If you count the hours between leaving my parents’ house to get to the airport to arriving at our house in Seattle, our trip took about 13 hours. We encountered delayed and canceled flights, spending about 10 hours at the airports in Sacramento and San Francisco. If we had rented a car and driven back up to Seattle, we would have gotten there before our flight did. But we made it back in one piece and without having to spend the night in the airport. For that, we are thankful. We spent most of the time reading, playing Text Twist, writing in my journal, and watching episodes of the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles (thanks, Kit!).

And now that we are back after having spent 10 days in Sacramento, I want to reflect on things I learned over those days (while also giving a glimpse to how our time was spent):

1. The older I get, I see more similarities between my parents and me (whether Matt or I like it!) hehe..

2. Matt was ever so patient during the 10 days of meeting up with friends, family, AND always having so many people around in the house. He also helped repair my parents’ thermostat, broken washing machine door, and did some work on my parents’ and Na’s cars.

 3. Even though all the cousins on the Lee side are out of high school, having them stay over at our house for a few days was still fun, like one big slumber party. I always wondered what it would be like to have more siblings, and I got a taste of that with eight “kids” in the house for a few days. Two of my cousins from the east coast hadn’t spent Christmas with us in 10 years!

4. There is a 30-year gap between the oldest grandchild on the Wong side (Na) and the youngest (Grace). And seeing all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents play with the young cousins makes me wish we could be around them more once we have kids.

5. I can get around SF using the public transportation and our own car without a map AND without getting us lost–not even once–even though I haven’t lived there for five years. Call it a Christmas miracle. I can’t even do this in LA or Seattle. Even though we could have met up with more friends in SF, we chose not to–and finally got the touristy afternoon in SF that I have been craving since last Christmas. We took the subway to Union Square, walked to Chinatown, then to Embarcadero, and then hopped on the F-line to Fisherman’s Wharf. We also saw my old workplace, school, and old house in San Bruno.

6. I can’t eat as much as I used to. I used to be able to eat a Sonoma burger (with a big salad and heaping of roasted potatoes) AND a strawberry/nutella crepe from Crepevine in one sitting. When we met with Shirley and Steve at Crepevine, I could barely finish my Sonoma burger. Queencie would be quite disappointed in me.

7. I am still very, very attached to my possessions with sentimental value. I went through my old closet and couldn’t bear to toss some trinkets, for example, a glass owl pendant from Disneyland that was painted green but is all faded now. I think it dates back to when I was in 1st or 2nd grade.

8. Going back to my home church makes me feel safe and comfortable–and a little sad, like I had never grown up or left. Everyone, specifically people older than I am, still looks the same, and I like having people around that I can call auntie and uncle who have watched me grow up in the church.

9. Even though we had decided to alternate which family we spent Christmas with, it really was nice to see Matt’s mom, grandma, and sisters, and to get a pre-Christmas celebration with them.

10. Inviting friends over to my parents’ house helped me to not feel guilty about not getting together with each friend individually. Plus, since people came and went over a couple of hours, it was sort of easy to have a little time with everyone. We had about an hour with just Wayne, which actually was great because it gave us a chance to catch up with him without others around. I also finally got to meet the newest member of the Candiani family–Lexi, daughter of my high school friend/SF roomie, Tami.

11. No matter how poorly the Kings played on Friday night (especially when they actually had a chance of winning!), I don’t think they should be booed, especially on their home court. Sadly, the crowd showed more energy and enthusiasm over the half-time show.

12. Dorc sure can eat. After eating an enormous dinner at Mel’s Diner, she wanted cotton candy and nachos at the Kings game…AND she was still open to eating more when we got back to my parents’ place.

13. I’m weird about spending money sometimes. My uncle gave me some Christmas money and told me to buy myself some books (since a few of us were going to Borders). When I got there, I had one book in mind that I wanted, but found out the paperback wasn’t being released until May 2008, so I decided to wait on that one. Plus, I’m sure it will be cheaper at Costco. I saw the Best of Sade CD for $9.99, which I had been wanting since listening to Hong’s CD in 2003–but just never bought it. I almost got it that day until my cousin Kim told me she’d give me her copy. But even when I had the CD in my hand, I kept going back and forth about whether or not to buy it. Then I found two books that seemed interesting and were part of a “Buy 1, get 50% off the 2nd book” deal.

Aside from Harry Potter and John Grisham books, I haven’t bought myself a book in who knows how long. I prefer to borrow books from the library and then MAYBE buy a book if I really like it. I bought those two books, but the next day, I went back to Borders and returned them. :P I don’t know what my problem is. I just have a hard time buying certain things for myself, like books, but it’s easier for me to buy stuff that I know I will put to use, like yarn or kitchen utensils.

