The beauty in others

I decided on what I'm giving up for Lent while browsing for my own quote compilation. Or I should say, what I want to gain, not give up. The one with the red circle mark. The sign of a beautiful person is that they always see beauty in others. If that's the definition of being beautiful, then I am ugly. I always struggle to find that beauty in others. It is damn hard. 

Right now, my mindset is on the top left quote. I used to walk into a room full of people and wonder if they liked me...Now I look around and wonder if I like them. I only see what I don't like in people, what drives me crazy. So here I am, admitting that I am ugly, that I need to improve the way I live this life. Especially now that someone so pure and innocent depends on me and will one day look up to me for guidance.

Have a blessed season of Lent!

On His Profile Through My Eyes

One Saturday evening, a lady came to us and said, "You two make a cute couple." I laughed and said thank you, while he kept his cool and gave a cute crooked smile. Among many other things, his smile is one thing that will make my heart melt every time I see or think about. 

Since I don't want to take anything for granted, including that smile, I am writing a few things down about him 

♥ When he eats ice cream, he always wants a glass of milk to go with it. (I thought it's dairy overload)

♥ Every time we shake hands during Sign of Peace, he will try to tickle my palm with his index finger.
Every. Single. Time.

♥ He'll call me, Babydoll!! to let me know he's home after work everyday.

♥ Or just when he calls me Babydoll

♥ When he eats bigger portion of dinner, then I know that he likes the food I make (my Shepherd Pie does this)

♥ If we watch something really weird on TV, I'll look at him and he'll look at me with our eyebrows raised.
No words needed.

♥ When he can't ever seem to find his tools, I'll find it for him and ask rhetorically, What would you do without me.. He'll say, I don't know, baby...I don't know..

♥ He's into some TV shows that I think are crappy and strongly feels that they are good.

♥ Sometimes he'll say to Lucky (our yellow lab), Yeah, mommy loves you today. Well, it's actually annoying at the moment. What does he mean by today? I love her every day!

♥ When he snores at night.

♥ Okay, maybe scratch that last one.

♥ Just for being a really good husband. 

♥ But hey, ask me again 25 years from now, right?! ;)

Love,

Throwback Thursday: Eight Years Later

Eight years later in 2013...Just me trying to be cuddly with Lucky who's not having it. 

Let's rewind.

"Pick you up at Memorial Union." - A. A. G.

I am skipping my story how I got here and the trips we took to Niagara Falls and Miami. I am leaving those to my memoir ;)

MY mother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, and I flew to Chicago from JFK and took the Val Galder bus to Memorial Union, Madison where my brother was supposed to pick us up. We arrived in Madison on August 15th, 2005. Moving day. Bad bad choice. My brother's uhaul had broke down earlier which delayed him a little bit.

 Fast forward later that day

We got to the 2-bedroom apartment I'd be sharing with him. He then went to return the uhaul truck with my uncle. My mom and my aunt started organizing stuffs and then about 5 pm they asked me to go buy food at this Korean place. By this time, my mom had been to Madison several times. But, noooo, they wanted me, the girl who just got here, didn't know anybody or anything, and who just figured out the money bills to go by HERSELF? Yes, just because I spoke English. Important note: At that time, I barely spoke English. Not to mention knowing the culture.

Off I went to point A to point B as shown in figure below. They gave direction: "Just walk straight until you find it. Here's what you need to order." It's 2 blocks away. Easy peasy. 

My Checklists:

1. Arrive safely at the restaurant ü

2. Order Beef Bokum ü

3. Pay correctly ü

4. Have a conversation with a Korean for the first time ü

5. Don't mess up no. 4 û

6. Get home quickly û

When I did no. 4. Basically it was me answering Yes/No to whatever the waiter asked. He was interested in asking me question because obviously I looked new in town. 

Well, he asked me if I was new, in which I said Yes. 

He asked if I was Korean, I said No. 

He asked me where I was from. "Indonesia." 

He asked me if I was studying in college, in which I said Yes. 

Now, he should have stopped. But he then asked me again if I was an undergraduate or a graduate student (I think, I was not sure what he asked). In which, I said, "Graduate." Too funny. Remember the Important note above?

