LOVE, BOOK FAIR and FRIENDSHIP.

LOVE
No, no. I didn't fall in love with anyone. :)

This week my brother wrote me an email. At the end of it he wrote the word "Love." I re-read that part over and over again because my brother never said or wrote that to me in my life. I felt such a warm and fuzzy feeling inside of me. You see, my brother and I didn't get along too well growing up. We fought about everything and anything. It's pretty amazing that we didn't kill each other...literally. But this last couple of years, there has been definite changes in his life. I know part of it is to his wife's doing, but the best part is that he has re-enter a relationship with Christ again! Through it he has definitely discovered what a "horrible" person he has been, especially to his younger brother and sister. He has apologized to my parents about his behavior toward us and not being a good big brother and told them that he's going to try his best to treat us better. So, the email was his first baby step. :)

BOOK FAIR
This past Saturday, Elaine and I headed over to the forbidden UCLA campus for the LA Festival of Books. Can I just say that it was one of the most fun Saturdays I've ever had in my life?! There were tents full of books all over campus and people of all ages walking around. It was basically Disneyland of books! It was great. We got to see Tim Gunn from Project Runway. Love him! Julie Andrews. Love her! It was so cute to hear all the little kids say "It's Mary Poppins!" The best conversation I heard was between a little girl and her dad that stood behind me.

LG: Dad, she's not wearing her skirt, hat and holding her umbrella!
(Me: Trying not to laugh out loud, but was shaking.)
Dad: Yes, she does have a closet full of other clothes.
(Me: Still trying not to laugh out loud because it was just too cute and continue to shake.)
LG: Oh.

It was just too cute! After Julie Andrews, we went to see Don Cheadle and John Prendergast talk about the genocide in Darfur. It was great!

So, now I have signed copy of Tim Gunn: A Guide to quality, style and taste which I probably won't ever read and a signed copy of Don Cheadle and John Prendergast's book Not on Our Watch which I'm totally excited to read when I'm finished reading with the other 10 books I have going. Then I bought some books for some very special kids and had them signed by the authors.

Overall, it was a great day! Elaine and I will definitely be going back next year and we are going to make it to both of those days! It really wasn't till a few years back where I really fell in love with reading. Now I can't get enough of it and going to a book fair was like a little kid going to Disneyland or the candy store for the first time! It was such a great day. Hopefully all of you can join us next year. It's really a great event!

FRIENDSHIP

On Sunday, I had the privilege to meet up with Shannon Gramatky. We spent 6 hours just sitting on the couch with our Starbucks in hand and just talked and talked. It was like old days. We kept saying how lucky we were to be able to go months after months without talking and yet when we finally talk it seemed like we were never apart.

After she left, it made me realize how lucky we are to be part of each other's lives. I know that we are all in different stages of life and we are all spread out, but the fact that we can still get together, laugh and have a good time. I am so glad that God brought us together through Sigma. I love you all!

Hot Fuzz, The Great Omission and Seoul Train

Hello Friends!

On Friday I went to see Hot Fuzz. At first I didn't want to see it, but I was so glad that I did. It's by the same makers of Shaun of the Dead. Anyway, both are dark and funny. I loved Hot Fuzz and I liked Shaun of the Dead. The two main characters in Shaun of the Dead are also the same two main charaters in Hot Fuzz. They make a good team.

Also, I'm going through a book with two of my friends. It's The Great Omission by Dallas Willard. Great, great, great book to go through yourself or with friends. The three of us always run out of time and we are actually putting some practice into place and holding each other accountable. I remember trying to read The Divine Conspiracy and not being able to get half way through because it was just so deep. But The Great Omission is a lot easier read.

Lastly, I would like to ask you for your prayers as Open Doors is participating in the North Korea Freedom Week. This is one of our many campaigns that we participate and make awareness of. If you haven't seen the documentary Seoul Train I highly encourage you to do so. I even wrote about it last year in April. Few of our key people will be heading to Washington DC for panel discussions, meetings with different congressmen, protest and prayer vigil, etc. So, please pray that all the logistics will fall into place and that every words that's being spoken will be heard.

Thank you! Hope you've had a great weekend!

I AM ASIAN.

I know that some of you have wondered for years whether or not I'm truly Asian. I think I proved it this Saturday. I had my friends Elaine, Gina and Paul over for a Chinese food feast. Here's what we had:

Drinks:
Apple soda
Lychee soda
Apple wine-Thanks Gina and Paul!

Appetizers:
Green onion pancakes

Main Course:
Pork Dumplings-we made it together. None of those frozen stuff.
Chinese Brocolli with oyster sauce
Celery with bamboo marinated in chili oil
Chinese pickles
Chili cucumber salad

Dessert:
Peanut Butter rice balls
Sesame rice balls (note to self...not popluar to the westerners. According to Gina and Elaine, it taste like bacon.)

