

And the weekend ain't over yet! Woohoo!

Homecoming

2008-06-27T05:09:00.001-07:00

I had a great weekend back home last week; hence the prior blog about In-N-Out. Here are a few highlights:

Dessert, dessert, and even more dessert with the roommates. Even though I just saw them in April in San Diego. I was blessed to see them again. Some things never change..great fun and great fellowship.
Seeing the shays and playing "che-che"s (cars with Thomas)
Seeing the Yus..another blessing to me..
Waking up at 6am on Sunday to go buy a Wii
Playing Wii bowling with dad. Of course dad beat me..and I hear mom is kicking butt on Wii tennis.

Surprisingly it was hot in LA..like over 100 hot.. and I think what was the most surprising is that I actually missed my new home in Dallas. And LA wasn't necessarily the sanctuary I thought it was. I think that means I'm getting adjust to my new home.. who would have ever thought that this Cali girl would ever adjust anywhere else?

I Heart In-N-Out

2008-06-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

Three of the four last times I've come back to California, I get off the plane and I immediately request In-N-Out. Fortunately, there are In-N-Outs near LAX and the Burbank airports.

I personally go for the #3, protein style, no onions, and a diet..

Photo from: http://jinaminarex.blogspot.com/2007/07/things-i-love-part-2.html

Pics from El Salvador

2008-06-08T00:17:00.000-07:00

I realized I never posted these.. So awesome!

El Salvador

Expanded Vocabulary

2008-06-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since moving to Dallas, I notice that some of the words I use are changing..Moreover, some of the phrases used down here seem very funny. Here are a few:

Y'all - this is the one most frequently used in my conversation. I remember when Alvin told me that it was very functional, and I totally believe it. Examples include:

"What time are y'all gonna be there?"
"What are y'all thinking?"
Or my personal favorite...Addressing everyone with a sentence, starting with "Y'all, I've got to.."

Lovin' On - this one is what people at church always say..it just means being caring to someone.

"I'm just lovin' on her"..

Hot - this one is a new phrase I catch a lot of people using..To be clear, it's not like Paris Hilton's, "that's hot" and it's not related to appearance. I've heard it used as an adjective.. sort of like "really" This one is also better via examples:

"He is a 'hot' mess" - translation: he is a big disaster
"You're on the tollway for just a 'hot' minute" - translation: You're on the tollway for just a bit.

And my favorite one at work:

Come to Jesus meeting/talk- Here's an example of how I've heard it used.

"[Blank] isn't supporting us even though they told us they were going to.. [Blank] needs to have a 'Come to Jesus talk' "

I've heard that the origins of this phrase are the revival meetings where people go and repent. But the moral of the story is that If anyone ever wants to have a "come to Jesus" talk or meeting with you, RUN away. it means they want to regulate or give you a beat down!

Learnings

2008-05-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

New Communities

2008-05-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been absolutely gorgeous in Dallas. And today, one of the girls in my community group got baptized. In fact, instead of service, the entire church held its baptisms at a park with a lake. It was awesome to watch about a hundred people get baptized at the same time. And at the same time it felt very strange because I was at this park with about 1000 other people and I didn't know many of them...

Sometimes I get really homesick. It's not because it's hard to adjust to Dallas. Nor is it because I haven't found community. I actually have a great group of friends from work and from church, which is awesome. Heck I even love my team at work! In many ways, it's even better because it's not as tied to busyness.

However, what makes it tough is that you miss that history with people. When I'm back in California, I never have to try to figure out what message I'm sending out to people. I don't always have to be "on". I don't have to worry about what I'm saying and how it'll be perceived. I don't have explain my thoughts or who I am to people because it's simply understood because my friends know me.

I trust that it'll happen in due time while I'm here in Dallas.. it's already starting.. In fact, my friend and I had a great conversation a couple of nights ago at dinner talking about the last 50 years and how psychology has really taken off and whether or not we believe in it... which is a great testament to our friendship and our differing views... I just have to be patient and be willing to build those friendships.

Roommate reunion

2008-05-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I've been very busy working in the midst of our hectic AOP (annual operating plan) season. That said, I did manage to sneak away to San Diego a few weekends ago, to reunite with those of us who lived in our townhouse on Mahaila. It was awesome to see old friends, and I'm always encouraged when I see them. God has granted us an special bond that I'm so grateful for. For me, it's a blessing to be with people who I have such a long history with. We don't have to pretend, and I feel extra blessed to have people I can completely be me with.

Friday, Denise found this fun restaurant/club at Stingaree. Dinner was delicious and we had a ton of fun dancing the night away. I didn't have my camera that night, so I don't have photos, but it was a fun time had by all. Saturday, we went to visit our old campus. Of course, now there are several more buildings, but it was still nice to walk around. Here are some pictures of us around the campus.

Hmm.. there were only five colleges when we were students

This is a study room in the new Price Center East, which is a fancy schmancy quad. There were never these types of study rooms when we were in school. And we found a copy of the newspaper, the Guardian, which was delivered by our friend, Pablo.

Our library is called Geisel library. Sam Geisel was Dr Seuss and resided in La Jolla. Here's me trying to be like The Cat in the Hat.

Sunday, we walked around Seaport village. It was a beautiful day and it was awesome to walk around and relax. Being that I'm the Texas girl now, I insisted that we see the water. Here's a shot of me..

Mighty to Save by Reuben Morgan

2008-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

This is a song we sing a lot at church. When I sang it this morning, I was particularly encouraged. It reminds me that nothing is too big for our God and how freely and how openly He takes care of his lambs..

Everyone needs compassion
Love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations

Saviour
He can move the mountains
For my God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever
Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Shine Your light and
Let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory of the risen King
Jesus

Reflection

2008-04-06T11:01:00.001-07:00

This past weekend in Dallas was absolutely beautiful. And it was one of those weekends where I felt like I got to enjoy Dallas and my neighborhood.

Mina and I took a walk down to Katy Trail from Knox down to the American Airlines Center. In total we think we walked 4 miles. It was awesome for me to be able to walk the length without my knee hurting! (I sprained my MCL back in January..) I found a new coffeehouse which I'm typing from now. And I got to enjoy some of the local eateries with good friends including:

Kozy Kitchen which had great breakfast with Mina and Jamin
Gloria's which features Salvadorian foods, with Jamin
Pappasitos, awesome Tex-Mex with Kelly and Roseana.

On Friday, Kelly and I went to a singles' ministry event at church called The Dive. It was a good way to kick-start the weekend and also forced me to think about my life and all that's happened in the past year. Here are some quick thoughts:

It's been almost a year since I graduated from grad school. Yikes!
Like it or not, I'm now a responsible adult as a homeowner, and I need to start acting like it.
I need to start bringing my whole self in all aspects of life.. work, friends, and church rather than separate them out..
I need to be more responsible with the blessings that God has given me.
I'm getting old..I actually need to sleep more to accomplish what I want to in life.
I need to remember that things of the world are only temporary..therefore I invest accordingly...I'm still trying to figure out how.

new computer

2008-03-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

The lease was up on my old work computer, so I got a new one. It's so cute and little! It's so much better than my ghetto b-school one!

holidays in march

2008-03-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

This blog is in response to my sister who complains that I don't blog enough! Somehow the month of March has gotten me all thrown off. Perhaps it's because Daylight Savings was early this year. I've been ultra tired..and it's been tough to wake up early in the morning.

