I decided to join a little tour of Amsterdam and am back now. I guess there are enough people that have lengthy layovers in this airport that they've made a business of giving "between flight tours" of the city. It was a basic bus tour of the main downtown plus a visit to a CHEESE farm. Nothing terribly exciting (as I've been to Amsterdam before)...but it definitely helped me pass time here quickly. Eager to get over to Paris and take a shower. I'm just praying that my luggage is all safe and sound---Northwest/KLM is notorious for losing my luggage...additionally, I was bad and checked in a bit late in Seattle (blame my jet lag from Hong Kong)--so my luggage is labeled as a "late check" and I got an official warning that it might not have made my flight. [sigh] I'll just have to wait and see what happens when I get to Paris...

In the past 3 days, I've logged in a total of 25 travel hours and who knows how many thousands of frequent flier miles. By the time I reach Paris from Amsterdam, my total travel time will increase to 32 hours (long layover here). My body has no clue what day it is and is confused how my meals jump from breakfast to dinner. The 1 day I had in Seattle just flew by..though it was nice to sleep in my own bed and unload everything from Hong Kong. I even went out with Felix to see Gangs of New York---a very long movie, incredibly bloody, a good story...though somewhat predictable.



The flight over here to Amsterdam wasn't bad actually---the 3 seats to my right were all empty so I had plenty of room to stretch out, read a book and get some sleep. I now have a 6.5 hour layover and am debating what to do. Much to my surprise, the Amsterdam Airport ROCKS! It's so clean, modern, high tech and is full of fun things for a typical layover passenger to do. There are tons of shops, restaurants, cafes, internet docking stations (for 5.9 euros/30 min.), a CASINO and these fun "big mama" chairs as the signs indicate (big round red chairs that look like they're from IKEA)...practically enough to keep me plenty entertained for the next few hours...although I'm really tempted to take a bus/train into the city and check out the Rijksmuseum or the Anne Frank house. The weather is rainy and blegh..so I'm not in the mood to just wander around.



I'm annoyed--the batteries in my iPod ran out on the flight over here..and I was dumb and didn't bring the charger. ah well.



I don't know if I'll be able to find an internet cafe again before tomorrow...so if not, Happy New Year to everyone!

herb ritts has died: what a loss..so young..so talented.

I spoke too soon...I think that if Hero gets nominated for Best Foreign Film this year, it won't be eligible for any other category in any subsequent year as a result. For shame.

Ben joined us for dinner last night and then took Aaron, his friend Kitty, and I out for a drink afterwards--fun catching up with him. I can't wait til we actually hit the town tonight...partying with Ben is always fun.



I can't believe how much time has passed! I leave tomorrow...so much to try to do before I leave. First up---I really want to watch the movie, Hero, which was just released here last week (December 19 I think). I first heard about this movie at the beginning of this year and have been dying to check it out. Jet Li, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung....they're all in it. It's got to be great...how sad: it doesn't release in the U.S. until November 2003!! geesh. Kind of strange..because it's eligible now for Best Foreign Film...but not for any other category until next year. Wouldn't that be strange if it won Best Foreign Film this year...and then something like Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography the following year? I don't know why Miramax has held it back by a year. Anyhow, I'm very much looking forward to it....although Ben is trying to convince me to watch another movie which he thinks is better...which probably won't ever be released in the U.S. Hmm. I wonder if there are any bad VCD copies of Hero floating around that I can bring back to Eugene...



I always notice that the style & trend in HK tends to be about 6 months to a year ahead of the US...it's fun to see what will be in next year. Observations from the streets regarding current trends:

• flats
  
  
• boots with a sag..that are visibly worn--whether that be with a skirt or over jeans...very much like a trend I remember back in junior high...tend to be suede boots..may have dangly tassels
  
  
• corduroy! it's everywhere--as it is in the US..but it's really everywhere here.
  
  

Re-highlighted my hair yesterday..much better.

I'm pooped and oh so tired. It's about 11:30pm here and I'm definitely ready for bed. While my parents and brother have already completely adjusted to the time since they traveled in Japan for 1.5 weeks before coming here, I just got here and am still feeling the jet lag. It usually hits me really hard just around dinner time, inconveniently.



Today, we made our usual visit to the cemetery to pay respect to the relatives---we do this every time we come back. I find the cemeteries here fascinating because they're huge and densely packed. What I find spooky is how it's common practice to stick a picture of the deceased on the tombstone (those of you in Seattle may notice this with Bruce Lee's grave--that's not just for kicks). It's kind of disturbing to be walking along and knowing how old someone was when they died, how they looked, etc etc.



I can't remember how long it's been since I've spent an actual Christmas in Hong Kong..but I really don't remember the madness of this holiday on the streets. I just got back to the hotel and there are plenty of shops still open--it's Christmas day! I'm so accustomed to everything being dead on this day in America..everyone staying at home with their loved ones. No--here, people go out, have fun, shop, party, eat late. Vendors are on every corner, trying to sell some sort of glow-in-the-dark sparkling contraption to wave in the air indicating one's love for Christmas. I honestly think that it's great that there's so much enthusiasm out on the streets for this holiday...I guess..I'm just tired and sick of thinking about Christmas (since I've been PM-ing the freakin' holiday for the amzn site for the past who-knows-how-many-months). I was looking forward to some calm. Paris isn't going to be that much settled down either.



I have to admit, I miss him. ;-)

Absolute madness. That's the only way that I can describe the streets of Hong Kong at this moment. Nathan Rd. has been closed off in Tsim Sha Tsui and people are spilling onto the streets donning their Santa hats, smiling, singing Christmas songs and enduring the usual holiday cheer. It's interesting how different it is from home---I would think that at this time, anyone that's out and about on the streets is completely stressed and only out in order to get a last minute gift. Instead of cozing up to a fireplace, sitting at home quietly watching some football game and sipping eggnog, people here pour out onto the streets with friends, celebrating Christmas as if it were New Year's eve. So insane...I felt like I was pushing myself through a crowd of post-concertgoers. What should've been a 5 minute walk from the Giordano store back to the hotel took more like 20 minutes.



The flight over was surprisingly not that bad. We even arrived an hour early. When I was in Vancouver, I had planned to meet up with Pierre who was also stopping in Vancouver on his way back to Montreal; unfortunately, we didn't account for the division between the international & domestic terminals...and ended up having to talk to each other on our cell phones through the glass wall of a random Japanese restaurant that stood between the 2 terminals. ha ha.



I've been doing nothing but eating good food since coming back. Shortly after landing, my grandmother whisked me off to eat at this incredibly good French restaurant, Gaddi's, in the classic Peninsula Hotel. And tonight, we had our usual grand Chinese dinner at Fook Lam Moon. I'm stuffed.



Hopefully, I can meet up with Andrew and Ben who are living here now. So few days that I'm here...

I'm not sure why I do this to myself every night before a trip..but I just procrastinate to no end with my packing. It's 4:20am right now and phoebe is picking me up in approximately 3 hours. In a way, this all nighter is intentionally to prepare for the intense jet lag I'm sure I'm going to experience..and to also simply force my body to sleep as much as possible on the very long 17 hour journey to Hong Kong. I actually have my clothes taken care of considering I'm only going to be there for 5-6 days...and it's likely that I'll be shopping so there's no need for me to bring a lot of clothes. I'm actually spending time more now preparing all my gifts to my relatives. I got this sudden "miraculous" idea today to put together a bunch of photos that my grandmother doesn't have of me into a nice flip photo album...nice idea eh? Uh..yeah..except that I've had no time to print out a bunch of photos. So, I'm sitting here now, annoyed at my printer because it isn't printing anything..it's just sitting there. argh.



anyhow, must get back to my packing.

man, december is a busy month. i'm absolutely longing for an evening of doing absolutely nothing...just sitting at home by myself, taking a nice bubble bath, reading a good book, not worrying about making sure i take care of this errand or preparing for this party. my christmas card writing went way down the tube this year. typically, i start writing christmas cards way before thanksgiving so that i can get the international ones sent by the beginning of december. this year it's just not happening. so--if you get a christmas card from me, consider yourself lucky....but don't be hurt if you don't get one...it's more that i'm just plain lazy this year.



