MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

1 Day to Christmas

I got exactly what I want for Christmas because my cousin got awfully sick with a cold! My wish, you see, was for my entire family to be together this Christmas. My cousin was going to travel to China on the 23rd to meet my uncle there, and I sincerely wanted both of them here with the family. As it turns out, my cousin caught the nastiest of all colds and could not make the flight to China, thus my uncle is now coming home to his son and to us today on Christmas Eve!

This is the first Christmas Eve without aunt Rita. I called her house yesterday and her gentle voice came on the answering machine recording, it brought me to tears. Due to Rita’s passing, some of my family members suggested skipping Christmas this year, but to me, this is one of the most important Christmases for all of us to be together. We don’t have to celebrate the commercialism of the holiday, we’re not together to wait up to hear the bells on Santa’s sleigh. I want us to all to be together even if we just huddled and cried, that would mean much more than being separated this Christmas. I miss my aunt dearly. She was one of those bright lights of the world and I saw Jesus through her more clearly than from anyone else that I know. I admire the way she lived her call, the joy that she brought to everyone everywhere she went, and her persistent praise to God even in her final days of pain. I don’t think there’s a better way to celebrate her life than for us all to be together and bond as a family, I know she would have wanted that. And I don’t think there’s a better way to celebrate Christmas than for our earthly family to be together to celebrate our savior’s birth while our heavenly family is doing the same.

It is Christmas Eve. My entire family is coming over to my house at 7:00pm and my heart is content.

2 Days to Christmas

I came to law school with much idealism on my sleeves. I believed in truth, beauty, justice, and all that jazz. After a week in school, I discovered the ugly source of all the lawyer jokes. At the end of my first year, I was officially depressed. With callous individuals around me, I grew bitter. With questions like, “you want to help old people? Why?” I grew angry. With an environment where the only measure of success is how much money you will make, I felt utterly unsatisfied. Slowly but surely, the incredulous discontent grew in me such that I lost a part of myself.

It is now 2 ½ years since I stepped into law school and I am happier now than I have been in a long time. I discovered that while there is that group of heartless individuals who cares nothing but themselves, there are still plenty of warm, sweet, and wonderful people that have hearts of gold. I have friends who surprised me with flowers at my door upon hearing about my aunt’s passing; those who were willing to get up at 9:00am on a Saturday morning to be a witness at my mock-trial. I have friends who know the secrets of a good life and bypass the ridiculous back-stabbing competitiveness of law school entirely – those who open their homes to all of their friends, earning the name, “UCST.” I have friends who help you when you’re in need, who shares knowledge and information with you when you have questions (for those of you who don’t realize this, such candor is precious commodity in law school), and friends who bring out the best in you. I am finally beginning to enjoy law school. I treasure the late nights of drinking wine and watching “Elf”; meeting at Extraordinary Desserts 11:00 at night, waiting in the cold to get a cup of piping hot Kona coffee and scrumptious tortes; playing “Ultimate Looser” while studying for the finals; meeting for Indian food for lunch; sipping happy hour cocktails with friends.... there’s so much more!

As I am about to step out of law school and into the real world, I am happy to say that I still believe in truth, beauty, justice, and all that jazz. It is two days to Christmas and I am so thankful for all the friends that made the past years so much more fun and bearable. The measure of success to you, my friends, will always be the effect you have on other’s lives; your generosity; the love that you give; and the joy that you bring.

3 Days to Christmas

In the beginning of my law school career, I went through the painstaking process of looking for an apartment and someone to live with. After contacting several potential roommates, the four of us decided to meet in the food court at the mall. Little did I know, my usual cheeriness scared off my current roommate at that meeting, and I had to settle to live with another. During the school year, I was often stranded at school, and the girl that I scared off always offered me rides home. Soon we became study buddies and eventually we were studying so much together that we were thinking of living in the study room at our school. After knowing me for a year, she determined that my cheeriness was not due to a hidden psychosis, but from a naturally enthusiastic personality, and so naturally, we decided to live together. From having similar culture and taste in food to cooking together and reading each other’s minds, we go together with so much ease.

One day, my parents came over to bring us food, as they often do. Dad always prepares a lunch for me, my roommate, and Chris. As my roommate and I sat there eating, mom and dad started attacking anything in our apartment that appeared dirty. There we were, eating, talking, and laughing, suddenly I felt that this must be what it feels like to have a sister. Being an only child, I’ve been wanting a sibling to finish my sentences; a sibling who emails me at the exact same second when we’re at the opposite ends of the world; a sibling who cooks something that I’ve been craving for the last three days without telling her so, and a sibling who will receive my telepathic messages to bring home a tub of yogurt enough to feed a small army. Over the last 2 ½ years of playing and suffering through school together, she has become more of a family member than a girl that I share rent with. It is 3 days before Christmas, and I am so thankful to have her in my life. I will always love and appreciate our adventures together.

4 Days To Christmas

More than a decade ago, I ended a horrid relationship with a friend who had an abusive father, resulting in her father threatening my life. I was 13 then, with childish mental faculties and experience, I was frightened and cried every night for what seemed like forever, and I prayed every night for a friend, a real friend.

