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.

Darned Musical Tag..

Al just tagged me...fine fine..i'll play along..not like I should be working or anything...

The Rules:List five songs that you are currently loving. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog/xanga. Then tag five other friends to see what they're listening to.

My songs of the moment:
1. swing life away - rise against
2. fantasia on a theme by thomas thallis - ralph vaugh williams
3. slow motion - david gray
4. lights - journey
5. come fly with me - frank sinatra

and now i tag:
wugraph
xacto
monkeymar
kennmun
annechiu

you're it. no tag backs.

3 C's

Community.
Thanks, ladies and husbands and boyfriends of ladies, for a wonderful evening last night! Great food (salsa, ice cream, and strawberry milk soup)! Even greater company. I am publicly committing to more regular dinners with y'all. Rotating houses. On occasion, we may have to ditch our boyfriends/husbands for girls night. But, many times boys will be involved too!

It is good to spend time with girls...girls who are old friends. Girls who are like home to me. Girls who go to bed early! hahah. And it is good to be in the company of cheeseballs like Paul and Ben who like to pretend to eat whole, living, cows.

Funny story from last night:
I was talking to Paul and Elaine about a friend who lives in Syracuse.

Ev: "Do you guys remember Jason.....?"
Elaine: "Jason who???"
Ev: "umm...jassssoooonn...(thinking....) oh! what's his last name!?!?!?"
Janet: "Ho?"
Elaine: "HO!?! Janet, you think ev would forget her own boyfriend's last name?!?!?!"
ok, maybe it was only funny if you were there. we can reenact it for you someday if you ask us nicely.

I've been longing for community, and I've been blessed with community a plenty. Friday Night Krew (welcome back newlyweds!), LAME, Ohana, the old school BP/Saratoga girls and extensions of that circle, great roommates, quality time with jason, and now regular dinners with this crew. Time with people is so deeply satisfying. I do, however, need to make time and make it a point to spend one-on-on time with people. As much as I see people in groups, I miss some alone time with folks.

Calm.
My life is settling in nicely. Our house feels like home now. Work is settling down. Have lots of cool people to hang out with. My classes start soon. I've been reading a lot. (We didn't get cable. Who would've thunk it that if I didn't have 60 channels to watch on tv, I'd watch a lot less tv and have very few hankering pangs of "oh, I wish I had food network..Rachel Ray, where are you?!").

Contest.
Mary, Janet, and I are also soliciting names for our house. If we pick the name that you suggest, umm...you can...come over. hahaha. and maybe i/we will feed you (can't make promises for the other roommates. Please comment.