Regardless, the month of March has flown by between flying back to LA, St. Patty's, and Easter. I will say that it is nice being in warm weather after 2 years of snow during March and April. It's nice and warm and it does feel more like spring out here.

The past few weekends I've spent hanging out with a lot of coworkers. It's funny, I never knew how big St. Patty's was until I moved out to Ann Arbor and heard about what a holiday was in Chicago. It turns out that it's a big day in Dallas. They literally close down one of the streets in Dallas to have a "parade". Note the word parade is used very liberally since people just make these cheesy "floats" and drink on them. We also went to one of my coworker's house who was hosting a big party at his new place. The weather was perfect.. announcing that Spring time was here.

This was probably the nicest float I saw..it was definitely not like the Rose Parade

Cheryl, Katy, and I

Easter was nice too. I went to church, which was awesome! They had an orchestra and everything. It never ceases to amaze me how differently church is viewed in Dallas. People were in their Easter best all dressed up in their heels and dresses..men in their seersucker suits. And then later for dinner, my friends from work, Cheryl and Moe, hosted an easter dinner with all the "fixins"..Easter ham, two types of potatoes, green bean casserole, and cookies, and brownies. it was delish! We even had an easter egg hunt/fight.

Surprise!

2008-03-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

I flew into LA this past Saturday to surprise my mother for her 40+ year old birthday.. Apparently, you stop counting birthdays after 40.. though I've personally stopped counting after 30.. The dinner itself was a surprise to my mom, but she definitely didn't expect to see me.. Someone captured the exact moment my mother saw me.. She was definitely surprised and she reached for the tissues afterwards.

Anyhow, it turned out to be an efficient trip, as during my time in "hiding" I got to hang out with the Shays, and meet the latest addition to the clan, Rachel, and I got to hang out with the Yus. Little Andrew thought it was so awesome that I rode in their family car.

And today, I got to go to BOL and meet little Micah, the latest addition to the Lee clan. Of course, it was as well as hang out with the Lens, Tanya, and Elijah too..

Going home is always great.. after a week of bi-polar weather in Dallas, it was wonderful to be in 78 degree weather. In addition, I got to eat a ton of Chinese food.

Big ups to MJ for finding me a great deal online and MC for driving me around for the day!

March in Dallas...

2008-03-03T19:58:00.000-08:00

It's only in dallas that:

You can spend your Saturday afternoon sitting in the patio at a bar with flip flops on, and then migrate to your friend's place and drink on a roof top, and walk down the street for dinner and walk home late at night still in your flip flops..

Only to find on Sunday, you wake up going to church with it dark and cloudy, and you end up taking your trash out just in time before a thunderstorm hits..

And then you find yourself on Monday driving to work in 30 degree weather.. On your drive back home, you drive in the dark with snow flurries because it's just below freezing.. what's worse is that the roads aren't conditioned for slickness!!

I do miss LA just a little...

PS. Happy birthday to my dear mom!

Working, playing, and weight loss...

2008-02-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I've been such a lame blogger. Things at work were really busy the past few weeks. We had a big presentation, an analysis of our business to our senior leadership. The weeks leading up to the presentation were pretty intense as I was doing a lot of datamining. I can now honestly say that I am much more familiar with our systems at work..

Beyond that, things are going well. I'm getting more settled at work. I just hit the 6 month mark this past week and I feel like things are clicking more.. and scarily enough, people are asking me questions that I actually know the answers to. Wowza!! As you already saw, a lot of the stuff I was working on, is now hitting the stores. This past Friday, we did our market tours and I got to see it on shelf, which was super cool. It is a great point of satisfaction, and I don't think it'll ever get old to see your stuff in the flesh..

Of course, it hasn't been all work.. A lot of friends have been visiting. A couple of weeks ago, both Damon and Pablo came into town for work and I was able to have dinner with both of them on separate nights. Both Damon and Pablo were very generous in treating me to dinner and they both checked out my pad, which was awesome.. It's great to be able to share a pocket of my life to people.

Lastly, I've been doing the South Beach Challenge at work..We basically go by the most # of days you stick to the diet and there is a $100 entry fee and the top 4 people get some sort of cash prize but between me being sick and having friends in town, there's no way i'm going to win the challenge.. Regardless I've lost about 10 pounds in total, and I'm feeling a ton better. My clothes are looser and my face is thinner, which is great.. :) I guess $100 to lose 10 lbs is still pretty good. It goes until the end of February so maybe I'll actually get to my goal weight soon!

I haven't forgotten about posting vacation pictures. I'm waiting for my friend to return my jump drive to me so I can get another friend's pictures, and then I'll post up a ton more stuff..

One more shout out.. my friends Matt and Carina just had a beautiful baby boy. I feel so honored because I actually helped in naming him.. Don't worry his name's not Mason.. but it's a pretty cool name nonetheless.

woohoo

2008-02-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.undergroundchicago.com/2008/02/happy-big-game-day.html

I'm really NOT a blogging machine

2008-01-27T15:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to my faithful readers (all 5 of you) that is..The month of January has flown by and I've been so busy that I haven't updated lately..There's been some great stuff..

Jan 14-17 - Annual marketing department offsite in Miami..where we had some awesome speakers and we finally got to perform our Follies.
Jan 17-21 - From Miami a few of us flew to El Salvador, which is an amazing country. It was my first time in Central America, and I definitely love it. It actually made me miss California a little!
Jan 22- We kicked off the South Beach Diet at work. There are about 9 of us, who are doing a challenge focused on the number of days you can stick to the diet.. Unfortunately, I'm definitely going to lose the challenge because...
Jan 22-24- I got really sick..I ate something bad in El Salvador and had to stay at home sick.. For those of you who know me, I hate staying at home.. so it definitely wasn't pleasant.. Fortunately, with some help from some antibiotics, I got better just in time for..
Jan 25- The Lakers-Mavs game.. I got some really great tickets which worked out perfectly since my friend Srinivas was in town for some training..
Jan 25-27- Srinivas' visit prompted some visiting with fellow Ross alums.. it's always good to see one of your good friends from school. It was great having him in town..

Phew! I told ya I was busy.. And believe it or not, I think I have some pictures almost all the events listed above. I'll post them soon! Stay tuned...

How depressing!

2008-01-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's a beautiful day in Dallas. It's 77 degrees, and naturally, I decided to go for a run. I used to be able to run 3.5 miles without any problem. However today, I could only run 2 miles... Now I'd like to think that it was warmer than I was used to, or that because it was later in the day and I wasn't in my ideal state.. However, the reality is that I think I'm out of shape again. Darn those holidays got to me again!

For all you college football fans..

2008-01-04T06:13:00.000-08:00

Check it out...

www.unificationbowl.com

I'm a blogging machine!!!

2007-12-22T07:38:00.001-08:00

On this busy travel day, I'm enjoying yet another perk.. I'm sitting in the Admirals Club having a sip of coffee.. It's so nice to be able to sit and work on stuff.. On the flip side, I'm actually working... I'm answering some surveys about my peers on how their viewpoints/usage of work, life, balance.. ironic, huh?

another perk from work..

