Memorial Day weekend

i find long weekends are both good and bad. it's Great to realize on sunday that there's no work on monday. but on monday it's only that much harder when i realize that i have to go to work the next day. Cuz the weekend's long enough such that I'd forgotten all about work, so the realization is a very very unwelcome jolt back to reality. :( Ah well. Being back at work ain't ALL that bad. i guess. after all, i've got time to post this recap! =P haha

Friday i worked from home in the morning. Had lunch with Day to catch up (she's back for a month looking after her nephew. yay!) And then took off early to help set up for youth group Guys' Appreciation Night. I got there around 3pm and it ended up just being me and Phoebe for a while!! So I moved some stuff to get things ready and she pretty much finished cooking everything so there'd be less stress later. I didn't wanna start decorating cuz didn't know what the girls wanted to do. so i ended up putzing around a bit. but it still beat being at work! hee hee It was a busy and tiring night. And a little stressful as well (especially at the beginning when i left my script & schedule on the stairs and couldn't find it!!). But it turned out really well (at least i think it did). The girls did a GREAT job and after my part was over in the body worship & skit, i was pretty much able to relax & enjoy the rest of the night! whew! Check out the pics here & here.

Saturday i treated myself to a haircut at Umbrella salon with Jen (my sister's stylist for her wedding). They raised their prices!! But ah well. It was nice to pamper myself after all the busyness. :) And then afterwards I went to Joy's grad dinner and got drafted to sub for worship team the next day!!

so Sunday morning bright & early (but...um...10 mins late for practice. eek!) i got to church. The doors were all locked!! So i walked around the whole building trying the doors, but no luck. So i stood outside the window in the front and thankfully someone saw me and opened the door for me. :) hee hee It was so weird hearing my voice from the mike. And it didn't help that 1 of the songs had an echo part where just the women sang! so i could totally hear my own voice. But I stood as far away from the mike as possible :) ...and it wasn't till the last song when i started feeling more comfortable and able to ignore everyone else and just worship. it was really cool then! too bad it lasted all of 1 min. haha After that was youth group core meeting where phoebe & i had to lead cuz chris & george were both out of town. It was neat tho spending time alone with the leaders. It's so rare for me to talk to the guys especially. So it was cool. And then i went home to chill with the fam and have dinner.

Monday was X3 and Alex's bbq. X3 was ok...i wasn't really that impressed with the storyline or with any of the new mutants introduced. The bbq was fun..the first bbq of the summer for me (i missed the bbq part of steven's bday party)! i brought my frisbee, but unfortunately, there was not much space in the backyard to throw. so after watching 2 movies (wedding singer & pirates of the caribbean) and munching on a ton of good food (i spoiled my appetite on all the sweets & snacks but still stuffed myself with the SCRUMPTIOUS beer steak and some yummy chicken drumstick...mmmmMMMmmm), a few of us went outside to kick around a soccer ball (after a couple near misses playing in the house =P) and throw the frisbee for a bit. I was in flip flops and very very stupidly kicked the ball straight on. part of my toenail came off and started bleeding but i didn't realize till a while later when i looked down and saw the red. ew. and that was the end of that. :)

whew! it was actually a pretty busy & tiring weekend!! but lots of fun. and such beautiful weather! now i guess i should really get back to work. and the rest of reality... i'll have to upload pics from my camera and update this post with some bbq pics later.

plz shout a little louder

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our consciences, but shouts to us in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
--C.S. Lewis

i've read/heard this quote twice recently and i really identify with it.
when things are going smoothly, i tend to rely on myself to get things done and while i appreciate God's blessings in my life, His voice is very gentle and easily missed. So i continue on my merry way, doing my own thing and get so busy that i have very little time for God. it's often then that i run into problems or just feel like life's spiraling out of control and realize (yet again) that i have wandered far from God, that i can't do everything on my own, and that I need Him - His wise counsel...His strength...His patience...His love...everything.

It's sad that it takes pain & troubles to get my attention. That God needs to throw up these roadblocks in order to remind me who He is and what my purpose is. And get my easily- distracted-gaze refocused back on Him. But I'm immensely thankful too that God cares enough to shout at me to get my attention. That no matter how many times i lose sight of Him (on a weekly or even daily basis!), He calls out to me and helps me find my way back.

Do you ever feel like God's trying to get your attention?

freaky

My mom got home yesterday around 9:30pm and our front door was wide open. She remembers locking it...but when she went in, everything looked undisturbed. and instead of calling me or my sis, she decided to stay at home (but it was creepy, so she turned on every light in the house =p)!!!! i got home from cg and then proceeded to check out the rest of the house (all the potential hiding places a burglar caught in the act could possibly be). it was kinda scary actually. even tho, logically, i'm sure a burglar woulda jetted out the back door by now. or if he had a gun, he woulda already come out and stuff. but still...a little scary every time i opened a door to make sure no one was in there! whew!! everything was fine and i don't think anything was taken...so my theory is that maybe the door wasn't completely closed (let alone locked) and the wind pushed it open...

