Family Portrait
with the cousins
I know it's hard to see, but that's Kelly Clarkson

More pictures on the link to the right. :)

I've known this girl at church since we were 9. Only in the past 2 years have we been making more of an effort to hang out. But she's known to be really blunt, and I've known that about her all these years. And yet, it still catches me off guard.

This weekend, I baked some cookies and took her a few since she's studying for finals.

Me: Hey, I brought you some cookies.
DM: Why?
Me: Thought you might like some, especially since you're studying for finals.
DM: Are you trying to get rid of them or something?
Me: ....uh....

In her defense, I guess I did catch her off guard since in all the years I've known her, I haven't done this very often. She found me after service and told me they were really good. :)

J.T. Snow will no longer be with the Giants. That's very sad news.

Bad move on the Giants' part. I bet they lost a ton of female fans right there.

I was walking around the Embarcadero Center during my lunch hour and I saw the A.P. Gianini Middle School orchestra out there performing. Brought back a lot of memories. I played out there when I was that age with my school orchestra. It's just funny to see things come around full circle.

You can definitely tell it's a San Francisco school. Out of an orchestra of 70+ kids, you can count the number of non-asian students in one hand.

I hate being on the phone with customer service. Yesterday I was trying to get some things cleared up with our car insurance company and was put on hold for so long, I called customer service on my cell phone to square away some cable tv stuff. At one point, I was put on hold by both people, and listening to Christmas music from 2 different phones was too much, even for me. In the end, I spent over an hour with the car insurance people. Ugh.

But I love this time of year. Air is crisp. Decorations are up. People just seem to smile more in general. I'm going to have dinner downtown tonight and I look forward to seeing the big Christmas tree in Union Square.

I'm playing hooky from work today.

I had my bottom 2 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Not too bad of an experience. They gassed me first and after a minute, I felt tingly all over and just relaxed. I remember up to the point they gave me an IV and local anesthesia and then I was out.

But I look like a chipmunk now. Not very cute. This is how I imagine I will look if I gain another 30 pounds. I'll take a picture to remind myself never to get there.

But the one day I'm not at work, people are looking for me. Issues about a report I just issued, so I've been on the phone a good part of this morning.

I want to eat pizza! It's screaming my name!

I just signed up for courses at City College for next semester.

Intermediate guitar and Beginning Hip Hop.

Intermediate guitar because all I've learned how to play in beginning is the equivalent to B-I-N-G-O. Lame. I need to learn something useful before I quit.

Beginning Hip Hop because... it sounds like fun. Isabel is my inspiration. I'll be the one in the corner looking like a dork.

It bothers me when guys wear designer jeans.

It's wrong that girls pay that much for clothes to begin with. But girls wear clothes that are tighter on the body. Therefore, they're paying for the promise that the jeans will work its magic to lift/tuck/hide/slim/elongate/WHATEVER. Whereas on most guys, clothes just sort of hang. Now if a guy is wearing tight clothes...that's a whole different story.

So what then justifies a guy paying $$$ for designer jeans that just hangs like any other pair of jeans? Does it subtly tell others that "hey, I got money to spend on nice jeans... come and get me"? All it would say to me is, "hey, if we hang out, we can go shopping and I can give you fashion tips." Totally unnecessary pressure.

I try to be a nice person. But today I had to do it. I feel a little crummy because I had to "block" someone. Not only is that mean, but I've blocked this person before on a different chat system. That's right. I've only blocked someone twice in my life before... both times it has been the same person.

Makes me feel a little bad, but at the same time peaceful... knowing that person won't be bothering me unless he decides to flood me with e-mails. Here's hoping that won't happen.

I do appreciate living at home and eating mom-cooked meals. But it comes with its price. When you think about it, it's quite amusing. When else do you have ridiculous arguments like I had this morning?

My mom saved some pork she made the night before so that I could take it for lunch today. I was too lazy to pack a salad and thought, some "juhn" (jji jim for us Busan folks) has green stuff in it, good enough. Plus, I'm taking an apple. But no, my mom insisted I take a salad. Then she proceeds to take out salad dressing, and says, "Actually, if you're going to eat pork, you should eat your salad with 'cho-jang.'" She came out of the kitchen carrying big lettuce leaves and a bottle of 'cho-jang.'

I'm not opposed to taking Korean food to work, but I am opposed to taking Korean food that stinks. (She's even offered to pack me mee yok gook for lunch before). So I said fine to the salad (no to the lettuce wraps), but stood there BEGGING her to let me take some regular salad dressing. She won in the end... I had cho-jang with my salad. As I left the house, she yells out, "Be careful because there's a lot of garlic in it." Great.

