Here's the recap of the weekend.
Saturday I woke up early in the morning. As I'm driving to the airport I'm on the left side driving at 80 following another car, an SUV is on my right side. I see in my rear-view a van fast approaching almost at an unsafe speed, and so while he's not too close I lightly tap my brake to let him know I'm not going any faster. I see the van behind me swing to the right two lanes to pass the SUV, and I have a feeling he's going to try and cut me off in front. Meanwhile the person infront of me pulls over to the right lane and so I speed up. Sure enough this van is making his way back toward me. Being the prick I am, I didn't slow down to let him cut me off, and continued to go faster. The van is at 2 o'clock from my position and tries to merge into my lane. I lay my hand down on the horn, but he keeps coming. I have to swerve left (almost into the medium) and slam on my break to avoid a collision. So basically he ran me off the road. I'm infuriated this @$$hole would endanger my life like that, and so I start to tail him trying to get his license plate number and deciding how I can report this. Call 911 would seem a big excessive. I look into my rear view again and I see a cop pulling up fast behind me. I roll down my window and pull off to the right lane, all the while pointing at the van infront of me. The cop saw the whole thing and sped up to pull the van over. The guy got BUSTED, and I was feeling good. Serves right to that S.O.B. who could have nearly killed me. And then I thought about yesterday's retreat message about grace...and then I felt really like crap. Dr. Dunbar at the retreat was talking about grace and "un-grace". What I showed and felt at that moment was so "un-grace".

Anyway I get to the airport and with only an hour before my flight departed, I decided to park in short-term parking (a $32 dollar mistake). I checked in and went through security. Long long line. When I get to the gate the check me again and frisk me like a criminal. This after I read an article on USA Today saying that airlines (not sure which ones) were going to discontinue the practice of random checks at the gate. So I wasn't feeling too happy still. Finally get to Atlanta after trying to sleep through most of it. I get their early but Heeyoung and Chris get there a little late...which basically put us at the same location at the same time. We basically bump into each other. First Chris does a double take, because he didn't recognize me that well after having lost so much weight...he he he. We rent our Kia Optima and head to our hotel. The Optima's interior was pretty decked out for a budget car, but it's got no power, and the truck lid felt like it weighed a ton. We get to the hotel only to find out check-in time is not until 3pm. So we got like 3 hours to kill. Heeyoung calls a mutual friend of both of us that used to live in Pittsburgh and went to our church. He gives us bad directions and we travel around for like an hour trying to find this place. I finally met Darren Shin (the dental student that put a filling in my mouth, and also went to Oaxaca short-term missions with me). He tells me I look like a North Korean starving victim. He works at a car wash and is the co-owner of the place. We went to lunch and also met Rev. Rhee and his wife with two kids. It was like a Pittsburgh reunion.

We drive back to the hotel and finally get a room, only to find out it hasn't had room service yet...so we called the front desk and had them give us another room. By that time there wasn't much time to rest like we had planned and had to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was pretty nice and unique. Philip had read the wedding vows and sounded more like a love letter/proposal. It was so romantic I think some people had to have cried...it was THAT ROMANTIC. Then the bride went to say her part, and it was almost ironically hilarious. She was basically saying stuff like, Phil, you aren't all that, you've hurt me in the past, you discourage me, you are mean to me, you make me cry, you...this and that...OMG it's like the list almost didn't end. So I'm a little worried for them, but I really hope it works well.

The reception was at a Korean restaurant and the typical thing happened. All the older Korean couples ate and left. All the younger folks were like woah...where'd everyone go. We stuffed ourselves full with food and went back to the hotel. The other guys were uncomfortably full, even too full to lay down...he he he. We just wanted TV for the rest of the night til we fell asleep.

Sunday morning we all woke up and went to IHOP for breakfast. I had pancakes which were delicious...but not as good as McDonald's Hotcakes. After that we went to First Baptist Church of Atlanta. Was a pretty darn amazing. It was a cool but weird feeling to be in a large church that televises it's sermons. Sadly though Rev. Charles Stanley was away that weekend. I was kind of disappointed...so much in fact that I kept dozing off during the sermon. Yesterday at the wedding the same thing happened to me. It was a bilingual wedding, so during the Korean parts I would try and take quick power naps. I have such a short attention span.

This weekend was pretty cool. I went to Atlanta for one night for a wedding. Got to see some of my old friends there. Flew back today and went straight to PC Bang. Got lots to say but I'm about to run out of minutes on the computer. I'll update more on Monday morning when I get back into work.

Food report: bowl of cream of mushroom soup, vit.B, two cans of Ensure, bottle of Pepsi. For dinner I'll have my left over linguine alfredo from yesterday...and hopefully this bag of Fritos I bought.

Well gotta run off to church now. Gotta be there to make sure everyone has rides to the retreat. That's where I'm going to tonight. After that I gotta go back home, pack for tomorrow morning since I'm going to a friend's wedding in Atlanta. I'll be coming back on Sunday night.

Well yesterday night I decided to go to a local diner beside my apartment. I ordered linguine alfredo and came with a dinner roll and cup of Chicken Orzo soup. When I arrived home I found out that the VCR was recording Survivor and not FRIENDS. Needless to say I was upset at my stupidity. If you have the season premiere of Friends on tape PLEASE send it to me.

This morning I woke up early to go into Philly for my eye check up. Traffic was pretty bad but I got there almost on time...however I had to wait for almost a full hour before I was seen. I was not happy. I just closed my eyes and rested most of my waiting time. The eye doc gave me drops to dilate my eyes and they are really sensitive right now. I'm wearing these stupid looking clip-ons...but hey...I'm comfortable :) Finally the appointment is over and everything is okay. I leave arriving for work at 11:45.

Food Report: For lunch I had a small salad, bag of Fritos, can of Pepsi, aloe-fruit drink, vit.b, Centrum, twinkies, some cookie crisp cereal. For dinner I'm going to drive over to a Korean restaurant and get something to go. I don't even know what to get.

Tomorrow I gotta wake up early and go to an eye doctor in Philly tomorrow. Life is such a HUGE hassle now. This is so miserable. I just want to go home, lie down and watch the season premiere of Friends.

