I have New Year's plans! I'm going to some party with Jon..it's pretty low key..but it's something to do. whew.

When I got back to Seattle yesterday, there was a huge crowd of people wearing purple wishing the Huskies goodbye as they go off to the Rose Bowl. A strange site to greet one upon arriving in this city. Matthew picked me up from the airport and we went out to dinner to this restaurant that we ate at on our second date...yum yum. And we just hung out the rest of the evening. I'm so curious what he got me for Christmas. He keeps talking about it..and has had it for weeks..but won't give it to me until he wraps it. weird.

Today, I've just been doing house cleaning/organizing stuff. I set up the neat-o water fountain that Betina gave me in the living room..the peaceful sounds of water....

I'm half way through the third Harry Potter book. Damn, these books are addicting.

well, that's all. Have a happy new year everyone!

i'm now in denver, at my father's former phD students' home, typing away at their very neato looking sony vaio. we left this morning from breckenridge...having one very large breakfast before taking off....and then did the usual shopping at the outlet mall and driving off to denver, arriving just in time for dinner. my dad's student has so many cool gadgets around the house...reminds me of..well..me (that is, being gadget girl).

the rest of the time in breckenridge was great---i skied the rest of time, which was definitely worth it. the view from the top of the mountain was magnificent. i just love how i can ride the lift to the very top and still have blues and even greens to ski down on. it's unfortunate that most of my family didn't seem to really want to enjoy the outdoors as much as my brother and me. most of the time, my parents and grandparents sat inside the cabin, finishing off their 20-tape chinese soap opera marathon....so sad. it was just too cold for them and they could care less about frolicking in the snow or taking the gondola up the mountain for some breathtaking views. oh well...i tried. but i have a feeling that this will be the last family vacation to a ski resort. i can't wait to head to whistler in a few weeks...

well, i head back to seattle tomorrow...and there goes a nice week long vacation. i don't even know what i'm going to do for new year's yet...i barely know anyone who's even going to be in town...for all i know, i might just end up by myself in the apartment, watching dick clark on tv. is that bad? or sad? i've always had *plans* for new year's. this year is a first in which i don't. the only people i know of in seattle are jon and matthew...jon may join up with some buddies elsewhere...he doesn't know. and matthew. well, matthew..[sigh] i don't know. he acted a little strange when i suggested that we hang out on new year's. i don't know...everytime i ask him to do something, or hang out...he gets all hesitant and gives me the 'ol "um...yeah..sure...well, i'll see...i'll get back to you". You know, the type of response where it's more like "well, if i don't have any better plans, then sure, i'll hang out with you". i'm kinda getting tired of that attitude from him. he's just a weird boy....but i love him for that...go figure.

[sigh] i just got out of a nice, steaming hot tub in the middle of a blistering winter here in Breckenridge, CO...ooooo....my muscles are sooo sore. my family arrived here late Saturday night, where I met up with Ben and hung out with his relatives over in Vail. On Sunday, I attempted my 2nd day ever at snowboarding--over in Keystone with Ben...and boy, was it hard. I wiped out so hard and bruised myself everywhere. I hurt myself in places that I never hurt myself while skiing...including banging my head on the ground several times and getting the wind knocked out of my chest. My brother and I stumbled back down to our lil' cabin at Park Place so exhausted. I woke up so sore on Christmas day that I could not fathom the idea of touching the hard, packed snow on the slopes again....so we just sat around, watching TV, reading my Harry Potter, part II book..and eventually walking out onto the streets of Breckenridge. Such a cute little town...my family then ate our Xmas dinner at a restaurant called Whale's Tail.

Then Aaron and I woke up today to brave the slopes once again..this time at Breckenridge. argh. i am sooo slow at learning. every time i fell down, it hurt ten time as much as it did on Sunday because I fell down on the same bruises. I've given up hope of being a snowboarder. no, that's not really true. but DAMN, it's freakin' hard. It took me forever to go down this one green slope..while my brother was catching on and went up and down 6 times. All I know is that I'm not going to snowboard anymore out here--I'd rather reserve that for when I'm out at Snolquamie. I mean, I'm in Colorado!!! And I'm missing out on some of the great slopes and views because I'm trying to learn to snowboard...when I could just be cruisin' down blues skiing. So while I'm not going to give up on my snowboarding, I'm postponing it for a location where the view isn't that magnificent and awe-inspiring. While I'm here, I'm going back to the skis....

