final exercises

i don't know why U. Va. has to be all different and call it 'final exercises' instead of graduation like most schools, but i guess tradition isn't a thing to be messed with.

for those of you who missed me at church on sunday, no, i wasn't sleeping in or playing hooky; i went down to charlottesville for my college graduation ceremony.  i actually drove down the day before with my dad to disassemble my bed and load it into the car.  i felt kind of bad because he drove two hours, did some manual labor, then drove back 2 hours.  oh well, he got a free meal out of it. 

the rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking, and reminiscing with old friends whom i hadn't seen in awhile.  it's nice to know that i have some friendships that remain (mostly) the same without regard to time and distance. after visiting some of our old haunts (for perhaps the last time? at least for awhile), i went back to my apartment (now bedless) to get some sleep.  what i didn't realize was that our normally 4 person apartment was to house 6 people that night.  i guess i got lucky because i got to sleep on the loveseat, but it still was far from ideal.  also, some nice people decided to party it up right outside our window the night before graduation, so between the lumpy couch and their drunken shenanigans i found it hard to fall (and stay) asleep.
regardless, the morning came and i had a graduation to attend.  the night before, i had set my alarm really early to beat the expected shower rush and it paid off.  only my roommate was up before me, so we decided to hit up a local diner for breakfast.  when we got back, the apt was a flurry of activity with both showers running, hair dryers plugged into hall outlets, people frantically searching for digital camera batteries and of course, caps and gowns being fussed over. 

throughout this whole ordeal, i think i did a good job staying levelheaded.  maybe it was because i really "graduated" back in december, but i remember being pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.  i just wanted it to be over so i could go home and eat a nice meal out with the family.  it wasn't until i was standing in a bustling crowd of 6000 of my peers in the shadow of the rotunda's impressive facade that i started to feel a tinge of accomplishment and pride.  the previous four years of frozen dinners, studying, procrastinating, late night chinese food, relationship-making, and learning had all led up to this day. 

the ceremony itself was a blur.  i'm sure the speaker had lots of good things to say, but those words are probably already forgotten by 90% of us.  it was supposed to rain (i even brought an umbrella with me), but the clouds parted right as the ceremony started and the sun came out.  (enough to give me a mild sunburn)  we really couldn't have asked for better weather. (last year's class didn't have it as good, it rained all morning) 

here are some pics.

from my econ dept diploma ceremony

brother bear + sister bear

la familia

got my papers, so long suckas!

congrats class of 2010! wahoowa!

trip from hell

i hate fog.

i had to go on a trip to jeffersonville, indiana for work this past tuesday and wednesday.  the trip itself was fine.  it was the return flight (and subsequent chaos) that destroyed my will to live for a few hours wednesday night and into thursday morning.

let me explain...

my return flight wednesday night was scheduled to leave from louisville, ky at 8 pm and layover in charlotte, nc from 9-10 before arriving at dulles around midnight.  the first leg of the trip went without a hitch.  on the way from charlotte to dc however, the pilot reported "low visiblity" (fog) on the ground at dulles and said we'd circle for 15 mins or so.  we waited, but to no avail as his voice came over the intercom after the 15 minutes were up saying that conditions were worsening so we were headed to harrisburg, pa to wait it out.

at this point it was rounding midnight on wednesday (thursday morning) and people were getting antsy.  the plane was a small, cramped express-type jet with seat cushions that desperately needed replacing (think cardboard, but with less padding).  nothing could be done however, so we flew the extra distance to harrisburg and landed there.  the pilot came on the intercom again saying we had to wait on the plane for an hour before trying again at dulles.  at that point, he gave us the option of getting off the plane and either staying at a hotel in harrisburg or getting a cab to dulles (a 3 hr/$260 trip).  i guess this was a good thing because all the impatient people got off the plane, leaving all of us good-natured, generally pleasant people (the majority) with the plane to ourselves.  usually i'm pretty unflappable when it comes to things like this, but at this point, my phone was dying, my butt was aching, and my nerves were wearing extremely thin.  the flight attendants did whatever they could to appease our disgruntled, tired selves but there's only so many dry crackers and cups of lukewarm water one can take at 2 am.  if i were them i'd say "f it" and start handing out the miniature bottles of tequila and bud light, but sadly they had more self-control than me.

