Missing the Obvious

I'm back in LA for a visit.

Last week, I decided to go visit Debbie and her new baby. Since it was around lunchtime, Debbie asked me to go to In-N-Out to pick up lunch. When I arrived at In-N-Out, I pulled up to the drive-thru window. When I got to the window, the guy looked at me and I looked at him. Neither of us said a word for a few seconds.

Finally, it dawned upon me that I had completely missed the speaker box where I was supposed to place my order. The poor guy at the window was probably trying to figure out what to say to me. By this time, two other cars had already pulled up behind me, so I could not back up. So, I apologized profusely—providing some lame excuse about being from Vancouver. (Drive-thru's are not common in Vancouver proper, and I don't have a car there.)

I felt so stupid. I had literally forgotten how to use a drive-thru!

The guy kindly took my order at the window... probably still puzzled. After I got my order and drove out, I noticed the big bold words on the speaker box, "PLACE ORDER HERE". Talk about missing the obvious!

Next Trip Back to LA

June 9-25.

My Appearance... According to Children

One summer during my early teens, my church was at a particular retreat site that was managed by a married couple. This couple had an adorable little girl. I think she was probably 3-years-old at the time. Needless to say, all my teenage friends and I wanted to play with this little girl. She happily played with everyone except me. Finally, her dad asked her why she didn't want to play with me. Her response was, "Because she's ugly."

I never forgot that incident. This was hard to hear as an awkward teenage girl. I never thought I was physically attractive, but to hear it confirmed by a child really hurt. After all, aren't children naturally honest?

But I received a bit of redemption this week.

I was in LA these past couple of weeks. (I'm now at LAX waiting for my flight back to Vancouver.) To catch up with each others' lives, Angela and I decided to go out for dinner on Sunday night. We went to a Shanghainese restaurant (Mama's Lu Dumpling House) that my mom recommended. When we walked into the restaurant, Charice was there, along with her husband, 3-year-old twins, new baby girl, mom and aunt. It was such a pleasant surprise to see them all. But because it was our "catching-up time," Angela and I did not join them for dinner.

Towards the end of dinner, Maddie (the girl twin) came up to me and just stood there smiling at me. After several seconds, she finally said to me, "You're very beautiful."

Maybe I've grown out of my awkward teenage phase or maybe Maddie is less selective. Whatever the reason, Maddie absolutely made my day... actually my week. Thanks Maddie.

"Soul of Ministry" Small Group

For my "Soul of Ministry" class this past term, we were assigned into a small group. We met once per week. Initially, I was reluctant because I don't like forced intimacy and that's I felt was being expected of us. But I ended up absolutely loving this group. Ben, Kirk, J.J., Momin and I got along very well. We were appropriately open with each other, but did not overly divulge everything in our lives... sharing, laughing, praying, eating.

Kirk even made a funny collage for us at our last meeting. Notice the green roof that is so characteristic of the Regent College building. From left to right: Ross (our professor), [Jesus?], Momin, J.J., me, Ben, Kirk)
Then, this past week after we all finished our last papers of the term (except Ben), we had dinner. For this, we included the spouses. J.J. and Kirk both brought their wives, Lisa and Rachel. Ben's fiance, Anna, joined us after we already took the picture. From left to right: me, Kirk, Rachel, Lisa, J.J., Momin, Ben.

I don't know if we will continue to be close because we all come from such different places and backgrounds, but I am grateful for them.

Jesus said:
"For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I with them."
Matthew 18:20.

Zit Zapping

Ever since I changed my facial hygiene regimen several years ago, I rarely ever get acne. Recently, however, due to a lack of sleep and poor eating habits, I've been breaking out. But I'm glad to say that none of the pimples have gone full-blown.

Let me share my secret with you... as soon I see a pimple at its early stages, I dab a little white vinegar directly to it with a cotton ball. In a few hours (usually overnight), the zit is zapped. If you have very sensitive skin, it might be better to use mouthwash instead of vinegar.

* Note: To avoid too much drying of the skin, do not rub in the vinegar or dab too many times. Just one or two gentle dabs is all that is needed.

Community Parties

Recently, I had the blessed opportunity to work with others to throw a party for a friend. The planning process was interesting because everyone seemed to have different ideas, but since not all the organizers knew each other well, there were some hiccups along the way. But one thing really stood out for me. One of the people helping to plan kept saying that the guest-of-honor was the most important. In essence, this person was saying that whatever the guest-of-honor would want or like is what we, as the people throwing the party, should do.

At first glance to most people, this probably appears to be a great way of looking at things. It really makes the guest-of-honor feel honored, special and loved. But, somehow, this mentality rubs me the wrong way.

This is probably more of a Christian principle about community, but I think it is important in general. A party is a social celebration. While the principle purpose of the party may be to honor a person(s), every aspect of the party should not be geared towards him/her/them. There are other people involved. Therefore, it is important to consider what the other guests may like as well. The guest-of-honor should still be held in high regards, but doing things for the guest-of-honor should never trump the importance of making the event enjoyable for EVERYONE, including those who are throwing the party.