Europe Posts completed!

Be warned. My posts on europe are a day-by-day, detailed summary of the trip...skim at your leisure. :) They're located on my old blog, post-dated to the actual trip dates (March 30 - April 10), and if you haven't seen them yet, the photos are all here.

For those who want a short version, here you go!
Europe was a lot of fun and travelling with Riza & Christine (here on, R & C respectively), 2 relative strangers...actually turned out really well. We got along just fine so that was a big blessing. And altho rain was forecasted for nearly everyday, it only really rained once and that was in the one city that wasn't forecasted to rain!! so we pretty much got the exact opposite of the weather forecast which was great. :) We mostly followed Rick Steve's guide to Eastern Europe (from here on, RS) since that's the only guidebook we had for restaurants and walking tours.

R & C soon realized (much to their amazement) ... that about every 2 hrs i'd say "are you guys hungry?" They always answered no & not really... but me? it was always snack time!! =P

Thruout the trip it was a running joke about how i was always struggling to close my suitcase. R & C had to teach me how to pack (roll up my clothes to get rid of the air) in krakow before i could get everything to fit without using the expander. (i'd like to claim that it was the 2 things of coffee we were bringing for dayna that took up so much space...but i'm not sure how truthful that would be =P but it's really not like i brought that much clothes either!! i was a total minimalist when i packed! i wore everything i brought except for the 1 nice, just-in-case outfit that we never needed.) of course, the joy of being able to fit everything without the expander (with the expander the suitcase always tended to be front heavy & tip over when left alone) lasted only a couple of days cuz by i went a little overboard shopping in vienna & frankfurt. :) hehe

Since one of my dreams is to be a contestant on TAR, I thought this trip would be a perfect chance to test my eligibility. Ummmm...I think i'll have to rethink the whole idea. I don't know how they do it, but i always felt soooo lost! and we wasted a lot of time figuring out who to ask and then looking for the place often took a lot longer than it ought to have! How discouraging!

The main lesson I learned? Don't try to do too much. Yes, I know how much the plane tix cost and how hard it is to get vacation. But I woulda gotten a lot more out of each place if I was able to take my time and only go to a few places (and places that are close to each other...i advise against overnight trains! but if you must, do 1st class).

Ok. I know that was supposed to be short, but how to you condense an action-packed period of 12 days into less than that???

Tagged

I typically ignore when i read someone's post and they tag me at the end of some survey...after all, there's no way they'd know if i read it or not! :D But this time I got tagged by name, so i guess i'll have to fill it out...and tag some more ppl! =P haha

1. Four Jobs:
a. hardware design engineer (current)
b. SAT tutor
c. receptionist
d. line judge, score/time keeper, shot clock, etc. for CCS waterpolo in high school (got paid so it counts!)

2. Four Things I Wish I Had Done Earlier In My Life:
a. really live on my own, far away from any parental aid (which would force me to cook & clean for myself. have yet to do this actually...)
b. become a committed follower of Jesus
c. practice/use/learn Chinese (to be fluent...and know taiwanese too for that matter...)
d. not quit playing piano

3. Four Places I Have Lived:
(you know where i live now...so i'll skip it for more interesting locales)
a. Taipei, Taiwan
b. Berkeley, CA
c. Chesapeake, VA
d. Chicago, IL

4. Four Countries I Have Been To:
(wow! i could fill this in with just my last trip alone! =P but i'll just count it all as 1 instead)
a. Czech Republic/Poland/Hungary/Austria/Germany
b. Costa Rica
c. Taiwan
d. China

5. Four Countries I Would Like to Visit:
a. Australia/New Zealand
b. Russia
c. Greece
d. Thailand

6. Four of My Favorite Dishes:
(hard to pick just 4! i have favorites for each food genre really...)
a. 豆腐皮 (a tofu dish)
b. curries (especially Thai red curry)
c. sushi/sashimi
d. chicken tikki masala

7. Four Sites I Visit Daily:
a. my yahoo
b. google
c. weather.com
d. google reader

8. Four Software Applications I Cannot Live Without:
a. IE
b. trillian/AIM
c. vnc/vpn (so i can work from home)
d. acrobat reader? (that's kind of a stretch but can't think of anything else)

9. Four Things I'll Never Forget:
a. thanksgiving & christmas dinners with the fam
b. the hot chocolate in krakow & budapest
c. finally realizing that i'm really a Chinese-American (and not totally chinese...and don't wanna be either!)
d. "just" the 10 of us...haha

10. I Tag....
a. Diana (i'll be nice and only tag you so you can tag everyone else! =P)
b. Phoebe
c. Drea
d. Riza

moving...AGAIN

moving to blogger's built-in commenting system and changed templates cuz it really was getting to be a little too pink (just a smidge). :)
kept my old blog here