20 on the 20th!

Happy 20th Birthday, John and Jenn!

My fabulous younger siblings turned 20 yesterday. I am so lucky to have such incredibly intelligent, considerate, mature, talented, beautiful, hilarious, and conscientious siblings such as these two. Unfortunately, our family is all over the place this year, with Jenn and I at home in Princeton, John in New Haven, CT, Jin in Ithaca, NY, and Mom and Dad in Seoul for the opening of a new store, so we each had our own ways of wishing them a very happy birthday. But I'm sure they felt the love from all their adoring friends and family :)

For my part, I spent the afternoon and early evening preparing a dinner for Jenn and a couple of her close friends. It consisted of a salad, chicken francese (yes, again, it's one of Jenn's favorites!), and tiramisu with coffee for dessert! It was absolutely delicious!!! We turned the tiramisu into a birthday cake and couldn't find the appropriate birthday candles in the house. So, Jenn picked an "8" and a "5". And so we celebrated her 20th and 85th birthday at the same time, hehehe.

my future home

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You are looking at one of the brand-new lease holders of a lovely home located at the following address, along with my future housemates Lisa Sambat and Alex Stark!

2110 Prichard Road

Silver Spring, MD

20902

We have a yard, a porch, a big basement/den, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a washer/dryer set, and I'm so excited!!! While all three of us imagined us living within DC proper in our year as young college graduates in our nation's capitol, in the end, the combination of trying to stay within our budget and not get mugged/shot on the way back from work in the evenings led us to expand our search elsewhere. And I must say, I'm quite happy with what we've got!

The commute to work will be about 30 minutes long one way by metro, and more expensive than I would like, but that's the premium for living in a safe neighborhood! We are just a 5-10 minute walk away from the Wheaton metro on the Red Line, near a big shopping area, and there is an elementary school and lots of young families in our area.

endorphins, week 2

My game got cancelled. Again. It's hot out, but it's GORGEOUS. The other team didn't have 7 people for the game tonight, so we're rescheduling and that means that next week, I'll have 4 games in a row. Yikes.

I'm going to keep track of when/how much I run on this blog, like I had originally intended to looong ago. But then I stopped working out so that failed. Second time should be better.

Monday: 4.12 miles + pilates

Tuesday: off day

Wednesday: game; layout grab for the score!

endorphins

I love schedules.

I've also decided that I love running. It makes me feel productive, helps me sleep better at night, and just makes me feel better about myself overall. While I was in D.C. house-hunting, I found myself feeling very restless at night, perhaps because I was anxious or stressed out about finding a place to live (the hunt continues...will post when I know where I'll be living), and I decided that when I got back home I would start exercising more. One to two games a week of summer league just wasn't enough.

So, this week I've done the following:

Monday: 3 miles

Tuesday: nothing, thought I had a game that got cancelled last minute for T-storms that never occurred.

Wednesday: 2 miles + pilates

Thursday: summer league game, layout D!

Friday: 2 miles

Saturday: 2 miles + pilates

Sunday: 2 miles

And it feels great! I'm pretty sure my ankle's getting stronger and stronger, and early this evening when I was running, I found myself with an unexplainable subtle smile upon my lips. Guess it just makes me happy :)

happy birthday, america!

For the first time in my life, I spent July 4th weekend away from home! This year, I went to visit some of my closest friends in Boston, MA...and it was WONDERFUL! Usually, I take the train, but given the economy and also my desire for new experiences, I took the train to New York Penn Station and took the Megabus to Boston. The massive pack of people outside the bus depot area was ridiculous and overwhelming, but the bus itself was fine. An hour delay...better than I expected, quite frankly. Plus, I made a new friend on the bus! I met a young man from Virginia, living and working in NYC, traveling to Boston to celebrate July 4th with friends, like me! Good conversation helped to pass the time, rather the eternity that I felt we spent crawling through the state of Connecticut.

When I got to Boston, I then transferred to the subway and met up with Sara and Colette, my lovely hostesses for the weekend! They gave me a tour of their lovely apartment and we went

out for food at an Asian food court down the street that I'd been to before during my time at Wellesley, called "Super 88". Later that evening, we went out for a night on the town and met up with my new friend from the bus and his friends from the area. Lots of fun! The next day, Colette, Sara, and I went to Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA...it was perfect!!! Not too hot, but warm enough to want to be out on the beach and in the water (though the water was a little too cold to hang out in there for long). That afternoon, Steph met us at home and we had dinner together and then went out dancing! During the day we spent lots of time catching up, laughing, and also lazing around on Sara and Colette's beds, just like we did at Wellesley :)

For the 4th of July, we woke up late and then had a delicious brunch near Sara and Colette's apartment. Then, we cooked a potato salad (using a recipe from Sara's mother) and brought it to a Whiptail potluck at a nearby friend's apartment! It was great to see my old team all together in one place. After the potluck, we went to an MIT fraternity house to watch the fireworks from the rooftop...it was SPECTACULAR. While I love the Princeton fireworks for sentimental reasons, these were incredible, and we had a great view from the fire escape, looking out over the Charles River and the Esplanade!

As usual, it was a lovely, incredibly fun, relaxing weekend with some of my closest friends! I can't wait to see them all again :)

another new song

I wrote another song today. As usual, I had written the chords down a week or two ago but forgot what the melody was and I couldn't remember what the original plan for the lyrics had been, but something nice came out of it nonetheless. It's called "Better", it's in 4/4 and it's a little more angsty than the other songs (angsty rather than sad, I guess). Here are the lyrics:

Push you away

Pull you back

Reach out my hand

Take it back

Because suddenly,

Everything that made me smile makes me cry

And suddenly,

I want to go but I can't say goodbye

I ask you the questions

And seek all my answers

But shut up

Just shut up

I tell you I hate you

But that I still love you

Just shut up

Shut up

As if everything you say right now could make it better, better better

As if everything you say right could make it all better, better, better

You make me cry

But I won't hang up the phone

You say goodbye

That I need to be alone

Suddenly

I'm not fighting you, I'm fighting me

Don't you know

Being alone's not so bad as being lonely

I ask you to speak

And you say something sweet

But shut up

Just shut up

I tell you I hate you

But that I still love you

Just shut up

Shut up

As if anything you say right now could make it better, better, better

As if anything you say right now could make it all better, better, better

Watching everything change

Colors fading to gray

What could you have to say

To make it better

I tell you I hate you

But that I still love you

Just shut up

Shut up

As if anything you say right now could make it better, better, better

As if anything you say right now could make it all better, better, better

Better, better, better, better

Better, better, better, better