Perhaps I have thought more about this than most people because I'm an event planner. One of my pet peeves when helping clients plan an event, especially a wedding, is when they don't consider the guests enough. It drives me nuts when a couple wants to do things that suit them, but are willing to put their friends, family, guests, and/or wedding party through financial hardship, extensive time occupation, or a lot of excessive work just to get what they want.

For example, I don't think it's right to choose a venue with excessive parking fees merely because you like the venue. (solution: pay for all or part of the parking, pick a venue with cheaper or free parking and/or advise people of cheaper or free parking nearby.) There are so many other things I've seen and observed... but it's probably best to not list them all for fear of offending my community.

In most instances, as I'm sure was the case with the party we recently planned, people don't intentionally try to make things difficult for others. It's just that intentional consideration is not usually present in decision-making. Does that make sense?

When a party is done well, the guest(s)-of-honor will feel special, honored and loved... but so will everyone else!

But the good thing is that the aforementioned party actually ended up being enjoyed by everyone. It's good to know that God works through all our inadequacies. =)

The Sweetest Medal

Back in June 2007, Jesse, Wing and I joined the Pasadena Marathon Founders' Club in anticipation of an inaugural marathon in the city of Pasadena. At the time, we had no idea when the marathon would take place... if at all.

Finally, it was announced that the first ever Pasadena Marathon would take place on Sunday, November 16, 2008. I trained and made arrangements to fly back to LA from Vancouver for that weekend. I arrived on Friday and picked up my race packet on Saturday morning. All seemed to be going well except for the raging wildfires in southern California at the time. On Sunday morning, I woke up at 3:30AM and put on all my running gear. With time to spare, I decided to check my email before heading out at 4:30AM. There was an email from the marathon committee, sent the night before, saying that the marathon might get canceled and that they would send out an announcement at 4:00AM. So, I sat around and kept refreshing my browser. Finally, just a little after 4:00AM, an email was sent out announcing the marathon's cancellation due to the unhealthy air quality caused by the fires. What a disappointment!

Then, in December 2008, the committee announced the rescheduling of the Pasadena Marathon for Sunday, March 22, 2009. Again, I made arrangements to fly back to California for the race. However, due to a heavy school workload, bad weather in Vancouver, and an injured right knee, my training was nearly non-existent.

This weekend, I was still working on schoolwork, got ready for houseguests and worked a wedding. On Sunday, I woke up at 3:30AM... dreading the race. True to the news forecast, it was raining. But I also felt reassurance because Lance agreed to run the whole race (26.2 miles) with me. "Besides," I thought to myself, "It's LA — the rain will not be bad and it will surely let up by the time the race starts."

Boy was I wrong! Lance and I had to put on and take off our trashbags several times during the first half of the marathon. The rain and wind were torrential. And with the water in our shoes and socks, we both started developing blisters on our feet early on. Finally, at mile 10, I told Lance that I really needed a bandage to cover my blister. Otherwise, I would not be able to continue. He said that there would be a medic center at mile 13, so we persisted.

At mile 13, I saw a trailer and started yelling to the people there, "Do you have a band-aid? I really need a band-aid!!!" The man said that he did not know if they had any, but would check. They did end up finding some and gave us several of them. Lance and I pulled over to the sidewalk to put on the band-aids. As we were doing this, I said to Lance, "What a stupid medic center! They didn't even know if they had band-aids." Then, Lance said, "That wasn't the medic center. They're just spectators. The medic center is a few yards down." Boy did I feel stupid. And those poor spectators must have thought I was the most ungracious person ever.

After we bandaged ourselves up, I was feeling much better. We ran and walked several more miles. At times, I was ahead of Lance. At other times, he was ahead of me. Finally, after passing the mile 21 marker, I realized that I hadn't seen Lance in awhile. So, I pulled over and sat at the side of the road to wait for him. He came hobbling along in evident pain. He said that his blisters had spread and were merging with each other.

I had the choice of proceeding in front of him or walking the rest of the way with him. It was a tough choice, but I finally decided to stay with him. After all, he was planning on sticking with me the whole time even when he thought earlier that I would be the slower one. So, we walked together at a very slow pace the rest of the way... with people passing us by, with the sweeping van stopping to ask us if we needed help, and with a medic van offering to help Lance. But, Lance refused to quit.

We were taking so long that the streets were all re-opened for traffic and we were pushed to the sidewalk. By the time we reached the finish line, the timing chip sensor had been removed and they had to take our times manually (8:04:18). But when the man at the finish line put the medal around my neck, I was so happy. (I later found out that Wing had to stall the man to get him to stay until we finished. Apparently, he was planning to leave and stop distributing medals.)

I have ran many races and have received many finishers' medals, but this particular medal means the most to me. It was physically exhausting. The road before it was frustrating. And the emotional and mental decisions I had to make along the way were not easy. In many ways, this was the sweetest medal!