A good haircut

It makes you feel extra pretty and pampered when you get a good haircut & style. Yay!

Air conditioning

It's hot. I'm glad we have air conditioning. Plain and simple.

musubi makers

Last night USC painfully pulled a W over Hawai'i and to celebrate the start of the football season we had Hawaiian pizza & spam musubi!!  Yao made spam musubis last night and I took the left overs to work today.  They are delicious little treats that I can eat while typing up notes and are not too messy bc the wonderful musubi maker we have packs everything in.  YUM!

Comfortable shoes

...yeah

CBSS

I checked the football schedule today and realized that the USC v. Hawaii game was going to be broadcasted on CBSS.  I freaked out for 30 mins bc Time Warner Cable dropped CBS recently and I thought I wouldn't be able to watch the game!!  Then I realized that the 2nd S might mean something so after looking it up, it turns out that TWC still has CBS Sports network and we have it in HD!  SWEET!  Can't wait for the game!!

Handymen in the family

Growing up my dad would try to fix everything and anything.  If my dad wasn't there to fix it my mom would try.  I grew up learning small things here and there and I would say that my siblings and I fairly handy in and around the house.  Luckily, Alex is also pretty handy!  He thinks outside of the box to fix things and will YouTube anything he can't figure out.  As times goes on, we're finding out that YAO is also a pretty good handyman.  He's exceptionally good at helping with car stuff & technical stuff/problems that I/we run into.  It's pretty handy to have these people in my life.  Thanks guys!

Thai town = Hollywood/Sunset area

When you don't know what to eat before your kaiser shift but don't want to eat fast food it's a good thing Thai town is so close by! Yummy authentic Thai good within a few miles of work is money. Excited for my dinner tonight!

Parking validation

Today I had a mtg in downtown which usually means bad parking, bad driving and a good amt of stress.  I did my research and with parking validation everything went smoothly!  I even got to go shopping for a little bit (to get validation)!

a loving family

We had a good number of family members come visit this weekend for Emmy's big birthday bash and on Sunday we were all hanging out at my parent's house in Cerritos.  My cousin's daughter Zoe was being so thoughtful and caring when Emmy was there bc she wanted to show Emmy how to play her game, she let Emmy push the buttons and was understanding when Emmy was making mistakes as a 1 year old would make.  Zoe is going to be a big sister in a few weeks and she is TOTALLY ready.  I'm so thankful that everyone in my family, from the oldest to the youngest, is loving, caring and excited for our family to keep growing.

midday naps

I really can't express how much I love midday naps.  Today was my adorable niece's 1st birthday party and I was up til 1am yesterday helping my family bake, decorate & prepare for the big party. Emmy woke us up from bed at 6am and thus I was TIRED the whole day.  I took a nap when Emmy took her nap around 3pm and woke up feeling SO MUCH BETTER.  MAN.  I love naps.

'Successful' surgery

Today my MIL had a 'simple' thyroidectomy done and she just got out of surgery and so far everything went fine.  I'm just thankful that there weren't any complications during the surgery and I'm hoping she can rest & recover quickly.  Fingers crossed & keep on praying!

family who gets along

I overheard a conversation today where it was person#1's birthday and person #2 was treating p1 out to dinner w/ p2+family.  P1 asked if they should tell the sister about dinner since she was asking what P1 was doing for the birthday.  P2 sounded like they didn't want the sister to be at dinner.  There was a brief argument which ended with P1 saying, "Ok. I was just asking. I won't tell her about dinner then."

The whole time, as I awkwardly sat there, I was thinking, Good thing my family members all get along!  Even my new Wu family & my Purificacion family can get along.  I guess it's a small thing that is oftentimes overlooked.

Chicken & jujubes

Yesterday I woke up feeling bad and left work early feeling worse. I rested and ate soup all day but I woke up today feeling even worse!! When I got up I drank the chicken+jujube soup that Alex had made for me and then took another 1.5 hr nap. I'm finally starting to feel better so hopefully more soup, more sleeping & more rest will do the trick. 

midweek lunches/dinners w/ BFFs!!

I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE MY BFFs TOMORROW NIGHT!!!  My good friend Jeanne just got back from the Philippines (where she got engaged!! Congrats love!) and we're all getting together for dinner tomorrow night!  YAY!  Today, I didn't start work til 1:30pm so I was able to stop in dtLA to have lunch w/ one of my other BFFs Jenny-Anne!  HOORAY!  I love these girls to death and I always get so excited to see them so being able to hang out during the week makes it that much better.  Such a great way to start the week!

The vastness of the catholic church

I love that almost everywhere I go there's access to a Catholic Church. It makes me happy to know that there are so many ppl who share the same faith and celebrate the same as me despite obvious differences (ex. language).