2007-12-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

We had to pay for these tickets but one of the benefits is you get to order tickets in advance of the season.. In case you didn't know Cowboys games are almost always sold out, but Frito goes ahead and buys some tickets. We're in row 5 of the Cowboys Redskins game, but look at how close we are!

The Real Texas - YeeHaw!

2007-12-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

I'm procrastinating on packing.. Last weekend, I got to visit Hill Country, Texas with my friends Jamin, Cheryl and Hollie. It was awesome, a completely different experience from me. Not only did we stay at Cheryl's home which is on a big plot of land, but I got to see one of Texas' famous singers, Jerry Jeff Walker (JJW) in concert at the Gruene Dance Hall. We also checked out the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio. My personal highlight was learning how to two-step. But I think the highlight for Cheryl and Hollie was riding the mechanical bull. I have the pictures on my computer but out of respect for Cheryl and Hollie..I'm not posting them..

Jamin, me, Cheryl, and Hollie at the JJW concert

Cheryl teaching Hollie how to two-step

In front of the public library in Boerne, TX

The Alamo

Sunny day...

2007-12-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

Sweepin' the clouds away on my way to where the air is sweet...I was so happy to fly back from Ann Arbor (where it was literally 25 degrees and cold, nasty, and slushy) to Dallas where it was 80 degrees, sunny and gorgeous. I was so happy when I landed and saw the sun!

Yes. It was a fun filled week as I got to go to Ann Arbor on Thursday to recruit at the annual Marketing Symposium where all the companies come to meet 1st year MBAs. I love recruiting because I get to meet new people and tell them how great my job is.. Many of them even remember when I presented a day in my life back in October, which was neat. The other great part is that I got to see many of friends who are now working at other companies.

On Saturday, I got to go to a Michigan hockey game and sit in the student section which was a lot of fun. The hockey fans are really into the game and they have really fun cheers talking tons of smack to opposing teams.

However, before I left for Ann Arbor, I had a great team bonding experience with my colleagues. Our team had an outing to the Dallas Mozzarella company, where we learned to make Mozzarella cheese together. It was an awesome experience because the owner, Paula, had an amazing story about how she studied cooking in Italy, and later moved back to the States and saw a need to make the cheese here, and started selling her cheeses to restaurants, meeting restaurants consultants like Wolfgang Puck and Julia Child..Now she's written two cookbooks and her cheese gets sold to distributors nationwide. We got to tour the facility and see how she runs her business. It's inspiring to business people like us to see how you can marry your passions with business.

Homecoming

2007-11-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

This past Thanksgiving was the first time I've been home since moving to out to Texas. It was a good time to be back for a lot of reasons.. good Chinese food, no work, the ability to sleep in, time with friends, the list goes on and on..

I think the reason going home is always nice though is that it gives me a chance to revert back to my kid-like world..No longer am I the girl who is working on crazy deadlines, the girl who has to think about the mortgage, or the girl who's new in town and has to make new friends, but I'm the girl who gets to sit at home again and be kid again.. I know, I'm spoiled..

Going home is also good because it gives me time to think and reflect. I realized how homesick and lonely I've been since moving out to my place. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret moving out, and I'm very thankful for the opportunities given to me.. but I realized that the transition between going to school and moving to a new city and working again has been harder than I thought. I suppose it's a part of growing up...

my day off and my girl's birthday

2007-11-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

After working many long hours over the past couple of weeks, I decided to take the day off today so I can catch up and do stuff around the house, go furniture shopping without the big crowds, and go to the spa. I'm so excited!!! More importantly, though, I really wanted to give a shout-out to my girl Carina who turns the big 3-0 today. I thank God so much for bringing Carina into my life. We've gone through a ton together from being big sis/lil sis in college to confidantes as roommates in Torrance in our twenties. There were so many Fridays we'd stay up talking the night away!

Now we're in different states at different points in our life with me living in Texas, starting my post MBA career, while Carina is about to become a mother of two. But I'm thankful that she's only a phone call away and always there to listen!

This is the only recent picture I have with Carina.. Carina, we need to get some more photos together!

humdrum and one interesting a-ha

2007-10-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not blogging much lately. There's not a ton to report right now. Just working a ton and trying to get used to life as a working stiff again... I guess it's just more transitions..

It's been great getting to know people at work. I have some "peeps" that I've become very close to.. which is important.. you need friends at work to vent to.. So I'm grateful for that.. We hang out on weekends pretty often, so it's nice having friends to go out with. I need to start bringing my camera out so y'all (yes, I actually have started saying y'all) can see what they look like.

I've been getting used to working and eating again. It was hard in the beginning being surrounded all the time by food and sitting at a desk all day. But we started a Workout challenge (Michigan vs. Texas) at the office recently and that started getting back into a workout regime. The loser has to wear the opposing team's garb and sing the fight song of the winning team at our offsite in January. I don't ever want to sing another fight song other than "Hail to the Victors" so I've been working out pretty often.

The one part of the transition I'm not liking is the inability to sleep in. I'm usually up by 6am on weekdays and asleep by 11 or 12. On weekends, I wake up at 8am. Ugh.. I realized I was becoming a working stiff when that started happening..

I leave you with one interesting thought i had one day.. I was thinking about my career path.. and how I never wanted to do sales. But the one thing I realize now is that I'm constantly selling something at work.. whether it's an idea, my point of view, or just plain me.. I'm constantly selling something.. In a way, we all are "selling" something.. it's just a matter of how good your message is, which is why communication skills are so important.. Yes, this is my big a-ha right now.. I wish I had known this earlier in my career.. it would have changed so many things..

Another year older

2007-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

I turned yet another year older this past Monday.. Many thanks to those who remembered my birthday. I'm thankful that so many people sent out their birthday love. So how does one celebrate when she turns 29 for the 3rd year in a row?

This year I got to hang out with my coworkers. A bunch of people from my start class took me to sushi and dancing. You know it's a great night when everyone talks about how much fun they had on Monday morning. Unfortunately, I forgot to stick the memory card in my camera, so I don't have any pictures that capture the event. Someone else had a camera, so I'll have to see if I can get my hands on those.

I've been spending a lot of time with my coworkers lately. I think it's because we're all new to Dallas and it's nice to try to conquer it together. It's funny. Two years ago, just before bschool, I clearly remember telling a fellow classmate who is a loyal reader of this blog (you know who you are), how worried I was about moving out to Ann Arbor and not being able to celebrate my birthday with my loved ones. But this year I wasn't worried and here's why:

At my graduation, my little sister commented on how God has always provided me with a community wherever I go.. I think it's because, as a true extrovert, I would never survive anywhere without a good support group. So I know that He always provides anywhere I go.. Cliche I know, but it's the truth!

And speaking of support groups, on my real birthday, Alvin and Bethany took me out for a nice quiet dinner. I'm so grateful for their friendship here in Dallas. It's made the transition much better for me. I'm sure I bored them with details about the job, but it was nice time with them. Most notably, Alvin commented on how much his life had changed since moving to Dallas and how being in California seemed like a lifetime ago. I can't wait to see how my life transforms out here too!

Laryngitis

2007-09-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

Apparently, minimal hours of sleep, drinking too much wine, and screaming at the top of your lungs watching Michigan beat Penn State will make you have laryngitis...

