Saturday
Girls Night Out with girls and AB: It was supposed to be girl's night out, but what was I supposed to do with AB who flew all the way from Houston and had his plane delayed 4 times? To top it off, we hadn't seen each other for an eternity (or exactly 2.5 months). But it all turned out okay I think. AB got to catch up on some email, chat with some other fellow Houstonian, while I got to cover up my abysmal of a toenail.
Sunday:
Chinese church with parents: When my parents invited us to their church, I don't think they took into account the fact that AB would probably be unable to comprehend any of the sermon, or at least 99% of it. And my understanding of these sermons is probably already 50%, so I suppose AB got about 25% of the message after final translation? He claims he understood it, but I could very well have been telling him about some other sermon I heard about and he wouldn't know (except that I'm writing about it now). Anyhow, it all turned out okay, people did not bombard us with questions as Asian women are prone to, and it was overall nostalgic to be back at the church I grew up in.
iFly (indoor sky diving): After church we headed to our scheduled appointment to do some indoor skydiving! It was so much fun and crazy. Never imagined I'd actually be flying. Although the promotional videos were of people going up into the air, doing flips, and all kinds of crazies, this first session was supposed to be mostly about keeping balance. We got to sit and watch the previous group go while we waited for our instructional video, and during that time, I calculated the exact angel my legs and arms needed to be at to give me optimal lift. Okay, maybe not calculated, but I was coming up with all kinds of flying theories. I'm pretty sure during that time AB was just worried about whether the safety net was secure, if we could possibly fly too high, what the damages could be..
It wasn't anything too scary - did not require jumping from a high ledge or anything. You simply walk out onto a safety net, lean your body forward, and the wind will carry you up as long as you maintain a semi-superman pose. At the end we had a choice if to fly up and down (with the aid of the trainer), and it gave a similar sensation as going up and down a rollercoaster. I thought overall I did fairly well, except I forgot to close my mouth a few times and spit must have floated up somewhere. AB, on the other hand, was a riot to watch! I feel kind of bad for making him do this, but at the same time, I think it's a once in a life-time experience that's worth experiencing. Anyhow, right off the bat, he was stiff as a board. There were parts where the instructor tried to bend his elbow 90 degrees, but he was so focused on bracing himself, his arm kept on springing outwards to a straight V. My brother and I got a kick out of it, but I have a feeling AB didn't find it so funny. Afterwards, he didn't recall that part at all, but was so shocked by how much wind was blowing into his face. Apparently during that time, he related to the song, "I can't feel my face when I'm with you, but I love it!" except he didn't love it. He couldn't understand why the instructor kept on telling him to relax. Haha! Thankfully the second time around was an improvement for all of us!
Meeting up with the Nerd Herd: Met up with JS, AL, and AC. I can't believe people are getting their own homes, getting married, starting their own families - people are really growing up faster than I can take it all in. Nostalgia aside, it was nice to see everyone, although briefly. It's nice to hear AL and JS are even moving in together. It's like the Nerd Herd had a time of dispersion, and now we're migrating together again. How nice!
Monday
Somehow I have a very poor memory of what happened today. I recall going to UW, showing AB around UW and then grabbing some world famous Molly Moon ice cream, but I don't recall...oh that's right! Canoe ride! How could I forget! We went to UW and did a canoe trip after we went to bellevue - now if only I can recall why we went to Bellevue. Hm.... Oh that's right! We had lunch with NT at Microsoft! It was nice to feel her hair again - I mean - see her again. :D Maybe we'll have a big international organization leader in our midst one day.
Anyhow, we had a nice canoe ride out on Lake Washington. It was quite empty except for the UW crew team. We felt pretty inadequate next to them, and at one point we almost interrupted their practice. Oops. We had a nice work out on a cloudy day (thankfully no rain), and we canoed along the bank and observed the ginormous lake-side mansions. We also spotted some cranes, ducks, geese, and ran a bunk a duck island, or so I called.