an hour later, the pilot's voice came over the intercom yet again saying dulles had shut down for the night(!) due to thick fog and the plane would be heading back to charlotte.  at that point, he gave the rest of us the opportunity to get off the plane and said that the airline would pay for a taxi ride to dulles, or we could fly back to charlotte, wait a couple hours in the empty airport and hope to find another flight home in the morning.  most of the remaining people (including me) elected to take the free ride home and get off the plane.  what they didn't tell us was that the number of taxis in harrisburg that operate at 3 am are few and far between (we probably should have known).  so, once we got off the plane and were herded into the terminal, we had to wait another 45 mins for the taxi company to get people out of bed and to the airport.  and we thought we had it bad...

finally, i (along with three other random strangers) piled into a taxi driven by a cranky 60 yr old grandma that reeked of cigarette smoke.  she looked like a female version of clint eastwood.  all the similarities ended with her appearance however, because she stayed true to form when it came to her driving skills.  she drove SO SLOW.  i'm talking 45 mph max on 4 lane highways.  and of course she didn't know the way so she had to follow another driver who drove at normal speeds, who we subsequently lost about 30 seconds after getting onto the highway.  this led to her squawking into her cellphone the entire way asking for directions (girlfriend seriously needs to invest in a gps) which made it almost impossible to sleep.  at one point (about 30 miles from frederick, md) the fog was bad enough to make her uncomfortable driving (i don't blame her, the stuff was like soup) so she pulled over and decided to wait until daylight to continue.  i think it was around 5 am at that point.  so there we were, a bunch of random strangers whose feeble attempts at civility had long given way to tired grunts and incoherent mumbling, sitting on the side of rt.15 in a bright orange harrisburg city taxi trying desperately to get some sleep.  needless to say, it wasn't pretty.

i woke up around 6:30 to find we were in the middle of rt. 7 traffic.  the taxi driver decided to save her best for last and crept along at a mind boggingly slow 35 mph on rt 7 (55 mph limit).  cars were literally racing past us.  i thought we were gonna get pulled over; it was that bad.  it took us another half hour to drive a total of 5-6 miles on what was more or less an open highway despite the normal morning traffic.

finally, a full 7 hours and 30 mins after our original posted arrival time, we made it to dulles.  i almost cried when my feet hit the pavement.  i'm pretty sure my leg muscles had begun to atrophy from being wedged in various cramped positions over the course of the previous 8 hours because my knees literally buckled when i tried to put weight on them.  i had to re-teach myself to walk for about 5 mins after getting out of the cab.  it was sad.  i didn't even say bye to anyone after i got out.  you'd think i would have formed some sort of bond with the people i had just suffered through this ordeal with, but nope, i just walked away without so much as a glimpse back.  my mind was mush and i'm sure if i had tried to say anything it would have come out as either angry raving or jumbled gobbedly-gook, so i decided to spare my fellow road warriors and just find myself another taxi home asap.  i will say that some people definitely had it worse.  one lady had to take another 2 hour cab ride back to her house after arriving at dulles.  she's probably dead. 

but i guess all's well that ends well.  i took yesterday off, got 14 hours of travel comp time (make up vacation time, some of which was used immediately b/c of my day off), and took a much needed 6 hour nap with my dog on the couch.

i'm never flying again.

doubledown

you guys know you secretly wanna try this beast.



the funniest part is that kfc's marketing strategy for it makes use of the word "unthink" over and over again. as in "don't think," which is exactly what one needs to be doing to order one of these bad boys. either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart (and somewhat subversive) of the ad guys who thought this one up.

well played, sirs.

lipstick

how do you girls eat/drink things while wearing lipstick? 

i'm wearing some burt's bees lip balm right now due to an unfortunate onset of allergies over the weekend which led to dry/cracked lips from too much contact with tissues (tmi?) and i hate it b/c every time i try to drink something, the cup or straw gets all sticky.  then i have to reapply.  last night, i felt like a noob b/c i put on the burt's bees right before i washed up for bed.  needless to say, it all washed off.  what a waste. 

maybe its just a personal problem....

