Home for the Holidays

I don't know about you guys, but it isn't beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It hasn't for the last month. Things around my house are not even close to how they usually are around this time of year. We just barely got our tree up 2 weeks ago, and normally the whole house is decorated by the end of Thanksgiving weekend (at the latest). This year there are no lights outside, no presents piling up under the tree, no crystal snowflakes hanging from the stairs like there usually are when my mom and I go all out for Christmassing the house. It just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. So much so that we aren't even making a huge fuss about my brothers coming home. Or so I thought.

One of my brothers was supposed to come home earlier this evening but his flight was cancelled because of the snowpocalypse (which I believe is starting to die down, thank goodness). My other brother (and new sister-in-law!) are due in Seattle on the 24th. My parents and I knew that with the weather, it was pretty likely that my brother's flight would be cancelled today, so we were prepared for it. I didn't think, however, that every single flight from now until Christmas would be completely booked. Suddenly we were faced with the possibility that brother wouldn't be able to get a flight and be in Seattle for Christmas. It hit me when I was talking to him and he said "it'd be so weird to not be home for Christmas." As cheesy as it sounds, I realized then that it didn't matter that we didn't put lights up outside, or that the base of the tree wasn't overflowing with presents, or even that we hadn't planned Christmas dinner yet. If the whole family wasn't together under one roof on the 25th, then it wouldn't feel like Christmas.

Well luckily brother got a last minute flight and will be flying into Seatac at 7:30pm on the 25th, right in time for dinner (our family eats late). We'll all get to be together, and that's all I want for Christmas! (Though a shih tzu wouldn't hurt either...)

looks worse than Twilight

... and that's saying something.

The new trailer for Dragonball (or I guess they're calling it Dragonball Evolution. Whatever the hell that means) is out:





And also quite possibly some of the worst casting I've ever seen. Except maybe for Piccolo. Maybe.

everybody's gonna love today

This article made me happy.

I could go on and on about all the issues it talks about, but I figure I'll keep things short and sweet.

First of all, I should say that I am a Catholic, albeit not a very traditional one. (We can get into the details of that another day though.) The important thing here is that this article has touched on what I think the most fundamental teaching of Christianity is, and that is to spread the love of God by loving each other. All these conservative "fundamentalist" religious fanatics, somewhere in between their Bible interpreting and yes on prop 8 voting, seem to have forgotten that.

It's really just that simple, folks. Love everyone.
The end.

vegetarian

my favorite definition, courtesy of glasmodiar on urbandictionary.com:

A bad hunter. Someone who survives by consuming not food, but the stuff that food eats.

The vegetarian was forced to subsist on slower prey, such as the broccoli and carrot.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

snacking will never be the same

OK everyone, this is very important. Dare I say EPIC. I have found...






the best candy bar ever. I don't know how I ever lived without it before. It's Hershey's Take 5 candy bar. Chocolate, pretzel, peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, where can you go wrong? It's the most wonderful blend of sweet & salty, crunchy & creamy... mmmm! I'm salivating just thinking about it. Good thing I bought a bag of fun size ones (less guilt!) for 50% off after Halloween. =D

words of wisdom from dad

Not too long ago I made a mini road trip to Sequim for work. The drive was about 3 hrs each way and fairly uneventful. When I got back home, my dad was pleased to hear that nothing went wrong, but offered up this gem of advice:
"If you ever run into any trouble and need help, go find the nearest nail salon. Go in there and speak Vietnamese to them, and they'll take care of you."

This is as ridiculous as it is true. I will remember that if I should ever need help.

They'll be just like this!

it's been a long time

I know I've been neglecting my poor little blog, but lately all I've been doing is working and frankly, it's nothing too interesting. I'll tell you about it anyways though.

My internship officially ended last friday, but I decided to stay on a few extra weeks before school starts to make some extra money. it's just baaaarely worth it. this last week I've been filling in for our head photo person, who is taking a 10 day vacation. before this week I liked working in photo, but now I abhor it. pushy people who want their orders filled instantly, machines that jam and beep, foul-smelling chemicals that I was told are not that dangerous... not really worth the occasional gawk-worthy photo (like this shot of a guy frolicking in a river naked). on top of that, I still have to do all the normal managerish stuff that I normally do and do the book keeping that our photo guru also does. I can't wait until Kristine comes back. I never thought this job would stress me out, but I'm sad to say that I'm ready to quit. 3 more weeks to go.

Along with all that goodness, I just got home from my first day working as hostess/cashier at tea palace (gigantic chinese restaurant in renton). it's only been open for 2 days, so it's not too hectic yet, but I don't know if I'd prefer that to the boredom that I'm going through now. my hours are 10am - 10pm, but I'd say I did about 5 hours of actual work today. the rest of the time is spent sitting around waiting for people to finish eating. it's not a tiring job, which I'm thankful for, but I didn't know boredom could be so draining. we're short-staffed, so it looks like I'll be spending every free mealtime hour I have there from now on. I will say though, that the food there is absolutely delicious. my meal at the end of the day at least lets me leave fat and happy. thank you chef jackie!

ok, it's off to bed now. gotta get ready for the dim sum rush tomorrow morning.