I have had a pretty blissful month of August.  My time suck of a case settled so I got tons of free time, got settled into a new apartment, found a good farmers market with tasty (but pricey) kimchee, caught up with Battlestar Galactica (I got a fever and the  prescription is more BSG), cooked a lot, slept a lot, and read a lot of books from the library.  In short, it was awesome. 

However, this past weekend I came home and got hit with a wall of stress.  It's weird how home--home can be stressful.  Between the lectures on health, wealth, and love (or the lack thereof) I also faced closing on my first home purchase.  Gah. Stressful.  And now I've got to deal with my parents arguing over how to decorate the house.  Sigh.  It probably doesn't help that I have very little interest in couch shopping. 

So, I've been entertaining myself this weekend by trying to literally translate english idioms into korean and working them into conversation.  Conclusion: they make no sense to parents or they translate into something vaguely insulting -- "if the shoe fits, wear it" doesn't make much sense
"live long and prosper" -- the way I translated it was into another korean idiom that pretty much means the opposite. 

Other phrases I'm hoping to work in:

"don't look a gift horse in the mouth"
"if wishes were horses, beggars would ride"
"bigger fish to fry"
"have his cake and eat it too"

any other suggestions?

Also, have you noticed how people of different cultures can even cough/clear their throat differently?  I was standing and behind me I heard someone clear their throat, and I immediately knew that this person was korean.  There was just something in the way that he cleared his throat that was so typical ahjushee. 

heh.

i went to the eye doctor.... i apparently now have to wear reading glasses.  :T.  IN ADDITION TO CONTACTS.  SIGH.

ETA: I also forget when I've already done stuff.  See comment below.  I already do the walk into the room and forget what I was doing bit.  Great.  I might as well start wearing ugly yet comfortable shoes, perm my hair into tight curls, and start yelling at young people to stop watching tv/playing games/being happy and go study.  I wonder what will happen when i really hit my 40s and 50s?  Will I hit a second youth or will I be even older?

Maybe I should complete my circle of middle aging and start doing jazzercise. (i highly recommend watching at least through the 2 min 12 mark though the entire video is pretty awesome)

• I have a lot more shoes than I thought I did.  Where did they come from?
• ditto with kitchen stuff
• double ditto with cds
• triple ditto with crap in general.

wow.  I have too much stuff.

I just found out I need to wear reading glasses in addition to contact lenses.  Pretty soon I'll need to wear hearing aids .

Today I need to make a public apology to my brother.  (nevermind that he doesn't read this blog).  When we were younger I was the annoyed older sister, bugging him about appointments and being responsible about his own stuff.   For example, he'd often have no idea about an upcoming test, deadline, game, dentist appointment etc etc.  And I would (as the "responsible one") comment, bug, nag, encourage him to get himself together so that he wouldn't need us to be his personal secretary.  But for some reason as we grew older that has seemed to switch.  He seems to have been getting mre responsible and me ... less so.  I first noticed it in in law school... I wouldn't pay much attention to the stuff going on around me that needed to be filled out, submitted scheduled etc etc.  But I had several friends in law school that helped me through that chaos.  But then my life got more boring with work, less activity but more deadlines.  These deadlines were taken care of by our office with reminders and plenty of other people thinking about the deadlines too, so I apparently got stupider.  All this to culminate in my missing a critical appointment on my path to being adopted by these United States.  So.  *deep breath* My brother gets a huge giant PASS from me. 

also, here's hoping that the USCIS is very forgiving.

Hee!

  This is a lot funnier if you know what a Rick Roll is:  Here's the wikipedia link if you need it.

awesome.

heath ledger, living up to the hype. impressive.

currently, i suffer from sleep madness! help!

also, i'm listening to a mash up of "pour some sugar on me" and "this is why i'm hot" -- mash ups have now taken over out of genre cover songs as my favorite thing evah. also, i love battlestar galactica.  and organizing is fun! that's why i'm procrastinating and updating this little blog of mine, and i will not hide it under a bushel.

Things have been quiet on the blog because they have been c to the razy over in the offline world.  In the past month I have:

1. Gone crazy prepping for trial starting July 23rd

2. Decided to move from Redondo (buh bye beach!) to Monterey Hills (located between north of the 110-101-5 split, south of south pasadena, west of Alhambra, and just east of the awesome)

3. Fell in even MORE love with NPH (that's neil patrick harris, to you, and I didn't think it was possible)

4. Passed my citizenship exam... I didn't really study relying on some sample questions and the advice of others (bad mistake, it went from "who is the vice president" to "which constitutional amendments deal with the right to vote?" -- I had some trouble with one of these questions.)  Citizenship ceremony in August.  Yay!

5. Packed up my room and kitchen (why do I have so much stuff?)

6. Realized how awesome Lianne and Sjolsdf are, they are rock star friends who helped me move heavy couches. 

7. Moved (new address email coming, tell your friends!)

8. Took care of paperwork for the house I'm buying in sac.  So. Much. Paper.

9. Found out the case settled! Yay! (this means NO TRIAL! GUS HAS TIME! AND IS NOT GOING INTO WORK THIS WEEK!)

10. Moved (I think I must be getting too old for this, my back and shoulder hurt)

11. In the process of unpacking

12. Ate some truly awesome noodles in Gardena (handmade udon and soba noodles, weeping on the inside that I didn't go there before I decided to move)

13. Experienced an earthquake

14. EPIC FAIL on my 365 project this past month I took hardly any pics. I'm so lazy. sad.

15. Gone on interviews, nibbles but no bites

16. and now, big news, signed up for facebook.  Against my better judgment, mostly because some people *ahemphuongcongrats!* are now announcing pregnancies on facebook.  boo.  also, i'm lonely.

But now with the settlement, life is good. The sun shines. Birds suddenly appear.   The air is clear (when the wind blows the smog away). I burst out into song.  I buy expensive shoes. And I'm procrastinating getting my room organized.

gus is back! woo!

Is there a dorkier question than:

"do you want to go see a magician?"

(sigh, the asker was me. i know
they're cheesy, but this dude i saw was pretty funny. and asking people if
they want to see a magician makes me feel even dorkier than admitting to the
world that i want to watch wendy wu: homecoming warrior.)