work

we had an ice cream party at work today.  (cookies 'n cream w/ reese's pieces = money)

in may, we're having a golf fundraiser for our division.  (paid to golf?  hollaaaa)

later this month i'm going to jeffersonville, ky to visit the national processing center for the decennial census.  (if you ever wondered where your census forms go, that's the place.)  travel/accommodations paid by the gov't.

 i write all this fun stuff first because the actual day to day routine of my job is pretty boring.  i basically sit at a comp and enter numbers/analyze data/fix issues all day.  so, i have to have things to look forward to.  i think the census bureau is pretty good about planning activities for new employees though. 

the other day, my mom asked if i'd rather be back at school instead of working.  its a tough question to answer so i'll make a pro/con list.

PROS: $$$, free (homecooked) food, $$$, being close to d.c. and surrounding areas (cville starts to feel pretty enclosed after awhile), $$$, being (relatively) close to church/ friends, did i say $$$?

CONS: much less free time, having to wake up at 5:30 am, 1 hr + commute, taxes/paying back loans, slowly coming to the realization that maintaining a social life requires much more effort now. 

so, i can't really answer that question definitively.  i didn't really go crazy on the weekends in college so it's not that much of a shock to live at home.  plus, my parents give me space, which i appreciate.  its funny because i always said i'd live at home to save money, but i find myself just spending that money on other things... maybe if i moved out, i'd be forced to live frugally.  meh.

speaking of shopping, now that i'm working i've decided to upgrade my wardrobe.  first thing on the list: business attire.  no suits (yet), just shirts, nice slacks and maybe shoes.  i've been wearing the same 5 shirts/2-3 pairs of pants to work for the past month and a half.  i think my coworkers laugh behind my back, "he's wearing those khakis again??"  probably not, but you never know.  someone at church made the point that living and working in dc makes you feel all kinds of lame because you start noticing all the good looking people with their nice clothing and comparing them to yours.  i can attest to that.  i know i shouldn't give into the pressure, but i'm weak.

i've never just walked into a store and shopped with the intention of putting together complete outfits.  usually i just get random pieces here and there, so it'll be interesting.  i need a fashion guru (i've vowed never to read a fashion magazine, even if its geared toward men, for personal reasons).  i've tried shopping on my own and it usually ends in a return trip to exchange what i bought for something my mom and sister approve of ("that shirt and tie could not clash any worse than they do already.  take it back!").

maybe i should just be a farmer and wear blue jeans and flannel all day.  am i being materialistic? shallow?

sorry for the disjointedness of this entry.  its been awhile since i wrote the last one and i'm not in the mood to write something coherent and unified.  so today you get word barf.

moving

this past saturday, my dad and i moved all (most) of my stuff down to the spare room in the basement.  i had been planning on doing this as soon as i moved back from college, but it seemed like there was always something stopping us (business trips for dad, work/church stuff for me, a little bit of laziness for both of us).

originally, i planned on buying all new furniture and making it look like something out of an ikea catalog, but that idea quickly died when i realized 1. new furniture costs money, 2. the nearest ikea is at least an hour away, and 3. i don't know if i'd be comfortable sleeping on something that sounds like it was named by a 3 year old with a speech impediment (vanvik, malm, kviby etc.).  so, my room is currently furnished by a hodge podge of items we've collected over the years (parent's old 1980 style bed/dressers, random bookcases/desks etc).  i never realized it, but my family owns something like 6 mattresses (for 4 people).  i've also realized that we have some ugly sheets/bedding in our house.  i don't know what my mom was thinking when she bought some of these.  i tried looking for a matching set that would go well in a 20 something yr old guy's room, but ultimately had to settle on a funky multi-colored pattern (it was either that or bright yellow).  my bed looks like joseph's coat.  something tells me i need to go shopping soon.  i don't know anything about bedding or sheets, so it should be interesting.

the main reason i wanted to move was because there is a ballin' walk-in closet in the new room.  except, when i put all my clothes in the new closet, they only take up 1/10th of the space. so it looks pretty bare.  i also get a bathroom all to myself, which is nice.  stacey's pretty clean for a girl, but sharing a bathroom still sucks.  i tried taking a shower yesterday but quickly found that the shower head needs to be replaced. there is no steady stream of water.  it's more along the lines of 4 disjointed trickles that start and stop at whim and shoot off at the most inconvenient angles.  i feel like i'm running around just to get wet.  so, i'm also adding a new shower head and clothes to my shopping list. 

