Hey party people! It's almost Thanksgiving! Yay! I, for one, am very glad to be getting a break from work. I'm headed to Boston, MA tonight for a Bethel reunion of sorts-- it's gonna be me, my sister, Jane, Susanna K., Susanna H., and Jason, making some Thanksgiving food and enjoying each other's company. Although I am not looking forward to the hell that is Reagan National Airport, hanging out with my chingoos will be well worth it.

This weekend I bought the Lord of the Rings Two Towers extended version DVD. I watched it twice-- once normally, once with the cast commentary. Honestly, I'm such a dork. I really love watching the director/cast commentaries on DVD's. I just think they're so interesting. Anyways, this movie is good-- but SO LONG. Especially with all the new scenes. Geez. I'm kind of regretting it, cause I know it's going to make it harder to sit through the entire trilogy when I go to watch them all on Trilogy Tuesday. Which I am kind of worried about. Will I have the stamina to sit through 3 movies? I don't know. Yes. I am a Lord of the Rings freak. Anyone have any more info on that hobbit colony of houses their building on a toxic landfill? C'mon Byun. Send the info along.

Some fun upcoming events I am looking forward to:
November 26-29: Boston Bethel reunion!
December 6: Joy Park Freedom Party
December 12: Booze Cruise
December 12-14: NYC visit?
December 16: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Tuesday
December 24-Jan 1: Home for the Holidays

I give thanks for you.

It's really weird for me to think that it's been over four years since I graduated high school. Sometimes I feel like it's been longer, sometimes I feel like it was yesterday. Crazy. What brought this on was that I started chatting with a friend from high school yesterday. He gave me an update on himself, and some other friends, and it just blew me away to think of these boys who are now getting their graduate degrees in smartness. How are we already out of college? It was very nice chatting with him though-- the only people I still keep in touch with are Ank, Susan and Bonnie. Hooray for old friends!

As an California native/Washington D.C. transplant, it's very interesting to observe the differences in culture and lifestyle between the two. Biggest difference: where are all the Asians? Going to Lynbrook and living in Sunnyvale has skewed my perspective-- to see so few Asians/aZns around is weird. Cmon yellow folk! Rise up! Fight the white establishment that is Washington D.C.!! Also, people are a lot more anal here, and show up/start things on time (unless their Asian. some things don't change no matter where you are). Now, the Midwest is a whole other story. It's more like the East Coast than the West Coast, I think. Honestly, I'm not such a huge fan of the Midwest. I love Chicago, but that's about it. I need scenery, mountains, oceans, hills. Corn fields and farms just don't do it for me.

Time to get some work done. The day to day grind is starting to wear me out. I really need Thanksgiving vacation, to refresh my mind and my soul. You know, I used to think that when I graduated, my spiritual life would not suffer that much. When I heard about people who graduated and fell away, I would think that they were lame, and be so disappointed in what I percived to be their weakness/laziness. But now that I'm here, I realize just how easy it is to forget about God, to not think about the state of my spiritual life without the small groups/ prayer meetings/ accountability to fill my mind and my heart. This whole 9-5 thing, combined with my inherent laziness, is seriously doing a number on my spiritual life. Something to work on, I guess. Anyways, that was a tangent. What I meant to say was-- I can't wait till Thanksgiving!

Couch Potato Last night, I watched TV alllll night. 7-8 rerun on Queer Eye. Those guys make me laugh. And I think Jai is adorable. Love him. 8-9 Inside the Actor's Studio with the cast of Will and Grace. Funny funny people. It's awesome to see the way they slip in and out of character, and the depth to which they know their characters. Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes in particular-- they are great. Did you know Megan Mullally went to NU for two years before dropping out to pursue acting. Go cats! 9-11 Back to back episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Used to be not so big a fan of this show, but since I've been watching it on USA, it's grown on me. Vincent D'Onofrio's character is toooo smart (who really knows all that stuff??) but he's a good enough actor to pull it off. The women character's are useless though. You can say that for all of the women character's on Dick Wolf's shows, except for maybe the chick from SVU.
Anyways, I'm a couch potato. I know it. Everyone knows it. This winter, I will start being productive and research grad/law schools and get on top of things. But for the fall-- I'm a couch potato damn it! So get used to it!!

