For Debbie / Six Month Summary

Well, I'm in NYC until May. But as far as what happened between June 2010 and today 2011..."There is too much. Let me sum up." I finished my pool job. Then my mom and dad decided to move to Seattle, for real. They sold the house. I said goodbye to all my Richlandia friends and two large fistfuls of commitments I made over the fall (did you know winter, spring, summer, and autumn all have six letters?).

Between Christmas and New Years, I helped Debbie (she's the other woman in this photo) host a dinner party.

My new goal (a fourth thematic change for this blog) is a sort of merging of two previous iterations (reviews of fancy restaurants & me+friends): reports on the monthly dinner parties I plan to host in Queens. The primary inspiration for this is that my sublet has a dining room! Practically unheard of in my experience in The Apple.

Canadia Camping

Juanita arrived Friday night at 2AM. I snoozed in the parked car since I drove to the airport at 11:40PM when her flight was scheduled to get into Seatac. The next day, we drove to Vancouver, BC. Her first time out of the country! It was exciting. We met up with and stayed at our friend Raymond (from TSC in NYC) and his family. The Wongs are truly hospitable and kind. His mother was extremely complimentary: happy to have us,; we both have nice, clear voices; did we sing?


Here's Raymond with the family dog, Joey, the chihuahua. Named so because he looks like a small kangaroo. And because his originally given name, which I've forgotten, was too difficult for Raymond's dad to pronounce. It was fun for me to hang out with a Chinese family other than my own.

Raymond took us on a quick tour of Vancouver but first we stopped at Kingsway Sushi where Juanita fell in love with the chicken teriyaki roll. Juany is allergic to seafood and I'm allergic to fish. We make a great pair for sushi. Anyway, pictured here is the kimchi beef--my pick.

After driving around North Van, as they say, and seeing a deer on Mt. Seymour, we headed back home for dinner. Here is the whole Family Wong (Juanita got a more in-focus picture which, if she shares, I'll replace this with).





Raymond enjoying some of his sister Leanna's strawberry sauce on ice cream.










I enjoyed mine with ice cream AND a Leanna-made brownie.








Mooch reunites with his long lost big brother in Vancouver. Turns out, Mooch is his surname, as his brother also had a tag that read "Mooch", so clearly we have a tribesman here. I was overjoyed. Juanita thought I was crazy. Well, I'm highly interested in roots and family systems. So this was metaphorical for me. In a way. Any ideas for a first name? Let me know.







After dinner, Raymond took us for Vancouver qwik tour part 2. Stanley park was beautiful at sunset. Juanita also really liked the dessert (more?!?) at True Confections. They both ordered the strawberry shortcake. I had a bite.








The next day, we went to church at Tenth, sprinted through Granville Island, and then had a super yummy lunch at Sha Lin Noodle House, where they make noodles fresh by hand. Amazing. We bid our farewells to the Wongs (Leanna sent us off with more strawberry sauce, chocolate chips, and marshmallows) and gassed up for the drive to Kelowna. Originally, I had thought to stay the night at Kamloops just because the name is so funny and it's a good midpoint, but the Wongs recommended Kelowna and so there we went. Juanita, for those who know her well, let her hair down. A true first. I am continually impressed by her maturing and daring.


A far cry from 'roughing it', we stayed at the Holiday Inn in West Bank (I've decided Holiday Inns are the best economy hotel--my stay in Flagstaff was at another nice and helpfully-staffed HI) where Lyndsey, our awesome front desk lady, made us reservations at Quails Gate. Here's my wild boar pappardelle. Y-U-M.



After taking our last showers for a few days, we got back in the car on Monday and drove to Lake Louise in Banff National Park. It took us much longer than anticipated because of construction and some accidents. Driving by KMH is fun. And the mountains were breathtaking. Thank God for my brother-in-law Doug who let me drive his Honda Accord rather than the cruise-control-less Toyota truck. There is a cassette deck and I bought a iPod converter. But Juanita loved the old mixed tape my friend Jason gave me back in 1992, so we mostly listened to that.


