Week in review

Man, what a week it's been since I last blogged---there was the sad but really great trip to L.A. where we saw all the family and attended my gung gung's funeral...and then coming back to Seattle to experience the most amount of snow I've ever seen in Seattle since moving here in 1999.

The trip to L.A. was really great despite the unfortunate circumstances that took us there. Not only did we get to see Betina and Justin (we stayed with them) and catch up a bit, but I got to hang out with all the cousins on my mom's side of the family for the first time ever. Yup, you heard that correctly -- because of how far we are located from each other (2 of them live in Hong Kong...), we've never physically been in the same room together. There was always at least one missing...but this time we were together. And it was so fun hanging out, eating good food, finally learning how to play mah-jong (Matt wants to get this trend started in Seattle amongst our friends). Here are a few highlight photos:


3 generations: my mom, grandmother and me


All my cousins together with my grandmother


Learning to play mah-jong. That's a cheat sheet of Chinese numbers for Matt--ha!

We then got back to Seattle Tuesday night and were shocked by how cold it had gotten while we were away. We had heard reports of a bit of snow over the weekend and saw some remnants of it. The next day, there were warnings of a "major snow storm" and many of my coworkers didn't come into work...I took a risk anyway since I had missed 2 days and needed to go in anyway to download some software onto my laptop. Turned out that everyone stayed home for nothing -- the sky was snow-free and roads were clear all day......til 9pm that night. Then it started snowing and snowing and snowing. Since Wednesday night at 9pm, I think it's constantly snowed with the exception of Friday. Within Seattle city limits, we've had 1-2 feet of snow (or more) fall and STICK, which never happens. Here are some photos from the last few days:


Enjoying all the snow


The fountain at Cal Anderson Park


On Friday, 2 buses collided at the intersection of Thomas and Melrose in Capitol Hill, crashing into the guardrail and hanging over I-5. Photo courtesy of sea turtle


Seattle on Sunday morning after the 2nd snowfall


My poor herb garden by Sunday evening


Matt shoveling the driveway Sunday afternoon. Sadly, it kept snowing so much that by that evening, it looked like nothing was shoveled at all!


At this point, I'm most worried about flying out of here. Our flight to L.A. is tomorrow morning and then our flight to Hong Kong from L.A. is later that night at midnight....so we've got a good day of delays just in case, but I'm still worried. Over the weekend, many flights were cancelled -- a guy I know from work who was supposed to fly out Saturday got rescheduled to Friday (yes, after Christmas)---and that was after 12 hours in the terminal and 3 cancellations. Another guy I know had his flight cancelled yesterday--only to be told that there was no way the airline could get him home before Christmas...so instead, he bought brand new tickets on another airline for double the price of his original tickets to fly out tomorrow. It sounds like such a mess...and I'm just hoping now that my flight will leave tomorrow and get me to L.A....anytime, just sometime tomorrow.

It's been a tough week

I got home about an hour ago...yes, nearly at midnight..from work. Last night, I came home around 12:30am from work...been working all week on a VP presentation that's just been sucking so much time...and the presentation is at 9am tomorrow so I have to head back in about 7 hours now. Aside from work, it's been a pretty rough week....

Over the weekend, my gung-gung (maternal grandfather) passed away. He and my po-po (maternal grandmother) lived with us in Kansas for many years during middle school and, of course, I often visited and stayed with him when visiting Hong Kong through the years growing up. He's had cancer for 8 years or so and it probably was only a matter of time...although I guess I wasn't expecting it to be this month necessarily. In fact, Matt and I had planned to hang out in L.A. for one day on our way to Hong Kong this Christmas just to visit him. [sigh] I was fortunately with a good friend (thanks Jessica!) when I found out so I instantly got a loving hug. I'm still a bit in shock that he's gone. My mom sounds like she's holding up really well considering the amount of planning she's had to deal with in the last few days. We're headed to L.A. this weekend for all the funeral activities and....it's going to be tough. I definitely will shed some tears and it'll be hard. He was a quiet, good man who did nothing but love his family and be there where he was needed. I'll miss his smile and the silly Chinese karaoke singing he'd do with po-po. I learned today from my mother that because I'm the oldest grandchild, I'll need to give a speech at the funeral service. [gulp] I hate giving speeches to begin with...much less at an event where I know I'll be emotional. I know it's important to do so and I'll be proud to do so, but I'm nervous! Despite my trepidation, I'm very much looking forward to this weekend and re-connecting with all of the family. This will be the first time I'll be in the same room with ALL of the cousins since....well, I can't remember when since we all live so far apart...but we will all be together again and it'll be nice to see everyone. We'll also get the chance to see some old friends since Matt and I will be staying with Justin and Betina.

Anyway, time to go to bed.....