14. I like hearing stories of my parents growing up and their childhood memories with their siblings.

15. If Na and I lived under the same roof now, we probably would have more fun together and get along better than we did back when we both lived at home.

16. Even though I am against materialism, I really enjoy watching people open gifts that I know they will like.

17. Sacramento is not some small hicktown, yet it’s surprising how small the community really is, specifically the Chinese Christian community. It’s rare to go out and NOT run into people we know. We went to Target and ran into Auntie Janice Wong. On the way to the airport, we saw Norbert Gee driving behind us. Then, when we took an alternate route to the airport, through some residential areas, a guy jogged by and my parents knew him. How random is that?!

18. Na and I still remember a lot of words to the songs in the New Kids on the Block’s Christmas album. Scary.

19. Christmas traditions with my family (opening gifts at midnight on Christmas Eve) and with friends (the annual gathering with Na, Dorc, Kris, Daisy and Patty) will make it even harder to not be in Sac each year for Christmas.

20. I really need to be more accepting and open of changes that occur after marriage, now that there are two people to consider, rather than just myself. This means having two families that we’ll spend Christmas with, or maybe not hanging out with as many people as I normally would. And I have to be OK with that and not take it out on Matt.

Anyway, and as we say farewell to 2007, I hope you all had a great year–and even greater one to come. Happy new year!

I have two mini Christmas trees in my cube, and I realize that although the two styles are very different, I like them both a lot. One is more simple with jewel tones, while the other is sparkly and bright.

This first one cost $2.50 in Target’s “dollar” section, plus another $2.50 for the razzly-dazzly ornaments. I swore that I would never buy anything that cost more than $1 from Target’s dollar section, but I couldn’t resist. I was drawn to the sparkles! One of my co-workers has a totally hot pink cube, so I called her up and sort of pushed her to have me buy her the hot pink version of my silver tree. It’s also available in teal, purple, typical Christmas-tree green, and opalescent (or “mao-yin” color, as we call it, harking back to “Big Trouble in Little China”).

This next tree is from IKEA and was on sale for a $1 or $2. I can’t remember. It’s also available in yellow, black, and red. I got the ornaments a few years ago at a post-Christmas sale at Target. Cute,  eh?

Anyway, I’ve enjoyed having a little festivity in my cube, so I just wanted to share with you all, too. :)

When I first started blogging, I wanted my blog to be less of a “this is what I’m up to” sort of deal, and more like a “this is what I’m learning, and it probably relates to some current event in my life” essay-type blog. I think it’s the writer in me, but I like having themes, if you could call them, to each entry. Plus, I like the idea of still keeping in touch with people off-blog, meaning we have to exchange e-mails or phone calls to actually keep up with one another. (Because really, just reading my blog and knowing what I’m up to does not constitute “keeping in touch” with me.) This way, we have something more to talk about in those off-blog conversations. I noticed I was deviating from my original purpose for blogging–although sometimes the typical “life update” can’t be avoided–so I’m going to try to go back to stick with what I initially intended to do.

Lately, I feel like the concept of keeping things in perspective has helped me tackle a lot of struggles, shortcomings, weaknesses, etc. Especially during those moments when I really want to complain (not that I still don’t give in to those moments!), keeping things in perspective helps me to hold my tongue or change the direction of my thoughts. For example: Our house is REALLY cold, especially since we have heaters in each room, rather than central heating. I find myself complaining about this a lot, but then I see the man standing in pouring rain near the freeway, holding a sign about being hungry. Would he complain to be under a roof, even if it were 50 degrees inside? Or how I wish I didn’t always wear the same outfits to work each week, and how I wish my wardrobe were not so limited. But then I hear about the need for clothes–any clothes–to be donated to homeless shelters to be given to people who only have one outfit to wear.

Perspective.

And this week, I got another dose of that. The volunteer coordinator at the women and children’s shelter of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission e-mailed me, asking if World Vision had any volunteer opportunities this time of year. Last year, on World AIDS Day, the women and kids had put together Caregiver Kits–containers full of basic supplies which were sent off to home-based caregivers of HIV and AIDS patients in African countries. The coordinator said, “We want to give the women a chance to do something to help others who are less fortunate than they are.”

I’m thinking, these are women who are living in a homeless shelter, who don’t have their own homes, cars, probably no jobs. For their kids’ birthdays, a few elderly women from a local church throw monthly birthday parties and hand out gifts–and these few gifts from strangers are probably the only ones these kids get. Not so long ago, I was thinking that I am one of the luckiest kids on earth to have grown up with so much. Every time my birthday or Christmas rolled around, I gave my parents a list of the Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley Twin books that I needed to round out my collection, and I knew that my aunts and uncles would buy those books for me. And here were these kids who were so happy with simple yo-yos, imitation Battleship boardgames, and tiny kits of Legos.