I blamed the universe for not giving me the opportunities to dive into the American culture beforehand. At that time, I still didn't know I made a mistake by saying that. Getting to point no 6, on the way back I kept thinking if I answered something wrong. I kept on walking and for sure I missed the apartment building. I kept walking for 4 or 5 more blocks until I thought, "Hm...It was not that far...Where am I??!!" I walked my way back and guessed the building since there was this one with an open door.

Now.....The thing is.....I didn't bring any keys with me......Thankfully, it was moving day, where people tend to prop the main entrance door open to move stuffs easier. Otherwise...............I don't know. Sitting outside and crying? I didn't even know the door was locked automatically. 

Nevertheless, my brother laughed so hard when I told him about my "graduate" answer. It was his joke for quite some times.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures in 2005. I used Friendster instead of Facebook. So all pictures are gone now. Even the one from high school. This 2005 picture was taken in September. We were about to have a surprise birthday at Union South.

Another milestone in Madison was my 21st birthday. The picture was taken at Capitol Centre Market. My first legal alcohol. Not happy about winter birthday though.

Cheers to more and more exciting stories,

If I have a twitter..

Note: I think it's hard to find a title that always start with 'on'. All these title posts, either they're right on or they're a bit weird. So I may have let that go...

I have a twitter account that I don't use. I don't believe in that anymore. But, I have some things in my mind that I need to say:

It is hard to fall asleep when your husband is snoring, but it's even harder to do when your dog's snoring at the same time.

I always feel bad when I end up buying something that I have previously bought for someone as a gift  just because I like it a lot.

Anyway, today is Fridee. Just to give an update, we have found our flooring for the house. We love it so much. 

1. Natural Hickory

We are using hardwood floors for the bedrooms and living rooms (downstairs and upstairs). Both of us do not like oak feel. The grain. Just a preference, not judging. But surprisingly, we both like the natural character hickory. We like the different tone color.

2. Daltile - San Michele and Heathland

We will have 12"x24" tiles throughout most of the first floor and bathroom. I love the rectangular tiles and the vein cut and that travertine feel. Love it! We'll also staggered them when they're laid out. We'll have mosaic tiles (2"x2") Heathland - Sunrise for the shower floor and a 9"x12" wall tile Heathland - White Rock with one accent wall Heathland - Sage in the master bath :)

Note: Nobody likes my Hello Kitty tiles! If I have a baby girl, I'm going to tell her to ask daddy to install Hello Kitty tiles in her bathroom :p Who could resist a little girl asking for a Hello Kitty tile?? 

Next step is to get cabinets for the bathroom as we need running water before we're moving back in :)

Originally, we were going with quartz. And I love this Bianco River for the clean bathroom feel and Chrome for the more upbeat bar feel. But, you know the price is not as friendly esp. the one that I picked out :( So we're looking at granite remnants where we know we can get a better deal. 

We'll see. Happy Fridee, though!

On winning that Olympic medal

Thus far, Indonesia has won 1 silver and 1 bronze in London 2012. The silver medal is contributed by Triyatno in Men’s 69kg Weightlifting. The bronze is from Eko Yuli Irawan in Men’s 62kg Weightlifting. I’m proud. These events may not gain too much attention (if any), but I remember Weightlifting always contributes something to Indonesia’s medal counts in Olympics. Congratulations again J

Triyatno's story (L) on The Jakarta Post
Eko Yuli Irawan's story (R) on The Jakarta Post

Now, the real disappointment for me must come from Badminton. This has been the sport other than football (soccer) that my family follows religiously (I guess my dad also likes Boxing on a late Sunday morning). My dad, brother, uncles, and cousins used to play for hours on Sundays (or table tennis which is very Asian I realize). It was a good time.

