A picture post.

see fun friends play.

see old friends laugh.

see girl friends be girly and stupid and us.

see boyfriend be awesome.

see my one and only (sister, that is).

There are lots of people that I don't have pictures of but would want to put up. I love my friends and family. I am enormously blessed to have people who love me, whom I can love, who are not afraid to be stupid or lame, who understand that food feeds the soul, who believe that sharing is caring, and who are just all in all awesome. I love you guys!

Merry Christmas (I think that means that I'm not posting until after Christmas...we shall see!)

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was fabulous this year. How did 4 days disappear so quickly? Recap and reminscing...the weather changed. My scarves have made an appearance. I love the cold crisp nights. Coats, scarves, (gloves soon). Too bad it doesn't snow here. Perfect timing for weather change. our streets in mountain view were absolutely GORGEOUS the past month. Who says we don't get fall colors here? In my neighborhood, we certainly did.

Recap and reminscing (warning: boring):

wednesday night: Went to the warriors-spurs game with Jason, Justin, Alicea, and Hung. 1st NBA game of the season. 2nd in my life. We got our butts kicked. Mike Dunleavy is useless. He was my neighbor when I lived in Oakland. We used to shop at the same Safeway. But, he's not so helpful on the court. I think he shot a whoppin' 2 points. . It's ok...Pistons-Warriors should be less of a "hellacious ass-whooping." Where did Evelyn come up with that phrase? from the guy who was sitting behind us at the game. Who was trying to teach the high school girls he was with about basketball. He explained to them that the game that night was a H.A.W. (too lazy to type it all again). He even said, "repeat after me. [H.A.W.]"

thursday: played scrabble, watched Two Towers, ate a huge meal with my cousins, aunts, grandmothers, sister, dad, second cousins, my mom's cousins kids twice removed by law (i have no idea who they were), stayed up really late playing video games.

friday: soldered. Yes, soldered. Bought a solder and fixed my garage door opener. You can find everything on the internet (and at Radio Shack!). Helped Alinna move. Scrubs and dinner with allen and mel. Almost went to the saratoga get together.

saturday: slept till 11:45. Woohoo! Grubbed with dad and jess. Hung out at my dad's house. Boba with Karen. Dinner with Thomas, Es, Kenn. Lots of laughs. Excited about hanging out with Es more often. we will make it happen!

sunday: slept till Noon. WOOHOO! Pho, Boba, and Ikea. I *heart* the east bay. Also because Jason lives there. =). (sorry. end gush here.) Jason's mom's birthday dinner with enough food to feed 30 people.

And alas here we are. I refused to go shopping amid the madness. I can't seem to handle malls on weekends. I'm very quickly overwhelmed by the crowd.

Time with people. Time to sleep. Time to myself. Time to eat. This is the stuff of life.

Dangers that Lurk
And so, today, it was with great resignation that I woke up and made my way to work. How did I reward myself for such a great feat?

I went to the mall.

It is really dangerous to work a 5 minute walk away from the mall. That's a 45 second drive. Which gave me 58 minutes and 30 seconds to shop during lunch. And I bought a new fall coat!!

I also bought a pair of 7's. I will never wear cheap jeans again. For a girl who wears jeans nearly any moment when she doesn't have to dress up, the fact that they were on super sale at Nordstrom's made them impossible to resist.

It's nice working so close to the mall because then I can hunt for bridesmaids shoes* constantly and get the best deal ever ($20). But, that also means I go with some frequency. At least Target isn't right next door. I'd go there every day.

Ok. I really should do work. That's what they pay me for.

(edit for MonkeyMar: I am a bridesmaid. I don't have any yet. In fact, I don't need any yet. Tee hee).

To Infinity and Beyond

We celebrated our first bachelorette this weekend. Hoorah! A wonderful weekend. Like Karen said, I really don't think it's possible to have so much fun packed into a mere 28 hours.

We took our favorite lady to a surprise trip to Napa which included tasting sparkling wines, eating good cheese, outlet shopping, hearty-wonderful-best-tomato-soup-ever-bacon-in-everything French food, a day at the spa in Berkeley, Zachary's, a combined total of nearly 100 years of memories with Alinna, laughter, and tears.

Quality time with some of the most amazing women that I know. Truly special.