i went snowboarding on saturday at crystal with jigna, matt, sri, aileen and gray. it was wet...but it was fun. i just loved being back on the board, up in the mountain, breathing in the fresh frigid air, and enjoying the satisfaction of not falling down after getting off the chair lift. the rain was not cool though..typically, i'd be all upset over the conditions and consider it a bad day...but since this was my first run of the season, I just had a blast. the strangest part was going all the way down to the bottom where there really wasn't any snow left..and all remained were puddles of water. very different feeling to be going through that, hearing a "whoosh" as my board skid through the water.



if you've been reading my blog for awhile (wow, i just realized it's been over 2 years since i first started writing it), you may've heard me talk here and there about how november is always my bizarre month for suddenly meeting someone. i never set expectations..but it happens. anyhow, the difficult thing about that is that i end up meeting someone and then christmas rolls around...which is awkward. i'm left with the predicament of "do i get him a gift? or not? is it expected? would he be upset if i didn't get him anything? what if one person gets a gift but the other doesn't?" it's just an awkward and early phase in any relationship to be bestowing gifts upon one another. plus, if you do decide to get a gift, you have to be careful...because it can make or break the relationship right there. oh yes. for example, i can't, say, get a sweater---that's too "we're in a relationship now and we're serious enough that i can add to your wardrobe". at the same time, i can't get something lame like a CD because then it's like "doh--maybe this is her way of easing out of the relationship..because this is a friendship type of present" (unless of course it's a CD mix). this is a really tricky type of present to get---it has to be one that is sweet, small and personal---one that establishes that you care and hope to continue things...yet not over the top.



i'm pretty excited about the present i got. i've never gotten anything like this for anyone...but this has more of a personal story to it...thus, i'm proud. i just hope he likes it and appreciates it for the sentimentality behind it. oh--so yeah, new guy in my life...but i'm not prepared to publicly write about him yet. if you haven't noticed, i tend to avoid the whole subject of men in my blogs....just don't want someone i'm dating to find out what i think of him through my online journal. anyhow, once things get more comfortable with the guy, you'll start hearing me drop his name here and there in various entries. however, i will say that i am happy and that things are going surprisingly well.



i miss snail mail. it makes me sad that i get more christmas cards from businesses than from friends now.



ack, need to pack for hong kong...this is not a trip to be packing for the night before (that's what i always say)

check out froogle. it's neat.



this is just wrong.



been insanely busy at work preparing for the holidays. madness i tell you. there's nothing like working in the retail world during the holidays.



can't wait til this is all over...going on a nice long vacation--first to Hong Kong for Christmas to meet up with the family..and then to Paris for New Year's. Should be fabulous.

I'm in Kansas now and just got back from watching probably the worst movie I've seen this year, Solaris, that new George Clooney/Soderbergh movie. There was no plot, no meaning, nothing. It didn't take the viewer anywhere except pure confusion--in a bad way. I actually watched a total of 7 people walk out on the movie...it was that bad. I had hope for it...thinking that maybe, in the end, there'd be some twist and I'd go "ah..." Nope. Don't watch this movie. It was just plain bad.



Thanksgiving is always such an interesting event for me...moreso because my family doesn't partake in the traditional type of Thanksgiving dinner...we just get together with the Wongs and eat a bunch of Chinese food...and occasionally throw in some turkey and mashed potatoes. I'm not complaining as the food as always good...but until a few weeks ago, I'd never had candied yams. It just cracks me up how random our interpretation of Thanksgiving dinner is...but it's all good. :-) For the first time in years, all three Wong kids were here...but Aaron was gone :-( Hester's now engaged, going to b-school in Boston just like Rod is...and "Bee" just got back from Australia.



I'm always interested in seeing what has changed around the house when I get back. Since my dad's retired, he has so many random house projects. For example, my bathroom has been completely transformed--it now has my parent's old tub (they got a new one). Aaron hasn't been back in over a year and will be in for a surprise when he sees all of the changes.



Looking forward to catching up with some folks, eatin' good Kansas steak, wandering around in Oak Park Mall for the usual post-Thanksgiving shopping and dim sum at BoLing's.

Okay, it's been a super long time since I've updated this blog--mainly because my website was down for a long time and I just figured no one was visiting.



A lot of photo opportunities lately. First was the fabulous Goodbye Seattle Halloween Party that Scott threw (for the last time--boo hoo!). I finally decided on going with being this Millennium space girl (a la Jetsons) outfit...loved the platinum bob wig. What a crazy party that was--about 550 people in total came......I spent about 5 hours over at his place decorating beforehand...whew. Scott is now biking across the country--you can read about it in his blog. I'm one of the least athletic people..and I just find it so amazing that he's taking this journey across the U.S.



Went to Vancouver twice in most recent weeks---first was for an insane shopping trip with Phoebe and Susan...and more recently as a really last minute trip with a few people reflected in these photos. I love that it's so easy to just jump up to Canada for the weekend from here...sadly, I seem to know very little about Vancouver beyond Robson Street, Vij's, Granville St., Stanley Park and Port Coquitlam where my relatives all live. I do love how much bigger of a city it is...and of course the exchange rate and GST refund.



Betina hosted a Thanksgiving Potluck last week...mmm...yummy food. Anyhow, I snapped a few completely random photos since I haven't hung out with this group in awhile.



Exciting work news: Amazon became the exclusive seller of the Segway HT and sales have been pretty good considering the price of the thing. I really wonder if this will take off in the way that Dean Kamen is hoping for it to. The idea of Segways dominating our sidewalks and office hallways is a really strange concept to me. I must admit that the technology behind it---the way that the machine is soo sensitive to your sense of balance is pretty amazing. After the launch, Jeff has been zipping through the hallways at work, giving the occasional demonstration. On Friday, one of our VPs brought his own Segway to a little Friday Beer team celebration and I had the opportunity to try it out myself---I'm hooked.



As a belated birthday present, I took Phoebe to see The Full Monty, the musical version of the 1997 movie...I loved it. It was funny, the music was catchy, the comedy was in place, and the staging of the final "full monty" strip was tasteful. The big flashy "The Fully Monty" words were in the backstage..and right at the moment in which the men raised the hats that were covering up their privates, the sign lit up, causing all the men to suddenly be shadows. Clever and tasteful.



On a more humble note, I'll have to admit that I went to see American Idols Live in concert last week with a few closet fan friends---and it was so much fun. We all got together for dinner beforehand...and being closet fans of this show, we all of course had the guilty pleasure of enjoying reality television shows. Dinner conversation was all about Real World, Survivor, The Bachelor, Dismissed, etc...ha ha. When it came time to entering Key Arena for the concert, we were immediately overwhelmed by the high pitched screams of teenage girls. The concert was a blast---it was so cheezy and we loved it. The top ten finalists were there...including Kelly, Justin, Tamyra, Nicki, etc. I felt like I was watching one of those high school variety shows (those of you from Lawrence..kind of like "Showtime") as every song (except for Kelly's one solo) was just a cover of an already existing song....which made it even more the fun to sing along with. Here are some photos of our indulgent evening of teen pop.



For those of you who may remember, I got this really bizarre inflammation in my eye around May of last year called uveitis. Well, it came back about 2 weeks ago. Fortunately, I immediately self diagnosed myself and within 24 hours, I was back to dropping in steroid eyedrops every hour and dilating my left eye twice a day. Because of that, I healed a lot faster this time. As of 3 days ago, I can stop dilating my eye--yay! I just can't believe it came back. Strangely, the opthamologist thinks that there's a *possible* chance that it could be related to the issues I've been having with my right hip area that I've been going to physical therapy for for the past few months. argh. My body's so weird. I hope I don't end up being bilaterally blind.



