on my reading list

I read about Po Bronson's new book titled Why Do I Love these People? in San Jose's Mercury over Christmas. It's about family. Why some people stick with their families despite all the "traumas"? I heard about Po Bronson from his other book What Should I do with my life? I didn't think too much of his book when it came out. His new book, however, caught my attention. The topic of family can be messy and affects us all in some way or another.

Luke and I went to one of his book readings. I was really touched by what the author shared. He said these families' stories gave him hope. These families helped him to write a letter to his mom celebrating her 60th birthday(I think is was her 60th). He had a hard time writing it b/c from the sounds of what he shared, he had some rough/painful times with his mom. These families helped him to see good and positive things about his mom.

I guess sometimes it takes that. It takes traveling or seeing how bad it can be to help us really appreciate what we have. We have a lot. Okay, I can't speak for everyone, but I know I'm blessed with a lot.

After I finish reading The Namesake, this book will be next on my list.

bad morning

Saw someone on the subway today that I really don't enjoy seeing or talking to. I feel really uncomfortable around her and I also like to have a peaceful and quiet commute on the way to work. I think if I see her next time I'll tell her that I rather not chat with her. I get the hibee jibees when I see her. I couldn't concentrate on my Alaska Traveler's Tales book this morning. It was a terrible way to start the morning :(! The book itself has been a disappointing read. I bought the book to get ready for our trip to Alaska. I'm still looking forward to the trip of course, but the book has been quite dry and not very descriptive. I was taking a break from reading Harry Potter #5, so I started reading the Alaska book. I think now I'll read The Namesake. This book got mixed reviews, but still like to read it because it takes place in Cambridge/Boston. I love reading about Boston:).

Tomorrow morning I have yoga, so hopefully I'll have a better start tomorrow. My Wednesday yoga class was way too early. I got up at 5:30am to catch a 6:06am bus. I will continue to go since I still have 5 more classes left on my card. I rather sleep than save $10, not much of a bargin after all.

anticlimactic

I called my mom a few minutes ago to let her know that I'm bringing a guy friend to brunch tomorrow. My mom didn't have much of a response only asked his name. Maybe she's come to realize that it's no big deal at all (I doubt that, only wishful thinking). After 10+ years of harassing me to find somebody, now that I actually want her to meet someone, she has no reaction. I don't get it?! Yes, I do feel disappointed. She sounded even despondent. I think it's either hot or cold with her, either overreacting or not reacting at all. Bizarre, quite bizarre.

I think it's the same thing about eating. For years, she would tell me not too overeat and to exercise. Then when I've actually lost weight and started running, I got the same reaction, nothing. I've never did those things for my mom. I did it for myself. I feel annoyed though that she makes all these critical remarks, but not words of affirmation. Yes, I'm feeling quite disappointed and I'm venting. Some moms are impossible, my mom definitely falls into that category :(!

Meet the Parents

So, tomorrow, Luke will meet my parents. I'm sure my parents will like him and most likely love him. I know that's a good thing, but that's what I'm afraid of. Sad to say, my mom is quite desperate at "my age" :). I know she is thinking somebody, anybody. My mom is a bit extreme or more correctly neurotic about getting me married. The topic has caused quite a lot of fights, phone hangups, and not talking for months. I can't even think of a movie that can portray what mom is like, yes, much more extreme than Pride and Prejudice or Bride and Prejudice.

On the happy side of things, I went to a yoga class this morning. Really liked it. I haven't done yoga since I was in college and that was 10+ years ago. Good thing I'm practicing pilate or some of those poses would have killed me. My arms are still shaking from this morning. Maybe that's not a good thing? I'll probably try to go to yoga once a week as my schedule fits (i.e. running/training, pilate, class, and don't forget work:)).

meeting up old friends

Met up with Hannah yesterday. Her and her husband live out in Houston. I met Hannah back in 1997 when I was living in Pampa, TX. It's located only 7 hours west of Dallas :). Yah, Texas is a huge State! She was interning at the company I was working at. We lost contact for awhile, but we reconnected again. Hannah travels out to the Bay Area quite a lot for her job, so I get to see her at least once a month. What a blessing! I had dinner with her last night with her colleagues and didn't get home until almost 11pm, which is super late for me since I go to bed usually by 10pm. Hmm... a note myself, not to have dinner with friend's colleagues. All they do is talk about work. Interesting at first when they talked about their industry in general, but later on when they were bringing up names of people I didn't know, I got quite bleary eyed:) and it was only 8:10pm, I felt like it was 10pm already. One of Hannah's colleague was a runner, so we talked a bit about running. He has run 13 marathons and will be running #14 on Sunday back in Houston. I'm sure people have lots of things to talk about besides work, just got to find out what they are. Work is a safe topic I suppose, especially if you are with your colleagues.

