January 6 - 28: Birds, Eaton Canyon, Charlotte and Val's birthday, Speed dating, Grandma's scarf

From Birds

January 6: I was driving to Huntington Beach to visit my uncle Al; it's a weekly ritual. And I noticed all these birds on the street lights. But what's weird is how they're all on one side of the street. (The picture doesn't really do the scene justice.) Why is that? What's wrong with the other side of the street? I was wondering if it's the angle of the lights (some are going up and some are going down, relative to the sunset), but it could be almost anything. It's a mystery! =)

January 14: Some of my Bible-study group (a.k.a. small group, community group) went on a hike to Eaton Canyon. The only other time I'd been was in 2006, when I was a guide for the Caltech "Finding Nemo" stack. (It's way at the end of that post.) The picture on the left was taken where, in 2006, we had buried dental tools and had the undergrads use a metal detector to find them. (We needed the tools to make an exchange for Nemo from the dentist, played by Chris Wetzel.) It was interesting to visit the same place in a totally different way.

From Eaton Canyon

My first time to Eaton Canyon, we didn't go all the way to the waterfall. So this was a pleasant surprise at the end.

From Charlotte and Val's birthday

January 16: On the left is my cousin Kristen (partly hidden) and her husband Mike; they're holding baby Charlotte, who just turned one. On the right is Mike's family; they're trying to attract Charlotte's attention to take a photo. I just found this scene to be very funny, in a sweet way.

From Speed dating

January 24: I went speed dating. And not just any speed dating, but Christian Asian speed dating. My friend Win Kang told me about it, and we both wanted to stretch our comfort zones a little.

The photo is from the venue (a sushi bar), afterward. If you're not familiar with speed dating, here's the Wikipedia link. In this case, there were 20 guys and 19 girls, and I got to talk with each girl for 5'. At the end, for each girl I secretly circled "Yes" or "No" on a piece of paper. If we both said "Yes," then we would later receive each other's email address. Oh, and the cost was $25. (Food and drink not included, but not required.)

The event was run by Click2Asia, which helps Asians meet other Asians. I didn't realize how much some Asians really prefer only Asians (or, say, some Koreans prefer only Koreans). I guess it has a lot to do with how we grew up. (I grew up here, as did my parents, so I'm mostly just American, if anything.)

At this point, I'm sure you've got a lot of questions about how the speed dating went. Actually, both Win and I thought it was a really worthwhile experience, even in terms of that night alone. In longer terms, well, it just happened. And if there's one thing I feel I've learned over the past 5 years, it's not to get ahead of myself. =)

Moving on: For Christmas, Grandma knit me a scarf. Sort of. Here's a photo of me wearing it.

My friend Marshall said it looks like I'm wearing a sweater underneath and it's sticking out. I have to admit that I was a little self-conscious about wearing it, since it's not really a scarf. It's really a Grandma Invention. =)

From Grandma's scarf

See, it's actually two rings, knit together in the front. Why, you ask? Grandma explained that it's because the back of my neck has more exposed skin than the front. So, I need something that is twice as wide in the back as in the front. And this was her solution.

As strange as it may seem, Grandma's gift was pretty good. She knit it herself, of course. But she also noticed that I wear my hair a lot shorter lately. I get cold easily, and I lost my scarf last winter. It's also not as tight as a scarf, so I can even wear it to bed without fear of choking myself. The color's a little funny: My sister thought it was pink, but Grandma said it was tan. I suppose I'll always remember my sister and I trying not to crack up about that at night.

So I've been wearing Grandma's–um, scarf-collar–a lot lately. (I'm wearing it now!) It really does keep the back of my neck warm. And Grandma probably knew that she imputed significant impunity with it, so I can wear it fearlessly in public: Anyone making fun of my 93-year-old Grandma's hand-knit Christmas present, whether they know it or not, would probably bring upon themselves significant bad karma, or worse.

But no, I didn't wear it to speed dating.