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To Each His Own

Do not place any cactus in your home. The prickly sharp needles of the cactus are a kind of poison arrows that bring about bad energies.

Just reading this tip of the day on a feng shui site made me realize feng shui isn't for me. I had to give it the benefit of the doubt though, and decided to read more articles on this art of placement. I have fun reading about how people's love lives can be enhanced by changing the position of one's bed. Supposedly, "malignant sha chi" can flow directly from your door to your bed. Thus, you can either change the position of your bed or use "sha chi stoppers" such as a crystal to block these forces from getting to you or your sex life.

Another site dedicated itself to putting an end to "helping Feng Shui shed its snake-oil-and-incense image.". Supposedly, there are feng-shui practitioners who can tell you what you need to do to remedy an ailment or conflict in your life. The caveat, however, is that "some" feng-shui practioners are "quacks" and that you must take what they say with a grain of salt. One example involved literally urinating around your curbside if you have trouble with your neighbors. This was said to be outlandish.

In my opinion, feng-shui is a sham, but to each his own. Why would people think their problems stem from the position of their furniture? Why don't they look into the real problem--themselves?

posted by dinah 3:30 PM

Still here

As it turned out, we didn't leave for home today after all much to my mother-in-law's approval. Robin had to help out at his branch office for some unexpected occurrence. In the meantime, I ended up spending part of the afternoon with his long time friend learning the arts of feng-shui.

i wonder if it would be un-Christian of me to organize my room according to feng-shui. I don't know much about it and I'm not really the type to take something at face value. Christians always shy away from anything fantastical (dwarves, fairies, horoscopes) and associate it with the occult. While I NEVER dabble in the occult (I don't read horoscopes, never play with ouigi boards, haven't tried to cast any spells on anybody with voodoo), I also try not to be so judgemental when it comes to things in the gray zone.

What I know of feng-shui so far is that you have to have a wind-chime, decreased clutter so things will flow into harmony, a quartz crystal, and some sort of chinese lettering somewhere. Oh, I'm sure if some feng-shui expert were to read this they'd say I have it all wrong. But I'm a little cautious with this whole "crystal" thing. Sounds "new agey."

Here goes my search into the internet . . .

posted by dinah 10:23 PM

Top 10 Names of 2001

Here are the names I will not give my children simply because they're too common.

Girls Names:

Emily
Hannah
Kaitlyn
Madison
Sarah
Hailey
Ashley
Brianna
Samantha
Jasmine


Boys' Names
Jacob
Michael
Nicholas
Matthew
Joshua
Andrew
Joseph
Christopher
Anthony
Dylan

posted by dinah 10:14 AM

You know you're bored when . . .

you've gone shopping, watched TV, and then find yourself immersed into "how stuff works" on the internet. Thanks to Robin, I discovered this site (http://www.howstuffworks.com) and have learned how my cell phone works and how my cable modem allows me to spend countless hours on the internet in the first place. WOW! Cool! i'm bored.

I can't wait to get home and start cleaning my room, organizing my bookshelves, and washing our laundry. I am in dire need of something to do. I want to socialize, but Robin is sick and I can't stand to watch more of his choice of television shows. oh the drudgery.

My friend that I saw yesterday said she has become addicted to chat rooms since becoming an intern. She's become too busy to meet real friends so she's resorted to late night small talk on the internet. Really though, I'm not that bored.

posted by dinah 10:09 PM

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Reunion

I went shopping with one of my former med school classmates today. She's home for the holidays and it just so happened that I was in town at the same time. It's been half a year since I've seen her and I was elated to exchange old memories about gross anatomy and how we'd sometimes cry about our grades in medschool. She's been an intern in SF and so far (I'm happy to say) it hasn't aged her one bit. She's still the same old "paisely" ( the nickname she gave herself the first time I met her).

posted by dinah s 8:32PM

posted by dinah 11:23 AM

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Tuesday, December 25, 2001

Half here, half there

My niece is spending the holidays with my parents so I got to practice being mom for the past few days. She is such a handful when she's trying to fight sleepiness, but other than that, she's great. Her quote: "i love you auntie Dinah--more than lions and tigers." This morning, before Robin and I had to leave for another road trip, she woke up to say her farewells. Kids are so cute when they wake up with their puffy faces and tossled hair. She was especially cute with her one-piece green "teletubby" pajamas complete with those cute footcovers.

