bag #18..."these are a few of my favorite things..."
I spent Friday opening the bags that I had claimed were "salvageable" (read:not filled with asbestos or heavily water damaged). However, when I opened up a few of the bags, there was some fat mold growing on my kitchenware. UGH. Anyway, I've got about 30 more bags of junk (I've labeled every single bag by hand and inventories the contents... unfortunately most of it is going to be thrown away) in storage. I'm waiting for the stinkin' apartment management company to pay me my money before I open up the rest since I might be able to use those moldy bags as evidence in a lawsuit. Anyway, to respond to couscous's post, I'll share with you the contents of my favorite bag of ruined possessions:

Contents of bag #18:
1. Computer keyboard and mouse
2. Beautiful maroon silk pillows from China
3. "Herbert," My yellow stuff animal that I got from Jenn Tan in college
4. My domokun stuffed animal given to me by minsoo for v-day 2001
5. Totoro stuffed animal from minsoo, v-day 2002
6. Snowflake AKA "Dandruff" gund animal that I got from couscous
7. AND MY TOILET PLUNGER.

I might have considered trying to salvage this bag... Unfortunately the nincompoops who "cleaned" my apartment didn't think that packaging a toilet plunger next to my pillows and stuff animals would nullify any possible cleaning they could have done. Thanks guys. Good-bye Snowflake.

like a bad song
This morning I stopped off at starbucks for my usual fix (I've become an addict - thanks, minsoo) and when I returned to my car, I noticed some white marks on my bumper. I stopped in my tracks, grabbed some napkins and started scraping at the white scratches. Nooooooo, not my new car.

Why does it seem like my life is like a song with cheesy lyrics that always refer to having unfortunate things happen all the time? Am I a drama queen? Perhaps. Do ridiculous things seem to keep happening to me? Most definitely.

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." -- Colossians 3:2

On another note, here's another nugget of wisdom...

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." -- Colossians 4:5-6

fortune cookie
"You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily." *sigh.*

kids make me sad sometimes. but sometimes they make me smile
Kids... hate 'em and love 'em. I'll tell you Thomas's story when I get beyond this whole apartment mess. Read minsoo's extra page and find out why he's my new favorite student. (Sidenote: today he only told me hated me once!)

update
I spent this weekend taking inventory of my belongings (99% of which are in plastic bags) in the unit the apartment management company is "generously" offering us. I am of course getting out of that asbestos hole and moving into the complex my roommate currently lives in. I'm hoping I can hold my ground and demand my money -- I'm really nervous about speaking to the management company and not remembering my arguments for why they stinkin' should pay for replacing all my stuff... Lift up a prayer for me.

and did i mention the asbestos?
All of my belongings (including the dry items that I placed in another apartment in the unit) have been "quarantined" until they can come in and clean it all. I literally left the complex last night with only the clothes on my back. I had to visit a used clothing store and the ever-so helpful target to buy necessary items (including freakin' UNDERWEAR). I've surrounded myself with other people to try and keep the situation filled with humor, but everytime I'm by myself the tears start flowing. Lift up a prayer for me guys. It's been a rough weekend.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where theives break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -- Matthew 6:19-21

it has to get a whole lot worse before it gets better...
And it did. Last night I arrived home and saw fire trucks in front of my apartment, yellow "do not cross" tape and firemen tearing up my ceiling. A water line broke in my apartment unit and flooded THE ENTIRE UNIT. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, almost everything I own was covered in water, ceiling debris and muck. I salvaged what I could (the firemen were quite nice after watching me sob for a few minutes) and left the rest for today. My mom was relieved to hear that I wasn't in the apartment when it happened, however, I'm still in shock from the sheer RIDICULOUSNESS of this situation. Let's revisit my journey post-graduation:

