09.01.08
One year ago today
… was the happiest day of my life. And it just gets better every day we spend together.
September 1, 2007
04.04.08
Coming Back to Life
It’s a time of renewal. Definitely a good time of the year to come back home.
03.30.08
Ahhhhhh.
I’m home. And relaxing. I’ve already spent several days doing basically as little as possible. And it’s so, so, so nice.
Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be hanging out with family and pets, making plans to do fun things like get together with friends, change my absentee ballot mailing address, go to the ballet, renew my driver’s license, get my hair cut, etc, etc. It’s kind of a nice list of things to do, believe it or not. I get to feel almost like a normal person for a couple of weeks, being able to call businesses or government agencies during business hours, actually go places in person, get paperwork done or receive packages in less than 4 weeks, explain what I want and expect to get it, and just basically act like a regular citizen again. It feels really, really good.
09.13.07
Why I’ve been silent…
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve not written anything here for quite a while. Many of you probably know the reasons why, or you may have guessed by the change in my location for a few weeks as listed near the top of this page, but for those of you who’ve still been scratching your heads, here’s why (photos by April):
September 1st was the big day, and we truly had a blast. My only regret: I really wish there had been more time to party at the reception, and to have some real, more in-depth conversations with some of the people who came.
If you happen to be reading this and were among those present that day, thank you so much for coming, and I know I speak for both of us (and surely our families as well) when I say we were incredibly happy to be able to see you and to have you share in our celebration that day. It really means a lot to us.
06.01.07
Whirlwind
I’m suffering from a serious bout of jet lag. This week I went from Seoul to DC (via San Francisco and Chicago) to Seattle and back to Seoul. I left on a Wednesday morning and came back on a Tuesday evening, but I only spent four and a half actual days anywhere I wanted to be. It was so worth it, though. The recap:
I escorted a 7-month-old baby girl to meet her new parents, allowing me to cut down significantly on the price of tickets (since I’m not independently wealthy, am not making extra money through hardship or danger pay differential, and am not generally allowed to work or claim any overtime, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the U.S. before the wedding without some kind of help). By now, she’s a resident of Kentucky (Kentuckian?). So there was me, on planes, with a 7-month-old baby girl who met her new parents in Chicago (the photo was taken at the end of the flight to Chicago, when both of us were totally exhausted, so she may look a little worse for wear, but she was fine, I promise).
When I got to DC, KG was there waiting for me (heartwarmingly, running down an up escalator), and I basically just fell exhausted into his arms, so happy and grateful and excited to see him, but unable to put a coherent thought together. I was semi-conscious for the cab ride home, talked to his mom and mine, and then I was completely out the moment my head hit the pillow. I don’t recommend staying awake for a 25-hour trip, most of which you’re responsible for another human being, after just a few hours of sleep the night before, but it got me to where I needed to go, so it was worth it.
During the two days in DC, I (we) managed to:
- find myself some shoes for the wedding (probably, at least - they didn’t have my size in stock so I’ve not actually purchased them yet),
- get together for a few quick hours with one of my very best friends and her husband and meet their beautiful baby girl (who, by the way, I’m completely head-over-heels in love with - photo below),
- pick out and order wedding invitations after meeting up with KG when he got off work the first day,
- go around together to a whole lot of jewelry stores, finally narrowing down our preferences enough that we think we’ve selected our wedding bands (though of course we’ve not bought them yet),
- put a (very) few ideas together for KG’s wedding attire,
- have a couple of very lovely and yummy meals out,
- spend some wonderful, comforting, all-too-brief quality time together with KG, just enjoying one another’s presence, savoring it really, both knowing we didn’t have much time together and trying to make the most of it.
Then I headed home to Seattle. You know when you’re a kid and you’ve been trying to put on a brave face but it’s been a stressful day and maybe the other kids have been picking on you, and you do alright until you see your mom and then you just dissolve into tears because you know that, whatever happens, everything will be okay now and you don’t have to stand alone? Yeah, like that. Minus the actual tears, ’cause that’s not really acceptable as an adult. It was so nice to see my mom and get to spend some time with her, but we were both feeling kind of short-changed because we didn’t get a lot of time together (this was definitely the overarching theme of the trip, unfortunately).