We're spending half of our holidays with my parents and the other half with Robin's. Marriage is cool that way. Anna, one of my best friends, is doing the same thing. Since she came into town to visit her family this past weekend, "the girls" got to spend a few hours with her before she left to visit her in-laws out of town.

Brink of Boredom

So last night, my church had a Christmas Eve party where each cell group had to perform a song, skit, etc. It started out well, with cute elementary girls singing Jaci Velasquez & Zoe Girls tunes. Then the inevitable happened. What is it with Filipinos? Don't they know that it's practically impossible to maintain an audiences attention for more than 20 minutes?

I am a patient person, but last night, my patience was tried. One of the cell groups had their entire 30 piece group assemble themselves for 10 minutes on the stage only to have them go back to their seats because they weren't supposed to be there "yet.". This desultory "skit" continued with a video of a children's orchestra concert (the entire show it seemed). Two of the children in the video were from our church--both "1st chairs" and prodigies. I love these kids, but why bore us with the ENTIRE show? And why didn't they just play live in front of us? I really don't feel like describing the rest of their "skit," but as many times as our church has done these programs, they should know not to exceed their 10-15 minutes time limit. Especially if it's BORRRRRRING!
I have tolerance for most non "P-C" things Filipinos do, but this was terrible especially since there were guests at our church!

My group had to follow the above skit and fortunately for the audience that remained (the above people's families who had no choice but to be there and the people who were in the groups following us), we only sang ONE song. We didn't even dare to go into skit land.
The final group did something along the same "boring" lines as the above group. They played yet another boring video and repeated songs that had already been sung. We heard Feliz Navidad and Silent Night about 3 times last night.

I love my church, I love the people, but there has got to be an end to this madness. I have sat through Biochemistry lectures more interesting than these skits. I kept on thinking, "Calgon take me away."

posted by dinah 11:10 PM

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Monday, December 24, 2001

Lord of the Rings

Yes it was long, but well worth the three hours spent sitting in the theatre. I give this movie 4 out of 4 stars.

Family Party

We just had our annual family Christmas Party. Every year, each of us has to perform some sort of talent whether it be singing, reciting a poem, or dancing. This time, however, we added a twist by having people choose an unknown task out of a hat. Among the many dares, tasks, or talents to choose from, my mother ended up having to dance, I had to do an impersonation, while a cousin of mine acted out a scene from a movie. We also played a round of Guesstures which turned out to be well worth the chance to see my aunt act like a baby to describe the word "crawl."

We ended the night exchanging gifts (secret santa since there's so many of us) and laid our hands and prayed for my relative(literally placing our hands on my sick relative like Isaac did to Jacob and Esau as he prayed and blessed them). It was truly a Christmas to remember.

posted by dinah 12:46 AM

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Friday, December 21, 2001

One Down

I have 13 more interviews to go! Today was my first interview for a residency spot and it wasn't too bad. I was such a nervous wreck these past few days though and you can see it in my complexion! Every time I'm anxious about something, I break out and sleep really lightly. Last night I woke up every 3 hours to see what time it was. Then I woke up by chance 2 minutes before my 5 am alarm and just laid there trying to fall back asleep. Luckily I didn't because what ever station I had set my alarm to last night was pure static and inaudible at 5am.

I arrived promptly to the interview to find 2 other interviewees looking exceptionally comfortable. As it turned out, it was their last interview and they had already honed in on their interviewing skills. Another girl showed up later and we were sent on a tour of the hospital and clinic followed by morning report where we went over 3 cases of SOB (shortness of breath) that had been admitted to the hospital last night. As far as the interviews went, two residents and 2 faculty interviewed me and practically asked me the same questions. Unsurprisingly they asked me what my strengths and weaknesses are. One of them kept making me list my strengths with life examples one after the other. I started running out. Then, of course, they asked me why I wanted to go into family practice. It's hard to mention everything with both brevity and substance. I felt like I was talking one million miles an hour especially since each interview only lasted 15 min each!