September, 2000: Move to Berkeley to live with friend whom I've know since age 9. Doh! I forgot how big of a flake she is.
December, 2000: Put in my 30-days to move out. Then I realize the apartment we have agreed to rent has major issues. Have 30 days to move out.
January, 2001: Move to San Leandro and into the most ghetto apartment complex ever with my flake of a roommate. Move in with some random guy who cordons off the living room to use as his bedroom. Sketchy? Definitely.
March, 2001: Move out of the ghetto and into apartment in SF with sister because I find out that my flaky roommate isn't allowed to live with guys and that she's been hiding this fact from her parents (and asked me to lie about it to her parents). Unfortunately, flaky roommate is too flaky to make arrangements for herself and I end up taking her into to live in my room.
July, 2001: She was supposed to have moved out of my room last month. Still here.
July, 2001: My other friend asks to stay with me because she got laid off. It's like living in a college double.
September, 2001: Move to Campbell in a random house with friend who got laid off and now has a new job in south bay. Do not know the three random people living here, two of whom are an engaged couple. No lease, but dude, the house is nice.
December, 2001: One roommate moves out, another roommate moves in.
March 2002: One roommate moves out, another roommate moves in. Disaster ensues.
June 2002: Two roommate (couple) move out. 40-year-old random guy roommate who works at a tech company during the day and plays in a cover band at night, moves in.
June, 2002: Roommate is a partying frat boy minus the university. Random people in our house, parties in our garage and a lot of unrecycled 40-oz bottles cause my friend J and I to go crazy. He refuses to move out. We decide to move out. Landlord calls his parents. Parents come get party boy. We stay.
August, 2002: New roommate moves in. This one is a 23-year-old apple employee by day, bar bouncer by night. In between the two gigs, he sits on the couch and hordes my TV. Asks my roommate J to braid his long hair. EW.
September, 2002: J says she's moving to China. I scramble to find a new place.
October, 2002: She's not moving until January. Phew.
January 1, 2003: Move into "new" apartment. Roommate (old roommate from Dec-Feb 2002) is scheduled to move in by the end of Feb.
January 31, 2003: Call roommate about paying next month's rent. About 10 minutes later, get a call from apartment manager saying that there's been a huge disaster in my apartment.

I don't even think it matters what has happened up until now. What is amazing is that so much has happened since moving up to the bay area. Is this a sign? I don't know. All I know is that I'm hoping that it gets better from here.

better day
Working with kids is like having multiple personality disorder. Some days, it's like you've struck gold with the kids and they are the smartest, most wonderful little bundles of joy. Other days, you want to grab them around the throat and teach 'em a thing or two. I'm not sure I like this rollercoaster ride of emotions. Today was a great day. I literally almost cried as I looked around the room at the angels sitting quietly doing their homework (okay, so one angel was messing around when my back was turned... at least he was good when I glanced over). While today's energy has given me a second wind, I'm a little bit unsure about developing a career in working with youth. I liken my feelings about working with youth to one of my co-worker's dysfunctional relationships. She was dating someone who wasn't really compatible with her. However, she stayed with her boyfriend because when it was good, it was really good. But, when times were bad, they were horrible. Hm. There's something dysfunctional about this dynamic.

venting
Today was one of those days that I think to myself, "How did I get here? At what point in my career decision-making process did I think this job was a good idea?" Whoever said that working with kids was a good idea was W-R-O-N-G. Okay, I'm done.

Rough day? You could say that. Today was the first day that one of the kids in my group was suspended. It was also the first day of program. I'm working on the second suspension. Let's see how day 2 goes.

taking hammer's advice
Tomorrow is the first day of the second semester of the afterschool program I work for. Despite the amount of work I've put into making this program work, I'm kinda dreading the first day. It's 11:30 and I should be sleeping instead of writing how much I'm dreading work tomorrow. Guess it's just like MC Hammer says: I gotta pray, (PRAY!) pray, (PRAY!), I gotta pray just to make it today. Should I ask God for wisdom? Or maybe more patience? Or how about praying that I will win the lottery...

blog-mania
I'm not mincing words today. Kristina -- you be crazy sista. I personally don't mind missing the beauty of snow, etc. The green mountains are pretty nice around here, especially when it's 65 degrees. Actually, I'm pretty weak sauce, so I even complain about the Northern vs. So Cal weather.

