merry christmas?

like i told q,

i got a suitcase for christmas. i think my parents want me to move out asap.

also, the weather is probably one of the best christmas presents. i'm wearing short sleeves outside amidst furry, puffy coats/jackets, thick sweaters, and scarfs/hats/gloves.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....

merry christmas everyone!!

i love how my brother and sister both have school on christmas. haha. suckas.

what a crazy day...

so today started out like any other day, except i was dead tired when i woke up. i almost didn't go to "work." maybe i shouldn't have....

before my boss showed up this man buzzed the doorbell. i didn't know whether to let him in or make him stay outside. he said he knew john's (my boss) brother, dan and art. so i was like...uh... john's not here right now. he insisted on waiting, that i should ask john when he'll be in the office. i guess i was too nice. i let him in, only to find out that he was convicted of murder before. i called john, who then called his brother dan, asking him about the man. apparently, this man had done work cleaning and stuff when john first moved into his office. dan said he might be a con man. (good job, carbaa...) he seemed harmless when i let him in. errrr. i don't think he was too healthy. he was wheezing. anyway, he mentioned something about prof. david protess. he claims to have been exonerated by the medill innocence project, but when i looked up the list of all the people who were exonerated in Illinois through the center for wrongful convictions, his name wasn't there. i even emailed prof. protess (who amazingly got back to me super fast even though he's out of the office till jan. 8th), and he said he's never heard of this man.

anyhow, this man came to see john because he claims to have 1.9 million dollars from the state, and he wants to open up an account with john. the problem is he doesn't have any I.D. now this is where the story gets kinda confusing/ makes no sense. he's staying at a hotel that's holding his I.D. because he doesn't have a credit card. so now he can't go to the bank to get any money (no I.D.). john told him he can't open an account because he doesn't have any sort of identification. he claims that he needs to get money out of the bank because he has a lung transplant scheduled with Mayo Clinic on Friday or something. he has lung cancer? anyway, john (being the kind person that he is) went with this man to the state house or something (where ever you can get your I.D.). unfortunately, he parked on the streets where cars were going to get towed by 5 pm. he was still at the state place at 5 (they walked). curses on this man for bothering john. john asked me to move his car to the loading zone outside the office. exciting right?

we all know that i don't have a license. thank God i can drive stick :) so john's car is this tiny datsun. i have no idea where the lights are, how to move the seat forward, etc. i'm so short (i had to move the seat so far to the front) that the seat belt was too short to buckle up. so i was driving this car for the first time without a seat belt on. and... i think i worried john a little when i asked him where the reverse gear was. i tried to reverse like what sean said to do, but the damn car kept moving forward. (that's why i had to ask. i normally know where it is.) i think i actually bumped on the car parked in front. i hate parallel parking (to get out and to get in). i was freaking out!!! in the end, i had no choice but to pushed hard on the gas, cuz every time i moved my foot off the brake pedal the car would inch forward (that's how i bumped into the car in front). i don't think anything happened though. there was another car parked behind me, but there was a woman inside waiting for someone. i think i scared her (she was driving a benz). she drove back, far away from john's datsun. haha. i needed to put my foot on the gas real fast for the car to go on reverse... i revved up the car pretty loud. oh well. i finally got out :)

so... i tried to get used to driving this little car at night. i kinda like the stick (better than dave's :)) but...i think i almost killed a woman pedestrian. has anyone read the devil wears prada? that's what it was like for me, except i wasn't wearing hundreds of dollars worth of leather pants. the worst part was driving in the city. so freakin chaotic!! so i was following this car, but there was traffic. so we were both in the middle of the street. SUDDENLY, the light changes! shit. RED?! i didn't know what to do. i couldn't just stay there and wait for the light to change again. i didn't want a cop to catch me....AH AH AH. i still hyperventilate just thinking about it. in that split second, i decided to back up. err... i didn't realize there was a woman crossing... nothing happened though. i think she just looked closer on the mirror. BUT...i don't know why... this black guy on a bike started cussing and looking pissed at me. i don't think i tried to run him over.... did i? the car was definitely covering the whole pedestrian walk way. um...so i'm not sure what i did. but i must have looked super apologetic because he smiled. err...

then, i made it to the loading zone in one piece. i've never parallel parked in my life. i drove the car into the side walk, first the back of the car, then the front. sigh...i didn't know if i was close enough to the side walk. then i was too close (obviously... i was already on the sidewalk). then not close enough. ah! someone teach me how to parallel park!!!! it was a disasterous parking job. good thing john came back. he backed the car up/fixed it up. i don't know if he saw me mistreat his car. and i had to move the seat so far up, i had trouble getting out of the car...the space between the car door hinge and the back of the seat was too small.

i was actually shaking afterward. i had trouble typing...

lesson: i might be too short to drive. i need an SUV or a truck.

God loves me. i didn't die/kill anyone... or (even worse) get caught without a license. 

**the con-man told john that he was going to get his I.D. back from the hotel where he was staying so that he could get money out of the bank (for his lung transplant at Mayo this Friday). so john waited for him to come back. i had to leave to go volunteer at the hospital. i don't know what happened after... SORRY.

fall quarter

to waste some time...

here are pictures from jame's 21st birthday

amy was surprised to see me. i never see this kid.

eddie and shuey

plus part of eddie's hair

juniors

james plus seniors with sun trying to "smile" like paul

aww james and barbie

this is a typical CORE meeting (oh i just loooove monday nights)

so much love <3

keeyoung's excited to see the menu. allen's not.

beautiful

shuey wanted to be the third wheel

guess where we were. hint: steak.

then right after core meeting was my michelle's 21st birthday @ kemper :)

there was already a little drinking going on before i got there....