I'm tired and glad to be back home! I'm going to relax since I won't have to worry about interviews till after the holidays.

posted by dinah 11:06 PM

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Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Pseudo-Relaxing

I was able to reschedule that interview I missed with much ease. At first, I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but the residency coordinator offered another interview to which I joked,"Well, as long as people don't see me as 'the girl who missed her interview.'" She told me no one even knew so I rescheduled for the date I had originally planned.

The last few days I spent with my husband on one of his business trips. I love being the wife who gets to shop and just hang around the hotel room watching TV and movies. I could really get used to it--maybe. But no, I have to get ready for my first interview.

I'm a little anxious, and have to figure out what my weaknesses and strengths are. I hate that question. You're supposed to make your weakness into some type of strength, but hasn't that question been tossed around so much that the answers have become cliche?

posted by dinah 2:31 PM

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Sunday, December 16, 2001

Christmas Party

I had a blast with my cell group's Christmas party last night. The best part was sharing our gag gifts and acting like little children while we were playing some games. We have tons of inside jokes with eachother so it was great making fun of them.


Since Aileen just got recently engaged and she always gets top-of-the-line everything, we had to take advantage. We made her a gigantic "5000 carat" diamond ring with platinum band.




Kerry gave Jay an "autographed" poster from O-Town



Michael being Michael . . .not gay, just funny.

Jhun and Sze have Michael autograph their new DVDS since he was afterall an extra in the movie!






Prayer works!

If I were to die today would I go to heaven?

My relative diagnosed with the "terminal" condition seems to have taken a turn for the BETTER! Our church prayed for him incessantly and so far, his pain has decreased, and the medical procedures performed can't distinctively say whether he has the big "C" or not. We are extremely hopeful and prayerful about this. I'm grateful to Jesus because I know he is playing a tremendous part in this whole ordeal.

posted by dinah 6:28 PM

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Saturday, December 15, 2001

Mistake #1

If you want to get into a certain residency program, do not miss the interview!

Hello, dinah, where is your brain?

I don't know what happened, but my palm pilot says I scheduled an interview with a certain program on the 14th of January. Yesterday, I got a call from this program saying I missed my interview which was YESTERDAY!!! These are the times where I'd probably shout out all kinds of vulgarities, but I'm not like that so . . .I now have this feeling of impending doom.

As soon as I heard about the news, I rushed through my pile of confirmation notices on my desk and found the letter from this program confirming the interview for --low and behold--December. The thing is, I know I wouldn't have set an interview the day after my big board exam. I am not that stupid. I hate misunderstandings! My name is probably black-balled from this program. If I even attempt to resolve the situation and try to get another interview, it'll just put a black cloud over this interview anyway.

We'll see how I feel on Monday when I try to call them.

posted by dinah 11:01 AM

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Thursday, December 13, 2001

I'm like a bird

I'm free! Free!!!!!

After 8 hours of staring at a computer screen, I am finally free! My exam is over and I just pray I passed.

I am one more rotation and 14 interviews away from graduating from med school and becoming a full-fledged M.D! Actually, I don't think I can really say "full-fledged," it's really more of a title until I'm out of my residency.

Secret Santa

Tomorrow, I am not going to study at all. And the great thing about it is I don't have to feel the least bit of guilt. I am going to SHOP! I can't wait to go shopping even if it isn't for me. I have 2 secret santa people I need to buy gifts for and I also need to buy a gift for a friend who is graduating from nursing school.

We're also heading back home. I had this superstition about where I was going to take my exam. I had great luck taking my last board in my husband's hometown and so we drove all the way here so I could take my second board at the same place again. That's probably the only superstitious thing I do . . .

posted by dinah 11:48 PM

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Not to sound prejudiced, but where else, but in your own blogger, can you be "real?"