Heading home to Kansas for Thanksgiving this week.

i finally paged my doctor and begged for some hardcore medicine, to which she immediately prescribed me some cough medicine and antibiotics that have done wonders to me. i started feeling better only a few hours after taking it--wahoo. that was saturday.



by sunday, i was able to pull myself out of my apartment to attend this special salsa workshop taught by this guy, seaon, from L.A.--"intermediate patterns and tricks". my partner, destiny, and i learned some crazy intense moves--it was such a fabulous, fun class. one move involved me twisting around and falling down to the ground, back arched, arm & leg stretched out, head only an inch from the floor....and another where I turned into destiny, lifted my leg and suddenly he was lifting me in the air in the "fish" pose, spinning me in a circle. completely exhilarating. I've haven't enjoyed partner dancing like this in so long. but damn, i'm seriously sore today. i could barely lift my legs or walk the stairs today.



i came home today to find a voicemail message from some lady speaking in vietnamese--a telemarketer of some sort. i don't understand--this is the third time she's left me a message. every once in awhile, i get the random asian telemarketers, convincing me to join some sort of long distance program (at least that's what I assuming they're trying to sell me)...i answer the phone and someone suddenly bursts into a loud "nee how ma! bleh bleh bleh!" and i have no clue what they're saying as i don't understand mandarin. it's funny how these telemarketers just crawl through the phone directory, capturing all asian sounding names.



i'm having a hard time finding a costume for halloween this year. i spent all evening with susan trying on costumes and wigs...and i still have no clue. i want to try to work in a platinum wig of some sort. hmmm.

it's friday night and i'm staying in again cuz' i'm sick. this is almost getting ridiculous. the last time i went on such a sickness streak was when i was in spain--but back then, i didn't have any medicine and my senora kept insisting i drink coffee. i didn't go to work today either at the insistence of my manager. good thing as i was just dizzy all day, laying on my couch. i feel like i've become immune to my own medicine. i've gone through so much: sudafed, albuterol, theraflu, nyquil, tylenol cold, throat coat tea, chinese throat syrup, the works. if i'm not better by the end of this weekend, i'm going to see the doctor again.

a friend of mine sent me this today. ha ha.

i got progressively more sick over the weekend and just stayed in most of the time. i even worked from home today. the doctor didn't have much to say except to continue taking sudafed. i don't know what my problem is...my entire life, i've gotten sick on a regular basis. i think i was sick just about a month ago..and i'm sick again now. watch me get sick next month. it's not like i'm not sleeping enough or eating on a regular basis. hmmph.



the great thing about being sick is that i've gotten a lot of cleaning and reading done...a lot of me time, which has been nice. i must say, the balcony in my apartment has made my move sooo worth it. i'd forgotten how nice it was to just sit outside, breathing in the fresh air. jon brought back my deck furniture over the weekend....after keeping it for me for the last two freakin' years. ha ha.



called aaron tonight..poor kid. he's paying $500/week to stay at a hotel for the next 2 months..as, in the end, it's economically a better deal so he doesn't have to buy furniture and all that to move into an apartment. it was nice catching up with him and finally finding out what he's up to. asides staying at a hotel, things seem great with him.



i'm eager to get back into the gym again. i haven't been able to do much lately..with me being so sick..and then my weird hip/leg issue. i've just been a mess.

my manager made me take the day off today to nurse myself back to health . it's been fabulous as i've had the time to do some organizing and clean up at home..and to read up on magazines that have been piling up. i wish this cough would just go away.



this last weekend was a major dose of indian culture for me. on saturday, i joined jigna for this charity event to learn the Dandiya dance. i got to dress up in a beautiful outfit and danced among hundreds of others with sticks. sunday evening, i went to benaroya to see ravi shankar and his daughter, anoushka, perform. it was a beautiful performance..and amazing to see ravi, at the ripe age of 82, still performing.



last night, emily invited me out to see Blast!, a new "musical" that is often referred to as the American "Stomp". Imagine a marching band turned into a musical..and you get Blast!. I really enjoyed the incredible talent of the percussionists in the show (although I had tunnel hearing after the show). It got me thinking about how musicals have evolved into this new genre of musicals. When I think "musical", immediately I think of shows like Sound of Music, Miss Saigon, and The Music Man. Blast! and Stomp bring on a new form comprised simply of movements rather than an entire story with music woven into the dialogue. Thus, are they really musicals? Should they be in a category of their own?



today is gina's birthday--happy birthday sweetie! and linda's was last week--happy belated! i'll call soon!



just found a fun website---> moviemistakes.com where, as the url suggests, readers can post mistakes they find in movies...like how kate winslet's mole moves from one side of her face to the other in titanic. i love reading stuff like that.

wow, i just discovered that one of the women that i used to sing with in the smiffenpoofs just released her first single, "swept away". good for her!

ugh, i've been sick for the last week with this constant cough that just won't go away. i had to start taking robitussin, for the first time since high school probably. it's been awhile since i've *just* had a chest cold. i really sound worse than i actually am.



so excited...i finally finished writing my first spec and got it signed off on. woo hoo.



oh my achy muscles...just got back from another evening of salsa dancing..and it's been awhile as I skipped last week due to my illness. in class, we've been learning this insanely long combination for performance purposes. it's awesome, though, to be back in the mode of learning choreography.



forgot to mention that i recently paid a visit to goldmyer hot springs which was a fabulous experience. it was totally rustic and way out in the middle of nowhere. we had to cross a river--like, walk through it, to even get to the site. it was my first time at a hot springs and i loved it. plus, had the opportunity to camp, which was nice since i didn't get any camping in over the summer. anyhow, if you get a chance to check this place out, i highly recommend it.



can't believe it's october already...and it was rainy and nasty today too. there go the lovely summer days...hello rain for the next eight months.

have you seen mr. winkle yet? funny looking dog. he had an appearance on sex and the city a few weeks ago..but i thought it was just a stuffed animal cartoon character. guess which one is the real dog in the picture.

fred and i decided to subscribe to the symphony---listener's choice. wahoo!

i guess i'll take a stab at commenting on one of eugene's recent posts, which essentially reflects on how boring it is to hang out with friends that are in relationships because their whole world revolves around their significant other. in a lot of ways, I agree with it..but i think it depends on how long your friend has been in their relationship. for example, phoebe is practically like another single girlfriend, but she's been dating ray now for practically 9 years and they're married now. for friends in the first year or so of a relationship, the tendency tends to lean towards the type of behavior that eugene writes about..but eventually it eases up. a lot of my friends have gotten into relationships in this last year and i just never see them. ever. and as couples like to hang out with couples...they still hang out with each other..but i'm the odd singleton left behind. the easiest people to hang out with are my single friends and the ones that have been in their relationship for awhile. of course, i'm single myself and probably notice this a lot more. i will disagree with eugene regarding topic of conversation...as friends in relationships are still fun to hang out with..it's just not very often. as for me..god, i don't know what i'm like at all. i certainly don't think i completely disappear from my friends' lives...but I don't see how things can just carry on the same way when you've got a boyfriend suddenly. honest opinions welcome.

yay! susan is back! welcome home sweetheart!



man, it's fun having HBO...now i can watch the Sopranos and all sorts of movies.

work is starting to get to me. i hate frustrating meetings. i hate seeing good people get frustrated and leave. i'm getting to a point in my career here where i don't necessarily trust all of our business decisions anymore. now, i'm not a "biz person" at all...but i just feel like i see more people frustrated than excited nowadays. perhaps i'm just getting more cynical. i am happy with my career and my job. I'm definitely learning a lot and appreciate it. maybe i'm just tired and need to go home.



i wonder how my brother is doing . i should call him.

i woke up at 6:30am this morning to get ready to attend the rolling requiem at safeco field. i picked up rachel, drove to pacmed, took the shuttle down to uwajimaya, got some chai at tully's and walked over. it was weird standing in line at the stadium as i looked at the crowd around me. since the whole thing was around 8am, most people had planned on going to work right after the ceremony...so i saw a lot of people in business suits...and overall, more dressed up than your typical baseball crowd. the whole event was simple with a short speech (i thought it was neat that the idea came out of seattle), a sing-a-long of the star spangled banner, and then mozart's requiem. i haven't heard that piece in awhile and i forgot how moving it is. anyhow, it was nice.



otherwise, it's just another usual day at work...sitting in my office by myself. oh yeah--i lost my officemate last week, quite sadly. so now i've got this huge office to myself (which i don't mind..heh heh) but i think that i might get a new officemate in about a week with one of the new hires in the group.



