The Road Less Traveled

This is it.  Tonight I’m flying to Connecticut.  I’m meeting my new roommate/classmate, Yeeli at LAX so we can catch the red eye.  Total travel time 9.5 hrs including a 2.5 hr layover in Philadelphia.  

I’m making sure to stop at In n’ Out on my way to the airport.  Oh, how I am going to miss those burgers.

I’ll catch you all on the flip side.  Wish me luck!

Tonight is my last night at home for a while.  This afternoon I treated myself to a massage at Glen Ivy.  One word to sum up the experience; divine.  For dinner, my parents were nice enough to oblige me and drive to the San Gabriel Valley to eat at one of my favorite restaurants of all time, House of Louie.  I have been eating there since I was five or six years old.  Many a birthday (actually every one) was spent stuffing my face with two flavored shrimp, lemon chicken, stir fried cod, and hot and sour soup.  The food was the bomb, as usual. It was really great to spend my last night at a familiar stomping ground.    

Now, I am back home preparing myself for my last night’s sleep in my bed.  I had better go to sleep now, as to make it last as long as possible.  So, on that note….good night!  I’ll catch you all (the 3 people that read this) tomorrow.

P.S.  At this exact moment, I have 24 hrs left at home.  Yikes!

Saying goodbye really sucks.  I have been trying really hard this past week to keep the potential roller coaster of emotions on as flat a plane as possible.  Everyone has been so incredibly nice and supportive, but honestly that has made saying goodbye even harder.  

I was really surprised and touched with the outpouring of love and gifts to help me get settled in Connecticut.

Markie made it rain with cash money.  Gabe sent me off with a visa gift card.  Janice got me a dope backpack that is really going to help me lug all of my books and other crap around town.  Sonya and Kevin hooked it up with a Target gc.  The folks at work also gave me a Target gc along with a really nice UCI clock to help me remember the good times I had there.  Alisa and Darlene gave me a gc to Ikea to assure that my apt will have some decent looking furniture.  Fatin and Marie both gave me cupcakes to make my last day a lot sweeter.  Laura and Ben knew exactly what I wanted when they gave me a framed picture of Aiden that says “I Love my Auntie Unji!” I also got so many gift cards to Starbucks that I don’t think I am going to have to buy a single cup of coffee during my entire grad school career.  In addition to all of the awesome gifts, the guys, T-Town, and Amy all took me out to lunch or dinner to say goodbye. 

Words absolutely cannot express how much everyones’ love and well wishes has meant to me.  I really am blessed to have such amazing people in my life.  

Speaking of amazing people, my best buds from high school got together yesterday to throw a going away party for me and Joe.  Joe is leaving on Wednesday for Harvard Business School!  We are all so proud of him.  It was so awesome to spend my last weekend with the people who have known me the longest.  First it was beach time!

That was to be my last day at a So Cal beach for goodness knows how long.  :(  After the beach we walked up to Ryan and Joe’s to get some grub.

She’s crazy.

Oh, and look who came to the party!

That’s right.  It’s Aiden!

The view from Ryan and  Joe’s balcony.  I love sitting out there and watching the waves.

After eating and hanging out, it was time to hit the bars!

Yale and Harvard bound.

I love this guy.

Don’t ask

I think I have been doing a pretty good job of containing my emotions, at least on a surface level.  Deep down inside though, I know I am feeling a lot of anxiety.  I haven’t been able to really eat or sleep all week.  Yeah, me, not eating or sleeping…..you know things must be rough.  It wasn’t until I got home this morning and my mom asked me how I was doing that I completely lost my shit.  I tried to hold back the tears, but I just couldn’t help it, and for the first time throughout this whole goodbye process I cried.  She asked me what the tears were for, and all I could manage to say was “I don’t want to leave!”

Its true.  I really don’t want to leave.   Maybe there is a way I can telecommute to Yale.  Maybe just get all my lectures via podcast.  That’s actually not a bad idea at all.  I think I am going to look into that.  I’ll let you know if it works out.

Watching a child grow is the best reminder that every day of our lives brings change and growth.  With that said, here are some new Aiden pictures!

And my favorite……

These pictures were taken on Wed when I got to have lunch with Aiden and his mommy, Laura.  Every time I see him he can do something new.  He smiles a lot now and is starting to make “talking” noises.  I’m pretty bummed that after this weekend, I won’t be seeing him until Thanksgiving.  Think of all the new things he will be able to do by then!