HAPPY 21st xiao jie!

crazy kemper girls

since when did kali get scared of cameras? i have so many embarassing pictures of her in china.

hahaha. monica posing for kali.

what a fun night of very intense mafia (with not-so-sober people.) hahaha.

THEN... guess who i met at the bartending class.

jeff kuo! you've been MIA since everyone got back from china.

chase and jeff's friend grace from san diego

jean was turning pretty red. haha.

sean looks way too happy. i think he was really cold carrying that piece of ice from the hood on his car.

NY and AECOM

we drove past yankee stadium...

an AECOM building...

the best part of the quarter: ice skating at millenium park (FINALLY)

my first time on skates. i've never roller bladed before either. so NO experience at all.

crazy ninja boy

sonja, me, janet, marian, mike

posing in front of the vagina building? they're in a korean drama...what's up with the smoke?

we saw a proposal!! after waiting 30 minutes outside in the cold for the zamboni to finish icing the rink, these random 2 people skate inside by themselves. wtf. we've been waiting so long in the cold, why won't you let us in?! then the guy goes down on one knee. AAHHH. congragulations random strangers.  

john lee and his hot chocolate (so good!) facebook worthy?

super hungry @ bennigan's

crazy ninja boy was hungry.

it was already almost 11 when we left the restaurant...

tired

it's been an interesting fall quarter. happy holidays and merry christmas!!

NU interview tomorrow. ahhhhh! God help me...

fortunate or unfortunate?

Last week was ridiculous. I've never traveled that much in a span of 6 days. Saturday, I flew to New York to visit my aunt. Albert Einstein interview was on Monday. I flew back to Chicago on Tuesday. Met Juyeon in the airport and took the bus (#250) back together. It took forever. 12 hours later, I rode the same # 250 bus from Evanston back to O'Hare to catch a flight to Nashville. Yes, Nashville. Every time I tell someone that, their brows furrow with a look of confusion on their face. "Why??" they ask in disbelief. "What's in Nashville??" Aside from being 30 minutes away from the home of the famous Charlie Guo, Nashville really has no appeal to most people I know. I think the only reason they know about it is because of CGuo. Charlie has such a great impact on people. ANYWAY, I follow up by saying I have/had an interview at Vanderbilt. "OOOOH! Vanderbilt!" they say. It suddenly makes total sense to go to Nashville. Some have even scolded me, saying that I should've just said Vanderbilt to begin with (who cares about Nashville, right?).

Unfortunately, the warm sunny weather that we've been blessed with last week just couldn't last. It was too good to be true. By Thursday night, it wouldn't stop snowing. Apparently, there was a blizzard in Chicago? Regardless, it just rained in Nashville, so I never actually saw it snow. By the time I got to the airport to come back to the windy city, Northwest called to inform me that my flight was cancelled. Great. That's the first time it's ever happened to me. Everything else was cancelled as well until 5:02 pm. More than 4 hours in the Detroit airport. WOOHOO. My feet were killing me (btw, I had to wear those painful heels all over Nashville because the flats that I just bought were even MORE painful. It actually cut the back of my foot. I don't know what to do with the huge flap of skin. Cut it off or press it back on?). I was tired. I just wanted to go back to my bed. It wasn't a good idea to watch Parental Control till 2:30 am. I didn't know how to kill 4 hours, plus my flight back to O'Hare wasn't even assigned a gate yet. WHERE TO GO?!

So I walked around: Chili's or McDonald's for lunch? I wanted to be able to sit down for 4 hours, so might as well go to Chili's. So I sat down to wait for a table for 1. (I didn't feel so bad asking for a table for 1 since most people were doing that. Everybody seemed to be stuck in the airport.) The person sitting next to me before got a table and left. This man, probably in his mid-40s or 50s, white, saw the empty spot and sat down next to me. Then, he just started talking to me. After he found out that I was stuck in Detroit for 4 hours he offered to let me in the NWA World's Perk Club (or something... basically the NWA lounge). FREE INTERNET!! He had to go in to do some work before his flight anyway. And he had just been upgraded to a Platinum member, so he could bring a guest. Um...ok. I didn't really take him seriously. THEN... he suggested that we just share a table that way I could just go with him to the lounge right after lunch. Plus, it would be faster cuz my name was after his. Uh huh... I didn't know how to back out. So, I agreed. (Ok, I know dumb, right? I was just too tired to care or think of a lame excuse. He seemed pretty nice...harmless old man?) So, uh... we ate lunch together. He lived near Chicago like 10 years ago. Now he lives in Buffalo. I'm not sure if he was married. I remember seeing a ring, but I don't remember on which hand. He works for a company that deals with metals? Something about business in China. He travels every few weeks to different places. He was going to Amsterdam, etc. It was really...weird. AND THEN... he paid for lunch. He said it was a $10 donation to my future med school debt. He believes in doing at least one good deed everyday.

I got in the NWA lounge and just sat there with my laptop. I tried to avoid him and sat somewhere else. I was starting to freak out. Was I being ungrateful? I was sitting there for so long, I forgot I had to catch a flight. The stupid gate was also located on the other side of the concourse. UGH. I had to run to get there in time, only to find out that the flight was delayed. Anyway, I didn't get to tell him that I was leaving. I felt kinda bad. But I had already said "Bye and have a safe flight" before we parted in the lounge.

Was I fortunate or unfortunate? I hope he wasn't some sort of stalker....It's sad how it's normal to treat small acts of kindness (by strangers) with suspicion. I was scared and felt bad/ guilty for feeling scared the whole time.