It's about cheese.

I love being a hostess and having guests over, but I have learned that I am territorial and immature the longer I have guests over. The last time that we had guests, I secretly freaked out when one of our guests used one of my brand new glasses for soda (one of two novelty glasses purchased at the Coca Cola store in Las Vegas). She had lipstick on and the glasses were brand new. I nearly wigged out because I wanted to be the first one to use the stupid glass.

It's like this: I say "Make yourself at home" and I think "no, but not really..."

So we have this guy visiting from Chile. It's important to me to be a good hostess, because I do care. But Dennis and I are both busy and our guest knows that we aren't going to be cleaning/cooking/entertaining much. Which is cool as our guest is not as much here for tourism as much as he is looking for prospects for when he moves to So Cal.


He's a guest. But he is making himself at home. And Dennis and I are slowly turning into Angie Tempura.

It's about cheese. We bought some expensive cheese tonight because we had an awesome coupon for it. And after I put it in the fridge, I realized I would have to share it. Because we are not going to hide cheese from our guest. But at the realization that I must share, I nearly lost my sh#t.


It's not just about cheese. I mean, last night he delighted in telling me that Jimmy Fallon is doing cocaine because he has bags under his eyes and he can't tell jokes without laughing. Because those are 100% tell-tale signs. I don't even care about the celebrity part, just the smug "you know you are a loser for laughing at the jokes of a drug addict" tossing of information my way. I prefer to be ignorant, thanks.

Or it's about how he asked me if he could help me cook dinner as I loaded three baked potatoes into the oven and then told Dennis "I can't eat potatoes. I have a glandular problem". Dude, why couldn't you have said that before you watched me load three potatoes in the oven? There are only three of us in my apartment. And why are you eating french fries in the biggest possible size at every restaurant we've taken you to then?

Or it's about how you made my husband drive around to fix our other car so you'd have a car to drive around and then you called yesterday from Hollywood and said you took a cab. You drove the car to Hollywood. And then hailed a cab to some place. And then drove home. I don't know why you needed a cab if you have our car, but I'm annoyed.






I really like certain aspects of having guests. I really do. And this guy, now that he has one of our cars, has made himself scarce. I cannot be the only one who regresses to a 2 year old when people come over.

One more thing we can do because we don't have kids...

We did Karaoke in Los Angeles's Koreatown tonight to celebrate Dennis's birthday! Some 80's classics and a few Disney songs and even some Spanish and Chinese songs were sung (I have videos that Dennis doesn't want on youtube....we shall see...)









one note regarding Korean food- we had some really good noodles and the guys approved of the Soju but the kimchi... I think it's just too strong. Just say no to Kimchi....

The Invasion...

Of the Cold/Flu Bug. Our whole apartment complex/church/community bubble has it. Dennis has been sick for about a week and I'm full of mocos myself. I promise I am trying to wash my hands more and I washed our sheets today to get rid of any germs. Alas, this is a tough bug to beat.
My dear husband, bless him, is consequently unable to sleep at night. He refuses to take benedryl because they make him sleepy. But last night for example, he was on his blackberry or channel surfing or touching my face all night. It was cute, endearing, pathetic, and annoying.
My cure for the cold: cup o' noodles (ramen), liquids (not always good ones but nonetheless we try), and lots of wasting time on the internets (aka facebook games instead of studying).


this is my reason for post- Dennis citizenship ceremony blog hiatus:




*common cold plush doll via Cool Stuff Express
*Passive Aggressive Note about coughing via Passive Aggressive Notes

Dennis became a US Citizen today!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are officially done with immigration now!! Woohoo!!

crossing the line between healthy and unhealthy...

Where is the line between a healthy obsession and an unhealthy one?


I'm talking about Twilight, the Vampire movie and book series that has a bunch of teenage girls and older girls freaking out about guy vampires. So much so that you cannot NOT find an online facebook game or whatever where a girl does not name her facebook self "Bella" or "VampireFan4Life"" and where you do not see girls declaring their love for a fictional character. Okay. fine. Whatever flips your switch. If you are in this young and pretty much FEMALE demographic, then for you to say that you love "Twilight" and "have an unrealistic expectation in men" because the male lead character is a vampire who expresses undying love for the female lead but they can't have sex... I can totally understand.

