wow, i forgot i used to blog. and i also forgot that i HAVENT blogged in, oh, lets see, 4 years now?! where to begin, where to begin.......

let me collect myself, this might be fun - summarizing the past 4 years in bullet points... tee hee

well, its been a half year almost since my last post and i must say, i suck at this! but the fact that i hadnt had time to biatch about life and stuff is a testament to how bust ive been. work has been crazy, life has been crazy.. its all been crazy.

of note, we've been biking for 20+ miles at a time on brand new hybrid bikes, and i am saddened by the fact that its too cold and snowy out there to go for these trips.. next year, thatd be my new years resolution-bike every weekend 20+ miles.. woo!

christmas is almost here. we hosted the villigers' side this past weekend and thank god thats over and done with. i am done with the whole hosting thing for a while. the next time we host a party, itd be when we launch our brand new patio and landscaping, which hopefully will be some time in the summer.

the siblings are in the process of acquiring their visas to come and visit for next summer too.. we are planning an east coast roadtrip (well mid to east) and i am super psyched to see them! i am also planning on returning back home sometime eid time next year, which oughta be around my birthday.. but if the other thing thats sposed to happen by the hasnt happened yet, maybe we can save that trip for the next year.

mike and i are planning our caribbean tour end of next year too. we havent yet picked an island to visit, but on first glance and brief skimming of our new caribbean 2008 guide book, i am deciding between the virgin islands (british vs US), jamaica (maybe), turks and caicos (but its super expensive), and err, cant remember the other one. i think we need to figure out exactly what we want to do - i know mike wants to scuba dive, which reminds me, we have to get scuba certified first... but in any case, think pristine beaches, not many tourists, but at the same time, i want the option to experience the culture and shopping over there.. thats why im thinking one of the virgin islands might work... we shall see though.

anyhoo.

work is thinking about sending me to ireland to do some research work with our counterpart over there. if the business case is approved, thatd mean more travelling next year, and while im in that part of the world, i may visit my good old friends in england. wooo...

so thats a brief update for all.

well, i had my very first crash today. I rear ended the back of a minivan, while AT a stop. It's very retarded, and it was totally my fault, and for some reason my brain stopped working and told my feet to press the accelerator pedal even though the van hasnt moved an inch. It's not like I was distracted with the phone or fiddling with the radio, or looking outside (I dont think) - I must've just zonked out. It's kinda scary that I was brain dead for a split second.

The good part of this whole experience was that neither vehicle had damage (at least to the physical eyes) even though I thought for SURE that my front bumper wouldve been totalled based on the sound upon impact. No paint was chipped, no bumper of any car fell off, nothing on the ground. It's kinda nuts how that turned out to be but I must have gone no more than 5mph at impact, so thank god for that.

The people I rear ended were two elderly couple, Dale and Darlene. I got out of the car to examine the front of mine and the back of his. When the guy came out, he had an air of "I am going to kill you" around him and the first two things he said were "Do you know of a cop in the area" and "I dont care about your car, I care about mine." He must've assumed that I didnt have insurance or what, or maybe it was initial shock and reaction to being rear ended (which is understandable as I would probably have been the same), but I immediately apologized, said that I had insurance and was all flabbergasted by the fact that this happened and that I had NO clue what to do since I've never EVER been in an accident before. Not sure if that was what had mellowed him or if he had initially thought I was just a stupid, young Asian woman driver (and thus the DWA totally applies here), but as soon as he saw my drivers license and my age, and that I was insured by a good hands company and that I WORKED (nonetheless) with the company, and after just being all nice about it and being sorry, and inspecting the damage (which he too has apparently sustained none, at least from what the naked eye could see) - he relented with the whole 'calling the cops' thing and said that he would see what needs to be done on his side first and for me to do the same thing. Then we can touch base and decide what to do. Am glad that we didnt have to file for a report, and even after consulting with a few people, it didnt seem as if the report would even have been filed, especially since there was no apparent damage.

I am hoping that the couple continues to not want to report this (who knows if they may change their minds but they seem like nice people), and that they wouldnt have to fix anything to their car. I dont see anything on mine except for the rubber underpart that came slightly off (which can be popped back in by us). I dont want my insurance to go up because of something stupid like this. I also hope the 'whiplash' effect that supposedly happened wont really be a real chronic pain and that it will go away. I'd hate for this to turn into a lawsuit as well!

Man, more than anything though, I am just shell shocked and completely flabberghasted that this happened to ME and not only that, that it had happened out of the most ridiculous of situations! I should be less tired when driving home, and even more important, I should really start keeping a fair distance away from the vehicle in front of me.

You do have to marvel at the car bumper handleability though - nothing on it! We even joked about the german car towards the end. I am glad they were really nice about it and that the wife was there to temper the situation somewhat. She said 'it's one of those things that can happen and do happen...' and boy is there some truth in that.

Am glad it wasnt a MONDAY thing..... but sure am not glad it had to happen on ANY day at all... =(

I am feeling blue

Today we celebrate our 2nd year anniversary (true anniversary in the matrimonial sense, and not the relationship-ial sense)! It's been 2 years since we have declared our love formally, bound together for eternity, and these 2 years have been quite the ride that I would not have any other way. The 2 year period, so it has been said, is a testament to longevity. Should you last beyond 2 years without hesitation, second thoughts, or wanting to kill yourself because of the other, then you have succeeded pretty much for the rest of the marriage. Other school of thoughts have lent itself to the notion that the first 2 years are the honeymoon years and that the tougher years are to come after this anniversary.

I must say, regardless of that milestone, I couldnt be happier that this day has arrived, that we are still together, and it feels like we will be together for much, much longer.... the length of time we have known each other is readily apparent in the sense that the people that we have known have grown up, friends have become lovers, lovers have become haters, and those who are still happy together, continue to be happy together. I hope that we will be one of those people that can look back 50 years from now with fond memories of this milestone, and say 'we survived one of those!'

