Currently Reading The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini see related

happy new year!
i just got back from my trip. it was a strange feeling,  watching the ball drop on tv new year's eve, three hours after it actually happened lol.
my break was everything i thought it would be, with a few surprises thrown in as well. 
the weather in california was gorgeous. i barely needed a jacket- it was so upsetting when i stepped out of the newark airport this morning and saw my breath coming out in frozen puffs.

i spent my christmas at a ski lodge overlooking lake tahoe.

the view we got from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows changed with the hour.

skiing was a lot of fun. i hear the ski grounds near reno are some of the best in the country.

my cousin yan yan and me.

here's where the surprise came in. while skiing down a slope my second day, i couldn't make a turn in the freshly fallen snow and took a pretty hard fall. there was a pop in my right knee and i was immediately immobilized by pain. ski patrol members had to bring me down the mountain in an emergency sled- they stopped the lifts for me and everything haha.

 
yep, that's me.

my knee is now binded in a brace, and i've had to hop around on crutches for the past few days. (sorry i couldn't ski with you alan) the doctor at the emergency clinic said that i may have torn two ligaments, but hopefully it's not too serious.

i originally thought that i would have to sit inside for the rest of my vacation as a result of the injury, but that was not the case. my relatives in california took great care of me (i really miss them) and they still insisted on taking me around san francisco. everyone was incredibly patient as they followed after me as i hobbled around everywhere. i'm incredibly grateful that i have such an understanding familiy.
my days sightseeing in san francisco were even more memorable from my perspective on crutches. i received warm smiles from everyone and complete strangers sent me words of encouragement as i went down the streets.

  
overall, it was a great time.

it's 2006 now. wow, can't believe it's graduation year already. here's to a great year. i know it will be.

scratch that thought of sleeping at 3- i'm pulling an all-nighter tonight lol. woohoo.
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i love it when i can cross someone's name off of my christmas list.
this year, i strayed away from handing out generic presents, which would hardly be of any use to their recipients. the present's fate would ultimately be sealed by an eternity spent in forgotten recesses of a dark closet.

instead, this christmas, i wrote out 40 or so holiday cards, which i addressed personally to each friend. i put time and thought into each phrase and sentence, my handwritten messages chronicling the past few months/years of my friendship with each individual.

being a senior in high school, every day is filled with those dreaded "last moments". (tonight, for example, was my last holiday concert)
especially now, i'd love to receive a personal greeting card from a friend, containing fond memories of our favorite moments shared together; i would love it much more than any other present i can think of.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH/KWANZAA 
everyone!
here is an early message, wishing all who read my xanga a wonderful winter break. i won't be able to update over the next week because i will be across the country in california,

doing this:

and this:

(^ haha, i know, ironic, isn't it)

souvenirs, anyone?

in a sudden fit of inspiration, i cleaned up my study and my bedroom this week, sorting through and organizing the clutter that has been steadily building up on my floors. i had to use a big box to carry out all the unnecessary paper i never threw away.

during this cleanup, i came across some items i've saved through the years: pictures, birthday cards, movie ticket stubs, notes and letters from friends... i wanted to do something with all these memento, so my mom and i went to michael's one night and dragged back with us a large bulletin board.
i stayed up until one in the morning that night decorating it. yes, i guess i'm crazy.

since i have tacked on items dating all the way back to middle school, i feel that this bulletin board is a representation of the last seven years of my life. the board is now up in my bedroom. everytime i walk through my room, i glance at it hanging on my wall and am overcome by a sense of nostalgia. it's a bittersweet feeling; looking at it makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
i encourage anyone who has some time on their hands to also look through their rooms- it gives you a good chance to reflect on all the events of the past few years. you never know what you may rediscover.

happy thanksgiving friends and family.  
each of you has played a part in the making of this bulletin board.
thank you for the memories.

yay, here's the entry i promised to write. sorry it took so long, i'm finding it hard to get back into the groove of updating xanga again.
it's such a scary thought that i'm finally a high school senior. i don't think i'll ever fully get used to this foreign concept, probably not even when i'm donned in cap and gown, receiving my graduation certificate. surprisingly, i'm relatively calm about the whole college admission process. although what i'm doing these first few months may very well determine the rest of my future, i'm still very much the procrastinator...my college essays are pretty much nonexistent.
i did have my first college interview yesterday. my interviewer was much younger than i expected (in her 20s). we met at starbucks, lol, which i think is the most laid-back place anyone can wish to have an interview. sure enough, it felt as if we were just having a normal conversation, and not as if every single word i said was going to be a deciding factor in my acceptance...i hope that's a good sign?

speaking of signs...(actually, i have no idea where i was going with this. i was going to say something cheesy like "road signs", but i realized there's no way i can make a smooth transition of topics from college interviews to driving.)
...so anyway, on september 9, 2005, i finally got my license!

