Snow Retreat (2/14-2/17)

Now, I know there will be lots of posts of summaries of Snow Retreat, what parts were the best, inside jokes that nobody gets, and how it was just non-stop snow the whole time.  I do have my share of those memories, but I think I would rather share about the emotional impact that this retreat had on me.  So, if you were looking for a funny and shallow view of how I spent my President's Day weekend, look somewhere else.

"Lord Jesus come lead us
We're desperate for your touch"-Reign In Us, Starfield

I would have to say that I was not at all prepared for any spiritual revival, because, honestly, I had become apathetic to Christianity, disgusted at the church I attended, and hardend at the "feel-good" emotional highs and lows that come after the retreat which usually last a week.  It was weird too, that ever since the Leadership development day with Cross the Line, I wondered why I never cried unless it was out of frustration. At first, I commended myself for professionally hiding my emotions, because I was honing myself to be a great corporate executive, and therefore, didn't really need God's touch to change my life, because, hey, it seemed to me that my life was in pretty good order. So when I did go to snow retreat, I did not have any expectations (except that registration was going to kick butt).  

 

I think I can honestly say that I shed more tears throught this snow retreat than I have in months.  It ranged from tearing up to a full blown sobbing, I want my mommy kind of deal.  And I think that each tear that I shed was a piece of the wall of ambition that I built up against God and his ability to break me and make me something new.  Although I would not call this whole retreat "life-changing", I definitely know what it means to earnestly seek God and hear his voice.

To non-Christians, I hope I didn't freak you out.  I am not perfect, and already know that I will do something that makes you think that Christians are all hypocrites.  I sincerly apologize in advance, as well as instances that have happened in the past. I pray that you will just have an open heart, and just give this whole Christianity deal another look.  For believers of Jesus, I pray that God may break you.  Even if it takes a lot of pruning and pain, always remember that God will always be near you, and if you seek Him, it is the most rewarding and humbling experience that you will ever go through. 

2 Corinthians 5:13-15

I hope this works. If it doesnt, check out this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dohj2QAdzs

2/3/09

I think my parents have come down with something.  I'm not sure what it is (possibly a virus), so I am going to classify the possible "thing" as an Ashley Chen biological discovery!!

Potatous-Couchius (virus)

From the family of: Lazyoploious

Symptoms:

-Influx of asian snacking. This includes: Sunflower seeds, asian chips, seaweed that you ate when you were a kid for snacks, smoked tofu, Oranges, Apples, Pumalo (left to ripen after being bought for Chinese New Year), Bell Pepper, Cucumber, and Toast.

-Lack of interest for surroundings. Yesterday, I asked them if I could watch HEROES because apparently the episode was freakin' awesome.  Here is the conversation (duly recorded):

"Ummm Mom can I watch a tv show that starts, like, now?"

"It's recorded, don't worry about it."  Now, Mom is actually watching a recorded show herself, and obviously does not want to be bothered.

"Oh, okay. When are you going to be done?"

"Don't you have homework to do? You ARE a junior, you know, and junior year...*goes into a schpeal about junior year that has been heard many times*"  See? You can tell-her underlying meaning is : DON'T BOTHER ME. Now, Dad is there too, munching away at his...whatever he eats. I wouldn't know, since they all seem to disappear after he touches them...

"No, Mom. I meant WHEN WILL YOU BE FINISHED??"

"Ohh humm...*long pause* 11, at the earliest?" GREAT.

Lack of interest for physical movement (this includes looking at screens that are NOT televisions).  For example, today...

"Mommmm can you come here?" (repeated 2-3 times)

"WHAT. I'm already sitting down on the couch." (Well, I'm already sitting down on my chair looking at my computer, but due to the lack of interest in surroundings symptom, it is not taken into account)

*After finally getting up to go show off my wonderful find (kudos to Brad)*

"See? Don't you like this car? It's so pretty! Look! And it's only $2800(slight movement of the eyes)"

"Why would I want to pay for a car that is $28,000? What's wrong with our car now?"

"Mom, it's $2800."

"EVEN WORSE! Do you want a car that breaks down all of the time?!? Don't you have homework to do? You know, junior year..."

Cures

None. Unless you disconnect the asian news channel, asian historical fiction dramas, korean soap operas (translated into chinese of course), and the Jim Cramer, the Mad Money guy.