In the day and a half I had at home in Seattle, we (my mom and I):
- got my hair cut (finally - it needed it so badly)
- met with two bakeries about wedding cakes, picked one and the decorations and the flavors of the cake
- met with the florist and talked about flowers (ooh, pretty) and other related decorative items for the wedding
- met the wedding officiant (a quick 20-minute thing)
- went to a fabric shop and looked (unsuccessfully) for components of what my mom will be making for me for the wedding
- stopped by the jewelry store where we bought my engagement ring from and asked them some questions about wedding bands and got my ring cleaned
- met with the jewelry designer who will be making hair accessories for me
- thoroughly enjoyed what amounted to a 2-hour-long private concert in our living room by the wonderful friend of my mom’s who will be playing the music for the ceremony
- visited the little park where the wedding will be held if it doesn’t rain
- did a quick registry shopping trip
So for all those who have been anxiously awaiting an update on the wedding plans and all the rest, there you have it. Things are starting to come together.
For those who have been annoyed (or grateful?) about my lack of blog posts recently, I will say this: we’re short-staffed at work, and as you can now see I’ve also been working on a lot of other stuff. It’s no excuse, I know, but perhaps it’s a little bit of an explanation.
On that note, I should probably be getting to bed. I’m hoping to have my internal clock back to Korea time by Monday (fingers crossed!).
12.04.06
Back to Work
. . . much refreshed and with a much better attitude, for now at least.
Yes, it’s been a while since my last post. And yes, I have a really great excuse: I was gone. That is to say, I took a very-much-needed break from Korea and went home to celebrate Thanksgiving and my birthday with my family, and I just arrived back in Korea last night. I was also able to hang out with a few friends along the way, which made my time at home all the more rewarding. There wasn’t much of general interest that happened, so I won’t go into a play-by-play, but there are (of course) a few photos that I will share.
First stop: Vegas for Thanksgiving chez my brother.
Frying a turkey and tossing a football around - no wonder he’s smiling, he couldn’t be happier.
Mmm, yummy food! And these were just the appetizers!
One Thanksgiving turkey - flavor-injected, spice-rubbed, deep-fried, and ready to be eaten. I lost the urge to take photos after this, so there are none of the meal itself. Suffice it to say that I ate enough that I had to leave the room for a while afterwards because I couldn’t bear the sight of more food. I’m happy to say that feeling didn’t last for too long though.
Next stop: home to Seattle to recharge my batteries, so to speak. Not many photos from this bit because the focus was relaxation and there’s not all that much that’s picturesque in that. Got to share at least one though:
Yep, K came over for a short visit. It was really nice to see him, and I thoroughly enjoyed showing him around my hometown. I hope to do a more thorough job of it in the future, but we caught some of the highlights before the snow hit.
10.17.06
Eh, Gov’na!
Today, after all of the visas were done, I headed over to Habib House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to Korea, for a reception in honor of Christine Gregoire, Washington’s governor. Naively, I never imagined the event would be as crowded as it was. The place was so crowded it was often difficult to move more than one or two steps without being jostled by someone, let alone get across a whole room.
The Governor has been here for the better part of a week with a sizeable group of people to promote trade and educational opportunities. There were people at the reception from all sorts of businesses based in Washington, from Microsoft, Boeing and the Port of Seattle down to small start-ups looking for trade partners in Asia. The president of the University of Washington and people from several community and technical colleges were there too. I think I nearly broke the heart of a gal from one of the technical colleges when I told her honestly that, of the hundreds of student visa applications I’ve looked at over the past few months, I could probably count on one hand the number of them asking to go to Washington.
Of course, contacts were being made left and right tonight, and there were plenty of people who were there to do just that. Out of the maybe 250 people there, probably around 150 were Koreans (many of them U-Dub alums) who were interested in making contacts and setting up deals.