Yesterday I went to prayer meeting, and also tried to fix the CD-RW at church. After the meeting I had a personal meeting with P.Dan. Though it wasn't about pleasent topics, I really enjoyed the conversation. I can tell he really cares for my spiritual growth which is a really good feeling.

This morning I had an 11am appointment with the Oral surgeon that the dentist referred me to. Since my PCP wouldn't give me the referral, I had to pay $100 out of my pocket for the appointment. The doctor really did spend a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong, a lot more patient care than can be said for a university hospital, where basically you're just another number. He took pictures of my mouth so he could consult with other doctors. Basically he seems to agree or at least understand why the dermatologist is prescribing me Cyclosporine. I think I'm going to give the drug another try.

Anyway this morning I had this really sad dream. It was about me and my mom at this kind of event. We got an announcement that my dad had passed away, and for some reason I remember feeling aloof. We went into this long line to this building. As we were waiting in line I was across from my mother, and all of a sudden I hear my dad's voice. My dad has a very distinct voice and I looked to my side and beside us was my dad talking. I was so happy, but my mom was still talking like my dad was not there, and then I realized I must have been just seeing things. As this realization came to me, I started to cry. I woke up and had that really exhausted, drained feeling, almost as though I was really about to cry. Amazing how dreams seem so real. Even though it was kind of sad dream I'm glad I even remembered it. I have such a hard time remember dreams.

For lunch I had a slice of cheese pizza and a can of Ensure and Pepsi.

I'm so freaking bored right now. I'm feeling like I'm about to lose my mind if I have to stay here any longer. Just amazes me how work can go by so fast on some days but others go by like slow motion cinematography.

Today I focused on working on a white paper for this study we are doing. The white paper we have produced so far is what I would equate to 6th grader work. I feel sooooo unbelievably embarrassed at the quality of work that was put into it (not all our fault, since information was hard to come by), but for some reason our project lead thinks we did a good job. I don't understand it, but I know enough not to complain about it.

Well tonight I'm going to go to the prayer meeting at church. That way I can pray for the retreat this weekend, fix the CD-RW on the computer and meet with P.Dan.

Okay I gotta go to the bathroom, hopefully that'll take out like about 30 minutes of time.

Yesterday after work I went to a CGI programming class. After that I went to D&B to meet up with some of the guys from my small group for a late dinner. Most of the guys did fasting prayer throughout lunch. I obviously didn't for health reasons. For dinner I had this really good bowl of broccoli cheddar soup...and had a few fried battered mushrooms and diet coke. I'm so used to drinking diet coke and it didn't hit me until just now that I should have gotten just regular coke. After all I'm trying to gain weight. After dinner we went into the arcarde area and played Pump the dancing arcade game, the car racing game, and shot some hoops. It was a lot of fun. Sun is really good at PUMP scoring more points that Delaware Dave even. I was shocked. After that I went home and had a can of ensure, and a two Boston Creme donuts. Finally dozed off and had a wonderful nights rest.

Woke up relatively early this morning, but took my time getting ready for work. On the way to work I stopped by the Post Office to pick up a certified piece of mail. A letter from the apartment community about me needing to get rid of my washer machine. I also stopped by McDonald's and picked up two hotcakes breakfasts. I gave one to my cubemate. Oh they are delicious. This morning I also blended an aloe, cantaloupe, grape, and banana shake and had some of that with my vit.B. Now it's time for lunch.

Food report: Yesterday went home and made Sul-lung-tang with noodles and rice. Also put down two Boston Creme Dunkin Donuts. Boston Creme definitely weren't as good as I thought. Problem with me is that I crave something so long and my expectation for it grow too high, and then when I finally have it...it's such a let down. Today I had some coke, another one of the Boston Cremes (since I bought 6 of them), sul-lung-tang left overs from yesterday, vit.B, and my can of Ensure...but this time it was Strawberry flavor. Strawberry ain't that bad either.

Anyway I woke up today hoping to get to work early, but that didn't happen. Finally strolled into work at 11am. My canker sores hurt a lot today. Yesterday I put some alum on my ulcers, something my parents are kind of forcing me to do because they believe it will make them get better. Only problem is that I have to do it 3 times a day and it hurts like a son of a gun. And it leaves this pain that emanates throughout my entire body and not just my ulcer. I hate it. Anyway I didn't do that this morning, and I didn't do my daily aloe drink since last week either.

Still can't find my passport even though I looked everywhere yesterday...so that means I still can't get my NJ license.

Tonight I'm supposed to meet up with my small group and D&B and also maybe meet up with Pastor Dan.

So I'm at work and I'm hungry still, and I'm craving like some kind of junk food like twinkies or something. So I run up to the vending machine and buy this tasty looking Hostees Cherry Soft Roll. It even mentioned it'd taste even better after 15 sec. in the microwave so I do that. Right away I can tell from the consistency from the frosting, which looked and felt more like wax wasn't going to be so tasty after all. Sure enough it wasn't. Wasted 75 cents...and only ate about half before trashing it.

I kind of finished my work and I'm trying to think of what I'll have for dinner. Maybe some Jjap-ah-ghetti (a Korean noodle dish w/dark jjah-jang sause).

My ulcers really hurt today especially around the lip. I have a new one forming right on the side edge between my top and bottom lip. I can tell, the next few days aren't going to be fun. And I even have a retreat and a wedding in Atlanta to go to this weekend.

Wow...I spent a lot more time at PC Bang than I wanted. Total of 4 hours. When I got home I just watched a little bit of TV before going to bed.

Woke up at this absurd hour. 7:00 AM. I woke up and went to the U-Haul rental center and pick-up a van. BTW $19.99 rental rate that they have listed on the side of all their trucks really means ~$40 after tax, fees, insurance, etc...and that was with minimal miles. I drove less than 10 miles at 79 cents each mile...not to mention putting the gas back into the van, I only pumped into $2 though. I drove back home to put the washer machine inside of it. I was just going to leave it in the van parked outside of the apartment until they inspected my apartment, but then not returning the van by 5 PM would constitute a 2nd day rental. Damn it...if I pay for a day, I expect 24 hours. What a bunch of BS. So instead of paying another $20, I decided to put it in Public Storage (PS), where the first month is only $1, oh and by the way, there's a $10 account fee, or some crap like that. So I'm thinking well $11 is still cheaper than $20, and I have at least until the end of the month to keep it in there. Then I find out public storage don't even have locks...you got to purchase it seperately. Dang...talk about "nickel and dime"-ing customers. So I can't leave the storage unit unlocked although I really don't care if someone steals it (at least that's a headache I don't have to worry about anymore). So I purchase their $7 lock...which pushes me up to a total of $18. Still $2 cheaper that keeping it in the van.

