Using a very nonscientific, random method, my next interviewee happens to be my father. Hooray! He is someone I greatly admire and love for a number of reasons (and not just because he’s flown out to Seattle twice in the past two years to help us with the yard).

Growing up, I remember a strict, but humorous father who was hard-working and always sought to instill good values in us. He also always looked for opportunities to teach us new things. I recall sitting with him in Mervyn’s while my mom shopped, and my dad used the tiles on the floor to teach me about fractions. When I was in elementary school, he took a sculpting class and turned the garage into a mini studio. While he worked on his homework projects, I worked alongside him, creating my own child-like works of art. He taught me about firing, and about scoring clay to cement two pieces together. In high school, he edited my reports with a red pen and tried to explain math to a very frustrated teenager.

Some of my favorite memories of my dad…every morning as he walked out the door to catch the bus to work, he’d yell goodbye to me. I’d jump out of bed and run to the window facing the street and wave until I could no longer see him. In college, I was a student assistant for the State Dept. of Education–where my dad had been a graphic artist for 20+ years–and often visited his cube and rode home on the bus with him. More recently, he drove with me up to Seattle from California, following Matt and his mom in the U-Haul, and helped us settle into our apartment.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have the father that I have. I am very proud to be his daughter, and it is a great honor for me to give you all a glimpse of who he is.

1. One goal you’re striving for…live full, live well, and live long.

2. What is your favorite part of being retired? I feel so fortunate to have the option to retire at my age to do something that I love and different-working at the nursery, and the opportunity to give back to the community-volunteering at the museum and the school.

3. If you could open a store, what would you sell? If I don’t have a make a profit, I would open a store that offers plants, art, books, drinks, travel and outdoor stuff/information, and a space for people to share these interests or just come in and relax.

4. What is one of your most memorable experiences as a docent? The best part of being a docent is learning as I share, and sharing as I learn. The most rewarding part is when first-time visitors, adults or students, tell me that they have a great museum experience. The most confidence-boosting experience is when the museum docents told me that they found my Asian art collection presentation to be the best training they had received.

5. What is one main lesson you’ve learned from being a parent? To grow with you girls through stages of life.

6. What is one of the greatest challenges of being a parent? Know when to give advice, and when to hold back. All parents will agree with me that once a parent, always a parent, regardless of the ages of the children. So an unsolicited advice to all children, myself included: just smile and say OK when your parents give you advice.

7. Do you see yourself in your daughters, and if so, how? (And don’t just say your bad eyesight, loud farts, and stinky feet!) All the good qualities, just kidding. I see love for learning, passion for life, adventurous, mischievous, compassion, sensitive, artistic, endurance, sentimental, loyal, optimistic, self-reliance, sense of humor, not to take life and myself too serious, speak out on injustice, impatient, critical, multi-tasking…I let you and Na decide which traits to claim.

8. You’re stranded on an island and you have two books, two albums and two movies with you. Which ones would they be? Books: The Complete Works of Shakespeare–I was still learning English in my high school years, so I did not have the chance to truly appreciate Shakespeare’s genius. Second will be a blank book so I can write and draw my own book while on the island.

Movies: Seven Samurai–the classic Japanese movie that inspired the western Magnificent Seven. Second: A collection of Charlie Chaplain’s silent movies.

Albums:  Beethoven’s symphonies

9. Name a book or movie character that you most identify with and why? The shepherd boy in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. It’s about following your dreams, and the whole universe will conspire together to help you to fulfill the dreams.

10. When you first moved here from Hong Kong, what was the greatest challenge that you experienced? Definitely learning English. I was 13 years old, a very tough age. When I realized the American-born Chinese kids were not going to help me as requested by the teachers, I decided to learn on my own by looking up every other words in the dictionary. This experience motivated me later in life to be involved in teaching English to new immigrants, and working with foreign students.

11. What was your first impression of America? My very first “America experience” was on the deck of the ship going under the Golden Gate Bridge at 5AM. Everybody on deck was silent. Being a sensitive kid at 13, I was moved to tears, and I can still remember the sense of excitement, and fear of the unknown. My first impression of Sacramento is “Hey, this is like a rural village compared to Hong Kong.”

12. Your favorite hike is…There is no one favorite hike: Favorite hike with mom: Steep Ravine on Mt. Tam–a piece of heaven just minutes from San Francisco.  Favorite hike in Yosemite: Half Dome.  Physical/cultural/spiritual combo favorite: Everest Base Camp trek.

13. If you could go back in time and visit yourself in a previous time, when would that be, and what would you tell yourself? Back to you girls’ teenage years and tell myself that they will turn out OK.

14. The thought that usually pops in your head when you first wake up is…What day of the week is today?

(Eating guinea pig in Peru, 2008)

It’s easy for me to remember to be thankful for the big things in life: a God who loves me more than I could ever love Him; families that, despite being quite a few miles away, still feel close; a job I love (for the most part) and that doesn’t feel like work; a roof over my head and a garden to nurture; admirable friends I’ve met only in the past two years, plus friendships I’ve carried with me over the past 30 years; and good health (despite a few stomach quirks).

But on this Thanksgiving day, as I sat in the warmth of our front window, I started thinking about the little things that I tend to overlook, despite my gratefulness for them. Here are just a few:

1. The tiny birds that hop around my front garden, flitting from one plant to each other, trying to get seeds for food.

2. Witnessing a glorious pink and purple sunset, with Mt. Rainier making a complete appearance. (In addition to that, I’m thankful for the dry and sunny weather we’ve been getting, although I like rain and storms, too.)