Is it perhaps UNHEALTHY however, when you are a 32 year old single male? And all of your best friends are young(er) girls who are equally obsessed? And you start actually reenacting Twilight the way that Star Wars nerds reenact Jedi fights??

We have a friend, who is aforementioned 32 year old single male. He is also kind of (at least pre-Twilight) a loner and a perpetual bachelor. Who suddenly has loads and loads of young girl friends (not girlfriends romantically) and they are posting facebook photos re-enacting Twilight. But he isn't dating any of these girls, who all look really young (I will give him that they are all probably legal and that they are all probably friends from church...) But it's kind of freaking me out. It freaks me out that a 32 year old man likes Twilight. Not just likes Twilight. But actually is starting to dress like a main character from Twilight.

Am I the only one who thinks this is weird? He's got dark hair like Dennis and he totally has started dying his hair and dressing to look like this guy:


Okay. He's trying to act like the father character in the series, not like the character that all the teenage girls are falling in love with. But it's still really weird!

Now Dennis is all American...

Instead of just "south american" or "north american".
Dennis is a flag ceremony away from being a citizen of TWO countries. He passed the US citizenship test at 100% and had a harder time finding the immigration building than actually taking the test itself.

My husband officially knows more about the United States than I do. We did have some fun bedtime discussions about who Patrick Henry was or why it took about a decade for the US constitution to be officially adopted by the 13 states... My old history professors might be proud of what I still remember. Or they might cringe.
In other news,

Cindy, I am really addicted to Pet Society. Thanks!!!!! (There are times when I'm trying to catch a frisbee that Dennis just cannot talk to me!)

Why Angelina Jolie hate?

So apparently, no one likes Angelina Jolie! I'm a little surprised! (A little.) I think that Brad is kind of annoying personally (actually he does a lot of good things). I just don't like him because to me, This is a massive cop-out. (Or a massive win for Brad, who has the cow and the milk for free).

Anyway, this is me today. I'm not sick just completely tired and unmotivated as far as school. It's just a lack of energy- I don't want to wake up for the 8am class I'm auditing and I don't want to read for my other classes. This will lead to panic in the coming weeks as two papers are due before thanksgiving which is approaching fast.


On a side note, Dennis and I are working with two other guys who may go with us to Japan next summer (fingers crossed that the timing works and we all have the ability to do what we are planning!) We made dinner and talked about it tonight with them and things look really good but I realized that once again I have a big mouth and I am very intrusive. God, I'm such a girl. I hope that we can work as a team without me interfering as an annoying female who wants to know marriage plans and medical histories. I know that Dennis, rightly so perhaps, says that I talk to much and I probably embarrass him. I've never met someone who is so closely the epitome of a meddling chatterbox, as I am myself.

*On another side note, this is like the 4th time this semester that Dennis and I have had a dinner for students/undergraduates. We are very old married couple mentorly aren't we. :) It's not heavy cooking- I made a frozen lasagna tonight.

Out of the mouths of babes....

Hurrah! to one very politically-minded 7 year old for her open letter to Barack Obama. I am biased because I think her parents are awesome but even if she was voting for McCain, I really appreciate that she is even thinking of who should be president at the age of 7. Kudos, parents, for talking to your kids about what is going on in the news.

I'm not sure about my grandpa either. (Actually, I'm pretty sure he's not voting for Obama because he votes based on who he would rather have a beer with.) But I do appreciate that I have always been able to openly talk about many political issues with my family and I have really good memories with my mother where we talked about political issues.

Dennis's Japanese Commercial

Something I have been meaning to post...
On our first day in Japan, Dennis and I went with our teammates and some friends who were local, because I needed to go to the pharmacy and they wanted to take us to dinner (another story for another day...)
]]


This is Dennis's Japanese commercial for an energy drink.