Badminton was first introduced as an official Olympic sport in 1992. That year, Indonesia won Gold and Bronze medals in Men’s Singles (Alan Budikusuma), Gold in Women’s Singles (Susi Susanti), and Silver in Men’s Doubles (Eddy Hartono and Rudy Gunawan). The Olympics after that (1996 – 2008), we won 4 Gold, 4 Silver, and 4 Bronze Medals. I think it’s pretty awesome. But I know our achievement has been slowly declining. (Total medal count is 30 for China and 18 for Indonesia)

I’m also aware that the competition is FIERCE. Players from China (i.e. Lin Dan) and Malaysia (i.e. Chong Wei Lee) have been really great (They won Gold and Silver in Men’s Singles – Beijing ‘08). In London 2012, they beat Taufik Hidayat (Gold – Athens ’04) and Simon Santoso, respectively.  Prior to their matches, my dad and I already felt that they are going to be tough matches and we would most likely lose. I think it’s great to be the other position, to be feared or to be the favorite. But, time after time after time in any competitions, there have been moments where the least favorite one, the “weaker” one, comes through and becomes the champion. It’s not this year for Indonesia.

I feel that we don’t have that regeneration where talented young men and women should be properly trained. Well, I’m not even sure how they train for tournament nowadays. I won’t say much, especially with the disqualification of our Women’s Doubles (here from NPR). It’s embarrassing, but then again I have never represented Indonesia in the Olympics, so no place to judge. There is still one more game though, Mixed Doubles, for Bronze. We just have to wait and see.

Taufik Hidayat (L) and Simon Santoso (R)
London 2012 - Badminton

I don't want to look at things pessimistically (one thing from the book that I'm currently reading: Abundace - The Future is Better Than You Think, but it's for another post) and I still do believe that we have the potential and the urge to be #1 again (if we ever did?). So let’s go! Let’s get better!

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” - Samuel Beckett

On our photobooth story

on my TG family

Dear TG,

I'm sure this letter will find each one of you well. A lot has happened to us since our high school graduation in 2005.

Honestly, I may not remember much of our times together, but I do have a warm feeling thinking about us altogether. Do you remember our 10-cm-below-the-knee-tablecloth skirt? Someone mentioned to me one time that the skirt was supposedly able to tell a baby bump, just in case on of the girls got knocked up!

I remember our regular hangout time and place at school: during the first 15 min break at the elementary auditorium.

We would always meet up at a mall, wander aimlessly until we're tired, and go take picture at a photobooth.

Do you remember our chemistry class project in 10th grade, where we got together for the first time? I remember being some sort of fairy using that plastic magic wand. What were you at that time? Who was the carbon dioxide? Who was the bajaj driver?

I remember the first time we started our "family lineage." I was very chatty and loud, you said (I was not the only one, clearly) and that's why I got to be the grandmother (grand-mère in French as JQ was obsessed with Princess Diaries, I believe? and hence the nickname mère). It was ironic, becase I'm the youngest in the group. Not only that, I got to have four (yes! Four!) "husbands"; Jerry Yan, Tetsu, Raul Gonzales, and Bae Yong Joon. Do you still remember who were you? whose child? whose grandchild?
This sounds sooo silly today, but hey, aren't we the silly group?

Anybody remember going to Vita's house to surprise her on her birthday? We went to eat Pizza Hut afterwards.

I remember not being to go every time you guys went out of town, Bandung or Puncak. Remember, my overprotective parents? ;p But I did attend that one swimming time at Amanda's usual place. I feel like Amanda was the one who always going somewhere, Mangga Dua, Pasar Baru and always be dressing up so girly. Oh, remember, Amanda's mom and my mom grew up in the same state! Hahaha. Her brother was pretty famous too among us.

Then I remember our TGF book. So sad that a few of the books got lost in circulation :(

Do you remember that A LOT of teachers thought Angie and Vita were twins? That was funny! Is Angie still singing? Other than Angie, who can sing in the group? Definitely not me.

Vita and I would call each other at night. It raised my mom's eyebrows, "Don't you think it's enough time to chat at school? What else could you two possibly talk about?" Oh mom. I mean, we'd discuss schoolwork too, you know with some boy talks in between. I'd share everything with her! I'm glad I got to see her (the only TG I saw) the last time I went home. She must be busy preparing for her wedding!

What can I say about Tiffany. Another TG who can not stop talking. The one person with whom I shared the same class three years straight. I remember working on our biology group presentation. I mean, she put the best freaking animation. Well, I'm sure I helped too. Our powerpoint compared to any groups was a KILLER. It was pretty narcissistic too. Our group pictures were like on every slide! Good job, though! It's impressive.