I got to go back to Ann Arbor to recruit for my company. It was really weird being on the other side, but a lot of fun too. I also got to stay in Ann Arbor for the weekend. I had a ton of fun with my friends Laura and Elise. It was great being back. In a lot of ways I felt like I had never left.

my lovely hostesses..

And fortunately for me, several other Class of 2007 people were in town recruiting for respective companies. It was nice seeing familiar faces about and around - Chris, Terri, Neda, Steve, Mina, and Mike. It just reaffirms how strong the Ross network is..the sense of familiarity and kinship you have with your fellow b-schoolers.

me and Chris walking around the diag

me, Steve, Terri, and Neda at Wine Club

Mina, Mike, and me at the Bus

Somehow being back there, conjured up all the things I loved about business school.. the carefreeness of being a student, the beautiful fall leaves, the fresh air, the ability to walk to the other side of town in 10 minutes and still feel completely safe, and of course, tailgating at the Bus.

There's a part of me that's sad about missing business school, but there's another part of me that's happy that it holds such a dear part in my heart. It confirms that I made the right decision to uproot my life to go to bschool.

No longer a student

2007-09-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

It's been 4 weeks at work and I've been a homeowner for 6 weeks. I have accepted the fact that work will simply be crazy for a bit, until I learn the business. They say that the first 3 months are the most hectic and that there's a moment where it finally clicks. I hope it's true!

Working for a food company has some issues. You're surrounded by food everywhere. So I try to work out during the week. Last week I was not so successful with my workout regime, and I realized how cranky I got when I did not work out. I try to never go more than three days without some form of exercise.

In other homeowner news, I finally bought my bed. I've been in and out of West Elm every weekend looking and admiring and I finally made the plunge today. And I bought a Simmons Beautyrest mattress. It was more than I wanted to spend but a good night's rest is worth it.

Back to Work

2007-08-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since I joined the work force again. The first week mainly consisted of HR benefits, on-boardings with partners, and "absorption of the business".

The first week ended on a positive note, as someone provided company tickets to the Cowboys-Broncos, pre-season game (talk about perks!). My friend from b-school, Nick drove up from Austin to go to the game with me. Sadly, it just wasn't the same as the Big House. I suppose Pro Football will never match up to College Football.

This past week, I started taking ownership of projects. It's a little overwhelming to say the least, but I'm hoping that at some point, things will start clicking in my head. Slowly but surely.

I think these past two weeks can be summarized as a series of adjustments:

Adjusting to working long days again
Adjusting to learning about a new business and all its acronyms
Adjusting to having food all around me again
Adjusting to having to wake-up early to work out so I can deal with the temptation of food all around me
Adjusting to running errands and cleaning the house on weekends again
Adjusting to going to bed early
Adjusting to catching up on emails at home

Of course not all adjustments are bad. I did get my first paycheck this week, which was a great adjustment!!

TV Buying 101

2007-08-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

All you tech geeks will appreciate this one. Over the past week, I have been agonizing over which TV to get... Last week at Starbucks, I was completely overwhelmed reviewing the various options online:

LCD vs. Plasma
42" vs. 46" vs. 50"
720p vs. 1080p
Samsung vs. Sharp vs. Sony vs. Vizio
Delivery vs. picking it up myself

Fortunately, my friend, DLee came into town and we headed out to the store together and checked out all the TVs at the same time. He explained to me that TVs can pretty much be adjusted whatever way to look comparable. As for my concerns about the differences of everything, here are a few snippits of our conversation.

LCD vs. Plasma

DLee: Plasma uses more electricity but has better contrast. Can you tell the difference?
Me: Not really.

42" vs. 46" vs. 50"

Me: They're all just so big. I can't tell the difference between 42" and 46"
DLee: You're just not looking carefully. There's quite a noticeable difference.
Me: If you say so.

720p vs. 1080p

Me: What's the difference with the resolution?
DLee: Look really close (I stick my nose up to the screen). Can you see that the squares are much smaller on the 1080p?
Me: Oh yeah! I can see that.
DLee: Ok, now stand back. Can you tell the difference?
Me: No.
(Conversation continues about the future of televisions and how digital television is eventually moving to finer resolution)

After all that, how did we come about the final decision?

DLee: I still think your place is big enough to accommodate the largest size possible. Since you really can't tell the difference between LCD or Plasma, or the pixels. Let's think about the casing. After all, it's going to be sitting in your place. It has to look nice to you. Which TV looks the prettiest to you?

I chose two different TVs that looked pretty to me. One was in my price range while the other one was too expensive. Ultimately, that's how I decided on my TV. Email me if you want to know what I finally chose. But, isn't it so funny that the decision came down to a primary concept we develop when we're small children?

So let that be a lesson to all the TV manufacturers out there. Make your TVs pretty!

Thanks for going TV shopping with me DLee!

Settling in (the ups and downs)

2007-08-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

It's been about a week since I first moved into my place. It's coming together slowly but surely. I have the washer/dryer now. Now all I need is the TV. My friend from school, who happens to be in town visiting his folks, is going TV shopping with me today!

I was so excited the other day when I realized I finally had my walk-in closet organized the way I wanted. But then I started attacking my office materials. How do I have so many books? I thought I never read in b-school. And then, all my boxes from California came..what in the world?!? Ai-yai-yai!

Transitioning to Dallas has actually been great..thanks to my friends Alvin and Bethany. Not only have they been there to help with the little things (ie. helping me return my rental car, loaning me their power drill, etc.), but more importantly, they've welcomed me into their circle of friends by inviting me to various outings and dinners. It's just easier moving to a new city when you know someone. I thank God for them! Somehow He always provides a community for me and I'm so grateful!

Closing

2007-08-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

I finally have a home! It's been a long process and I have learned a lot from the experience. Man, talk about testing your faith!

Thankfully, my family has been really great during the process. My sisters have been very patient and my parents have been ultra supportive.

Now I understand why people are so relieved when they close escrow. There's just so much beyond control. And sometimes, even afterwards.. It turns out that the owners never left the garage door remotes and the mail key to my place. After a heated discussion with the selling agent, I am on my way to Home Depot.. Hopefully, the craziness ends soon!

A new chapter begins

2007-07-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I'm leaving SoCal and headed down south to Tejas indefinitely. There are lots of mixed feelings going on. On one hand, I'm so excited.. a new city, my own home, a new job, a great company. On the other hand, it is hard to leave all things familiar- family, friends. Even the thought of having to find things like new dry cleaners seems daunting. But then I remember, I felt similarly nearly two years ago when I left for b-school. It turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. And so, I begin this new chapter with a trust and faith that God has it all figured out.

more summer fun

2007-07-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

Another highlight of my summer was spending time with my family. I've been back home for 2 months now, my longest stint since I moved out about 7 years ago. It's been funny (breaking back into the Cantonese), tough (it's hard not to be annoyed with your family when you've lived by yourself for 2 years), yet still enjoyable (hey, family's family right?!). It's just an experience when you realize how well your family knows you - the good, the bad, and the ugly..

