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7/31/04. The Chiu family dances up a storm at Bun & Edie's wedding.  

I apologize for the lack of blogging.

Joy came to visit for over a week - what a swell time. We also visited our cousins, Jessica and Wai Yan in Boston over the weekend. I have another week of work left, and then it's back to Seattle for a couple days. Then I'm off to Hong Kong and Taipei with my mom to visit Grandma for a couple weeks before the 3L year begins.

Wow- isn't the world an exciting place? The Olympics, the Republican National Convention here in NYC (I'll let you know if I get caught in a throng of delegates or a stampede of protestors), wedding planning, and many important decisions to be made for the future (particularly related to my post-grad job and Jason's residency).

And how much I enjoy a relaxing, sleep-in-and-then-eat-a-big-brunch kind of a weekend!

Action-packed weekend! My good friends Bonnie (Fri to Mon) and Debby (just Fri evening to Sat morning) came to visit, and it seemed like we packed quite a bit into the short time we had together.

The weekend line-up:

1. The Met - http://www.metmuseum.org. There's something special about visiting a museum in the evening, particularly when there aren't many people around. But, as you probably know, I love the Met! I felt like we were the kids in the children's book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konisburg. Did you read this about 15-20 years ago? Hey! I just realized that the book is set in the Met! Wow!!!

2. American Museum of Natural History - http://www.amnh.org/. All I can say is, I am once again ASTOUNDED and IN AWE by how small we are in the universe. The space shows are QUITE an experience... you get to experience a 3-D journey of travelling in space, learning about the planets, stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, trillions of light years apart... and this is what we HAVE discovered... who knows what more lies beyond? Then the exhibit on over 200 species of frogs - incredible! Tiny tiny fluorescent-blue-striped frogs to massive flat bumpy frogs and everything in between. And God being the Maker of all this - the infinite and incomprehensible space to the sheer numbers of diverse small creatures - INCREDIBLE.

3. Game Night - a hilarious evening of fun with friends eating gourmet pizza and playing the boardgame, Catch Phrase. Let's just say that under time pressure, there is a tendency for Freudian slips! No, I won't reveal what transpired - this is a G-rated blog!

4. 42nd Street - the Broadway musical http://www.42ndstreetthemusical.com/. A glittering, tap-dancing extravaganza set in the 1930s. A rather unbelievable plot, but the choreography was excellent and wow, who knew feet could move like that?!?!

5. Shopping - including wedding gown (did not buy) and H&M!

6. Lots of delicious eating: Saigon Grill (Vietnamese), Cafe Lalo (Dessert), Mandoo Cafe (Korean dumplings), Norma's (gourmet breakfast), Haru (Japanese)...

Whew - I get tired just looking at this list. Good times - thanks for coming, Bonnie and Debs!

So it's probably some subconscious fear. I've been dreaming a particular dream several times in the last few months. I dreamt it again last night. The dream is basically a variation of the same theme:

I'm walking into a large room or outdoor event, and I realize that a wedding ceremony is about to take place. I'm dressed in casual street clothes, and the guests - wearing nice apparel appropriate for a wedding - are slowly trickling in. The fact that I'm under-dressed for the event is rather embarassing, but it's far more horrifying when it dawns on me that it is MY wedding ceremony! No one seems to notice me, but I begin to race around - where is my dress? Where are the attendants? What's the program for the ceremony?

Then the sinking feeling settles in the bottom of my stomach. I don't have a dress, I don't know where my attendants are, and we don't have a program for the ceremony. How did all the months go by and the big day just suddenly arrive without warning - and nothing was ready? What a terrible, terrible shame that one of the most important events in my life, with all these guests taking the trouble to plan for it and come for it... and everyone (including myself) would be sorely disappointed. "How did it come to this?!?!" I cry.

At about this point in the dream, I would wake up and discover, to my great relief, that it was just a dream. Whew... I still have, what, 8 months to go? No worries, that's cake.

And no, it's not a coincidence that I made an appointment to go to a dress shop for my first appointment. Wouldn't it be nice to find the right one immediately, and thereafter feel secure knowing that, if all else fails, at least I'd look good in the midst of the chaos?

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Bun & Edie Lau! I have a new cousin-in-law now!

I really enjoyed seeing (nearly) the whole Chiu side of the family at the wedding in San Jose... what fun! I got to hang out with my younger cousins, including Vinnie, Patricia, Elena and Kelvin (who live in Hong Kong) and the youngest one Kara (who lives in the Bay Area.) As for the older folks, including my aunts and uncles...these folks can really shake it up on the dance floor! They are crazy.