New Year's Eve 2012

Tomorrow is the New Year! Woohooo....Happy new year, everyone :)

New Years' Eve is a quiet and peaceful day for me. Loving the day with reading and writing.
Woke up with shoulder pains and head aches, what a great start, right? I got a week off from work and was really enjoying my vacation until these few days. Insomnia is my worst enemy, hope I can fall asleep easily once I get back to my normal routine.

Yesterday was the last Sunday of 2012, didn't realized it until my friend pointed it out. A bunch of my friends and I went to an archery range. We were there for almost 3 hours and that's how I got the shoulder pain. Though all of us are beginners, we were embracing the new and fun experiences. It took me a while to pick up on how to shoot the arrows and it got a bit better toward the end.

Let's hope for a better and happier new year :)

Will end the post with a picture of my friends:

Five More Days Before 2013

Can't believe 2013 is around the corner, time flies and I didn't even notice.
What did I do in 2012? Thinking back, I can only remember the big events, not so much on the daily activities. That's probably one of the reasons I started blogging again. It's hard to be persistent with blogging if I force myself to write about certain topics.

Over the summer I started blogging about flowers and stopped when life got busy. The funny things is, I forgot which Gmail account I used for that blog. My food blog is also kind of done. Motivations and time are needed for those topics. Now, I enjoy writing about life, things here and there. A journal is good for me to look back at for next year, 5 years and 20 years from now. That's if I keep up with this journal.

So back to what I did in 2012:

• Graduated from college
• Worked for an ecommerce company for a few months
• Working for a tech company now

If you asked me that question, that's probably the three things I can think of. All the fun, happy moments with friends and families, I can't remember on the top of my head. But if I am talking to friends about it, looking back at photos, images of those moments will probably pop into my head one by one.

To my make daily activities more memorable for myself, I'll keep up with my journal and will set some goals for 2013. That will be coming up in future posts.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone !!! 

It's a tiring day, not going to write much. 

Will put down a summary just for next year, so I know what I did for Christmas in 2012. 

My day goes like this:

• Sushi lunch buffet with friends
• Hung out with Wendy for the entire day 
• She entertained me with funny stories
• She's my make up model for the day
• Took pictures in the freezing cold. Took 80 plus pics of Wendy
• Ended my day with late dinner and blogging

Christmas decoration at a bar

One of the plates from sushi buffet

Christmas lights and Wendy in the pic

Happy Holidays

It's Christmas Eve, happy holidays everyone.

My kitchen was filled with jolly Christmas music and aromas of scallion pancakes. My blog post was also interrupted by the stir fried noodles, needed to stir it before the noodles get too dried.

Now moving back to my room, it's playing three hours of Christmas melodies. I love to be surrounded by happiness.  Looking forward to meet up with friends in the afternoon for wings and wines, but not sure what's there to do afterward. We went to see the Christmas tree almost two weeks ago and sang two days ago. It's so hard to think of something to do for Christmas Eve. Hopefully we'll figure out something :)

I'll end the post with a picture of the delicious roast duck we had on Saturday.

The End of the World?

Woke up to rainy weather and still felt like night time. However, a few minutes later, rays of sunlight were passing through the window curtains. Though it was bright outside, the wind was still singing its songs, knocking on doors and windows.

I saw someone's FB post about walking home and ten broken umbrellas were laying on the ground. It was probably a mess out there this morning. Glad that I don't have work today, but I have a few hundred pages of notes to read through. Let's hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Christmas Tree NYC

Awesome weather and the famous tree at Rockefeller Center, also beautiful lights along the way:

12/12/12

Today is going to be the last repeated number-date we see. For this reason, the day is unique and it also has special meanings in Chinese. 12 is equal to "want love" and lots of people got married.

My company had a Christmas party with lots of pizza, beer and wine. It was nothing special, just a fun gathering and socializing with everyone. Though the holiday is not here yet, it seems like everyone is celebrating it already. I can't wait for Christmas to come.

Simple Ramen Recipe

Directions:

1. Boil appropriate amount of water in a pot
2. When the water boils, put in the ramen
3. Add in imitation crabmeats, shrimps or the meat of your choice, if vegetarian, then skip this part
4. Add in the vegetable of your choice
5. Cover the pot for a minutes to cook the ingredients and to soften the noodle
6. Crack an egg and let it cook uncover, don't stir the egg
6. Put in the ramen sauce
7. Stir a little and it's done

More Details from the Wedding

All the little details that make the wedding wonderful:

Flower on back of the chair

Rose petals on the aisle with the couple's name

Lucky candies from the couple

Bride and groom's name on the napkin

Chinese lanterns and Christmas decorations

Chinese and Western Style Wedding

Woke up at 6 am in the morning and looked like a panda, traveled a few hours to Long Island to attend a friend's wedding. The details and the decorations at the wedding were beautiful.

Check out a few pictures below:

Chinese tea ceremony, the groom's parents drink tea from the couple and give blessings.

Symbolizing good fortune and fertility.

Western style room with lanterns and red colors added to the dinning room.

The wedding ceremony

Bride and groom dance, both in ancient Chinese clothes.