an old friend from kansas created a 'how well do you know me?' quiz and sent it to me recently, to which i failed miserably by answering only, like, 3 out of 10 questions right. it was really interesting so i created one for myself and sent it off to about 20 people. it's been fascinating seeing people's answers. the hardest was how many apartments i've lived in and where i was born. surprisingly, it was hard to guess my middle name...and my major and minor were flipped. ha ha.

the buzz this week: will it be kelly or justin? i'll admit that i've gotten caught up with american idol...but of course, my biggest guilty pleasure is any sort of reality tv/competition. my vote: kelly. she just has such a rock star voice and has been the most consistent out of all the contestants so far. her performance last night completely blew justin away. justin was FLAT even! she definitely sang those original songs much better. what a controversy it would be if justin won though. overall, i think everyone knows that kelly has the more phenomenal voice..let's just hope. oh--and last night, they brought in the winner of the british version of this show (pop idol)--Will Young..and he performed..and eeks, he sucked. his voice was weak and the song he sang was just cheezy and weird. kelly rocks.



had a wonderful weekend attending phoebe and ray's wedding in vermont...i'll just highlight the best parts:

hanging out with megan all weekend!

watching the iguanas at the iron horse in northampton friday evening...then getting coffee at the haymarket..and ice cream at herrell's

beautiful drive up to shrewsbury/rutland, vt

seeing the love ray has for phoebe as tears streamed down his face

yummy breakfast at the maple crest farm b&b sunday morning

hanging out with a bunch of smithies at the picnic the next day

grabbing a sandwich at pappa charlie's in williamstown (i got the blythe danner)

seeing the dave brubeck quartet at tanglewood sunday evening

having brunch with anne ward in her apartment in pittsfield, ma---haven't seen her since we graduated!

seeing the classroom where megan teaches at darrow

i'm soooo tired from moving. but i did it. thanks to everyone who helped me move yesterday...it really speeded up the whole process. now that i'm more moved into this new place, i'm feeling a lot better about it. i do love the view oh so much. the moving party ate pizza on the rooftop deck last night..and it was absolute bliss. food never tasted so good. extra thanks to gary and dave for helping me move the futon into my office at midnight (now i have a place to take an afternoon nap..ha!) i still have a lot to do--cleaning up the old apartment and prepping/packing for the trip to vermont/new york this weekend. ack, and i have to reconnect my entire entertainment system tonight..as the cable man is coming tomorrow and i want everything pretty much set up.

ooooooh...the FCC leaks information on the new Samsung i500, which would be the upgraded version of my current PDA phone. This one looks nice as it looks more like a phone--plus, there's a number pad. I've realized with my current phone how dependent my fingers were on the feel of the numbers on the keypad to be able to dial a number blindly. That's definitely not as easy anymore as the numbers just appear on the screen. Wonder when it's going to come out. I must admit, since getting this PDA phone, I use my PDA a lot more now. It used to just sit at the bottom of my purse and I would whip it out occasionally to grab a number. Now, I look at it all the time and use the Datebook feature much more. And now, with the company migrating to use Exchange Calendaring, I can finally do a Hot Synch and check out my meetings there...instead of wondering where my meeting was.



Lots of Leo birthdays---Happy Birthday Gary! Happy Birthday Phoebe! (and tomorrow) Happy Birthday Katie! Tomorrow night will be the 4th Annual Leo Party. Funny how that tradition started the summer I arrived in Seattle. I love it. I love being a leo. We're everywhere. [smirk]



Spent the day with Phoebe for her birthday with a lovely brunch at Palomino...we then took a random trip down to Tacoma to check out the Museum of Glass, which opened very recently. Surprisingly, the majority of the glass installations were located in public spaces (including Dale Chihuly's Bridge of Glass). You essentially pay admission just to see the special exhibitions and to see a live glass blowing session. And even then, of the special exhibitions in the gallery that we saw, only half was actual glass work. I was actually probably most intrigued by a non-glass piece called Die Falle by Gregory Barsamian, which used the simple technology of a zoetrope (an automated flipbook and precursor to cinema), sculpted objects and a strobe light. The effect was amazing.



Feet hurt. Went salsa dancing again last night. Last class. Can't wait to start up sessions again.



I can't believe I'm moving in just a few days. I have SO much stuff! I've decided to try to bring my extra futon into work. See, I work in a pretty big office which was supposed to be for 3 people....but there will never be a 3rd officemate. Because of that, there's a whole extra corner devoted to nothing...so I'm bringing my futon in. The place I'm moving into is completely different from my current place...I hope I'm making a good decision. I keep getting cold feet thinking about it...more so because of the one-year lease. I still have dreams of getting a condo.. Tomorrow, I'm going to go condo shopping with Fred (for him)...perhaps I'll see something I just love.



Next weekend, I'll be heading up to New York and Vermont to go to Phoebe's wedding..and I cannot wait. I'm meeting up with my dear friend, Megan, who works and lives near Albany and has agreed to be my date to the wedding! I also think that I may be meeting up with Anne, whom I haven't seen since the day of our graduation! Really looking forward to it....

yay--i'm 25 now. woo hoo. had a pretty great birthday weekend.



friday, eugene treated me to a fantastic evening of watching norah jones at the moore theater and then dinner at one of my favorites, marco's supper club afterwards. i'd never heard norah's music until that night and fell in love with her voice...it has that slight raspy, full and smooth quality. she was completely adorable to watch. bought her cd the other day and it is now my new album to listen to while making dinner. you should check it out if you haven't yet.



saturday, phoebe and i went over to brad's apartment for a bday celebration for derek, whose bday was monday. i loved their place--definitely the ultimate kind of decor i'd want: hard wood floors, tall ceilings, very modern kitchen, exposed brick. had such a great time as i always do with brad's friends...sadly, he's moving to victoria at the end of the month..but I'm sure he'll be happier there. now i've got someone to visit over there!



sunday evening, i hosted a little birthday potluck at my place where there was more than enough food. thanks to everyone who came! it was a really interesting mix of people.



but boo---> I got sick the next day! (and no, it wasn't from too much partying) I just woke up feeling icky and could've sworn I had strep throat---so did the doctor. Turned out that I didn't..but I was sick enough to not go to work for 2 days. blegh. I'm a little better now.



look at prague now. I can't believe I was there exactly one year ago. I celebrated my birthday in that city last year. so sad to think how many beautiful historic buildings might be getting destroyed.



started reading a new book and found an interesting tidbit. So, the letter 'e' is the most commonly used letter in the English alphabet. Georges Perec wrote a 200-page novel called La Disparition that did not use words that contain the letter e. think! that's pretty darn hard. given, that was a French novel---but it was translated to English by Gilbert Adair, named A Void and also did not contain any words using the letter e. wow.



i'm a little overwhelmed at work. i'm babysitting 2 projects for someone while he's out, but then i got sick...i just feel so far removed from knowing anything about these projects.

i got a parking ticket and am sooo pissed about it. yesterday, after the company "all hands" meeting, I went down to the Pike Place Market to grab some food, knowing that I had about 45 minutes on my meter to do so. I got back to my car just in time, as I saw the meter maid guy pulling right up to the car that was parked behind mine. He started talking to the lady who owned the car parked behind mine as I sat in my car. I was literally pulling away when I heard a tap on my window--he had a parking ticket for me!! The balls!! He actually wrote me a parking ticket as I was sitting in my car!!! I can't believe that. It just doesn't seem right. I was livid for the next hour after that. ugh. i want to contest it in court but don't know if it's worth it. It just angers me so much...



went up to vancouver the other weekend with some friends. never really spent too much time in that city except to visit relatives..meaning, all i see is my great-granduncle's house and chinatown. i shopped w-a-a-y too much along robson street..but i loved the city. it felt really european to me. i don't know why--perhaps because it seemed like there were a lot of outdoor cafes. funny how i attribute that one thing to being european-like.



my birthday is this sunday...woo hoo. i've invited some friends to come over for a casual potluck..should be fun. i'm glad i'm doing something...i'm such a leo--if i do nothing on my birthday, i feel so sad for myself. wow, i'll be a quarter century old...looking forward to it. my parents were so sweet---they sent me flowers, which i found when i got into the office this morning.



