It was a great week this week. I got to meet up with uncle Ming Seong and auntie Catherine on Thursday at the West Coast Christian Conference. It was really good to see them again, having not seen them for the last 3 years. They look the same as the last time I saw them! Lance Lambert spoke Thursday night, and I really enjoyed his message. I didnt realise how much I needed a more in depth sermon till that night. As we were walking out of the auditorium we saw auntie Vivian (Wu) and when she saw me, she about jumped out of her skin in surprise. She now lives in San Bruno, about 5 mins away from the San Bruno church. She's invited me to visit them in San Francisco and I think I will sometime soon!
I couldnt meet them on Friday because I worked till late, but I met them again tonight. And they had a surprise for me. Christine was there too! Apparently she's now living in Westwood, which is about an hour away from me. She and her husband brought her mom out for lunch today, and she stayed to meet me. It was great to see her again. Auntie Vivian wanted to surprise me, and she did. I was waiting around for uncle Ming Seong and auntie Catherine, and I heard my name being called. I turn, and walking up the stairs was Christine. It was a great surprise. We've exchanged numbers and hopefully we can meet up sometime, when our schedules permit!
Tomorrow I will meet uncle Ming Seong and auntie Cat one more time before they leave. I will not be in time for the sermon, but I will be there when the service ends and will try to spend as much time as I can with them before they have to leave for the airport.
I spent the afternoon with my student Karen again. She loves the song "Love Story", and the book she bought was too tough for her to play at this time. I was book shopping the other day and found a score that was a lot easier. So I brought it to her as a surprise, and she was so thrilled. It's actually still a little tough for her, but I taught her to play at least the right hand melody, and when she could hear herself play the melody her eyes got really huge, and she looked at me in wonder and said, I cant believe I did that! It was really fun to watch her learn her favorite piece.
Then she brought me out for lunch, and I told her, hey guess what? It's my birthday on Monday, and she goes, Awesome! then this is your birthday lunch! Eat away, you deserve it! And we had a great time at the restaurant just chatting and sharing with each other our lives and history.
I used to hate Thursdays because of one particular student. Now I love Thursdays because she's GONE! She took a break, and the office very kindly filled her spot with someone else. This little girl's name is Yena and she's great. She practises, and her mom told me she cant wait for her piano lessons! And I've only had her 2 weeks! She gave me a great big hug on Thursday before she left. Made me feel like I am accomplishing something good here!
I gotta go to bed, it's midnight, and I got to get up in 4 hours.

*grumble*
*grumble*
*moan*
"IT'S SO HOT!"
*grumble*
*grumble*

Fantastic 4......GREAT SHOW. Wish there was a little more action, but that's ok. Apparently there's 2 more sequels, so I'm satisfied. So glad I went to watch it.
Chilin is out of town. I average about 4 emails a day back and forth with him in Singapore. Amazing. And right now, there is an important email waiting for him to reply and he hasnt yet. I'm starting to panic. Oh well, I'm just the messenger, I dont make executive decisions.
I worked a lot this week. I'm so tired I'm ready for bed and it's not even 9 pm yet. And tomorrow's church, which means 4.30 am wakeup call.
So......goodnight.

Obituary:

Yumi Ricks,
Died July 5th 2005
Beloved and faithful friend to Lu, Joel, Joshua and Shari (and Audrey)
Rest in peace in doggy heaven, girl!

