Life update

Apologies for being so absent on this blog. Life got in the way.

This summer has been quite eventful. Here a few things that happened (hence, the absence from the blog)

1. Work became super busy as we doubled our team from 4 to 8 in a matter of 1.5 months. Lots of training but lots of fun growing our family at work.

2. A plethora of friends came to visit this summer (hosted friends every single weekend in August and still hosting a few more in Sept!). It was really great just to catch up with friends that I’ve been limited to seeing just 2-3 times a year now that I live in NorCal and don’t have the time to fly home.

3. Had a family reunion that took me on a mini tour of Asia including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan. It was hectic having 19 people under one roof but it was definitely a memorable trip.

4. I got engaged. After 3 years of dating, the love of my life popped the question (on my birthday no less) and we are getting hitched next summer. Wedding planning has officially begun and I am terribly bad at it.

So there you have it. That’s my summer in a nut shell. I’m looking forward to an upcoming trip to NYC/DC and a number of other things. I’m really thankful for where God has taken me on this journey. This year has been a huge blessing in terms of friends, family, and the lovely fiancee. And we still have 4 months to go!

I’m definitely excited to see how the rest of the year will pan out but 2011 is shaping up to be pretty awesome. I’m speechless with how much God has blessed me.

“On Pride Day, An Apology” by E.H.

An old church friend of mine posted this on his Facebook last Fri, after the announcement that gay marriage would be legalized in New York. Beautifully written and sums up how I felt about the news (but in much better words than I could have ever written)

Hello world, I am a Christian. I stand unrepentant in my faith in Jesus Christ as the truest representation of God. Unfortunately, many who would agree with that first claim would not agree with this one: that Christians may be one of the greatest purveyors of pain in the modern world. Forgive us, for many who claim to be Christian do not, in fact, follow Jesus. And those that are trying, especially me, frequently get it wrong. I choose to represent both these groups today and humbly proclaim, “I am sorry.”

I am sorry that though we claim to have a God of love, we live as though he were a god, stingy in love, who, if you were lucky, might just have enough love for you after me. I am sorry that though Jesus came to serve and suffer, we have instead come to coerce and conform. “Step into line,” our cold eyes say, “or you can’t become one of us.” I am sorry that Jesus came to heal, yet where we go, the people need healing. I am sorry that we have not looked more like the one we claim to follow.

I apologize on behalf of the parents, pastors, authority figures, who, in the name of Christ, have condemned you, shamed you and exposed you; kicked you in the teeth when you were down and threw you naked into the street. Jesus would have come to you with a blanket, tears in his eyes and a tremor in his voice. I apologize that I was not there in his place.

Jesus said “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek,” not “love your cheek” and “turn against your enemies.” Jesus said “love one another” not “love just each other.” Please forgive us for controverting the words of God so that we lost their power and forsook their meaning. I reclaim their audacity today.

On pride day, I stand with you, my friend, and acknowledge your pain, especially the pain that I have caused. I leave the side of the Church and stand in solidarity with you as beloved daughters and sons, made in the image of God and worthy of glory. You are beautiful and holy and wondrous and radiant. You are worthy of love, made for love, and know love. Behold, you are an eternal soul whom God loves. And as for me; teach me to love.

(via Facebook)

10 years today

A lot can happen in ten years. And the last ten years flew by really quickly. Nothing revolutionary happened (although you did miss 9/11 by a few months) but life happened. I graduated high school, college, and went to work. I moved to Norcal. I discovered people who I could call my lifelong friends. I went through many personal discoveries about myself. I grew up. I met a guy. And so forth. By most accounts, I have a normal life that is sometimes exciting and sometimes not.

Even so, I still wish I could share it with you. I spent the last week thinking about how I wish you and I could meet right now. I thought about what it would be like to have dinner with you and have an adult conversation. You would share your business wisdom with me, I would update you on my life and ask for your advice. I’ve been told many wonderful things about how you were as a businessman and friend by countless of the church elders. I only knew you as my dad. Now that I’m an adult, I wish we could meet now. I wish I could see your character as an adult. I wish I could introduce you to my boyfriend. I think you guys would really get along.