Remember the conversation about Sunny wanting to be a nun? But then she went to medical school instead, insisting that she still could help others by doing so. What a saint.

Angguni. Remember our live-in? I remember our bathroom, separated from the house itself. Remember that one dog who's about to chase us and you said, calmly, "Don't be afraid. Just walk normally, he can smell your fears you know." Then, we planted corns :)

Talking about live-in. I remember one night the students were about to gather for something (maybe a mass?) and Tiffany brought along her women's napkin and suddenly threw it out into some sort of field. That made JQ upset. JQ insisted she find the darn thing. Haha.

Tiara always had the latest cellphone. Remember, she had that one Nokia phone with a shape of a leaf? Haha. Pretty sweet. Even look at her glasses. It's blue! I'm sure she's the only one who can pull it off with her cuteness. And this year, she's getting married too. Sad I can't come (yes, I'm sure I'm invited).

When we got separated into science, social science, and linguistic, it was pretty hard. We didn't share the same stories anymore. But we took Chinese. I think it was 8 of us. I don't remember who took it, but it was hard. I did homework last minute. Every single time. For me, it was just a time to get together again. I took Fashion Design too. It's horrible, I just did not want to spend time cutting magazines for inspirations. By that time, I should have known being creative is not in my vein, but I loved me some physics or maths (though the math teacher was beyond ridiculous). Anyway, art is subjective :p

I liked the time when we're just copying down notes from the blackboard. We'd pretend (or maybe not) we couldn't see from the back so that we would sit with one of us seated in the front that week. To chat of course. Regulated seating sucked.

Almost everyday, my goal was just to make Sunny or Clara laughed. I felt really good if those two laughed when I started telling jokes or just being funny. (This confirms the fact in previous post that I should be a comedian) Anyway though, Clara would laugh at anything and wouldn't stop laughing. I had to re-think, "Was it really that funny?" and Sunny sometimes got irritated by me.

I'm sure we all remember Tiffany and her highschool sweetheart. If teachers knew about your love life, then it's a BIG deal. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding with him :)

I remember that story when Tiffany and Clara were on a bus, met by an exhibitionist. Ugh! It's a very different story, but it's still funny!

JQ, we took Japanese together. Well, you did. By the end of this post, I feel that I was practically fooling around in high school. I mean, yeah I had the lesson, but we would just play with Agatha's little brother. I don't remember any Japanese, except for Hajimemashite or Doumo Arigatou. Didn't we have that one Japanese class drama performance? Since I was so behind (well, I started attending in the middle of the session), I did not have any parts. Lame.

JQ, we also took batik together. We went beyond creative with our prints and tie-dyes. Now, I love this extra-curricular of mine! Go batik!

Oh! Remember I cried in 10th grade because my bean sprout did not sprout? HAHAHA. I felt like I put so much time into it and I did not want to disappoint my dad who helped or failed on the first high school biology project. I also cried when I got 1.0/10.0 for accounting class? It wasn't fair. The girls from St. Mary middle school had accounting class before! I'm sure I missed a lot of stories among us, between you and me or between you and another TG. But, if you read this, please write one or two kind memories that you remember. Anything with TG is a good story! :)

The Gillass Family

Front row (L-R): Tiara Kartika (Tolly), Anastasia Adeline (Mere), Maria Angela (cuteh/cutie), Wuri (Orrie), Sunny Orlena (does she have a nickname???)
Middle Row (L-R): Maria Jaclyn (JQ), Veronica Amanda (Mandako), Yoselda Malona (Yos), Vita Aprilia (Shippou)
End Row (L-R): Giasinta Angguni (Gone), Clara Vania (Chubby), Benedicta Tiffany (Popoy)

Love,
Mere

On being a mrs

On getting through the heat wave

Last week was painful. You would think growing up in a place close to the equator (air pollution should be added in the equation as well), I would manage not to complain during the heat wave in Madison, WI (read here). Well, I did not complain (too much), but I was close to pull out my hair. Our AC was (is) not working. We were forced to use the old-fashioned fan. Thankfully, we were working during the day (in a waste-of-energy-by-cranking-up-the-AC- type of environment), so the only problem was between 6pm - 7am.