(Happy Drug. Exactly the kind of drug I like, right?)

Facebook passive aggression...

Facebook is pretty awesome. But honestly, can we all vote for people to NOT use facebook for voicing political opinions in status updates?? Especially when said opinions enforce stereotypes about political parties.

Honestly, this is exactly why republicans get picked on for being elitist, out of touch, and for misusing their Christian faith by mixing it with politics.

And it's annoying. I really don't like reading that someone is so angry about a lesbian tv personality that she has to post it on facebook, in the same way that I don't want to read about people breaking up or fighting on facebook. Politics, please understand, are not the only annoying status updates discussed on facebook. Just, look, I'd much rather read about how you are tired or happy or things about your life and not that you are proud to be a homophobic hater of liberals and damn hippies living in Santa Monica. That's not why I am your friend.

Also, Republicans and Democrats: Please don't use Facebook Status updates to argue about whether or not Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a small-town leader. You are both being annoying about this whole thing.

riro!!

Can you take a language seriously when it is so goshdarn cute??

I'm pretty sure this is "Hello" (ri+ro+extra o) but if anyone knows....
Image courtesy of Rumiko-san,who was one of my readers this summer,and who is really shy but so sweet :)

I am a Christian because of old ladies.

Today after church, Dennis and I took photos with two of our most favorite women from church, to show to our readers in Japan. Both women have supported us financially but also spiritually, and not just in preparation for our mission trip to Japan. It got me thinking about how old women have shaped my faith and identity in Christ and in the Christian community. I want to be like these women when I grow up.

Before marriage, I think I probably ignored these women. But curiously, Dennis seems to attract them. At the church in Santiago, Chile he was always surrounded by old ladies at tea parties. One old lady (quite old)told me that I was lucky to have such a good young man. I noticed the way that my husband works with the elderly, men and women. He truly has a gift for communicating with old people in a way that makes them seem fun and fascinating. His best customers at the bank were the elderly, because he listens to them and befriends them. He sees them as contemporaries, instead of talking to them as though they were children. And my husband has the greatest gift for getting old people to talk about how things used to be. I've seen it, even in how he interacts with my grandparents, and it is one of my favorite things about Dennis as a person.

Thus post-marriage, we have as a couple become authentically friends with older people in our church and specifically widows (although not exclusively, as I can remember him talking in Spanish with the old Spanish professor way before he even knew the professor's wife, who would soon be a widow.)

I have learned that you can be faithful for decades, and you can find new insights into God even after decades. I've learned that even when life sucks- even when you aren't working, or when your spouse dies, that you move on and you do learn to live again. I've learned that my identity is not in Dennis, because of death, so that it is so very important to find my identity in Christ. Then, I will have the assurance that death is only one stage. There may be a time when all I have is my faith.

I have learned that family is sacred, from these women, who bake and raise money and are there to help students. These women shape part of the story of my church community and also shape why we go to our church, why we feel like this church is home, why we keep going.

I am thankful for the living proof that life goes on, that things work out, and that whatever I am going through right now (cough*unemployed husband*cough*economic recession*cough, cough) are just patches or stitches in the big picture. I know that it sounds corny or sentimental, but it is true. God is good, indeed.

Went to the park, met some jedi...

We went to the park today, to celebrate a good friend's graduation. We ventured out of Malibu and into Los Angeles.
And as it happened, we were sharing the park with the LA Jedi. (I asked if I could google them and they told me their web url straight away).
It was actually pretty cool. I am the bold one in the group so after we wondered who these guys were who were swinging these sticks that were sword-like around, I got up to go and ask.
They were very nice and told me straight away that they were Jedi- a mix of theater/stage craft and martial arts. The short latina woman told me she was the one with a purple light-saber, they did confirm that they do go to Comic-Con, and to make the encounter all the more perfect, their light-sabers did make noises when they waved them. They seemed quite dedicated- one of the female Jedi told another Jedi to keep going because I think I was interrupting a routine. They said that they go to conventions and visit kids who are sick in the hospital. I did hear one guy said "Major Nerd Enhancement" or something and the main guy who talked to me (the leader?) had an eye-patch making him look like a pirate-jedi. But they were nice. They said we should see them at night, because then they put on a good show. I'm sure that is true.