This summer our family went to Vegas together. Note the last family trip together was to New York after my sisters' graduated college, and before I went off to bschool. I had already gone to Vegas two weekends prior for a bachelorette party but Vegas with my parents was different.. spending hours at a pawn shop, teaching my family roulette, lots of buffets, and of course, outlet shopping..Here are some pics from that weekend..

Yet another summer highlight

2007-07-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

Early in July, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid for my friend, Denise. Denise and I lived together for 3 years in San Diego. She is hands-down one of my most generous friends with an awesome heart, not to mention a great quick-wit. She's always been my friends that "do things" with.. concerts, Vegas, Seattle, and of course, Ann Arbor. We've been through a lot together over the past 10 years and it's been wonderful to see her as the amazing woman she's become. Her and Carl's wedding has been 13 years in the making.. So it was a great event, a lot of fun, and of course, beautiful. Here are some photos that capture the big day..

Denise was nice enough to take us ladies out to get our nails done the day before.. Oddly enough, almost everyone went with the light pink!

Here are the bridesmaids and the flower girls at the rehearsal dinner. I think it's an attractive bridal party. We were joking that she could have posted the bridesmaid pictures on "Are you hot or not?"

Denise was kind enough to give us gorgeous necklaces and these amazing robes as our bridesmaids gifts.. We definitely liked those!

Denise and her flower girls- Audrey and Priscilla

Here's a great shot of the back of the wedding dress taken by Carina's hubby, Matt..

One reason this was a special wedding was that all the roommates were a part of the ceremony. Here are my girls Cecilia, Carina, and Caris singing at church. They sounded awesome!

And here's our roommate Rachel helping out with the coins part of the ceremony.

Dee and Carl..

Whenever I'm a bridesmaid, people always ask how the dresses look like.. Here's a good shot of myself, Linda, and Josephine..note the matching shoes too..

Taken in the limo, Carl and Dee's first drink as husband and wife..

Catching Up (Summer Highlights)

2007-07-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a while since I've blogged and the task is only more daunting, the more time passes.

My summer has completely flown by and I can't believe that I'll be working in less than a month. I've been having a great time catching up with people. I feel like I've spent a lot of summer trying to reconnect with friends, old and young, and every phase in-between.

Below are just a few examples:

Old- Old not in age, but in the terms of length of friendship, Thanks to myspace, I was able to connect with two different friends from elementary school who I hadn't seen since graduating high school.

Young- And of course, the youngsters.. the little ones I blogged about a while back are now huge. They're like little adults. I mean, seriously.. like they're so tech savvy.. web cams and all.

And of course, there's a whole crop of kids that I've gotten to know better too. I'm bummed that I don't have pictures of all of them. Besides it wouldn't be fair to post pictures of some but not all.. So I'll just give them all little shout-outs in the "J-Lo" format (those Asian last names really lend themselves to this structure anyways)..A-Yu, C-Lee, A-Len, J-Riggs (x4), ?-Chun, to name a few.

New- It's only been a little over two months since I graduated, but our circle of friends from bschool managed to catch up with one another last weekend in Chicago. We met under the guise of someone's 30th birthday by surprising him at a rooftop at a Cubs game. Really it was an excuse for us to get together before we started working.. But there was much to celebrate: new jobs, new homes, new cars! Here are a few pictures..

That's it for now..This blogger needs to sleep, but many more things to write about..

Busy, Busy

2007-07-03T10:04:00.001-07:00

Since coming back to the States, things have been pretty hectic. Between Denise's wedding, which is this coming Thursday, a couple of trips to Vegas, and househunting, I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Hopefully things die down next week! I haven't even managed to regularly check my websites.. like the ones to the right of this.. people.com and pinkisthenewblog.. What is the world coming to?!?!

Luckily, I've still managed to have a good time with reconnecting with friends and family. It feels good to be at home.. I promise to update more later!

Bachelorette Party

2007-06-21T23:50:00.001-07:00

This is a little late, but...my first weekend back in the States was in Vegas for my good friend Denise's bachelorette party. After traveling for 4 weeks in sneakers and a ponytail, it was fun getting glammed up with those vicious high heels (which I paid for later)! Denise was a great sport all weekend wearing whatever bachelorette gear (in this case a tiara) we gave her during the weekend.
Highlights included:

sleeping in Treasure Island's awesome beds.. they're absolutely divine
riding in Rosanne's new BMW
getting pedicures (always a good thing!!)
Denise's fashion show where we rated her bachelorette outfits (I got to be the DJ!!!)
fine dining at Social House
dancing at Pure

And probably the most important..

Spending time with my college roommates.. The entire house from my junior year was reunited..I must say this was my favorite year- living wise. We always knew it was a special house..as we cooked for each other every week, had Thursday TV nights, and laughed incessantly. Along with a few roommates from other years, we've dubbed the group "The Family"

As we've gotten older, we've headed in various directions..some of us with families of our own including kids and/or dogs, some of us moving away, all of us transitioning into new chapters of our lives.. It makes our rare time together that much more sweet! I love my girlfriends and thank God for blessing me with them!

Paris- Day 2 (My last day)

2007-06-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 3 - Michelle headed back home and Jonathan headed on the Germany and Eastern Europe leg of his trip which left me, Margaret, and Mike in Paris. We had a laid back day in Paris- including the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and walking around the Bastille Quarter. That night was a simple dinner with great food near Place des Vosges. We kept it simple since I was headed back to LA the next day.

After a 4 week stint in Europe, I was ready to come home and relax and sleep in the same bed for a while. Interesting to note, by this time I was feeling a lot better but the plane ride back from Paris to LA seemed to set me back in the bronchitis.. No matter, I guess all that matters is that I'm feeling better now.

Here I am in front of the Louvre. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the art as much as I thought I would. It was probably due to the large crowd that was there as it was free admission on the 1st Sunday of the month. Nonetheless, it was nice.

Here are Margaret and I at the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower. I'm scared of heights and roller coasters in general so I didn't even want to go to the top.. I was comfortable with the views from here..

Here's a great shot that Mike took on my camera of me and Margaret. I have to say.. the Eiffel Tower is another one of those sites that absolutely took my breath away. Photos really don't do the thing justice..

Paris- Day 1

2007-06-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 2- A whirlwind day in Paris. Today just happened to be both Michelle and Jonathan's last day on our trip. So Jonathan headed to the Louvre and the girls headed to the Orsay.. The sun, which had been vacant for a majority of our trip, finally decided to show up as we walked along the city...

Here we are at a French cafe enjoying our breakfast

Here we are walking down the Seine River

Here's the inside of the Orsay. Isn't it cool. It was once a train station. It was one of the most unique museums that I've been to.

The Orsay has an amazing impressionist collection. I happen to love impressionism. It's my favorite period. Here's a Renoir painting. I think it's called "The Party". I'm not sure but when I saw it I recognized it immediately.

here are Margaret and Michelle in a hallway at the Orsay. I just snapped it because I thought it would look neat.

While Margaret waited for Mike to arrive, Michelle and I did the tourist thing and took photos in front of the Arc de triumph and walked down Champs de Elysses.

The entire gang, including the newly arrived Mike, decided to head out to the Eiffel Tower to enjoy our last night together.

Here we are attempting to take the Metro to the Eiffel. It actually took a long time from the Bastille. We decided to take a cab the next time.