We also tried the cheap solution, such as putting a frozen water (in a container) in front of the fan, but it did not work. It felt OK at night where we're sleeping as the fan was blowing exactly in the direction when we're sleeping. But, the main victim was not us (nor our dying brown grass), but it was Lucky, the dog. She's not so lucky after all. Can you imagine wearing a jacket (analogy for her fur) and not being able to cool off for a week?? I mean, the house was about at least 86 degree day and night. Poor girl.

That's why we decided on Thursday (second to lat of the heat wave week, smart owners) that we should get her a kiddie pool (Menards for $16). We filled it up, we took her in, and voila! we got a smile from her. She did not like to sit down though. I think she does not know what to do. It's not a real pool where it's deeper and she can actually swim in it. She does not like to sit or lay down either (you know, she can submerse her body then). I was sad looking at her not enjoying the true purpose of the kiddie pool. Eventually, she found something that kept her busy.

The bottom of the kiddie pool is a pattern of seahorse, octopus, and treasure chest. In bright colors. What would you think they are if you're a dog? That's right.
Daddy and mommy got me a bunch of TOYS! 
Let me grab one of these (as she tried to grab them with front paws)
Why can't I grab it? 
So then she tried again.
and again.
and again.
Basically, she kept making that scratching (whatever it is) movement everywhere.
Thankfully no holes (yet). But, she looked so cute and she seemed to enjoy herself. That made us a proud parents owners. I think it's over now. I think the weather is going back to be normal. But we still need some rain!

Stay hydrated.

How do you get this damn thing? (You can see the dying brown grass at the back)

On this song that's stuck in my head

Wow! I just have to write this. Right after finishing my last entry, I remember that I want to listen to Maroon 5's new single. Payphone. 

I am a follower of The Voice. Not as much as I did on the first season. So, I missed the first half of Maroon 5's performance on TV. But, I remember liking the end of the song.

So, here I am 10 minutes later, keep repeating the song over and over again. It feels good t listen to it, the melody just hits me. The last time I remember really liking a song the first I heard it was R. Kelly - The World's Greatest in middle school. Well, I didn't like this as much as R.Kelly's song first time (I was probably little and The World's Greatest was just so beautiful for me). But, I like it a lot that I am really trying to memorize the lyrics so I can sing along.

For someone who's getting married soon, the lyric itself does not apply to me. But hey! I can relate to that. I was in "love," but it turned out  was not love after all. And I hope that happy ever after exists, though! :)

Help me! Who's with me on this one?

On knowing that he's the one

This is not meant to be an advice on knowing how you know that your significant other is the one. But for sure, I know mine is. This is how: (Well, this is one of the infinite reasons why I know he's the one)

I had this dream that I was married with my ex boyfriend (s) (It may be different one for every different dream). And I was crying..in my dream... I remembered that I was saying to myself, "What have you done? How did you get into this marriage? I'm stuck! I can't get out!" But then I woke up from it and realized it was a dream. I can't tell you how relieved I felt. So relieved...And how happy I was when I put my head on J's chest and put my arm around him. 


That's how.

On having a good memory

I don't recall when exactly I started to realize this fact. Growing up, I did not see anything different. At school, I disliked memorizing lines and lines of definition, but I liked reading and memorizing important dates. It sounds silly, I know. In sixth grade,I got a 9.5 out of 10 for my religion class (Although I actually aced every quiz or exam there was, but "only God is perfect 10.") But that was it.

It wasn't until I was in college and meet more people. I emphasize the verb meet because really, they were not in my group of friends, nor were they in the same class. I just met them randomly, a  friend of A, or B, ... or Z whom I bumped into on the street and just started chatting. Or this person that my friend kept telling me in his/ her stories from his/ her class or something like that. The funny thing is that I will always remember those things. I will remember the people and what they said, especially if something "big" happens. I still remember the story about this guy that my friend told me last year and scared her when I recalled that story this year. It's also not always about people, it can be about the setting of a place or what happened along the way.