Food Report: PS wasn't quite open when I got there (9:00 AM). Holy Smokes was I shocked because most of the time my problem is getting to places before it closes...not waiting for it to open. So in the 30 minutes I had to wait, I drove down the street to McDonald's and enjoyed a Hotcakes and Sausage meal. MMMmmmm...delicious. I think I'm going there for breakfast all the time now. Pancakes are so easy to eat and packed with lots of syrup.

After dropping off the washer machine, I returned the U-Haul van and went directly to my 11am dentist appointment. I got a check-up and x-ray of my teeth. My denist was shocked to see all the ulcers in my mouth and said he wasn't going to work in my mouth until they started to heal or get better. In the mean time he wants me to see an oral surgeon. I got a few small cavities, and there is one that he's not quite sure if it has penetrated the enamel...which would be a very bad thing...because I don't want another filling.

Food Report: After the appointment I picked up a Spring Mix salad from Wendy's for $3. It wasn't all that great...just okay I suppose. Washed that down with a can of Ensure, vit. B and some coke. Looking for something else to eat...I'm kind of hungry still. I think eating breakfast has that effect on me. Sort of when I eat late at night...I wake up feeling really hungry.

Well got lots of work to do today. Updates to come later.

Yesterday night was a pretty fun night. Met up with some friends for a late dinner. I had some oh-deng-gook, but I couldn't eat very much of it. After that a few of us went to Club Egypt. The music there was much better than that last place we went to, Circa. I'm not sure Cathy much enjoyed the music though. Her sister didn't seem to have that great a time either. At about 2am, we left. I was so exhausted from all the dancing (which wasn't even all that much). I drove home and had a GREAT nights rest. Maybe only getting up once during the night.

This morning, woke up around 8:30am and went to church. After service Sung and I spent a good deal of time installing the new CD-burner, which isn't being recognized for some reason. Anyway I guess we aren't all set to go yet to convert from tapes to CDs.

After church I we went out to have lunch. I had sul-lung-tang again. It wasn't that bad but service at Woo-rae-gwan is still bad. Now I'm at PC bang...playing games. Not sure what I'll do tonight, but I still need to get rid of my washer machine. I'm not sure what to do. I'll have to wake up early tomorrow and deal with it before I go to my 11am dentist appointment.

Yesterday night was okay. I must say I really enjoy my small group. Yesterday about 18 people from our group showed up. Not really a small group but I like my leaders. There were maybe 2 or 3 people I didn't know, and still don't really know. One of them made an effort to talk to me though, and I kind of felt really weird, because the situation should be the opposite. As an officer I'm supposed to engage newcomers, and make them feel welcomed, yet this girl was the one doing the talking while I listened. I feel bad because I can't really talk to these people without looking and talking all weird and stuff.

Oh man this morning was a killer. Had to wake up at 8am to make it to a 9am officers meeting. We met at Philly Diner where I had 3 pancakes. I finally realized I should go to McDonald's every morning for pancakes, because last time I remember they were SOOOOO good. It's easy to eat and you can load on the syrup like crazy :) The pancake is really only an edible sponge to soak up all the syrup...that's the end game right there...the syrup!!!

Anyway I think the consensus was that I should take a "break" from Phileo until my health starts to get better. Of course they expect me to help out when I can.

After our breakfast meeting, me, Ed, Sung, Yujin and Lynnette went to watch "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever". I'd recommend watching the matinee. You'll be disappointed if you have to shell out $8.50 to see it. Action was good, but plot was kind of corny as can be seen from the movie trailers.

Now I'm at work trying to get some stuff done and eating lunch. Couldn't think of anything to eat, and cup ramen is the only thing I have at work. So that and my can of Ensure and Vit.B is what I'll have for lunch I suppose.

I'm also supposed to meet up with some friends later on tonight for a late dinner and maybe go clubbing after that. We'll see I guess.

Well last night after work I went to Han-ah-reum to pick up some stuff. Had Sul-lung-tang from a soup broth can. Had the boil the noodles, onions, and salt in myself. I guess it wasn't too bad for homemade sul-lung-tang. That's all I had for dinner. I also had a little bit of chocolate soy milk and my vit.B and Centrum earlier in the day.

This morning I woke up with a huge blood clot in my throat. It's stuck to the inside of my mouth where the canker sore is. The canker sores near my thoat are the size of dimes...that's where it's bleeding. It doesn't hurt much but I got to be careful otherwise getting it to stop bleeding could be difficult. I'm reminded of a time about a year ago when I was about to go to bed, but my throat was bleeding constantly, I tried to sleep but I'd cough up these huge blood clots. After a few hours of this I finally decided to go to the emergency room in the wee hours of the morning, because I seriously was concerned for my health and my stomach was hurting from all the blood I was swallowing. Since it was in my throat the doctor on call couldn't see anything even though I kept spitting up blood. He did some blood work and made me suck on crushed ice. The ice stopped the inflamation and bleeding. He told me to keep sucking on ice to keep the inflamation down.

I'm so annoyed right now, because the room where I keep my drinks is occupied right now. So I got nothing to drink. Well I guess there's always water.

I'm really not liking my derm doc. Just got back from my doctors appointment. Instead of prescribing Thalidomide he put me back on 300mg of Cyclosporine per day instead of the 200mg/day I was on. I also got some blood drawn today to check my platelette count and something else.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE eating. I eat because I have to and not because I enjoy it anymore. LIFE IS SO #*$*@&! MISERABLE. I just ate my half-eaten salad with Tuna salad, from yesterday. Surprisingly the salad was a lot easier to eat because the lettuce was not as crisp, and wilted a little. There was also a slice of cantaloupe which was also painful to eat. I washed it all down with some coke.

