Quickies

You wish I would write about what happens in the...boudoir!  On second thought, maybe you really really REALLY don't wish that :)

This post is about "quickies" in reference to updates and little notes:


Friday: Sunday School craft prep at church with a few sweet ladies.

Home to be surprised by hubby whose lecture was cancelled.

Brea Mall to get some make-up and gifts.  Brea Mall is probably my favorite mall of all time.  I love the assemblage of stores for their quality and affordability, the floorplan for its strong use of anchor stores and compactness, the consumer population - i.e. normal people without thousand-dollar strollers.  In fact, I think that I could really live in North Orange County for the rest of my life - never thought I'd say that when I first moved out here to Cali!  South Orange County though...not my cup of tea...but Mike loves that ocean!

After mall, went to visit a dear sister who is experiencing a very tough situation right now.  Cried for her a few times that day already.  Would do anything in my power to rectify things but feel kind of helpless.  Ugh.  Pray pray pray.

In the evening, V interacted to her great-grandparents (my dad's parents) for the first time over Skype.  It was special, and they looked as if the joy she brought them could fuel them an entire month!  Very thankful for technologies like Skype that enable families to connect like this.  When my family first immigrated to the States in 1987, my parents weren't even sure if they would ever get to go back to China or see their own parents again.  Look where we are now.  Good kind of progress :)

Saturday: Gave a voice lesson in the AM.

Spent way too much at Costco (but purchase included a long-awaited external hard drive so that I can finally back up those precious family photos).  

We spent the afternoon and evening at the wedding of a close college friend of ours.  It was so fun and inspiring to see many of our mutual friends again gathered from all over the country and leading all sorts of lives.  Some have "spawned" as well, so maybe we were witnessing another generation of Yalies who will enjoy the same camaraderie that we feel (not that V has to attend Yale...even though she has her own Yale t-shirt already...but we didn't buy it for her!  we don't want to be those Asian parents...OK, the truth is, Mike and I would love for her to have the experience that we had but realize that she may be gifted in many other ways and would never pressure her into going there...we might just "share" about what a great time we had and take her to visit the campus every year...OK, totally kidding...as you can see, I haven't settled this in my mind yet :)  Anyway, there was a photo booth at the reception and it was a hoot seeing how many people could fit in there...grown-ups acting like kids = priceless.  And the Crystal Cathedral banquet hall is a really nice space!  

Sunday: Church - Finally not my week to teach Sunday School, so got to sleep in a little!  Good thing because V had been having some diarrhea the past day or so and was running a very low grade temperature (we're not sure what the cause was but have been monitoring her closely).  She was still a little fussy during service, so I actually spent most of it walking around the church with her and chatting with friends.  Will have to listen to the sermon off of the weekly newsletter's online video link :P


To our local shopping center for bagel lunches and round #2 of Halloween costume shopping for Vera.  We don't really celebrate Halloween but do want the costume photo ops.  I had purchased a purple and gold "Leaf Fairy" costume for her a couple of weeks ago.  Mike's comment was that, since she's so cute and chubby right now, we should dress her up in something fuzzy/furry instead of something that she can wear when she's older.  I saw his point, so today, we went looking and schlepped to seasonal-Halloween-store-where-Mervyn's-used-to-be, Toys R Us and Target.  Conclusion?  "Leaf Fairy" costume was the cutest.  I appreciated that Papa was so invested in what his little girl would wear though.  I might actually try and purchase a fuzzy/furry costume online, because I think it'll be pretty chilly by the end of the month, and I do see hubby's point.

Home to read the Sunday paper together - another of our family traditions.  Happy for Gustavo Dudamel, who debuted as conductor of the LA Phil to rave reviews on Saturday night.  He is a very talented (and young!) musician, and I hope he has a long and storied relationship with the LA Phil.  Also read and article about how Angel Sanchez designed Dudamel's wife's dress for the premiere (commonality: all three are Venezuelan luminaries).  Just a few short years ago, I would have so wanted to be in her place.  I was pleasantly surprised upon finishing the article about the draping session and the hue selection of the dress that I actually prefer the scale and depth of my current lifestyle far more.


Read review for, and as a result, want two books by David Allen Sibley: Sibley Guide to Birds and Sibley Guide to Trees (the trees book just came out).  Both birds and trees have ministered to me during times of duress in ways that I could never fully describe.  They are practically angels ("messengers") of His grace to me.  I'll have to write about birds and trees in a separate posting.

Parade was interesting today:  New survey about the nation's spirituality.  We're much less religious in the traditional sense, more "spiritual" but mean many more things by "spiritual" than we used to.  Very fascinating stats...sad to me...but interesting.  Check it out: http://www.parade.com/news/2009/10/04-how-spiritual-are-we.html.  The take-away for me was that there is a HUGE population within the church itself that is very far from any kind of faith at all. 

Also, did you know that the American Medical Association may soon make a recommendation for doctors to ditch their white coats?  White coats carry germs from patient to patient and were banned by the English two years ago.  That would be a significant transition for doctors and patients alike.  My husband, like the author, finds his white coat extremely useful for stashing his tools of the trade and indicated that if discouraged from wearing his white coat, he would need to start wearing a tool-belt around his waist.  You think he'd instill more confidence in his patients if he looked like a lumberjack? :) 


Some chores.  
Dinner with brother and sister-in-law at a quaint Italian cafe/gelato joint in downtown Orange called Cafe Lucca.  I like the ambiance there, and I always like hanging out with them.  Glad my brother-in-law picked the wife he did; I really love her too :)

I'll end with this quote by Millard Sheets on art:  "Ask yourself, why do I want to paint?  What are my goals, my vision?  Never in history have so many had so much to say about almost everything.  Confusion is often the result.  Values suffer.  Artists have a special responsibility to society.  Never has their particular view and contribution been more needed.  In our over-specialized western world, technologists, business people, and politicians all need to be educated about how to make life and the environment more beautiful and meaningful."  Night! (I lied; it wasn't a quickie after all).