babes

i'm really enjoying getting older and watching friends and relatives have babies that i can play with and then pass off to them as i head to a movie, or a quiet dinner, or a night to myself :)

me and beivin -- isn't she cute? she's not mine, obv.

cry, baby.

have you ever seen your dad cry? for many folks this is an impossible scenario. I have a lot of friends who say that they wouldn't know what to do if they saw their fathers cry. they can't remember seeing them cry, ever, no matter the circumstance.

well, my dad cries almost once a week, if not once every few days. i chuckle as i think about all the times: after the end of moulin rouge, during a scene in harry potter 1, while talking about god at the dinner table, in the middle of preaching in front of his entire congregation. some of his tears are easy to make fun of -- and mostly, my mom is first in line to shake her head while making fun of my dad as he wipes his eyes with the back of his hand.

but other times, I watch him cry and am moved, not necessarily by the same thing he's crying at, but by the largeness of his heart. my dad loves god so much -- it's weird to even write that sentence, but it's true. and his understanding of the redemption story -- of god pro nobis, ever the pursuer, ever the seeker of hearts that seek God -- is so intense that he is often startled to tears at the slightest thought or whiff of any narrative that resembles the "greatest story ever told."

as an adult christian who was raised in the church, I admit that cynicism and jadedness have taken a toll on my once-open heart. my dad's child-like faith is a constant inspiration.

in a somewhat related story, I have to share with you about the most recent time when dad cried in front of me.

my sister had just gotten the new iphone so we decided to facetime. once our phones made the connection we excitedly showed off various things in our respective environments: she showed me her new puppy, and i probably showed her something less exciting, like my new nailpolish color or my hair style that day.

suddenly my mom opened the door to tell uno dinner was ready -- uno pointed her phone to my mom's face as i awkwardly said hello. my mom, unphased, was just like, oh hey jeannie ... uno, come eat! hahaha

so uno brought "me" to the living room and showed "me" to my dad. my dad was a little more surprised. wow, this is so amazing! he said, his eyes widening. he continued to marvel at the iphone while my mom impatiently ordered everyone to the dinner table. with a shrug, my sister brought me along too.

So basically, you guys, I was "sitting" at the dinner table with my whole family, but really, "I" was my sister's iPhone, propped up against something. I could see them, they could see me, but obviously, it wasn't really me! disturbing, indeed.

my family gathered hands to pray, as is our custom, and I also sort of closed my eyes, but felt really weird the entire time. my dad started out with his prayer -- "dear god, thank you for this wonderful food, thank you for mommy, for uno, for jeannie ...".

and true to form, he gasped a little, choked up, and cried.

i think for all of us, facetime didn't make us feel closer. it made us feel more aware of our distance. I was there, but my body wasn't. i couldn't hug them and they couldn't hug me. i couldn't eat dinner with them or hold hands with them. in this instance, "reality" was so much worse than "virtual reality."

after my dad cried his way through the end of his prayer, my mom, of course, made fun of him a little. I laughed and said don't cry, and then got off the phone as quickly as a could. as soon as  i hung up, i crumpled onto my desk and sobbed for a good 5 minutes. uno says dad did the same.

glad to know that despite the distance, i'm still my father's daughter

life is but a dream

If I could backtrack a little and share some more New York photos with you, that would be great. I put together an album on Facebook so that my family members could share my photos with their friends, but here are some unpublished ones that I saved just for my blog :)

 baby g, helen, chris in the back, and jen eemo

this photo cracks me up. my cousin paul
looks so crazy awkward holding
baby g, and baby g looks so awkward
being held by paul. hahahaha! love it.

so you might think I'm mean for posting this photo
of my cousin Tom, but this is special because baby G
took this photo of his dad using my camera!
HA! this might just be baby G's first photo,
 so of course I need to archive it. who knows,
he might grow up to be a great photographer someday.

baby G flanked by me and Helen. he was
basically the center of attention during the whole trip

Uno and I leap with joy on the great lawn!

words cannot express how much i love my cousin helen
this is us at Joe's Shanghai eating soup dumplings

 i love my sister Uno. this is her on the windy
rooftop of 30 rock! I love her goofy smile in
this photo. miss you so much!

we spent saturday night at Spin, a pingpong/club/bar
in  the Flatiron. it was awesome watching my sister and
her friend Hannah dominated the pingpong table.
nobody could take them down!

Weeks later, I continue to scroll through these photos and wonder, did that really happen? was it all a dream? sometimes life throws you an experience so rich and delicious, you can't believe your luck. I love my family so much.

bad photos of an otherwise lovely event

so i've been getting some flack for not updating this blog enough and it's true. I've been somewhat delinquent in my posting, primarily because of the whole lot of EVERYTHING happening in my life. but here's a nice little update for you.

last weekend, chris and I went to my friend eddie's wedding reception. it was a really lovely affair and it was super fun seeing my friend eddie so happy with his new wife, Joo, especially to see him all dressed up in his tux and richie rich hair because .... well, I knew eddie in college when he wore sean john velour sweatsuits and ate chinese take out in his dormroom every night :)

i have some pretty hilarious stories of times with eddie from college. hey eddie, remember: telling people we were cousins; eating out at max and erma's way too often; eating breakfast at schatz diner way too often; going to the erykah badu concert, waiting effing 2 hours for her to come out, enjoying the show anyways, and then almost crashing your car on the way home because it had snowed; slacking off in statistics class; trying to write a song in the mudge house library and failing completely; eating; eating; eating? damn, we ate so much in college ... kind of gross looking back.

those days are long gone ... let's hope we never regress to our college diets again. and i dare say, the dude got crazy lucky cause his wife is nice, pretty, smart, and a health nut! good job cuz.

it was tough to get good photos because the lighting was a little tricky -- so here are some bad photos for you. haha. enjoy!

chris and i seem to take this same photo before
every wedding we attend!  I'm determined that
for the next wedding, I will be in the driver's seat!

leave it to eddie to have delicious parmesan
french fries at  the cocktail reception. I think
I ate about three cones. true story.

the lovely cake!

Eddie and Joo. awwww!

Chris continues to take awful photos of me.
this was my stank face during his fifth attempt
to capture me not looking a. fat; b. constipated;
c. ridiculous. I take all these awesome photos
of chris and he always takes the worst photos of
me. and look! I still look constipated! sigh.

despite that last photo, we had a really great time! and what a joy to celebrate an old friend in their new marriage. congrats Eddie and Joo! love you guys!