Of course, Alinna had to do embarassing things like wear a tiara and a sash and endure comments but tipsy old ladies like, "Look! It's a real princess! I've never seen one before!"

Random snippets:

• Alinna, you can sing in the lobby of the hotel since you're not wearing your tiara or you can try to tackle the one who stole your tiara (that would be this one:)
• Jenie and Seri picking up Alinna.
• Bumping "Lucky" with windows rolled down, singing along at the top of our lungs as we approached Domaine Chandon (yes, we were the obnoxious Asian kids making all the noise in Napa).
• Mmmmm...Bubbly. I caved and bought a $50 bottle. Come over and drink it with me post-MCAT. That would be in April.
• The nicest, friendliest J. Crew sales people EVER. Richard the restocking guy gave Alinna a $10 gift card for being the bachelorette! And Dan the ringer serenaded me by seing Tevin Campbell. He also proceeded to do an MC Hammer dance.
• Quality time at the spa. Kapooh being poopy faced about getting one of the treatments. We should hang out in steam room/saunas all the time. (AL, have you figured out how yours works yet?!?!)

Congratulations to my favorite lady!! You are getting married to a wonderful (although we have some awfully embarassing pictures of him) man. We are excited to walk with you as the paths lead. Love you!

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite ladies!! You are precious, beautiful, and oh-so-much fun to be with!

And yes, we're on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

If I could turn back time….(yes, the Cher song).

I’m sorry to say that the song is stuck in my head.

But let’s take a journey down memory lane.

One month ago: I watched Thomas and Esther get married with great hurrah! I spent the night crying because I missed my mom so very very much.

Two months ago: I was recovering from the greatest vacation ever to Hawaii with some of my favorite friends and trying to get adjusted to a new work place, a new commute, new coworkers, and the single life.

Three months ago: I was working hard at doing absolutely nothing for the last 2 weeks before my job started. Would wake up at 10am everyday, watch Dawson’s Creek and wait for friends to get off of work. Making new friends like Mel and Esther.

Six months ago: I was starting my 5th and final term at Hopkins. I was frantically trying to hammer down my thesis (aka Capstone), desperately trying to get my advisor to call me back. I presented my Capstone and submitted it without much fanfare. You would think that after your thesis presentation there should be balloons and streamers. Quite anti-climactic.

One year ago: I was living in Baltimore, exhausted from having flown back and forth across the country nearly 6 times in 2 months. Struggling to comprehend loss, grief, sadness, and how it is that life keeps moving.

Two years ago: I was working at a frantic pace, being a disease cowboy* at the State, protecting us all from West Nile! Haha. If only it were so noble. Things were really stable back then. Dating Jason, living in Oakland, going to church, driving my mom to chemo every week. Not really the happiest time of my life, though.

Five years ago: I was living in Royston #306, the apartment that essentially was always open to everyone. Senior year in college, ready to be done. Hanging out a lot with HMAP folks, sad that most of my friends had graduated. Studying for “sex class”** with Mary and Hideyo (who would 5 years later become my roommate and my best friend’s fiancée, respectively). Recuperating over a lost friendship (which time truly has restored).

Ten years ago: Worrying about who liked who in high school. Dealing with all the drama that was HOC. Building great friendships at school with the likes of BASIC PIG, the girls who are still my best friends today.

Character growth is a funny thing. It happens so subtly. Hard to see the forest through the trees, right? But it’s really amazing to watch others grow over time, especially kids because their growth is especially accelerated. For even myself, however, time does a lot. A lot of things come full circle, a lot of unexpected things happen, a lot of healing happens. Surprising adventures (who would’ve thought I would live in Baltimore?!)

Back to the future
My coworkers and I did a fun activity yesterday (yes, we’re quite a self-directed bunch). We were asked to list our work goals, our professional goals, incentives that help us achieve, and our 10-year goals.

So, here’s my ten-year goal:
To be an infectious disease doctor working for state or local public health managing programs in a specific disease area, practicing clinical medicine every now and then. Married, family. Hanging out with good people. Still having fun.

Footnotes
*Disease Cowboy: the new title that we, epidemiologists, have given ourselves. This involves us wearing cowboy hats, riding ponies, and carrying guns.

**Sex class: ok, gutter brain. We learned about the biology of reproduction. Even though our professor was a very dirty old man who liked to show us videos of sex-change operations. Blech. I’m giving myself the heebeejeebees.