After dinner, we played Schnapps. It's a card game where you can shout "Taking it like a sucka!" It's so much fun. But of course, it got more and more crazy as we all drank the wine. We learned that Elaine cries when she laughs, but only her left eye tears up. Gina gets sleepy. I get embarrassed. And Paul, well, the wine wasn't strong enough to effect him in any way.

Over all, the night turned out better than expected! My mother will be so proud. She even prayed for me after getting the recipe from her the other night. It was so precious. Now that I know how to make it and that people actually enjoyed it, I can proceed to make it more often! You might just be the next lucky chosen one! :)

So, I think I've convinced those three that I'm Chinese/Taiwanese/Asian. Slowly, I'm embracing my culture. I'm taking baby steps. This is a good thing.

Meet My New Toy.

This is Spud Trooper. Isn't he so cute or what?!

LIFE IS SWEET!

Sometimes a small gesture can make your day! Sometimes you just need a little picker upper to encourage you on. Sometimes you just want to know how lucky you are to be at the place your working at. Sometimes those little things are ways God reminds you that you are very special to Him. Those "sometimes" are so crucial in life, especially mine. It makes life so much sweeter!

Last Friday, I had to go to a board member's office to get a check signed. Before I left, my co-worker, Dianne, asked me to asked Lindsay, the secretary at the office, if they have any youth books. I followed her orders but was wondering why I would be asking for youth books from a legal secretary. I didn't question Dianne. I just went and followed directions.

I was very shocked when I found out what this board member did exactly. He's a lawyer. He's the lawyer for John and Staci Eldrege, Beth Moore. Rob Bell, and John Maxwell just to name a few. I was in total shock when I was taken to the back. There were just books after books after books! Lindsay just kept handing me books for Dianne and when I told her that I love John Eldrege, she gave me two hardcover books! And then she told me that I can just go back there and grab books whenever I wanted. I was kind of in a state of shock to find out how big this lawyer was and yet he's so down to earth and serves on the board of Open Doors. It was pretty amazing.

When I got back to the office, I was on cloud nine! It was just a great end to the week! It's those little things makes my day and life so much better! It was what I needed after feeling lousy for the week. It was that picker upper that I needed to keep doing my job. I felt so lucky and honored to be working there. All those connections! If you want a book or two by any of those authors mentioned, please let me know and I'll try my best to get them for you!

LOVE/HATE: DISNEYLAND!

I love that place.
I love the atmosphere.
I love the BREAD BOWLS!
I love people watching.
I love the fireworks.
I LOVE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!
I love it when it's decorated for Christmas.
I love their peppermint ice cream during Christmas.
I love It's a Small World and Haunted Mansion during Christmas.
I love Dole Whip.
I love walking around Downtown Disney.
I love the AMC at Downtown Disney. You pay student price with your annual pass. :)

I love the Peter Pan ride.

BUT...
I DON'T love it when people invade your space in line.
I DON'T love it when it's crowded and every line is a billion hours long.
I DON'T love it when people hold up the line to the parking structure by asking questions about the park with the parking attendants. They are the parking attendants for crying out loud, not guest service!
I DON'T love Tortilla Joe's at Downtown Disney. The food is gross. The service is bad. It's way over priced. Don't go there. If you do, don't let me know about it.

Overall, it's still the Happiest place in Orange County. :) For some strange reason, I'm not tired of it even after having a pass for 10 years now. To me, it's still a magical place. I think it's pretty awesome.

Hey Gina! 2 for 2. Not bad, huh? :)

HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD

First of all, I just want to dedicate this blog entry to Gina. Gina: This one is just for you! :)

Yesterday night, my friend Archana and I talked via computer thru Google Talk. She lives in Sydney, Australia and we talked for free! My parents and I talk through Skype. With Skype, you need to prepaid for your service. $10 goes a long way! It's been 6 months and I still have $5.00 left on the account. The best part with Skype is that if my parents are online, we can talk for free and they live on the other side of the planet! It's pretty amazing how technology has transformed. I can't even imagine living any other way.

Well, here's a little update from me. The audit is over. It really wasn't bad at all. Thank you for all those who prayed for me. It was totally a breeze. Now I just have a ton of filing to do again. Those auditors ask for a bunch of things that needed to be pulled out and now there's a huge stack. Fun!

Anyway, on to better things. Last weekend I went to see Zodiac and Amazing Grace. Both were great movies. Zodiac is more on the creepy side and Amazing Grace on the heart-warming side. Even though they are on the opposite spectrum, they were well directed and well written. This past Friday, I saw 300. Ummmmmm, yeah, LOVED IT! It's definitely going to be part of my movie collection. I would buy Amazing Grace too. Zodiac is just a little too eerie to own.