We finally checked into our campground, surrounded by an electrical fence to keep bears out, and set up our site. I burned the Rice A Roni but salvaged it with canned spinach and chicken, somehow it was edible. It was freezing that night. So the next day, we went to Banff to see the sites, and play our parts as tourists. Juanita picked up some Maple Leaf wear both in celebration of Canada Day as well as staying warm enough to sleep.





Here's how some other girls observed Canada Day in Lake Louise. Super cute.










We both took tons of photos of mountains and water. Here's just one sample so as to not spoil it for you if you go yourself. It was stunning and powerful.






:)











My abstract art of Lake Louise. The emerald color of the water is from rock powder that gets mixed in as the ice and snow melt off the mountains.






I am a terrible fire-starter and all my clothes smelled like smoke when we got to Victoria. The 9-hour drive was incredible uneventful and I was glad. We stayed a Paul's Motor Inn as recommended by Meggan's friend and I got to see Juanita's hair in even fuller glory.


As a tribute to camping, I cooked some ramen on the camp stove in the room. No fire alarms went off. It was OK.




Friday, we went to breakfast at my new favorite chain restaurant, White Spot. The ambiance is private and subdued. The menu is concise yet informative. And the food is kilometers tastier and healthier than Denny's. Even the coffee was great.








We took a long drive along the water around Victoria and then went to Butchart Gardens [that's a link to image results, not their website].










Juany was in charge of the map. I was on Plant Identification duty. This is a zinnia.


Unidentified daisy.


Lunch in downtown Victoria at John's Place where the (again, super helpful and friendly--is it a Canadian thing?) host gave us good directions to Mt. Douglas for a panoramic view of the city. Ferried into Anacortes and got to Bellevue late.

Yesterday, we celebrated America's Independence Day with Jane's neighborhood. They have a kids parade and 2nd annual BBQ. It was hot and fun. Here's the two girls pre-parade. I took Juanita to the airport this morning, she already texted me that she arrived fine in New York and is having sushi. I returned the gear I borrowed from Delphine's house and went to service at Mars Hill Bellevue where I met a nice couple from Las Vegas. Have spent the rest of today emailing and posting this blog and reading friends' blogs/FB. Tired from so much fun.

Tomorrow, I'll accompany Jane and kids to Richland where I'll be for about 10 days before camping again and then visiting the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy. Looking forward to catching up with more Tri-Citian friends.

Family: the great time warp

Seriously. When I hang out with my family, I kind of forget about the rest of my life. I am only a daughter, a sister, or an auntie. There is no "Irene", only "Xiao A Yi" (pinyin for 'mother's younger sister'). So now I face the biggest blog lapse since I began, I think.

The rest of my time in Richland was packed to the gills with good visits with more friends interspersed with FB Texas Hold Em'. Had a cathartic discussion of sorts with my parents and the fruit of that emotional expression/honesty is still reverberating. If fruit reverberates, that is. Ripening, might be a more contiguous verb. So, again, yay emotional maturation! Yay, counseling! One friend of mine whom I saw a few times during my 10 days in Richland quipped (I paraphrase): you have a lot of patience to engage with a variety of people and really listen to them and remember details about their lives. It blesses me to watch you interact with people. Her words were very affirming as I find her an incredibly upbeat and engaging person.

So I wound up driving the standard-shift, no power steering, cassette tape deck truck to Seattle as my parents went up the day before so my dad could attend my niece's "Special Guy" kindergarten lunch. It wasn't so bad. Dance recital was fun(ny). And I was The Face Painter at her 6th birthday party. All the moms recognize me as such now. One kid asked if it was my job. Maybe I should consider it? Speaking of, my current idea list of jobs come 2010 are: teach, nanny, freelance project management, and nursing school (I realize this is not a job). So kind of broad spectrum. And of course I could become another empty-pocketed writer. Which sounds kind of appealing as well.