So blog madness has blown up with full force. It seems as if I get an "I got a blog!" e-mail every week. I know I'm not as old school as minsoo or some others, but the trend has surprised me. A part of me is unsure about this madness because it means that more people will be tuning in to my lame commentary on my life (via links on popular pages) and discovering that I've had a blog for a year and a half and haven't shared it with most of my friends. At the same time, it's good to be in touch with people via the web.

Work update... we have 45+ kids signed up for our program, which is AMAZING. Last semester we had 12 kids show up on the first day and maxed out at 21... This semester we're actually going to need a waiting list. Aw yeah. Program starts on Monday... I better start bracing myself.

blog war
Nice sell, Tricia. (read Tricia's blog.) To her attempts to diss my California, I only have one thing to say: Don't knock it 'til you try it. Believe me, once you go West coast you never go back.

*Sigh* I enjoy verbally sparing with my friends via blogger. It almost makes me believe that I'm actually in regular communication with my friends from NU. It's sad that I must "catch up" with my pals by reading weblogs or hearing the latest from whomever wanders out to Northern California. I was reading Hannah's blog and it made me want to go back to the days of dorm rooms, long talks until 2 a.m. and some solid girl time. I'm often surprised at how I became so close to women who came from different parts of the country and seemingly shared nothing in common with me except for my faith. I can't tell you how much I miss that. No matter how much I really try and replicate that out here, it never feels the same as hanging out at Norris drinking Italian sodas and speculating about our futures.

Ladies, I'm planning a trip out to Chicago sometime soon... after the snow, of course ;)

the flick n' float incident
My DSL connection is back up at my new apartment. Ahhh, now it feels like home.

How about another tale from middle school? (The middle school I work at, not a flashback from my middle school days)...

The afterschool program I'm helping to build at the school has already developed the reputation for being the new kids who screw around all day. Whenever anything at the school is misplaced, the kids are loud or there's a funny smell in the halls who do the teachers and administrators blame? Yes, the afterschool program. We have been accused of taking supplies (well, okay, some of our kids have sticky fingers), smoking in one of the rooms we use (even though none of the staff smokes) and not making the kids be quiet in the halls (okay, okay, you got us on that one.) We've had a pretty good streak, until this past week...

To recruit kids, we made a bunch of fun signs to hang above the halls. One of our most creative signs said, "Ever swam in a pool and watched a movie at the same time? Join Citizen Schools and do Flick and Float!" What is flick and float, you ask? The YMCA projects a movie onto the wall above the pool and kids sit in flotation devices and watch the flick. Yes, sounds like fun, eh? We thought that it would be a big draw. However, an hour after we put up the signs, we noticed that this particular one had been taken down. We suspected some punk kids did it. The next morning, the principal comes into our office holding the sign. He had taken it down after a few teachers pointed out the questionable content. Questionable content?!?! Apparently my co-worker had used all capital letters to write the sign. Unfortunately, when you spell "flick" using all caps, it looks like.... yeah, you guessed it. Fortunately, the faculty laughed it off and we used it as our schtick for the rest of the week.

Can't we do anything right? I feel like I'm on a sitcom sometimes...

a challenge
Right now minsoo and I are partners in fierce challenge. This challenge involves residency interviews and our NU Med school pals. As I read blogs from other NU friends vying for the relocation of our med school pals, I only have one things to say: 65 DEGREES IN JANUARY. Beat that sucka. Not to seem hostile or the least bit competitive, but tricialae and couscous, consider the gauntlet thrown. Pshaw, the 'Lou. California's the place to be. Bring it on.

paradise
I had the perfect weekend in LA (Redondo Beach to be exact). It took us 6 hours to drive from San Jose to Redondo including a stop at in-and-out in Kettleman City and a bathroom stop at the grapevine. We arrived around 3pm to mid-70 degree weather. Hannah (minsoo's sister) and I went to the beach and took in a spectacular sunset over the water. We also saw the paramedics and lifeguards rush to the aid of a woman who was hit in the head by a rock (apparently the woman and her husband were playing catch -- with a rock! She turned away and he clocked her in the head. Smart.) Hannah kept calling the lifeguard trucks the "baywatch trucks" and immediately fell in love with my hometown ("You live in paradise!").

