Cherry Blossoms at U of Washington

so Pretty... so Pweeeety... so PreeeeeeTTTttTTyyyYYYyy...
I mean.. the Sakura Tree at University of Washington - the Quad.
Everything is so nice. I want to enroll myself in this school la!!

At the Quad.

We almost missed the cherry blossom season. Most of the flowers already fallen on the ground lu... =_+

pink n green.

so pretty la.

who doesn't want to study in this kind of environment?

so hard to get a nice picture. =_+

ahhhhHHhhhh...

i love sakura.

can dance para para sakura here already la!

ok. save money. enroll in this school. tata.

Nice people everywhereeeeeeeee

I ask you la..where to find such a nice landlord laaaaaaaa.....?

Remember I said our dishwasher was broken. Actually there's nothing major, just that the handle was broken. Mr. Landlord replaced another one for us not long ago, but it was leaking... So, Mr. landlord yesterday bought us another one!!! OMG la, we told him actually we don't use the dishwasher one, because Airene and I are cheapo, we will not waste the electricity one la, but the nice Mr. Landlord insisting on replacing a new one.


I felt kinda bad la!!! Our landlord is a very strong man, as in big size man. Seeing him had to bend down his body and try to fit his body in the small small space to replace the dishwasher, I felt really really bad la, I couldn't help some more. The worst thing is, their whole family was at our place to help yesterday. The Mrs. landlord help us to clean up the mess after that. Then the daughter helped her dad to fix the dishwasher. OMG la. =_+

Then ar..you guys know that we have a big TV but it has been sitting in our living room miserably as we just placed it on the floor ma. But now ar, our Mr. Landlord helped the tv to find a house la! He gave us this cabinet! And before I say anything rite, he helped us to move the TV to sit on top of the cabinet. =p


Nice huh!! He is amazing I tell you!!

Then ar. Another thing. Our new dryer, after we used couple of times, we found that our clothes take such a long time to dry and there's no hot air coming out!! So we told him la, his wife suggested that maybe we should not put too many clothes n bla bla bla...BUT, the Mr. Landlord said "we should exchange ours with theirs..". When I heard that I was like...Please...NOOOOooooOOOO.... Your family will kill us man...=p Then he said if it's so, we can just tell him again if there's more problems.

Oh ya. our landlord helps us to throw rubbish too. =_+

Haih. Do you still remember I was being a Korean not long ago rite. My face was swollen, skin itchy n super dry. Then after that my skin became very smooth. Yesterday I woke in the middle of the night I realized that my face was swollen again although this time its not dry but it swells pretty bad. But now I know the cause. It was all Proactive Solution's fault!!! It seemed that the toner contain some kind of sulfur that my skins cannot take it! Yesterday I thought I haven't used this product for so long already, so might as well give it a try again, and now my face swells again!! Grr!! This morning when Airene woke up she went to pharmacy to get me medicine. How nice is that!!

It's always good to have nice house mate and nice landlord! Heee... I am happy!

pre-graduation

Seeing the air ticket to fly back to Bemidji is increasing bit by bits each day, I am started to think should I really pay that much to go back just for the graduation.

I feel that it is rather meaningless to go back anymore. My family will not be there, my brother that once promised me to come also not coming!! I have been to a few of my close friends' graduation, it makes you feel darn jealous seeing their families are there for them, receiving tones of flowers and teddy bears. Honestly, who cares about the flowers and the bears? What I want is someone close to me to be with me on that day. To some of you it may just another day to celebrate, but to me it's kinda important becauseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... you just have no idea how much I have worked hard and paid off just to come to this so-called the land of freedom.