So the party was fun and the clown was totally not scary and very funny ("Nothing better than an iced-mustard.") but the memorable thing was that during the party my other sister called to say that my dad was going to take me sick mother to the ER because she couldn't stop puking. And this was on my mom's actual 73rd birthday! So they hydrated her and gave her some medication IV and sent her home. But we were all worried. My mom is a workhorse and kept apologizing for not being able to help out. This was the least of our concern. Anyway, some drama ensued about whether she should go home or stay but eventually she and my dad went home to Richland for a few days before coming back so my dad could present the gospel at an area Chinese church event. I have many thoughts and feelings about the Whole Thing but most importantly, I created a Therapeutic Event (so calls my counselor) in that I am separating from my parents' marriage. It's not mine, I've got no business in it, and boy is that freeing. (Thanks to Kristie who shared some good stuff with me and confirmed that it's the right thing for me to do, emotionally--even if it sounds crazy.)

The rest of the week has been a mix of Play Dough with my 2nd youngest niece, Jackpot (some ball toss game) with my eldest niece and her neighbor friends, wiping up spills, changing diapers, playing Settlers of Catan with my brother-in-law and sister, grocery shopping, researching washing machines, driving the minivan around, and tickling my nephew. I am the 3rd parent.

I did see my high school friend Jason yesterday for coffee. He works at T-Mobile and I hung out with him before he caught the bus back across Lake Washington (well, missed and caught the next one). So that's some peer-level interaction.

My next stops are Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canadia and Banff with Juanita; Bellevue/Seattle for Independence Day; Richland for another week; TBD; camping in Mt Rainier Park; the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy from Richland; and NYC on August 1st.

I'll post some pictures later today if I get a chance.

Love to you, my lovely readers. A quote via my friend Amy: Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. (And reading my blog = being heard. So there.)

Back in the USSA

Love my new friends in Montenegro. Will post photos soon.

A day in Warszawa to quickly catch up with Gosia and give a little presentation to her 2nd grade class on my visit to Turkey. Karen and Emre had helped me out already by teaching me a song. The two Turkish kids in Gosia's class--excuse me, Miss Margaret's class--resisted singing it because they said it was for babies. And the one American kid said to me in reply after I told him I was American: "Native American?" It was a fun day. Will post pictures tomorrow maybe. See: Turkey/Montenegro culture has worn off on me a bit. Nothing is definite. Nothing is urgent.

Can I just say that the Vienna airport is the only one so far where wifi isn't an issue for my iPod? Countless other places I have full bars, so to speak, but still Safari won't open. Ugh. This is frustrating to me. Disagreeable even.

So then I was in NYC for less than 24 hours but had breakfast/Central Park stroll with Nancy from Alabama. Gosia said it was funny she used to be Nancy from back stage crew at TSC, then she was Nancy from NYC, now she's Nancy from Alabama. People move.

And of course a Korean food fix with Juany (my endlessly gracious host) before catching my flight to Colorado, where I am now. Aurora. Which reminds me of Wayne's World, even though it's the wrong state. Like strip malls and nice split level houses. Work with me.

I'll be here for the next few days before visiting Joanna (Wellesley friend) in Albuquerque (which I'm learning to spell correctly) and then Grisel's wedding (TSC friend) in Phoenix and the Grand Canyon and then Vegas to see Carrie (high school friend).

So many stories to relate about the rest of Turkey trip and Montenegro. But for some reason what I want to share is getting on the subway from JFK airtrain (my fav) and glancing over to see the totally thugged out guy sitting next to me is midway through The Plumed Serpent by DH Lawrence. More reasons why I [heart] NYC.