But I did say, "Oh this is sooooo going in my blog..." (which perhaps makes me just as nerdy.) None of them talked like Yoda. And none were wearing Jedi clothing. But many of the people listed as team members on the website, were indeed present :)

I love my gay friends.

I don't know where I cross the line and throw my faith out of the window, and I don't want to ruffle feathers, but I love my gay friends. I thought I might make this statement today, as today California made it legal (for now) for gay couples to get married.

I'm not entirely sure where I am on that decision, because I know gay/lesbian couples who are in forever-long term monogamous relationships and actually do good things for their community. I think gay people can be loved by God, can love God, and can do good things. I know that I am against people who hate gay people or who think that they are not deserving of prayers or love or respect because of the choices that they make.

At any rate, I wanted to officially say that no matter what I think or decide about gay marriage and whether or not it should in some form be legal, I do love my gay and lesbian friends dearly. And I really appreciate that they are in committed and loving relationships, and that they are happy.

On the scale of things we should be freaking out about, I rate homosexuality as low in comparison to things like "bombing for peace" or "killing civilians as collateral damage". I'm not sure I am ready for the US to turn into Amsterdam, but actually we are quite a ways a way, morally, and quite different culturally.

The Sketchy-Box

I babysit this kid's brother. They look like they are defo. related.

It also looks like he is wishing he could say something in this photo. Like "Who are you?" or "This is all very sketchy" or "I'm clean"...

I'd like to imagine that if the movie "Look Who's Talking" is real, that this baby has a rich Scottish accent and is saying "Aye. 'Twas all good but then it fell into the sketchy-box.. Me mum is a cunny lass an' all but I wus dead warm and cozy in 'dere."

thoughts of the day...

a) yes, I am going to watch Posh Spice's TV show on NBC. At least for the first five minutes.

b)


everyone's hating on Britney Spears but honestly, how many times have you wished you could juggle so many things in your hands at once?? She has a dog in one hand and starbucks, ciggeretttes, a phone, and probably some other things in another hand. I cannot even carry two of those funky sized fridge cases of soda cans, a bag of groceries with awkward frozen pizzas and another bag with like hot dogs and a baguette. How does she do it??
*I can't comment on the racket photo. It's just the photo that came attached to the photo of multi-tasking Brittney in pink hair.


and c)
I have two thoughts on Astroglide: If you are an under-aged reader of my blog (which I doubt) or if this is a message to any future children : Astroglide and it's counterparts including KY and any generic brands, is a PRESCRIPTION ONLY lotion FOR DRY SKIN. YOU CANNOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU SEE YOUR DOCTOR FIRST.

2) Now, for the grown-up readers. come on. most of you are married or have taken sex-ed. Why is it that if I mention my need to buy this product in a local drug store, that person that I'm talking to acts shocked? Especially if this person is a good (married) friend who I have discussed intimacy with before? If you are married, considering marriage, or if you are interested/already doing intimate things and YOU HAVE NOT HEARD OF KY OR ASTROGLIDE, then honey, you need to stop blushing and pick up a girly magazine like "Cosmo" right now. How you made it this far, I've got no idea.

a selfish post about a selfish quote

I borrowed this book from a very dear friend who is in Boston right now and I have kept it for far too long- I am sending it back tomorrow so I need to type this great quote in now, (or write it down but my hand cramps up too easily...). It's purely selfish but if anyone else gets something out of it, gold stars.

"I hear addicts talk about the shakes and panic attacks and the highs and lows of resisting their habit, and to some degree I understand them because I have had habits of my own, but no drug is so powerful as the drug of self. No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are characters in my play. There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction."