Saturday I ate Dim Sum with my family and took Minsoo and Hannah to Hermosa to walk around. The warm sun was amazing. The two left for a wedding a few hours later and I went back to the beach with a few friends to watch the sunset. My friend and I went to El Burrito Jr for some yummy and dirt cheap mexican food. Then I hung out at a cool coffeehouse where there was live Jazz. I played a little bit of chess with some pals and headed home to wait up for the wedding folk.

I'm back in Northern California and missing home a lot. *sigh*

2003
Happy New Year! Here are some fun little personal stats to ring in the new year:
Occupation: Starting up an afterschool program for punky middle schoolers
Residence: Temporarily homeless. Will move into a new apartment Jan 10
Currently enjoying: VH1's "I love the 80's" special. Right now it's on 1983. Love it! A walk through memory lane...
Marital status: Single (and no, wedding bells are not in the immediate future!) but very happily with minsoo
Favorite new purchase: Badass (and very expensive) black leather knee-high boots.
The song I can't get out of my head: "Breathe In" by Frou Frou
One reason 2003 will be better than 2002: No freaky roommates (Hopefully.)

last weird roommate story of 2002
I left work early yesterday hoping to do some work while lounging at home and watching a few movies I had rented last weekend. I was especially thrilled to be going home early as my roommate R (the one with the shaved head in the back and long ponytail-length hair in the front who works a day job at apple and is a bouncer at a bar) was going home for TWO weeks. Unfortunately he was there when I got home. I was sorely disappointed. The TV nazi was home. Grrr. I wanted to scream: "Can't I just have ONE DAY when you're not around and I can watch TV by myself!? Is that too much to ask?" That sucka stayed around until about 11pm, just skulking around and dominating my 20-inch Panasonic. So, yes some might say that I am a horrible and intolerant roommate who is possessive and passive-aggressive. Okay, but you try sitting with R while watching your favorite show. Please share with me how you would handle his constant cussing as well as annoying and sometimes purely offensive comments. I'll stop here.

My new year's resolution and Christmas gift to myself: No more living with freaks.

spicy, spicy
Last night I ate a mean bowl of Duk-bol-gee (is that how you phonetically spell it?) at minsoo's house. I'm such weak sauce when it comes to spicy foods, however, this dish is like one of my favorite Korean delights. Why is that? I was sweating bullets and I almost felt like passing out after eating only half of it. After eating, I took some tums as preventative measures. Luckily my stomach enjoyed the little fire party and didn't give me too much grief.

I'm at work right now and I'm thinking of leaving early since no one (I mean NO ONE except the skater kids eating pavement on the playground) is here. I don't have any motivation to work.

now, back to living like a normal human being
This week was like my pseudo finals week. I'm not in school, however, all of the final events for the first semester of the after-school program I work for were back-to-back this week. I cried on the last day. No, no, not because I was so sad to see them go, but because they were truly evil little something-somethings and I was running on very little sleep (working about 11-16 hours a day this week). I'm glad to send them off for break and a part of me is secretly hoping some of the little terrors won't return. Unfortunately, these terrors are probably the ones that need the program the most.

Now that I'm done, I have to pack up my things and begin to get ready for my 5th move in the past two years.... hip-hip-hooray.

Ooooh, and Christmas shopping. Yikes, haven't done any of that. Doh...

hallelujah!
"Congratulations! This is your official notification that you have completely paid off the student loans starred below. We are pleased to have had you as a customer and wish you the best of luck in the future. Thank you!" -- Customer Service, Sallie Mae Servicing.

Thanks to my Americorps educational award from last year, I have completely paid off one of my loans. WOO HOO!! Despite my pauper-like existence these past two and a half years, I'm moving toward being completely debt-free!

On another note, here's a verse that I stumbled upon recently: "But godliness with contentment is great gain." - 1 Timothy 6:6. Another simple verse that I learned in Sunday School, but so often forget to put into practice.