Tonight is our first Date Night since we got married. Don't get me wrong. Danny and I go out a lot, and spend time most days. However, we decided that we would build Date Nights into our schedule, and take turns preparing for it. That way, we have made a conscious decision to spend some quality time with each other, and not just exist next to each other. Danny is in charge of tonight's Date Night. We're watching a show in San Jose. How fun! Hopefully this can become a bi-monthly thing.

My car is in the shop. Don't know what the problem is yet. Cars.

My first car, a light blue '80 Chevy Chevette, brings back a lot of great memories. I was sixteen, and was one of the first tenth graders at my high school to own a car. It had been given to me for free from a parent's friend. I was so bold to drive around in that clunker!

I didn't mind so much at the time, but if you know a little bit about Whitney High School, you would also know that the parking lot of Whitney was a mini show room of brand spankin' new cars given to teenagers to drive, given to them from guilty and rich parents who didn't have much time to spend with their kids, but made it up by buying them new cars. (Even I ended up getting a new Honda Civic sedan after my Chevy Chevette died on the road.)

Anyways, I was never embarrassed about driving my Chevette, and all my friends were very supportive of my car. I remember Elsa bought me a car freshener to hang on my rearview mirror. It was one of those flat trees with a fresh lemon scent. And in the summer, when the air conditioner wasn't working and was in fact blasting hot air onto all of our legs, they still said "What a cool car!" It was great. It was amazing how much I wasn't into peer pressure in regards to this topic. I was so unvain.

In fact, I was very unvain in many other ways back in high school. As I grew older, I started to care more about what other people thought of me. Now I'm the most vain person I know. Isn't vanity a sin? Yes. My God. What kind of a life have I been living?

My little blue Chevy Chevette will always linger in my memories as a reminder of how I should live my life - in modesty.

Was that enough paragraphs for you, Henry?

I remember pulling all-nighters with Susan in junior high. Wow! Those were the days. She knew how to have fun while studying. One time, she and I and Cristina were studying for the 8th grade science final. We decided to make up cheers to help us remember concepts. Haha. My brothers must have thought we were whack. Ooh! By the way, my older brother is now a resident in Korea working as a lawyer. Hooray for him! He is the most Korean one out of the three of us. He speaks, he writes, and he understands. But more importantly, he is culturally more able to transition in and out of Korean culture than me and Jibin. Perhaps he will marry a Korean woman straight up from Korea? Who knows. That's my prediction. :) Anyways, I'm hoping to visit Korea next summer with Danny. It has always been my dream to go to Korea with Danny. And Japan. And China. (According to my mother, we're both going to China next year, btw.) Oh, Jannie, my mi-yuk guk turned out well! Oh, and today I made tuna pasta salad with Hanah's help for a church picnic. And it was a hit! Thanks to Susan for the recipe during my bridal shower. It really is a party favorite.

I made seaweed soup today. I'm waiting for my husband to come home and taste its goodness. I guess when it comes to cooking, my dream is that everyone who tastes of anything I cook would be so enthralled that they would proclaim, "Dear God! What are these pleasures on my taste buds!?" It's because I'm a perfectionist. Over this past year, I've gotten much better. I don't fish for compliments from Danny as much anymore. I just need a decent head nod, a murmur of pleasure, a raising of eyebrows, and a "this is good."

Are Asian Americans "people of color"? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To answer your question, Susan. :) There was once a time when "colored people" referred to only blacks, I think. Asians were referred to as "Orientals" and other names, which I won't name here. I think I'm making this next part up, but I believe that sometime during or after the civil rights movement, "people of color" became a term that encompassed all non-white minority groups. Over at Menlo School, I was shocked that they considered Asian Americans to be "white." What the? Preposterous! They have more to go in defining diversity in their school.

My pet peeve is when Asian Americans, especially the ones who have "made it" in society and have climbed the corporate ladder, claim that they are color blind and are oblivious to institutional racism. Just because they have succeeded in this society doesn't mean that everyone else has. This one Asian guy said to me once at Stanford, "I don't see _______ as white. She's just a person." Uh, are you blind? I see her as white! To be fair, I think I can understand what he was saying. The core of what he was saying was: I treat everyone equally. He claimed he didn't see color. He just treated everyone the same. Hm. Can I say something?? I think it means more to say, "I see that you're white, that you are part of a majority group in America, and that I'm yellow, and I am part of a group that consists of less than 5% of the population of America, AND I will treat you equally." And vice versa.

To deny seeing color is to deny that you are part of a very real system of classification based on color. I believe this guy has "benefited from a system that he claims does not exist." I won't get into this too much. sigh.

I'll stop right here. I have much to say about this topic, but I find that often times I speak out of emotion rather than intelligent reasoning.

My latest TV craze: Alias! Wow, talk about intense. Even more intense than ER. Dramatic and suspenseful. Intelligent and engaging. Plus romance and action. All the elements you need for a successful TV show.

Anyways, I have this new bag that I use for school. I've been using a backpack for two years, but it was time to get a teacher-type bag to hold all my stuff. It's a big black bag with the word "Hollywood" written on it all over the bag in white letters. One of the "Hollywood" signs is written in gold lettering. I got it right before going to Puerto Vallarta. Karen recommended the bag to me. I was skeptical at first, but now I absolutely love it!

I've been so tired lately. Physically exhausted. We didn't get a chance to rest this past weekend. We hosted people and played, went out to eat, shopped, and had a great time. Monday was so tiring, though. I need to be back in school mode. No more vacation mode. This is my daily ritual. I wake up at 6:40am to my alarm, and snooze until 6:50am. If I need to shower in the morning, then I'll get up at 6:20am, begrudgingly. Anyways, I have exactly 20 minutes to get ready. Any later and I hit the carpool traffic at school, and then it's over. It takes me about ten minutes for my eyes to get adjusted in order to put my contacts in. It's just really hard for me in the morning. I was talking to Hanah, a fellow teacher who gets up early in the morning, and she said that she just wakes up when the sun comes out. I want that. I cringe when the sun comes out. I'm truly a night owl. I look and feel better at night. That's why I would change my wedding to a night wedding, if I could. See, even now, it's midnight and I should be sleeping. To me, a late hour is 1am. I just don't have the discipline to go to bed early. Plus, it doesn't help when Danny goes to bed late due to his online texas hold em pokering. But it sucks for Danny because once I wake up and make a lot of noise bustling about (even with earplugs), he can't really go back to sleep before work. So, he's exhausted at work. We both come home exhausted.

First day of school. So much happens in a day when you're in charge of a group of kids. I usually forget to write about it, or forget to tell someone about it. One girl handed me a cluster of roses the first day school. 10 points for her! Another kid brought in the wrong summer book. One emotional girl was very nervous about starting third grade, so I had to talk to her to warm her up before all the other students came. We were deciding on rules for the class, and one student suggested in a serious tone, "Be appropriate and mature." I love that rule. I would love it if everyone were appropriate and mature throughout the whole year. All in all, it was a great first day of school. I taught my kids how to say "hello" in Korean. It was great being able to infuse Asian American studies into my work. I love my job. I will now go shopping for some back-to-school clothes.