Old Friends/Old Town

DC stint contained no national monuments. Rather, friend-since-junior-high Colleen and her stinkin' cute daughter and funny husband. I drove Shannon's car (with Shannon in the passenger seat fielding phone calls) to DC and we had Korean food (see, Joyce, still not sick of it) and then arrived at Colleen's house. The next day, I accompanied Colleen and s.c. daughter to play group:


After a long Starbucks wifi session and Georgetown nature walk, I met up with Shannon and we met her friends in Old Town for BBQ:




Saturday was girls day, we went to REI where I cashed in my dividend for a non-fleecy-looking-fleece (inspired by Joyce's similar item), had lunch at Chipotle, then spa pedicures (caught up on celebrity gossip and therein deduced that Colleen has enough time to Facebook...), and Trader Joe's where I managed to spend $0. :)


We finally got home and participated in a dad's and daughter's burger night for Colleen's husband's friends whose wives were away for the weekend. I was enchanted with Cinderella and Shannon's nearly cordial welcome of the babies.

Sunday, my old friend Riah whom I know from NYC (my first friend from TSC) picked me up and we had a light lunch at Le Madeleine and then Korean church service where I was introduced as "our Chinese sister" and then Korean food (a buffet, nonetheless, i.e. heaven).

I realize this is is pretty much an events account. I had a pretty emotional day today with a great tele-therapy session with my counselor from Richland so perhaps I'll be more up for emoting later this week.

Shirlie's house in New Jersey is super quaint and her daughter is warming up to me...we'll see. For some real good news, check out my friend's blog.

Joyce's Nephews

As some of you know, I only have one nephew and lots of nieces. Joyce, my college roommate and good friend, is the opposite: one niece and lots of nephews. While she lives in San Francisco, her family all live in Atlanta so I met up with her and stayed at her sister's house for a few days during which we celebrated two of her nephews' birthdays.

Here she is with one of the non-birthday boys. He called me "Ween", as in, "Oh, hi, 'ween." Very cute.

I love Koreans (well, some of them) and Korean food! Half the items on this table are plastic. But the other half are real and So-Yummy.

For me, the Atlanta attractions were H-mart (got a $.99 grocery tote that features their motto: better food better life) and the huge Whole Foods (evident theme). But we did go to this regular tourist attraction in Stone Mountain. It's a big park with all sorts of stuff including the signature sight of this not-quite-Mt. Rushmore carving of three Confederate heros: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis (I got to mention that I'd seen the house he died in).

The next day I got to play rowdy Aunt Irene and cheer our mini-Ichiro (I know, he's not Korean but whatever) on and loudly question the umpire's home plate calls. Embarrassing, but fun. And the 50 cent hot dogs were good too.

Had a couple good laughs with Joyce and lots of Korean food. Also got to see Joyce in the context of her family which was great fun for me, I love families.

Seattle visit 2 of 3

Well, my sister was surprised on magnitude for her 40th birthday party, though she 'knew something was up'. I'm glad that my part (the slide show) went off mostly without a hitch; my brother-in-law admitted to getting misty-eyed at the end. So the sentimental chord was struck, which I count as dramatic success (Thanks, Elijah!).

My newest niece was "presented" (I think was the word the pastor used) today. And among other things (like Nordstroms with my mom and Costco with my dad) I tried to teach my eldest neice a song in round while she worked on some Valentines (these are for real--sorry I don't know how to rotate them for ease-of-reading):




I called my health insurance to see if they cover international and they don't. So for those of you who pray, I could use some wisdom figuring out what to do about the times I'm abroad. Also, I just finished reading The Treasure Principle and am thinking a lot about giving. My tax return should be deposited soon. And I have some sold stock value sitting in cash...TMI? Anyway. Really, I'm not that worried. Recent provision: very reasonable airfare to Poland for me and Stacey, parking spot at Mars Hill 11:15 service, hassle-free drive back home including interesting conversation with dad. So, all will be well.

Tomorrow, visiting friends in Pullman. Hope to have Wi-Fi there.

And also I think I may have a 'job' idea: consulting but for families rather than businesses. Like helping families deal with some chronic issue that's process/task-natured, not psychological. Think I could get anyone to pay for that? Somehow utilizing my project management skills but in a domestic setting. With most my clients being moms...