My first up close view of the Eiffel Tower.

Here we are drinking champagne that Jonathan bought in the Loire Valley. As you can see there are tons of couples and groups sitting and picnicking at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower.

And here I am "cleaned up" at the eiffel tower. We hardly ever dressed up or put on makeup on vacation, but since it was our last day.. I decided to dress nicely.. After all, how often is it that you go to the Eiffel tower?

Bordeaux

2007-06-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 31- After getting in late to Bordeaux the night before, we had one day to enjoy the city known for red wine. Surprisingly, Bordeaux was much bigger than I thought it would be. Unfortunately we did not spend a ton of time in the city. Instead we headed to vineyards just outside in St. Emilion. We visited two vineyards in the area and had some wine tastings at some local cellars. Had the weather been better, it would have been more enjoyable. I would definitely Bordeaux again.

Friday, June 1- We woke up the next day and took a 6 hour drive back to Paris to begin my final leg of the trip..

Here's a cathedral in Bordeaux.

Here's Margaret outside of the first vineyard playing with the water hose.

Here's the city of St. Emilion. It's an incredibly charming small French town.

Here's a picture of the 2nd vineyard we went to. It's exactly how i pictured the French wine country to look like.

Loire Valley

2007-06-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 29- We flew from Barcelona to Paris-Orly on Easy Jet. Just so you know, EasyJet is one of many discount airlines and it's so much cheaper to fly than take the train. Our tickets were 100 EUR. Very reasonable. Immediately upon landing in Paris Orly we rented a car and headed southwest to the Loire Valley, a region known for its white wine!

Wednesday, May 30- We headed to a chateau called Chenonceau. The girls loved it because it was a typical soap opera with King Henry II offering Chenonceau as a gift to his "favorite" (aka mistress) Diana, only to have it taken away from her by Henri's wife, Queen Catherine de Medicis, as soon as Henri passed away..

It was really cool to see all the castle and all the different rooms belonging to different people from different generations. It reminded me of that movie Gosford Park, with Ryan Phillipe in it. Of course, now I wish I had taken more pictures..

The "walkway" on the way into the Chateau...Isn't it beautiful? I felt like I was lost in the forest..

Margaret, Michelle, and Jonathan in front of the Chateau. I admit that it's not the most impressive from the front, but it was gorgeous inside.

This is a gallery on the ground floor. Unfortunately the picture isn't very good. It doesn't capture the fact the gallery is 60 meters long and was used as a ballroom. But the reason I thought it was neat is that in 1914-1918 this gallery was converted to an infirmary.

Here are Margaret and Michelle overlooking Catherine's garden. Adjacent to this garden is Diane's garden..

A shot of half of the kitchen

A picture of the girls trying to piece together the soap opera behind the castle.

Here's Margaret re-enacting Louise of Lorraine. After her husband King Henry III died, she came to Chenonceau to mourn. She instead devoted her life to meditation and prayer.

After the Chateau, we headed to a couple of wineries in Vouvray. The first place we went to, Vigneau Chavreau, had some delicious white wine. In fact this winery actually sells bottles in the US. It was really cool walking around and seeing how they have these caverns of bottles of wine stacked everywhere... Here are some photos recapping everything..

After two winery visits, we were on the road again to Bordeaux..

Barcelona

2007-05-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 27- A day of travel from Athens to Milan to Barcelona. Luckily, all our luggage made it in tact.. Here's a fun photo for your perusal..No caption necessary..

We got to Barcelona just in time to check out the Picasso museum which was great. Picasso spent a lot of his early years in Barcelona. He personally donated a lot of his work, so it seems that much more intimate. A couple of things stand out about the Picasso:

I've never been a huge fan of his work, but seeing his work in person, I really appreciated his techniques and his later interpretation.
Parts of this trip have triggered things in myself that I have forgotten. Case in point: the only non-Picasso piece in the entire museum is one piece by Cezanne, who greatly influenced Picasso with his cubism period. I actually took private art lessons when I was in high school, and copied one of Cezanne's pieces in oil pastels. Seeing this larger than life piece by Cezanne was deeply personal to me.

You can't take photos inside the museum.. so this is the proof that i actually went.

Monday, May 28 - An intense day in Barcelona starting with breakfast at Starbucks, a walking tour of the cathedral district, a visit to the Chocolate museum, a walk near the Aquarium, a walk along Las Ramblas, a visit to Sagrada Familia, and a real tapas dinner in La Ribera district, Barcelona's up and coming restaurant area with new chefs..

Margaret especially requested that I post this picture on my blog. This is just outside the cathedral in Barcelona. Hopefully, you get a sense of the beautiful architecture in Barcelona..

The Chocolate Museum focuses on the history of Chocolate to Europe. However, it is actually sponsored by the Barcelona Confectionary with the most gourmet chocolate for sale known to mankind. They have all kinds of chocolate statues, but I just love this one because I was born in the year of the dragon.

The view from across the harbor. The harbor itself is nothing spectacular. I suppose all port cities are like that. It reminded me of Long Beach. The only difference is that when you look the other way, you don't see amazing architecture like that? Isn't the architecture in Barcelona just beautiful?

Las Ramblas is this famous street in Barcelona with lots of cafes and street performers. My favorite part of Las Ramblas is La Boqueria. It actually reminds me of the LA Farmer's Market next to the Grove. But very vibrant and bright with fresh fruit, candy, and meat!

#83 of Las Ramblas is this little cafe, Art Nouveau Escriba Cafe, which had the best pastries. I had the delicious almond cake at the bottom of the photo. YUM!

Sagrada Familia gets its own write-up. Sagrada Familia is a church that is still under construction and will continue to be for the next 50 years. I've included pictures below but they do not capture how massive thing is. The main architect behind Sagrada Familia was Antoni Gaudi who incorporated elements of nature into his work. He has since passed on but Barcelona is committed to building this church and uses architects with similar styles to continue on the vision.

I personally think Sagrada Familia was awesome because you just don't see churches on a mass scale being built like this. And even at that, this new style of architecture is completely different from any other architecture you'll see in Europe. If there was one must-see in Barcelona, I would have to say it's this..

Here is the most complete part of the church that Gaudi worked on. Again, the picture doesn't capture how huge the building is, and also notice the crane on the left side. There are sculptures molded into the building highlighting the birth and childhood of Jesus' life.

Here's a better view of the type of sculptures you see on the facade of the building. These sculptures highlight Jesus' ministry up until his death.

Jonathan took this great picture which features the modernistic architecture, the cool stained glass, and the construction all around. You can't help but be in awe when you see it all and take it in!
This is a great example of incorporating nature into the architecture. These pillars were designed to reflect trees reaching into the sky. Incredible!!

One other thing worth mentioning... During our stay in Barcelona, we stayed in this 1870s palatial mansion turned to hotel, Hotel Granvia. It was really cool! It sort of had that haunted mansion feel. We kept joking we'd wake up in the middle of the night to find some ghosts..Check out the pictures below..

This is the view down the stairs to the lobby. Just like Disney's Haunted Mansion..

Here's the saloon, or the sitting area of the hotel. The room looks pretty old fashioned aside from the TV on the right and the computer in the back..