UW was grand as usual. I took AB to see the Suzzallo library, and to my pleasure, he found it just as amazing as I did. It was as I had described to him - like the Harry Potter dining hall. Ironically it's called the Allen Library. It also happened to have a harry potter exhibit right outside the Harry Potter room. Afterwards, I wanted to get AB a UW t-shirt, but I totally forgot where the HUB was, so I asked around. But I asked 3 people, and nobody knew! The first girl was apparently a foreign student who could barely speak English, the 2nd girl looked older and pointed us in the wrong direction as we later found out, and I'm guessing maybe new or a grad student (?), and the third girl said she had only been there 2 weeks, but managed to point us in the general direction. Ultimately I looked it up on AB's phone. Sighs.
Molly Moon ice cream was heavenly texture, but neither of us thought much of the flavors that we got. It's been so long since we got ice cream, we totally forgot to get tastings before buying it. We got balsamic strawberry and lavender honey. Lavender honey was my choice, because it sounded so exotic and fragrant, but I totally forgot I don't like the smell of lavender much; thus, it wouldn't be so unusual for me to say I didn't care much for the ice cream flavor either. Meanwhile, the balsamic just clashed with the soft gentle strawberry flavor, although the strawberry itself was tasty. How unfortunate! Next time we will be more careful in our flavor choices.
Tuesday
Tuesday was the day we were supposed to go on a two-day North Cascade hiking trip, but instead, we only had Tuesday to drive up there because the silly Walmart store couldn't get my parent's mattress order right, and so it got delayed to Wednesday (so have to be home that day). Sadly, the mattress still wasn't delivered on Wednesday and my parents had to go pick it up from the store (which they tried to do earlier, but they had mistakenly sent it back to the factory) - sighs, long story of incompetence.
Anyhow, that meant our leisurely hiking trip turned into an all day marathon drive through the North Cascades, then Leavenworth, and then back home. It was still beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it would have been so much nicer not to have been cooped up in the car all day. We did get out in the scenic points and took some pictures, so it wasn't a complete leg-atrophying day. Also got some yummy ice cream in leavenworth (whiskey creme and tiramisu). mmmmm!
Wednesday
This day will have to be saved for another separate post.
Thursday
Nice day of having lunch with KP near Puyallup (or as AB calls it "Pully-up"), then tennis with the family, and a nice dinner at Sora Sushi. Delicious sushi with great happy hour menu (5-6p).
At night, we took my brother to his square dancing practice. Last year, his team won the yearly school competition, and so this year, they decided to start practicing extra early to regain their crown. It was such a funny crowd to see. There were senior citizens, middle age adults, young adults, and then this one group of hyper teenagers. They hadn't danced since last year, so they had forgotten a lot of the moves. Watching the other group was like watching a well-oiled machine, but watching the kids was like watching bumblebees rushing from one move to the other. It was hilarious to watch though and they were laughing and enjoying themselves as well. I had no idea what square dancing consisted of, and now I have a much better appreciation of it.
It consists of 4 couples facing the middle, making a square. There's a caller on the stage who calls out a move every few seconds, and the groups have to perform the moves. If they fail, they are out (or so it is in an actual competition). And the moves are complicated! There are the well-known ones like dosi-doe, but there are also weird ones like make the wave, or turning the gear ...I'm pretty sure I'm butchering the names. Some are simple moves, and others look sooooo complicated. Kudos to the elderly with still such sharp brains to remember all the moves.
Friday
This was a pre-wedding day of wedding activities. In the morning we went to help AW (the bride) make center pieces and sandwiches. Then had a brief lunch and then went to get my first every manicure done along with the other bridesmaids at Stop 4 Nails. Unfortunately only one of the guys there seemed to really know how to do it (the thin guy), whereas the others' nails quickly came off or bubbled. After I came back, my mom was like, "I could've done that for you!" - since she did nails in the past.
Then we had a rather early but delicious dinner at Top Gun Seafood, after which we went to rehearsal. Sadly AB had to leave to be a groomsman in another wedding in another city (we got invited to 4 different weddings in 4 different cities on the same day), so I had to send him off at midnight :(. He missed his rehearsal, but luckily he attended AW's rehearsal, so it was kind of like he attended rehearsal.
Saturday
AW's wedding! It was beautiful! It was lovely! It was perfect!
Sunday
After church, got to see KP one last time and along with my bro, played one last game of space team. Peel the potato!!!
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