but for now, its nice to have my "own" space.  i used to dislike going into the basement because it was always cold/dark/filled with monsters, but now that its mine, it feels more like home.  once i add some personal touches (posters, knick-knacks, my extensive beanie baby collection) it'll be as if i'd lived there all along.

life

1. I've started working.  Although I probably shouldn't call it that because what I've been doing for the past week or so could hardly be considered "work." After orientation last week, my first week in the office consisted of hours of reading old Stephen King novels (courtesy of a sympathetic coworker) and doing crossword puzzles/sudoku at my desk while I anxiously awaited the arrival of my computer and phone.  Apparently the huge storm a couple weeks back made life tough for everyone in the IT department which made life tough (or easy) for me this past week.  Now, as you can see, I finally have a computer...except I don't have access to any of the drives I need to start doing work.  And so I wait.... At least now I have internet access.  I don't know if I could have taken any more sudoku (although I did get really good in a really short time).

2. I've been loving these winter Olympics.  So many great stories and drama filled moments have been interspersed throughout these past 2 weeks.  While the games got off to a rocky start, the athletes have risen to the occasion and delivered some incredibly memorable performances. A few that come to mind include Bode Miller redeeming himself with gold and silver medals after coming away empty handed  in the Torino games (deservedly so) and the Chinese couple that came out of retirement and gave up the first years of their marriage to train for pair's skating gold one more time (and it paid off!).  Oh, and I guess I can't fail to mention the domination of the Koreans in speed skating (judging incompetency aside...)

The only quibble I have with the games is that all the good competitions come on close to midnight, and I have to wake up at 5:30 every morning.  So, I either have to miss watching some events live or wake up feeling like a zombie.  Some nights, I go to bed earlier than my parents.  I feel like a grandpa.

Regardless, last night I resigned myself to this morning's impending zombie-ness so I could watch Yun-ah Kim compete in the ladies figure skating competition.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous for her after the NBC announcers hyped her up so much.  While they have their flaws, they are certainly adept at milking the drama out of every situation, especially for all the high profile skaters.  However, it was as if Yun-ah wasn't aware of the incredible pressure surrounding her, because she was crazy good.  I don't know much about the technicalities of figure skating but I do know that phrases like, "best ever" and "one of the greats" (both of which were hushedly mentioned several times after her dazzling performance) only apply when a program is, well, the best in a long time.  And to think she did that with the weight of an entire country's hopes on her 19 year old shoulders astounds me. 

So I felt incredible pride.  I was a little disappointed though, when I logged on to facebook this morning and saw that that same pride in me had evolved into downright arrogance in some fellow Koreans.  I'm fine with celebrating a great win, but verbal harassment toward her competitors (most of which was pointed toward the Japanese Mao Asada in second place) is below us I think.  I know there are cultural differences and deep-seated tensions between the two nations that run far longer than I've been on this earth and I'm not saying that a friendly rivalry between the countries is necessarily even a bad thing, but come on, are we still so obtuse as a people that we have to resort to using words like "dirty Japs" or being downright giddy when anything bad happens to a Japanese person?  Most of the people I'm referring to have little or absolutely no reason to be this crass and insensitive either.  If you're 70 year old Korean man who refuses to buy japanese cars or tv's after living through the Japanese occupation that's one thing (not saying its ok, but at least somewhat understandable), but a 17 year old high school kid who spouts hatred like that is just copying the cultural arrogance and xenophobia of their parents' generation.  Learn to think on your own.  And this is all without even mentioning the spiritual implications this has for those of us who call ourselves Christians.  There are (or have been) Japanese people who attend our church for goodness' sake.  Japan is one of the most unreached developed countries in the world.  How are we ever going to spread the love of Christ to them if we have none of our own to give? 

I know I may be blowing things out of proportion just a little and that my audience is indeed small, but I've seen careless remarks by a few people (especially of the racial kind) have huge effects in the past.  Sorry for preaching; I know I'm hardly qualified to do so, but it needed to be said.

 I guess its back to sudoku now... :)