Here's a picture of our room. Pretty spacious for a quad. Behind Jonathan is Margaret's bed, which was one of those beds you see on TV where the bed comes out of the wall. We kept joking that she was going to be raised up into the wall in the middle of the night.. my bed is to the left..

And here's a better picture of my bed. If you notice it actually folds up into the cabinet. The first night I felt like I was sleeping in a coffin! Margaret actually has a better picture of me in the bed.. I'll have to post it later when I get a chance..

Santorini and Mykonos

2007-05-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a lot of fun in Mykonos..I personally like it more than Santorini... Today was overcast, so I finally headed to the doctor after two weeks of coughing...Unfortunately, I went to a private clinic, so it turned out to be pricey ..Hopefully, my traveler's insurance will reimburse me.. It turns out that I have a mild case of bronchitis..and then I went to the pharmacy and spent a ton of money on antibiotics and an inhaler.. i hope it works.. Anyways...

May 23, 2007- Santorini- Perissa beach- Margaret, Michelle, and I rented a car to go to the beach on the other side of the island.. This time the beach had black sand (due to the volcano) which makes for a limited beach to me..the good news is that, it started warming up after 3 and we actually got some sun in...In fact, Margaret got crazy sunburnt.. Funnily enough, the only people we saw around were American tourists..We went back to dinner and ate on the cliffs to enjoy our last night in Santorini, which is very charming with lots of little shops..

Here is Perissa Beach.. not the typical golden-sand beach we expected, but beautiful nonetheless

As you can see, it was low season in Santorini..lots of empty beach chairs..

Here's the view from our dinner that night. Isn't it cute?

May 24, 2007- Ferry to Mykonos..We boarded this hydrofoil to Mykonos. I promptly fell asleep due to the Dramamine, which actually was not necessary... We're staying at this gorgeous family run hotel overlooking the city.. It was a sunny day so we headed out to the pool.. enjoying the view.. Trust me.. it'll make more sense when I post the pictures! We headed into town for dinner and went to this bar called Skandinavia.. apparently, THE bar in Mykonos..

Here we are on the ferry. Immediately after this picture was taken, Margaret and I conked out!

Here's the view from our balcony.. we headed down to the pool immediately after taking the photo

Mykonos is exactly how i pictured the Greek Isles to be.. Lots of high white walls with blue trim.. Vibrant colors and very nice and friendly people.. And of course, great nightlife as well.. It's completely charming and I would come here again. Jonathan captured some great photos of the beauty of the island.

Don't you just love these awnings?

A view from our walk into town.

I must clarify that most people think that Santorini is more beautiful than Mykonos. I think my experience with Santorini was biased by the cold weather we experienced there..

May 25, 2007- We woke up to overcast skies so we decided to explore the town more. Below are a few pictures that show the charm of the island.

The island peninsula

Michelle and I at the windmills

After our excursion, we went back to our hotel pool.. and just admired the view of the city..

These restaurants that are right on the water are called in an area known as Little Venice

May 26, 2007- We had a late flight back to Athens so we decided to head out to the beach on the other side of the island. Mykonos has tons of beaches but we chose Kalafades beach because the town bus picked us up right at our hotel. It made for a nice last day on the isles.

Unlike Santorini, these beaches are golden sand and beautiful.

Our trip back to Athens was uneventful. The highlight was staying at the Marriott, on Margaret's points. After a while when you stay in little hotels, it's nice to live in a true 5 star hotel with a fancy shower and nice fluffy beds. It was a great way to end Greece before the next leg of our trip.

Greece- Athens and Santorini

2007-05-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. I'll have to update as soon as I'm in a place with wireless, but here's a topline summary...

May 19, 2007- Lost in Translation- I left Katy in Madrid to meet up with Margaret, Jonathan, and Margaret's friend, Michelle in Athens. A day of flying all around the place was hectic, but I had a great time using my vast language skills speaking to the cabbie in Spanish, an older Chinese gentleman and his daughter in Mandarin at the Madrid airport, and another student from the States at my connection in Milan. After a day of travel and walking in the rain trying to decipher the Greek alphabet, I was happy to meet up with the rest of the gang!

May 20, 2007- Athens- The Acropolis and the Parthenon were awesome..I still remember as a kid writing reports from the Encyclopedia about the Parthenon and to see it for real was awesome!

Here's our first view of the Acropolis! Pretty awesome huh?

Here's the Erechteion. Even though the 6 women look oppressed to me, they're supposed to be a symbol of honor.

And of course, the Parthenon.. don't you remember doing reports on this when you were in elementary school?

I told Michelle and Jonathan that this was the "money shot" of the day. Here we are in front of the Parthenon

This is Areogapus Hill. Supposedly, Paul stood here and preached to the Athenians.

May 21, 2007- Athens - I feel like we were in Athens a little too long.. but we made the most of it by walking up Philopappos Hill and the National Archaeological museum. We also decided to go out at night in Psirri, one of Athens' biggest nightspots. After dinner at Beer Academy, we found a great line of bars where a bunch of people from Liverpool were in town for the Champions League game. I definitely recommend going to Psirri. It was one of the few places where everyone was out!

Here we are with the Acropolis behind us!

Here's a picture of me drinking Maisel. We were at Beer Academy, a German restaurant, and my friends thought it was funny that the beer was so close to my name..

Here is a great photo Jonathan took of us girls having fun dancing to "Swingers" type music. The bar was hopping with everyone dancing to crooner stuff. I think it's just fantastic.

May 22, 2007- Athens to Santorini - We just got to Santorini..unfortunately, the weather was awful, but there were a few moments where the sun peeked out..

One of the brighter moments in Santorini

It's a little blurry but I thought this little church was adorable..

We still managed to make the most of it at night by checking out the nightlife. We went to Bar 33 and Murphy's, and Koo Club. Then Margaret and Jonathan went home. Michelle and I continued on at Enigma. Both Koo Club and Enigma are supposed to be the bigger nightclubs in Santorini. Personally, I preferred Koo Club over Enigma. I think it has to do with the fact that Michelle couldn't get rid of a guy at Enigma.. but it was a pretty fun night nonetheless...

Madrid - May 18, 2007

2007-05-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today was Katy's and mine last day together in Madrid. Madrid is a wonderful city. In a way, it reminds of New York and Chicago. It was actually nice to end our trip in very cosmopolitan area after all the little towns we had been in. And, purely by coincidence, it was Day of Museums today, so admission into any museum was free. So we saw some great art and spent some time in a great city. I loved it though. The hustle and bustle...taking the subway, shopping at Zara's, speaking to people who understood English because of the big city life..It was a really good way to end the trip.. Tomorrow I'm off to Greece and meeting up with Margaret and Jonathan.

We started out our day with breakfast. Chocolate con churros.. you dip the churros in a chocolate sauce.

Paseo del Prado was a walkway in the middle of street, which is what reminded me of Chicago.

Here we are outside the Museo del Prado, Madrid's most famous Art Museum. We saw some really great art out there including El Greco, Velasquez, Carvaggio, Rubens, Rembrant, and Goya, to name a few. A lot of emphasis on European art..Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside so it's just us outside the museum..

Here I am admiring the Spanish Special K box inside some little mom and pop shop! I know, I'm a marketing geek! i can't help it!