NKOTB

Today's traffic was SOOOO BAD and at about the 1hr 10 minute mark I was getting antsy and annoyed. So to calm myself down I turned on my NKOTB greatest hits CD. Yay! Instantly felt better and rocked out the rest of the way to work.

technology

This is old news but technology is amazing!  It's great being able to communicate w/ ppl on the other side of the world through email or even skype!  It still amazes me when I really sit back and think about it.

last minute work cancellations

I thought I was scheduled to close at Kaiser tonight but there are always weird things going on with the schedule so I texted one of the assistants to double check.  It turns out that my shift got cancelled!  AWESOME!!  At least, it's awesome that I found out before I actually went into Kaiser and then had to go home.  In the end it's a win for me =)

Sports (esp. tennis, basketball & college football)

I grew up watching tennis & basketball with my family.  I remember rooting for Pete Sampras and watching him painfully lose to Marat Safin in the 2000 US Open.  I remember going to the Great Western Forum to watch the Lakers play.  I remember getting sucked into USC football as a freshman and watching each home game (while studying) for the next 7 years.  I'm thankful for having grown up watching sports so now as an adult I can fully enjoy and understand the games.  Needless to say, I'm VERY VERY excited for the US Open, basketball & college football to be back on TV.  

No smoking

I'm thankful Alex doesn't smoke and neither do my good friends.  Smoking is BAD!

A quiet house

We had friends come over last night and we ended up talking until 12:45am!  For old fogies like us, that's late.  We ended up going to sleep around 1/1:30 and then I woke up 'early' to get everything ready for Jen's Baby Sprinkle today.  Needless to say, by 4pm I was TIRED.  I stopped by my parents house to pick something up and no one was home when I got there.  It worked out well bc the house was perfectly quiet and it was that 'perfect naptime' weather so I ended up taking a blissful 1 hour, uninterrupted nap.  It was awesome.

Extra hands = help

Tonight I was lucky enough to have Todd come over for dinner and stay to help me & Alex decorate sugar cookies! It went by way faster than if I would have done it myself so thank you guys for helping me out!

those days when you don't feel good and no one shows up

Bad sleep + a small breakfast = tired Cher.  Why I had a small breakfast I dunno, but when I got to work today I thought, "MAN.  Thank God I have a resident to help me today."  We saw the first 2 patients who showed up on time and then we waited....the next 3 didn't show up.  I got a message saying my 11:30am wanted to reschedule.  My 10:30am patient showed up and the resident went happily to see him.  My 11am doesn't show up and that finished my morning.  I decided to go take a nap. For an hour.

There are some days when I think God is watching out for me and today felt like one of those days.  I was NOT feeling it when I got to work today but somehow it all worked out.

eating lunch outside

When it's freezing cold in the office, lunch is always a nice time to sit outside and enjoy the warmth & sunshine.

time to finish projects

There are a lot of days at work where I'm 100% 'go-go-go' and then other days when my patients don't show up and I have time to finish all the small projects that I have going on.  Today is a slower day but I'm finishing up so many other things!  It's very satisfying to cross multiple things off my list in one day!

not having to drive

Yesterday I had a really bad headache and thankfully I was w/ Alex so I didn't have to actually drive home!  He let me take a nap in the car while he listened to my 90s CD on the way back.  I was so happy I didn't have to drive yesterday.

extra cars & extra family

My car finally reached > 100,000 miles!  With it came a LOT of replacement and upkeep for my car and since the only trusted mechanic I know of is in Cerritos, my parents graciously agreed to drop my car off at the mechanic and let me borrow one of their extra cars.  So I was reversing my mom's car out of our driveway when Alex stopped me & noticed that I had a flat tire!!  I must've driven over a screw yesterday and thankfully it didn't fully pop the tire!

SO...I took Alex's car to work, Alex changed the tire to the spare, brought the car to get 2 new tires and then took Julie's car to work.  Luckily Julie didn't have work today and so she graciously is waiting for the car to be finished so she can drive it back home.  OH MAN, I'd be so screwed w/o the extra cars & my extra family members.  Thanks guys!!

Ian Alas

Ian & I went to USC together, we served on the Troy Philippines e-board together and he wrote the skit for the PACN I put together.  We were never the closest of friends but we talked and whenever we did Ian would amaze me with his depth and his insight.  The things he would say, the way he thought and the things he appreciates were always different and enlightening (in a good way).  Ian's had many blogs/websites since our college days and I've followed most of them.  This post (http://ianbennettalas.com/post/57131897659/err-in-the-direction-of-kindness) reminded me of the way that Ian thinks and how much I appreciate having thoughts and people like this in my life.

Netflix & Hulu

Such big time wasters but such a good way to keep/catch up with tv shows.

Family dinner

It's nice to get together on a weeknight and enjoy dinner at the dinner table with family. Simple yet sometimes difficult to do. I love my families.

In seat outlets/plugs

Extra handy when your phone has 4% battery and your waiting for your flight!