First off, it makes me sad seeing the very first picture shown at the top of my last post because it's this great photo of me, my mom and my poh poh (maternal grandmother) in L.A. to attend my gung gung's (maternal grandfather) funeral after he battled cancer for many years. Well, I'm writing right now from the comfort of my parent's home in Las Vegas after another short weekend trip to L.A.....and this time it was for my Poh Poh's funeral. Her death was much more sudden and unexpected, but you know what they say about when a spouse goes, it's oftentimes that the other spouse follows soon after. In a way, I'm happy for her because she's now reunited with my grandfather and she was terribly depressed after his funeral. Still, to lose 2 grandparents within 3 months is really tough. My grandmother's death was even tougher to deal with...perhaps because I was able to have more conversations with her...perhaps it's because it's that female bonding thing. I again gave a speech and over this past week, we've had to sort through her stuff. One memorable moment was going through the things in her kitchen and finding this really old cheesy ceramic cat that I gave her when I was really young. I knew she'd always kept it but seeing it just drove it home even more that she's no longer here. These two deaths in recent months have made me more introspective and thinking about what I want to get out of life. (perhaps that's another reason for my blogging absence) Never an easy thing...that said, I've really enjoyed how it has brought family together and allowed me more time to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, etc...I really appreciate all that time.
Hong Kong over the holidays was a blast and typical of most trips: lots of food, eating, shopping and seeing relatives. This was Matt's second time visiting and it was like he'd visited many times before, even brave enough to go to a food stand by himself to order his favorite cheong fun or char siu bao. Here are pictures I took of the trip as well as a set that's focused on all the food we ate (which always makes me salivate when I view this album!).
In other news...
- Two very close friends of mine are preggers! Jigna is due in May and Phoebe is due in July. It's interesting knowing that as we get invitations to fewer weddings, I'm going to start seeing a lot more close friends with kids. A few of us co-hosted a baby shower for Jigna a couple weeks ago and it was a blast.
- Work has been insane---I did escape the major layoffs at Microsoft; and, in fact, I got a promotion and there's a lot more investment being put in my functional area now! This area went from about 1.5 program managers in December to 7 plus a lead now! It's a really exciting time in my area and it's really invigorated how I feel towards my job. There's a lot of work and I expect some serious hours (especially over these next 2 months), but I'm so looking forward to it.
- In snow sports, I've actually had a chance to head up to the mountain 3 times this season: twice to go snowboarding and once to go snowshoeing.....all to Snoqualmie. It cracks me up knowing that 5+ years ago, I shuddered at the idea of going to Snoqualmie and wanted to be "more hardcore" and heads out to Stevens or Crystal. Now, I'm just happy going for the day and being able to be at home by 5pm. Is that a sign of me being in my 30's?
- Matt turned 39 this year and we celebrated with a delicious "Truffle Feast" themed dinner at the Herbfarm---check out pictures of all the great food we had.
- Last year, I had won an auction to get private yoga lessons for me and 5 friends...so I finally redeemed it and converted the living room into a yoga studio for 3 Sundays in a row. It was such an awesome experience and so great to experience with good friends. We're looking at seeing if we can continue this experience and open it up to more friends in a larger venue.
Anyway, as mentioned, I'm in Vegas now with my parents, and Matt's parents just arrived last night...so we are all hanging out together for the first time since our wedding which is great. We've got a full weekend, with our parents checking out Neil Sedaka at the Orleans Hotel tonight...and then tomorrow, walking tour of the strip and then Penn & Teller. My mom and I just visited a Chinese herbalist as I think my hormones are all whacked and I want to get centered and balanced again, so I'm willing to try anything. He gave me 2 big packets of mixed powder to take 3x a day with a crazy strict diet. I can't have any of the following during this treatment:
- Coffee, tea, milk
- Oranges, orange juice, any fruit juice
- Soda, cold drinks, iced drinks---only room temp drinks allowed
- Nuts, Mangos
- Anything salty, sweet, spicy, fried or BBQ'd
Seeing that I'm in Vegas now, I'm going to start this when we return to Seattle on Sunday...should be interesting to see how it works!
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