BRYAN LUNG HAS CHALLENGED ME TO A BLOGGING MARATHON!

And, off we go! ;o) Oy, I've missed that boy. (He's been gone for a week to be a counselor a Christian conference.) But now he's home, and up to mishief again, no doubt. ;)

My family left yesterday to drive down to *LA* to...buy a car! I decided not to go because I have already spent 33% of my winter break in LA and I don't want to go back. =P So I had a nice quiet night at home alone last night, reading (of my own accord - imagine that!) and watching TV. I came across one of those educational channels airing a performance of some symphony. I can't remember what exactly they played (some Mozart, some Brahms) but they were really amazing (as all professional orchestras tend to be). Boy, I am really going to miss orchestra. :( Thinking about it makes me sad. Sigh. I am such an orchestra girl at heart. I wish there was some way I could stick it out this next quarter, because we're going to be performing with the Chamber Chorale in the Memorial Church - very similar to last year's concert, which was my favorite performance of the entire year - and now I'll have to miss it. :o( We're playing Barber and Mozart, too! Sigh. :( Playing with an orchestra in MemChu is so incredible!...the acoustics are amazing, and I love orchestral music that accompanies a chorus. It's just all so grand!! Which reminds me:: the CVHS performance of Mozart's Requiem was very impressive. I miss Castro Valley orchestra, too. (It, also, reminded me of the SSO performance with USingers and Chamber Chorale last March.) I'll talk about the Requiem more when I get around to posting about Tmony tour (since it was during the middle of that week). Yes, yes, I know, I'm working on writing about tour ... there's just so much!! One of these days, I'll have time to write/think/reflect/steal from Bryan's journal entries. ;) (Heehee! But he has to post them first.)

This morning, Trisha came over to cook breakfast (pancakes - yum!) and watch Bridget Jones's Diary. And while we cooked and ate, we caught up on each other's lives. I'm glad I got to see her before she leaves for Davis again...we hadn't hung out since the end of summer. Anyway, the movie was very interesting... goodness, there was a lot of foul language! And not very edifying behavior from the characters either... but it was an interesting movie.

Wow. I can't believe the year 2001 is going to end in a matter of hours! It's been quite a year. And...I think this is where I end this blog. I'm running out of motivation to spill the contents of my brain. Bryan Lung, if you are still blogging, you win. :)

In other more general news, I'm still not quite recovered from post-tour trauma. Okay, so not quite trauma...it's just a yucky cold. But it's hanging around, unfortunately. =P I've managed to shake off the stuffy nose, but I still have an ugly cough and my normal voice isn't back yet. :( Poop. I have been able to sleep in a lot, though, which is SO nice! Last quarter really took its toll on me. Hopefully things will be more manageable next quarter - but unfortunately it will be at the expense of my instrumental happiness. :( I've decided to take next quarter off from the SSO. This will be the first time I'll have gone more than 4 weeks without playing in an orchestra since the 6th grade. (I've always participated in Jenny Lin over the summers.) Pretty amazing, huh? I fear orchestra withdrawal. :( But it really is necessary for my sanity. Sigh...Spring Quarter is going to be nuts.

[There was more to this blog, but my web browser closed itself somehow and I lost it all!!! :( Above is the only paragraph I was able to regenerate. URGH!]

Christmas Eve, 12/24:: Went to Auntie Rosita's house for dinner, because my mom's (and Uncle Benny's) older sister is here visiting from Hong Kong. It was her first Christmas in the States, so I think she rather enjoyed the amusement of opening gifts. That was fun; I hadn't really seen my cousins Perry and Elliott for awhile. They're getting so big!! Perry is a sophomore now!! I remember being an Outdoor School counselor during his week when he was a 6th grader! Wow, that means my first cabin of girls are sophomores now, too. It's sad that I haven't been able to keep in touch with the girls from that year. :( Wow, that seems so long ago and so recent at the same time. Which is a rather common phenomenon once you get to college, really.

Christmas Day, 12/25:: Went to Auntie Sally's house for dinner, instead of having the usual Christmas dinner at my house, because my dad wasn't really up to putting up a Christmas tree and decorating the house like we usually do (he still has rather low hemoglobin levels and so is taking things easy for the time being). I made the mashed potatoes, of course! :) Other than the younger cousins, Amanda and Ashley, my other cousins weren't there this year. :( Which was a bummer, but I had fun with the girls. Ashley was soooo hyper when we first arrived!! Ai ya! She was *literally* SHRIEKING around the house. It was rather unnerving after awhile so I'm glad she calmed down. ;) Dinner was delicious, as always. Afterward, we watched the videotape of the Testimony Christmas show, and *then* we opened presents!! Presents were fun. I got a shirt and a necklace from my cousins, the annual beef jerky from my grandparents ;), and a CD player from my parents (because I'm always borrowing my brother's!). Then I had some good girl hang-out time with Amanda, who is now ten years old (double-digits!). She's a really great kid. :o) When we got home, my family and I made a fire in the fireplace and then played this game called "Think Alike." Many laughs, much fun. :)

