wakinghour.net

John’s back! John’s back from his 6-days, off-the-trail, backpacking hiking and camping quest in Yosemite National Park! As I wrote in a previous post, John went to Yosemite National Park with his colleagues to collect some samples from remote lakes above elevation 10,000 feet that don’t even show up on maps. It was tremendous amout of hardcore hiking while carrying all camping gear, work equipments, plus food and clothes and everything else on their backs! And my dear John made it!

He came back happy and sound, and he got a lot darker than before the trip. He also brought back with him interesting stories, such as a curious baby bear that checked them out from only about twenty feet away, catching tadpoles, seeing deers, golden frogs, and wild flowers, plus bear stealing their food at night and eating everything, including tiny seasoning packages for instant noddles …

He also showed me at least two hundred beautiful pictures of Yosemite backcountry side and made me very envious…

Anyways, to celebrate his heroic return, I took him out on a dinner date to Flemings Steakhouse & Wine Bar over the weekend. We had a lovely time over delicious prime rib, red wine, and absolutely heavenly desert. Their chocolate lavaflow cake is absolutely divine!

Can’t you tell I am very happily engaged? I really adore John, and admire him many things about him.

He’s my hero!

My dear John is on a 6-day off-the-trail backpacking hiking/camping trip in Yosemite National Park right now. He’s there with his colleagues to collect water plus other samples from some remote lakes for research purposes. These lakes don’t even show up on maps! His colleagues go there several times a year, but this is the first time John is on such a mission. It isn’t his research project, but he volunteered to go, and is getting paid to go, for the adventure.

Six-days of off-the-trial hiking and camping in remote parts of Yosemite National Park, how cool is that?

But look at the arial map from above (click on image for a bigger resolution). The yellow spots with white labels are the lakes they need to get to. Just look at how far those sites are from the nearest roads, how far the lakes are from each other, and look at the steep climb too!!! All lakes are at over elevation 10,000 ft, and they are mountains in between the lakes!!!

They need to pack eveything with them, including tent, sleeping bag, dry food, clothes, flash light, walking sticks, first-aid kit, sun block, filter for water… plus others things I am sure. They each must pack light, but still that results in about 30 pounds of things to carry while climbing off-the-trail uphill to get to those remote lakes.

Heroic, isin’t it? I can’t wait to hear all about it after he returns!

I am so happy that he will have such an unique experience. I really wish to have some experience like that too, but on the other hand, I know if I were to go on such a quest, I would probably return in a stretcher. Nevertheless, hearing John talk about the trip makes me want to go camping and hiking somewhere too. Anywhere would be fine really! I just want to be out there in nature, alone with John, in front of camp fire, listening to crickets, and talk out night away under the stars.

It has been a week since John and I had our fabulous wedding/engagement photo shoot, but I waited so long to write about it because … there were so much excitement that I don’t know where to start! 

For a non-Taiwanese, or non-Asian in general, it’s probably a little difficult to grasp the idea of wedding photo shoot months prior to the actual wedding. But as I mentioned in my previous post, wedding photo shoot is a big deal in the contemporary Taiwanese wedding culture (since 1980s), and since, as Taiwanese-Americans, we have the privilege to pick and choose from wedding cultures of Taiwan and U.S., we decided that we’ll do a glamorous wedding photo shoot because it’s memorable experience, plus a great deal of fun! Plus, I am engaged to a super handsome guy, so why shy away from documenting our good looks with some professional photos? Haha.

There are numerous wedding photo studios out there providing same kind of uncreative service. They use same kind of photo taking techniques, same kind of backgrounds, same kind of lighting, and ask their customers to pose the same way. The only difference in works coming out of these studios is that … the models are different, the rest stay the same. That ISN’T the kind of album I want. I want ours to be unique, personalized, and I want it to tell our story. Therefore, I was really happy when John agrees that hiring Julia and Tony for the job. They own a very small business (website written in Mandarin as they are based in Taiwan), but their product is always very impressive. I noticed them online years ago and have always liked their work. But, to get an unique photo album, we needed to do extra work so everything’s personalized. We had to pick out locations for the shoot, plan out an itinerary for both days of the shoot, obtained photo permits, visit the sites, and take time off work.

But it was all worth it! We had a fabulous experience over 2 full days of shoot! Our two-day photo shoot was filled with excitement in every turn, so much so that for days, I couldn’t decide how to write about it because there was simply too much to say. But after much consideration, I decided that such memorable experience much be written down in detail, so here it goes.

Warning: this is going to be long… Read the rest of this entry »

After our big engagement party production, John and I kept the momentum going by planning a grand, grand photo shoot full of unique ideas that I am absolutely proud of. So far, we are doing things half-half, half American and half Taiwanese. That’s how we are - Taiwanese Americans. Therefore for our engagement and wedding, we’ll pick and choose what elements of each wedding culture do we like to include, and what elements to exclude.

So far, we’ve done the engagement in Taiwanese/Christian style. Next, we’ll produce a grand wedding photo album which is a must-do in contemporary Taiwanese wedding culture, and then, we’ll go all western for our wedding. The wedding photo shoot is a huge deal in Taiwan that it is a blooming industry. It’s significance is just like engagement photos in the U.S., except people in Taiwan take the extravagant route by dressing up in fancy gowns, and wedding gowns, have their hair and make up all professionally done in a wedding photo studio, then have all photos bind in a nice album which is usually two inches thick at least. People also have their photos enlarged in poster sizes, or use the photos on wedding invitations… etc. Anything you could think of to go fancy with photo taking, it has been done by Taiwanese wedding photo companies. These wedding photos is also always taken months prior to the wedding, so they will be ready to display on the wedding day. Read the rest of this entry »

Happiness is…

Being a kid for a whole day in the happiest place on earth …

Taking our friends on rides and not caring about what others think…

Listening to uplifting music…

 Indulging in cotton candy…

 Enjoying the parade and firework…

 Riding carousel horses for the first time in decades…

ON A MONDAY!!!