Snapped this picture and thought how appropriate it was to describe how I have been feeling the past couple of days, very lazy and tired... =) Must be the miles of running that I am trying to do every day after the 8 hour work day.. not very fun, but something that must be done, unfortunately.

In any case, just an update to the ever-increasingly-busy life that is yours truly:

1. Bought our flight tickets back to malaysia!! =) hence, we are committed, hence, we shall arrive on the soil of the motherland this may - how exciting! am currently making a list of all the food I want to catch up on.... and to introduce to the hubby

2. Got my raise (curve buster by company's standards, apparently), but when it all comes down to it, post taxes, medicare (or medicaid, I can never remember which), 401k, insurance, health and whatever else this country has robbed of me, the raise comes to a measly few bucks per paycheck... well, a little more than that, but you catch the drift.

3. Currently surrounded by a bunch of maternal friends; few of which are going to be on maternity leave, and a few others with their own children. As I watch all these women grow up before my eyes, I realize that I am not ready for motherhood, and better start living vicariously through them while I prep myself up =) *hears sigh of relief of the hubby in the background, somewhere*

4. Not sure if you knew this of me or not but have recently picked up a random hobby, ever since moved into this big house. I have had to figure out how to fill the empty spaces and found the best way to do that - fill every square inch with living, breathing, air-cleaning plants. Didnt you hear? The next Jurassic Park movie is going to be filmed in my house ;)

In any case, as per picture above, am going to fulfill the calling and retire to bed...

Went on my first business trip this week - no place exciting, we went down to our business counterpart's location in Lincoln, NE to get some face time with the big shots who make a lot of business calls and decisions down there. It was nice in the sense that the life was a lot slower and their traffic was something joked to be their 'quarter hour rush traffic'. The airport was even more unbelievable - there was NOBODY there and it was so very nice to not have to wait half an hour for our luggage at the carousel (unlike o'hare). The nicest part about the entire trip was that all expenses were covered on my brand spanking new corporate credit card ;) Didnt have to worry about the expenditures at all, it was all covered by the company. The two men that I went with were such huge drinkers, it was entertainment enough to be in their company. I must say though, I will not eat steak for at least another half a year - we ate so much meat in three days, it's not even funny....

Anyway, we are now making some plans to go home this May. Preliminary ones, that is. We have our O'Hare to LAX tickets ready and on hand, all that is needed is the important one; the one that takes us on an ass long journey home to KLIA. I think there is some specials or low season fares going on right now with MAS, flight ticket would be slightly over 1k, tax and fees included. Kinda ridiculous really, but something that is needed to be done. It's been a while ;)

We wiill most likely be doing the following:

1. rainforest gala where we will be exploring nature at night
2. island getaway
3. cave exploring (not sure which one or if we will even get to this activity, but we shall be smart about our vacation time here, no need to rush)

I would like to spend some time just introducing the hubby to all the food and delicatessen, so that will be quite an activity.

In any case, superbowl weekend is fast approaching. We bought a new TV just for this occasion, it's been 20 years since the Bears made it to the end of the road... maybe we will even win it this year?

My father is remarrying as we speak right now - and I am not there to witness it~!!!

I first heard of the news earlier this week, more accurately, on Monday morning as I sat at my desk, ready to begin the final week at work before taking a long week off. I turned on my laptop, started outlook, where lo and behold, there it was, an email in my inbox from my father, long lost father, someone whom I have not spoken to or had any direct contact with since, oh I dont know, about 3-4 months ago. I dont deny it - my father and I have never been close, but this is too much!! He sent me an email saying that he has decided to end his bachelorhood with a lady who is 20 years younger, and that their wedding was this weekend (AKA RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!!)

WTF!?!!??!!

Why couldnt the wedding plan have included a 2 day buffer for his oldest daughter to fly in from out of country to be there on his big day! He claimed it was not a big day for him, that it wasnt worth my time and money to fly out to be there with him on this special day. How can it NOT be a big day - their wedding was only going to span all of Saturday morning, afternoon and night?!!!

I am HURT! I cried on Monday, calling my mother and trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I am shocked, thrilled, anguished, annoyed and pissed, all at the same time. It's great that after almost a decade of being without someone, that he is able to settle down with a woman who is yet to be married, who is accomplished, well educated - a generally nice person. But it's almost hurtful, nay, VERY hurtful, that he didnt care to break the news to me any sooner.

At least he was consistent in the method of delivery. Apparently my mother was the first person to know about this wedding from his side of the family - and she only knew 24 hours before I did (maybe less due to the weird half way around the world time zone). Man, was I heartbroken - and still am. The longer I had time to think about it, the more I think my dad doesnt want me to be there. Maybe he's ashamed of me or something to that extent. Why else would he not have told me, us, sooner?

The reasoning has been - short and sweet, like ripping a bandaid from your arm - so you wouldnt have to dwell on the trauma for an extended length of time. If it wasnt me in this situation, yeah maybe - but this is even MORE traumatic than having to deal with it over a period of time. THIS - is a LOT worse! And not being there makes it even more unbearable.

And my sister isnt doing too well either. I am very convinced that she has never fully recovered from the divorce; while we all had known that dad dated this lady for over a year and that she had indeed helped my sister with her driving lessons - it still didnt make it easier to have this kinda news be broken to you in such a short time. *sigh* Again, wishing I could be there, at least then, I could've seen what a beautiful wedding that is probably going to be. It's the woman's first marriage after all - I am sure her family and relatives have been waiting for this day for a long time.....

I CANT BELIEVE I AM NOT THERE!!!!!!!!

*sniffles*

So unwanted...