i've been meeting up with a lot of old friends lately...a lot of them are here for the holiday season, and we've randomly been meeting up...i haven't seen some of them in over three years!

like joycelyn, my high school friend. we actually went to berkeley together, but hung out in different crowds, so i only saw her a couple times a semester. the last time i saw her was before graduation. i was writing my christmas cards and i realized that i had an old envelope with her address on it. so i sent her a card with my phone number and she ended up giving me a call. i hung out with her and lyn last saturday...had dessert at lyn's with roberto and the dogs. lyn has this new puppy, gia, that is so adorable! i didn't realize how puppies are so much like kids...gotta keep a constant eye on them, so they kinda distracted us, but we still had a good time catching up and also reminiscing a little bit. for some reason, it's one of those friendships where even if you haven't been in contact, when you finally meet up again, you just pick up where you left off.

then i was able to spend time with susan choo and melissa on sunday. haven't seen susan since this past summer, so it hasn't been that long, but still, a coupla things have happened since then, so there were definitely things to catch up on. and then yesterday i was invited to sonia lee's place for a potluck. luckily, i was able to corner her...we hadn't talked in a long, long time. i saw her last year at annie's new year's party, but briefly...so it's been over a year since i really knew what was going on with her. it's good to hear that she's enjoying boston, and i think that we're undergoing similar things in our lives, so it was good to share and be able to relate to each other on that level.

i feel like i need a vacation...

holidays don't really count as a break 'cuz though of course it's better than spending a day at work, it's just as busy, if not more so. things have been crazy for the past coupla weeks, what with last minute shopping, out-of-town visitors, holiday get-togethers. i'm not complaining...i'm just pooped!

so on tuesday i hung out with esther most of the day. we walked to the beverly center to avoid the crazy traffic (even though i only live 4 blocks away, we were glad we walked). it was a really good time...esther and i haven't hung out like that in a long while. we got to talk a bit, but mostly, we just enjoyed hanging out and shopping. esther, did you have a good time?

we celebrated my dad's birthday that night (it was sunday, but he was at church all that day)...we just went out to eat at twin dragon (one of our family's favorite's 'cuz it's good food, plus we know the people who own it and they usually give us an extra entree...i stuffed myself). watched korean tv afterwards...we were going to try to get them to watch lord of the rings, but didn't end up happening. korean dramas crack me up sometimes. that night the episode was about this girl and guy who of course are having major problems trying to get married. the girl did not stop crying for the whole episode! why do koreans think that that kind of tragedy is so romantic? and how many times is the korean television industry going to replay the same story? do something original!!

on wednesday we went to church in the morning. we didn't have a formal service, but instead all the members of the congregation were invited to share and do a little something...most people just came up and sang a hymn. it was nice because many of them shared their appreciation for nanoom, how their families and children have been blessed and how thankful they are for the ministry. then of course, the pastors' families get called up, and initially it's my mom, art, and i, and ph's 4 kids, ranging from age 12 to 19ish. so i don't think ph's kids really know that many songs, so they want to sing "Jesus loves me." so we have a little trouble starting, but it's all good and fine...and then robert (ph's eldest) kinda pushes the rest of us off the "stage," asks for a drum beat, and starts rapping. can't really hear what he's saying, but he got really into it...that was different. and then for some reason, they ask our family to come back, so we had to sing yet again...after a coupla hours of people coming up and singing - some more entertaining than others - they start handing out gifts. i actually got a gift from church, which was really unexpected, especially since the previous saturday i also got a sweater from the kids...

whenever people express appreciation for something i do, i always hate it 'cuz i feel like they're attributing me with something more than what i actually deserve. i never feel like i do everything i could or should do. like helping out at church...i really need to be much more prayerful and more faithful to the ministry. it makes me feel guilty and uncomfortable, but i guess, ultimately anything i receive is undeserved, which is everything...

afterwards, we went home to wait for ernest and cathy and then we went to dinner at elaine's. we played outburst, married (walt and karie, ern and cathy) against singles (elaine, art, me). singles were outnumbered, and everyone on the married team did really well, so yeah, we lost pretty bad. while we were playing games, the adults decided to do some aerobics (w/richard simmons)...my mom gets really into those kind of things. she's very bouncy. none of us inherited that.

