So Victor just got back from a 10 day long business trip to China; he had to check out the facilities that his company was using to manufacture their products. So he was in Shanghai from last Saturday through Thursday night and Friday morning he caught the first flight out of Shanghai to Beijing to visit and check up on a new facility his company is considering using as a contract manufacturer. At the end of Friday he was able to look our old Pastor and his family and go hang out with them for the rest of the weekend. When we Skyped Friday night the kids were hopping around in the background happy and super excited! It's was so good to see little miss Sarah starting to become just as big of a chatterbox as her big sister! Saturday morning Victor hung out with our old pastor and they walked around and saw all the touristy sites of Beijing; they saw the forbidden city, saw and endless number of street food vendors and they ate a variety of roasted scorpions. You know the usual.
While Victor was gone, before his flight even took off Friday morning, I remade our bed so that I would be able to enjoy our entire Cal-King bed all by myself! I re-arranged the pillows so that I was able to sleep smack dab in the middle of the bed! I dropped him off at the airport at 4am and since we're so close to the airport I was able to come home and sleep for another 2 hours so before I had to get ready for work myself. I must say it was quite luxurious!
The last time Victor was gone it was quite a traumatizing experience. Our cat genie broke, both our cats vomited at least once during his absence and carrot cake peed on my throw blanket that was on my sofa! Quite a close call the pee didn't end up on the sofa! Close call. And of course, lastly, there was a death in the family. So it was not very fun last time. This time I was determined to make the most of it and enjoy myself.
It's weird, in all my days I've never spent so much time alone than AFTER I got married. I would never had thought that was going to be the case. In college while living in the dorms I had 2 roommates my first year and 1 roommate my 2nd year. By my 3rd and 4th years we were required to move out of the dorms into the off campus apartments and there I lived with at least 4 other girls at all times, even during the summer months. We split a 2 bedroom two bathroom apartment. One of the bedrooms was bigger so three girls fit in there. In the summer the girls who were not taking summer school had found sublettors to take their spot. After college I continued to live in the apartments out on the west side but because rent was so expensive and my job paid so little I continued to live with 3 other girls, besides having never really lived alone before it was nice to have the constant company. Moving back home was never and option because quite frankly I think the commute would have killed me. What normally is a 40 minute drive is a 1.5-2 hour drive during rush hour traffic.
So friday night, the friday that victor left, I treated myself my favorite activity. I got a two item combo and rented a movie from the local redbox. I don't really know why I like Panda Express so much but I do especially the chow mein. That definitely set the tone for the rest of the week and I could tell it was going to be a great week! The weekend flew by and by Sunday night as I was getting ready to go to bed a horrible thought occurred to me.
Recently a lady at our church woke up one morning and discovered that she had inexplicably gone completely blind! To my horror I thought to myself what if that happened to me? I wouldn't even be able to call anyone since I've only got a cellphone and both my cellphone and victor's cellphone were touch screens. I wouldn't even be able operate the phone. I know there's a voiced activated feature on my phone but I don't know how that works. And even if we did have a house phone that I could dial by touch, I don't have anyone's phone numbers memorized because they're all saved in the address book on my cellphone. Oh what pickle we put ourselves in thanks to technology. You can't live without it this day and age but you can't really live with it either, you become dependent.
So Monday morning I promptly discussed the situation with my co-workers and we worked out a game plan in the event that I mysteriously don't turn up to work while I was home alone. You can't be too; careful look at all the crazy things that Macaulay Culkin faced!
With a game plan in place NEXT time Victor goes to China on business it will be even FUN-NER!
Scratch that next time he goes to China I'm going too!!
Monday, May 27, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Shenanigans - Muscle Juice
The other day I was driving around town in traffic and a thought dawned on me. I'm officially in my 30's. I'm a bona fide adult. No longer can I hide behind "young adulthood" as I did in my 20s. When I turned 30 it didn't really count because I just got there so it's okay to still think of myself as 20ish still. But once I clearly crossed over into 30 something territory there's no turning back--It's official. In fact I vaguely recall and old tv show called thirtysomething and if memory serves me correctly everyone on that show looked so old! Its hard to grasp the fact that I've arrived, I'm here, I'm those old thritysomethings. How strange, I still feel like a kid most of the time.