At first I thought of calling WeiYong to come since he is in Wisconsin now for training, but oh well, he is flying back to Malaysia in like 3 days?? I know I can call Ted as he is pretty near to Minnesota, but he also has to attend his dear sherlyn's graduation. Then I thought of Wynx, but sigh he is so far away living in the miserable land of Tennessee. If only WeeJian is here. If only. If only you would come. =(

It's on May 16th, and it's already April 14th now. Air ticket to fly back to Bemidji is 555 dollars (by adding another 200++ I can fly back to Malaysia or Europe). If I fly to Minneapolis it will cost me 300 dollars. BUT, I need to rent a car (probably 200 for 3 days as I am holding international driving license and I am under 25) + petrol (60 for return)+ 10 hours for a return trip (priceless, my time is gold) + driving alone is sucks. The total is around 600 dollars. WTH rite? But again, I do not mind paying for it if only someone is there to do road trip with me and that someone must be someone special to me. =_+

So how now brown cow?? A part of me telling me just goooooo but a part of me telling me just stay. And I am damn cheapo lo. I told my supervisor I am not taking any vacation leaves, so no matter what she has to try to fit me into 40 hours of work in 4 days or maybe 3 days.

Haih. enough said. I don't know my decision and don't ask me anything unless you can come up with a brilliant idea for me. thank you very much.

The interview with God

Watch the video guys...
Wait patiently for it to load....

The original website here : Interview with God
Youtube version here: Interview with God

This little boy at our program I find him rather cute.
He will say Grace before every meal.
Friends always make fun of him.
Today at dinner, I asked him.. "why don't you just pray for everyone?"
Then...He did.
Sweet, isn't it?

Hahahaaaaaa...

I don't know where does the title come from. Haha.

It seems that I only update my blog during my off day. So yea, it's off day again. I spent whole day watching the complete season of Celebrity Apprentice. Those guys have really good brains I would say! And girls... are often too bitchy, always emotional, take things too personally! It's fun to see how 14 egos fighting each other. So many dramas, so many unpredictable results, so many back stabs, so many racist comments... ahHhhh.. interesting. It's 3am now and I am sitting here watching episode by episode, and find times for myself to blog during the commercial. =p

I love multi tasking. while watching the show, I am also blogging, chatting with edwin on his mom's birthday, writing monthly report for my job when I am out of idea what to type here....

Talking about writing monthly report for my client, as in the primary little resident I am working with, I have been procrastinating a lot. Like a lot. I have already gathered all the information, have everything in my mind, but I just could not put all of them together. Oh ya, talking about racist comments earlier, I was really extremely upset the other day when one of this girl said this to me "you stupid Chinese woman know nothing", not one time, not two times, but repeatedly. Honestly, I got very upset and felt very lousy at first and I really took it personally, and it definitely screwed up my 'passion' towards my job for that day. When I got home, I sat down and thought about it. I felt silly, because what she said was true. First, I am a Chinese, so she says nothing wrong about that. Second, I am stupid and know nothing because I can't seem to help her and get her what she wants. So, I felt that instead of getting myself overwhelmed by the words coming from this little girl, I should have used the energy and times to think of a way that I could have helped her better. Jeez, I don't know why I made such a big deal out of it. But well, in the end I was able to make myself to smile again! Weeheee, I am pretty good at doing this. =p

Like seriously lo, you know, everyday we have many many many many stressors coming from everywhere, if you let one of them takes you down, how are you going to manage the rest of your day? When I was in primary school, I was nominated by my class teacher as the most cheerful girl for several years. In high school years, I was voted as class monitors for 5 years as I was referred as the nicey and again the cheerful girl. BUT, the truth is, I wasn't really that happy-go-lucky kinda girl, I was the girl with all kind of worries, and one stupid worry can just take me down like that just that I do not show it. Ask my mom, ask Ted, ask people who really knows me in the past, the first thing I always do is I CRY!! Then, I whine, I complain, I cry again and again.

But, I have learned and changed through this years. Let me ask you, when was the last time you wake up and feel that the sun just shine for you? When was the last time you try to find some fun in your job? When was the last time you TRY YOUR BEST finding some times for yourself? When was the last time you smile and the smile came from your heart? When was the last time you tell yourself everything is possible?