Wednesday, 12/26:: Had lunch with Meggy! We went to this mini-CPK place at Stoneridge Mall, and then did some shopping there - as expected, it was an absolute madhouse. Meg had some exchanges to make, and we just kinda wandered around. We used the time when we were waiting in the endless lines to catch up with each other. I'm glad I was able to spend time with her before she left. I think she left for San Diego this morning. :( So early! But I guess she was getting bored up here in CV. I'm sad though because I may not get to see her until next Christmas. :(

Thursday, 12/27:: We surprised Wendy and Amy (Huang) for their birthdays!!! ("we" being me and their friends from school - mainly CVHS seniors.) Amy's birthday was on the 26th, and Wendy's on the 28th. It was really funny because they wanted to run away and hide because they'd just woken up. We managed to get some pictures, though. :) It totally reminded me of roll-outs at Stanford, hehehe. Anyway, we hung out at Amy's house for a little bit afterward, dispersed to get ready for the rest of the day and eat lunch, and then re-met at the movie theater to watch Monsters, Inc. Ooohh that movie is SO CUTE!!!! It's so funny!!! It was really amusing sitting next to Chris Park, too, because he was basically giggling throughout the whole thing. Very amusing. ;) After the movie, the group dispersed again, until the pajama party that Wendy and Amy were throwing at Wendy's house that night. I was there until about 1am... had a lot of fun that night. We had a yummy potluck dinner and played LOTS of games afterward. Taboo, Monopoly, chess, Concentration, Jenga, charades, Mah Jong, Arch Rival, Uno, you name it! Not all at once, mind you - but it was fun to participate and observe the others all the same. And, oy, I think I'd forgotten what it's like to hang around high schoolers. ;) Not that it's bad!! But definitely different, as any of my fellow college-people can attest to.

Friday, 12/28:: Went to the mall again, to return something and browse around the bookstore some. Overall a fairly uneventful day. Originally, the Bay Area Tmony girls had planned on having a movie night//sleepover at Megan's house, but we weren't able to reach Kristen, and then Connie had something come up. So hopefully it'll work out for us to reschedule for next Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Saturday, 12/29:: Woke up late again, as typical of this week. :) Ahhh, sleep is so nice!!! Kinda bummed around the house all afternoon (also nice!!) until I met Anupa, Stan, Kristin, and Joey for a movie. We went to see Lord of the Rings at this really cool old-style theater in Oakland. The movie was really good!! But, AIYA, these people really know how to make things GROSS-LOOKING!!!! =P VERY SCARY! =P I hope I don't have nightmares tonight. :( After the movie, we grabbed some food and hung out in Anupa's basement for awhile (just like old times...sort of). It was good to see everyone again. A little weird, too, but maybe I'll talk about that later. Right now, I think I'm tired of writing. Goodbye until next time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!! :o)

"The world will try to tell you
That might is more than right
That beauty's on the outside
And being good's a losing fight
But remember what I've told you
Because the world will make you choose
Hold to Jesus -
He's holding on to you

Hold on to Jesus
Cling to His love
Rest deep in His mercy
Whenever things get rough
Don't lose sight of His goodness
And don't ever doubt this truth
That when you hold on to Jesus
He's holding on to you

Hear me dear Jesus
Rock this little one to sleep
Keep her close when she's scared
And give her grace when she is weak
I know she'll stumble
But I know she'll make it through
If you hold to her just like
You said You'd do
Hold her Jesus -
And she'll hold on tight to You."

- Erin O'Donnell, "Hold On To Jesus"

I AM HOME!!! Finally! Got home last night, in time to join my family for dinner. :) (Story about the drive up from LA will be told later.)