Kind of reminds me of middle school when I first started taking sack lunches. My brother and I used to beg my mom for "regular" lunches like peanut butter and jelly. I think we ate that for a few weeks straight after that.

Today marks my 2 year anniversary as a working professional at this Company. It's crazy how time flies... I've also realized that I'm at a point where I connect more with young adults rather than college students. The change was so gradual I can't even pinpoint when it happened. Probably sometime this past year. There was a point in time where I still longed to be in college, and I thought young adult-hood was so foreign. But now I'm one of them. I've learned to adjust to the fact that most of my friends live far away, and I'm still learning to make new friends. Life is what it is, and I'm learning to deal with it and make my situation enjoyable. And it has.

Congratulations to my dear, dear friend. I love you and you deserve all the happiness in the world. :)

Highlights from Hallelujah Night:

-Club Jesus in Room 3, complete with strobe lights and a fog machine.
-Watching Tommy and Ahan break it down at Club Jesus...battle style.
-cuuuuuuuuuuute kids.
-foraging for candy.
-crushing on a college boy with Sarah.
-fun and creative games.
-listening to an earful of unsolicited dating advice from Frank, Eric, and Henry at In-n-Out.
-coming home and seeing a sign posted on the door: "No Halloeen for Christ." Talk about cryptic. Someone wrote in a "w" for Halloween and put a question mark after Christ. I guess they were just as confused as I was. My mom is cute. haha.

Pictures to come...

I saw a man dressed up as a woman today.

I began to wonder... is he dressed that way because it's Halloween? Or is that just the way he normally dresses?

Only in San Francisco do you wonder about these things...

I dropped my cousin off at Berkeley last night and on my way back, the car in front of me paid for my bridge toll. How very nice! I didn't do anything to deserve it... the car didn't cut me off. There wasn't any traffic that I was nice enough to let the car slide in.

I tried to catch up, just to catch a glimpse, but the car was going too fast.

Made my night a whole lot better. :)

Delirious

That's how I've been feeling these days. I'll go to bed dead tired and wake up the same. I reached a new level of delirium this morning.

I usually place my alarm clock across the room, hoping that the extra effort to roll out of bed to shut the sucker up will jolt me out of bed. Usually what ends up happening is I bring the alarm clock back to bed and just snooze about 3 times before I really get up.

This morning was no different. Heard the alarm and brought it back to bed with me. But when the alarm went off again after that first snooze, I blew on it, like I was blowing out a candle... like that would somehow turn the alarm off. Then I woke up enough to realize what I had just done and started cracking up in bed.

Hello, my name is crazy.

I can't stop eating candy corn.

Make it stop!

Conversation with my brother yesterday:

Bro: I'm thinking of getting the Element
Me: The car?
Bro: Yeah
Me: It's so ... square
Bro: Just like you.
Me: You're such a punk
Bro: You set yourself up for that one.

I think I'm getting sick. I woke up this morning with a sore throat. First thing I did when I came into the office was take some Airborne.

DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? The weather has been so nice... HOW CAN I GET SICK?

I'm going to fight this.

This weekend is Fleet Week. I remember watching the blue angels fly by from our church window when I was a kid.

So many things I want to do this weekend, though. Not sure I'll make it out there.

We lost our first softball game yesterday. :( Come out and cheer for us next week!

Where are my NorCal girlfriends at?...


I miss my girls. Move back up here!

I'm alive!

This was my first backpacking trip. Definitely the most physically demanding thing I've ever done. But it was worth it.

Ashley said she loves hiking because you can look like a dork and no one cares. She asked, "When else can you wear green ankle socks and not care?" My contribution to the hiking dork factor... my Sport Replay t-shirt. :)

On our way up


Water is cold


Half Dome


Before the cables


We did it!!


View from the top

and off to conquer Half Dome I go...








...check back on Monday to see if I make it back alive.

Janice and Billy

Isabel

Girls

I stopped by Any Mountain in Berkeley on Friday because they were having a close-out sale. I wanted to get a Camelbak and a camping pack, if it was on sale. (They didn't have any).

But I saw some snowboarding boots on sale, and since mine are a little loose, I decided to get some. They had some on sale for $50, but none my size... so I picked one up for my sister. I really wanted a pair and one of the displays were my size, so without even knowing the price, I bought it. My sister's were $30... Mine turned out to be $90.

