had a mini vaca last week - quick trip to vegas. 3 days, 2 nights. leave fri. morning and head back sun. morning. 10:30 am to 10:30 am to be exact (we would've stayed longer, but wanted to beat the Father's Day traffic).

our timing was good. to our surprise, there was a deal for a 24-hr pass for 7 different buffets for $44.95 - that's really good considering a dinner for one is easily over $20 already. the con to this: schedule revolved around food and mealtimes, so much so that I didn't even end up paying a visit to the pool - one of the few things I actually look forward to about Vegas (I don't like gambling. Risking my hard-earned money does not sound like fun.).

oh, the Vegas I once knew of was no more. I didn't think my last trip there was THAT long ago, but apparently it was and many things have changed since back in the day...

Dislikes:

• Caesar's Palace - Talking Caesar Statue & Show (this was the other thing I really looked forward to) is GONE!
• Caesar's Palace - Talking Fire & Ice Statue & Show is still there, but quite dilapidated with horrible audio (I could barely make out what they're saying - anyone know the story?).
• Mirage - Where are the white tigers?!! In the way back, in the "Secret Garden" $17 entrance fee, closes at 6 pm (we saw quite a few disappointed couples walk to the gated arch, ponder what they're to do on their failed date location, and then slowly meander away).
• No raw oysters at the buffets (I was really looking forward to this, too)

Meh:

• Treasure Island - When did it become TI? How is that any cooler? *SPOILER ALERT* And when in any Pirate's world do Siren's kill off pirates and that's the end of the show?!! I thought this place was a homage to Pirates. Just because they're hotter, have suggestive dance moves, and can attract more guests, I suppose they should win.

Likes:

• There's a Serendipity3! No longer is frozen-hot chocolate (and the place that inspired a movie) only in New York, but a hop, skip, and a mini-road trip away in Vegas!
• Buffets: Day 1 - Paris (for dinner). Day 2 - Planet Hollywood (champagne brunch), Rio Carnival (lunch & gelato), Planet Hollywood (early and long dinner). Missed out on Caesar's Palace Lago Buffet - heard food is meh, but felt classy. Oh, well - PH was a good choice and way to end the 24-hr buffet-fest ( after all, it's the #1 Buffet in Vegas and we got to partake, twice for a low low price!).
• Bellagio - Flower showcase: always something new & got to catch their last watershow of the day before midnight with my special someone <3. It was the Star Spangled Banner, wasn't Bocelli though.
• The Weather - Cool enough to go walking and not die of heat. It was actually a pretty enjoyable (and long) stroll from Bally's (where we stayed) hotel-hopping all the way to the Venetian and then back.

All in all, a good trip. I miss the old, but it's definitely a new Vegas with new memories. ^_^

the start of this week was the first time in a long time I'm learning how to ask for my daily bread again - laying down major work projects at the Lord's feet, my imperfections at home, the fears and worries in my heart, the ungodly to please man more than God, the huge reality before me (even bigger than the problems I always try to work through myself first) that I need the Lord (before hitting a wall).

thank you, Lord Jesus. You meet All my needs.

The human heart is something I don't fully understand. I once heard someone say that it wasn't made for breaking - at least, not to the frequency we subject it to today. Forgiveness is another one of those things that's difficult to grasp, along with grace (which seems missing from my Chinese roots).

The Gospel touches upon each of the mysteries mentioned above. By God's grace, I think I understand each a little more when I am put in places where I must undergo the pain or intentionally choose to forgive, give grace, or even receive it. Through each experience, Christ reveals a bit more of who He is, His perfect love for me, which draws me closer in love with Him.

Something new I've been learning is healing from the past - past choices and wounds - mine and someone else's. Totally separate from each other at one time, but somehow intertwined and still affects the present. It feels like choosing to care for someone in this way, also comes heartache - then a choice to forgive, and give grace. Acceptance and growth is packaged with the tears; there's no other way.