But these women and children would love to do something to help people who are less fortunate? Wow. Most of us would think that they ARE the least fortunate compared with everyone else we know. That really hit home for me. No matter where we are in life, no matter what we have (or think we don’t have enough of), there is always someone who has less than we do–and there will always be someone who has more. The difference is whether we allow ourselves to throw a pity party when we think about those who have more than we do.

And Christmas is one of those times when materialism–and the haves and have nots–really shines through. You either come out of the season with brand new toys, or you’re in that stage where you don’t care so much about gifts anymore. There’s a Kmart commercial where a girl talks to the Kmart lightbulb about gift ideas for a guy friend…Scarves? Mittens? “What is he–a snowman?” asks the talking lightbulb. “He wants electronics!” The girl looks ecstatic and goes off to spend several hundred dollars on some electronic toy for her friend. OK, which guy doesn’t want electronics over scarves or mittens? But that also enforces the idea that small gifts like a scarf are not as appreciated as an expensive electronic toy.

Anyway. This is not what Christmas is all about. But don’t get me started on the whole materialistic aspect of it…the long list of toys (OK, I did that when I was a kid, but my list was of book titles), the gifts that get more $$ as each year passes, the NEED for this year’s coolest gift. Granted, I still get gifts for family members and some friends–and I still get caught up liking STUFF (as you could tell by my earlier post about the white elephant gift exchange)–but sometimes it is a struggle trying to balance being true to how I feel about Christmas and gifts with getting loved ones something that will make them happy. ARGH I could feel my heartbeat rising just thinking about all this.

Perspective. It’s all about perspective.

Many nights when I’m trying to fall asleep, my thoughts wander. They go from one pretty general topic, to another, to another, until I end up with some completely random memory totally unrelated to the first topic.

A few nights ago, I was thinking about Christmas gifts. Somehow, I thought about the Sock ‘em Boppers (inflatable ottoman-shaped things that you put on the end of your hands and use to hit other people) that Matt (a childhood friend, not my husband) and I got each other for Christmas one year. I think his popped soon after he unwrapped the gift, because he was playing with them with his relatives. I have no idea what happened to mine, but it’s not as fun to play with them unless the person you’re hitting also has them. Otherwise, you feel like a mean ogre, because getting hit by the Sock ‘em Boppers isn’t completely painless.

And so because I thought of that gift from Matt, my mind led me to another gift from Matt, probably from late high school or maybe even early college years. A little background first: I don’t know how this got started, but over time, Matt and I made fun of each other for eating poo (not like either of us really does it, obviously…). From that, we created something called Joe and Jane’s Journal, an actual paper booklet with little bathroom humor cartoons about a boy and a girl who ate poo. I’m sort of embarrassed to say (but not really) that all this took place when I was old enough to know this was immature.

So one year for Christmas, I got Matt a keychain of a toilet that made flushing sounds when you pushed its handle. Coincidentally, Matt got me the same keychain, except he took it a step further. He had melted chocolate and placed it at the bottom of the toilet. Nice touch.

And THEN, from there, I thought about how Matt, another friend (Jon) and I used to hang out on Friday nights after our church group. We’d either go out to eat or go to either Matt’s or my parents’ house and fry up french fries or things like that to eat. We talked about opening up a diner called Farters and serving fried foods. A few times, on the way to Matt’s house, we drove by a house on the corner where a lot of racer boys hung out, and threw ketchup packets and containers of McDonald’s nugget sauce at the cars–while the guys were hanging out by their cars. (Horrible, I know! At that point in my life, I guess I didn’t have much of a conscience. Nowadays, I don’t even like cutting in line, even if someone has been holding my spot.) I guess my distaste for racer boys goes back that far…and, ironically, I married someone who likes tinkering with his car, lowering it, changing the lights, making it sound loud and annoying. Ugh.

As I reminisced about hanging out with Matt and Jon, I was reminded of how fun it was to look forward to the end of the week when I knew I’d be able to act silly and immature. After a week of going to school or work, it was refreshing to not have to worry about anything of value or seriousness. Leave that for the weekdays–my weekend had arrived! Over the years, though, it seems like those moments of letting go and being a little immature are fewer and fewer. The adult responsibilities kick in, and you just want to veg at home once the weekend comes. I miss having more energy to stay up late and act silly. I think that’s why I still value moments that remind me of those days…like when ET and Wayne visited, and we went out late for boba, or when the Greenes, Matt and I went to the midnight start of Black Friday at Alderwood Mall.