I went home and took a look at the receipt, and realized they took the discount off of the sale price for my sister's boots, while taking the discount off the original price on mine. So I called the next day, and the guy told me to just bring in my receipt and he would adjust it for me. Approximately $30.

I took it in, and he gave me back $70. He said they were going on sale again the next day, and he would just give me the discount. So in the end, I scored some nice snowboarding boots for $20.

*Hello wasn't working so I can't post pictures. But new pictures on Webshots.

Yesterday was a night of random.

Lilliene and I went to a Giants/Dodgers game. While we were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, these guys walked up to us and asked if we wanted tickets.

"Sorry, we already have tickets."

"They're free... club level, behind home plate."

"Free???"

So we began calling people since we had 2 extra tickets. Too bad it was a Thursday night and everyone was in small group. Finally got my sister and Jenny to come out.

We were good, didn't ditch our group until the girls arrived. But by then it was already the middle of the 6th inning. But the view was nice. We planned to switch off with the guys after a few innings.

We ran into Lilliene's former coworker in the club level. So we took their tickets and brought the rest of our group down for the last inning and half. Too bad the Giants got their butts kicked. But I had fun anyway.

But dude, how often does that happen?!?!

My JDSN was looking through some of the songs in my ipod this weekend. I jumped out of my seat when she yelled out, "THAT'S ILLEGAL!" I turned around, completely shocked, and she continued, "You can't have Sandy Patti and Snoop Dogg in the same ipod!" hahahahaha

In my defense... Sandy Patti is one of the artists in my WOW 96 cd... I don't listen to her on a regular basis... really.

I went to my very first classical guitar class yesterday at city college. The teacher is very nice. Since I was joining a bit late, he asked me if I knew how to read music. I didn't go through Mrs. Murray's horrendously long theory book for nothing in middle school. But it's been a while since I've played the cello. And to make matters worse, the cello is played in the Bass clef, while the guitar in the Treble clef. Let's just say I was having a little trouble reading the notes...

I think I might have to purchase the music book after all. I was sitting there trying to figure out the notes, and the one thing that kept popping into my head was Fat Cats Get Drunk After Eating Breakfast. I couldn't figure out how that fit into the musical scale. It wasn't until I met up with Janet (fellow graduate of Mrs. Murray's crazy theory book) after my class for a late night boba run, that she helped me realize that sentence was for memorizing the order of #'s.

I will be diligently practicing at home. At the rate the class is going, I don't think I'll be able to play anything good by the end of the semester. Maybe if I take intermediate guitar next semester. So don't ask me to play anything for you.

I was itching for change.

I got my hair done.

It needs to grow out a little and I need to experiment with WHEN to put product in my hair. It's a bit lion king-ish, but I'm working on getting it under control.

No pictures. Those that are curious will just have to wait til I see you later this month.

But I don't think the hair was enough change. It's not specifically related to my image. I guess I'm just a little restless. Or emotional.

"Oh I just can't wait to be king..."

I want to go watch the SF Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall one of these days. Anyone interested in going?

Tomorrow is the opening gala with Yo-Yo Ma. I'd love to be there. But tickets are very expensive. One of these days I'll get to see him LIVE in concert. Waiting for that day...

I watched the first half of "Anne of Green Gables" last night. Is it just me or does she age about 5 years just in that first half alone? I was trying to figure out whether they got a younger look-alike to play the child scenes, whether they filmed the movie over a long period of time, or whether I was just really really tired.

I love that scene where Gilbert calls her Carrot and she breaks her slate over his head, then goes home and dyes her hair green. :)

Prince Edward Island is beautiful.

The weather has been so nice in SF lately that Lilliene and I have been running outside instead of working out at the gym during our lunch breaks. Yesterday, as we were walking in our regular work clothes, she commented we've been running outside a bit too much because she now has a slight, but noticeable sock tan. We kind of laughed it off. But today, after my workout, I realized I have a very noticeable shorts tan line. I guess it's not a big deal because I only wear shorts when I work out, but still, it's uuuuuuuuugly~.

I was watching "So you think you can dance" last night. Man, those are some talented people. I didn't catch the couples dances, but got to see the solo. I called my mom over to watch how talented these people were. She came over just in time to catch Jamail do his breakdancing.

My mom broke out into a story about how there was some kind of festival at the campground. They were there for VBS about a month ago. Some kids (not from our church) volunteered for the dance competiton and did some breakdancing. And then she proceeded to show me how it was done. Oh man... I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

My dad's dance specialty is the broken arm move from Bring it on. I'm going to ask both of them to dance tonight. :)

Conversation with my friend Jimmy this past weekend...