But I am sick. Cough cough. :( I actually started getting sick right as we left for tour, and it kept getting progressively worse. Singing so much for an entire week aggravated it, I'm sure. A lot of us lost our voices or at least got scratchy/sore throats by the end of the week. I guess that happens when you're basically with 15 people 24-7. So, Tmony tour was an awesome experience, but blog entries about it will have to come later...because there is SO MUCH to write about! I may end up plagiarizing some of it from the infamous Bryan Lung. But that can only happen after he posts his blogs. ;)

In other news...God was merciful in the grades department~!!! Let's just say that they were much much MUCH better than they could have turned out to be, and definitely better than I expected at all. Tina has not yet gotten her first C! I am sooo relieved!!! I don't have to sing that song yet... "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!" Haha. Tina is very happy. :) :) :)

I got to go home today!!!! I met my parents at this car shop in Milpitas (which is where we always take our cars since it's owned and run by my dad's friend) and we went out for a yummy dim-sum lunch with my dad's friend. It's so fun when my dad's old friends are around. They make fun of each other. It's funny. ;) Then, while we were waiting for my car to be fixed (they decided to replace the starter), we went to the Great Mall since it was really close to the car shop. Spent a couple hours there. I got new shoes! This is good because, as tonight's rainy weather demonstrated once again, my current pair of white canvas shoes is worn enough at the soles to let water in to wet my heels. Goodness, it was REALLY pouring on the drive back to school!! It was scary to be driving. But I am, of course, here all safe and sound. Right, so after shopping and after picking up my now-reliably-working car, my parents and I went home to have dinner with my cool li'l bro. :) Mmmmm it was SO good to eat my mommy's homecooked Chinese food! (I didn't get to have any over Thanksgiving break because of my dad being in the hospital and my mom being busy with the business trade show.) Yummy yummy. I also did my laundry and watched the videotape of our Tmony Christmas Show. Comments may appear later--but not now. ;) Ooh and I had pumpkin pie! We had pumpkin pie at home. I like pumpkin pie. Yummm. :) Hehehehe and then my dad tried to do a new magic trick for me but he kept messing up at *every* possible point he could possibly mess up and my mom started laughing at him, HYSTERICALLY, which got the rest of us hysterical, and the four of us almost fell out of chairs at the dinner table we were laughing so hard, hehehehe. I didn't want to leave. :( But that's okay, I'm really glad I got to spend today with my family. I feel like a million times better than I did 24 hours ago. I think I needed that before leaving on Tmony tour. Speaking of which, so I got back to campus around 10:30 for an informal meeting with a handful of Tmony folk, to sing through some of the other music we'll be haphazardly putting together for tour caroling material. That was actually a lot of fun. I was the only alto present, haha. =P We totally stayed on pitch, song after song, even though we hadn't warmed up and were sitting down while singing ... go figure, huh? =P We also had some good prayer time before we started singing, talking to God about finals week and about preparing for tour--that was really awesome too. I feel like God is really going to grow us as a group during this next week we'll be spending together. I guess I'm also feeling more ready to handle it after having some "recharge" time at home. Oh yeah and guess what?? I'll be flying back up to northern Cali during the middle of the week to see Mr. Luedders conduct the Mozart's Requiem with the CVHS Orchestra and Choirs (with special guest soloists) on Wed. Dec. 19, 7:30pm, at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. I highly recommend that you come if you'll be around!! I totally can't miss this concert...it's been Jack's dream to conduct the Requiem, and this is sort of his "farewell//signoff" since he's retiring in June. Yeah, I can't believe it! It'll be good for him, though. I'll talk about that later since I can just see myself falling into the Black Hole of Digression.... Right, so tomorrow will mostly be spent packing and running last-minute errands and getting ready to leave with Tmony to drive down to SoCal. We'll be spending the majority of tour in the LA area, around Rancho Palos Verdes (where Steve, Justin, and Chi-En are from). I actually don't know many details about our itinerary, so I'll just write about it all after we get back (riiight...we'll see if that happens). I should be back in Castro Valley on Saturday, Dec. 22. I can't wait to be home!! :)

I'm off to take my car to the shop, meet my parents for lunch and shopping, and go home for the evening. I wish I could stay there...
Be back at 10:15 for a Tmony meeting.

Strike number three.
Meet the girl who shouldn't be here.

Physics sucked too. Though not any hugely more than the midterms did. Whoopee. Let the 12-hour bio-studying-marathon begin.

I got way more sleep last night than I would have liked.

Yeah, E25 sucked. Way harder than the practice exam. Ughhghhh. Now I have 20 hours to know physics inside and out. Riiight. Well, physics party with Chris, coming right up.

Aiya. This is my two-minute study break of the day. I am SO DEAD for my finals. :( The coming week shall go as follows:
Mon, 3:30-6:30pm - E25
Tue, 3:30-6:30pm - Physics 51
Wed, 8:30-11:30am - Bio 41
They are all going to hurt. A lot. :(

It's been a long few days. Tmony recorded Worlds Apart on Friday, which went really well and actually finished on time!! And Bryan did an incredible job with the solo -- Yay for Bryan! :) But, then of course something had to prevent me from getting back to campus in a timely manner. My car wouldn't start!! =P Had to call AAA and have someone come try and fix it. Apparently there's a loose wire in the starter solenoid, and the guy managed to get it back in place so my car could start that night, but there's no guarantee it'll work the next time I try to drive it. So, I'm just not gonna drive my car (which isn't really my car...my brother's got the Volvo now since he got his license, and I have the Taurus stationwagon) until my dad can have it looked at while I'm gone on Tmony tour.