Is it transferrable within species?

Not unless they watch the channels listed above.

Now, I'm not saying that I hate my parents. I think they're great. But of course, we all like to poke fun at them in order to make ourselves feel better about ourselves (but, in the end, does not work, so don't try it because the wrath of infected parents will rain down upon you).  So, my solution? Crack open a pack of AMERICAN snack foods, and prepare to fight your way to the lovely remote.

Gosh, I sure hope this ends up in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or a Nobel Prize.  That would be good too.

1/31/09 (2/1/09)

GAckk.

once again, I fail to write a blog post in time. ITS OKAY. I think that was because Saturday was filled with MANY eventful...um...events.  This involves:

-falling down a rail (I was trying to slide down it on my butt but I think my excitement made me tip over. Anyways this ended up with a fatty bruise on my knee and utter humiliation for the next 2 minutes.)

-Longboarding to MV from my house 

I think that can be summed up in 2 brief conversations:

Me: Um Mom I kind of have to go to MV for a DECA study session at 11

Mom: Um we're leaving right now, so figure it out! Don't get hurt!

Me: WTHECK IS WRONG WITH THIS STUPID BIKE AAJGEHALJGAGHELJRHG

Angeline: I guess you can longboard.

Me: UPHILL?!?!

-Seeing a VERY awesome powerpoint on relationships. aheehee. This was after being lured and baited to do multiple things, such as going outside to "learn how to longboard" according to Alice, deciding which member of the Rascal Flatts band is the hottest, and thumb wars.

-Getting into a VERY awesome relationship. (http://mrwongderekful.blogspot.com/) Quite the merger.

CUE DRAMATIC WRAP UP SENTENCE! 

heroes new season tomorrow! yay.

1/27/09

Hey Leadership kiddos! This post is for you.

I remember when I got into the leadership class, I was still pretty conflicted-with leadership, I would have seven classes in junior year.  I felt pretty ready to drop the class and go on with my life, but, for some reason, I stuck with it.   Throughout the year I felt that I got to know a lot of people, but I knew it was still pretty superficial.  Today's leadership development just showed me how little I know about this whole class, each individual, and myself.  I realized that I was so caught up in my own little world and I was SO sheltered.  It was insane.  I know I didn't cry, but it really broke my heart, knowing that you guys have been through so much more than I had, and yet, I had placed myself at a higher priority than all y'alls.  I love you guys so much, and I know I made the right decision sticking with Leadership 08-09.

1/24/09 (1/25/09)

Sometimes I feel like the epitome of the word "loser" when I go through experiences and I immediately think, "OMGSH I HAVE to put that in my blog", spend the next two hours planning what I'm going to write, and then, when I get home, not write the blog until midnight, forget what I was going to write about in the first place, and end up thinking that I am already losing enough sleep as it is and have better go to sleep now or suffer the consequences.  Anyways, the point is: I have a good story.  But first, bask in my prowess of procrastination. 

Yesterday was my second (hopefully last) SAT. The first time I took it, I remember entering a room feeling quite naive and insignificant in comparison to those meany seniors with their hooded, single-color sweatshirts, looking as if they were going to shank somebody if he/she with their glares of hate. I don't know, but it was pretty intimidating.  So I know what you're thinking. The January SAT would be the same thing. Ohhh no. Not so, my lovely little blog-reader.  When I got into that room, I felt so white-washed. I was like a twinkie: yellow on the outside, white on the inside.  It was INSANE. The room was filled with those asian fobs that think that reading naruto is for losers because 1) it is for n00bz, 2) why read that crap when you can read, something AUTHENTICALLY JAPANESE (when you aren't japanese because your last name is freaking ching, chen, chao, chu etc.) and 3) it's not fobby enough.  And don't think that it was just for the girls, because there were guys that were EQUALLY ANNOYING! Here is an example (I'm not kidding, you can ask any chang-chiou who took the SATs at prospect):

Proctor: Is everyone done filling out your test ID?

Lame fobby guy who was from Lynbrook and is in concert choir and dares to brag about it: UH NO HEH HEH HEH (what he really means is : I'm so cool because I'm pretending like I can't even fill in numbers correctly but I'm still going to take the SAT and score a 2400 and all of my friends can read in between my stupid laughs and think-ohh what a cool guy since he wears his concert choir sweatshirt and khakis pants that are wayyy too tight for him all the time.)