Yesterday, we threw a shower to Dana. Yup, Dana Pearson is getting married in less than a month! Her best friend, Beth and Rahime did a beautiful job planning this special event. It was right out of a Martha Stewart magazine. We had enough food to feed a small country. The whole thing was just so beautiful.

Anyway, I guess I should get back to work now. Ever since the auditors left, I haven't been wanting to work. Strange.....

THE AUDIT.

This is my first audit. So far so good. I filed literally ALL day long today. I brought the papers home on Friday and didn't get to them until Sunday afternoon. I started at 5 and didn't stop till 11pm and it still wasn't done. I was basically frustrated because I couldn't match up anything. It was really irritating. But the most amazing part of this whole ordeal was how God answered my prayers. I woke up this morning praying that God will somehow magically do a miracle and help it all make sense to me and He came through. With the help of Dianne, my favorite cubicle mate and the best co-worker ever, we filed away the impossible pile away. Right after we filed, I received the list of entries that they wanted to check. Two of them were the last two I just filed away. The last two I matched up. I still had the binder opened to that page. I was pretty amazed.

When little things like that happens, it reminds me how God cares even if it's a really small matter. I love that.

CHECK OUT THE SCORE!

My highest ever! I'm ranked 54! I've never been ranked before on this ride!

What a great end to such a fun night!

I WON! I WON!

Now, now. I didn't win the lottery, but I did win an auction! I won something on Ebay! I can't believe it. For me, it's a first. I've done this before on other items, but never won anything. Wow, I can't believe I won. So, you're probably wondering what I won, huh? Well, it's a very rare item. It was the only one on Ebay that cost less than four others that's for sale on Amazon.com. I'm so excited. I've been wanting this item for a long time.

I bought the soundtrack to October Sky. I can't believe that I am going to get it. If you ever seen the movie, the music is amazing. When I first saw the movie, I knew I had to get the soundtrack, but couldn't find it anywhere except on Ebay and Amazon.com. You can't even download it from iTunes! I've read reviews after reviews and knew that I need to get it because I love good music. It's no longer available in the stores. I am so excited! I am just hoping that the cd is in good condition. It was a little costly, but I don't care. Not only did I purchase something I've been wanting, but it's a rare commodity! I'm just so excited!

So, have you bought something on Ebay before? Share with us your experience!

BLAH & @#$%^!&!

Yup. The title explains it all. Last week we had our Team Days. From what I've heard about the past, it's this great week of fun and getting to know your co-workers better. I had high hopes and was so excited on Sunday night about the week. We were told not to work because this week was devoted to team building.

Well, the week has passed and I feel like crap. Isn't that sad?! I didn't feel like I got closer to anyone. I enjoyed 2 out of the 10 sessions and now my desk is just full of crap that's due at the end of the month. Yup, I feel like crap. I feel like @#$%^&^%$#@! I feel overwhelmed. But at the end, I still love my job and the place that I am at. It beats the other jobs I've had before. I love my two bosses and my partner in crime. I love my friends that I've made there. I love everything about it. I know that there are going to be bad times and there's always something to complain about and I can make myself miserable listing those things. But the reality is that in the end, I have to see if I did it glorifying God. I definitely did not have that "happy" attitude this past week and I feel badly about that. I need to do better. Everyone has their faults, there's always improvements and there's probably someone else out there that can do the job better. But at this moment in time, God has placed me here and I need to do it wholeheartedly and try my best to accomplish the job that He has graciously given me.

Please Try Again.

Ok, so I apparently forgot to press the "Save Changes" button. So, please try again by clicking HERE! :)

PICTURES!

Hello friends! I've finally uploaded pictures from Taiwan. Instead of putting it on my blog, I've created a folder through Winkflash;). Thank you Brandy for sharing this site. It's so much easier and much faster than the other ones that I've explored!

So, here it is. Click HERE to view the album. You will need to sign up for an account in order to view it. Sorry! I do have to apologize for not explaining each picture. But here's a short summary of our trip:

-I started off the trip with a mosquito bite on my left eye.

-In Guilin, China we went and toured 3 different caves. It's amazing to see the natural formations of rocks inside the caves. We also saw a "mini cave Great Wall." :)

-Went on 2 boat rides.

-Watched a bird catch a fish.

-Watched a show that was performed on the water at night.

-Stayed at 5 star hotels. One of the pictures shows how our hotel was surrounded by "normal" living in China.

-Visited an old village where people portrayed living in old China.

-Guilin is known for it's hill and rock formations. There's picture of a rock that looks like a toad, camel, snail and elephant.

-Watched a very boring water show that our hotel (Lijian Waterfall Hotel)in Lijian puts on every night. It was suppose to be "Spectacular," but I guess after being spoiled by Disney's Fantasia, nothing meets that standard. The show lasted for 10 minutes, but we only stayed for about 2 minutes. One of the longest two minutes of my life! But to the rest of the people, it was nightly extravagance.