As I slowly come to understand all of this (it'll probably take me more than a lifetime to learn, really), I'm amazed and at awe once again at God's fathomless love. Ps.139 - He knows everything about us, every decision, act, thought - every detail of our past, present, and future. He made us and we are His - which actually makes such knowledge even harder to endure (humanly speaking). That's a lot of people, imperfect pasts, and a whole lotta heartache. Despite all this, He still chooses to love; grateful that He loved us first, so we can love. Doesn't make it easier, but the once impossible, possible. Thank you, Jesus.

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" - Rom. 8:37-39

I've been comfortable for awhile - not: "there are no problems in life" kinda comfortable, but more like lukewarm comfortable.

On another note, I knew relationships are not easy - most of the worthwhile things in life aren't.  Although a romantic at heart, never really ever did buy into the romanticized notion of what a real relationship would be like. Then again, never really experienced how amazing one could be either. Really though, it's so gross how relationships can bring sin right out of us. I mean, I knew I'm a sinner, saved only by grace and know that imperfections mar me (as it does the rest of the world)...not to mention the infinite change my heart must undergo to be like Christ's (looking to the cross again - Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...), but geez, I didn't see so much of this broken heart of mine since...ever (the closest must've been during the harder teen years). I'm grateful for someone in my life that points me to Christ and sees me in ways I can't even really see in myself. At the same time, it's not easy seeing sin just ooze out of me - not because the other person points fingers or judges, but just by loving, praying, reminding of the hope I have in Christ, being honest with his own imperfections, doing his best to set a good example, and earnestly desiring Christ above all else. Another example of God's grace in my life, I suppose. I'm reminded again that Jesus was never in the business of making me comfortable, but refining my character and heart. He never did say it was easy, He showed me how hard it was by going all the way to Calvary. He did, however, say, I can't do this alone and He doesn't want it that way, but He's to be there every step of the way.

Originally sat down to balance my checkbook, but of course, I found another task too exciting to pass-up: a new blog entry. /yes, I do realize I am intentionally procrastinating and dawdling this precious free night away... I suppose the sooner I finish this entry, the sooner I get back on track. so here goes:

It's been awhile, so I decided to visit (Xanga) - on xanga's main page, this article was featured: The Person You Lost Your Virginity To

I remember when I was 22, I didn't see myself as terribly young and that I could make adult decisions. I may have looked it and in many ways, still haven't changed much today, but I sure didn't feel like a child. However, when I read these words from another 22 year old (and the comments that follow), I can't help, but be saddened at the decisions that are being made (and the emotional stuff that comes with it). The majority would summarize the entire issue to: "What is up with all the hoopla around losing one's virginity - so overrated." It's almost as if it's a natural path to growing up: to lose one's virginity, deal with the emotional baggage, and then simply walk away to continue on with life (hopefully without STDs). It'll also most likely be easier to engage in sex the next time around, too.

Not sure what the point of this entry is myself. Just felt so heavy-hearted after reading someone else's experience (and having so many others view it as a normal part of growing up). It doesn't have to be this way - The Creator meant it to be something special. If people truly do love one another, why can't they just wait until a little longer? I would think love comes with honoring and protecting - if that's the case, wouldn't the best outward display of that love would be to guard the other person from losing their virginity to anything less than 'til death do us part"? Anything less than that is not worth not waiting for.

I don't like risks - for me, waiting comes a little easier than risking. Can't imagine losing my first time to someone who will count it only as a memory, turn around, and then share the experience with another. I suppose it's no wonder that the youth of today seem a whole lot more guarded, a little more jaded, and see the "first time" as just that...just another "time".

First hockey game EVER: Kings vs. Sharks!
March 24 at 6:55pm via Text Message

Isn't this the simple explanation for our being so heavy-laden, so tired, so overburdened and confused and bitter? We drag around such prodigious loads of resentment and self assertion. Shall we not rather accept at once the loving invitation: "Come to Me. Take My yoke. Learn of Me - I am gentle, meek, humble, lowly. I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28-29 paraphrased).

been reading about prayer & rest lately. He knows me so well and loves me just the same, but I know Him so little and still learning to love.