And, on top of that, one of them GOT ME SICK. great.

Now, I'm not trying to bash on people from lynbrook, or fobby people, or guys who think they're cool when they only look really lame.  While I was doing my SAT, I couldn't help think about what other people thought of me when I entered the room.  Maybe they thought, "WOW what a weird person what was she thinking when she put on a Leadership sweatshirt and MV sweatpants with paint on the butt?? WHAT. A. LOSER."  It's interesting to see how we are all connected in these insignificant ways, but also separated.  It's as if we live in our own little bubble, making strangers obsolete, when, really, they're part of another bubble.  I think I'm rambling a bit, since I kind of forgot my carefully planned outline (as is what usually happens with my blog ideas), so cue anticlimatic ending!!

Oh, btw, happy chinese new year.

1/20/09

It has been a little more than 2 weeks since my last post.  How sad. Aren't blogs supposed to be, like, diaries or something, where people post on it religiously and document every single moment of their entire lives? 

oops.

Well anyways, it has been super encouraging seeing the number of people that actually look at my blog.  I saw that there have been almost 50! I don't know if some of them read it out of pity for me (ohh look at Ashley isn't she cute, writing her own blog and trying to grow a chimney), or out of pure reverence for my awesome, but whatever.  It's actually kind of weird to see that people care about my ramblings, but, I think its pretty important to make sure that I'm not writing this for an audience of like, 50 (or 3, which would be the actual number of people who read every single one of my posts) but more for an audience, of, well, me.  That way, I won't second guess myself on my lame jokes that is only funny to me and ridiculously lame to others (it makes them laugh because I'm so pathetic, right?).

Sometimes I find myself thinking about good blog topics, like how German is quite possibly the coolest awkward language in the world (with their schliden schnlargen bhargen beer weinerschnitzel oktober fest but the UBER messed up spelling, or how I tried to sneak out but let my mom know and then ended up NOT sneaking out, or how when someone talks about blogs I say, "I have a blog!" but only to be shot down with the phrase, "uh. You only have 2 posts."

ummmmm.

Most of the time my inspiration is like that.  

No worries though, I think I'm going to try doing this from now on instead of playing blockes on iminlikewithyou or watching lame videos of indian guys getting beat up by other indian guys (look it up, it's actually pretty funny-search: how can she slap indian).

the night before I do my internship hw or actual hw...

ummmm.

I think I'm going to go play blockles now.

1/1/09

Happy New Year!

Actually, why do people even care? Honestly, I think that its just another celebration for people to get cheery about. like boxing day. What were those people thinking when they thought of that idea?? I mean, come on, you honestly think you can top a celebration on the day before? decked out with gifts and spending of money? no.

So anyways, I wanted to start off the new year with, hey what do you know, something that fits my new years resolution!! Yay, feeling productive.  I don't think this blog really has a theme or whatever; I think I'm just going to list some of my New Years Resoultions.

Go JOGGING-Every year I list this one.  I think it's because I know that in six months people are going to start looking at my tummy, and I certainly do NOT want them to see flabby lard.  I've also heard of something called a runner's high. Wonder what that is...

Stop Thinking I'm older than I actually am- I think, when I hang out with my 09er buds, I feel that I'm going to college in six months too, so I subconciously think I have college apps to return to when I get home, but instead of college apps, I have College Board. Curse you. 

Devos-I even committed to writing devotions for Snow Retreat, but, after doing that, I realized that um, I haven't even done devos in, like, 2 months.  I think,  at first, it was because I would do them at night before I went to bed, I didn't want my "school knowledge" that I studied to leak out of my brain.  Maybe if I did them right after school.  I heard that statistics show that more information is retained when it is the last thing that is studied before sleeping.  I also heard that you can get cancer from just about anything, and not even a plastic bubble will save you, because some types of plastics leech cancer-inducing toxins.  

Neosporin-This isn't really a new years resolution, but more of a great idea.  If I bring Neosporin with me everywhere, maybe I'll stop getting so many infections from my stupid accidents!  During finals, I got a carpet burn from playing Spoons, and that freaking thing got infected!  Neosporin could have averted that.

So that's all of them for now (more like all that I could remember)! Happy New Year!!