**if you're white/caucasian/anglo and are reading this and think I'm totally out of line, please read the disclaimer below. also write me in my guestbook**

I was talking with one of the girls from church (a Filipina) who was telling me that although she wants to marry a Filipino, she only finds herself falling for "white guys." Since I'm 7 years her senior, I decided to give out some "elderly" advice and told her as long as the guy is "in" with the asian crowd (and is christian) then that was cool. The thing is, I see so many filipinos who marry "white" and then become so "un-filipino" i.e. they don't want to hang around filipinos anymore. Then there are those really cool non-asian people who are extremely extroverted and go out of their way to fit in with the asian crowd. We have examples of both at my church.

The thing about marrying asian--regardless if the asian is of a different culture (japanese, korean, chinese)--is that there's this common ground of not being "white." I learn everyday from my (indian) husband how alike we were in how we were brought up. None of our parents wanted us to grow up "white" What did they mean exactly? They didn't want us to date or be promiscuous. They wanted us to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, or engineers. We were told to put off marriage till we were finished with our degrees ( in my father's words," don't have a boyfriend till you're ready to get married").

And then there's this asian way of thinking . . .
Asians let their kids live with them till death do they part. Asian kids never have to worry that on their 18th birthday, they'd have no financial support or a roof over their heads. Asians are also extremely hospitable, offering thier visitors food and drink till they practically puke. They don't mind--or at least act like they don't mind--unannounced visitors and welcome them with open arms. They are not too prim and proper. they aren't "white."
.

Disclaimer

Yes, I know, not all asians and not all whites fit into the categories described above. It's extreme stereotyping. To say cultures do not stereotype is a fallacy. We all were brought up thinking certain things about the other. This does not mean I don't give each and every individual person the benefit of the doubt. There is just a stereotype called "white" or even "american" that many asians refer to.

One of my best friends (one of my bridesmaids) is non-asian and my sister-in-law is caucasian. They are perfect of examples of extroverted people who get along well with the asian crowd. They are hospitable and would offer you the shirt off their backs. Vice versa, some asians are the worst hosts and hostesses.

posted by dinah 9:20 PM

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Sunday, December 09, 2001

Life

We all cried at church today while praying for my sick relative. I couldn't control myself. Tears just kept on coming and coming especially when I thought about how sad my relative's family was. They sat behind me and I couldn't even say anything to them for fear that I'd break down again.

Death has become so "real" these past 2 weeks. We got a message on the answering machine that my mother's longtime friend passed away after a battle with diabetes and renal failure. It's sad. Life is fleeting. I feel like I need to start taking caring of myself better . . .eating healthier, exercising. My parents must be thinking the same thing because I noticed they bought 2 huge bottles of vitamins and calcium.

But even more, I know that I need to draw closer to God right now. This means intense prayer on my part and our entire church congregation.

posted by dinah 10:35 PM

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Saturday, December 08, 2001

God Bless America

It couldn't have been a more appropriate day to become a citizen. After 2 years of waiting, Robin finally was sworn in as an American Citizen on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Several WWII veterans were honored at the ceremony including 2 veterans (one Filipino) who were POWs in Bataan. I felt patriotic again when they played a video with "I'm Proud to be an American" in the background.

Tea Party





After so much preparing, the tea party is over and I should be starting to study again. I had fun, but when you're hosting, you don't get to have as much fun as if you were a guest. Nonetheless, I love entertaining. I'll probably throw a coffee/tea party myself one day.

Bittersweet

I found out at the tea party that one of my relatives has a terminal medical condition and so it put a damper on the entire tea party. I'm happy to say my extended family is extremely close with extreme faith in God. We got together after the tea party (relatives drove in from out of town last night) and just spent quality time together till 2am. I love my family and am grateful to Jesus that He always provides comfort, strength, and peace during these times.

posted by dinah 1:16 PM

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Thursday, December 06, 2001

I have fallen in love

with Dollar Stores! Eversince volunteering to host a table at our church's tea party, I have paid many visits to the zillions of bargain shops: Big Lots, Dollar General, Only a Dollar, and Dollar Tree. They actually have good, cheap things there that I would have paid $10 for at other places. Sure, there are some generic, ugly things there, but you can get taper candles, votives, stationary and party decorations for $1. I could kick myself for thinking there was nothing for me there all those years!

posted by dinah 11:08 PM

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Can't Sleep

I don't know if it's the anxiety kicking in, but I have gotten into the habit of sleeping at 4am now. I'm going to have to retrain myself to sleep earlier so I can wake up in time for my 7:30am exam next week!

posted by dinah 1:44 AM

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Wednesday, December 05, 2001

I'm a loser baby . . .

