Thoughts

DONE
This year, Karena and I managed to get all our Christmas shopping and decorating done early. As of yesterday, Nov 28, we were all done with decorating our home and practically done with all our Christmas shopping.
It was a good feeling knowing that everything was done, even before December started.
Every year, the hardest part for me is putting up the outdoor Christmas lights. Because our house is an island, people can drive/walk all around our house. So, we have to put Christmas lights all around our house. (These pictures don't really do it justice.)
And what was worse this year was that we had a painter paint our house and he removed all the old hooks that used to hold our lights. So, I had to drill in new holes and put in new hooks this year.
But it's all done and itlooks good. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my dear sister Sandra!

BIG DOG
Karena and I were shopping at Costco this past weekend. She saw a cute, but HUGE stuffed animal dog for pretty cheap so she thought she'd get it for her sister. But when we got to the register, we found out it was actually much more expensive, so she said, "I don't want the dog."
Both the female cash register and the female packer stopped completely. They looked at the cute dog and gave Karena a look like, "What kind of a human being are you? You DON'T want this adorable dog?!? How could you?"
It was hilarious.

24
When Jack Bauer, of TV's "24," stays up for more than a day, he usually ends up saving the world. When I do it, I only wind up grumpy and with a few Christmas gifts. Here is what happened:
On Wednesday, I opened up the newspaper to find an ad stating that the Camarillo outlets would start their After-Thanksgiving sales at midnight. I mentioned it to Karena and we thought we'd go shop for a few hours, then I'll sleep a few hours and go to work Friday morning. No problem.
Well, it was a big problem! We drove there with Sandra and Gabe and K's sister Rani after eating Thanksgiving dinner. Suddenly, there was all this traffic. But it wasn't an accident, it was the line to exit the freeway to go to the outlets. I had a terrible time finding parking. Then, we waited an hour and a half (no joke) just to get in to Banana Republic. And it was so crowded in the store, you couldn't even look around. Then, you had to wait 2 hours (again, no joke) just to pay for the items you were buying. We didn't get out of there until 4:30am. That's the ONLY store we went too.
And I felt bad because I left Sandra and Gabe to wait in line to pay while I went to the car to try to sleep. I didn't fall asleep though. But luckily, Sandra and Gabe are good people and they weren't upset. I slept about a half hour while Karena drove home.
After getting home, it was 5:20. Rather than sleeping one more hour before work, I opted to shower and head out again to Robinsons-May (my favorite department store) so I could partake in their After-Thanksgiving sale. Since the store will be gone for good in a few months, I had to go for the sale just this one last time. I got almost all my shopping done before heading out to go to work.
I miracaously made it through a full 10 hours of work before heading home and crashing after dinner at 8:45.
I think I would have felt better if I saved the world.

LAS VEGAS RECAP
This trip had all our usuals -- staying in downtown, winning some money playing craps ($100 for me), eating 32oz prime rib (see above), having ox tail soup Friday night (actually Saturday morning), etc.
But this weekend was different. It was relaxing. We spent very little time at the tables. But we did manage to spend some quality time sharing with each other. I feel like I got to know a lot of my friends better and had a chance to get some good conversations in.

CLASSICAL MUSIC
Over the last few months, work has gotten pretty busy. That means I end up working longer hours (without getting paid for it). And then, when I go home, I'm always sitting in traffic that seems to be getting progressively worse. So, the road rage starts to build and I find myself getting angry more easily.
So, on Thursday night, I was listening to my Ocean's Eleven CD and skipped over to the track featuring Debassey's Claire de lune. (listen here, but the Ocean's Eleven version is better with a complete ensemble). It helped me relax and to ease my anger. Plus, it reminds me of the scene from the movie where they're all watching the Bellagio water show after pulling off the biggest heist in Las Vegas history. They're each filled with a sense of playfulness, laughter, accomplishment, brotherhood, and camaraderie. And then, one by one, they each disappear into the night before they're all gone. Listening to the song on the way home brings those kind of feelings to my head and makes me smile and laugh.

LOTTERY WINNERS
I didn't think too much about the Mega Lottery's $315 million jackpot yesterday until one of my patients mentioned it. Still, the thought of having a one in a billion chance of winning didn't coerce me enough to buy a ticket.
But today, after I found out the winning ticket had been purchased by seven Kaiser employees in Orange County, I went nuts. That could have been us. Why couldn't the Kaiser employees come from the West LA facility?
Oh well. Back to work . . .

