* tiny but powerful *

From the bridesmaids' hangout two nights before her wedding...

Tina: "I'm pretty pooped, because we spent all day at Disneyland yesterday."
Jenn: "I can see why that would be poop-inducing."

Anna: "So you already picked up the marriage license? How does that work?"
Jenn: "It's like...a fishing license. You don't got fish yet, but you have permission to fish."
Bridesmaids (very loudly in a restaurant): "HAHAHAHAHA"

And yes, we thoroughly discussed all the ways that the fishing license analogy is imperfect. For example, catching more than one fish... ;)

It's good to be home. Driving back up only took 6.5 hours, including one bathroom break and two other driver changes (but no dinner break). No brushfires this time!

Here are some more pictures from the wedding to tide you over until I can catch up on blogging about the trip. Isn't Brian awesome? (These were even with less-than-ideal camera angles because he had to stay out of the way of the official photographer. Can you tell I'm his biggest fan?)

I am so glad I have this week to recover and change gears for starting my new job. I am totally people-d out right now. It was worth it, though. :)

P.S. Happy belated Birthday, bop!

We've been constantly on the go the past couple days so I haven't had time to update (or even really check email beyond glancing through them). But I have a lot to write about later! We went to: the Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica beach, The Getty Museum, Vienna Teng's album release concert, and a full day of Disneyland/CA Adventures. It's been so much fun, but I'm pooped! We're leaving shortly to head back to RPV, so maybe I'll have time to write a little from there. But starting with dinner tonight, I'll be occupied with a full two days of wedding activities. Bye for now!

...the city, not the water brand. We're here visiting my freshman roommate, Emily, who just moved to LA with her fiance after spending the past two years in Philadelphia. It's soooo good to see her! Unfortunately, we're not going to get to see Mike because he left earlier today to drive to the location of his bar exam, which he'll be taking over the next three days (yipes). But it's so wonderful to finally catch up with Emily and just take our time hanging out for a whole evening. We spent awhile just chatting, went out to a great Indian place for dinner, and walked around Alhambra's Main Street for awhile. It's fun too because she hasn't met Brian before, so it's nice to connect two more people in my life. I feel like it's been *years* since Emily and I have spent such a huge amount of time together - I definitely haven't seen her in person since she graduated, and our junior and senior years were so busy (with both of us going abroad and also just in general) that we didn't meet up very often. It's still super easy to talk to her, though. Even though she hasn't been up to date on my *life* these past few years, I feel like she still really knows *me* - y'know what I mean? She saw me through a really important transition period of my life and there aren't a whole lot of people I was close to that year. A lot has been going on for her too (not the least of which is being engaged!), but she's still the same Emily that I grew up with (in a sense) six years ago. I'm so excited for her and this new chapter in her life. I love you, Em. :)

Interesting fact about Alhambra: The Starbucks has a Chinese version of the menu taped to the counter!

Nine hours, one dinner break, three stretching stops, 3/4 of a tank of gas, and a huge freeway-side brushfire later, we finally made it down to Chi-En's house in Rancho Palos Verdes. Whew! It's so fun to be here again - this house holds two tours' worth of Tmony memories. We're off soon to meet Steve for lunch and then visiting a very special Emily Dawson. I'm so excited! More later. :)

Man, it is HOT today. The heat this past week has made my ezcema itchiness come back. :( It's been more on my upper arms and not as much on my hands, which is good at least, but it's still quite uncomfortable and during the night I tend to scratch the itches, which has caused a couple red splotchy areas (read: bad for bridesmaid dress-wearing). The middle knuckle on my right hand is also especially susceptible to dryness/itchiness outbreaks (that's where the dry skin cracking first originated from during the winter). My corticosteroid creams aren't helping too much, and actually it's been hard for me to find a good place to store them because they're supposed to be stored between 59-86 degrees. The weather is too hot for my medicine for my itchiness from the hot weather! =P Boooo. No good.

Ice cubes have been a good short-term solution...but then they melt.

The wonderful wizard of...SoCal? Haha. Well, as if it weren't hot enough up here, we'll be spending the next week or so down in LA. Brian and I decided to go down several days in advance of all the wedding prep for Jenn and Adam's wedding, since it's not often that I have time off (this was planned before I knew I was leaving Emerson) and we were going to have to be in LA no later than mid-week anyway. So we're driving down with Chi-En tomorrow afternoon after church and then staying at her house for a couple nights before doing some stuff in the Hollywood and Anaheim areas. After that, I'll be back in Palos Verdes for a day and a half of wedding prep madness, and Saturday will find us up bright and early to be ready for a 10am wedding!

A brief summary of our plans:
Sun, July 23 - Drive down to LA
Mon - Lunch with Steve, maybe meeting up with Emily? (my freshman roomie!)
Tue - 8pm Vienna Teng concert (Brian is so stoked)
Wed - Disneyland!
Thu - Bridesmaids' party
Fri - Bridal party brunch, wedding rehearsal, dance lesson (Brian and I are teaching), rehearsal dinner
Sat - Adam and Jenn's wedding!!!
Sun, July 30 - Drive back to Bay Area

Not sure what the internet situation will be like down there, but I'll try to check email and maybe even post to the blog when I can. If you're lucky, you might even get some pictures! (Courtesy of Brian's camera, of course.)

Cell phone will be the best way to reach me for the next week. Take care, everyone!

P.S. I don't care if I get yelled at, but I will still call the freeway "101" and not "THE 101". Weirdo people in SoCal. ;)

Today was my last day! It was so sad to say goodbye to the kids. :( They wrote me letters and drew me pictures and gave me "goodbye packages"...it was all very cute. Monica's package included a baggie of snack and some post-its (so I can "sticky" my work!). Pierre even brought me a jar of homemade blackberry jam! Linda had them read their letters out loud at the end of the day, and it made me cry. :-P I'm really going to miss them...they'll always be my first kids. They've grown so much in the last year (and they've helped me grow more than they'll ever realize!). I'm really glad that at least I'm in a position to be able to visit in the future. Even after Emerson moves to another campus, they'll still be pretty close to where I live, and my new school isn't very far from here either.

I *am* very glad to be done, though. It's been hard to finish off my time at Emerson while also trying to prepare my brain for high school mode. I am super excited about my new job but also extremely nervous! I don't feel like I have enough time to sufficiently learn everything I'll need to know for this new ballgame. But I'm really thankful that The King's Academy seems to have a great support system in place for new teachers. The other teachers in my departments (yes, plural; I'll be the first teacher to teach across two core departments) have been incredibly nice and they've already spent time giving me advice, books, and old materials to get me started. It's going to be a whirlwind month until school begins on August 21st...and then the whirlwind will continue, I'm sure. Please keep me in your prayers! Thanks, as always. :)

One of my students' parents remarked that it was last year's writing camp when I had just started working at Emerson, and now that it's this year's writing camp I'm just about to leave. That made me realize that it was exactly one year ago today that I started teaching! Wow. It's also hard to believe that I only have seven days left at Emerson. It's going to be really sad to say goodbye to the kids and the staff, but I'll have to just take it as it comes. Busy times ahead!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favoritest boy!!!