I don't know about other people's memories. I know that a lot of people have brought it up to me,"How do you know this?" which then I replied, "I was there with you...?" I mean, I like it, but it can make people feel weird sometimes. Another downside is that people tend to tell you the same stories. They don't remember that they've told you this story, so they'd tell you again with the same tone and with almost the same complaints/happiness. Definitely though, I don't need to hear someone bragging about how good she/he was in such and such, with examples of when this and that happened...twice...

My really good friend sent me this link. She said, "This is my advice for you."

Oh! Revenge is on tonight!

On what I'm giving up

This may be a very late post indeed. But, for Lent, I am giving up a few things:
1. Facebook
2. Coke
3. Style Me Pretty

I think I understand the idea of Lent to give up something that we really love to do and instead we can use that time to get closer to God or just to pray for the strength to not be tempted and thus get the relationship closer together. Well, I can tell you that I've been bad and away a bit from God. But, as my root is pretty deep down, I can't just ignore and choose not to do Lent (I give up meat on Friday). I'm not a Facebook fan, I don't post or check my FB like crazy, although I go to Style Me Pretty like crazy (every minute probably). It's just nice to actually then use that time to do something more useful. Or at least to create a new habit which I don't have to depend on them everytime. It's been good so far.

I also finished my book by Rosamond Bernier. I am just currently reading weightless-free-romantic story that I won't even bother to share. I am looking for the next book, though.

On our little concert adventure

That's right. I may sound old now, but who cares. We are going to watch Elton John's concert. He is coming to Madison on March 22nd, 2012. I am sooo excited.

I know Elton John since I was growing up (he doesn't know me, though). My mother is a big fan. Although his music might not be my #1 back in the days (I grew up in the 90s and high school time was early 2000, it was just the mix of pop boybands or early hip-hop), I have always liked him (I have always loved The Beatles, no doubt). My friends from high school would call me weirdo. I mean, in Indonesia, high school time, nobody was a fan of The Beatles or Bee Gees. I'm not trying to judge, some of them might have as well.

So then, fast forward to junior and senior year of college, I was already living in Madison. Different setting, different environment. I got to know and listen to more and more classic rock or just oldies easy listening. My Indonesian friends still judged me (This was the time of hip-hop, etc etc, I still feel it is nowadays). But not my American friends. They appreciated it as well.

Now, I am a fan of Elton John, The Beatles, and every legendary classic rock  musical figures there are. Well, I am still a fan of Third Eye Blind and Blink-182. I have watched 3eb and B-182 in their concerts (I've seen 3eb 3x), but never went to classic rock/pop concert (Wait! I went to see Tom Petty in Summerfest!). So, I was very excited when I heard on the radio that he was coming and have then declared that no matter what, I had to go and see him.

Tickets were on sale last Friday at 10 am. I went to Ticketmaster at 1pm and the cheapest price that I could get was $40, but the seat was the obstructed views. Darn it! I should have known that it would take more effort. So I went to StubHub. Of course, more expensive, but can't do anything else. I was too lazy to look around and the urge was sooo bad. The second and first level was just not affordable anywhere. Eventually, I bought these 2 tickets for section 317 (aligned with the center of the stage, but of course far away). I was a happy puppy :)

Woo Hoo!
Many many kisses,

On actually growing up

The actual real grown-up world turns out to be full of happiness and also sadness. One day, you are incredibly happy,but the next day, you may as well be crying.

At least for me, I will not always get what I want. But again, maybe it's the best for me to get what I need.

But I know, everything will be fine at the end.

On having karma

Alrite! I'm Catholic, but I do believe in karma. At least, I believe the idea that if you do good thing, eventually good thing will happen to you and if you do bad, then bad thing will happen to you. You know, I want to believe that the good will win.

With that being sad, something happened tonight. Fiance and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Just a regular boneless wings night. But, I guess we're missing something, because it was packed! It was 6:14 pm when we got there and every table was full. The hostess gave us a pager. It was number 1. She said that it would take 20-25 minutes. So we waited.

About twelve minutes going into the waiting, the pager was vibrating. "Oh wow! That's not too bad" So then, we went to the hostess table and waited for her to come. There, we peeked at the waiting list table and found two names have not been stricken through above us. There was Chuck, next in line to the last one stricken through and there was someone else too. Both had 2 or 3 people in the group. So, I was a bit concerned. But, the lady came and we gave our pager to her (with #1 was clearly marked on it), struck through Chuck, and said, "Alright, Chuck, this way."