When I reflect back on my life I can clearly see the places where I've grown and changed. My point of view and thoughts no longer (most of the time at least--although my husband would beg to differ) revolve around myself. But oftentimes I forget that I'm actually an adult. It feels so foreign to me and I wonder if I'll feel the same when I'm 40, 50 or even 60. I suppose once I have kids then I'll have a constant in my face reminder that I'm not a kid anymore?
It seems like it was only yesterday that my brother and I were still at home as kids without a care in the world. Our family never really went on vacations--no money. We would occasionally travel to Taiwan with my grandma to visit with my mom's sister and my brother and we'd get to play with our cousins. But traveling overseas was expensive back then so those trips were few and far between. Long distance phone calling back then was also expensive and the connection was terrible. This was before the age of the internet when programs like skype was only something you'd see on startrek. So my brother and I did what any other normal kid would have done to keep in touch with their cousins. We made tape recordings!! We would have full on conversations with them, read them stories and just tell them about the goings on at our house all on tape and send that to them. They would in turn send us a tape back--kind of like audio pen-pals of sorts. Naturally this only made sense because my brother and I didn't read or write any chinese and my cousins, they didn't read or write english.
So during the summer months my brother and I passed the time by keeping ourselved productively occupied. We stayed up late, watched way too much television, and played video games till we, or perhaps just me, wanted to puke. We'd watch SNL, or if that wasn't on then we'd watch Wrestling (back when it was still under the WWF banner). Later one new late night tv shows popped up such as In Living Color, Mad TV giving us a wider selection of shows to watch or sometimes we'd watch a combination of two shows flipping back and forth between channels at the commercial break. When my brother got older we'd watch late night talk shows; his favorite was David Letterman. When those choice tv programs were over we'd watch late night infomercials (remember Ron Popeil??). We didn't have cable and this was before food network anyways so our favorite infomercials was the food related inventions (think the showtime rotisserie grill - you "set it and forget it").
My brother picked all the programmings that we'd watch but I was to little to understand or care. I was just excited to NOT be sleeping. Although sometimes I'd be too tired and give in and go to bed but when our show came on my brother would run to my room, shake me awake and we'd go watch tv together. Naturally one cannot simply just watch these late night television programs by itself - no that would be weird. We'd spend tons of prep time before hand gathering snacks, getting beverages, and heating up other frozen treats to nosh on while we watched TV.
Sometime during all these late night escapades muscle juice was born. What's muscle juice you ask? Muscle Juice is basically the entire contents of both our refrigerator AND cupboards dumped into a single cup. Anything goes and no two concoction of muscle juice was ever the same. From the fridge we'd usually have ketchup, mustard, relish, salad dressing, milk, orange juice or apple juice or both, satay sauce (asian bbq sauce), peanut butter or sesame paste or both, jams (whatever flavor we had on hand), and I can't recall if the mix involved an egg or not. From the cupboards the normal contenders were salt, pepper (both black pepper and white pepper), soy sauce, vinegar, vegetable oil, chocolate milk power (or chocolate milk syrup from the fridge) and occasionally the dry power mix from an packet of instant noodles. These lists are by no means exhaustive and sometimes we'd have more ingredients other times less. It all depended on what was available to us in the fridge and cupboard at the time and how creative we were feeling. At one point I feel like we squeezed in the black stuff from the inside of a squid although I now can't recall clearly. We'd mix the contents of the cup together with a single solitary chopstick and we would then pinch our nose and each take a swig of our creation and proclaim loudly that we've been rejuvenated, reinvigorated and 23472342870 times stronger than before we began. Popeye had his spinach but we, we had our muscle juice.
Good times!!
Of course no human being can finish off and entire glass of muscle juice. We'd be too strong and litteraly destroy our entire house so to keep this stuff from falling into the wrong hands we threw it up and over the wall in our backyard. No one was ever the wiser.