Hannah and I hung out at Starbucks for awhile afterwards and talked about non-work stuff, which was quite nice:).

random thoughts

working late tonight

procrastinating

parents visiting next week

parents will meet Luke next Saturday

found out 2 friends are getting married on the same weekend

both are close and not close in different ways

spending a lot of money for our trip to Alaska

thinking about taking a class, getting a MA

almost done with Harry Potter book 4

resolution smazalution, I prefer to setup goals as we go along, not dictated by a calendar

better get back to my report

Reflecting 2005

Overall it was a wondeful blur:). Maybe I'll try to list significant events in reverse chronological order.

1/1/2006 - Luke and I danced briefly and silly-ly to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong at his apartment. I think I stepped on his foot a few times and he kicked my heel one hard time. We both survived and we both laughed a lot. I know this is not a true 2005 memory, but wanted to write it down before I forget. Hmm... so precious to find someone you can be silly and laugh with.

12/31/2005 - We both ordered take-out from Elmwood. I had take out from Manpuku (caterpillar roll, gyoza, cha-han, elmwood roll, red bean mochi... I ordered a lot of food :))and Luke had take out from Naan "N" Curry (regular naan, basmati rice, tikka masala). We watched Casablanca...my first time. I know one of the greatest movies of all times and I've never seen it. Luke has seen it many times. It was a beautiful movie. I didn't really know what to expect, but it's a movie that I can watch over and over again indeed. Then we watched New Year's Eve with Dick Clark and I actually stayed up past midnight on New Year's Eve, barely but I did :). Luke had no problems staying up. I think he is a night owl:).

12/30/2005 - We went ice skating at Yerba Buena Skating Center. It was a bit frigtening, but I felt somewhat safe in Luke's hands. We went down twice. Our first fall, my butt hit the ice hard and I'm still aching from it. Our second fall, Luke went face down first and fortunately braced the fall with his hands before his face hit the ice. Unfortunately, his hand got scratched up and a bloody bruise. Our falls didn't scare us off, we perservered 'til our 2 hour skating session ended. Thank goodness, we got there when there was only 1 hr left in our skating session :).

12/23/2005 - Luke and I went to Market Hall to go grocery shopping for the first time. Yes, we eat out a lot. One of our "new year resolution" for this year is to cook 1 out 4 times we eat together.

We only boiled the gnocchi. The rest was prepared cooked food heated up in a pan. It's a start:).

Of course, we didn't make this, but it's cute, huh?

11/21/2005 - Spent Thanksgiving in Seattle suburb. It was wonderful to see Jack and Lucy, but I had an unpleasant time with Moses and Zipporah. I will lessen my visits out to Seattle now. Unfortunate, but true. Moses is quite intolerable. I think it's best that I stay clear of him for awhile.

10/9/2005 - Ella and I finished the Portland Marathon. Luke was there to support us all the way minus the time he was sipping coffee at a cafe ;). Luke was great, he woke up at 6am to go with us to the start line at 7am. He held up a cheering poster for us at mile 2.5, 5 and 26.

fast backward...
2/20/2005 - 2 roses and a Gerber Daisy, flowers from Luke for the first time, we ate at Tachibana in Rockridge.

2/13/2005 - Met Luke at Bette's Oceanview Diner.

Luke has been a significant part of my life for the past year. Yes, I'm having a hard time putting down in words how much Luke has meant to me this past year and means to me now. We've spent a lot of time together, but at the same I felt free to be myself and do my own things (i.e. running, traveling on my own). Luke has an incredible way of being chivalrous and yet he is very respectful toward women. Of course those qualities are not mutually exclusive, but it's not always easy to express it and Luke does it so elegantly.

Jack speaks!

Jack said ear in Chinese loudly and clearly on 12/31/2005. I wasn't there, but mom and dad filled me in on the details. The only words that have come out of Jack before this were mama, dada, and ball. Jack used the word ball for almost everything ...ball for bottle, ball for ballon, and of course ball for ball, so it was a big shock for us to hear him speak and saying the 2 words "er duo" in Chinese was a bigger shock. Of course, we are immensely proud of Jack:)!

Alaska

The past few weeks I've been obsessed with planning our trip to Alaska in June. I happen to browse through some travel guides at Cody's Books in mid-Dec. and the travel guides said accommodations get booked up really early for the peak season, thus started my Alaska planning craze. I used Trip Advisor to plan out an itinerary. I used TA before mostly for hotel recommendations. This time I checked out the Alaska forum, there my obessession began. Right now I'm taking break since I think I OD the past week. I must have read most of the threads. I'm almost done with planning, just one place yet to hear back from then we are all set. There will be 4 of us going. Luke, Ella, and Louis. I can't believe we are going!!