Purple Pride I am a Wildcats Fan! And no matter how much they lose, I will have pride. I have the memories of their awesome 2000 season, and that will sustain me until we once again are victorious. I swear, next time we go to the Rose Bowl, I will be there! On Saturday, I went to Bailey's Pub in Ballston and watched the NU-Michigan game with a whole buncha other NU folk. So, we got creamed. It's okay. They kept showing clips from the 2000 NU-Michigan game, which was freakin' amazing. Dudes. i'm such a dork.

Hole. In. One. My dad is in LA golfing with his high school friends- they meet up once a year to hang out and play golf together. Anyways, he's super excited right now because he hit a HOLE IN ONE!!! Go daddy! He's crazy excited, cause he's a golf nut. I think he's reached the pinnacle of golf happiness.

HP and Me. The trailer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is up online. Hooooray! Love Mr. HP. Love Ron. Can't wait for him and Hermione to declare their love for each other. Until then, I'll just keep watching the movies and reading the books and having deep discussions about possible plot twists and philosophsical meanings with Jess Ko.

Day of Infamy. Ahnuld was sworn in today. Hail to the Chief. I feel I'm like I'm in a bad TV show: "When Idiots Vote."

Here's something that Jess and I were talking about last night. Back in the day, it was common at NU for guys to walk girls home at night. AACM/IV guys would walk girls home at night, whether they were at Norris studying, hanging out at the library or chillin' in some dorm. Why? Not because girls are helpless, or because these guys and girls were rejecting feminist notions of indendence and self sufficiency, but because it was a nice thing to do. Apparantely, other guys would give even guys a hard time if they didn't walk the girls home. This kind of happened when I was in college, dying down more and more by my senior year. So now we hear about all these muggings/attacks on or near NU campus, and I'm wondering whether or not this has started up again. Do guys think about walking girls home night, even when it's late or inconvenient? Do girls bother to ask? Personally, I am a big proponent of getting walked home, cause honestly, girls get bothered by sketchy guys a lot, but they get bothered a lot less when there's a guy with them. So calling all NU brother-- walk the sisters home! Seriously. I don't want my sister walking home alone at night. Neither should you.

Enough on that. I hear the anti-hate rally went well. That's good. I hope the Asian-American students at Northwestern are sticking their heads out of their insular little shells and realizing that hate crimes affect everyone. If you don't care about this type of thing happening to the students around you, no one will care when an Asian-American student is attacked/vandalized/victimized because of their race. Fight hate, people. It's the only option.

Fun Times I had fun weekend. Friday night, Ankur and I drank some beer at Gordon Biersch, were joined by Joy for some good food, and then headed to the movie theater to watch "Love Actually." Which I loved, actually. (hahhahhaa. I know. I'm such a dork.) I love Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney and Liam Neeson. And I think Kiera Knightly is annoying. This was a really entertaining, fun, movie to watch. You're either laughing or smiling the whole time. If you're a sucker for the romantic comedy like I am, you should watch this movie.
Consequences Today my my mom told me that she wishes Sarah and I would just find a good man and get married. One consequence of watching a sappy romantic comedy is that I'm now inclined to agree.
On Being Impulsive I don't have a lot of money, so I try to be careful about what I buy. But one thing I have absolutely no control over is buying books. For some people it's eating out, or buying CDs, or mocha frappacinos. For me, it's books. I bought "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon on Saturday. I've bought many many other books in the past couple months. Let's just say I spend more on books that I really can afford to. I need a car. So I can head to the nearest library.
Dreams The other night, I dreamt that Will Bailey from "The West Wing" proposed to me. Not the actor who plays Will Bailey (Josh Malina, who is cute and brilliant), but Will Bailey, the character. Toby and Josh were in my dream too. You know what this means right? I watch too much West Wing on Bravo. Anyways, it was a great dream, and I remember waking up, but going back to sleep with the specific purpose of continuing the dream. Too bad I'm no Joseph-- my dreams aren't prophetic.
Hey Jealousy My brother went to watch Caedmon's Call/Jars of Clay on Saturday. i am tres jealous. Jars is my favorite band ever. You know how there are those Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead around to all their shows? If there's one band I could be a Deadhead for, it would be Jars. I would be a Jarhead.
Home Sweet Home Hannah will be in California from Dec. 24th- Jan 1st. InN'Out Burger-- be prepared.