Happy Jolly Christmas Songs

Jolly Christmas songs are so soothing and relaxing for the mind. I only have happy thoughts with that beautiful music playing in the background. Before that I was feeling kind of depress in the dark, and my happy go lucky friend called. She instantly brights up my world, bringing sunshine and laughter. I feel so grateful to have her, calling me at the right moment.

Sometimes little things can impact others and we don't even know. My current FB status is : Listening to Christmas music, can't wait for the holiday to come :). A friend texted me a few minutes later about how she's stressed with work, but then saw my status and thought it was a great idea. The jolly music calmed her and it's wonderful to know that my idea helped her in a little way.

Movie: Swinging with the Finkels

Swinging with the Finkels was about a couple that tried to save their stale marriage. With that in mind, the female main character suggested swinging with another married couple, meaning to exchange partner for a night.  It's an interesting concept to allow a partner to see if  the grass is greener on the other side, to have sex with another person outside of the marriage. I wonder how that would save a marriage.

True that a strong foundation in a relationship will help a couple get through tough times. Passion and love is like fire, both have to work together to keep it alive. After 10 years together, the Frinkels don't even want to touch each other. That's probably a realistic problem in our society. Many people are busy and don't have time for romance or even to show that they care. It's kind of sad that love is always more sweet in the beginning, known as the honeymoon period. I want to believe that if a couple love each other enough, care and passion should always be there, to keep love sweet like chocolates.

Friday Night

It has been such a stressful week and it feels like I am wearing a heavier and heavier school bag day after day. At the end of the week, Friday after 6 pm, my shoulder feels ten times lighter, as if someone took of that burden.

Tonight is a "Do Nothing Night", just enjoying movies, relaxing, putting away clothes and also absorbing fragrance. My room smells like garden rain with the scented candle. A glass of red wine would make this even more perfect. Comparing to many people's Friday night, mine doesn't seem exciting or vibrant. But it's  a luxury to just sit and relax, because time is so precious. I prefer this over partying in a crowded and noisy place.

Be the Change

"You must be the change you wish to see.'" Gandhi

My favorite quote of the day, just to keep myself motivated.

Thanksgiving Weekend

A bowl of hot beef noodle soup is the best after speed walking for an hour. Leaves were flying everywhere and the wind passes right through my face in the dark. After interacting with the wind for a while, my ears were like icy Popsicle. The journey to meet my friend in her neighborhood feels a lot longer than usual, maybe double the amount of time. Despite the long walk, we met up and enjoyed chatting with each other.
She's a slice of joy in this dreadful weather, making it all bright and cheerful. In addition, we ended our meet up with a big fat piece of cookies and cream chocolate :)

Toward 12 AM in the morning, I can't help but think that my Thanksgiving break is over so soon. I felt like the holiday is not long enough to do anything but just to rest a little. That's exactly what I did and wanted more time. Tomorrow is the end of this vacation, I hope it will be a productive day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite holidays, the smell of pumpkin pies, delicious food and a day for family to spend time together.

Today is really relaxing, just did some online shopping, reading and napping. It's probably a good idea to write down  what I did today so I can look back at it next year. I have no idea what I did last Thanksgiving.

A Beautiful Saturday Morning

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, warm weathers and not too sunny. A cup of hot jasmine tea and dim sum makes it even more perfect. I envisioned today to be productive. There are pages of tasks to be completed on my to do list, hopefully there are no distractions. If I completed everything today, I'll be even more looking forward to tomorrow.

November 11 is a special day for  my friend. She's going to be a year wiser.
It's just going to be me and her. But I know that we are going to have lots of fun.The original plan was a group gathering, but others are busy.Seems like a difficult task to gather the group together as we get older and as our friends get married. Now, the only time the group gets together is at a friend's wedding or if we all miss each other too much.

I wonder if our traditions are going to last. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas since 2005, the six of us will have some type of gathering near the holidays, either a day before or after the holiday. Though it's not near the holiday yet, I asked one of my closest friends if we are still meeting this Thanksgiving. She already mentioned that she busy that week with personal things. So now we have 5/6 people available or to be determined. But usually, if we don't meet near Thanksgiving, we'll meet near Christmas. Hopefully, it's going to be like that this year again. Regardless, I am still looking forward to the holidays, they make the winter season a bit more joyful and colorful.

Living the Moment

Last night, I was reading ways to motivate yourself. An interesting exercise was to imagine yourself lying at the death bed and really connecting with the dying experience. At that moment, mentally invite people that are important to you to the bedside individually and mention things you wanted them to know. Through the process, the author realized that he left out so much in life. For example, there were so many wonderful feelings that he never expressed to his children. Realizing what and who is important; he vowed to never leave any chances, never leave anything unsaid and live as if he's going to die any moment.

Many of us say that, "I'll do this some day" or "I'll do that some day". But what if tomorrow is the end?

First Day of Snow

I can't believe it's November. We are not even half way through the month and it's already snowing.

Just a week after Hurricane Sandy, the snow storm is here. New York haven't even fully recover yet and more damages are being done. It's so sad that natural disaster is all coming at once.