Today I am experiencing two big lasts.  The first being that its my last day of work at Health Ed.  I have learned and grown so much as a result of my time here.  I feel like working here has set me on the right path.  I am really going to miss it all, especially my co-workers. 

I had to clean out my office yesterday, which was not fun.

Office before the clean out

Office after the clean out. 

It’s really hard to leave, but I know I just have to let it all go and move forward.

Tonight is also my last night in the apt.  Marco and I have had so much fun and made so many memories living there.  I can’t believe that when he comes back, I won’t be there anymore.  I can’t even post any pictures of how the apt looks now because honestly, its just too depressing. 

I wonder what new memories I will make in the years to come.

I really hate moving.  There is only one thing in this life that I think is worse than moving; job hunting.  My idea of Hell would be moving and job hunting indefinitely.  There are a few things that I imagine would be worse than moving.  Getting your face eaten by flesh eating maggots would probably be pretty bad, but I have yet to experience that………so for now, moving remains at the top of my list.

This past couple weeks have been so draining, both physically and emotionally.  Physically due to the packing, the unassembling of furniture, the moving of the furniture to my parents house, the reassembling of the furniture, the cleaning, etc.  Emotionally, its been hard having to say goodbye to everyone.  Leaving work has been the most emotionally draining of all.  Lots of things have really taken their toll on me. 

I thought it would be a good idea to work all through my last week here.  I figured I could use the money. In retrospect……..that was a really BAD idea.  Trying to organize a cross country move while working simultaneously is something only a fool would do. 

It’s too late now though.  I’ll just have to suffer through it.  I just have to make it through one more week, and then I’ll be in Connecticut!  I am so ready to get there now.  I know the change of pace will energize me and give me new life.  Wish me luck!

Like many people, I have been staying up waaaaaaay past midnight every single night to watch the Olympic Games.  I am so tired today that my head feels as if it is going to explode.  My eyes are red, my hands are shaky, and standing up too fast makes me dizzy.  Watching Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson take gold and silver in the gymnastics all around competition was so worth it, though. 

Nastia, I was right there with you, girl, crying all the way through the medal ceremony.  Nobody deserved that gold medal more than you did.  Maybe now that the all around is over, we can both get some rest before the individual event finals.  Whew!

Oh, yeah…..by the way……IN YOUR FACE, CHINA!

Ever since I was little, I have always had this pipe dream of being an Olympic athlete.  Watching the athletes compete in the games totally gives me athletes’ envy.  Sometimes, during the medal ceremony, when the US National Anthem plays, I close my eyes and pretend that it is playing for me and my gold medal win.  Too bad I have no athletic skill whatsoever.  The closest I will ever get to the Olympics will be moving my couch a little closer to the tv.  I did, however, win 3rd place in a track event in high school.  I think it was mostly due to the fact that there were only 3 girls running. 

Sigh, oh well.  At least I can dream.

I’m not really a big sports fan.  I could give a rip about the NBA finals, and I only go to Superbowl parties for the food.  When it comes to the Olympics, however, I am glued to the tv. 

So why do I love the Olympics as opposed to regular sports?

The Olympics are about bringing the world together for the love of sport.

It’s about pride in ones country

It’s about triumph

It’s about heartbreak

It’s about a life’s worth of work, hopes, and dreams for ONE moment

It’s about putting personal/political differences aside

It’s not about the bling, or the cars, or the dog fights.  It’s about the sport. 

It’s athleticism in it’s truest form.

There are Olympic moments that I will never forget;

The 1996 vault by Keri Strug

Michael Johnson and his gold shoes setting the world record in the 200 m in the same games

And now last night’s spanking of the French by the US Men’s Swimming 4 x 100 relay team.  I can’t find any videos on you tube due to copy wright issues, but if you look on nbc.com I’m sure you can find it.  It was the most amazing race I have seen in a long time. 

I am really looking forward to watching the rest of swimming, as well as diving, track and field, and of course, gymnastics!  If you don’t see me for the next two weeks, it’s because I’m near a tv or computer cheering on the team.  Go USA!

I am not one of those women who was born with gorgeous, perfectly shaped eyebrows.  Instead I was born with eyebrows that sort of look like two caterpillars mating.  It’s not pretty.  Ever since I hit puberty my eyebrows have been a big deal to me.  However, getting them to look decent wasn’t always easy.  Sometimes it even caused great injury and/or bodily harm. 