i finally broke down and got digital cable. i can now join everyone in watching HBO shows and reminiscing old game shows with the Game Show Network (I can get addicted to "Whammy"--I somehow remember that show). It's completely changed my way of channel surfing...now, I just go to the menu and look at the titles of the shows that are on..rather than getting my brief 1 second preview like I used to. Also, no more commercial breaks for movies! On one hand, that's great..but on the other hand, it's so bad for me to turn on the TV in the morning and get caught up watching a movie. There's no commercial break for me to just leave.

here's a neat-o email forward i just got from a friend.

it's interesting being a pm now. in some ways, i lose 'cool points'..especially with other tech people. i'm starting to work on things with people who don't realize i have a tech background..and then talk to me like i know nothing at all...or just assume i'm asking a dumb question. interesting. on the other hand, i work with people who know my background and ask me technical questions that no other pm would normally be able to answer. i'm having an identity crisis at work. plus it's late. i can't believe i'm still here.



i'm moving. still trying to grasp the concept that i made that decision today. see, i live in an old house. i love my old house. i really do. but i miss some of the standards of modern living. for example, it'd be nice to open up my paper roll-up blinds without worrying about it rolling out and hitting me in the head....or washing my dishes in warm water because it takes too much brainpower in the evenings to find that certain 2 degrees that my kithen faucet handle needs to be at in order to get warm water...or being able to park someplace where my car doesn't get stolen in the middle of the night, only to be found in federal way a few days later without any seats. plus, i miss having a balcony and view. so i looked around this weekend..and found a cool apartment at a brand new place just a few blocks from me. it has a balcony, a roof top deck and it's oh so new. if all works out, i'll be in there by september. it makes me sad, though, because i love where i live right now. it's so charming with the stained glass and clawfoot tub. most of all, i have cool landlords. this last weekend, i ate dinner in the park and played frisbee with them...they're such sweet people. they definitely made it a hard decision for me. but--as phoebe and fred say--this new apartment is probably "more along the lines of my urban chick personality" than my current place. ha!



had lunch with thomas yesterday...saw him for the first time in months. he looked good. it was nice to see him smiling and giddy like he was when i first met him...as compared to the stressed out and seemingly unhappy guy i was dating near the end of our relationship. i still can't figure out what really happened between the two of us. oh well.



i think gilia's back from brazil. must have lunch with her.

i'm getting a lot busier at work now..which is good. it kills me to just sit there and not do much..and not be able to do much since i'm still training. this job change has been interesting. the hardest thing is to restrain myself from making quick changes to the codebase..like if i see something really easy to change that needs changing, i'd rather just do it myself. but instead, i have to make a request..and wait a few days before it gets implemented. i'm sure i'll get used to it...plus, there are so many things for me to learn.



sadly, a lot of people i know at work were either laid off or given 3-week notice last week...including my ex, matthew. [sigh] i hope this is a good thing for matthew..knowing how much he often disliked the policies at this company, and the way that they treated editors.



the days have been absolutely warm and sunny here in seattle. i just want to go out and play all the time.



i finally heard from thomas...which is nice. hopefully, we'll see each other soon. should be interesting as i'm afraid that i'll just be overwhelmed by feelings of sadness when i see him.



susan left last week to go on her big research trip and visit home for the next two months---boo! so sad. i've been hanging out a lot more with her lately...will miss her and can't wait til she's back!



oh, and i moved at work...back to an office, which i share with 2 people. the nice thing is that it's on the corner, so we have 2 windows. i sit right next to one where i can get a partial view of the central district. whoopee!

check out the dancing club spiderman that jimmy sent over to me.



my parents have been in town for over a week now, leaving today. we went up to vancouver over the weekend to visit relatives...and meet relatives that I didn't know existed..like 2 second cousins--marilyn and aaron. it was fun talking to marilyn a lot and learning more about my family. some relative of ours worked on a huge "Lee Family Tree" report, that dates back to the 1st generation. I'm in the 27th generation. Crazy huh? I was so happy to see that because my family tree starts getting really complicated at my grandparents level. See, my great grandparents were all into the multiple wives/concubines thing...so I often meet relatives who are like "I'm your grandmother's brother, same father, but different mother!"...and another "I'm her sister, same father, but another different mother!". It's finally all drawn out.



i can't decide if i really want to buy a place or not right now. my problem is that i prefer urban living...thus, a condo is probably the best within my price range. but i don't know what kind of investment that would be for the timeframe that i have. so in that sense, a townhome or house would be best...but i'm not crazy about living away from the city too much. [sigh] i might just keep throwing my money at rent. who knows.



at dinner the other night, my parents whipped out a $20 bill to show everyone the conspiracy and coincidence with 9/11. weird. it just cracks me up to see that come from my parents of all people.

i've been wanting to change the design of my website for a long time..but never took the time to do so. i was suddenly inspired to do so yesterday. hope you like it. it's a lot more updated now, especially with links to friends' websites.



the other day, fred invited me to watch the mariners game against the A's with his team in the specially rented out microsoft box seats area. fancy. the seats were really cushiony and we had as much hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and drinks as we wanted. how nice it must be to be working for a company that has loads of profit already.

what you would look like as a south park character



this is jon, owen, suzanne and me.

so...yeah...hi. i haven't written in a long time. about a month. i'm still here. i'm still alive. things are still happening in my life. i just haven't written about them. i tend to go back and forth and back and forth every once in awhile regarding keeping this online journal. the initial purpose was to just let my long distance friends keep up with my life. but it's strange now that i have coworkers, close local friends and even complete strangers asking when i'm going to update this thing. it's not like i'm surprised...but i've come to realize how private of a person i really am. for the most part, i'm pretty open to disclosing the details of my life...but..it's just different on the 'net, y'know? because i really limit myself from talking about the things that irk me, i just end up only talking about the random daily things that happen to me....which, might be interesting to read. but in reality, i'm sure, it's just frankly boring unless you already know me and the people that i mention. thus, i question why i have this journal if i don't really allow myself to spill some of my more inner thoughts on life. hmmm.



quick update over this last month: went to aaron's graduation from RISD in providence which was awesome. i'm so proud of my little brother and i hope he realizes that. i sometimes feel like he resents me in some way, being the older one....that he needs to prove himself to me somehow. maybe i'm reading into it wrong but in reality, i've always been so happy with his accomplishments and could only wish i allowed myself to explore my creative path as much as he has. now, he's blossomed into this amazing artist and i really feel that he will go so far in life with something that he is passionate about.



my first asian boyfriend, dan lu, got married the same day that aaron graduated. Congrats Dan. I'm so happy for you and Rebecca. he's my first ex-boyfriend to get married (that I know of). Kinda weird. that is, that concept. i'm bummed that i couldn't go to the wedding as much as I wanted to. He's such a dear friend and wish him the best.



smith's collection of art has made its way to the seattle art museum in an exhibition titled "From Corot to Picasso" and will be here until september. i went to a "special evening" for smith alumnae this last week which was really nice. if you're in seattle, you should see the exhibition if you can--mostly impressionists.



In addition to my regular salsa classes, Owen's girlfriend, Amy, has convinced me to start taking African Dance classes with her. I've been to a few now and absolutely love it. the attitude is really let-loose, kick-back, have-fun. One of the best things about the class is the fact that there are always live drummers which really empowers you to just let everything go and put your all into it. Another great thing about the class is that it's located right on Lake Washington Blvd...so after class, the view is always incredibly beautiful. It amazes me how I can't stand running on the treadmill for 10 minutes; yet, I can dance intensely for 1.5 hours.



at work, i'm now working completely as a program manager...although I'm still trying to dust off web dev as I'm still listed as the Mktg Web Dev Mngr in the phonetool. It's a weird feeling--I've been in webdev for 3 years and loved it. But I'm completely psyched about this new move as it's something I've wanted to do for awhile and I think it better aligns with my long term career plans. The transition has been a bit rough with my (new) manager being out of the office a lot. Plus, there's very little formal training. I can't wait til I start feeling more comfortable in this new role.



