addendum

ok, so as to not sound like a selfish brat, i'll add some explanations...
i'm all for working hard and putting in long hours...but only if i'm going get something out of it. (ie career advancement, higher salary etc) however, i'm pretty sure that 1) we're going to be shipped to tucson and 2) tight-fisted ibm's raises are a measly 2-3%. worth working long hours for? i don't think so. if we get moved to tucson, i'm 90% sure i won't be going. so why i'm am suffering at this job? i ask myself this all the time! i'm too lazy to find another job, and i know i would never ever be able to count on a good recommendation from my manager or anyone else on my team if i "abandon" them. so for now, i'm riding this one out, until something better comes along..sigh...so i'll have a lot of ..umm...complaining entries. hehe.

guilty

at first i was feeling guilty for taking off a week to go to taiwan 2/25-3/6 because my manager asked if i could postpone it and i said no. (even though we hadn't bought the tickets yet, i guess i could have if i really wanted to...) anyways, so i think my manager has been having discussions with my 2nd line about my vacation, i dunno, but i guess they are just not very happy about me taking it. yes i do feel bad for leaving while we're still busy, but this is my mentality, i can't put my life on hold-- i mean, i've already been working overtime for the past year! and it's going to continue for the next couple of months!! and this weekend i'm working both saturday and sunday again. grr. i think it really is their own fault for not hiring enough people, i mean, if they want coverage on weekends, they can't expect only 2 people to cover the whole weekend! i mean, i'm ok with covering one day, but the other person on my team has kids so he always has an excuse, so i end up having to cover his day as well! UGH. i think i need to start having kids soon or something, i really need to come up with a good excuse as to why i can't work. i can't wait until my vacation!! i hate thinking, breathing, living work! it's too much!!

ok vent over. anyways, my mom bought the tickets to taiwan, so i'm going, so even if they ask me to postpone i'll just tell them no. i hope and pray they don't ask me to go to tucson again. i'm just glad that at least i've been able to alternate every two weeks going to Tucson with the teammate with kids, at least he was willing to go. this guy on another team, basically only has himself and my officemate (but since my officemate just had her baby, she won't travel) so he's going to be in tucson 6 weeks straight! at least he gets to fly home on weekends, but still, that's quite a long time!

i am not looking forward to the next month, i think basically all i'll be doing is work work and more work. about 60-70 hours a week. but at least i'll have my nice taiwan vacation to look forward to, it's what's keeping me sane! i hope i also find time to do schoolwork and plan the wedding! good thing i got most planning stuff done before jan. =P

i couldn't think of a title for this entry, since i don't really have anything to write about. i just feel i should update once in a while so everyone knows i'm still alive =) it's pretty quiet here at work, a lot of people are in tucson, which is where all the pressure is. 3 different people will ask you the same status 5 times a day. it's so frustating and annoying. i'm glad i have this down time before i go back again. i hope it's the last trip i make to tucson, but i won't count on it. at least hopefully i'll have a longer period in sj.

it looks like i'll be visiting shally in taiwan, my mom found tickets for a decent price, so hopefully maybe FINALLY she'll party hardy hehe. i hope to find some cheap clothes and shoes, eat yummy food, drink yummy pearl tea, and take pictures! she wants to take us KTVing, but umm, none of us know how to read chinese, maybe she does, so she can sing all the songs heh.

i looked at our wedding guest list, and we could potentially have as few as 40-50 people at our wedding! yikes. that seems so small, especially since we've been telling vendors about 100. oh well, i guess it'll just be cheaper for us, but would that we weird to have so few at a chinese restaurant?? maybe i should go make some new friends fast! hehe

decisions

ok, so i guess i'll have a reception dress. now i have to decide white or colored? i guess if it was colored, i could possibly wear it again, and i guess white is of course not a very flattering color. although if i just have two dresses (ceremony dress and reception dress, shouldn't they both be white? so i'm more bride-y??) hmm. i think the most important part depends on WHEN i want to change. if i just wear one for ceremony and change into the second dress before the reception, it should definitely be white. BUT if i change during the reception, i think it could be into a colored dress.

i'm also still very undecided about the chipao issue. it just seems so ... traditional? i dunno, we'll see i guess. i'm going to go check out a store in oakland that sells chipaos and i'll try some on to see how i like it. ack, i'm still very undecided about the dress issues it seems heh.

today is our first cake tasting appointment! the fun parts begin! this is the only part of the wedding where i've scheduled several appointments with different people (cause it's fun eating cake! =P ) from now until i leave for tucson i'll have 4-5 cake appointments! hehe.

since nancy asked...

this is the reception dress that i'm thinking of having (you can click on the picture to get a larger view)...this person got it made by a seamstress in santa clara for about $200, so I'm thinking of doing that too...how do you guys like this dress? Sooo, if I have a reception dress, it would be this style (in either white or colored, depending on which option I chose)

p.s. this person's wedding was also at dynasty hehe =P

multiple dresses?