3. Music that surprises me on pandora.com.

4. Inside jokes and camaraderie among classmates in capoeira.

5. The beauty and unique patterns and colors of leaves.

6. Finding worms in the soil, and finding them whole (which means I haven’t accidentally severed them while digging holes).

7. Books.

8. Dance movies (I just saw “Take the Lead” again last night–and Matt actually enjoyed it).

9. New ideas and inspiration.

10. Watching gas prices fall below $2.

11. (Added 12/2) Thankful for neighbors who run a bakery out of their house, and are generous enough to give me a bag of brown sugar when I realized my supply was low and didn’t want to drive to the store in the middle of baking a cake!

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This appeared in my e-mail inbox this morning and gave me a good laugh. Matt said I looked like I was 10 years, but, sadly, I think I was 16. Check out my troll pin!

Happy Friday, everyone!

This has got to be the Coincidence of the Year.

I was scheduled to give one of my speech projects for Toastmasters today. The project required me to take someone else’s work and read, with the goal of practicing oral interpretation. I didn’t want anything too serious (since the time constraints were 12-15 minutes, I didn’t want the content to be too heavy for the audience). I also didn’t want to read an excerpt of a piece (ahem, Harry Potter) because it would require trying to fill the audience in on what I was NOT reading to them.

So I went through the “classic literature” section of my bookshelf and pulled out my collection of stories from Edgar Allen Poe, and settled on “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I read through it once and knew immediately that this was the one.

Right before today’s Toastmaster meeting, I ran into the other woman who was also scheduled to give a speech. She had initially scheduled to do a speech project on selling a product, but switched at the last minute—to the same speech project I was on. Not so much of a coincidence really. Then she asked me what story I was reading. I told her. Her eyes widened, and she pulled out some papers from her bag—across the top read the title “The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.”

Of all the stories in the whole world, we chose the same story–for the same project–on the same day.

I was afraid the audience would be bored, but our two interpretations were quite different. The other woman took the “I’m crazy, evil and dramatic” approach, while I took the “I’m perfectly sane, but am a little deranged” perspective. One audience member said that the other woman would be great as the voice of an animated character, while I would be perfect for an onstage dramatic reading, if that helps you better imagine our differences. Even though I had read the story many times, I was still captivated by the story and her presentation. That’s a sign of great presentation skills–and great writing. Thanks, Poe!

And that ends my report on the Coincidence of the Year.

One of the mentors at Youth in Focus came into the office wearing a red and gold knit scarf.

Me: Gryffindor colors!

Him: I was watching one of the Harry Potter movies and thought those were cool colors, so I knit this scarf. But I didn’t think anyone would make that connection.

Me: Well, I’m a bit obsessed. I have a Slytherin one.

And that opened the door for him, me, and one of the students to talk about the upcoming HP movies and the books. The student said something about how sad it will be in the movie when it gets to the part where one of the Weasley twins, well…when something happens to one of them. The other mentor said, “What??” and looked really confused. He then told us he was only up to book 5, so we shut up. I suspect he will shed some tears soon.

Ah, but with HP sort of being “out” now with all the hype over the Twilight series, it was really nice to have that brief discussion. :)

Hope?

Yes (we can)!

The mission of Youth in Focus is to empower urban teens, through photography, to experience their world in new ways and make positive changes in their lives. Youth in Focus gives local youth the opportunity to express themselves visually in a supportive environment. Classes with Youth in Focus ignite the imagination and provide valuable life and work skills.

I feel a little weird about going through my address book and choosing who to ask for support, so instead, I’m posting it here and seeing what happens. If anything, I’m getting the word out!

This is my second quarter being a mentor for Youth in Focus, an organization that offers free photography classes to youth in the Rainier Valley, near where I live. Students learn about digital photography, black & white film photography, Photoshop, and using a darkroom. More advanced students get the opportunity to be hired out to photograph events for clients.

I’m probably the only mentor without any formal training in photography, but as a mentor, I hang out with the students and basically just “be there” for them. The first quarter I did this, I was assigned to a specific student. I really enjoyed that because we got to go on a photo shoot together, and hang out during class. But this quarter, one or two mentors are assigned to an entire class, which is less of my thing than the 1:1 relationship. I’m leaning toward this being my last quarter with YIF since I prefer the 1:1 relationship, and am not a big fan of the social events. But I am wholeheartedly supportive of YIF’s mission, which is why I’m trying to raise money for the upcoming…

THAT ’70s BOWL-A-THON!

On Nov. 22, mentors, students, and YIF staff will be bowling to raise $10,000 for the organization. I’m on a team with the other mentor, teacher, and students of the Advanced B&W Class–and, yes, the event title means we have to dress up in 1970s attire.

What I’m asking from you is your financial support. You can donate a flat fee or donate a certain amount per pin. (Knowing my poor bowling skills, the flat fee probably will be more beneficial for YIF.) Unfortunately, I don’t have an electronic payment system set up, so if you would like to support the mission of YIF, you’d have to send me a check (written out to Youth in Focus). I’m feeling generous so I’ll even send you back a stamp if you want to cover your postage costs. ;) Update: You can also pay online by going to youthinfocus.org, and clicking on the blue Donate Now button. You can make a gift and even mention that you are designating your donation in support of your favorite mentor [me!] in the bowl-a-thon.

So please check out YIF’s website (www.youthinfocus.org), and if you also are gung-ho about what the organization is doing (meaning, you want to donate money to the bowl-a-thon), let me know! Thanks!