Sometimes I wonder if my mom knew what we did....
When I reflect back on my life I can clearly see the places where I've grown and changed. My point of view and thoughts no longer (most of the time at least--although my husband would beg to differ) revolve around myself. But oftentimes I forget that I'm actually an adult. It feels so foreign to me and I wonder if I'll feel the same when I'm 40, 50 or even 60. I suppose once I have kids then I'll have a constant in my face reminder that I'm not a kid anymore?
It seems like it was only yesterday that my brother and I were still at home as kids without a care in the world. Our family never really went on vacations--no money. We would occasionally travel to Taiwan with my grandma to visit with my mom's sister and my brother and we'd get to play with our cousins. But traveling overseas was expensive back then so those trips were few and far between. Long distance phone calling back then was also expensive and the connection was terrible. This was before the age of the internet when programs like skype was only something you'd see on startrek. So my brother and I did what any other normal kid would have done to keep in touch with their cousins. We made tape recordings!! We would have full on conversations with them, read them stories and just tell them about the goings on at our house all on tape and send that to them. They would in turn send us a tape back--kind of like audio pen-pals of sorts. Naturally this only made sense because my brother and I didn't read or write any chinese and my cousins, they didn't read or write english.
So during the summer months my brother and I passed the time by keeping ourselved productively occupied. We stayed up late, watched way too much television, and played video games till we, or perhaps just me, wanted to puke. We'd watch SNL, or if that wasn't on then we'd watch Wrestling (back when it was still under the WWF banner). Later one new late night tv shows popped up such as In Living Color, Mad TV giving us a wider selection of shows to watch or sometimes we'd watch a combination of two shows flipping back and forth between channels at the commercial break. When my brother got older we'd watch late night talk shows; his favorite was David Letterman. When those choice tv programs were over we'd watch late night infomercials (remember Ron Popeil??). We didn't have cable and this was before food network anyways so our favorite infomercials was the food related inventions (think the showtime rotisserie grill - you "set it and forget it").
My brother picked all the programmings that we'd watch but I was to little to understand or care. I was just excited to NOT be sleeping. Although sometimes I'd be too tired and give in and go to bed but when our show came on my brother would run to my room, shake me awake and we'd go watch tv together. Naturally one cannot simply just watch these late night television programs by itself - no that would be weird. We'd spend tons of prep time before hand gathering snacks, getting beverages, and heating up other frozen treats to nosh on while we watched TV.
Sometime during all these late night escapades muscle juice was born. What's muscle juice you ask? Muscle Juice is basically the entire contents of both our refrigerator AND cupboards dumped into a single cup. Anything goes and no two concoction of muscle juice was ever the same. From the fridge we'd usually have ketchup, mustard, relish, salad dressing, milk, orange juice or apple juice or both, satay sauce (asian bbq sauce), peanut butter or sesame paste or both, jams (whatever flavor we had on hand), and I can't recall if the mix involved an egg or not. From the cupboards the normal contenders were salt, pepper (both black pepper and white pepper), soy sauce, vinegar, vegetable oil, chocolate milk power (or chocolate milk syrup from the fridge) and occasionally the dry power mix from an packet of instant noodles. These lists are by no means exhaustive and sometimes we'd have more ingredients other times less. It all depended on what was available to us in the fridge and cupboard at the time and how creative we were feeling. At one point I feel like we squeezed in the black stuff from the inside of a squid although I now can't recall clearly. We'd mix the contents of the cup together with a single solitary chopstick and we would then pinch our nose and each take a swig of our creation and proclaim loudly that we've been rejuvenated, reinvigorated and 23472342870 times stronger than before we began. Popeye had his spinach but we, we had our muscle juice.
Good times!!
Of course no human being can finish off and entire glass of muscle juice. We'd be too strong and litteraly destroy our entire house so to keep this stuff from falling into the wrong hands we threw it up and over the wall in our backyard. No one was ever the wiser.
Sometimes I wonder if my mom knew what we did....