I know the “good ol’ days” cannot last forever, but I don’t think there’s any harm in getting a little weird and silly with those few friends who can resurrect the fun that we enjoyed in the past. Hopefully being home for Christmas will be a good time for that…

(Hmm…I just noticed the times on my blog are one hour ahead of local time. I’ll have to change that…)

I have several things against cell phones: 1). They make people too accessible; 2). They have become just one more thing that people have to keep up with, in terms of new models and functions; and 3). I just don’t like talking on the phone because it’s so small (unless you’re Zack Morris in “Saved by the Bell”), awkward to hold, and heats up your ear. The latter has been my main argument to Matt whenever he brings up doing away with our landline.

Two years ago, I spotted this super cool cell phone handset at Wishbone in SF. I believe it’s also available on the Fred Flare website. It looks like a landline handset that you plug into a cell phone. So you’re walking around with your cell in your pocket, but holding onto a receiver that looks like it belongs on your home phone. “I totally want this!!” I told Matt. I think it cost $20 or something like that, which was why I never bought it.

Fast forward to Matt’s department’s Christmas party tonight. We brought two lame DVDs (one of which is one of many horror films Melanie has given to Matt!) for the white elephant gift exchange. Matt and I each had to pick from the gift stash early on in the game. Matt got a vacuum wine sealer, and I stole someone’s plastic safari light display on my turn. It was totally cheesy, but I wanted it for my cube. The girl who had the #1 spot in the game had to leave early, so she was given the privilege of picking from any gift that had been opened, and swapping her gift with that person’s gift. She wanted my light display, and left me with a bag of oranges. Those of you who know how much I hate oranges will laugh at the irony.

Long story short, someone had brought the phone handset that I’ve been wanting!!! The person who chose it, but another girl stole it from her, and Matt stole it from the second girl, leaving it open for one more steal. My oranges got stolen from me (yes!!), so I stole a set of Star Wars Pez for Matt. The Pez set got stolen from me, leaving me the option of stealing. Only one gift was left under the tree: the horror movie we brought. I considered my options…do I choose another gift but then leave room for that person to steal the phone? I didn’t want to risk it. So I took our horror DVD, thus ending the game.

I was SO excited to have the phone handset, and it actually works really well. YES!!!! Coincidentally, we were just talking about the phone handset with another co-worker today during lunch during yet another discussion about whether or not to cancel the landline. So it was hilarious that the phone handset showed up in the white elephant gift exchange.

On the way home, I realized that during my chance to steal, I should have “stolen” the phone handset from Matt (which would mean that item had been stolen three times, thus closing the door for any future steals), leaving HIM open to steal back the Pez dispensers! ARGH. I should have thought it through more. That way, we’d both leave the party with things we really wanted. Oh well.

I really liked the horse purse that I got from Abby at a white elephant gift exchange a few years ago, but the phone handset tops everything! Hooray!

On Friday, there had been rumors of snow for the weekend. My reaction: “SNOW!!!!” Matt’s reaction: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

At 6:45 a.m., Saturday, I woke up to find my cold had worsened, and turned on the light to get medicine. Matt woke up and offered to get the medicine for me. When he came back, he said, “It snowed last night.” “Yeah, right,” I responded. “You’re just trying to trick me.” But when he went to the bathroom, where he couldn’t see me, I peeked out the window–it HAD snowed!! Not enough to cover everything, but there was a thin layer.

I was incredibly excited, but I was feeling more miserable than I had over the past few days. I was so frustrated with my headache, the congestion, the sore throat, that I started complaining. I whined about how I had wanted to play in the snow, plant flower bulbs, and get a Christmas tree–but now I wouldn’t be able to do anything because I was sick. But as I said all that, I realized, if this is the worst of my problems, I am one spoiled brat. I have NOTHING to complain about. If I can’t walk out in the snow, big deal. There will be other days. If I can’t plant my bulbs, they could probably last another week outside of the ground. I really had no reason to be whiny and irritated. There are plenty other people out there whose problems are a thousand times greater than mine, and I should snap out of my self-pity.

By 10 a.m., the sun had come out, the sky was blue, and all the snow had melted. I actually was feeling better, and I promised Matt I’d stay in bed all morning if he promised to take me out to get a Christmas tree. I told him we should go earlier than later, because even more snow was expected to hit. “We’re not going to get more snow,” Matt said. “Look how blue the sky is!”

So we went out around noon to run some errands (including getting a Christmas tree!), and sure enough, when we came out of the first store, flecks of snow were falling. It was still light enough not to stick on the ground, or to appear like snowflakes on the windshield. By the time we were at our last stop, the ground and cars in the parking lot had a layer of snow.

When we moved here, people kept telling us that it rarely snowed in the city–and, if it did, the snow never stuck. Well, we’ve been here only two years now, but each fall/winter, it has snowed.

Unfortunately, as I type this up, the rain is falling and melting away the snow. *sigh* But I’m crossing my fingers for a few more snow days this winter…

Here’s a glimpse of what our world looked like yesterday: