I'm okay--San Diego fire

Just want to send out a message to all family and friends first and foremost that I'm totally fine, no damage whatsoever to myself and my house.

THE NIGHT BEFORE
So it all started on Sunday. Since I had to take Paul to the airport early in the morning, I had a really long peaceful Sunday to myself. On my way to a mini family's party to celebrate Paul's cousin, Sam's pregnancy, I-15 was already masked with smoke but at the time I thought it was just another wild fire out in the east region.

By the time I headed home, the sky was filled with snowflakes, but of course it doesn't snow in San Diego, that was the ashes from the fire. I only started to sense how serious it has become when the ashes continued all the way home, and in fact, my neighborhood near Sorrento Valley also smelled like ash. Since I live right off the canyon, I quickly went to the backyard to make sure it wasn't burning already, then I spent about 30 minutes watering my backyard, including all the dead branches, then I closed all the windows and went to sleep, didn't know that at the time the fire had quietly spread all over the places throughout San Diego.

THE PACKING BEGINS
My lack of awareness helped me get a good night sleep ready to face a stressful day on Monday. Actually I wasn't that stressed at first. When my coworker called to tell me not to go in, I was like "Yes!" thinking I got myself an extra day off. So I had the leisure to eat my breakfast while catching up things on the TV.

After breakfast, I thought maybe I should start packing for a emergency pack just in case. At first I was packing my 22" carry-on, but soon, it got downsized to half a backpack. Coz seriously, it's not like I would have a place to take a shower so not much I need to pack. The most important thing was water, so I packed all I have, in case I need to give it to others. Then Paul called to remind me to pack all the documentation, and I just remembered that yeah, passports are important too (I thought my wallet is good enough!). He also reminded me to find his expensive watch, then I realized I should pack all my expensive jewelry too (which is like, very few). He also wanted me to pack up all his expensive (or not so) suits & gadgets, including his Wii and his 5 year old digital camera (Thank God we haven't bought our LCD TV yet, or he would have asked me to pack that too, in fact, many people did, and the news had to gently remind people what's really important in life--NOT YOUR TV).

Of course, easy for Paul to remotely give orders while I had to run up and down the stairs trying to catch up with the news while making sure I got all his goodies. (while I only packed a couple of underwear and my engagement ring for myself) The ironic thing is, I'm definitely the material one in the house, with all my expensive shoes and bags and dresses... but it never occurred to me that I need to pack anything that is not going to help me survive in the wild. (I guess I wasn't prepared to come back to civilization if things should happen to our house).

As more and more news came in, I gradually piled up things at the back of my car, sleeping bag, pillow, water, dry food... and at about 2pm, the electricity was out for a while (and my car was stuck in the garage!!!), I ran outside the house to see if it was just me or everybody, and everyone but me already pulled out their cars (smart!), and saw our neighbor packing his bottles of wine into his BMW, some people certainly know how to live!

Later that day, I went over to Shannon's place for dinner and she was sharing how everyone's packing strategy. One of her roommate packed all her expensive Coach bags and her nice boots, another girl packed the Wii before anything else, and Shannon herself put on her most expensive jeans. And then Shannon's mum and I looked at each other like "darn, why haven't we thought of that?!" Girls! (sigh~)

THE EVACUATION
As the news keep broadcasting all these distressed development of the fire, and we learned couple people's houses were burned down, but overall everyone was still very positive. And we were definitely not the only ones. We heard several Chinese mums "hanged out" at the Chinese supermarket, others took the Chinese restaurants as their "evacuation sites" and had dim sum as their survival food...

We were telling all these crazy stories while having a cup of hot tea before they come to my place for the night and try to leave Shannon's place for her roommate's friends, as there were not many unaffected areas left in San Diego, and we were lucky to still be in that safe zone.

But at around 10pm, the news informed us that Sorrento Valley Rd was now added to the mandatory evacuation list, so all of a sudden, plan changed, and we needed a back up plan quick! While Shannon try to contact her friend to find alternative shelter, I went back home to pack and found most of my neighbors were already gone. The streets were dark and quiet. That was when I first started to panic and what if her friends place is also under evacuation? What if our house got burned down? I made a phone call to Paul, he tried to find us a hotel but only two left, one in San Ysidro and one in Chula Vista, both seriously affected by the fire. And then he suggested that I packed the wedding gifts from his mum's friends--a pair of chopsticks and a crystal bird and a boy & girl miniature sculpture--and that was the last draw, I erupted and exploded with fury. I think he would have acted very differently if he was in town, but when he was out of town, he'd just name whatever items came to his mind, and that, did not help!! While being furious yet panicked, I thought maybe I really should have load up the car because what if the house really got burned down?

But before I could turn my thoughts into action, Shannon called and they were on their way to her friend's place. We arrived at her friend's place, her friend was kind enough to host 11 people under evacuation from all over the town. But we were just lucky to have a place to sleep by then, we were exhausted.

TODAY'S UPDATE
I went back home around noon today and thankfully the house is still there. While the outside still looks kind of hazy but nothing has happened at the Los Penasquito Canyon. As of now, the fire has burned through many areas of San Diego and other parts of Southern California. More than 517,000 people were ordered to evacuate in San Diego county and we're still not sure when the fire will be contained. Right now there are more than 1,300 homes burned to ashes, of which 1,000 of them are in San Diego. Several people we know had lost their home due to the fire. Many others are still in temporary shelter mostly in Qualcomm Stadium. Please pray (to whoever your god is) for those people still out there and if possible, donate to those in need. But for me and for most of other San Diegans, we are okay. In a way, I am very thankful that because of this disaster, it taught me what's important in life, and I am also very grateful to those who lend a hand at a time like this. Thank you Lana.

I did a disservice to San Francisco

What poor planning could do to you! My legs are so sore you won't believe I didn't go to a lot of places in SF. As much as I would like to blame it on others, it was my fault. I totally did the whole research thing per Mr. Boss' (Paul) instruction. He had been really busy lately so I think it's time for me to show that I do care about him once for a change. But opps, all the planning and none the execusion, I didn't book the tickets for Alcatraz Island, and duh it was Memorial Weekend, so all the tickets were sold out til Tuesday.

This totally messed up my otherwise perfectly dreamt up plan. So we went to Sausalito instead. It's a tranquil little seaside town but with a bit too many tourists (well well, I'm one of them!) Since we decided to have dinner at Crab House that night (I absolutely second what Ashley has posted about the restaurant), we decided to eat cheap at this little Fish & Chip shop but the food there was surprisingly good. We also had some icecream at Lappert's and it's highly recommended! (the green tea flavor is even better than the kind you get at Asian supermarket)

Day 3 was going to be Golden Gate Bridge/Presidio/Lombart St and maybe even a bit of real Asian taste at Richmond area, but due to my big screw up, I had to change plan and move up my shopping day a day earlier. It was not at all a good day for Mr. Boss was in a foul mood all day (for that I am sympathetic of). Did get a really cute Marc Jacobs dress at a bargain so I guess it all worked out in the end (for me). I know, I was a bit selfish even in my standard. (But I didn't stay at Union Square for nothing)

Day 4 was only half a day so we pretty much rushed to Fisherman's Wharf/Alcatraz and back to catch a plan. Alcatraz was fun but we felt it is a bit overrated after too much hype. Sometimes it's all relative, you know. We ate lunch at Pier Market--don't go there when the Crab House is right upstairs. Would you rahter pay $25 for the best crab in town or some $15 for a little cup of clam chowder & overly greasy sandwitch?!

That's it for SF, I wish it's only going to be better next time. You might think we accomplished very little considering we had 3.5 days there. I guess we spent most of the time shivering in the brutal wind or trying to catch our breath while climbing up and down those bloody hills. But if you ask me, I'm still going back for more. After all, it is still the second best city in the whole West Coast.

Chinatown in San Francisco

This is the first time I'm in SF as a tourist. We are staying at Crown Plaza in Union Square this time. Surprisingly neat & delicate. Although it doesn't come with grand lobby, it does come with white duvet rather than those blankets wrapped in a bedsheet. Score!

Union Square seems as bubbly as I can remember. I could really hear them calling. (For those of you who have never been to SF, Union Square is famous for shopping. I mean, what else can be calling? Oh, my bed, of course.) But Paul pulled me right through Union Square and into Chinatown with some really lousy excuses--he said he had to have some hot beverages, and all of a sudden it couldn't be coffee, it had to be tea.

So Chinatown we went, tea we got, and we checked out some shabby shops that sell overpriced piracy CDs from the 1980s... an impossible combination I know, but it's true!! We were going to have dinner at "House of Nanking" recommended by the tour guide, but then we saw all these Caucasians lining outside the restaurants....sorry to say but when it comes to Chinese restaurants, that usually means a bad sign, so we passed. And right next to it we found a Cantonese restaurant full of (old) Chinese people--got to be good, right? Surprisingly, the food was only mediocre at best. (forgot the name, sorry for those who need reference) In general the whole town was full of lousy stores that sell chungsum dresses made of cheap polyester and cheap souvenir that perfectly suits what an American expects Chinese to be. Kind of disappointed but who can I blame? Even the tour guide said most of the Chinese had moved out to other parts of the city long time ago.

And the weather here is much unbearably colder than what I was fully warned of. As soon as I checked into the hotel, I changed into all I got with my cord jeans, tank top (anything helps), wool blend dress, cashmere cardigan, fleece jacket and my muffler and still I felt cold. So even though the night was still young after dinner, we decided to come back to our hotel right away.

Hope tomorrow is going to be better. I want to go to Crab House per Ashley's recommendation. I wanted to make a reservation but Paul said it's unnecessary. We'll see!