Oh, and Thomas and I broke up...again. This time for good. I haven't heard from him in about 4 weeks :-( For some reason, I'm surprised. We didn't end things badly...in fact, it was a really really amiable breakup that ended in smiles and a hug. So...I thought by now, I'd at least hear a hello from him. [sigh] It's really unfortunate the way things ended between me and him. At the time of the breakup, we still cared for each other and were still attracted to each other. It was purely out of a random chain of events, wrong assumptions and circumstances that we are where we are now. But I guess that just attests to our [lack] of really really solid communication. I know deep down that we probably aren't the best for each other. But we made each other laugh...which I had never really felt in any other relationship. Like--really really laugh. And that felt so good. I miss that. I just hope that he finds it in him to be able to muster the ability to be friends with me. I really do enjoy his company. But for now, I'll just have to wait.



Thus, in this last month, I've basically been single girl again, trying to fill my days up with more activities--such as going to the gym more often, taking 2 dance classes, and trying to get back into yoga again. And it feels great. I also feel like I'm hanging out with a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long time again.



parents are coming to visit next week for a whole week. trying to think of things to do with them.

saw teatro zinzanni's show "dinner & dreams" last week which was fabulous! they have a show in san francisco too...so if you're ever in the area, I highly recommend this show...though here in seattle, it's sold out for the next 2 months. it was more vaudeville-like than cirque du soleil (although it definitely had its share of acrobats). If anything, it was just a fun evening of laughter, love, and smiles...along with decent yummy food (generic spinach salad, salmon and lemon tart).



because i'm a first-year subscriber, phoebe and i had the opportunity to attend a studio rehearsal of the pacific northwest ballet last week. what a change to see the dancers out of costume, only a few feet away. they have a gorgeous studio too with floor-to-ceiling windows that filter in the evening daylight.



memorial day weekend was nice and relaxing, considering that i was oncall for all of it (my last week of on-call duties!). saturday, jolie and i drove up to anacortes to join up with owen and friends for a full day of watching the sun set over the san juans and kayaking. i saw a lot of people that i haven't hung out with in awhile :-( which was a little strange as i felt as out of touch as jolie did, who really just met everyone for the first time. sunday, came back to watch the mariners cream the baltimore orioles with thomas and his sister & her husband who were visiting. afterwards, we wandered around the northwest folklife festival at the seattle center.



last night, i saw phoebe & ray's new house which is oh so cute. i'm starting to think seriously again about whether or not i should buy a place. thomas also just bought a condo which is fabulous---newly built and in the heart of queen anne. i'm going to attend one of those free home buying seminars this weekend and perhaps seriously start looking around over the next month. *gulp* to imagine owning a place. it seems like such a commitment right now. well, it is. but i'm afraid of finding myself still here in seattle a few years from now saying to myself "oh, i wish i had bought a place back then..."

i love thursday evenings. i usually spend it working on some sort of dish I've never prepared and watch the whole thursday night lineup. i think i'm going to take a bath before heading to bed. i haven't taken one of those in a long time.



last weekend was amazing, weather wise. it got so incredibly warm....to the point where you could feel the blanket of heat cover you as you step outside. i was lucky enough to be able to take care of phoebe and ray's dog over the weekend...so i got to spend a lot of fun time playing ball with the dog and walking her. went rollerblading along alki with thomas on saturday...which was so much fun. it's days like that, where i get to cruise along alki on my skates, inhaling in the salt-infused air, and staring out at the amazing city skyline and puget sound that just make me love seattle so much...and how wonderful it was to share that with thomas on saturday. [sigh]



later on that night, i went and saw sasha & digweed dj at a warehouse in south seattle which was so cool. i just love their music. i hear they'll be performing at area:two, which is so awesome. I can't wait.



i finally turned in my application for a new passport! what a big sigh of relief to finally do that. but it turns out that i won't need my passport as soon as i thought because....



...Aaron found a job! well, he actually got a really kick ass internship this summer with Sony working as the only designer in a team of 6 for this thing called Project Desire. He'll be well paid (hell, more than I'm making right now!) and get an amazing experience while he's at. I'm sooo happy for him and so proud of him right now. And of course, I can't help but feel like I've helped out by supporting him with his website all the time. So, anyhow, because of this, the family probably won't be taking a graduation trip during the summer since he has to work. Hmm...I wonder if I should go to Europe now....



Wednesday, I saw Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble at Benaroya with Fred and a bunch of other people...what a fabulous concert, made up of a Mongolian long song singer, a Korean drummer, and so much more. Have you ever seen a performance with a prepared piano? I only saw it for the first time recently when I saw the Ahn Trio. Wednesday night, the musician utilized the piano in so many ways---whether that be drumming against the wood, banging the bass strings or plucking them gently. I would love to learn any technique associated with that. And of course, it's always a treat to see Yo-Yo Ma performing.

last week, jigna and i went down to boeing to play with a Boeing 767-400 Flight Simulator, courtesy of Shawn. What an amazing experience it was...and how realistic it was also. I had no idea that pilots taxi down the runway only using a little lever on the side....or that they can crank open the windows while taxi-ing to get some fresh air. The simulator was able to reproduce every type of environment--night, day, dawn, dusk--and every type of weather imaginable.



i saw the new spider-man movie on friday night which was a lot of fun. i loved tobey mcguire in that role. it's about time we had a superhero that we can all relate to. you know, someone asked me once if i had a superhero power, what would it be? and at the time, i said that i wanted the ability to not need to sleep so i could do as many things as possible in my lifetime....but I don't think so anymore. that wouldn't really be a useful superpower if everyone else always needs to sleep anyway. plus, i like sleep. so...i change it to: flying.



i've been working more on aaron's portfolio website so he can find a job. he's such a talented guy...i hope he lands someplace that he's happy. he's worked so hard all of these years. This is one of the more recent things I've added to his site.



i have this one dark brown stuffed bear that usually sits on my bed. the other night, just before going to bed, i knocked it on the floor while pulling my comforter together. when i woke up in the morning, it was sitting right in front of me on the bed, staring at me. weird. either i subconsciously picked it up in my sleep and brought it right next to me in bed (possible but strange as i don't usually do much in my sleep movement-wise) or something's spooky in my apartment. i know it's more likely the former..but i get easily scared. see, i live in this super old house.....old for seattle, that is---it was built in 1903--and that's old for seattle. at one point, it was a brothel and had over fifty rooms in it! charming history huh? but because of that, i have a fear of seeing a dead soldier or prostitute in my room one of these nights. i know, silly thoughts...but i can't help thinking such things.

work is starting to get stressful again....i haven't felt this stress in awhile. i'm kind of balancing two jobs right now: my current position as web dev manager and also as program manager...which is a little crazy. i can't wait til all this madness goes away. but it's good: I like it when I'm busy as opposed to doing nothing really.



it's such a gorgeous gorgeous day in seattle. i went out last night to REI and finally bought a pair of Salomon inline skates...about time. My last ones were stolen when my car was stolen last September...and State Farm wrote out a nice $200 check for me to buy some new ones. I think I'm going to go out to Alki and use them today...I can't wait. Really need to learn how to stop in those things though....



I saw Thomas last night at salsa class...it's always a weird experience seeing your ex for the first time---there are completely mixed feelings of anger and love. I'm glad that we did, though....especially since we had a really good talk afterwards. My perspective of his thought process completely changed...which was really fortunate as I thought he was some close-minded bastard all last week, based on things he said that were of course misinterpreted. It's kind of "too bad" that things happened the way they did considering that they could have worked out...but it was a little too late to realize that I guess. [sigh] Oh well. I hope that the free spirit within him comes out soon....he's happier that way, I know it.



speaking of salsa class, my instructor amended what she had told me in the last class....she now wants me to enroll in Salsa 4 for the next session!!! Wahoo! Damn, I felt good.



going to take fred out for his birthday dinner tonight at avenue one...can't wait.

ack, i'm single again. [sigh] glad to have good friends around when i need them.



some girls like to go shopping after a breakup....i decided to take a last minute weekend getaway. i found a great deal on united for $113 RT to san francisco. so i jumped on it and hung out with willie all weekend, which was so nice. i got to meet his current new girl, rhoda, and saw cindy and sabry again. on saturday, i visited berkeley for the first time---what a cool college atmosphere. and yesterday, we did some wine tasting in napa valley---only had time to visit mondavi, beringer and merryvale...but had an excellent lunch at mustard's grill.

