Today, we went to Oakland Chinatown for dim sum, and then we hung out at Jack London Square. I consider this only semi-touristy. But, you just have to do it every once in awhile.

Sittin' by the dock of the Bay...

It's starting to feel like a holiday weekend now... hanging out with Carol, Lester, and Young in SF.

Rose Garden. Japan Town.

Sophie's Crepes. Mmmm...

Young, Lester, Carol, Ho Chie on Twin Peaks.

New rotation. New hospital. Newborn babies. I might die of boredom here at work. Fifteen more hours and counting...

I'm tired of working on weekends. Someone save me.

After visits by Linda, Harmony, Dave and Michelle, and several others, we have this TAF visitor thing down to a science now. Add Carol and Anita to the list. So, a typical visit occurs as follows: Young and I meet everyone at my place, they say "wow, you have a nice place," then they see the deck and say a bigger "wow," we all go out to dinner, and finally top off the evening with some bubble tea. Everyone goes home happy. It's like a perfected recipe.

Chill. Dinner.

Anny, Ho Chie, Carol, Young, and Anita. TAFLove.

Sylvia and Sayali are probably two of the sweetest people in the world. The three of us had a nice dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants. Our discussion tonight revolved around my spontaneous list of "20 Questions." Whatever it takes to talk about anything other than work, I say.

Sylvia, Sayali, me.

*yawn*

*blink*

It has been a stressful month, and I am much more content having had another full weekend off.

I went back to the Himalayan Festival today. Perhaps I was drawn to the geopolitical issues of the region - so reminiscent of the struggles of the Taiwanese people. But I have to admit, the cultural vibrance and the appeal of food brought me back too.

Afterwards, I met up with TAYL people to hammer out the final details of the summer camp coming up in a short month. Good people, good ideas. Cindy is a new face in the group, and I sense that she will blossom into a strong and committed leader in the coming years.

I ate dinner with John, Alan, Anny, and Steve. Having a community is good. Keeps us all sane.

Then, I watched Shrek2 with Anny. It cracked me up.

Now, I'm thinking about the next gathering - since Carol is now in town for the next 2 months and Anita is visiting in a couple of days... Soon Nancy, Mengting, Brendan, and others will be settling in...

Yes, my community is keeping me sane.

With my day off, I wandered around Berkeley, watched some performances at the Asian Pacific Islander Festival, bought some fruits at the Farmer's Market, ate some food at the Himalayan Festival, and took some pics at the Rose Garden. It feels good to enjoy life and a beautiful day.

The Berkeley Farmer's Market. Hurrah for free fruit and nut samples!

The Himalayan Festival at Live Oaks Park in Berkeley.

Coconut juice from the source. The Berkeley Rose Garden.

Beautiful Roses. From Me to You.

I have an extra weekend off. Time to catch up on some sleep.

Congrats to my friend, Catherine, who will soon be heading off to Columbia for med school. She is smart, sweet, and such a complete person. I'll miss her. Here we are chillin' with some wine before I made some dinner. Good times.

Despite the controversy over the close results of the recent Taiwanese elections, one must admit that democracy in action is an exciting thing to see. With this third ever Presidential election, and an over 80% voter turn-out rate, the people of Taiwan have demonstrated the ideals of a free and independent nation. In recognition of that spirit, I decided to go to the local Bay area celebration to watch the live telecast of the inauguration event this evening.

And quite an event it was, starting with the strong presence of security and police, and the small crowd of bitter Blue Party protesters jeering the mass arrival of the Green Party supporters. A few of them actually pointed their fingers with the universal "Bang Bang, I've shot you" welcome. Talk about maturity - I thought we gave this sort of thing up by the 5th grade. Anyways, I started laughing when I drove by them, as the irony of the moment unfolded in light of the pre-election assassination attempt. Who is accusing who again? How funny.

The event itself was very well attended. But sure enough, during one of the first introductory speeches, a couple of protesters who managed to infiltrate the audience made their way up to the stage to attempt to disrupt the celebration. Needless to say, security wisked them away as quickly as they became the butt of jokes to the proceeding guest speakers. Disrespectful as they were, we must all understand that only in a democratic society can fools be free fools. Express yourself. You have that right.

Anyways, I hoped to catch a glimpse of my dad sitting somewhere in the front section of the actual inauguration event in Taiwan. I didn't. But it was fulfilling to watch the swearing-in ceremony of both President Chen Shui-ban and Vice-president Annette Lu for another term. I remember back to my childhood days in the suburbs of Chicago, when my parents were very active in the Taiwan Independence Movement, and when we once hosted a woman who had been jailed for her political views. My mom's friend, Annette, would become one of the most powerful and visionary women in Taiwan. If only I had known back then what we all know today, I might have given her a hug and thanked her for the future.