-Mom & I on a very old ski lift going up to the highest point in Guilin where you can see all of Guilin. It was so beautiful!

-Shopped and ate till we dropped! Seriously. We ate so much food. It was crazy. We also shopped like no other. Although we did a lot of window shopping, it was still fun.

Guilin was so beautiful, but freezing! It's surrounded by mountains and the site was just amazing. If you ever seen Chinese art with mountains in it, it's most likely that it was inspired by Guilin. My parents and I had a great time. God blessed us with a really great tour group and guide. We were very blessed.

Anyway, if you have any questions, please ask away or just do a Google search. :)

Love ya!

A WEEK LATER...

Yes, yes, I know. How hard is it to upload some pictures? I tried for about 10 minutes on Saturday and I didn't have the patience for it. So, here I am, pictureless, writing to let you know that one day I will have pictures and share about my trip. But in the meantime, if you're planning a trip to China and you're wanting to know where to go...Well, here's my suggestion: Guilin. Make sure you go with a group. It's worth it!

Enough said. I am trying my best to get the pictures up! Works been super duper crazy and by the time I get home I basically get ready and go straight to bed. Who knew that the older you get the harder it is to adjust? I'm totally feeling my age this week!

Love ya!

Just wanted to say that I'm back home safely. I'm so excited that I'll be sleeping in my own bed! I'll be updating my blog with pictures from my trip to China as soon as I get some sleep and energy. :)

A Letter

Dear Lao Bey Bey (old man in Chinese),

With respect, please, please, please do not let your stubborness and your pride effect 180 other passengers on the plane. I know that as someone much younger than you, I'm suppose to show a lot of respect which I did. I didn't yell or say anything to the flight attendants, but I must say that inside, I was boiling with rage when I found out that it was you that caused a 45 minutes delay on the runway.

I'm sorry that you weren't feeling well. Really, I am. I can't imagine not being able to go home and rest comfortably in your own bed. But was it really necessary to hold up the whole flight because you simply refused to get off the plane? In the end, you still had to get off. Please, please, please, don't do this again. It was quite annoying.

Thank you.

Hello from Taiwan!

Hello friends! I wanted to drop in and say hi. I'm in Puli, Taiwan right now waiting for dinner to be served. We're having Shabu Shabu tonight. Yeah, if you never had it before, I will have to take you sometime. It's so much fun and the food is great! But of course nothing beats Shabu Shabu in Taiwan. It's cheap and you can eat a lot more. :) I don't understand how they stay so thin over here. It really baffles me. Well, actually a lot of things baffles me here, but that will be another topic.

Well, today we drove all over Puli looking at different sites. It was fun, but a lot of driving. Then we can home and my sister-in-law took me to get my hair washed, scalp massaged, my neck massaged, and my hair styled. All for $5! This is why I love it here. Everything is so cheap. She then took me to some clothing stores, but of course, the clothes are way too small for me, but they are so cute!

Next week we leave for China. We won't be seeing the Great Wall. According to my parents, it's too cold to go. And since they are paying for this trip, they get to pick where to go. So we will be going to Guiling, China instead. It's one of the most beautiful place in China. So, that in itself should be exciting. I will see the Great Wall one of these days! :)

I wanted to drop in to say hi and hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year's!

Love you and miss you all terribly!

OH BOY!

I've never had such an extensive birthday in my life! It officially ended yesterday night. I had my last birthday dinner and now I'm getting ready for the Christmas festivities!

Well, it's been quite hectic at work the last couple of weeks. We've moved back into our new and improved building 3 weeks ago and then now the year-end stuff. It's amazing how working with numbers can keep you busy all day long. To all my accountant friends...I admire you.

In 2.5 weeks I will be leaving for Taiwan. I'm looking forward to this trip. I just found out that we will be making another trip to China for New Year's. My mom hasn't told me exactly where in China, but I'm thinking I might even get to see the Great Wall! We're going with a tour group and not by ourselves. So, for that, I'm excited. I do hope we get to see the Great Wall.

I really can't believe that 2006 is coming to an end and 2007 is just around the corner. I hope each one of you will have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! I'm sure I'll be blogging before, during and after my trip. I will finally have a digital camera, so I'm pretty sure I will be camera happy and present you with lots of lots pictures! :)

Love you all!

I'M NOT...

ignoring you. I had a great week in Dallas with my friend Sarah and her family. Now, I'm just trying to recover the lack of sleep as well as digesting all the food I inhaled. I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving! Share with us what you did! Love ya and I'm so THANKFUL for each one of you!

It Just Doesn't Seem Right!

Ummmmmm....has anyone else notice the weather? I mean, really, it's past mid-November and it's 90 degrees outside. I'm getting tired of the warm weather. I want to wear sweaters and jackets, not shorts and t-shirts. So, that's my little whining. It's just doesn't seem right!