Last night I went to Cherry Hill Mall to meet one of my friends for dinner. I had chinese food, lo mein and some beef vegetable side. I didn't eat the meat though. Went to Loews and watched "One Hour Photo" with Robbin Williams. I must say it's kind of a creepy movie. Williams does an excellent job at acting his character. Went home and watched "Shallow Hal" that I got from the video store. In both movies I think parts of the plots were a little too elementary. For example in One Hour Photo, Sy (played by Williams) follows a woman and her child, both of which know Sy and his car very well. When they stop in the middle of the road, Sy basically parks up right behind them. I thought that part of the movie was just so stupid. The same with Shallow Hal, when they can't figure out the obvious, that Hal is hypnotized into seeing through their exterior and only looking at the inner beauty of each women. Aside from those disappointing lapses in common sense, I think the movies were actually kind of good. Had another can of Ensure to finish off the night.

This morning I probably could have gotten to work much earlier if I tried a little harder. I pretty much woke up on my own, but couldn't get myself out of bed and getting washed up. So I came into work at 11am again. I blended an aloe drink this morning. It was only made of Aloe pulp from an aloe vera leaf, bottled aloe vera drink from Korea (which is very sweet) and some water. So far that and a can of Ensure is what I had for breakfast.

Canker sores are getting worse I think, but I get to see my doctor today. I think he's going to prescribe me Thalidomide. I really hope this is the silver bullet.

So far I've had half a garden salad with tuna salad w/ ceasar dressing, Strawberry yogurt. my vit.B, can of Ensure, coke, this Korean vegetable drink in a pouch, and some cookie crisp cereal, oh...and finished off the aloe fruit drink.

At about 6:30pm I'm going to meet up with a friend for dinner and watch a movie. Not sure what I'm going to do about dinner yet though. I'm not supposed to eat any meat...but not sure if that includes seafood.

Just to give you an idea. When you're in my condition. Gaining weight is just as difficult as trying to lose weight for a normal person. How bad does that suck? I think my clothes are getting tighter on me, but the weight seemed to be the same last time I got on a scale.

Anyway...

Yesterday I went to the DMV to test for my license. They said I needed my passport. After that I decided to go back to work, but on the way took a wrong turn which leads to my apartment...so I decided last minute not to go to work, instead I stopped by Hollywood Video and picked up two movies, "Lord of the Rings" and "Shallow Hal". I watched Lord of the Rings, and I must say overall I did not enjoy the movie. I don't like fantasy wizardry stuff to begin with, but having to look at Frodo all the time just made me sick. At least pick a better looking kid...not someone that looks ugly. Oh I can't stand that face. The ending sucked too, but I guess it was that way for the sequel. I think I'll enjoy Shallow Hal much more.

Anyway had that slice of pizza for dinner and some ice cream. Breyer's Reeces Peanut Butter cup flavor is definitely not as good as their Oreo Cookie 'n cream, oh and I also had another can of Ensure.

I looked into my mouth and found like a half a dozen new canker sores in the back of my mouth up near the palette.

This morning I woke up and kind of just laid in bed for a while. My mom called me this morning too and she started to cry on the phone. She told me that yesterday she had fasted and prayed for me all day for me to get better. I hate that I'm in this position. Seeing my parents cry makes me cry. It's like either I suffer and burden the pain so my parents don't have to, otherwise my parents are burdened. This is such an unfair situation. If you are reading this please please lift up a sincere prayer for me. Thanks.

Had a rasberry yogurt and vit.B for lunch. Also had my can of Ensure, and drank a cup of the aloe-fruit juice my mom made. The secretary at work posted a message about free pizza, so me and my cubemate ran over to get some. The pizza slices are THICK and are heavy like a brick. I think that'll be my dinner.

Don't know why but my head kind of feels heavy. Like my eyes feel pressured especially when I look anywhere other than straight ahead. I feel kind of crappy.

I think I finally found my verse. I was reading today "Our Daily Bread" and this is what I found.

"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep. �Psalm 127:2"

I like this verse, considering that I woke up at 11am and got to work at 12pm. This morning an oil truck or something was pumping stuff into a pair of four-foot pipes that stick out of the middle of my front lawn (go figure, some developers have no clue how to make stuff look nice. At least conceal the pipes next to the building...not in the middle of the lawn!!!). Anyway this truck was super loud. The truck left and I fell back asleep in peace only be to awaken again but another oil truck, I guess pumping more stuff in the other pipe.

Canker sores are kind of painful this morning. I had a bottle of coke to help it feel better, not sure why, but it helps...or maybe I just like the bubbly feeling in the throat.

Couldn't find my passport this morning which I need for identification to get my NJ license. I didn't go last night so I need to go tonight. I'll see if maybe I can get it anyway, or at least become a step closer to getting it.

Food Report: I've had my can of Ensure, some coke, some Shrimp Lo Mein, some of that aloe-fruit juice that my mom made this morning, my vit.B, Centrum and zinc. For dinner I'll have the rest of my chinese food (pork fried rice and egg drop soup). I'm supposed to stay away from meats so I picked away the shrimp and pork. How stupid is that? Oh and I'll probably have some of my Oreo cookie 'n cream ice cream :P

Well it's the end of the work day...and despite taking a power nap in my car (to take a nap and warm up since it's so cold at work) I'm so ready to go home and just relax.

I'm strongly debating whether to go to the DMV and test for my NJ license or go home.

Work deadlines are coming up so I actually have to do work this week. Which is nice I guess because the day doesn't seem so long.

Woke up super early this morning around 5:45am. Got packed and drove my parents to BWI airport. My mom at the last minute decided not to come home to NJ with me. I'm kind of disappointed and relieved at the same time. I think the reason why is because other wise my mom would have been gone from home too long. I drop them off at the airport and drive straight to work. Got to work at 9:30am. By far the earliest I've been to work in months.