I also think about how different my life might have been if you were around for the last ten years. How would you have influenced my life? Would I be where I am today if you were still here? Would I have made different choices, choices that were influenced by you? What would you think about the person I’ve become?

I have all these questions that I’ll probably ask you when I see you again in Heaven. Until then, I’ll always wonder, I’ll always think about you, and I’ll always hope that you are proud of how I turned out (or how I will still turn out).

06.09.01

13. A date you would love to go on

Thanks to my boyfriend, I’ve been lucky to have some awesome dates planned for me. Some of the best dates have been the spontaneous ones that require us to do something that we normally wouldn’t do (see a concert, a random day trip somewhere, a surprise dinner, etc). So a date I would love to go on? Probably something unique that I haven’t done before.

Side note** Clearly I’m not keeping up with the 30-day challenge since it’s been spread over almost 2 months now and I’m not even halfway through. Oh well

Sitting is killing you

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Must. Travel. More.

I want to travel more. I want to travel with friends. I want to have these memories because the reality is, everyone’s getting busier and it’s hard to even meet up with a friend for a cup of coffee. I know this is just the way life is but why!?

One of my biggest regrets are always the trips I end up turning down, which is dumb because then I always regret it.

A few years ago, my friends took a trip to NYC, Chicago (and somewhere else). I couldn’t go because I was afraid to ask for 2 weeks off. Looking back, I wish I went with them. Another time, I had a trip to Cancun all planned out and for fear of making a bad impression (I was new at the job), I had to cancel that too. There went $700 I couldn’t get refunded –the worst kind of wasted money. The company shut down a few months later which made me more annoyed that I should have just taken the trip. Two years ago, my mom wanted a mother-daughter trip together. She didn’t care where. I complained about how I needed to focus my time on finding a job. In the 7 months I was searching, I could have (and should have) taken a trip with her. In fact, I probably could have taken three trips. Anyway, you get the point.

There’s always going to be a valid reason—don’t have the money or time—but let’s look at the bigger picture. Let’s find the time and sacrifice some money (it’ll be money well spent anyway). You can always “save” up later or refrain from going out to eat/drink for a few weeks since that’ll add up to the same amount anyway.

So, that being said, it’s time to plan the next trip. Where should I go and who will go with me?

P.S.

Liz (because I know eventually you will see this), let’s make that Thailand trip a reality.

12. Things you want to say to an ex

A few years ago, I would have ranted and spoke my mind about how I felt. There’s so much I wanted to say but none of that matters anymore. I’ve grown up a lot and you were just a part of those growing pains so thanks. That’s all.

11. Your current relationship, if single discuss how single life is

My current relationship is nothing short of amazing. It just works. I could go on and on and on about what makes it so great (and I know the boyfriend is reading this and would like to see that haha) but I wouldn’t really know where to begin. Simply put, to me, my current relationship is what I envision the ideal relationship to look like. Sometimes it seems like it’s too good to be true and that’s when I realize I’m extremely lucky to have found it and I plan to cherish it for a long, long, long time. But what means more to me is that this relationship doesn’t trump the other relationships I have with my friends and family. In fact, this relationship complements those well and doesn’t take away from those. I don’t know how to explain it but I’m really happy.

10. Your views on drugs and alcohol

Personally I don’t do either and even if I did, I’d probably do it for the peer pressure. Drugs have always been a big no to me. Alcohol, I don’t drink because everyone knows I have the worst tolerance known to man–plus I don’t get a good buzz, I go straight into nausea. I will admit though, if I could handle my liquor, I’d probably drink more because of the social pressure to fit in because apparently you can’t really meet new people without having alcohol involved somehow. I substitute it with food because chances are, when there’s alcohol, there’s always food.

9. Your Last Kiss

Last night after dinner before parting ways to go home. The boyfriend had joined me in a dinner feast at Layang Layang with some of my cousins who came up to visit from Socal. Food was yum, company was great, and it was always nice to see the boyfriend become part of my family–especially when my uncle and aunts are more interested in talking to him than me haha.