On the topic of how good looking Italian people are:

It's unfair. Per capita, they must have the most good looking number of people in the world.

God looked at them and really smiled down on them.

No wonder they get married early. They have motivation! They get married, have good looking babies, it's a never ending cycle.

...
I can just sit there and laugh for hours with this guy...

My cousin came from Korea yesterday. A few things from last night:

- I baked some cookies to try out this new recipe. My sister took about 2 bites, threw it down, and said, "That's nasty... that's not a cookie." I tried it. Wasn't great... but wasn't bad either. :(

- My whole family decided to go greet my cousin at the airport. It didn't occur to any of us that one of us should stay home in case my cousin called. (which she did because...)

- We were waiting at the Internationl terminal. But apparently, she had a layover in Honolulu so we were supposed to be at the Domestic terminal. We found that out because...

- My mom ran over to the payphone and was scrounging up change in her pocket to call the calling card to call Korea. It wasn't until the ride home we figured out, "hey, we could have used our CELL PHONE to make that call instead of frantically looking for change."

- So we had to leave the International Terminal to get onto the Domestic Terminal. My sister and I yelled out, "go left!" while my mom screamed "go right." My dad listened to my mom and we ended back out on the freeway. Had to go some way before the next exit so we could double back.

- I got a bag of Korean underwear from my aunt. Which is cool, since Korean underwear fits well. But they are LOUD. The ladies at the gym are going to get an eyeful. We're talking stripes, patterns, stripes AND patterns. hahaha

Webshots is acting weird... we'll settle for this for now. With Theresa and Susan. 

with Janet at the Conservatory of Flowers 

Tea at Lovejoy's... see link for more pics 

Meet Gummy... my bear bank :) 

My newest acquisition... 

Finished Product 

I've been making progress with my long movie list. I watched Phantom of the Opera last night. I watched the musical once before when I was in the 6th grade. Didn't remember much from it. We sat in the way way back. But I was excited to watch the movie because I found out Gerard Butler plays the Phantom. I just saw him in "Dear Frankie" and I really liked him.

But now I have the Phantom song stuck in my head. I was climbing up the escalators this morning and as I came out of the MUNI station... from dark to light... I heard in my head "DUN...dun dun dun dun dun...." :)

All I can say is...that's just plain sad.

Conversation with my brother...

Bro: u should watch city of God
Me: i saw it, remember?
Me: very dark
Me: too bloody
Bro: hahahaha
Bro: dont be such a wimp
Me: WIMP??
Me: go see my blog
Me: i went rockclimbing
Bro: okay, now that u went rockclimbing the wimp title is away from you
Bro: hahahaha
Me: YES
Me: that's right
Me: punk
Me: anyway, i'm gonna go
Bro: i was being sarcastic
Me: don't want ot miss my bus
Me: shut up
Bro: okay
Me: such a punk
Me: bye

I've talked to several guy friends about shopping. It amazed me to hear they rarely try things on. They know their size, they grab several in different colors, and out the door they go.

I'd love it if I could shop that way. I hate the hassle of trying things on. It just doesn't happen that way with girls though. We come in all different sizes... tall, short, skinny, curvy, round, pear-shaped, etc. I was walking around the mall yesterday and saw some really cute things on the display. And then I tried them on and thought, "MAN, that's ugly on me." Probably just as well because I really shouldn't be buying any more clothes.

People might complain girls shop too much. But that's because most of the time I go, I come back emptihanded. I never seem to find something that fits/looks right when I go. So really, I shop, but don't buy... I guess you can look at it as a form of exercise. It's hard work trying things on at every store.

I'm not a fan of Vienna Sausages. People have told me they're very good. I think I've tried it once and it was just gross. But I think those people associate that with their childhood... that's why it tastes that good. I ate a lot of Spam growing up, but I don't have the same fondness for it.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and picked up 2 cans of Chef Boyardee. I know that's gross too. But that's one thing I grew up always wanting to eat, but was never allowed. So maybe i'll have it as a quick Saturday lunch. Or a quick snack before dinner someday. I hope it tastes as good as I remember it.

Sarah... it won't be the same without you... 

Checking for safety 

making my way up... 

Went to the Punchline Comedy Club last night with Janet. Our old middle school friend, Matt, who I haven't seen since the 8th grade, invited us out. I'm glad I went. It was a lot of fun. The first 2 people were a little crass. But the headliner, Jim Short, was great. Australian guy. I came out of the club wanting to insert "bloody" in every other sentence. But I know how awful I would sound, so I held back and spared myself the embarassment.

