ponderings...

my Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was a hit! I had so much fun cooking all day... and it's a good thing that I'm a compulsive "over cooker" (I always make too much food) as 27 people came out for cell group as opposed to our normal average of 16-20! some people came just for the food, which I don't mind at all... some people came for the Chinese connection... and some people even ditched Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with THEIR OWN FAMILY to have it with us. that made me feel all warm inside... haha :-)

what else? hmmm... I brought Chinese food to work Thurs. it was interesting to hear Mexican's saying "happy new year" all day. that was fun! and I had a good time hanging out with some of the staff during lunch while they pigged out on the clams I made. I guess I need to make them more often... I hope I can remember how I made them! hahaha

yesterday was an interesting day. normal long day at the church office. I had lunch with Hanah at a Korean restaurant here in Pasadena. after work I went with Jonder to his house to have a meeting about our upcoming Remnant site with those that will be involved with getting it started and running. that went til about 9:30 (we were hoping to finish by 9:00...) and then we split up to go to 2 different birthday parties. I went with Jonder, Jinder, Yoori and Sarah to Ryder's b-day party at a bar in downtown. I'm not really a "bar person" but can handle being at them and never really get bored... I people watch and make the people watching into a sociological case study. (really, I have a lot I've observed at bars... I should make it into a case study...) I also like playing pool. it was Sarah's first time being at a bar and I was teaching her little things about bar life. she was really uncomfortable being there. eventually her and I played pool and she had fun with that. when we were done at the bar, we went back to Jonder's place to join the other group of people that had returned there to watch a movie. watched the end of the movie and then we all sat around laughing at stupid things... mainly Jinder, Gabe and Dave trying to jump over things. somehow that lasted until 3:30 am, at which time we decided just maybe we should all go home and sleep... haha good thing I didn't have anything uber important to do today!

today I slept real late... I was attempting to get in 9 hrs of sleep... I haven't done that in forever and know that I really need to do some sleep catch-up. only prob is, after 10am I kept waking up every 10 min.'s and couldn't get straight back to sleep. I did that straight through til around 12:30. cuz of lack of sleep, my brain wasn't really working properly so when I finally did get up I didn't feel like doing anything... but I needed to get out so I eventually left to go have lunch and then hang out at the "mafia Starbucks". I LOVE going to this one specific Starbucks as I can people watch... there are these older men that I joke are in the mafia... they're ALWAYS there and I love just observing them. they're quite intriguing. :)

ok, so on Wed. my friend brought this SLR digital Pentax camera I'm buying from him. right now I've just got the body of it and no lenses... doesn't mean I'm any less excited! it just means that right now I have a lens searching addiction, in which I look at lenses online for long periods of time. I just need to decide which one(s) I'm going to buy. I'm currently browsing KEH Camera . I've also found a lens adapter that I've been wanting for YEARS (especially while living in China). it's a 90 degree angle lens... basically, it looks like you're taking a picture directly in front of you, but actually you're taking a picture of something at a 90 degree right angle from it... that way you can take very candid pictures of people without them knowing. there were SO MANY times I wanted this while in China, but I didn't even have an SLR then, so what good would that have been?! HAHA anyhow, I'm definitely gonna buy one... just thinking of it makes me so giddy. gosh, I'm weird!

I have a small problem... well, actually not that small... I have 2 courses I've applied for at school and it says I'm registered for them, but I've never got any course info either by mail or online... I sent an inquiry asking why the info wasn't on the site and they told me to e-mail the professor to find out why... but I don't even know WHO the professor is as I never got the course info AT ALL! I mean, I don't have an outline, study notes or anything... so I'm trying to solve this problem... and I have assignments due in both of those classes within the next two weeks! ACK! well, it's a good thing they're Chinese courses. that really does make my life easier. I can get a Chinese assignment out in a good day's work, no matter how difficult, if I try hard enough. I just hope I get the info soon. I also have an assignment coming up soon in another Chinese course in the next week and a half. I really should get working on that! HAHA

I caught a cold this week and have been a bit out of it. on Thursday I could barely keep my eyes open all day. it was pretty bad. I haven't really felt that bad, but I've had an awful cough and my voice has decided it wants to go on holiday. it's not completely gone, thank God. but it's enough to be annoying. I think I caught the cold due to lack of sleep and the odd changes in the weather. seriously, it goes from being crazy cold and windy to being warm in a matter of a day or so and then back to being cold. I'm used to this happening in China... I called it "false spring". it always comes between Chinese New Year and early April. it gets "warm" out (warmer than freezing... so we can actually shed our coats and not lose body parts to the cold) for about a week, people start putting up their winter clothes and wearing less clothes (Chinese people are into layering... I think the most layers I've counted on a Chinese person is 7! yes, SEVEN!)... then suddenly winter weather returns until the end of April. finally, once May holiday comes it's no longer freezing out. too bad weather in L.A. isn't that predictable.

ok, that's enough of my random ponderings... I think I just need to go to sleep and start making up for lost sleep!