had a really unexciting weekend since the weather was so BLEGH. this is probably the time of year I hate---when the rest of the country is warming up and enjoying "spring" and seattle still feels like winter, if not worse, and it rains every freakin' day. i'm completely unmotivated to do anything but sit inside and clean/organize my apartment...and watch movies. if anything, i did a lot of cooking, making a really yummy mushroom risotto on sunday evening...how satisfying to make a good dinner.

there've been a lot of articles in the media recently about the dilemna that highly successful, ambitious women deal with in weighing out having a family vs. a career (such as in this Time magazine article) A lot of the daughters of the feminist movement who've focused on establishing their careers are finding themselves unable to have children at an older age as women's bodies have not changed...and technology hasn't done anything to change that. A woman's ability to conceive begins to decline at the age of 27. By the age of 42, 90% of a woman's eggs are abnormal. A recent national study found that the more money a woman made, the less likely it was that she had children (on the contrary, the higher a man's salary, the more likely it was that he had children). there is currently a lot of controversy over marketing these facts (for example, a picture of a baby bottle shaped like an hourglass) so that women can become better informed (the president of N.O.W. sees this marketing as pressuring younger women who aren't ready to have a child, to do so). So many of my ambitious Smith co-graduates fall under this dilemna: wanting to be successful and wanting to have a family, including myself. The corporate lifestyle isn't tailored to allow for successful executives to be good parents also. I know I want to have a family eventually but there are so many aspects of my career that I want to explore also. My former manager set up a "breakfast club" for women at the company to meet once a month and I'm looking forward to hearing opinions regarding this topic (she sent out an article similar to the Time magazine one to the group recently) later this week.

thomas and I are taking Salsa 2b currently at Century Ballroom, and at last night's class, the instructor--Hallie--pulled me aside to dance with me. I was pretty nervous as I didn't know if I was just doing something competely wrong..but after we danced, she just said to me "perfect". At end of class, she came up to me and told me that for the next session of classes, I should move onto Salsa 3---which is SO exciting! Talk about a nice pat on the back!

did i mention i've been obsessed with watching abc's most recent reality show, the bachelor? it's actually not as sleazy as "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" or Tempation Island...this bachelor, Alex, started off with 25 women..and in 6 weeks, he will propose to 1, slowly eliminating a number of women with each episode. Anyhow, last night's episode brought him down to 3 women--oh, the excitement! i have to admit that I just LOVE reality tv shows...it's my guilty pleasure.

went out to see the pacific northwest ballet's "Tango Tonight", made up of 3 separate ballets which were all so wonderful to see. The first was a very romantic, almost Parisien-like rendition of the dance using chairs...which led to the second (my favorite) which went back to the roots of Tango in Buenos Aires at a time when the population of men exceeded that of women by practically 100,000. This dance was very raw and sensual, using ten men and only four women, wearing simple black, "Chicago"-like outfits. Because of the imbalance of genders, they had several same-sex duets which was also reflective of the origins of Tango in which men often had to practice together. The final ballet ended very classically where everyone was dressed in a more formalized manner in the way that we associate tango with today. I really enjoyed last night's performance...and have really enjoyed the entire season. Phoebe and I don't know if we want to renew our subscription or look into other areas to subscribe to. I really want to be able to go out to the theater more and the symphony, both things that I also love so dearly.

i'm sooo bummed: KU lost to Maryland on Saturday evening...all for dumb dumb mistakes. That game was at the tip of our fingers...we even started out ahead at the beginning..but then went to 20 down..and came back up to closing the difference to only 2. [sigh] But I guess it wasn't mean to be. What a sad evening in Lawrence, Kansas.



Yesterday, I went to a driving range for the very time ever...holding a golf club in my hands for the time ever. What an interesting experience..and I have to admit: I liked it! I don't know if I could ever have the patience to play a whole game of golf..but it sure is fun just hittin' balls for half an hour. It was more athletic than I expected..my arms, hands and back were a bit achy afterwards.



I just ran this "old fart" script to view statistics of my employee ID number compared to everyone else currently working at Amazon and figured out that 81% of the current people working here started after me. So, only 19% of the current company started before me. Whoa.

Boy, it's been a long long time since I've updated this. Well, I've been on vacation--Thomas and I went to New York City and Puerto Rico for about a week and had a great time.

Highlights from NYC:


• Had dinner with Anna and new boyfriend, Steve, at Guastavino's...a few days later, drinks at Fez
  
  
• Saw the Blue Man Group's performance of "Tubes" which was fantastic. If you ever have the chance to see them perform, do.
  
  
• Had a swanky evening of food, drinks and dancing at Lotus with Debbie, Gina, Jimmy and others.
  
  
• Ate yummy dim sum with Li-Mei in Chinatown
  
  
• Caught the Surrealism exhibit at the Met with Judy, who later on took us on a stroll through SoHo
  
  
• Had drinks with Josh and new girlfriend
  
  
• Went down to Ground Zero and Battery Park on the 6-month anniversary where we were able to see the two new memorials: "The Sphere", a sculpture that used to sit in the WTC plaza and "Towers of Light"
  
  

Highlights from Puerto Rico:


• The sun, sand and water.
  
  
• Staying at ESJ Towers again in Room 261.
  
  
• Hiking in El Yunque, the Caribbean National Rainforest, and swimming in La Mina Waterfall
  
  
• Nighttime kayaking and swimming off the coast of Fajardo through mangroves to eventually get to Laguna Grande, a bioluminesent bay that is home to millions of glowing plankton. It's this natural phenomenon in which the movement of water produces a chemical reaction that produces light. Here are some pictures from a website to give you an idea of it--so incredible.
  
  
• A visit to the Arecibo Observatory, home of the world's largest radio telescope and where the S.E.T.I. research is conducted. It's also famous from the movies Contact and 007.
  
  
• Meeting up with Carlos for dinner
  
  
• Salsa dancing, yummy Cuban food
  
  

I will have pictures up soon. The trip back wasn't too bad either---we had an insanely long layover in Ft. Lauderdale---from 9am - 6pm---so we took advantage of it and rented a car to hit the beach! Spring break had just started and all sorts of high school and college-age teeny boppers were walking around the beach, cruising in their shiny cars. It was absolutely hilarious.



After returning, I took Eugene to see the Ahn Trio at Meany Hall. I've always been curious to see these 3 Korean sisters...really enjoyed the concert, especially the modern pieces that they played. I loved the fact that there were so many young people at the concert. I find it interesting how lately there have been a number of young, hip, stylish classical performers--such as Vanessa Mae and Bond. Hey--if it gets more young people listening to classical music, I'm not going to argue.



The Oscars were on last night, a show that I watch religiously each year. Halle Berry made Oscar history by being the first black female actress to win the Best Actress category---she was practically hyperventilating upon winning. To further make a statement, Denzel Washington won for Best Actor and Sydney Poitier was given an honorary Oscar. Even though the show went over by an hour this year, I didn't feel like it was as long as in year's past. I liked how they showed snippets for Best Song from a Film instead of having each performer play their piece in its entirety throughout the program. I also loved the special performance by Cirque du Soleil, a troupe that I adore watching.

I finally got these stylesheets to work correctly in Netscape---so for all you netscape users that have been reading my log, everything should look fairly the same as if you were reading in IE. More later on the past few weeks...

saw the pacific northwest ballet's "cinderella" last night, which was just beautiful. i loved the costumes, the dancing, and the music of prokofiev. it's been really fun being a season subscriber to the ballet. i've gotten to the point where I know what certain principal dancers look like by name and who dances like what. the last one i saw--their version of "carmen" was really interesting. it was a sort of modern twist where the audience doesn't know if they're watching the ballet or real life. kent stowell has some very unique ideas in choreographing these ballets.

I haven't been inspired to update my weblog very much lately...it's a weird feeling knowing that the only way some of my friends "catch up with me" is via reading my weblog instead of calling me or writing me a letter. that disturbs me. ugh.



Anyhow, going back home to Lawrence, Kansas this weekend to see the family and introduce Thomas to my childhood...should be really fun. I'm looking forward to it...and then just a few days later, I'll be doing my whirlwind New York City - Puerto Rico trip which I badly need. I can't wait.

check out: banned PETA superbowl commercials

Yay! I'm going to Puerto Rico! Each year, I make my retreat to Isla Verde to enjoy the sun, good food, great music and the idea of doing absolutely nothing for a few days. I've gone with Linda for the last 2 years but she's not going to make it this year; however, in a quick email, I signed on Anna and her boyfriend, Steve, to come along. Oh--it will be so much fun...I cannot wait. I very badly need a vacation. Now, time to concentrate on getting to that bikini body....yeah right.