Lisbon to Madrid - May 17, 2007

2007-05-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday was an exhausting day with an eight hour drive from Lisbon to Madrid. Most of Spain's highways are very developed with lots of gas stations along the way, but this route forced us to take some small country roads. Here are some pictures from our trip.

This small road took us from Portugal to Spain. Isn't the scenery beautiful?

I love this picture because it has the sign between the two countries and a castle, Castelo de Vide in the background.

You may be wondering what car we had. Here's our Citroen C2, a true Econobox, and in desperate need of a wash.

here's Katy posing with her driving. Unfortunately,I can't drive stick, so I had to navigate. She was a champ driving this entire leg of the trip!!

Lisbon - May 16, 2007

2007-05-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Since my last entry we've done a ton.. So i'll try to blog in a timeline form. From Lagos, we drove about 3 hours into Lisbon, which surprisingly is a city with a lot of old world meets new world. It turns out Lisbon was much more bustling than I anticipated. It's so strange to be in such a big city in this small country.. I suppose Lisbon is sort of self sustaining..

Some interesting observations.. the Portuguese are very friendly to the English. And also I felt much more at home in Lisbon than in Spain. It was easier to speak and the Portuguese seemed much more on-the-go and less siesta-like than the Spanish. It was much more convenient than I anticipated.

Surprisingly, one day was all Katy and I needed to see Lisbon. We went to the Jeronimos Monastery and the Gulbenkian Museum. Here are a few of the pics..

One of the major streets in the Rossio, the area where we stayed, is Rua do Oro. Very tourist friendly, as you can see.

Here is the church of the Monastery. I suppose most churches look the same, but this was an offering from the King after God had blessed Portugal with great wealth. As Katy puts it, it's the Explorers Church.

So outside seven confessionals, there are carvings all around. Outside the second one is a "festival of faces". Here's me imitating this guy. Pretty good self portrait don't you think?

Here are the cloisters outside of the church. This courtyard was a place of meditation for the monks.

And here are the cloisters. Supposedly the carvings are a blend of Gothic, Renaissance and Moorish architecture.

Lagos, Portugal

2007-05-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

The past two days have been spent in Lagos, Portugal. This city actually came recommended from my MBA1 friend Brian, who claims that Lagos is favorite city in the world, or at least Europe. It's easy to see why.. with plenty of beaches, people friendly to English speakers, and delicious food, Lagos is enjoyable.

Most of our time in Lagos was spent either hiking around and exploring the beaches or on the beach itself! These pictures are beautiful!

Here's Katy snapping a photo at Praia do Meia, which to me is actually the least attractive beach in Lagos. It reminds me of beaches back home.. scroll down and you'll see why!

This is a quick snapshot of our hike down to the beaches where we spent most of our time. Praia do Pinhao and Praia D Ana. Look at those rock formations!

Here's a shot of my beach chair. Notice the block M sweater and the Frito bag! The water was only 15 feet away!

This was one of those little paths we hiked. Two steps down and this is what you see. Praia do Pinhao.

I'm not even sure what beach this is. I think it's Praia da Batatas and Praia do Pinhao, but I just think this is a gorgeous picture!

I'm still sick. I've actually been sick the entire trip and it's a pain not being able to explain your symptoms at the local farmacia..hopefully, I'll be better soon and stop with the darn coughing..

Ciao until then!

Goodbye Andalucia

2007-05-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

Anyhoo, Spain has been really fun..

Friday, May 11 - I honestly didn't want to leave Nerja, which has been my favorite place so far.. but we headed out in the car and drove to Gibraltar. Funny thing about Gibraltar is that the signs on highway don't acknowledge it. I suppose because it's not Spanish, but rather part of the UK. We took a picture outside the Rock and then headed to Arcos de la Fronterra, a small whitewashed mountain village.. Rick Steves recommends it but i just thought it was ok. The highlight was eating snails and a chargrilled squid! I'll have to upload pictures soon!

Here I am at the Rock of Gibraltar.. I know.. not much to look at, right?! We did the Chinese thing and got out of the car and snapped a picture.

So everyone in Arcos kept ordering the same appetizer. So we ordered the same thing. Turns out they were these little snails! Yikes! They were tasty but a lot of effort for very small snails!

Grilled in Spanish is plancha. I'll never forget that again! It was sort of an accident that we ordered this..we basically asked the waiter what his favorite was. We thought we were asking for shrimp, or so we thought when pointed to the menu.. Unfortunately, this picture shows the squid cut apart already..I forgot to take the picture when it first came to our table!

Saturday, May 12 -13 - We left Arcos and drove to Sevilla, the most cosmopolitan of our travels thus far. Much more diverse with a big University in town, making English much more accessible. Sevilla is famous for bullfights and flamenco. A lot of ppl recommended against bullfights, but I enjoyed our flamenco show last night.. My favorite part about Sevilla though is how lively it gets at night..It's hard to capture the vibe of the Sevilla. Part of me wishes I had taken video, but hopefully these pictures show you how great Sevilla is..

I was so happy to see Starbucks again just outside our little hotel in Sevilla! I promptly ordered an iced caramel macchiato!

Plaza de Espana in Sevilla. We walk out of the little alley our hotel is on and this is the first thing we see. Isn't it beautiful?

This is one of those moments I tried to capture. A family enroute to a wedding to a nearby church. This was taken near the Santa Cruz district. I thought the picture looked like a movie.

Flamenco show

Today we're driving in to Portugal.. We're kind of worried because we don't speak Portugese..but two more days on the beach! I'm looking forward to it!

Spain

2007-05-11T01:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of great days in Spain so far. I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Nerja getting used to this darn Spanish keyboard. Here's a quick rundown of all that's been happening so far:

Tuesday, May 8 - arrive in Madrid..hop in the car to go Toledo where we saw this awesome Cathedral. Toledo was a really small town with very few tourists.

This is the high altar of the Cathedral in Toledo, which is considered to be one of the country's best Gothic pieces of art!

Wednesday, May 9 - drive to Granada and visit the Alhambra, home of the first Moorish palace. It was amazing, and one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my entire life

This is the view of the outside courtyard from the inside of the Alhambra

This is the ceiling of the Hall of Two Sisters at the Alhambra. Isn't it neat? Apparently MC Escher was so inspired by the Moors' design that it reflected in his artwork.

And here I am at the Alhambra. Pictures don't do the place justice. But you see all the amazing carvings behind me. I It was literally one of the most breathtaking places I've been to.

Thursday, May 10 - drive to the coast and stay in this beach town called Nerja. I think this hotel, Hostal Miguel, is one of the cutest places I've ever stayed in..we just finished breakfast on the rooftop terrace.

Here I am at the beach in Nerja..

Here is our street in Nerja. It's restaurant row, the biggest street in Nerja. Isn't it cute?!?!

And here is our balcony in Nerja overlooking the street. So far this little beachside hotel has been my favorite to stay in!

Now, we're enroute to Gibraltar..

Only problem is that I managed to get sick in my last days in A2, so i'm still recovering.. Luckily Katy has been super understanding of the situation...

Another great picture

2007-05-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

One of my best memories of our last week of school brought up my first year memories. After a riveting kickball tournament against our section (only Section 2 could lose two games and still come in 2nd place), we hung out and had a great time hanging out with friends from first year.