Jason Bigg's movie, LOSER, reminds me of my character building days in junior high. In hopes of breaking free from my adolescent doldrums, I got my hair feathered. I parted it in the middle and blow-dried it so that it would make two waves on each side of my head. I'd pack on enough Aquanet to withstand wind and my 2nd period physical ed class and then sprayed some more on during lunch time. The thing about Filipino hair though, it just doesn't feather, but puffs up instead. With stiff, puffy hair and plastic-rimmed glasses, I was no cooler than Steve Urkel.

When you're not cool, you try to become cool by association. I remember befriending a girl named Amy in my art class. She had the hair everybody wanted, she was pretty, had good clothes, and she was nice. One day, I wore my favorite pair of jeans with white leather loafers and white anklets. The anklets had lace on them, so when I folded them over, the lace would brush the top of my shoe. When Amy saw what I was wearing she told me with as much conviction as if she were quoting Aristotle," Dinah, didn't I tell you you're not supposed to wear socks with loafers?" It was like Alicia Silverstone's character Cher in "Clueless" telling Tai how to be cool. I was a little embarrassed, but more thankful that she was kind enough to let me into her world.

Although I never wore anklets with my loafers again, I was always one step behind being "cool." I think my next move was getting contacts and changing my hairstyle to the "croissant" where I meticulously teased and curled part of my bangs upward and then part of them downward.

posted by dinah 5:29 PM

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Picture of Church Under the Bridge Soup Kitchen

posted by dinah 3:50 PM

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Tuesday, December 04, 2001

The benefits of being a girl

I ordered a Spinach Pochette yesterday at La Madeline and the server (a guy) asked me if I wanted the mushroom sauce with it. I told him "no thanks" and he said, "I just asked cuz some people like it and always seem to order it, but I don't like it at all." I told him I didn't like it either. I slid my tray down and got one of the coffee cups on the counter since I planned on doing some studying (yes, yet another place to study!). Meanwhile, the same guy rang up my meal and asked me, "Coffee right?"
I noticed he only charged me for the coffee and not the spinach pochette.

NOW . . .I know this wasn't by mistake because he just gave me the spinach pochette 30 seconds before. If I were to say,"Oh, you didn't ring me up for the spinach" then I would have brought all kinds of attention to myself and it would have ruined everything. He knew I knew and I knew he knew so that was that. I said thanks and was off. I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten anything for free if Robin were there with me. There still are benefits of being a girl.

posted by dinah 12:11 PM

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It's impossible to prepare

for a funeral. No one knows what to say to each other and no one knows how to act. Are we allowed to wear something other than black? Can we smile?

After about a 5 year hiatus, I sang at another funeral. In addition to being a wedding singer, a church singer, and oh yes, a house warming singer (got a gig this Sunday!), I am also a funeral singer.One song was superb, one went awry, but's it's a funeral and really not a place to ask for an apology.

But enough of that . . .

I want to note that if you're going to a funeral, PULeeze put your cell phone on vibrate.

To think about

The person who passed away was actually a relative of a friend. I didn't know him too well and probably exchanged only about 5 sentences with him during his lifetime. Through various eulogies, I actually learned more about him at his funeral than I ever did when he was alive. He was great teacher, an intelligent physician, an awesome father, etc. But what struck me most is that everyone kept saying "he was in a better place."

People always say that when people die, but do they believe it? This man's son described him as a man of the Word and a man of Faith. Even better, his co-workers described him as private, but noticed that he read his Bible before and after he taught a class. I'm convinced that this man is in a better place and lived his life so that he would be.

Funeral always give me the opportunity to be introspective. Do people see me the way I see myself? Is their version as favorable as mine? How do I want to be remembered and am I being that person I want others to remember me as?

posted by dinah 3:27 AM

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