Discontentment
I've always struggled with discontentment. I don't know whether or not anyone else struggles with it, although I suspect many do, but I can only say with certainty that it is something I wrestle with constantly.
I didn't have an unhappy childhood and I don't feel as if I've ever been deprived or ever had want for anything. In fact I had an AWESOME childhood! Sometimes I would look back at old family photos and wish I were that carefree kid again but alas, therein lies discontentment and it rears its ugly head.
Frankly whoever coined the phrase, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" knew his (or her!-this is after all and equal opportunity blog!) stuff and captured discontented sentiment exactly. Looking back over my childhood I can now see smatterings of discontentment speckled throughout my youth. I mentioned previously that I had an awesome childhood. Let me now elaborate on that bit of awesomeness! But first a bit of history...
My mom was never a good student and she hated school and did terribly. Schooling for her was drastically different than here in the good ole US of A. My mom was born and raised in Taiwan and if you don't know anything about the educational system there just know that your future is/was quite determined by a series of entrance exams. You had to be tested into your elementary school, you had to be tested into middle school, you had to be tested into high school and each and every single point along the way mattered. If you screwed up your elementary school test then it was impossible to get into the best middle schools and if you weren't in the best middle schools then you can kiss your chances of getting into a good high school and if you weren't attending the best high schools then college is definitely out of the question for you. Needless to say my mom never enjoyed that kind of pressure and wanted much differently for her kids. (Side note: Kudos to you for starting a scary new life in a scary new country mommy! There was a detour in Brazil where my brother was born but that will be a whole other post on a whole other day). Now the educational system in the US compared to the rigor of ASIA is, in all honesty, a bit of a JOKE in comparison. Kids could stand to be challenged just a teeny bit more but again that shall be a whole other post on a whole other day.
So back to my own awesome childhood. I was allowed to watch as much television as my little heart desired! And to a 5 year me old that's heaven on earth! Also, chores? What are those? In our house we didn't have any because we were students and our job was to "study". During the summer months my brother and I got into a whole bunch of crazy shenanigans which will definitely be immortalized for the world at large to read about in future posts. We stayed up late into the wee hours of the mornings up to no good and sometimes didn't end up sleeping until my mom was driving away to work. It was bliss I tell you! I didn't have a care in the world but even then wasn't content. I still wanted to hurry up and be a grown up. Being 5 years old was not good enough. I wanted to be older because being older was way better than being a kid.
Discontentment, it's quite a sneaky thing that one. You can be happy as a clam but still discontent. It can dress up and masquerade itself as "ambition" or "aspirations"or even "hopes & dreams" which are great and honorable things. But if you're not fully satisfied in the station in life which God our creator has placed you in then discontentment rears its ugly head once again. One can dream and one can aspire to greatness but the line is crossed when you think that your life will be better or more complete if and only if those dreams, those aspirations, those goals have come to fruition. God in His infinite wisdom has placed you where you are currently at in life because that's the best place for you, right here, right now.
When I was in school (K-12 school) I always thought I would be set if I could just get into a good college - I got into UCLA, but I wasn't all set. When I was graduating from college I thought I would be set if I could just get a job - I got a job, but I wasn't all set. When I was working for a few years I thought I would be set if only I could meet a good Godly man - I met a great Godly man, but I wasn't all set. When I was dating this Godly man for a few months (we've known each other longer than not known each other prior to dating!) I thought I would be set if only he would hurry up and propose - he proposed, but I wasn't all set. When we were married for a year I thought we're ready! I would be all set if we could just get pregnant, I'm literally backwards-situs inversus totalis w/ dextrocardia-and was worried I would never be able to conceive, - we conceived but I wasn't all set.
I have my hopes and dreams. But at least for now I'm not under the delusion that if and only if they come to pass will my life be full and complete. Because I'm constantly in awe at how completely God has provided for my life, even in ways that I've never even pondered. I'm sure I will still struggle with discontentment...but I know the battle can be won...because it's a battle I don't have to wage alone.