Well, I hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season! It's really nice to be out here and not worry about work for one week (though I'm feeling strangely good and confident about it at this time).

'tis the season for holiday parties. jed had one at his place on saturday night--lotsa fun. he and 3 guys got together to sing some a cappella xmas music. Check out pictures from this event.
after the party, i went to a rave with betina and ben...which was kinda disturbing. The overall ambience was cool and the music was great. But I was so shocked to see all the young children, high on ecstasy, numbing their minds with twirling neon lights..so disheartening. see for yourself
spoke to matthew on sunday to see how he was doing down in fernley. he apparently won nearly $1000 at craps and then took that money, rented a car, drove to Tahoe, checked himself into a nice hotel and went skiing at Heavenly over the weekend. Unfortunately, he injured himself and tore some ligaments in his shoulder and had to wear a sling for the next two days. Amazon apparently offered to fly him home early---but he turned it down! And volunteered to work a few more days at the warehouse! Funny, considering he almost swore off ever working there ever again after last year's incident in which a microscopic piece of metal lodged itself into his eye.

over the weekend, i did some heavy duty xmas shopping. i was buying gifts for some children that "are in need" through this program at the seattle center. anyhow, the girl wanted an Asian doll---it's much harder to find an Asian doll than you'd think. My only choices were either Kira, friend of Barbie, or Lucy Liu from Charlie's Angels. I thought, Lucy Liu would be so much cooler than surfer girl Kira. But out of all 3 characters in Charlie's Angels, guess which doll is the *the* most popular and completely sold out doll across the nation? Yup, Lucy. So I ended up with Kira.

on monday, i got a sudden call from my smithie friend, liz, who invited me over to the holiday party she was throwing along with roommates. it was so refreshing to hang out and meet a totally new group of people. i feel bad that i haven't really hung out with liz at all since she's moved to seattle...and she just lives, like, up the street from me.

last night, i went to ben's company holiday party at EMP, which was actually a lot of fun. everyone was super dressed up....ben was in a suit! i haven't seen him dressed up like that since i first met him in hong kong 1.5 years ago. they had the Artist's Journey open so I rode that again. but overall, it was quite the bash. Check out all the pictures for this one.

I need to go Xmas shopping like crazy tonight. And then I plan on skiing like crazy this weekend. wahoo!

i haven't written anything since i was in kansas. a lot has happened since. it's weird--there's so much to write about...yet, i feel odd writing about it in this weblog. how private do i want to be about the events in my life?

anyhow, after getting back from kansas, life moved on and i was back in seattle. had a really really rough week with matthew right afterwards. it's definitely tough to try to continue a friendship with someone who you've shared your life with for the past year. when is it time to move on? how long does it take to heal? do i have the right to cry? you can kinda tell what was going on. but things are definitely much better now. this was the hardest it's ever been to try to get through to him. but i finally did and i think we're on the same page now. it's bizarre when his first step after a relationship is my first--hard to deal with.

i miss his friends. he has yet to invite me out to hang out with his friends since the breakup. now he's in fernley and i just got an invitation to see 'the drop' at sit&spin on saturday. i love hearing them and i miss seeing the gang. should i go? we'll see.

i hung out with brad after work today---we went back to his place and had a super super long long talk about his new secret crush and, in general, about our crazy love lives and our opinions of the energy between men & women. it's amazing how i can speak so incredibly comfortably and honestly with him about relationships and sex. i mean, we feel the same way about the topic...and can talk about it forever and ever. we confessed something to each other also tonight...which made me shy. but to find out he reciprocates makes me feel better. oh...it was lotsa lotsa fun hanging out with him. i know a secret...

i finally made it out to the elysian tonight to say goodbye to my friend cathy who decided to leave the company to move down to california to work at a small start-up. she and i had orientation together...[sigh]