thursday we went to all these places to return gifts that my dad had gotten from church people. made a store credit killing at all the major department stores. everyone gets my dad clothes 'cuz he wears the same things over and over again, but it's not that he doesn't have clothes, he just refuses to wear them...or forgets he has them. so anyways, we shopped all day...tiring. plus, i, being the absent-minded old lady that i am (maybe it was food coma), forgot my purse at elaine's the night before. my aunt took a trip out to koreatown in the afternoon and we were able to meet up, but i felt really bad for causing her the extra trouble. i kicked myself a coupla times that day 'cuz i needed my purse for various reasons. plus people called and i missed some messages. then we had a little beektory holiday gathering...had dinner, watched lilo and stitch, played "all out" (i won!) and then ended up talking until 4:00 in the morning. i don't even remember what we were talking about...mostly relationships and stuff. i'm usually pretty quiet with the team, so i mostly listened...except for the moments when i told on arthur...sorry, art. ;p

okay, i'm tired.

okay, so this is my second blog of the morning, and that last one was a doozy, so i can't believe that i'm writing again, but i hafta jot this note down.

my boss' wife came by to give the staff their gifts, and part of the gift was these little "murray's law" post-its - kinda comic strip-like with funny little blurbs at the top. so each of us got a different saying...and mine says, "Lord, give me patience. And hurry it up." yeah, it's cute, but how eerie is it 'cuz it's exactly what i needed to be told. this has always been a problem of mine...i get really impatient with God and want Him to hurry things up. and i've definitely been coming to Him with that attitude lately...crazy how God works.

whew! this past weekend was pretty busy...the holidays. so here's a breakdown:

friday - we had our christmas party for work. every year, we have a gathering at shutters in santa monica. they have this pretty big banquet room with great food. the first hour is open bar with hors d'oeuvres and they have a little raffle, some music, and caricaturists. so i got one done 'cuz i wasn't able to do mine last year, and the guy asks me what i like to do for fun. as i list off stuff, of course volleyball comes up, which he immediately picked up on 'cuz i guess it's can easy one to do (it took him half the time it took for him to do other people). so he has me jumping up to hit or something, and he makes the ball look like it bounced off my head, like a six-pack. i almost took offense, but then, what can you do? it's a caricature.
we went into lunch, and every year we have the same dj. when the time comes to make annoucements and speeches, he'll play little blurbs of disco or soundtrack songs, like the eye of the tiger or play that funky music, white boy. so he plays the latter when our institute's head guy comes up for a speech, and he, Dr. Morton, who's pushing 70 (i think) starts shaking his hips...that's a sight i will not forget. my friend and i left when the dj started the conga line.
friday night i went with our life group to see the two towers at the grove theaters. we got there early enough so that we had a good place in the line, but we had to forgo dinner. so some of us ended up getting hot dogs ($3.75!!). the theaters at the grove are pretty nice...and the movie was so good!! i had high expectations, and i wasn't disappointed! i didn't even feel the three hours pass...and i wanted more when the movie ended. a lot more violence, but i like that they didn't show much gore...they showed enough to make the point, but didn't overdo it with the details, gave us more of the big picture...at least, that's what i thought. maybe i'm just desensitized. they did such an excellent job in making this middle installment its own movie...i can't wait until next year!
on saturday, nari had her "thanksgiving in december." saw a lot of old faces and had a surprisingly good time talking to people. you know how usually at those large gatherings you spend most of your time in small talk? i actually had some significant conversations, which was really nice. then people started playing mafia...i didn't want to play, so i just watched, which is interesting. you see a lot of things, especially when you know who's mafia and who's not. afterwards, since i carpooled with kris and mel, we had a good talk about relationships and other things...pretty much concluding that they're really, really complicated. (sounds common sensical, but we had a good discussion about it)
sunday i hung out with michigan people that were in town...judy and i drove down to christie and darren hom's place in tustin and met up with john b., reggie, young, joel, the homs, rich and nina, han and his brother, han (hanju and hanyoung - but they both go by "han" - doesn't that get really confusing? every so often i got confused, and we only spent the evening there), and four women that i met that night - barbara, lena, erica, and jessica (what's up with the "a" endings?) we ended up playing cranium after dinner, and our team (young, rich, lena and i) totally blew everyone away. i remember playing cranium before, and it was the same deal...some teams will get stuck in an area, and others will get to the end so quickly that game loses a lot of its fun. especially when the competitive people are the ones losing. ;p for some reason, our team was just on. rich and young have this crazy connection - lena and i felt that we were riding on their coattails, though we had our moments. but gosh, people get ugly...i dunno how many times our team was called nerdy and geeky. and those comments were mostly from the joel the pastor! ;p
whoa, that was a novel...is it obvious that i'm at work and have no desire to do anything productive? our vacation schedule sucks...work monday, get tuesday to thursday off, and then work friday.