Anyway yesterday was a tiring day. We woke up early that morning too around 8:45am and went to church. After church was a church picnic, but the rain made for a lousy day. There were many tents set up and the food was quite good. There I had some rice, pah-jun, and bool-goh-gi. We went home and rested a bit. This whole day was so sleepy for me. I think because I got up so early. We dropped my parents off at Dr. Pak's house so they could pray for his wife, while Brian and Debby went to an open house. I just slept in the car. After that picked up my parents and went to a Korean cafe to have pot-bing-soo. My mom saw that they also had a very old Korean ice-cream bar that my mom used to eat when she was pregnant with my oldest brother in Korea. I think it was called Noo-ga-ba (otherwise 'nougat bar'). MY dad told the lady that was working there that the ice cream was too expensive and that he couldn't afford it, but my mom wanted to it so much. It was only a dollar too! Anyway the lady (maybe she was the owner's daughter) gave my dad the ice cream bar for free. I was surprised because she was being so kind to us, giving us bottled water when we asked for water. So as I was leaving I tried to give her the money for the ice cream that my dad got for free...but she ran after us and gave me the money back...AND she even gave us a package of pastries for free too! Wow she was so kind...but I kind of felt really bad, because I think maybe she really did think we were poor, in which case that is just wrong what my dad said...because truth is, my dad could buy the whole store if he wanted. Anyway she was kind and I'll gladly go back next time I'm in Annandale, VA.

After Pot-bing-soo, we met up with Debby's parents for dinner. Needless to say we spoiled our appetites for dinner and so I couldn't finish my sul-lung-tang...nevermind the fact that it wasn't all that tasty to begin with. They put Jah-jang-myun noodles in my sul-lung-tang. That's just not right! After dinner I we got home and I was so pooped I fell asleep around 10pm which is just as well, because I had to wake up so early today.

Well on Friday I went to my primary care doctor's appointment. He was worried that I had dropped so much weight. 30 lbs since last visit. He was almost kind of upset that I wasn't more active in trying to summon his help. His assumption was that I was doing fine since I didn't call him in such a long time...but during that time I was seeing the derm doctor that he referred me to. I found out now that he wants to put me on another type of immunosupressant drug called thromidomine. It's a drug that used to be administered in the 80's and was found to cause birth defects in pregnant mothers. I don't got to worry about that though. I have to see the derm doc next week. Went home quickly to pack, went to church to meet with someone briefly, and drove to BWI airport (Baltimore) to pick up my parents. Drove altogether to my brother's place in Northern Virginia and stayed the night.

Woke up late on Saturday morning. Finding our way around by ourselves me and my parents went to a Korean restaurant in Vienna (which had terrible service). Can you believe at the end of the meal, the stupid waitress only brought out TWO green teas. As if I was not even there. What's up with that?!?!?! Last time I go or recommend that place.

After that we went to Han-ah-reum to pick up some stuff. I've never seen so many people packed into a store before. Absolutely unbelieveable. Then we came home and met Debby. Brian went to church to help the praise band. Cooked some dinner and after that all of us went out to one of my dad's friend's house. His wife is suffering from a terminal illness and so they went there to pray for them. Me and Debby hung out in the driveway sitting in the car. My dad explained later that it was supposed to be a private prayer, between just them and God.

Well Brian came back home, and it's getting late. Have a good night...and thanks for reading.

OMG...It's 3pm and I'm still trying to finish my 6" Ham Sub w/cheese, lettuce, onion, olives, and pickles. Washing it down with some Root Beer soda and Coke. Took my Vit. B too. I should leave for my appointment in like 30 mins, and I'll have onion breath :) I like onion breath. I think it smells good. Hopefully my doc will too. After my appointment I'm going to go home and clean up my apartment that way my mom won't flip when she comes.

I'm unsure what I'll do for dinner.

Yesterday I met my friend for dinner at Han-Chon. I had my sul-lung-tang. Afterward we met up with two more friends and hung out at New World's First Class cafe or something like that. Dropped my friend off in West Philly and drove thru I-95 back home...IN FIRST GEAR!!! Stupid construction squeezed three highway lanes into one. Nothing like driving in bumper to bumper traffic with manual shift car. But I still love my car and would never go back to automatic shift.

I actually came to work today at 10:30am. That's the earliest this week, but I kind of had to since I have to do a few things today. I have a doctors appointment at 4pm, and then I have to go to church and show someone how to use the projector, and then I have to drive to Baltimore to pick up my parents. Sometime between then I'll need to go home pack some stuff for a weekend's stay at my brother's place. This morning I brushed my teeth, but for some odd reason I forgot to get my tongue too...so right now I've got deadly breath!!! I've got to find something to neutralize my breath between now and my doc's appointment otherwise maybe he'll be very offended by my breath :O

Oh BTW...it's Friday the 13th! I should be careful today huh?

I put the traffic citation response in the mail today in order to get a court date. I have until that court date to get a NJ drivers license and NJ license plates, register, and inspect my car. Hopefully I'll get my $50 fee back.

Work today wasn't all that bad. I've got half an hour of work left. Took my vitamin B, and I taking my Zinc supplement now. Had my can of Ensure earlier and I'll admit instead of drinking water I've been drinking Coke. Had a bowl of Corn Chowder for lunch. I LOVE CHOWDER, except for Manhattan-style Clam chowder, that just ain't chowder. Again I'm not sure what I'm going to do for dinner considering my brother told me not to eat red meat, chicken, or fish. That leaves me basically with milk and tofu! Mmmm yummy.

Okay I just called one of my friends and he agreed to have dinner with me at Han-Chon, where they have really good Sul-lung-tang. I hope the broth doesn't count as eating red meat. We might hang out later tonight too.

My mom will be staying with me next week. I need to clean up my apartment a little otherwise she'll think I'm the biggest pig in the world (because I really am) and I won't ever hear the end of it, OR maybe I'll just leave everything as is...so that she can clean it up for me....muh ha ha ha...j/k The favorite son would never do that...of course I do wonder what she'll be doing while I'm at work. Looking to get cable TV so that way my mom has something to watch. Since I already get cable internet, I can pretty much get cable TV for free. This is a new development that I haven't acted on though. On the phone with Comcast Cable right now though.

Time for me to go to dinner. Sul-lung-tang is awaiting me :)

Today I actually woke up a little earlier than usual. The trick I think was to turn off my alarm clock so that I would wake up whenever I wanted to not when I felt like I had to. I came into work at 11am...the earliest I've been in weeks without actually having to be here for a meeting or something. I usually just turn off my alarm clock anyway and go back to sleep, this way without using the alarm clock, it's more guilt free :)

Anyway yesterday I ended up making ramen noodles. I also had ice cream for dessert. I also had coke, a can of Ensure, a chocolate muffin, McD's 6-piece Chix nuggets, and an aloe/cantaloupe/banana/fruit juice drink that I had blended the day before.