DREAM JOB
I have to admit that I had my concerns about driving to the Murietta/Temecula area (roughly 90 miles away from our home) to visit with Karena's Cornell classmates. It's not that I didn't want to meet them, I just was afraid I wouldn't have enough energy to be extra social and friendly while they all reminisced about old times. Sometimes, situations like that end up being boring or uncomfortable.
But everybody there was extremely gracious to me so there was no problems. Plus, I got a chance to talk to K's friend Paul, who used to work for Major League Baseball and ESPN. He told me about his dream job of being a baseball general manager almost came to fruition. He has met and had meals with Dodgers' assistant GM Kim Ng, Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, and many others baseball elite. He knows most of the 30 GMs around the league (and his fellow Cornell alum just landed the Texas Rangers GM job). He used to go into the clubhouse and be on the field. And that was just while he worked for MLB!
During the 2 years he worked for ESPN, he spent many nights working on Baseball Tonight and talked baseball with analysts John Kruk and Harold Reynolds. Then, he'd watch the show to find that they were saying exactly what he had said to them earlier! Plus, he had access to their database that gave you stats on how a player did in day or night games, in rainy weather, on Mondays, in July, on Opening Day, etc.
He helped come up with the ideas of how to showcase certain stats. For example, "When Cal Ripken started his consecutive games playes streak, a stamp cost 13 cents . . ." or "The Angels bullpen has faltered. Since July 1st, the bullpen has a 6.03 ERA versus 2.30 before that."
Now, he's going to get his MBA in sports business. Yes, he has a beautiful wife and two beautiful children. Yes, he owns a brand new 3,300 square foot home. And yes, he has decorated that home with authentic autographed World Series champion Yankees jerseys throughout.
But deep inside, I think he still must yearn for that baseball GM job.
And that got me thinking, is there another job I might want to do? A dream job? A job that I would truly love and consider as "play" instead of "work"? Something like that could still be in reach . . . and yet, somehow, the sensible Chinese side of me just thinks I'm fooling myself.

UCLA GAME
In keeping with the tradition of the year, we went to another game and watched UCLA win. I'm 4-0 when I'm in the Rose Bowl stands. An undefeated home record made us feel good, but we know we have a big game against USC coming up in a few weeks. I can't wait!
Saturday's game brought out a really good group of people: Enoch, Nate C, Suzanne, Aaron, Judy, Tiff, Michelle, Edwin, Tingly, Pastor Rich, Wing, Luong, and Caren Tam and family. The ASU bad kept playing the same song over and over and over. It got so annoying that we kept making fun of the band, meanwhile going insane over the same three notes being played over and over.
Enoch fired up the grill and the food was as delicious as ever (especially the chicken!).
But the best part was a commercial for ESPN U that they showed on the bigscreen. A young child dressed up as a trojan is going trick-o-treating and walks up to the door. "Trick or treat!!!" he yells. The door opens and it's a guy holding some candy and wearing a UCLA sweatshirt. He looks at the kid . . . and promptly slams the door in the kids face. That sent 85,000 people into a kind of laughter and cheering that I have never heard before. It was hilarious!

7-ELEVEN, DOUGHNUTS, AND A VIDEO STORE
Last Sunday, Karena didn't look happy. She wanted something and wasn't sure what. Finally, we realized she wanted coffee from 7-Eleven (she loves their coffee much more than Starbucks or Coffee Bean). Plus, she wanted a doughnut to go with her coffee. And she wanted to rent a movie.
Since we were already going to visit my parents, we decided to stop off at the local 7-Eleven on Beverly and Howard. As we pulled up to the parking lot, we couldn't believe our eyes.
Next to the 7-Eleven was a small video store (which is good for us because I hate renting from Blockbuster because it's overpriced). And next to that was a doughnut place. Amazing. A one-stop-shop for all of Karena's cravings!
But wait, there's more! Karena was so impressed with 7-Eleven's new coffee station that she spent 15 minutes making her coffee! You can get any kind of coffee (regular, Dark Mountain Roast, French Roast, etc.) and add any flavor shots (Vanilla Nut, Irish Creme, French Vanilla, Toasted Pecan, Pumpkin Spice, etc.) She had a blast.
The video store only charged $2.50 to rent (about $2 cheaper than Blockbuster) so we rented Fever Pitch. It wasn't the greatest movie, but as a Red Sox fan, I appreciated reliving the 2004 championship season.
Finally, she ended up buying a doughnut from 7-Eleven because it looked better than what she could find from the doughnut place.
Still, all her cravings had been met. And we only had to stop at one place.
Is this heaven? No, it's Montebello. =)