i feel like this past week was all about our beektory team. i just wanted to blog to keep track of what we did...

tuesday: had tito's tacos and played monopoly. it got pretty crazy at times...those railroads made a killing! (shouldn't have given them away...)

thursday: played open gym at youngnak. had to go 'cuz i needed to make sure that i could play somewhat for the tournament on saturday (hadn't played in months). only susan and arnold weren't there...

saturday: co-ed tournament. played okay, but not well enough to win when we should have. i think most of us were just a little rusty and tired...we're getting old! still, we had fun, and it was cool to be playing together again. eunice ain't no freeball! then we all went to kris and mel and art's birthday get-together...sweet lady jane berry cake...pretty exhausting day.

monday: see previous entry.

i'm usually a bit of a scrooge around the holiday season. i'm a picky gift-giver - i don't like to buy gifts unless i think that the receiver will really, really like it, so it usually takes me a while to find a gift i'm willing to give - plus i hate the holiday shopping rush. then you're spending so much money and time, plus writing cards, and entertaining or being entertained...even eating loses some of its fun 'cuz you're just being bombarded with sweets.

so yeah, i'm not finished with my christmas shopping, and i still have a good number of cards to write, and this weekend is pretty packed with activities...i'm tired just thinking about it.

but then, last week at mosaic, we had four mini-sermons on the proclamations of christmas, all of which were good (gloria in exelsis (sp?) deo, emmanuel - God with us, good news - great joy for everyone, and fear not)...but i think it started with us singing christmas carols...in particular, o holy night. it actually reminded me of the meaning of christmas...the simultaneous beginning and fulfillment of redemptive history...and how amazing it must have been to witness the event of Christ's birth. and how amazing it is to look back and understand what was unfolding. it sounds really cheesy, but God actually reminded me of the "reason for the season."

i called in sick to work yesterday, so i got to relax, read, and write a few christmas cards, but now i'm back at work. surprisingly, i'm in a pretty good mood today...i wonder if it's just 'cuz i've been exercising a little bit more, what with our beektory team reunion.

yesterday, after i rested most of the day, we had another team get-together (+ Michelle). (side note: on the way to eunice's where we were meeting, art and i had an interesting talk about friendships and what it means to love...God, family, friends) went to old town pasadena and had dinner. the whole purpose of our outing was to find this supposedly amazing display of christmas lights somewhere nearby. so after dinner, we headed out and ended up at christmas tree lane. it was basically this one block of houses with huge trees all trimmed with blinking colored lights. it had a really festive feel, but i think some of us were expecting something else. at any rate, it was nice.

we went to ghiradelli's afterwards and split an earthquake...we actually did a pretty good job, until everyone started spitting knotted cherry stems. yes, susan, arthur, and eunice will make their significant others happy. we started playing pasoi and ended up closing the shop down, which was pretty cool 'cuz they had all these leftover chocolate samples that they offered to us on the way out...even gave us paper bags to put them in.

eunice had to stop by her office to pick up some work files, so we explored her building...for some reason, people wanted to see her conference room, so we went there and after admiring the view, we actually had our own team meeting about who we should have join our team. stayed there until 1 in the morning discussing the pros and cons of various "candidates" (we're kinda exclusive...we justify it by the fact that the 5 of us have good chemistry and understand how to play together, so we need the 6th person to mesh with the rest of us...not an easy task). even wrote on the posterboard...

though i'm now suffering as a result of last night, i had a fun time...reminded me of college days...

I saw Susan Park's blog and was inspired to start my own. I don't think I'll be as funny as she is, but it'll be nice to have a place to record random happenings and thoughts.