And then there were the diplomats. What do we do? We talk. And we say, “Wow, that’s really fascinating - have you met this guy over here? He does such-and-such and might be interested in . . .” That’s us: the facilitators. Except when we meet people of whom we really want to ask a question. In that case, all bets are off, and we’re out for ourselves: “Why can’t our absentee ballots be sent out early enough for us to actually vote?” or “Why does Seattle charge such high airport taxes?” Yeah, we’ll claim it’s out of concern for our own constituents, those other Americans who are living overseas, but really it’s all about us.
All that aside, though, it was a really nice evening to eat some yummy salmon for the first time in a long time and to reminisce with fellow Washingtonians about things like Dick’s and canoeing and the Cascades and Alki and trees and rain. Sigh. Sometimes I just wanna go home, if even just for a little while, airport taxes or not.
08.07.06
A Day and a Half in a Convertible
My brother came up to Seattle for a few days to visit before I head off across the ocean. We had told my mom he wouldn’t be able to get the time off work to come up, so when he met us at a restaurant on Thursday night it was a great surprise for her. Our efforts in keeping the secret for the past month were well rewarded.
He took the “because I can” approach to a lot of things for his few days back home, and among these was his rental of a convertible. You learn a lot of things riding in the back seat of a convertible. For example, whoever decided a convertible was a cool car to have (a) didn’t have more than one friend or family member and (b) was definitely not fair-skinned. You also learn just how much pressure your ears can comfortably take, the best way to semi-securely tie down long hair (hint: use a combination of methods), and why those speed limits that usually seem so unreasonably slow are actually on the very upper end of what they should be. We spent all day Saturday and half of Sunday in this convertible, stopping here and there along the way for a whirlwind tour of some of our favorite places in Seattle. A rough estimate of Saturday’s driving route (stops at the Pike Place Market, a Mariners game, Foster Island/the Arboretum, University Village, and Ezell’s along the way):
Some of the images from the past few days (including the ones during which we logged several hours in the convertible):
The Market
Mariners Game. Yes, I actually watched the game - we had great seats.
Montlake Cut & Foster Island
The Animals
On Elliott Bay
Sunset Reflection on Mt. Rainier
08.04.06
Ah, Home.
Sunset over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains - it’s surprising how much I’ve missed this.
Friends
Art on Alki beach (the photo doesn’t quite do it justice).
With friends at the beach - they’re two of the most amazing and genuinely good people I’ve ever known, and I’m really going to miss them.
07.31.06
“Thank you for your service.”
It’s finally happening. I have run for and missed my last FSI shuttle bus. I’ve said farewell to David, my favorite apartment building concierge, for the last time. I’ve watched all of my worldly possessions get packed away and sent off to various places (with more than a little moral support from our friend Diplodocus). And, via the most circuitous route I’ve ever taken for such a journey, I’ve come home to Seattle. Next week: Korea.
It’s funny how just seeing a certain thing or being in a certain place can make a person feel so good inside - so relaxed and happy. A friend of mine asked me why I ever left the Pacific Northwest if that was how I felt about it. Sometimes I wonder the same thing myself, but I always come back to the idea that there is something bigger out there that I am supposed to do, some greater purpose I’m supposed to serve. I feel like the potential to help others is so much greater in this job than in most of the things I could be doing if I had stayed in Seattle. That doesn’t mean I might not eventually return to Seattle to work for some NGO that provides humanitarian aid or something, but for now I think this is where I should be.
On my wandering journey the other day from DC to Seattle, I ate lunch with a pilot in Chicago. We had a long conversation about all sorts of things about the Foreign Service and living a life of constant travelling. He asked me if it was hard not to be able to go home at night to a place you’re really comfortable in where there are people who really know you. I told him I couldn’t deny that it was hard, but I said I might find it more difficult to be a pilot, having responsibility for hundreds of lives at a time and never really knowing where you’re going to end up the next week. When I had to leave to catch my next flight, he said to me, “Thank you for your service.” It almost brought tears to my eyes.