I didn't have an unhappy childhood and I don't feel as if I've ever been deprived or ever had want for anything. In fact I had an AWESOME childhood! Sometimes I would look back at old family photos and wish I were that carefree kid again but alas, therein lies discontentment and it rears its ugly head.
Frankly whoever coined the phrase, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" knew his (or her!-this is after all and equal opportunity blog!) stuff and captured discontented sentiment exactly. Looking back over my childhood I can now see smatterings of discontentment speckled throughout my youth. I mentioned previously that I had an awesome childhood. Let me now elaborate on that bit of awesomeness! But first a bit of history...
My mom was never a good student and she hated school and did terribly. Schooling for her was drastically different than here in the good ole US of A. My mom was born and raised in Taiwan and if you don't know anything about the educational system there just know that your future is/was quite determined by a series of entrance exams. You had to be tested into your elementary school, you had to be tested into middle school, you had to be tested into high school and each and every single point along the way mattered. If you screwed up your elementary school test then it was impossible to get into the best middle schools and if you weren't in the best middle schools then you can kiss your chances of getting into a good high school and if you weren't attending the best high schools then college is definitely out of the question for you. Needless to say my mom never enjoyed that kind of pressure and wanted much differently for her kids. (Side note: Kudos to you for starting a scary new life in a scary new country mommy! There was a detour in Brazil where my brother was born but that will be a whole other post on a whole other day). Now the educational system in the US compared to the rigor of ASIA is, in all honesty, a bit of a JOKE in comparison. Kids could stand to be challenged just a teeny bit more but again that shall be a whole other post on a whole other day.
So back to my own awesome childhood. I was allowed to watch as much television as my little heart desired! And to a 5 year me old that's heaven on earth! Also, chores? What are those? In our house we didn't have any because we were students and our job was to "study". During the summer months my brother and I got into a whole bunch of crazy shenanigans which will definitely be immortalized for the world at large to read about in future posts. We stayed up late into the wee hours of the mornings up to no good and sometimes didn't end up sleeping until my mom was driving away to work. It was bliss I tell you! I didn't have a care in the world but even then wasn't content. I still wanted to hurry up and be a grown up. Being 5 years old was not good enough. I wanted to be older because being older was way better than being a kid.
Discontentment, it's quite a sneaky thing that one. You can be happy as a clam but still discontent. It can dress up and masquerade itself as "ambition" or "aspirations"or even "hopes & dreams" which are great and honorable things. But if you're not fully satisfied in the station in life which God our creator has placed you in then discontentment rears its ugly head once again. One can dream and one can aspire to greatness but the line is crossed when you think that your life will be better or more complete if and only if those dreams, those aspirations, those goals have come to fruition. God in His infinite wisdom has placed you where you are currently at in life because that's the best place for you, right here, right now.
When I was in school (K-12 school) I always thought I would be set if I could just get into a good college - I got into UCLA, but I wasn't all set. When I was graduating from college I thought I would be set if I could just get a job - I got a job, but I wasn't all set. When I was working for a few years I thought I would be set if only I could meet a good Godly man - I met a great Godly man, but I wasn't all set. When I was dating this Godly man for a few months (we've known each other longer than not known each other prior to dating!) I thought I would be set if only he would hurry up and propose - he proposed, but I wasn't all set. When we were married for a year I thought we're ready! I would be all set if we could just get pregnant, I'm literally backwards-situs inversus totalis w/ dextrocardia-and was worried I would never be able to conceive, - we conceived but I wasn't all set.
I have my hopes and dreams. But at least for now I'm not under the delusion that if and only if they come to pass will my life be full and complete. Because I'm constantly in awe at how completely God has provided for my life, even in ways that I've never even pondered. I'm sure I will still struggle with discontentment...but I know the battle can be won...because it's a battle I don't have to wage alone.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Test Post
I think it's high time I jump on the blogging bandwagon. It's come to me as a whim much like many things I decide to do...we'll see if it lasts and how long it will last.
Hopefully, it will last but only time will tell.
Anyways...testing 1, 2, 3...
Hopefully, it will last but only time will tell.
Anyways...testing 1, 2, 3...
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