The surprise of the evening? That would be seeing my friend Welly Yang performing live to a crowd of hundreds of thousands during the Inauguration Ceremonies itself. A Taiwanese American singing Stand By Me, telecasted to all of Taiwan and the world. How appropriate. How hopeful.

A proud and celebratory people.

Annette and A-Bian. Welly Yang performs.


Welly and me, speakers at the recent West Coast ITASA.

Damn. I admire women who are passionate, creative, eloquent, and not afraid to show or express their feelings. Tonight, I was captivated by a spoken word performance / prose reading by Ishle Park. She was the first Korean American female to perform at the Finals of the National Poetry Slam. She's been on Def Poetry Slam. And she is currently Poet Laureate of Queens New York. Needless to say, her words were beautiful this evening. My heart has been touched.

I love Alice.

Always one of my favorites.
I'll miss her when she leaves.

*yawn*

I am just plain tired. It might be a long call night.

Today was indeed productive. I laundered the dirty clothes, cleaned the pile of dishes, BBQ'd at June and Amin's, bought some new houseplants and potted herbs, drank wine on the deck at sunset, delved into the powers of the new Sony Clie, watched lots of mindless TV, ate cholesterol-heavy fried foods, rested the stressed brain, thought about the meaning of life... thought about you, my friend.

I am ready for another day. Bring it.

I'm going to take my dad to the Taiwanese American Festival in South Bay. I hope there's some good food. Power to my peoples! *raised fist*

Dad and me. Jean!

Irene and Ivy. Iris. Kathy working the booth.

TACL and TAYL peoples. Power. Word.

Area code 408?
I'm obsessed. My trigger-happy fingers accidentally deleted a voicemail from this afternoon. Normally, this would be fine, except that the message was somewhat garbled, and I didn't hear enough to know who it was from. But I sure had the sense that it was from someone whom I hadn't seen or heard from in awhile. Now this person will think I blew them off. I suck. And now I'll be thinking about this all night.

Call back please...

My dad is passing through town for the next 24 hours. I must think of ways to entertain...

Rough day at work. I'd like to erase it from my memory. However, hanging out with Yena for dinner afterwards redeemed the day. The bubble tea helped too...

Ranee is in town!

Dinner at Blowfish Sushi.

I've come home after 30+ hours at the hospital, only to find that some repair guy has accidentally poked a hole in the swimming pool or something. Now we have no running water, and I need a shower. Badly. Thank goodness that Anny lives around the corner. I will surprise her and come over naked.

Recently, I have become addicted to Skittles. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Mmmm... so fruity.

Susan and I went to Stanford to represent our Residency Program at the Regional APAMSA Conference. Reminds me of the good ol' days when she used to be a national officer, and I was president of our chapter. I miss Chicago.

After 5 years of use, I will soon retire my Purple Palm Pilot. Though it is fairly out-of-date in terms of memory capability, I have kept it for so long because it was so uniquely purple and sleek. But now, with the arrival of my new super-advanced large-screen wireless-capable Sony Clie with built-in camera, mp3, and voice recorder, I feel that it is time to move forward. It seems so advanced, I'm not even sure how to charge it up and turn it on. But I'll figure it out one day, and then I shall shed a tear when my dear old Palm Pilot goes into storage. It will be the end of an era.

I'm hosting some friends over for the Friends series finale. What a memorable decade-long journey.

I've worked out a schedule with my counterpart on the intensive care nursery team so that I'm taking overnight call every other night for the next 3 nights. I figure if I invest in a little pain now, I'll have the following 2 weekends free. Pay now, pass Go later. Collect $200? I wish.

It started with TAFbrats at the U Mich. Then came TAFcrush at the U of I and TAFkrew at OSU. Now, in the spirit of unconditional love, west coast style... I hereby announce the establishment of TAFlove at UC Berkeley. Charter members consist of Young and Linda. I will serve as Program Director. Advisors will be Brendan and Lester. Harmony is a lifetime special guest member.


Oh. And if any of you poor TAFers are alone at some college and feeling out of the loop, I will sponsor your chapter of TAFone. "the Power of TAFone"

Happy Birthday Diep!

Oh my. After seeing her picture, I realize I haven't seen Tiff, one of my original TAC girls in over 5 or 6 years. She's more beautiful than I remember. Wow.

Cropped with permission...

I met up with Anna for dinner, and she suggested we try this Burmese restaurant in Rockridge. The food was excellent, and the company was sweet. Plus, she delivered my A-bian Family cap from Taiwan. I'm so excited!

Ivy leads a TAYL planning meeting. Camp is quickly approaching...

If there was a day that I worked a little too hard, this would be it.

But then again, my baseline is good-for-nothing lazy-as-heck couch-potato procrastinator.