i'm still debating whether or not i should wear multiple dresses at the wedding reception.
these are the options i'm debating:
1) just wedding dress
2) wedding dress, reception dress (white)
3) wedding dress, chipao, reception dress (non-white)
4) wedding dress, reception dress (non-white)

too many options, I don't know which to choose! ack.
any opinions/advice would be appreciated =P

back from tucson

yay, i'm so glad to be back from tucson, supposedly there was heavy fog in san jose today (AGAIN?! i never knew it happened that often... ) i had a stopover in SD and my original flight to sj left at 9:40. However, there was already a delayed 6:35am flight to sj (delayed from the fog!!) that was leaving at 9:30, so i got moved to that flight. so even though there were delays, i didn't experience any! thank goodness! and they even moved my luggage to the correct flight! southwest is so great, i can't say the same for america west. i think with my next trip to tucson i'll be flying southwest, and i'll have accumulated enough points for a free flight on southwest too! yay! hmm, maybe i should check my radisson points and see if i'll have enough for a free room ... maybe in miami! that would be cool!

pointy toed shoes

every single time i've worn my pointy toed boots here in tucson, i've gotten comments about them. every single time! i'm not kidding. the people that have been commenting aren't just the people i'm working with here, they're also strangers! at first i thought it was an old guy thing, since all the people that have been commenting are guys over 50. (usually the comments are, "wow look at those boots, they're weapons!" or "don't want to get you mad, cause i wouldn't want to be kicked with those things!" etc ) but today this old woman (stranger) asked if my feet hurt! so maybe it's an old person thing (there are plenty of those around here). plus i don't think tucson is too big on fashion. i don't think anyone would say anything in CA, cause it's normal! so strange. i mean, yes, they are pointy, they look like /\ /\ , i guess they just aren't using to seeing shoes like that. next time i'll be sure to bring regular shoes =P

saturday night fun

guess where i'm at! work! it's 8pm and i'm not sure when i'm leaving! i think i can now officially call myself a workaholic. although i think workaholics actually like working so much. i signed up to work on sunday, but i still got called in to come in today, plus i still need to come in tomorrow. i really wonder what i did with all my time when i wasn't working so much, i think now i appreciate my time away from work more. although nowadays if i'm not at work, i worry about if i'll be called to work! it's really quite sad actually. my life revolves around work!

i didn't even get a chance to check out the mall, i wanted to try chick-fil-a. (pronounced chick filet, smart eh?) hopefully tomorrow i can leave a teench earlier so i can go try it!

awww

brad and jen are separating!!! so sad. looks like NO hollywood couples EVER last!

steakhouse

last night i went to a nice dinner paid for by IBM!! woohoo. it was pretty good too, i was sort of leery of going at first cause 1) it was expensive and i wasn't sure if i would have to pay for it myself 2) everyone else that was invited was team leads or managers. i decided to just go anyways cause i didn't know what excuse i would say as to why i was not going. so i went, and i did feel a little uncomfortable cause everyone there had a lot more experience than me (i guess if you are higher up there, you get more perks!). i'm surprised i was invited, but maybe my 2nd line felt guilty that i've had to go to tucson so many times =P we went to a steakhouse and had lots of food. they have a LOT of steakhouses here...

the dinner was actually paid for by this blonde korean lady (yes, a NATURALLY blonde korean lady -- when she told us i thought that was the weirdest thing ever, her dad was an american soldier) who has been recruited by the IBM executive team to "save" our program and ensure that it comes out on our scheduled date. so near the end of dinner, she asked what can SHE do to help us make our lives easier and get this product out the door. so basically it was a lot of venting and griping about the management team and how they suck and don't listen and that everyone on their teams are tired, unmotivated, and don't see an end in sight. (which is sooo true---i don't see an end to this weekend stuff either!!) basically all i did was listen (they all had a lot more experience than me) and it was pretty interesting stuff.

weird dreams

last night i had some funky dreams...

first one:
a group of us saw this person carrying two plates, one with yummy fruit and one with chocolate covered strawberries. we asked him where he got it, and he said it was from a buffet. so we asked where it is and he said he would take us there. so we walked (with this stranger leading us) for about 5 minutes and arrived. when we got there, the buffet looked soooo good. it was owned by a korean couple...the guy was cooking the meat, and the woman was making these korean pancakes. and it had of course the chocolate covered strawberries and fruit that looked sooo yummy. then louay spoke to alice in syrian (and she understood him i guess) cause she translated for us and told us that louay said the person that was leading us had such fair skin and rosy cheeks....and that's all i remember, but that was a pretty weird one.

second one:
julian and i were going to go hiking, and so we entered the woods. but we had to go through some like little door or something, so i opened the door, and i saw a snake! so julian made it come out, and then ALL these creatures started coming out. lime green geckos and more snakes, and this weird big reptile creature...i don't remember anything that happened after that, but that one was weird too heh.

i'm pretty sure i had a third dream, but i can't remember what it was about anymore.

can't escape the rain

it is raining in tucson too!! argh. and of course i do not have an umbrella, hopefully i won't need to buy one. and it sucks to travel in the winter, delays everywhere. my flight to tucson was delayed about an hour or so. this time i took southwest so none of my luggage got lost =) my rental car this time is a new honda civic wheee. i'm counting down the days til i can go home. i've been up since 6:30am and i'm sooo tired. i'm not used to only five hours of sleep! i need to start getting used to sleeping early again, while i was on vacation i slept at 2-3am every night. now it's hard for me to sleep before midnight! hopefully my lack of sleep last night will mean a good night's sleep tonight.

10 more days to go....