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p. 182 (and friends with the guy who wrote "I kissed dating goodbye" and put me and some girls in college into a whole tizzy where we justified being invisible to guys because we were saving ourselves for God and that dating is (can be) actually sinful. And then (thank Christ) I moved closer to the center of things in Buenos Aires second semester of my sophomore year and had a bad argentine-guys-are-shady experience and then met Dennis!! So I think dating is okay. No problem with dating in my opinion. Unless it's one of my stepdaughters...)

yes, Pacifier!!

as I blog, I am sitting next to a finally calm and sleepy little boy whose name is Maddox. He likes cars and making crash sounds. He loves the blue light on the telephone, he loves books and songs and Mr. Rogers. He loves to scoop and dump with his dump truck. And I had to put him to bed tonight, which wasn't so hard (Okay, Maddox does not make changing into pajamas or into anything, really very easily but hey, tonight he stood up.) And we read books. And then we got to the part of the bedtime routine where you pull the shades and turn off all the lights.

And Maddox wigged out. Maddox loves his mommy and daddy and he wigged out. And he thought he heard them downstairs, like five times. Lots of back rubs and "shh, it's okay". He got into the covers and sobbed and clutched at his elephant and oh the horror. And then I remembered two awesome things about putting Maddox to bed.

One, he has one of those iPods in his room that you hook up to speakers and I played the wiggles-something. So we sang, which was on the list of things to do anyway.

And he is allowed two pacifiers at night. (He's two?) Oh thank you, Lord! He was beating his little tiny fists against his pillow and I said "hey! Do you want a paci? Do you want TWO??"

sniffle, hiccup, sniffle. Yes, he wanted one paci to hold and one paci for his mouth. And it took about ten more minutes (and Dennis called so he said goodnight to Dennis on the phone) and now he is quiet and calm. I don't think he is asleep yet but he was yawning about an hour ago during mister rogers so I think he'll start soon. I'm not going anywhere so it's going to be alright.


So I heart Pacifiers. Great awesome invention. Yay!

(dedicated to my friend Maddox- and his dad too).

here's what happened...

I have so much to blog about that I can't even remember it all. Really. I took a trip to Texas and it was like going to another country. I saw the grassy knoll (Dallas. Where JFK was killed.) and met up with my grandparents (my grandpa loves his "governator" shirt, and apparently, he is quite the closest I've ever met to a real life anti-immigration minute man. I say it with love.) They took me around town and I felt loved and blessed. Meeting my mother's family, who I never knew growing up and who I really last saw when my mom died, was a blessing. They told me a lot and it was like finding a missing puzzle piece. Or kind of like learning that you're French for the first time.
And there was an interesting couple of flights and it was crazy. And then I came home and slept. And was very lazy. (hey, I was traveling.) And then I had to prepare for a bachelorette party so I drove down the freeway to a ginormous mall just so that I could go to "Frederick's of Hollywood" (because "Victoria's Secret" might be quality but "Frederick's" is the only place to find really really naughty knickers and I wanted this bride to blush.)

The bachelorette's party started in Hollywood (we went to the "Beauty Bar". which was anti-climactic. It advertises getting your nails done while sipping martinis. But it was really loud and crowded and there were a lot of guys looking for chicks (a lot of single, drunk frat boys). And they didn't even do your nails. They painted them. But I can do that. And really no one was there to get there nails painted. It's a great concept but they should have kept the boys out and turned the radio down.

And yesterday was the wedding. It was painfully obvious to both Dennis and I that I only invest in clothes to wear to school and church but that I really need to invest in a party dress of the quality that you can wear to a semi-casual wedding on the beach. I thanked God that I didn't wear my flip-flops. But my shoes were the only thing fitting the occasion.

And that was my busy week in a nutshell. I will try to post haircut photos, graduation photos, Texas photos, and bachelorette/wedding photos (but maybe not the embarrassing ones of Dennis and I dancing where I look like a big pink MaryKay cadillac....)

What the Hell...

Paris Hilton was spotted driving yesterday.

So was I. My friend and I got a pedicure and went to Michael's, the craft shop, where I went and spent a ridiculous amount of money on things like candles and baskets and my friend convinced me successfully that I do not need to spend five dollars on one sheet of stickers.