Most of the time we are overwhelmed by so many things. Everything just comes from everywhere, like boom boOm bOOM! When everything get tensed up, slow down your pace, take one thing/step at a time. Or even better, stop and take a look at everything, reevaluate the whole thing, which is the most priority to you, which should comes first, what you should bother and what you should not be bothered by. Seriously la, most of the times we know where our problem is at, we just need a break from the problem. When I say a "break", I am not saying that you have to runaway from the problem, but to take a small break from it. Sometimes we may look at things better when we are out of that box.

These are what I do a lot lately. I call my friends, and I will try not to talk about the problems that is bothering me, you know just have fun just chill with your friends, just chat. When I stress up, I will think of the happy moments that I have with my friends, family. I will just take a short moment think about it, I smile, then I will back to my work! I love to think of the times when my friends sing me song, especially randall, eric, anthony, weiyong...I love to smile, there's no doubt there is this magic thingy in a smile. You find yourself to be happier when you smile more. Try that!! =)

And another thing I hate the most is quitter!! I believe what my ex-boss Mr Ramesh said was true, once you quit you will quit again and again. I also believe that once you have the mindset of quitting or even just a thought of quitting, you will eventually step out of the stress and step into the comfort zone which is quitting. Seriously, don't be a quitter unless you want to quite smoking or taking drugs that kinda stuff. =p

I can't believe is 8am now!! Haha! I did not sleep the whole night! =p And I have finished watching the complete season of Celebrity Apprentice! Haaaaaaaaaaaa..

Ok. Time to bed! Nite! =p

finally!

I finally got my badge from HR after working for so long!

BRS counselor sounds cool isn't it? But actually just doing all shitty works one la! By the way BRS stands for Behavioral Rehabilitation Services.

To you...

For you... the girl who is far far away from me and yet close in my heart.


by Yael Naim - Far Far

Far far, there's this little girl
she was praying for something to happen to her
everyday she writes words and more words
just to speak out the thoughts that keep floating inside
and she's strong when the dreams come cos' they
take her, cover her, they are all over
the reality looks far now, but don't go

how can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
how can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
oh oh oh oh

far far, there's this little girl
she was praying for something good to happen to her
from time to time there're colors and shapes
dazeling her eyes, tickeling her hands
they invent her a new world with
oil skies and aquarel rivers
but don't you run away already
please don't go oh oh

how can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
how an you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
take a deep breath and dive
there's a beautiful mess inside
how can you stay outside?
There's a beautiful mess
beautiful mess inside

oh beautiful, beautiful

far far there's this little girl
she was praying for something big to happen to her
every night she ears beautiful strange music
it's everywhere there's nowhere to hide
but if it fades she begs
"oh lord don't take it from me, don't take it yourselves"

i guess i'll have to give it birth
to give it birth
i guess, i guess, i guess i have to give it birth
i guess i have to, have to give it birth
there's a beautiful mess inside and it's everywhere

so shake it yourself now deep inside
deeper than you ever dared
deeper than you ever dared
there's a beautiful mess inside
beautiful mess inside

I have so many things to say!

Where shall I begin?

I shall begin from yesterday. Airene and I went for grocery shopping after work. We only have beers in our fridge basically. The most important thing is we are out of toilet rolls!! As we have to take bus to H-mart (Asian store) and Wal-mart, we decided to bring back pack. Ok, fine, I brought my hand carry luggage. At first, Airene laughed at me, she thought I was a mad woman or something. At the end of the day, you know how "powerful" and useful is my luggage la! If not because of my luggage, we had to carry all the groceries like gila and had to catch bus at the same time.