Joy of all joys, I got a haircut today!!!! Cut off about 3-4 inches of hair, and now I feel SO much better. I dont feel bogged down by my hair anymore.
Yesterday was 4th of July. I was in Ventura for that. I spent the night with Dana and her family, and we slept in till about 10 am Monday. I was so tired I didnt want to get up. But I was woken up by the phone ringing. It rang twice. The first time it happened I covered my ears with my pillow and prayed it would stop. The second time it rang I got up and answered it. At about noonish I laid out in the sun for a little while, just to catch some rays. It was warm but there was a nice breeze blowing, so it felt really good. Baober decided tocome join me, and layed right next to me, and made me feel even hotter. I had to push him over a little because the heat coming from his little doggy body was too much to handle. After a while I got up and took a shower because I was going to pay a visit to the Newmans.
Mike Newman is an associate pastor at First Baptist, and his wife Denise was laid up with a broken leg. They are great people. I am SO glad they came out to work at First Baptist. They seem to fit right in. They have 2 kids, Stacy and Matt. Stacy is still at med school but Matt's back from graduating college and is working with an accounting firm in Ventura. I talked to him a little about accounting and auditing because I am interested in it, and he gave me some of his insights because he didnt graduate with an accounting degree too. And he lent me one of his textbooks to look through. I figure, if I can understand what the book is saying, I think I'm in a good enough place to take classes in accounting. It surprised me that I got interested in it. I love the challenge of trying to fit the puzzles together.
I visited with them for a coupla hours and then I had to head back to Dana's because we were going to the Ventura college for a picnic and watch the fireworks there. I seem to always forget that Ventura gets about 10 degrees colder than LA, and it was a COLD COLD night yesterday night. The fireworks were to start at 9 pm, and by 730 pm I was praying it would start sooner. I kept looking at the time, but time seemed to pass so slowly. And when youre cold, time seems to stand still! But it finally started and it was 20 mins of glorious fireworks. My favorite was one that was gold, and after it burst, it shimmers for a long time, like the whole sky is filled with fairy dust. The fireworks lasted 20 mins, and part of me was in awe of the fireworks, the other part was thinking, "you mean to tell me, I waited 4 hours in the cold for TWENTY MINUTES???"
When we got back to the house, there was a huge insulated bag outside the door. Apparently Christine (Haws) cooked for me again. She cooked for me last week too. I had a conversation with her one day about eating a whole roasted chicken for 2 weeks, and she had an appalled look on her face. Apparently chicken can only be kept a week before you have to throw it out! So I guess she got worried and so she decided to cook for me. She made enough to last me a week or so. I got a lot of food! She is into organic foods, so everything in there is pretty healthy. Thanks Christine!
Sunday night the Potts had guests for dinner. Christine and her husband Randy came over for dinner, and so did Jeff and Denise Sponseller, with their daughter Nicole and her baby, Elton. It was a good time to chatting and fellowshipping. Then after they left, Dana had to prepare food for her nephew who was in town with his band for the Warp Tour. The Warp Tour is a tour of about 50 bands, and they play at different fairgrounds. They had called Dana and asked if they could come over to take a shower. So Dana made them a healthy meal, because all they ever eat is Taco Bell and McDonalds, because that's all they can afford.
There were 6 boys that walked through the door that night at 9.30 pm. All were basically in black and jeans. Most had tatoos, and some had piercings. But they were the most polite boys I have met in a long time! They came up and shook hands with me and introduced themselves. They were so grateful for the chance to take a shower, and do their laundry, and when they saw the food on the table, they were overjoyed. They waited for everyone to be seated at the table, and for grace to be said before digging in. I thought that was very cool. They couldnt stop saying thank you and Oh this is SO GOOD. I just wanted to stand there and watch them eat because it was so good to hear them gush about the food. They really did justice to it and almost demolished everything.
I admire these kids. They are living their dream. They have a little bus which they installed bunk beds, they shower every few days, they eat nothing but junk food, but they are so happy. They are so grateful for everything that is handed to them. Above all they have kept their faith, and they have kept their upbringing and discipline. No cussing, no trash talk, just very nice, polite and well behaved boys. I'm glad I had the privilege to meet them. The name of their group is called Loser's Luck. I'm not sure why the name, but it does not reflect on their personalities at all.
Accounting and auditing seems very appealing to me right now. I'll see where Matt's textbook takes me. I would love to improve myself by taking courses in it. But we shall see!
Back to work today....it was alright. Aura, Charisse and I had dinner at the Korean place again, and I really enjoyed it. Then we spent about an hour at Starbucks just chatting and catching up.
It is now bedtime. Adios!

So I was on break this week. In a nutshell, I didnt do much. Which was actually great. But I was kinda bored at the same time. So here's the quick rundown of my week:
TUESDAY: I went down to Cerritos to have lunch with Charisse and Blessing. We went to this Korean place to eat, and it really was very good. And worth the money too. It wasnt expensive at all, and I got a lot of food out of it. Then I had to go back to Chino Hills to work in the afternoon because Chilin was leaving on Thursday for an MTNA conference in Seattle. I worked till about 5 pm.
WEDNESDAY: I had lunch with Jerry. I brought him to this place called Peking Deli, which served Taiwanese and Szechuanhey food. Then we went to Sam Ash to look at music books. They didnt have a lot, so I came out with nothing. Then Jerry asked if I wanted to hang out at his place, so I went over to his place, and we all hung out, went to Costco, had dinner, watched a movie, and I finally left at about 10.30 pm.
THURSDAY: I had to work in the morning and after I got done, I think I went home. I dont really remember. I know I went out for dinner with Margaret that night. We went out to Rubios and I got fish tacos, then we went to Starbucks and had tea and sat and chatted a little before I went home.
FRIDAY: I went out with Jerry and Yuko and Yuko's husband, Eric for tea in the afternoon. We had a nice time chatting.
SATURDAY: Didnt do squat. Finally got out of bed at 1 pm. Then got some lunch, and went out to the pool to get some sun. I managed to make a few phone calls during that time.
Tomorrow I go to Ventura again. And Monday is 4th of July. I will be spending the night there and spending the day at Ventura. Should be fun.