I started off plucking the suckers.  In 8th grade, I read in ‘17 Magazine’ that the way to get perfect length on your brows was to hold a pencil up to the side of your nose.  Anything that extended out beyond the pencil needed to be removed.  That was all fine and dandy in theory.  But really, who can hold a pencil straight and pluck a ton of stray hairs at the same time while completely obscuring vision in one eye?  Not me.  My pencil would always move to one side or the other and I ended up with patches of hair missing where they shouldn’t be.  My yearbook picture portrays a scrawny kid with funky bangs (that she cut herself), braces, and caterpillars mating atop her eyes……after they had taken bites out of each other, of course.

Next I tried home waxing.  Not a good idea.  Not only was it extremely messy, it was also dangerous.  Things came to a head when after overheating a pot of wax in the microwave, I spilled it on my palm.  This caused the skin to bubble.  It was the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced in my entire life.  Imagine trying to rip hot wax from bubbling skin.  Never, ever, again will I attempt do it yourself waxing with hot wax.  Ever! 

I tried professional salon waxing, and that was ok.  I never really liked the way my eyebrows looked after waxing though.  Something just didn’t seem right.  Then, sometime during my 1st year of college, like a beacon of light streaming down from the heavens through patches of dark clouds…….I discovered it.  The miracle that would save my face; eyebrow threading!  For those of you who are unaware, threading is a form of hair removal that originated in India.  It is done by twisting a piece of cotton thread into a double strand.  The double strand is then used to catch a row of hair and remove it.  The result is a fabulous, clean, precise line. Plus, it’s cheap! 

Since that glorious day 9 years ago, I have gotten my brows threaded every 2 weeks, religiously.  Some people go to church, I get threaded.  While threading is fabulous, there is one big problem.   It is really hard to find well trained eyebrow threaders.  They sprinkle the LA and Orange County areas, but beyond that, I have yet to find someone that I trust to wield twisted thread upon my face.  If a threader is not properly trained the process can be really painful and can result in botched eyebrows.  I don’t want to go back to those mating caterpillars! Please, no!  I can stomach the cold of Connecticut, I can take being far away from family and friends.  I can even live with no Mexican food.  But ugly eyebrows!?  Anything but that!!!!

I have scoured the internet and I can’t find any place in New Haven that does threading. Am I going to have to take the train to NYC every two weeks?  If I don’t find a solution soon, I may come home for Thanksgiving looking like this;

Help me!

Last weekend it was back to San Diego to hang out with my awesome cousins. 

It was a gorgeous day to be out in the sun.  

Have I mentioned that I love Mexican food?  Well, just in case I have neglected to point it out, I love, love, LOVE Mexican food!  I seek it out like a crackhead looking a fix.  Old town San Diego has a great Mexican joint, El Coyote Cafe.  A stop there was more than necessary.

Those margaritas are no joke. 

I opted for the shredded beef tacos with rice and beans.  Awesome!

After lunch, we hung out with my boyfriend, Frank.  He’s shy. 

While walking around old town, we stumbled across a place that was more of a junkyard than a store..  They had some really interesting and diverse junk though. 

Colorful looking mushroom thingys.

These turtles have shells made of SHELLS!  How innovative. 

Wind chimes

More wind chimes. 

Our post sunset activities consisted of hitting up the Gaslamp.

We got a late start, but we still made the most of our night and had an awesome time. 

the lamps that light the entire Gaslamp district. 

On the way back we had a super nice cab driver from Somalia.  I didn’t catch his name, but he was probably the nicest/funniest cab driver I have ever had.  Props to him for getting us home safely and entertaining us along the way. 

Sunday was beach day.   La Jolla was the destination of choice.

She has been copying my outfits since the ’80’s.

The beach was so incredibly crowded.  We had to hunt for a spot to park the car and then again for a place on the sand. We felt like lions hunting gazelle in the savannah.  It was ridiculous.  Crouch, pounce, and go for the jugular was the basic method of attack.     

The waves were too small to surf so we boogie boarded instead.  The best part was watching my cousins laugh and smile when they caught good waves.  I love watching the people I love have fun. 

After the beach it was time to head back to Irvine.  One of my favorite Southern California stretches of highway is the 12 miles between Camp Pendleton and San Clemente on the 5.  The way the sun hits the ocean just makes me happy to be alive.  Sometimes you can see military helicopters on the horizon as the pilots train, which is always an added bonus. I didn’t see any choppers this time, but I did get to drive that stretch during sunset, my favorite time of day.   

Thus concluded one of my last weekends in So Cal.  As the sun slowly sets on one part of my life, the journey keeps on going.  I can’t wait to see the sunrise on the other side.