Then, Tmony recorded O Holy Night yesterday. Goodness. It took 10 hours altogether, because we did it separately by voice part. And since it's the song I'm directing, I was basically standing the entire time. =P It was a good session though, and I'm pleased with the result. Everyone worked really hard and was really awesome staying positive and not complaining... thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I know it sucked to take up so much pre-finals studying time. Trust me, I know. :( Anyway though, we even managed to get the soloist recorded, and I must say, Kari never ceases to amaze me. She has such a pretty voice!! :)

I was able to have some non-Tmony related fun this weekend, at least. Bryan and I hung out and talked for awhile Friday night after recording, and talked about a whole bunch of stuff, while creating the click track for O Holy, and then cooking ramen in the kitchenette and talking over food. I love spending time with Bry ... we are SO alike in so many ways, it's sort of scary. As he once said, I'm like his "female counterpart". Platonically, of course. It's so awesome to have such a close relationship with someone without any of those stupid romantic complications ever coming in. That's how it's always been with Bry, and it's really really cool. :)

Okay. It's been over two minutes. Since it looks like I may never get around to updating all the stuff that I haven't had time to write about in the past month and a half, I'll just copy-and-paste my running list of unblogged stuff. (There also exists a similar list of stuff that happened over the summer. That might appear at some point.) Here ya go, and if you're curious about any one thing, IM or email me or something. After finals. =P

10/31: SSO Halloween Concert
11/13: Big Sing
11/17: Noozles!!, Big Game, Tmony tenor recording, meteor shower!!
11/20: tango in social dance, bad SSO rehearsal
11/21: hanging out with Steve/Wenfei
11/22: Thanksgiving dinner, piano-doodling with Steve
11/23: Anna/Deb's party
11/24: brunch with Meg/Anupa, dinner with Shai/Anupa/Stan, hangout with Wendy
11/25: Thanksgiving service at EBAC
11/26: running Tmony rehearsal
11/27: Wendy's card, Wenfei's e-card
11/28: USingers concert
11/29: SSO dress reh, Tmony dress reh
11/30: Tmony Show!, Ben Poon in UCB's For Christ's Sake
12/01: SSO Concert!, Twain Semi-Formal, FiCS sophomore class activity

Classes are over for the quarter. Woohoo!
If only Monday weren't approaching so rapidly... :(
Went to an E25 review session on Wednesday, which wasn't so helpful, and then a Bio review session last night, which was somewhat more helpful. The Physics review session will be on Sunday. There's so much material that I don't know well enough yet!! GAH!
Leaving in an hour to go to the recording studio with Tmony again. We're taking a different approach this time, so hopefully it won't take so darned long! I don't have the time or energy to have another experience like the last two times we went. And we're recording again tomorrow too. Sigh.
Wish us luck, and please pray for us. Be back by dinner, hopefully. *crossed fingers*

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, WOOTAE!!

Just had an incredible conversation with a high school friend that I haven't spoken to in, like, years. Wow. God sure has cool ways of energizing me!! :) :)
[ Hi Andrew! ]

GO TMONY SOPHOMORES!

(L to R: me, Bryan, Kari, Eric)

I want to be five again. Friendships were simple, boys had cooties, my mom was happy, my dad was happy, my family was healthy, school was easy, sleep was in abundance, I could play the piano, I had Bunny, I had my blankie, I was smart enough to skip kindergarten, I knew Chinese better than English, life was simple, ignorance was bliss.

"People should be sequestered until they are no longer socially toxic." - Emily Dawson

I'm swearing off boys for the rest of my life. Really.

"I don't think you notice
When you see my face
I guess you're waiting
To spin me around again

Wheels I guess are turning
Somewhere inside my head
I know that this is
Deeper than you get

But you're coming back again
You don't mean to waste my time
But you're coming back so

...Don't ask me
What I need
I'm just fine
Here finding me.
Me."

- Vertical Horizon, "Finding Me"

Insanity Week has come and gone. Hence the complete lack of any posts since last weekend. But, ooh, guess what comes next? That's right--Dead Week. Definition: The week makes you dead. =P

Lots has been going on. Lots on my mind. Still no time to write about it. But, for those of you wondering, both the Testimony show and the SSO concert went really well. I am pleased. One of these days, a really long convoluted ranty post is going to show up. But not any time in the near future. =P

for yesterday:

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, WENFEI! YAY ALTOS! :)

for today:

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, STEVE!

Church was good this morning. I need some more time with God today.