Good Weekend

Last weekend was an adventure. A fun adventure.


Friday:
It started off with Alfred and I leaving work and heading out to Rowland Heights (Taiwan/Korea) to meet up with Sky for dinner. [Sky was visiting from NY, she normally doesn't live out here].  We were stuck in traffic and traffic is lame.  But we actually made fairly decent time and got there at a reasonable hour.  Dinner that night was Taiwanese food.  I haven't had Taiwanese food in the longest time and I told myself I was going to eat a lot.


We ended up going to a place called Class 302.  Some type of classroom setting atmosphere and chalkboards and wooden tables resembling desks in class.  Check it.

We looked at the menu and I saw that it had Beef Noodle Soup.  Done.  I was planning on getting that.

After I finished, I was still hungry / just wanted to eat more, so I ordered one more bowl of noodle soup.  This time it was Pig's Feet Noodle Soup.  Ok ok, I know that sound gross, but trust me, it's delicious.

I finished both of the noodle soups and I was completely full and felt like a glutton.  Such a pig. [ha..ha..the irony of feeling like a pig after eating pig's feet].  Anyways, I don't think I had food that good in such a long time.  I'm so glad I like Taiwanese food. :)


To top it all off, we got this fancy dessert thing called shaved snow.  It isn't like the typical shaved ice, but it was a lot fluffier and it was incredible.  Mmm... delicious.  


Afterwards... I felt disgusting.  We decided the best thing to do was to talk around for a bit to help digest the food.  We walked around the plaza and then into the next adjacent plaza.  And there it was.  A sign for foot massages. "Foot massage for 15 dollars." I had never seen anything so cheap before and we inquired as to how long it was.  It was for an hour.  Sky called up her relatives and indicated that we might be out a little longer (due to getting the massages) and they gave her the ok so in we we went.  I had heard before in the news that there were a lot of sketchy massage places in these parts of town.  I prayed that it wouldn't be one of these.  Thankfully it wasn't.


All 3 of us sat down on these enormous chairs ready for our foot massages when one of the ladies convinced us that the 30 minute foot / 30 minute body was a much better deal because a full hour of feet might be somewhat boring.  We went with her recommendation.  Soon I found myself face down on my HUGE stomach filled with my HUGE dinner inside while this crazy Chinese lady was literally standing on my back and walking around.  The massage was wonderful.  My stomach, not so much.  But overall, the massage was an interesting experience.  It was pretty decent.  Very random because we weren't planning on getting one, but sometimes spontaneous events can be fun :)  The night was a success.


Saturday:
I woke up early in the morning to head over to Jack's because we were going snowboarding.  We arrived close to 6:00 am and were on our way!  There were 4 of us guys all together and we met 2 more friends at the McDonald's right outside of the exit to Mt. High.  

It was a fun day.  We hit the slopes pretty hard and were able to get a lot of good runs in.  We even attempted to go on larger jumps!  (Still not able to get as much air as we probably would've liked, but fun nonetheless).  I lost my goggles though :(. On our way back, we stopped by the Rowland Heights area for dinner.  It felt totally like deja-vu because I had just been there the previous night.  We were literally driving on the same streets as we had just one day ago.  We got some more delicious food and then made our way back to the South Bay, where we attempted to watch Hurt Locker but that plan failed because we couldn't find it anywhere.


Sunday:
Church for a good portion of the day filled with 2 sermons that were very encouraging to hear.  Hurt Locker eventually happened that night.  No Skype meeting happened on Sunday because I was on spring break!  w00t.  


Good weekend.  Now this week of spring break is over, and it's time to get back into the grind of school!  Only 1.5 months left until freedom.  Can't wait.

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

Tonight I was driving back home from a basketball game and I decide to tune in to 103.5 Love Songs on the KOST.  I think a girl named Lauren dedicated a song to...someone.  Maybe Steve?  I forget.  Anyways, the song that was played was Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.


The song reminded me of the movie Armageddon, which then reminded me of back when I was in junior high.  I was in Pittsburgh at this time.  We went on some type of winter retreat through AWANA to some .... giant cabin of some sort.  I don't exactly remember where it was or what we really did there, but I do remember watching Armageddon for the first time.  I think I remember really wanting to see it, but never got around to seeing it, so it was fairly convenient that we watched it during our retreat.  I think I also remember having some type of snowball fight during our time at the giant cabin.  The guys stayed downstairs in bunks and the girls stayed way upstairs on the second floor or something.  We probably talked about which girls we liked, if any, before we went to sleep.


I can't believe it's been.... almost 10 years since that time.  A lot of happened since then.  I moved away shortly after that retreat to Michigan.  I started and finished high school.  I started and finish college.  I moved to California and I'm almost done with graduate school.


Sometimes I wonder how life would be different had I stayed in a certain place longer, or had I not moved, or had I gone somewhere else for college, or had I chosen another job.  It's kind of weird to think about.  I wonder if I'm becoming less extroverted.  I enjoy driving by myself in silence and just walking around outside sometimes at night.

I hope my good memory sticks with me as my life continues to unfold, because I really don't want to miss a thing.


***EDIT***
Right after the song ended, I was at the intersection of Aviation and PCH waiting at the traffic light.  I looked next to me and saw a guy sitting his car doing the most obscure thing ever.  He was brushing his teeth.  I wondered... how is he going to do this?  He has to rinse his mouth of all the toothpaste.  How was he going to do this?  He thought of this.  He had 1 bottle to spit in and 1 bottle of water that he used to rinse.  Genius.  He probably had done this before.  My assumption: He was on his way to a date.