See!! The result!! It will be enough for us to eat for 1 month or maybe more than that. *Haha* We have everything, fruits, vege, pork, chicken, fish, ice cream, aiyo, a lot la. Then the beer, we bought that month ago for the Bemidji-gang as they are from AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) one. But they did not drink it. =( It's been so long since I had a good drink with a bunch of good friends. =( The other day I had 2 shots of vodka at colleague' farewell party, that's it, only 2 shots. I have been really really good lately. =)

FInally lahhhh...!! The washer and dryer are here. Landlord is the best mannnnnn... He is the best!! When we were back from shopping, the new washer and dryer are just sitting inside the bathroom waiting for us. So cute! The landlord some more helped us to fix the dishwasher (don't know whats wrong with it even though we did not use it!! ), helped us to change the light bulb, and I don't know what else he had helped us to fix (why he is so secretive one!).

They are both white color one, so matchy-matchy with our toilet theme! =p

*sigh* Mom called and said that it is most likely 80% of chances they will not come for my convocation. I was not really disappointed as I kinda expected it. I mean since the first day I left home and studied in KL, they never paid me a visit in KL, so.... you know la.. what to expect when I am even further than in KL. Since young, my brother sisters and I were expected to be independent, or you can put it in this way that my parents trust us so much that we are allowed to do whatever we want as long as it is not involving killing people or robbing a bank or raping someone, you get what I mean la. Whatever that I have just mentioned are not related to why they are not coming to US, haih, whatever la. Anyway, if Suzan or Beledees you guys are reading this, please tell mummy that my bf is Edwin not someone she has been thinking all the while, although I have been trying to tell her like 197928739203827 times. It's been 1 year plus now, and I think Edwin is such an easy name to remember in mind and at heart. Jeez. I know you guys constantly check my facebook, friendster and blog, why mummy can't remember his name? Gawd!

Just a picture to entertain you and myself.

I have been very OCD la, not to the extend of very anal though. I need to clean my room like million times a week. I just cant stand the amount of dust in my room. Seriously, I don't know where are they from! No matter how many times I rearrange my room, it just seems to be imperfect to me.

On the other hand, seriously, do not underestimate 2 girls. Look at the shoes we have. I still have another box of shoes in Portland. Airene, I think you should just stop buying shoes lo. =p

Ok la. If you are wondering how small my eyes look like now. It's like this la. This is not bad already, last week was like ten times smaller than this. And you can tell from the picture that my face is still swollen a little bit. I don't know when only I can recover from this allergy allergy thingy. =( Anyway, I love my jacket. Especially the logo. Thank you very much.

Lovin' Seattle....

Why Seattle so Pretty one?

I have been sick for the past 2 weeks. Hebat or not? After the Bemidji Gang left, I was caught with cold, flu, fever. I recovered after 4 days. Then, the best thing happened. I have hypersensitivity reaction on my skin ( My self conclusion la). I guess I was having severe excessive reaction to an allergen or allergenSSsssSSSSss. On my off day, I went to downtown with Airene and Valarie (That's when the above picture was taken). At the evening on that day, I noticed that my skin suddenly get terribly dried and itchy. When I reached home I went to bed after I brushed up. The next day when I woke up (at 6am as I had to work at 7am), I found myself looked like a Korean or someone that I did not recognized at all. My face was swollen! My eyes was swollen! My skin was like a snake changing their skin. =_+ I almost cried when I looked into the mirror! I went to work still. I talked to the supervisor that I really did not feel comfortable working as I did not want to scare the kids away. As I was supposed to work for 16 hours that day, i was asked to go home to rest and come in to work again after 8 hours, to work for at least one shift. So I went home to rest and went to worked again after that. The kids made so many comments when I was at work, they said "Ming why you wear glasses today.." "Ming why you skin so dry..Ming you have dry skin..Ming you need moisturizer...".. "Ming how come your eyes are so small today.." I was like OMG ok. =_+

My skin is recovering slowly. But the swollen part, haih, my eyes are very small still, and I definitely look like a Korean right now. It's proven when Airene and I went to eat Korean food and at church, people spoke Korean to us. =_+

I MISS YOU ;)

=)

Be appreciative, be contended of what you have now.

Every pain, every joy, is an experience.
Let us be grateful of today's pain.
Let us be even more thankful of tomorrow happiness.

