New Moon

SO…. On November 19th, 2009, I was offered a chance to have a free movie and a dinner with my uncle, aunt, and sisters.  Of course, the main purpose of this outing was to see the midnight showing of New Moon.  It was mainly for my sister Reba and aunt who are DIE HARD fans of the Twilight Saga.

Let me preface the rest of this blog post by saying:

1. I will do just about anything for free food
2. I am NOT a fan of the Twilight series (YES, I read the first book and thought it was not so great)
3. I am NOT a fan of romantic movies in general… esp if the romance part of the movie is cheesy and unrealistically fast paced.

Now, with that said… I had an AMAZING dinner at this noodles place in Oak Park (I forgot what it was called), had dessert at Ben and Jerry’s,  and then I  reluctantly waited in the movie theater for about 2 hours to watched the movie.  The crazed “Team Jacob” and “Team Edward” fans (this includes my sister and aunt both wearing shirts that say this) came into the theater with great excitement and tween squealing.  Throughout the wait, I was just wishing I had a book to read.

I saw the first movie, and I was squirming in my seat and making many faces and noises of disgust (which annoyed my sister).  So as this movie began, I came at it with a critical eye and a huge bias that it would suck like the first one.  I have to say that after watching the movie, that it wasn’t terrible (it wasn’t amaizng either).  It was slow in the beginning, picked up a bit, and Taylor Lautner looked hot nice. :)  The theatre went CRAZY when Lautner appeared shirtless, which happened several times in the movie, and someone around me yelled “He’s 17 you petefiles”  I just HAD to laugh out loud, cause he really did look good, and it was kind of hard to beleive he was only 17- plus it’s a bit gross!

ANYWHOOO…from what I heard from my sister, it was pretty true to the book, which was not the case for the first movie, so I’m glad it did that.  The ending was MIGHTY cheesy, and I LAUGHED OUT LOUD when I saw Bella’s face after Edward asked her a question…

For the most part, it was a decent movie.  I don’t think I would have gone to see it if someone didn’t offer the ticket to me.  The movie did make me gag, and I don’t plan on buying the DVD.  I know this “review” isn’t spectacular, and I’m sure I upset MANY Twilight fans… but this is how I felt :)  I think it’s pretty good for a person who usually doesn’t watch movies like this :D

The bible in a year….

When we make New Years resolutions, we try really hard to keep up with it as far as we can.  I usually last a month and then I get back to bad habits and old routines.  This past year, I really wanted to read the whole bible, cover to cover, this year.  I think i set out this task every year, and I usually fail miserably…. I have read the book of Genesis MANY times :)

This year, it was a little different.  There was a bunch of people that I follow on twitter, and in my church community that wanted to take this task on.  Good friend and older brother Eddie C. took the initiative and made a spreadsheet on google docs (I LOVE GOOGLE) of our reading tasks for the year.  We just check of every time we read.  Not only were you helping yourself read through the bible, but you had others could others see your progress, and keep you accountable.  Looking through the list, it seems like some fell through the crack and others kept up with the reading.

Due to some family reasons, I won’t be in the states for some of December, and internet connection will be lacking… so updating the document will be difficult.  So…I am determined to finish the bible by December 10th!  I have 37 days worth of reading left!  I think I can totally do it.  School is slowing down a lot, and I usually read during my 1.5-2 hour commute to work… so I think its totally doable!

I really hope this works…

Reading.....

WISDOM

I get wisdom from all over the place: my parents, family, friends, co-workers, advisers, church leaders, books, lectures, etc.  I am pretty blessed to gain insightful, thought-provoking wisdom on a daily basis.   I know that seems hard to imagine, but in all the advice, rebuke, “talks” I have with people, I try to learn something from it.  It’s what I have been learning in school called the “Life Long Learning” process or being a “Life Long Learner.” Being a lifelong learner means, listening to others stories, learning from their mistakes and accomplishments, appreciating the value of others lives through interaction, and ultimately sharing it with others to learn.  A life long learning process :)

Anyway… today was no different.  I was having a very meh day with lots on my mind and God blessed me with some AWESOME girlfriends in my life, and two of them were just shooting wisdom left and right.  Some of the things they said were like “dah Briana, everyone knows that” and other were like… “WOW!” and eye-opening  I wanted to share these things with you, so you can share it with others.  I hope you are blessed by it.  (Disclaimer: they are in no real order, and they are from two conversations, so it is a bit random)

• Don’t ever forget the kindness someone shows towards you, even if its decades later.
• Christ would never guilt trip you at your weakest point.
• Prayer is the answer to everything.  When you pray it’s not to inform God something He doesn’t know already but its our form of submitting ourselves in His hands.  The more we rely, the more sincere we become, the clearer the answers will be,
• God wants us to fight for justice… always.
• Open up your eyes.  When your eyes are focused on your frustrations, they are not focused on where YOU CAN do something.
• When all the chaos in this world in our lives seems impossible to deal with, you have to realize that the answer isn’t you, the answer is Jesus.  Jesus in a broken situation, in broken trusts in broken relationships.  We have to love people like God loves us.

You girls know who you are!  Thank you for making my night make sense again in the midst of my frustrations and weakness.  I will not share their names cause they are ALL MINE! *insert evil laugh here* That is right, I am selfish about my girls :-D

Don’t forget to subscribe and comment on the blog… I’d love to hear from you!!!

I’m doing everything to distract myself from writing a paper… AWESOME!

A  big thank you to all who have read my blog recently.  I’ve gotten a lot of encouragement to continue writing and even received some great council on all the marriage stuff! :)  Just so everyone knows, I’m seeking God’s wisdom in my life, putting His kingdom perspective first before the worlds and my own.  I know the marriage post might have caused people to think I’m being bitter or doubtful about this whole process… let me assure you.. I have NO doubt in my mind in WHO is in control. :)

Now with that said… WAT UP BLOGGERS?!  I’ve been feeling under the weather lately, and am finally recovering from the sickies.  I am doing everything right now (including writing this blog post) to avoid a paper… I just don’t know where else to go from what I have written so far, so I’m taking a break :)

In my break, I have edited photos and will be uploading them on facebook.  I have also stared at my books (seen below) thinking maybe somehow I will get some sort of drive to write again… because I have not.. I shall post some pics on the blog :)

I need to write about Leadership... any thoughts?

A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a friends wedding.  Libu and Reeja asked me to sing for the wedding, and I gladly accepted!  It was a fun night with some really good people!  Here are some images of the night.

Jenny, Myself and Leena... my lovely girls!

Leju, the best man, breaking it down Michael Jackson style :)

Libu and Reeja on the dance floor!

This past weekend I was able to go to my friend Subin’s 24th birthday dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (CPK). It was really nice to catch up and hang with people I’ve known from high school and college.   I’ve known Subin since freshman year of high school, and our friendship has grown quite a bit since then.  It grew from an acquaintance/hi-bye relationship, to a  love/hate relationship… We both LOVE to HATE on each other :)  Happy Birthday Bro!

The crazy Kobe/Laker fan, and the Birthday Boy :)

CAKE!

Subin feeding his sister! I just HAD to put this up! Too adorable!

The group shot... we were the last people there at CPK!

Ok, I’ll get back to doing my paper… ORRRR I’ll make something to eat… :)

SIDE NOTE: New HIMYM and TBBT tonight!  YAY Monday night comedy!!!!!  So, I should get on this paper.. right? MAN!