Before I left, my mom asked, "You're going out AGAIN?" I told her, "Hey, what can I say, your daughter is popular." She laughed in my face. I told my dad the same thing while he was in the living room. Also laughed in my face. Man, I get no love.

I am 24 years old. And I STILL manage to lock myself out of my own house.

My mom asked me to drop off a VBS dvd to a church member's house last night after dinner. I didn't want to take my purse, so I just grabbed my cell phone and my wallet. Played UNO with the kids for about half an hour, and it wasn't until I left their house that I realized I didn't bring my house keys.

Any other day and I would have been ok. Because my sister usually gets off of work at 8, and gets home around 8:30. But as luck would have it... the one night I lock myself out, my sister got off early and went to have dinner with her friends. AND my parents went to go visit some Pastor Friend in Marin.

I thought about breaking into my own house. But we have a communal backyard where all the houses open up to the same yard. Didn't think it would be a good idea crashing into the blinds and causing suspicion when my neighbors see my legs dangling out of the window.

So I called Janet. We went out for boba. And made very cool plans. We're going to save up and go on a 2 week trip. One week in Hong Kong, because she can get us by with her Chinese, and one week in Korea, where I can get us by with my Korean. I need to start saving up!!!

Yesterday I went out with my friend Janet to go see Anna Laube at Biscuit and Blues. She has a great voice... It's blues/folk. It was pretty cool, just being in that setting. Dark room, live music, drinks in hand. Although I have to say my drink tasted a bit like motor oil. Janet took one for the team and drank it for me.

This lady came up for a comedy act after Anna. She cleaned out the place in 2 minutes. Horrible... horrible. Really painful to watch.

Just the way the MUNI was running, I ended up getting home around 11:45. I think it's safe to say that's the latest I've been out on a working Monday. I was so exhausted this morning I didn't realize I had already gotten up to turn off my alarm clock. My mom had to come in and ask, "Aren't you going to be late for work?"

To run or not to run?... That is the question.

Actually, the better question is, to train or not to train? According to my friend, that's 3-5 miles every weekday and 6-10 on the weekends.

I haven't revisited my month-long infatuation with Danny Jung in a while. Isabel, Becky, and Janet will tell you I used to put his CD on repeat. Janet was so annoyed she would threaten to erase the mp3 on her computer.

I mention it because his song came up on my mp3 player on my way to work this morning. It was cold and wet outside, but it almost made me want to skip. Almost.

The one time I got to talk to him in Korea, he mentioned he was working on a gospel album. That was 4 years ago (wow)... I think the CD I have is still his latest one.

Janet put it perfectly though. I only think he's musheesuh because he plays the saxophone. If he played the flute, I don't think I would have been as infatuated.

Don't I look happy? ... and shiny? 

Banana Milk :) 

I know my sister is going to kill me for posting this, but it was just too hilarious.

Now my brother and I make fun of her a lot for her pronunciation slip-ups. I think it has something to do with the fact that she's slightly a fob... but she usually covers it up really well.

We went to go watch a Giants game last friday against the St. Louis Cardinals. During the game, she asked me, "Chris, Where is St. Louis? Is it St. Louis Obispo?"

OMG.... I gave her the "You're freakin out of your mind" look and just started cracking up. HILARIOUS.

Funnier than someone's "spreadshit"

I took my cousin clubbing this past weekend. Well, technically Thursday night. She seemed to enjoy herself. Only she told my sister I dance funny. :( Who cares, as long as I'm having fun out there, right? But when she said someone else in the group danced funny as well, I started thinking, maybe she thinks we dance funny because we don't dance "korean." Because I personally think this person is a good dancer.

But I think she caught a bug. She asked if we can go again the next time she visits.

I also took her to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz this past weekend. I haven't been there since middle school. Couldn't bring myself to try the deep fried Twinkie or the deep fried, battered Oreo cookies. But the rides were fun and I miss walking on warm sand.

I'm already planning out next weekend... maybe I'll finally do the bike ride across the GG Bridge.

Banana milk

I always rave about it. It's one of the first things I get when I go to Korea. I've always been sad they don't sell it here. I tried the Quik banana milk, but that's way too sweet and syrupy.

But my sister and my cousin went to the korean market yesterday and brought me back a carton of banana milk! That made my day. It may not be in those round, plastic containers, but I'm just glad they started importing that stuff. YUM

Isaac & Michelle