I'm going to start keeping track of what I eat, incase what I eat has anything to do with my canker sores. The canker sores hurt a little bit. They bleed a little here and there. Yesterday morning when I woke up and gargled with salt water, it came out dark red, which meant it was bleeding through the night.

Last night I woke up like 3 or 4 times to use the bathroom and clear out my throat. I just wish I could have one night of completely uninterrupted sleep.

For some reason today I was reminded of my friends' funeral for their dad. As we were walking out directly in front of us is the street intersection along 5th street which is kind of a ghetto area. This one young korean guy kind of looked like a punk, driving a Mercedes SUV with windows down and music blaring saw everyone filing out of the funeral home. After a second or two of staring he had the decency to lower the volume until the light turned green. Maybe he was embarrassed for having loud music, but I think most people won't care. I think he might have just been trying to be respectful which was a good feeling.

Today felt like I accomplished a lot. For the first time in a looooooooong time I didn't have the constantly nagging feeling that I want to get home. Being at work the full 8 hours was actually pretty bearable today.

I found out what an "unsigned char" is. It was confusing me so much but then I found out that chars in C are stored as number. So if I declared char A = a; Then the variable A gets stored numerically as the number 97. A regular char has a range of values between -128 to 127 just like any 8-bit value. The ASCII code set has a regular character set from 0 to 127, but has an extended, more advanced character set from values 128 to 255. An unsigned char would have a range of values 0 to 255 which covers the extended character set. Pretty boring information huh?

Well anyway I'm proud to have learned all that and now I'm ready to tackle my new assignment. Problem though is that there are still lots of holes that I can't fill in because I don't have the information for it. Oh well.

Time to go home...not sure what I'm going to do for dinner though. I don't want to do fast food, but then again there really isn't anything to eat. The jar of jook I have left I can't seem to open (Jook is Korean for rice that's been boiled with lots of water til it has a rice pudding texture). The lid is on so tight that I can't open it. I want to eat that jar of jook too. I'll eat ramen noodles I guess. Or maybe I'll stop by Wendy's for a salad. Decisions, decisions....argh!!!

Well we all know what day it is today. Today I woke up kind of early to watch the TV coverage of the ground zero ceremony and moment of silence. Feeling all depressed I couldn't get myself to get out of bed so I turned off the TV and slept for like another hour. On my way to work I stopped by CVS to pick up some coke and McDonald's for the 2 6-piece chicken nugget deal. For me the chicken nuggets are easier to eat than the big macs.

I got nothing really much to say today, so I guess I'll entertain you with a story about my mom. Remember how I was saying my mom loves free things...even if she knows she'll never use it (refer to Sept. 4th). Well she told me that she tried ordering a cocktail drink on the plane, but this time the flight attendant gave her the mini-sized bottle of liquor without the bottle cap. So she used a napkin to cap off the bottle and brought it home. My mom complimented herself by saying she was a smart mom, but I'm kind of confused because what are you doing to do with a small bottle of rum without the cap? The rum will go bad I bet. Oh well. At least it was free right :)

Working 8 hours a day has become increasingly difficult. I hate being here at work which is why I'm so unmotivated to wake up early and go to work. On the downside, I have to stay at work until really late. I have like an hour left and this is becoming just unbearable. Argh.

FYI, when you take a Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) supplement, don't be surprised if your urine turns bright yellow, almost with a fluorescent quality. That's just a side-effect that I just found out today from researching on the web and from experience. Because the B vitamin group is water soluable, what your body can't use now, just passes through your system. You'll also know because vitamin B's are very smelly and usually smell the same going out as well. he he he

Well nothing really interesting to report today. Last night I went home and stopped by McDonald's again for some Chicken Nuggets. There was this black girl that served me and noticed I wored at Lockheed Martin. She told me her dad worked there too. I get home and find out she gave me extra chicken nuggets.

Anyway the Pittsburgh vs. New England game was a blow-out. Patriots killed the Steelers 30-14.

I also had another one of those aloe, banana, cantaloupe shakes. Thing I don't like about them is that the blender makes the shake too frothy. So basically I feel like I'm drinking air...which is kind of disgusting. I gotta find a better way to make these things.

Anyway woke up pretty late today. Came into work at 12pm.

Well today was like any other Monday morning I suppose. I had an 11am meeting so I had reason this morning to not stay in bed until I was too tired to be in bed. Also had a 4pm meeting with my manager so he could get an idea of where I am in terms of work and career. So far pretty uneventful. Spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to get a NJ license. I'm pretty tired and want to go home now. I'll be leaving in a few minutes. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about dinner though. I guess I'll go to McDonald's for some chicken nuggets. 2 6-piece nuggets or 2 Big Mac's for $2.22 ain't all that bad.

I have a feeling this is going to be a depressing week.

Some recaps. Saturday night I drove into Philly to meet some folks for a late dinner at Vietnam Restaurant. I drive around looking for parking. NOthing so I resort to an after-hours parking lot. For some reason the owner of the lot doesn't stay open, but the lots are wide open for opportunistic drivers. I guess you can say parking is at your own risk. I've parked here several times all without incident...except for this one night. I drive around the lot just to make sure there aren't any parking attendants, and as I was about to park I see a police officer so I roll down my window to ask. He tells me parking in the lot is at your own risk, and then notices my expired inspection sticker, which expired like 2 years ago, and tells me to pull over. I'm busted. For 2 years I've eluded detection. So he asks me for my stuff. I give him my NY driver license with an old Pittsburgh, PA address, and my insurance information with my current NJ address, and then he asks for me registration slip, but I can only find an expired one. So this guy is like so confused. He calls into dispatch for a background check and my registration clears okay for some reason. Anyway the dude was nice and issued me a citation which basically forces me to take care of my business. I don't think there is a fine or anything, except for maybe court costs when I have to go back and prove that I took care of everything.

After dinner we went to Circa which was a little bit lame. I was so shocked to see so many church people there though. I saw this one girl who I totally thought was this good-too-shoe kind of girl. I know her parents too, because I shop at their store. I think her parents would be really SHOCKED if I told them what I saw. he he he. Anyway it was cool to see she likes to have fun. In a way it was kind of a relief to know even church folks want to have fun. It's kind of funny because on Friday night fellowship I was kind of complaining to my small group that I kind of find church people to be kind of boring.