GREENFIELD
Karena has been craving some Brazilian BBQ for a while so we finally made it out to Greenfield in West Covina on Monday for lunch (since we were both off work). Jason was able to join us.
The skirt steak was delicious and very flavorful and tender. But many of the other meats were a bit dry. Plus, we were hoping for some kind of meat wrapped in bacon, but there was none. Still, I managed to stuff my face and didn't eat a single thing after that for the rest of the day.
My mom says the one in Long Beach is bigger and better. I guess Jason will have to accompany us when we go there too. Because if I know Karena, we'll definitely be there soon.

CHRIS TOMLIN/MATT REDMAN CONCERT
Thanks to Daryl getting us tickets (and Luong for driving), we made it down to Orange County's Saddleback Church for one of the best Christian concerts I've ever experienced.
It was a time of praise and worship through music and also featured a great message by speaker Louie Giglio.
But all you need to know is this: How great was the concert? I had Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman in front of me singing beautifully, Karena next to me singing beautifully, and Danette behind me singing. It was the most beautiful music I had ever heard . . . and made the time of worship that much more amazing.

MY UNCLE'S EYE
One of the best things about my uncle is his laid-back nature. But it almost left him blind this week.
After noticing a little floater in his eye last weekend, he dismissed it as what happens with age. No big deal. But by Wednesday, his lower field of vision was completely gone. He figured something wasn't right so he scheduled an appoitment with his eye doctor for Friday. But whe he showed up Friday, his doctor was shocked. His retina had detached and he had to have an emergency surgical procedure immediately, or else face complete blindness in his left eye.
Well, thank God he got it done in time. Right now, his eye is too swollen to open or to even see through. And he's not supposed to lie down, not even to sleep, but at least it appears he still has his sight.
How crazy is this?
But despite all this, he still has his laid-back nature. When I told him this type of thing happens in 1 out of 10,000 people, he said, "Wow, I'm lucky and special. I should go buy a lottery ticket."
That's my uncle. =)

ROD VISITS
We were fortunate enough to have Karena's former co-worker Rod come visit our home. He's one of the nicest and funniest guys you will ever meet. Plus, he's not only a skilled PT, but also a gifted craftsmen and handyman.
In fact, after leaving Karena's workplace, he's not only working on starting his own clinic, but also remodeling and adding onto his house himself.
Needless to say, he spent a lot of time looking at our house (thank God he liked it . . . and thank God we had some time to clean up before he came). And we were able to catch up a bit on our lives. Hopefully, we'll be able to see his house once things are more settled.

LAFFY TAFFY
Somebody at work brought their leftover Halloween candy complete with lots of chocolate and other candies. But by far, the candy that was met with the greatest approval was the Laffy Taffy. It not only tastes good, but each one comes with two absolutely terrible kids jokes on that wrapper. The jokes are so bad, they actually make you laugh.
You can check out these bad jokes at: http://www.commonplacebook.com/humor/lists/laffytaffy.shtm

Here are a few for you enjoyment:
How do you make an egg roll? Push it.
How do you get a peanut to laugh? You crack it up!
Why did the boy put his dictionary in the air? So he could look up a word.
What do you call an avid gardener? Herb
What did the tree say to the mountain? Stop peaking on me.

See what I mean? Really, really bad jokes.

YELLED AT
I'm sure reading about some of the struggles I have at work is getting as boring as it is to write them. But today, I just felt like I was slowly getting worn down like how water erosion slowly wears away the shore.
Today, a patient's daughter yelled at me over the phone because she couldn't understand why her father wasn't being seen at least once a week. She yelled and did not let me get a word in. So, I just let her yell. And I just took it.
And let me tell you, that was tough. See, her father shouldn't even be in physical therapy anymore since he's been seen for 8 months (that's unheard of). He should have been discharged already, but I feel bad for him so I let him continue. Anyway, after she was done yelling, I told her that he HAS been coming once a week and has been scheduled for the next few weeks already. She recognized her mistake and hung up the phone.
But the damage had been done. I was spent.
Thank God I come home to a very supportive and loving wife.

CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE
Karena and I have both experienced not just bad service, but practially rude service at a Christian bookstore. I don't want to say which one, but I feel it makes Christians look bad.
But I guess that's the way life is: many Christians don't live the life and act out the things they believe. And that keeps others away from knowing Him.