"Let your future's joy overwrite your current pain." - JYJL

Winter has gone. A new season has come. A quarter of new year is passed. Spring is here. What have you achieved, and what have you yet to be done? Are you the "duck that seems calm on the surface but kicking like there's no tomorrow underneath it all"? Or have you figured out a way for yourself seeing that "tomorrow happiness and achievement going to overwrite today pain and hard work"?

Do not bother to read

Finally I find some times for myself to write something. I have been busy working. Well, not really, it's only 40 hours per week, but it's killing me. I used to work 13 hours each day during the summer, but now I feel exhausted every time after 8-hour of work.

There is no doubt that I love my current job. But sometimes I do ask myself, is this job too much for me to handle? You know that most of us worked hard in our job hoping our boss to notice our effort; in this job I was hoping the other way round. Instead of wanting my manager or supervisor or other staff to see how hard I have worked, I am hoping there is someone to see or witness together with me whenever there is incident happening. How if I was accused that I abused/treated the kid badly? How if the kids plan a trap for me to fall into and later accuse me with whatever reason they have come up with? How if it was my mistakes that have made the kids suffered? How if...How if...?

Every night before I go to bed, a lot of things go through my mind especially on the day when a lot of incidents happen. Kid pulled the fire alarm, kid tried to run away, kid punched his/her peers, kid bit staff/peers, kid got restraint, the kids' screaming, crying sound. A lot of us as a counselor would have asked ourselves, would the situation have been better if we handled it in another way, could we have done differently to control the situation, could we...could we..?

I definitely do not feel good when I listen to a kid screaming at me telling me "I hate you Ming" like million times. I definitely feel sad whenever I heard that the kid whom I thought he was always been good blew up in school by hitting the tutor, throwing chairs and tables, and screaming like nobody business. I definitely feel helpless and depress whenever I thought I could have helped them better but actually I made it worse. I definitely feel weak and dumb when I don’t know how to help them, or cheer them up. I definitely feel sad whenever I can’t offer them the kind of loves they want to receive from their family.

Days like this I just feel like talking to people who close to me. I chose not to talk to Airene as she has her own things to take care of (we have the same job). The person who I wished I can talk to or at least try to understand me, never seemed to have some times for me. Sometimes it makes me wonder how much he knows what I am going through. My best friends are all in Malaysia. I wished that time like this I can just chill out with Pam by eating jagung. I wished that I can have LilGap’s words that always keep me comfort. I wished that I can have Jacob to share with me words that always keep me hopeful. I wished that I can have WeiYong’s singings that always keep me warm. I wished that I can talk to Ted more as he can understand me like no one does. I wished that Andrew can provide me free petrol (Ah, this is so irrelevant). I wished that WeeJian can just be here but not in Malaysia. I miss WeeJian like gila only. How can he run back to Malaysia when we are sharing family plan for our phone? I miss those days of our daily phone conversation where he can rant to me about his job while I can bitch to him about school and my relationship. What I love about my best friends are they do not judge, they listen, they help me to see the situation better, they help me to analyze, they care, they share, they try to understand, and the best thing is they do not make decision for me. Gawd, I miss them.

Maybe I should stop rambling.

Not long ago, WeiYong sent me this message.


This is the kind of message that always makes my heart goes.....AaaaWWwwwww.....

New Home!

This is my new home in Seattle! Airene and I have been staying here for 2 weeks now (before this we were staying in Kelly's house for one month or two). It has 2 bed rooms, kitchen, living room, bath room, and a small tiny little dining room. It's definitely a cozy place to live in. We love it!

Welcome to our house!

My room! Nice queen bed. But..underneath the quilt, it's actually an air bed. Yup, poor Ming. Donate me a real mattress, anyone? please? Oh yea, the turtle was from you-know-who-la. And the green hippopotamus was from AiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiReeeeeeeeeene.

The chi-lang-chang (means 'everything' la. =p) I know I need to do laundry already. =_+

My closet with mirror! That's me in the picture =_+. Anyway, I have a smaller room with big closet.