Started my new gig this week. Once again, he awes me of how He knows my everyday and every thought better than I do. The night before my first day, the Lord gave me this devotional entitled, The Gift of Work by Elisabeth Elliot to meditate upon --

The principal cause of boredom is the hatred of work. People are trained from childhood to hate it. Parents often feel guilty about making children do anything but the merest gestures toward work. Perhaps the children are required to make their beds and, in a feeble and half-hearted fashion, tidy up their rooms once a month or so. But take full responsibility to clear the table, load the dishwasher, scrub the pots, wipe the counters? How many have the courage to ask this of a ten year old? It would be too much to ask of many ten-year-olds because parents have seriously asked nothing of them when they were two or three. Children quickly pick up the parents' negative attitudes toward work and think of it as something most sedulously to be avoided.
Our Lord and Savior worked. There is little doubt that He served in the carpenter shop under the instruction of His earthly father, Joseph, putting in long hours, learning skill, care, responsibility, and above all, the glory of work as a gift to glorify His heavenly Father. He did always those things that place the Father. Later he chose almost all His disciples from those who labored with their hands. Even the apostle Paul, a man of brilliant intellect, made tents.
Booker T. Washington, an African-American who grew up in the South when members of his race were expected to do the hardest and dirtiest jobs, learned his greatest lesson from the example of a Christian woman. A New Englander, the founder of the Hampton Institute, she herself washed the windows the day before school started, so it would be nice for those children who had been born slaves.
Is work a necessary evil, even a curse? A Christian who spent many years in Soviet work camps, learning to know work at its most brutal, its most degrading and dehumanizing, testified that he took pride in it, did the best he could, worked to the limit of his strength each day. Why? Because he saw it as a gift from God, coming to him from the hand of God, the very will of God for him. He remembered that Jesus did not make benches and roofbeams and plow handles by means of miracles, but by means of saw, axe, and adze.
Wouldn't it make an astounding difference, not only in the quality of the work we do (in the office, schoolroom, factory, kitchen, or backyard), but also in our satisfaction, even our joy, if we recognized God's gracious gift in every single task, from making a bed or bathing a baby to drawing a blueprint or selling a computer? If our children saw us doing "heartily as unto the Lord" all the work we do, they would learn true happiness. Instead of feeling that they must be allowed to do what they like, they would learn to like what they do.
St. Ignatius Loyola prayed, "Teach us, Good Lord, to labor and to ask for no reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will." As I learn to pray that prayer, I find that there are many more rewards that come along as fringe benefits. As we make an offering of our work, we find the truth of principle Jesus taught: Fulfillment is not a goal to achieve, but always the by-product of sacrifice.

...<3. It was time to change my profile pic on facebook.

 
worked the red carpet premiere in Hollywood this past Sunday. first time it was during the afternoon, rather than the evening.
entertaining pic by Touchstone Pictures. had some naughty jokes - I didn't understand them all, but all the adults were laughing.
the talent I escorted was kid celeb, Davis Clevland from Disney Channel's Shake It Up! (the exclamation is part of the title, not the statement)
behind me was Eric McCormack (from Will & Grace) and his family
far ahead of me, I saw Sir Patrick Stewart (the captain from Star Trek and Professor Xaviar from X-Men)
we were given the green light to join the stars to screen the movie (we don't always get to).
my friend/co-worker/previous college-classmate, virginia, and I had orchestra seating at the El Cap.
surprise performance by Elton John after the movie! - premiere's aren't all that, but this was the coolest part of the event
dessert reception after - I worked the Valentine Day card and game booth. we were excused by 6 pm (just in time to enjoy the rest of the weekend before it ends).