There was this girl in my school, she sat by the same tree every lunch and had the exact lunch every day: turkey sandwich and a carton of chocolate milk. In a world full of junior high cliques, she welcomed everyone and anyone to sit with her at that tree. I sat with her then, and the same girl used to run besides me in PE (I hated PE at that age!) and encouraged me to finish running the mile every Friday morning. My prayer was answered, and we became fast friends. In high school we were inseparable. We used to drive around in her little 1989 Toyota round and round my neighborhood, just talking. We didn’t need any fancy entertainment, we didn’t need to “do” something together for fun, we had each other for company, and our conversations were faucets that could not be turned off. We talked mostly about God, the universe, and everything else under the sun. Our world views and mindsets were crafted under much imagination and we shaped each other’s worlds into one which evil do not win and the good always triumph. Our worlds were such that we believed in the goodness of people, and thoroughly denied the state of nature crated by the cynical Hobbes. In college she went away to Washington. At first I thought she was going to Washington D.C. and only knew differently when she drew me a map of the entire United States. I kept that map, it’s still somewhere in the boxes from when my parents moved. We sheltered each other from much of the turmoil and drama of high school, and the resulting naiveté is no doubt a product of our friendship. She’s in seminary now, heeding God’s call on her life. More than a decade later, we are still friends. Seeing each other only a few weeks out of the year, she is still very much my best friend, and irreplaceable. It is four days before Christmas, and I will forever be thankful of this precious answer to my prayer.

5 Days To Christmas

I’ve always wanted a great love, the kind of love that grows fonder with age, like fine wine. I wanted someone who shares in all my joys; comfort me when I’m in pain; cares for me and think me precious, and love me for all my faults and strengths. I’ve always imagined being with someone who I can learn from, someone that will make me a better person because he always sees the best in people. I wanted someone that loves something because I love it, to drive like a madman so that I may get my panda fix. I wanted someone with a good heart; someone to love my family like I love my family. Someone who plays video games with my adult cousins; someone who goes to the mall with my younger cousin all afternoon to buy the teenager a Christmas present; someone who spends hours playing with my 6-year-old baby cousin, teaching her how to play chess. Someone who the 6 year-old will wait up for knowing that he’s coming to a certain family event and pokes me every 5 minutes saying, “Chris isn’t here yet! Where is he?” I’ve always wanted someone that will put his family first, someone who passed on some of the highest paying law firms in the country so that he will have time to spend with me and our future family. I’ve always wanted someone whose heart is pure and good, whose spirit and generous and true. Someone who says, “of course we’ll take care of your parents!” and someone who offers to have my grandmother live with us in the future because he loves her so. I’ve always wanted someone who, despite his great potential at future success, shares his determination with me to be humble when he makes money; someone who is already planning on spending monies that we haven’t made to specific charities, and to our parents’ retirement.

I’ve never thought that I’d be lucky enough to find that someone on my first try! I’ve heard many people say that the beginning of the relationship is always the best, but I like the present the best thus far, and I know that the best is yet to come. 5 days to Christmas and I am thankful for this great blessing in my life. I am thankful for the assurance, the comfort, and the love given to me. It is a wonderful life, and I pray to never forget that.

The Happiest Day Of My Life

Yesterday, I saw Bai Yun taking Su Lin (the 4 month-old baby panda) out of the den on panda cam and my wonderful boyfriend promptly rushed me to the zoo. I ran to the gates, gave them my pass, and ran like a crazy person to the panda exhibit. On the way there, a little boy who was running towards me (I think we were the only two people running in the zoo), saw me and came to a screeching halt, he waved to me and shouted, “Hi!” It was so cute. I stopped too and I said “hi” back. After that brief interruption, I flew across the escalators and down the stairs to the panda exhibit. And there she was, the cute little 4 month-old panda cub pawing the door of the den to get to mama panda. OMG. She was soooooo cute! She’s furry and fuzzy and tiny! She kept trying to clime this step about a foot tall to get to her mama, when she finally got to the top of the step, her big round butterball butt slipped and she came rolling down. It was so cute! So cute! Everyone that was standing there made this “ahhhh” sound as Su Lin rolled off the step. The zookeeper kept telling us to keep moving, but no one did. We just ignored the zookeeper and kept our eyes on the precious little thing. *sigh* that was the best thing to see, ever!

I Know Why God Created Pandas

They were created just to be cute. Let me break it down -

Exhibit A: they are incredibly inefficient at digesting bamboo (the main source of their diet), because their intestinal structure is really more suited to eating meat.
Exhibit B: The mother/baby ratio is horribly off. The mother weighs about 250-300 pounds while the baby panda cub weighs the same as about a stick of butter when they're born, which heightens the possibility of accidents that can happen to the baby.
Exhibit C: The mother panda can only care for one baby cub at a time. Which means that if the mother gives birth to twins, she would have to let one die in the wild.
Exhibit D: Pandas only mate once a year.

Is there any shock that pandas are on the brink of extinction? So why are these awfully inefficient bears created? To be cute, that's why. I give you,
Exhibit E:

Three Things I Learned About Myself...

One thing I love about growing older is the surprising discoveries that I still make about myself; below are the three new things I learned in the last month:

1. Kathy Griffin is my favorite comedian
2. I like eating honey-nut cheerios with light beer
3. I am the most arrogant FreeCell player ever...well, that’s because I’m the best.

It is 1:00 in the morning, and I have just made enough food to feed a small army.

Been working on my paper all day, exploring the nook and cranny of using juvenile adjudication as a prior offense under the Three Strikes law. I grew restless. Looking around the room, I fixed my eyes on the pots and pans and the stovetop. Wanting to create something with my hands, I walked to the refrigerator – my color the ingredients and my canvas the wok. Sans thinking, sans theorizing, I followed a sort of creative natural instinct and melded together a unique smorgasbord of ingredients to make something that’s mine alone.

I cracked two eggs open, chopped green onions with ease, and gently shredded the home-stewed beef and chicken with my hands. I decided to make fried rice. Sweet smelling aromas filled the room as every flavor blended perfectly together. I finished it with a pinch of salt and a handful of fresh ground pepper.

The room smells soothing now, like home. I have not tried my creation, but it’s already perfect - sitting pretty on the stovetop, emitting the warmth and comfort that I was looking for.