Went snowboarding on Saturday at Crystal--what a beautiful day it was. It was sunny, clear, the snow was great. I think Thomas is really picking up on his snowboarding...I'm quite impressed. He's much farther along than I was on Day 3 back when I was learning. We were so beat, though, when we got back...just crashed.



Suzanne and Chris held a Super Bowl party yesterday at their house, which was a lot of fun. She's a great cook and had all sorts of yummy munchies. I wasn't too impressed by the commercials on TV this year---there were some good ones...but overall, there didn't seem to be that many. The game was a good one to watch, though. That last field goal by the Patriots just as the clock ticked down to zero was so impressive.

argh. my email is down. as a company, we're migrating to the microsoft exchange server...and i was one of the first that had to migrate over. everything was fine until today. i basically haven't been able to check any email over the past 3 hours...amazing how much of my work involves needing my email up now..especially since becoming a manager. in the past, i could just sit and finish my coding for the rest of the day...but i don't do that as much anymore--just a lot of coordination and answering lots of questions for business owners. wow...i guess i could *gasp* go home early. i haven't left work early in so long...i've been on such a hectic work schedule for so long.



change is good..right? i've been debating about major changes at work for awhile now...and this year might be it.



for the last two nights, i've been obsessed with watching a TV miniseries, Rose Red, a stephen king thriller about a haunted house that sits on Spring St. in Seattle. It's hilarious seeing where they placed it because it's this HUGE house that has a view of I-5 and downtown..yet it looks like it's where Virginia Mason is. Stephen King made a cameo appearance last night as a dorky pizza guy---I love seeing when directors or authors make their cameo appearances in the works that they create (like M. Night Shyamalan as a doctor in Sixth Sense).

this is a small world that we live in. it scares me sometimes by the random connections between all the people I know in my life. friday night, i took thomas to a party at walker's place...and i remembered how they both grew up in indianapolis and are around the same age...so i joked about how funny it would be if they knew the same people. Turns out that they went to the same high school, only a year apart...and they also partied in the same crowd of friends.



saturday night was the big sex and the city party at thomas's place with his friends...it turned out really well. lots of people came dressed in their swanky outfits and we had martinis and cosmopolitans all ready to serve. check out the pictures. there were more coworkers that i knew there than i expected...especially since i only invited a few friends. tells you how small this town can be sometimes.



yesterday evening, olke and eileen threw a lil potluck/bar-b-q dinner. i hadn't been to their place since eileen moved in and you can definitely see the [improved] changes from eileen. i love that there's a nice blend of their two styles within the house.

what a long crazy week at work. we went through a reorg recently and i'm liking it....but i get so frustrated by all the "in-between" time when we try to nail down new processes and things like that.



hung out with jocelyn for the first time in a long time...i successfully made a yummy linguini with clams and we just caught up with each other. i can't believe julia went to thailand. well, i do believe it...i'm just jealous that she has the freedom to go off and volunteer with teaching monks about environmental consciousness in thailand.



good news--->amazon finally announces profitability. sweet. the whole company was celebrating on tuesday. we all gathered in our conference rooms and Jeff phoned in and gave a brief congratulatory speech as we toasted with champagne. will be interesting to see how the rest of the year continues.



the other day, while stopped on a hill at a red light, the car didn't catch their gas fast enough and ran into me. what was incredible is that she then took off! I ended up chasing her for several blocks, honking my horn and flashing my lights...until I was finally able to drive up next to her to say "excuse me! you ran into me! i think you should stop your car." Fortunately, there was no damage and all was cool...and when I told her that I was trying to flag her down forever, her excuse was that she was deaf in one ear and couldn't hear me. It seriously disturbed me that she was driving if she can't hear, say, police sirens or someone honking at her. And I don't know how she couldn't tell that she backed up into me. argh.



went to my first bellydancing class...it was a pretty full class. met my instructor, mish mish. we went over the history of the dance and went over some basic moves. i'm so interested in the classes that they offer...after our class was this cool dance class called Caphoeira that looks pretty hard. it's a combination of dance and fighting moves...curious to try that sometime.



tomorrow is the big house party that thomas,josh,bart and chris are throwing. i'm trying to imagine 100+ people at their house. must find swanky outfit as it's a "sex and the city" party and i have to be all new york swanky.



i want to go snowboarding tomorrow with eugene etc. but i'm on call. bummer.

bummer. debbie decided not to come to seattle...it was "too last minute", which is true...



i'm going wedding dress shopping with phoebe today. i've never even thought about wedding dresses or what kind of dress i would want. i'm really excited--this'll be a first for me...that is, wedding dress shopping.



i had another first last night--going to a comedy club. alex invited me along to see one of his favorite comedians, emo philips, last night at the giggles comedy club. it was everything that i expected it to be in terms of the set up of the place. emo's an interesting guy...i don't know if i found his humor as funny as others...but he was still good.

it's so crazy when out of town friends decide last minute to "drop by" Seattle. I just got a phone call from my friend Debbie who lives in New York City...and she's decided to come to Seattle this weekend with Rick. I'm completely psyched and can't wait to see her...but now I've got to juggle around some plans. Good thing she's willing to head up to Stevens Pass with all of us on Sunday.

I'm switching: moohaha.blogspot.com There's an annoying advertisement but blogger's more reliable and has a better editing tool.

the pitas server is ridiculously slow lately. i'm switching to blogger but now i've got this damn advertisement at the top. [sigh] i wish the undef server were a FTP server so i wouldn't have to deal....

Here's something random: YATTA

Happy New Year everyone. It's been awhile...mostly because I tried THREE times to update my weblog and each time, the pitas server kept crashing. I hate it when that happens. I lose all will and motivation at that point. It really sucks to take the time to write an extensive entry in your weblog..only to have it disappear into the ether.




Anyhow, here's a quick recap of new year's:


* hung out in Sunriver, OR to go snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor

* gorgeous gorgeous drive down...oregon is beautiful

* chris and nissa are...interesting

* party party at club 97 in bend, oregon. wahoo!

* super thanks to ben, rachel, phoebe, ray, jed, chrystya, steve and kevin for fantastic company and new friendships

* yummy food from steve

* kudos to ben and kevin for taking me through trees and a black diamond for my first time




after coming back, went to a sonics v. 76ers game at key arena...thomas's brother, wayne, was in town and treated us to courtside seats which were sooo sweet. saw payton, iverson, mutombo..all within a few feet away from me. the reporters from the philadelphia newspapers sat in front of us...interesting to see what kind notes they were jotting. the woman from the inquirer was (correctly) predicting a 76ers win in the 2nd quarter..ouch.




i've decided to take 2 dance classes: Salsa again (but with Thomas) and a Middle Eastern Belly Dance class offered at the u-dub experimental college. so psyched.




went to whistler this last weekend with jon, chris, eliza, matt, tim and justin...had a blast. i definitely feel like i'm starting to improve on my snowboarding...i just need to let go and not get all freaky everytime i go too fast. i had a bad time coming back, getting back to the U.S. somehow, i lost my passport...don't know what happened to it. i may've lost it somewhere during my apartment move. anyhow, so i risked it knowing that some friends of mine had no problems with just a drivers license over the past few months; however, we got pulled over and had to talk to this prick who had nothing better to do but to harrass me. he said the phrase "shoot you down" at least 3-4 times, which was completely unnecessary. But this was the worst thing he said:


Him: "What is your place of birth?"


Me: "New Jersey...Princeton."


Him: "See, without your passport, I don't know who you are still. You say you were born in New Jersey but you look Chinese to me."




AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! I really had to restrain myself from yelling at him for being an ignorant a**hole. I don't know if it helped that I happened to be driving with 2 very American looking guys....probably so. Oh, my blood was boiling.




came home and found my car broken into again. ugh. fortunately, nothing was taken as i've learned not to keep anything valuable in there anymore.