Your Mom Goes To College

I feel like I'm in college again...


This is the third time I've been to USC in the past week (1 presentation and 2 tests) and I find myself currently sitting in a library looking outside the window preparing for my last midterm ever (God willing).  This campus is quite different from the Ann Arbor campus that I've been used to for all of my undergraduate career.  Everyone here is either on a beach cruiser bike or on a skateboard.  Or so it seems.  The fountains are gleefully spraying water into the air without a care in the world.  And well, the weather... yeah, we won't need to get into that.  I think this is the busiest I've seen campus in my 4 semesters that I've "been" at USC. (note the been is in quotes because I don't really come here... just for exams).  I should have brought my skateboard so I can join all the cool kids skating from class to class.  Maybe next time.


This feels weird.  Undergrad seems so far away.  Guess this is part of growing up :)


p.s.  Is it wrong of me to state that the sorority girls still look the same? Black sweatpants with letters of house on thigh, giant bag, sunglasses, and Uggs? 

Princes and Frogs

My iPod was on shuffle the other day at work and I heard a song that I've never heard before.  I knew the artist, but the song was new to me.  Artist - Superchick.  Song - Princes and Frogs.


Here are some of the lyrics:

All princes start as frogs

All gentlemen as dogs

Just wait till it's plan to see

What we're growing up to be

Cause some frogs will still be frogs

Some dogs will still be dogs

But some boys can become men

Just don't kiss us till then

Aren't those lyrics so true?

//begin sidenote:

 I think I have pretty weird and random taste in music.  I think when I find an artist that I like (whether it's the actual kind of music or the lyrics that they sing, I listen to them constantly for a decent amount of time and then I'll move onto something else.  Recently... I've gone through several phases.  I don't exactly remember the order that these go in, but here's a list of the artists that come immediately to mind.
Owl City
Taylor Swift
Casting Crowns
Boys Like Girls
Train
Five for Fighting
Tenth Avenue North
//end sidenote


Anyways, I heard the Superchick song and I think I totally agree with what was said.  Guys start off pretty much as dogs.  A while back a movie was released into theaters starring Katherine Heigl and Gerald Butler.  The movie was called "The Ugly Truth."  The movie depicted how guys tend to only have one things on their mind and that they'll do just about anything to sleep with a girl.  I thought the movie was very sad, but very true.


I think society has pounded in the message that guys need to go around and sleep with as many women as possible because that's what gives us "worth."  After all, sex is fun, right?  Well... yes and no.  I think in the right context, sex can be amazing.  This context is marriage.  Outside of a marriage, sex is messy and can lead to lots of problems.


Back to the truth about the song.  I think as sinful beings, guys tend to think about sleeping with girls far more than they will probably admit (or maybe some willingly admit it).  So for those guys that say that they don't think about it, they are probably lying.  And here's where God comes in.  I believe that only through God's grace and mercy are guys allowed to take all of their messed up thoughts and turn from them.  God promises us so much more than just temporary pleasure and worldly satisfaction.  Thus, I strongly believe that the only way for guys to turn from dogs and frogs to princes and gentlemen is through the power of Christ.  And it's not an easy process, but it's through a refining process that takes work and effort.


So what does a gentleman look like?  I've been reading some articles that do a fairly decent job of defining it.
-The guy needs to be a believer
-The guy must be able and willing to provide for his family
-The guy must love sacrificially
-The guy must be honest, have a good reputation and strive for the qualities of a spiritual leader
For a more detailed look, click here (yeah yeah, I know the articles are about preparing for marriage... deal with it :))


So girls, make sure you confirm that the guy you are with is a gentleman before you kiss him :).

Costly Mistake...

Last Thursday or Friday... my TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) thing went off indicating that my tire pressure was low.  I ignored it because the last few times I've been to the mountains for snowboarding, the TPMS also went off.  I guess something about the cold or snow getting to the sensors triggers it and my car beeps at me.  I figured it was a similar situation this time, so I ignored.  It was raining a little bit so maybe the rain got to it?


This was not the case.  I drove on Friday and drove again on Saturday.  I spent most of the day in the library on Saturday and when I left, I noticed that my tire was a little flat (rear left).  I didn't really do much about it and filled it up later that evening, hoping it would be fine the next morning.  I drove to church on Sunday and didn't think much of it.  After church, I looked at the tire and it was completely flat and I was not a happy camper.  Kenny suggested that I put the spare on instead of driving on the flat tire.  I obliged.  I drove down to America's Tires on the spare only to find out that it was closed on Sunday's.  Boo.  It was too late at this point to go to Firestone so I ran some errands and went home.  I figured I'd come back to America's Tires on Monday.


I went into work for a little on Monday and then made my way to America's Tires.  Long story short, I should not have driven on the flat tire because that totally killed it.  Had I checked the tire when the TPMS light went on, I could've had America's Tires patch up the nail for free and everything would have been good.  But... because I waited a few days AND drove on the flat tire, the sidewalls of the tire were chewed through and completely demolished.  Thank God the rims weren't damaged.  These tires have only seen 11,000 miles and now I needed to replace two of them.  Yes, two of them.  They recommend that you replace right and left tire for even wear.  


300 + dollars later I have two new tires for my car.  Expensive lesson.  But lesson learned.


Spiritual lesson: When there is any sign of anything going wrong in your life (sins, temptations, etc), bring it up with God immediately. If you wait and wait and wait thinking that it will be ok to take care of later, you may be in for a surprise and find out that by waiting, you just made things worse.