You wanna know who I really dislike? RACISTS. You wanna know who else I dislike? People who purposefully stir up trouble, fear and hatred for their own amusement. I feel like there are lot of those people at NU right now. What idiots. Seriously, drawing swastikas and racist comments, and then attacking someone from behind-- how cowardly. I wish these dumbasses had the balls to sign their names to their comments, or attack people from the front. At least then, it wouldn't be this hit and run type of situation, where you know these racists are out there, but they are too afraid to show their faces. What the hell kind of people is NU letting in now? Were these bastards there the whole time I was at NU? Or is it that now they're just being more bold? Perhaps the NU application should have an addition to the gender/ethnicity/age boxes-- a "yes, i am an ignorant racist coward who would write racial epithets for the fun of it on someone's door/no i am a normal, slightly prejudiced but willing to try to rise above it and see everyone as equals person" box. Wouldn't that be nice?

Things that amuse me:
Funny dreams. Last night I dreamt that Ankur's roommate called and told me that he was suspended from work because he lost his cell phone. And then I dreamt two people at work got fired.
My home state. I've moved from disgust to amusement. I think California has reached the peak of Mt. Crazy. How long we're going to stay camped out up here remains to be seen. Oh, and someone told me that the fires were California's punishment for electing Ahnuld. If he gets reelected, we're probably going to get hit with an earthquake that will make California an island.
The WB. Angel and Gilmore Girls make me laugh a lot.
My freezer. Still packed with momma's food.
Other people's blogs. Much more amusing/clever/cool than mine. I can only aspire.
My family. Word.
Good: New Jars album, friends coming to visit, NPR, ice cream runs.

Things that don't:
Sad TV. Watched the "8 Simple Rules" where John Ritter's character dies. It made me cry. Saaaaaad.
Hot metros. It was hot and crowded on the metro yesterday. I felt like I was in a sauna. With a lot of fully dressed, smelly people.
Checkbooks. Didn't calculate my balance right. Missed a lot of stuff of withdrawals. Oooops.
Bad: racists, robbers, hot apartments, no money, no friends.

As I was lying down on the dark floor of my apartment, trying to escape the heat (my apartment is like a furnace right now), I started thinking about risk. And whether I take any. I once told someone that looking back at my life, I felt lucky that I didn't have a lot of pain, a lot of hurt, a lot of drama. She replied that maybe it's partly because I don't take a lot of risk. I kind of forgot about it, but now I'm thinking, she's probably right. I don't think I take a lot of risks. Maybe I should start taking more chances, stop trying to be so comfortable all the time. How different would my life/lifestyle be if I wasn't so cautious, so scared all the time? Hm. Something to think about. Honestly, I feel like I wasted so much time and opportunity to explore and learn because I was too cautious. But how do you become a risk taker? Anyone know? Something to keep thinking about, I guess.

Tired. Very tired. Couldn't sleep last night. For some reason, it was very hot in the apartment.

It's fall!! Yay! This weekend, it was gorgeous weather, so me and Mich and Kerri went to Great Falls. The forests were sooo gorgeous, the rapids were gorgeous, nature is gorgeous. It was a perfect day. One of those days where it's hard to imagine that people don't believe in God-- His power and His creation were fully apparent all around us.

New Jars of Clay CD came out yesterday, and I got it! Haven't listened to it all the way through yet, but I'm working on it. So far, it's sounds a lot more bluesy/folkish, pretty mellow. As always, their lyricism just kicks my ass. Did you know that Jars of Clay is my favorite band? They are. With every album, I love Dan, Charlie, Steve and Matt more and more... in a non stalkerish kind of way.

Three more weeks until Thanksgiving! Woo hoo!!