Anyway the music really sucked and just hard for me to dance too so I didn't do too much dancing except when it was for making fun of other people. There was this one hispanic (?) guy that was dancing just absolutely crazy by himself and was kind of intruding on other people's circles and stuff. So when the guy was turned around I'd dance behind him sort of making fun of him. My friends started to get worried I was taking it a little too far though.

Time for some lunch.

Yesterday's clubbing was a bit of a disappointment. Music really sucked and it wasn't really a club...more of a restaurant/bar with space to dance and stand. Kind of sucked. More details to follow on Monday I guess. I know there are a few other things I wanted to write down but I can't think of them right now. I'm at PC Bang with my friend playing Counter-Strike. I'm not much of a cheater but this computer I'm on has cheats that activate automatcally. Naturally I'm inclined to use them even though I try not to. Eventually I got banned from the server. After first service today we went to lunch at this "new" Korean place. Little did I know I was volunteering to go to an existing Korean place but they "changed their name" which I guess made it a new place. Service sucked as usual. Food was okay I supposed, but we definitely ain't going there again...especially considering KFC is just down the street.

Back to playing my games. Later.

Yesterday's Phileo ice cream social didn't go as well as I planned. I think me and Ed might have been a little to ambitious for this one. Well at least the ice cream was buy one get one free. 10 half-gallon containers were definitely way too much for the 88 people we had there. I think at least 3 half-gallons were left. Afterward we had an officers meeting, and I think our leader was really hurt by the fallout that's kind of occurred within our group. I need to work on being less overbearing, less prideful, and serving with humility. I really hope we regroup and become strong.

Anyway after that I hung out with some friends that just got back from their summer break. Was out until 4am. I got up really late today. Probably going to go clubbing tonight. We'll see how that goes, seeing how it's been a long while since I've done this. I'll have to bust out my glow lights :) he he he

Canker Sore Report: The two big canker sores on the side of my tongue are healing I think. Although I still have a hard time enunciating words, eating isn't as painful now. Swollowing is still a problem since I have like a bunch of canker sores still in the back of my throat. Problem is that I have a few new ones including a few tiny ones on the top of my tongue and one on my top lip.

Today I woke up kind of late again, finished off some of the Aloe drink I made yesterday and came to work. For lunch I ordered Chinese. Pork Fried Rice, egg drop soup, and Shrimp w/veggies.

I'm reminded of an incident at Philly International when I was coming back from Texas. As I was driving out of the economy parking lot to pay at the toll booth, without saying a word, I handed her the ticket. I saw the amount due, and so I handed her the money, and she handed me back my change...as I was pulling out the lady coughed up an attitude and said, "You're welcome". At first I felt like anyone would...a little ashamed at my lack of mannerism, and then I realized, I have no reason to feel sorry. How can she just assume I'm being rude to her just because I didn't say anything? So what if I have a mouthful of canker sores and don't feel like saying a word. Or maybe I'm just a mute, or I have my mouth wired shut...or whatever the case may be.

Anyway that kind of made me realize that I need to be more careful not to be that lady, coming to forgone conclusions. There are situations and circumstances in life that we will fail to see if we don't have an open mind or understanding heart. Next time someone cuts me off unexpectedly, or someone riding my back bumper, I'll try to be more understanding. Maybe the guy really has to go pee, or maybe spilled hot coffee on himself.

Showed two of my friends yesterday my back which is still full of red marks due to the Chinese cupping therapy session I had in Texas. At first my friend drew back and started to cover his mouth like I had some sort of disease. He asked, do you have the plauge? I was trying to scare him, but it didn't work. He made jokes like if I had gotten beaten up, and I should call the police and tell them I got attacked by an octopus.

Well I get to go into Philly in about 30 mins. Got to go to church to test some stuff out for this coming Sunday. I also gotta make brownies tonight for Friday night refreshments.

Product Review: Ensure:
This stuff is actually pretty good. Taste is everything. I've only tried the vanilla flavor, but if you need nutrient supplements, then I would highly recommend a can of Ensure. A lot better than the Chocolate Malt flavored Boost, I had yesterday. I'm wondering though if Ensure has as many nutrients quantitatively than others. Upon looking at the label I'm a bit surprised it's not packed with more units of Vitamin B, etc. But my mom was saying that in the hospitals they usually give patients several cans of Ensure a day. Two 8oz. cans every 4 hours.

Anyway today was the latest I've been to work. 12:30pm. I woke up but just couldn't draw myself out of bed. Also after I woke up I prepared an Aloe, banana, apple shake. Not very tasty, but at least it's healthy right? Yesterday I went to Han-ah-reum and bought two very huge Aleo leaves. I was surprised to see it there, but my mom told me I would find it there. The directions on the Aloe leaf sticker even says to scoop out the pulp and mix it with your favorite fruit drink. I wonder if it's possible to make Aloe cocktails.

Yesterday wasn't all that bad I guess. I'm glad I was able to stick it out until 8pm at work. When I got home I had to unpack my luggage. I went to San Antonio with one bag, and came back with two. It happens everytime I go home. Now I have all these suitcases (more than I can ever use). What I need to start doing is going home with one bag, and one empty suitcase, that way I can come back without extra suitcases.

Due to my canker sores I avoid hard foods in favor of soft non-abrassive foods. Anything that requires a minimal amount of chewing is typically the stuff I'll go for. One way to get me to eat my fruits or anything else I need ot eat is to just swallow it without chewing. One way to do that is to blend the food together. My parents have like this $500 blender...like industrial grade blender. This stuff blends anything you want. So anyway they gave it to me to encourage me to eat more. I'm kind of excited because man I'll be able to serve some killer cocktails....he he he j/k ;)

That reminds me of a funny story about my mom. Much to my surprise, I saw beer in the fridge at home. My dad is a doctor and flies from San Antonio to Mississippi every week to work at a VA hospital there. All expenses paid. Since he's a frequent flier of SouthWest Airlines, my mom get's what's called a companion card. Basically my mom gets to fly free wherever and whenever she's with my dad. How sweet is that. SO my dad also gets these free drink coupons, but my parents almost never drink. But see my parents are also suckers for free things...especially my mom. So even though she doesn't really drink alcohol, if it's free she'll take it. We have this growing wine collection at home from different things, almost all of it free. So on the airplane rides drink are like $4 and they usually give you those tiny single serving size bottles of alcohol. Well my mom doesn't know anything about cocktails or mixed drinks at all, but she did know what vodka was...so she asked for it. Instead of giving her the tiny bottle, they poured it straight on the rocks. She said she tried a little bit of it but was to nasty for her...so embarrassed she disposed of her drink herself. Ha ha ha. I told her that she should either order, a screwdriver, bloody mary, or rum and coke. That way, most likely the flight attendants will just give you the bottle along with the OJ, Tomato juice, or coke. My mom is too funny. I bet the next time I visit home I'll still see those beers in the fridge, because they never drink.