Oh Mike, I know you are still protesting the whole Google/Blogger thing but if you see this blog, I'm in San Francisco!!

Just got caught!

Haven't posted anything lately. And then I found two of my good old friends just happened to browse my last blog and found out I'm getting married.... That's exactly how you should not do to your friendship, I suppose. And how close were we? hmmm, how about taking the same classes for four years and spending all the time in between including many long nights & weekend? That's how bad I am in terms of keeping in touch with folks.... Note to myself: Never, ever, post anything before you call the world up, this was totally embarrassing to say the least.

So far everything has been rather lucky for us. We picked our date on August 18 (818, such a typical Asian way to celebrate eh?), and then everything kind of just fell onto our lap (well, I certainly felt this way coz Paul is the one doing most of the hard work, as always). Then our day happens to be availably at this location we fell in love with at our first sight--the Marine Room at La Jolla (http://www.marineroom.com/). For those of you who haven't heard me raving about it, it is such a hidden jewel that Paul and I just happened to bump into (okay, it's obviously just a secret to us, it's even mentioned on the Lonely Planet). We were sold the moment we stepped in, it's sitting right in front of the beach, in fact, it was so close to the beach it was once flooded and ruined and then rebuilt circa 1940. The food is great, done well by a French executive chef (I'm a big suck up for French food, although I hardly can pronounce any dish). And despite their glamorous scenery and a bit of a 1940 film noir style, the staff has been very friendly and accomodating. So hopefully everything's going to turn out great.

And then we pick our invitation rather smoothly. Both of us picked the same one, and accordingly it's already in production (fingers crossed that it won't come out as two bunnies humping each other or some other outrageous design). And while we didn't plan on hiring a photographer (when's a better time to abuse my own lovely brother, who happens to be a good amatuer photographer), but then out of nowhere, Paul's cousin Shannon introduced us to this nice guy who does some really nice work and now we're having our own photographer, and my brother can enjoy his lobster tail (or filet mignon, or tofu if so he chooses) rather than taking the photo of his lobster tail. Everyone's happy!

The remainings are my make-up, my hairdo, my shoes, and my accessories... I did say Paul has been the one doing all the work, didn't I? Oh, and also the flower and just need to nip some starving artist as our musician (anyone there?) and then we're all set!!

Maybe getting married isn't such a hard thing to do. As long as you find the right guy who will do all the legwork for you. Sorry Paul, just saying it like it is.

Wedding Planning--The Dress

After being engaged for more than a year and constantly trying to come up with new answers with the persistent probing of "Have you set the date yet?" I decided it's probably easier to start doing some work and just get it over with. (But then I'm sure people will start to ask a different set of questions just to annoy the heck out of me, like "When are you getting a baby?" Uhh... how about "it's none of your business")

And so it began. Honestly I never quite understand the whole excitement over a wedding thing. Don’t get me wrong. I love clothes and I love to look beautiful, and just like most of other girls, secretly I do crave for the undivided attention I would otherwise never gonna get. So there’s never gonna be a better time than this when I get to be the most beautiful girl for the day by default.

It didn’t take long for me to realize the tremendous amount of work involved for me to be perfect. There is the dress, the veil, the headpiece (or “tiara”, as they like to call it to make it sound more royal), the shoes, the purse, the jewelries, and don’t forget the hair and the makeup. But it wouldn’t work without everything else such as the dream ceremony site, the reception and the food, the flower, the music, the dance, among many other things. I soon forgot that it is about the celebration of unifying the two strangers who found each other, and not a beauty contest I was never going to win. There will always be someone at my wedding who just won’t like my dress, my hair, my cake (or me.) Unfortunately, for my guests to remember it as a celebration of unifying the two lovebirds and not a disaster they just can’t seem to not talk about, I still have to do much the work.

I cannot devote myself into much work, or any work really, if I don’t resolve this single most important element of the event—the dress. For someone who loves clothes so much, I actually think it is the one piece of clothing I don’t miss. You don’t have much choice to begin with (white or ivory? Polyester or silk? Wait, is that even a choice?), and then after spending all the headache to find it and be able to afford it (most of the ones I saw in magazines that don’t look like a supermarket plastic bag is like $4,000 or above), you wear it for like a day and then you have two options—you either throw away the dress you will never gonna wear again, or get ripped off one more time and spend $400 on average to preserve the dress you will never gonna wear again. The lady who works at David’s Bridal was trying to convince me that I can save the dress for another time. I don’t know what she’s smoking but it seemed good.

But anyone who has ever shopped with me would tell you this is going to be a long journey. Paul’s lovely cousin Shannon can probably tell you how I spent 30 minutes choosing between $4 for 5 fabric headbands and $2 for 2 faux-leather headbands at Target. (It is that difficult I tell you!) So who would know that after visiting two stores and trying on 4 dresses, I have already bought my wedding dress, within 15 days since I started planning for my wedding. I guess it's just like how they say it, you would just know when you have found "the one".