hi coach van t. nguyen!

8:35 in the am and i am having cheese puffs for breakfast. after i told myself literally 5min before walking into the office that today would be day one of healthier eating habits. who can resist a bag of cheese puffs just laying on the table, free for the taking? come on.

i was on public transit for 6 hours of my life yesterday.
i saw a teenage boy reading a self-help book by Alcoholics Anonymous.
i saw a teenage girl in a high school uniform, maybe 15 or 16, maybe 7 or 8 months pregnant.
i saw an older gentleman with the most ridiculously ugly toupee. it looked like a wet, dead animal sitting atop his head. it was so horrible.
i saw a very handsome man in a very handsome suit gaze lovingly at his significant other with a slight smile on his lips as she sat reading the morning paper, for their entire bus ride. i could actually feel his love for her. it was the sweetest thing.
as i was reading the economist i glanced up and saw another asian lady reading the exact same article.

august has been an absolutely overwhelming, busy, exhausting, on-the-go, work-filled month, full of challenges and struggles and an ALL-NIGHTER post college/grad school (illegal?!) and, most of all, heapfuls of blessings.

i am more than ready for it to be september.

when nouns are used as verbs, everyone has more fun!

"and an extra shot of espresso, please."
"you'd like to moose it?"
"excuse me?"
"you'd like to moose your coffee?"
< hm >
"yes. yes i would."


for a similar experience, visit your local caribou coffee today!

tonight in the midst of an almost unbearably frustrating moment i walked by a mcdonald's and got a vanilla soft serve cone

and it was soooo good.

plus, it was half the cost of yesterday's cone!

tonight i had a vanilla soft serve cone from mcdonald's

and it was soooo good.

still

"the intangible"

homeless in D-18

=O
crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap

reporting live from the office on a saturday morning

i actually really enjoy working on saturdays. the quiet early morning ride on an empty train, walking through downtown without any tourists or office folks pushing along beside me. the sense of purpose and satisfaction in knowing that i'm up early to do meaningful work that i love. and i never feel guilty about getting myself a little treat when i've gotten up at 6:30a to work on the weekend; a too-sweet iced vanilla latte from starbucks, or hash browns from mcdonalds (have yet to indulge in that one, but it is a constant daydream. constant.)

if only working on saturday didn't mean foregoing so many other highly enjoyable things =_=

the road, cormac mccarthy

he lay listening to the water drip in the woods. bedrock, this. the cold and the silence. the ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. everything uncoupled from its shoring. unsupported in the ashen air. sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. if only my heart were stone.

murder for two

yesterday i enjoyed a lovely little afternoon musical, "murder for two", at the shakespeare theater. it was funny and smart, very well done. i liked the teeny theater; it's very intimate, so that you feel a part of the show. however, we sat in the front row and the actors' sweat/spit were literally flying at us, and i got pulled on stage, which was slightly embarrassing albeit lots of fun. i had to pretend to die in an armchair, with my tongue sticking out. hehe. i would love to return to see their production of 'the tempest'!

it made me super excited for the 2012 season of the lyric opera. highlights include the magic flute, aida, and rinaldo. oh boy oh boy!!

prayer, paul bunyan

and do you indeed say, "hallowed be thy name" with your heart? do you study, by all honest and lawful ways, to advance the name, holiness, and majesty of god? do your heart and conversation agree with this passage? do you strive to imitate christ in all the works of righteousness, which god commands you, and prompts you to? it is so, if you are one that can truly with god's permission cry, "our father." or is it not the least of your thoughts all the day? and do you not clearly make it appear that you are a cursed hypocrite, by condemning that with your daily practice, which you pretend in your praying with a dissembling tongue?

would you have the kingdom of god come indeed, and also his will to be done in earth as it is in heaven? nay, even though, according to the form, you say, thy kingdom come, yet would it not make you ready to run mad, to hear the trumpet sound, to see the dead arise, and yourself just now to go and appear before god, to give an account of all the deeds you have done in the body? nay, are not the very thoughts of it altogether displeasing to you?

what august means to me

• find a new apartment by the end of the month
• find movers to move all my crap and pick up furniture from various places
• pack (gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
• transcribe hours and hours of interviews for a qualitative research study that my former supervisor/friend is conducting
• study for my licensing exam (september!)
• work 60+ hour weeks, including 3/4 weekends
• spend time with friends before they leave chicago :(

a childhood experience at 24 :)

last night after working a 13 hour day i got to walk a dog for the very first time, around downtown and millennium park. HEHE ^_^ my experiences with furry creatures are limited due to my mom's aversion to mess/potential for mess/feeding non-humans/poo. i have vague memories of having a puppy around during one of my childhood summers in korea and a few days with another when I was maybe 5-6, and then a few months ago when i was in session with a client she requested that we do therapy while walking her dog. i was allowed to hold her leash for a few minutes while my client adjusted her things and i got so excited that i texted all of my close friends and told them i was walking a dog for the first time. but that was actually kind of a lie...i just held the leash =\

as i was walking justin i felt pressure to make sure he conformed to socially acceptable behavior. i was also scared to cross streets with him. it kind of made me realize what it would be like to be out with a toddler. it's scary to have a little ball of life depend on you when the world of potential danger is not confined to a kimchi jar. also, i have a newfound appreciation for the asian custom of removing one's shoes when entering the home. dogs pee everywhere and it's really gross. it's pee.

i don't think i'll be getting a dog any time soon. i would have to think really really hard about the responsibilities that come with one, and i too have an aversion to mess/potential for mess/feeding non-humans/poo. but if you are in need of a dog walker, please let me know! i would be very careful and attentive and loving ^_^

it was so nice to walk out of my office at 9p and see this cute little guy waiting for me. thank you sam :)

everything, tim hughes

god in my living
there in my breathing
god in my waking
god in my sleeping
god in my resting
there in my working
god in my thinking
god in my speaking

be my everything
be my everything
be my everything
be my everything

god in my hoping
there in my dreaming
god in my watching
god in my waiting
god in my laughing
there in my weeping
god in my hurting
god in my healing

goodbye, charlie, goodbye

my mom told me yesterday not to buy any more fish, because i get too attached to them and it's not healthy. she actually said that, that it's not healthy for me. she suggested a flower or a plant as an alternative, like henry. my dad stayed with me in chicago for a month last year and bought me henry when he left so that i would have some company. henry grew to be about half my height and i ended up having to throw him away when i moved out and went to Korea for four months. that was sad, too.

a fish is just a fish, but there is a simple and beautiful peace in the consistent company of a living creature in the private comfort of your space. he was a very active swimmer, and i really liked when he swam in and out of a little figurine i kept in his kimchi jar, and rested inside of it. it was nice to come home to a little life after a long day. charlie also led me to contemplate often the ethics of raising pets, as well as the relationship between humans and creation at large- how we have failed to care for God's created things in the way he calls us to. i would have liked to take charlie to visit a nice big rice paddy in thailand one day...but would i have had the compassion and selflessness to let him go? i am not sure =\

goodbye charlie, goodbye. i miss you.

in other news, i saw a dead pigeon the day before charlie died and it terrified me. it was quite the traumatic weekend.