I could not stop laughing. And felt bad at the same time. I just could not believe that we got pass her and got a seat. So, right away, I thought, "I'll get the bad karma. I don't know what and when, but it was wrong." I mean, it was funny. I tried to look around to find a man who will fit into the name Chuck, but could not find one. I did not see angry faces. There was this one man who would best fit to "Chuck" image, but he was with 2 other people. I remember clearly when I peeked at the wait list, it was only for 2 people. So then, could not stand the bad feeling, I pretended to go the the bathroom and peeked again at the wait list. The name below Chuck was already crossed too. The group right after us was already seated as well. But our names were still there. God! When I was back at the table, we decided that Chuck may get f*cked because of us.

But, I think we got the bad karma there. Our food order must have lost somewhere, we did not get our food until an hour later. But, we got $5 off because of waiting too long. Not so sure about that ;)

Hugs!

On Chinese (Lunar) New Year

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year. It's the Dragon Year. My year ;)
I did not get to celebrate it with my beloved family and it just did not feel the same. We had no red color decorations hung anywhere in the house or anywhere I went. There was no sweet snacks to make your year full of sweetness nor was there the red envelope with money in it ;)

This year, to make it worse, my mom told us to wear certain color depending on your zodiac year so that this year will be more prosperous yesterday. I got to wear a green color top. It's not Red. It's not Chinese New Year :'(

But, I got to spend an hour skyping with my parents and John got to say 'Gong Xi Fat Cai' to them. It was lovely. It was the most important thing.

Happy Chinese New Year.

On starting to eat healthier

In the middle of planning a wedding, one of every bride's main goal is related to her weight. It's either to lose a few pounds, maintain the weight, or to add a few pounds (I would really like to meet one who actually is planning to do the last case). For me, I would like to maintain my weight, make chubby cheeks thinner (I think that this is an Asian thing. Eating more -> chubbier cheeks), and tone my derriere and arms. I have been diligently going to the gym for the last two weeks (don't judge me!) and try to eat more vegetables and fruits.

However, the more I try to eat properly, I eat junk foods more. The peak was this Saturday. John went to his office to work on his qualifying exam, and I left at the house with Lucky. I cleaned up the house, did some errands to the post office to send out the first half of Save-The-Date cards, went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries, and eventually just watched TV. While doing so, I started eating clementines (I luuurve them!) a lot of them, which I thought was a good and healthy habit. I then started cooking dinner, with intention to wow my future husband and make him happy after a long day working. Well, while waiting for my chili to cook, I inhaled   chips and salsa. This salsa is a Christmas present from John's dad. I continually, without any hesitation, enjoyed that chip and salsa, until I needed to actually stir the food.

Oh, you would think that's the only thing happened. No. I had a sudden very bad stomachache. Very bad. It hurt. a. lot. Probably the last time, a stomach pain was more than what I had last Saturday was when I had my typhoid fever in high school. I think it hurt from my stomach trying to digest everything. But then, I didn't stop there. When John's home, we ate the chili that I made. I mean, it was delicious, but I did not enjoy them. The next thing I did was laying down on the couch in fetal position. It hurt too much, could not even concentrate on watching the new TV drama, The Firm. I tried to just let it be, but eventually I gave up (well, it was like 5 TUMS in between) and I force myself to throw up. Multiple time. This may sound disgusting, but I could taste the chips and salsa (Euw!), not even the chili taste! Eventually, I just tried to sleep on the bed and my stomach kept growling (It was not gassy though, I did not put beans on my chili) and just uncomfortable.

When I woke up this morning, everything's back to  normal. I felt good and was ready to start the day! Anyway, if I can take a lesson form this; Eat less junk food! and please, go to the gym again already (I may count cooking, doing laundry, talking to Rebecca, washing dishes, playing with Lucky on the frozen lake as going to the gym).

The chili I made, according to "It's Chili by George" recipe, without the beans and with the jambalaya rice mix (yes, we mixed them together)