(i edited out any stalkable information )

haha, look at the goofy grin on my face in the license picture. that's because even i had my doubts about whether or not i would pass my test the first try. i mean, i was still knocking over the practice cones while parallel parking, just an hour before the test.
during the actual test, like i feared, i messed up on parallel parking the first time, so i had to try again. afterwards, i thought i blew my chances and sat in front of my steering wheel feeling absolutely miserable. i think my driving inspector took pity on me because i looked like i was about to cry. so she just quickly warned me about how i have to be careful to pause more at the stop signs, hastily signed her approval on my form, and left the car in a hurry...it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, lol.

ah, i've written too much, and i promised caitlin that i'd do this survey for her.
ok, so i was tagged by caitlin
the rule of the game is to write 20 random facts about myself, time how many minutes it takes me to do it, and then tag the corresponding amount of people.
...but seeing as how it's already midnight, and i've barely started on any of my ap work for tomorrow, and since the majority of the xanga community have already been "tagged", i'm not going to follow 98% of these rules.  
if anyone is still reading at this point, and would like to be tagged...then "i tag (insert your name here)" 
ah, and it'll take too long to write 20 random facts about myself, so i'll just list a few. besides, most of you already know me well enough to know that my whole life is complied of random facts, so unless i post my autobiography here, it'll be hard to narrow it down to only 20.

1. i spent an amazing month this past summer at GSE. no amount of words or pictures can properly describe the wonderful places i went to and people i met there, so i'm not going to take away from the whole experience by attempting to explain it. i left the pine barrens after that short month with life-threatening moments (lol pooja), great memories, and the best tan of my life.
2. i know i've reached the pinnacle of procrastination when i go to sleep one night at 2 AM and wake up the next day feeling, "wow! that was the best night of sleep i got all month!"
3. i am not a morning person. i like to take showers in the morning.
   the combination of the above two facts results in my going to school every morning with my hair still wet because i never find the time to blow dry my hair since i always wake up so late. this may explain why i sometimes get sick during even the mildest of weathers.
4. my greatest fear is parking. don't get me wrong, i love the freedom i get from moving around in my own car. however, i still haven't quite mastered the art of parking: i often have to back up and then drive forward again numerous times in order to align my car straight into a parking spot, often running my car onto the curb in the process.
   and parking along streets is my worst enemy; i avoid it whenever possible, because the two times that i did have to park along the street...the first time my friend's mom had to come out of the house and direct me as i parked, like those airport personnel who guide plane landings. the second time... my own attempt at parking was so bad that my friend had to actually take my keys and help park my car for me.  it was embarrassing, to say the least.
5. stairs and i don't mix. falling up the stairs, falling down the stairs... think of any way a person can possibly get hurt on the stairs, and i've probably done it. in fact, i've had so many accidents while on my staircase that my parents have become accustomed to it.
   listen to this story: one weekend morning, i had to wake up extra early for band. since i'm not a morning person (refer to fact #3), i was extremely drowsy as i began my descent down the stairs. about halfway, my feet slipped on something (...or nothing at all), and i suddenly lost my balance, sliding the rest of my way down the remaining 10 or so steps. when i came to, i found myself on the floor in front of my staircase, and my whole body in a considerable amount of pain.
   my parents both soon appeared to check the source of the noise; after seeing me, they calmly began to converse with each other.
   "i told you we should carpet those stairs," dad said. "but, it wouldn't look as nice" my mom countered...meanwhile, i slowly picked myself off the floor to prepare for the day, as if nothing had happened.
   haha, but i can't blame my parents...since this type of story is such a normal occurrence in my house.

whew, i'm finally done. and this concludes the longest xanga entry i've ever posted. hope you guys are still with me, and have enjoyed my writings, which probably stopped making sense toward the end considering the late time.