So I'm back in NJ now...and life is back to normal. Man that was one crazy weekend. I don't think I ever want to go back home again. Here's the recap of the trip. Woke up at 5:45am. Packed and left home later than we should have. Got to the airport at 7am...but stupid ticket lady wouldn't check me in saying I was late. Sure I was late but all she could do was cough up attitude like morning coffee...so she booked me on a later flight. Fortunately the later flight was only an hour later and I didn't miss my connecting flight in Houston.

FYI, Houston International Airport is a retarded airport. Their commuter tram between terminals is sooooo ghetto. It seriously feels like one of those cheap, tiny carnival rides making quick unexpected turns and such. It basically amounts to a big toy train. Soooooo pathetic.

Anyway the first leg of the trip was on Continental, and the layover was with US Airways. I think I like US Airways better than Continental...but I guess that really all depends on which flight you take. Continental on each trip gave me a full can of juice or soda, whereas US Airways only gave you the small cup of juice or soda.

I basically slept through the whole flight. I drove straight to work (4pm)...but already I want to go home.

I seriously feel like killing this lady. I had the suction cup treatment again but this time it wasn't as bad. She used real glass cups and sprayed alcohol in it, lit it on fire and then placed it on my skin. I thought I'd get burned but there was no heat at all...but then she asks me if I can take another one of those blood letting sessions, and I told her no, my thumb was sore from last time. Since I'm leaving tomorrow she wants to do another one even though she usually waits for several days. So after that I figure the worst was over, but then she tells me that she wants me to drink another one of those cactus drinks. I'm still full from the first one, and already I feel like I wanna take a dump, but she makes me drink another one of those cactus shakes...and let me tell you it ain't no paradise. I seriously felt like I was going to puke while drinking it, and what made it worse is she told me I had to basically chug it. Nevermind the fact that it is killing me and my canker sores. It seriously felt like I was drinking a sponge!!! Imagine that. I seriously feel like I could inflict bodily harm on her just like she is doing to me. But what can I do other than cry like a little baby. @#(*%&%@#&%()*#&%)(*%*#&%()*@#&)%(*&)%#*(& That's how I feel. Like @$^%#&%^*#%^*%^#$&^#$%^#%

I"m seriously not going to do another stupid thing she says.

Well she's left and now I get to rest. The ordeal is over. She warns me that my stomach might cramp and that pretty soon the whole thing will just pass through my system...and dang did it ever. Basically it came out exactly the way it went in...in just a matter of 5 or 6 hours. Man am I glad that's over. I get to go home tomorrow. I'm soooooooooo looking forward to that.

OMG...so much has happened in two days. So my parents be all worried and stuff has told this herbal medicine doctor about my problem. She thinks she can help. This lady has done stuff to me that no human body should have to go through. Let's start off on Sunday morning. I wake up and go to church service with my parents. Little do I know that they are planning on meeting this lady how makes me drink and eat strange things. I don't know what it is because the packages are all in Korean...but supposedly it's expensive stuff so I drink it. Then later we go searching for cacti. The prickly pear cactus makes this deep red fruit, and that's what we were looking for. We gather like a half a shopping bag full of these golf ball sized fruit in the sweltering heat. Later I cough up a blood clot from my throat. I think it had something to do with that weird Korean thing she made me drink earlier.

This lady's family is in the process of moving houses and so we go to her place to pick up some plants she wants to give to my parents. I'm greatful she's taken the time out to help me in the midst of her move, but at the same time I'm kind of thinking that she shouldn't have. We go back to our place and she tells me to lie on my back. She rubs some of that cool ice cream on me and begins to massage me (or more like torture me). Then she starts to add these suction cups on my stomach and uses a pump to vacuum out the air. It kind of hurts a little at first but you get used to it. The she starts to massage my hands and I think I see her with some needles, so I'm thinking cool...I get accupuncture as well. So I'm really wondering if accupuncture doesn't hurt. Some people told me you can't really feel it. And then prick, and I'm like YEAOWEEEEE! WTF!!! I didn't think accupuncture was supposed to hurt this much. And then again and again. This is too painful. Then she starts to squeeze my thumb to let the blood out, and then I realize this ain't accupuncture at all!!! She's blood letting!!! At this point my mom is looking at me and I'm trying to gesture to her that this crazy lady is torturing me. My mom just looks at me and smiles. ARGH!!!

I've got these little suction cups hanging off my belly that looks like little tits (I look like a cow basically) and this crazy vampire woman trying to suck out all my blood. I don't know to think.

Then she makes me flip and she proceeds to suction my back as well. That wasn't so bad I guess. But the thing is that when she peels these cups off your skin...it stings momentarily. I run to the mirror and I basically have these baseball sized hickies all over my torso.

So the lady leaves with my parents and I spend the rest of the day at home just resting as she ordered.

Then this morning I wake up and get washed up, and bam...there is she is again in our house. She explains to me about how my sickness is due to my colon heat, or something like that. My colon creates too much heat and that's why I have the canker sores. I'm really hoping I'm losing a lot of the meaning in the translation otherwise this lady is a bona fide nut case.

So anyway she makes this breakfast drink for me consisting of aloe vera pulp from the inside of a huge leaf, an orange, tbsp of honey, some spoonfuls of barley rice (and supposed to have grapes as well). She tells me I have drink this every morning.

About a half hour later she makes the cactus drink that's supposed to clear out my colon. It's supposed to work as a laxative and clear out my colon while "cooling" it off as well. Basically it's the prickly pear cactus leaf, plus a few of those fruits as well. Blended it up and made me drink it. Stuff was nasty to drink. Anyway I got to go off right now for another one of those vacuum sessions. This lady is going to kill me.

Wish me well.