My workstation.

Airene's room. Not gonna post up the pictures because of privacy issue ok. haha. She has a bigger room with small closet.

Our 31-inch Tv! It's free from Craiglist! Thanks to Airene-the-craiglist-slave. =p The landlord provides us Cable Tv. Hehe! The small little thing beside the Tv is the wireless modem.

Yup, we have bath tub.

And the pretty bathroom. We work hard to keep it clean, make sure it is "hair-less" =p

We have a fridge too!

And also a complete kitchen with oven, dish washer!

After seeing so many pictures, did you notice anything?

Let me tell you.

We don't even have a chair in the house. And, I did not show you the living room. Because, I did not take picture of it as it looks really sad. The good thing is the landlord donated us a dining table lately. We told him we have no extra money to buy chairs for the table, being such a nice landlord, he chopped off part of the legs of the table. So now at least we can take our meal on this big "coffee table" by sitting on the floor. =_= well, better than none rite?

So, do you like our new home? You are always welcome to come to stay with us when you are in Seattle! Hehe!

Friends visit Seattle

My pig dog friends come all the way from Minnesota to visit us in Seattle. It's always good to have visitors you know!! =p Airene and I have been very lonely here. =_+ Too bad that when they were here for 5 days I had to work for that 5 days!!!

Airene and I wear the same shoes today. She was in black socks, and I didn't wear socks! =p This picture is irrelevant. haha.

Seattle is behind us.

The sky. The buildings. The sea. The Land. The city of Seattle!

Seattle at night.

We had Yu Sang. Natalie brought all the way back from Malaysia. I was really HAPPY to see all of them again. It's only a few months I last seen them but I felt like it's been years!

Another view of Seattle. EH, come to Seattle to visit me LAH!

Nat, Airene, Me, Chloe at Olympic Sculpture Park.

5 of us on the bench.

Visited Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee.

Us with pretty boy.

Jummmmp!

I'm at the highest point this time! =p They took like thousand pictures-lah, it's definitely not easy to choose 10 out of them. =p

This is funny. I love it. Everyone was posing.

But ooOOOOooppPPpsss. It's video.

i love the scenery

The place where I am working at is just by the lake side. A pretty view that I managed to capture with my phone when I was on the way walking back to the Children's cottage.

Cherry Blossom. It's a sign of the Spring season.

Have a great Spring break! Till then.

love notes

I received this the other day. All the way from Malaysia. Usually when a girl receives this will feel butterflies in the stomach. As for me, I was extremely tired after work on that day, but honestly I had that feeling of "zsa zsa zsoo" that a girl should always have in a relationship.

It's a jar filled with love notes. Ya, I know, it's not a fresh idea. Probably like tones of BFs did for their GFs. But when you actually received one, you will feel differently. I can't tell you how exactly I feel, you have to experience it on your own. Haha.

I must give credit to him on folding the love origami. Because, I do not know how to fold one. =p

I cheated a bit la, I should have not opened more than one per day. But I was all excited to know what he can write in there. So I open one by one. =p

so one of it was saying:

"There's no special reason for this message today. I just wanted to steal a single moment out from your busy life and hope that this can make you smile. Miss you."

Awwwwww....Here is another one....

"Do you know why God created gaps between fingers? So that someone who is very special to you comes and fills those gaps, it's just like me holding your hands and walking through the whole life. Love you."

HAHA. How about this one?

"VIP Calling Pass. Call me now, no matter what I am busying at now, I will put aside and just talk talk talk talk talk to you. Enjoy the special Privilege."

So I picked up my phone and called him. "Hey..I am doing something, call you back k." This is what I got from him. Apparently this VIP Calling Pass is expired. Or you know when you shop online, you have to type in the Promotional Code before you proceed to check out, so I guess next time when I call I have to say "I want to use VIP Calling Pass", maybe it will works.

Oh Well. I know I should feel contended, which I am.

Happy Anniversary, D. Love you.