There we were, out on a summer day, enjoying ourselves with a glass of wine as sun descends beyond the glorious hills of Hollywood,

And our friends, Mr. Pooh and Ms. Ya Ya, smilling so contentedly in my workout bag, waiting for the concert to start…

Then there we were again - his hand holding mine as we whispered sporadic I love yous under gentle stars.

What a perfect mid summer night’s date it was!

We were at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday for their annual opera concert. This year, they played Bizet’s famous opera - Carmen. I’ve been to the Bowl far too many times before, but it was my first time going there with John. We took the bus to get there and back, which was a great choice as the bus pick up spot was at a very convenient location, and the round-trip fair was only $5.00! The bus gets us there in half an hour. Not only did we avoided all the traffic, we could relax during the ride, we helped the environment, also we didn’t need to pay double digits for parking! For those of you southern Californians planning on going to the Hollywood Bowl, I highly recommend doing park and ride. It was so easy!

Music wise …. er…. it was only okay…

When an opera is removed from the theatrical environment for which it belongs, everything becomes much diluted. The notes might still all be there, but the drama’s gone, the stage set’s gone, and with amplified sound, the quality of singing voice and the depth of instrumental sound were also sacrificed. I don’t know if it was the caliber of the singers, or perhaps I’ve really raised my bar for musical appreciation, I wasn’t too thrilled by the singing. Besides soprano Jessica Rivera, who sang the role of Micaëla, I wasn’t too impressed by all other singers. But then again, it could be the amplified sound that was to be blamed. Everything just sounded flat, and somewhat lifeless. I, for one, much prefer natural sound over amplified sound.

But, Hollywood Bowl is a fun place for people of all ages to enjoy all sorts of music the fun way. While elements in an opera are diluted for a serious opera nut like me, the venue itself, with its relaxed atmosphere, and its departure from a traditional opera house, makes opera music more light-hearted, and thus easier for more people to enjoy.

Until opera houses returns from their summer recess in September, an opera concert at Hollywood Bowl will serve as a good dose of live opera music for now.

It has been almost a week since our big engagement party, but I am still recuperating from it. The party was a success, filled with abundant joy and love, but it was also so much work at the same time!

It all started with a very simple idea, which then snowballed into a bigger and bigger production. At first, after we announced John’s proposal to our parents, his mom wanted to do a small Christian ceremony in the church for our engagement. Doing it in the church would have been easiest, but upon hearing the idea, my mom responded “why not have the ceremony at home?”. Then, since we were going to have it at home, John’s mom said we should serve some “snacks”. And upon hearing that, my mom said “why not serve dinner?”. Then, since we were serving dinner, my mom said “why not invite more relatives and friends?”

Before we knew it, the guestlist was at 85. On the day itself, about 100 guests were at my parents house, and there were many more that my dad would have liked to invite but had no space for. And we sat all of them down for dinner!!! None of the approximately 100 guests included John’s or my friends. We couldn’t invite our own friends because we went over-capacity too fast. Talk about craziness! My parents have too many friends, and also, the news of my engagement just attracted lots of attention. Read the rest of this entry »

It is all happening. Hard to believe, but it is all happening this Sunday

My engagement party will be held at my parents’ house in late afternoon on Sunday, 6/22. The balcony will be decorated with balloons and candles, plus music will flow in the air. Our friends and family will gather for a Christian liturgy, then we’ll move tables and chairs out for a sit-down dinner. My parents have held big parties at home before, but this is the first time we are serving about 100 guests for dinner on our balcony, so it’s exciting.

Arrangements have been made to have tables and chairs transported to the house in the afternoon. Matching table clothes, plates, cups, utensils, vases for center pieces, candles, candle holders, ribbons, glitters, wine… etc… all have been brought. I also got my paintings framed for this occasion. Initially, we were going to cater food, but many of our family friends volunteered to prepare various yummy dishes for us that we actually had to cut down on the menu. My voice teacher and my mom will sing for us to open the ceremony, and a pianist that I’ve long admired is going to perform for us! Three pastors who are close to my family have thoughtfully prepared a beautiful program. A super sweet lady is giving us an engagement cake. John’s mom will make the center piece for each table. Our dads have arrived from Taiwan for this occasion. So far we’ve only announced the news to our close friends and family, and we’ve already attracted more than 100 people to come share our joy. These 100 guests does not even include John’s and my friends, as we are over-capacity already.

So much love. We are so blessed!

Sometimes when I sit back to reflect on how John and I met, how this dream-like romance has progressed, what a marvelous young man he is, and our prospect of having a very fulfilled life together, I always feel so, so, so, so overwhelmingly blessed!

Now I just hope I won’t cry when my dad gives a speech on Sunday.

From the start, John was real picky about the quality of the diamond, and I was real picky about the design of the ring. I can’t help it. I am an art person so if I am going to wear this ring, it must look harmonious with my hand and transcend what I am like as a person. It must be as beautiful in the ring world as I am in the human world (yeah I know I sound rediculous). At the same time, being a scientist, John can’t tolerant impurities. We’re both perfectionists in some aspects.

This rather peculiar combination lead us to a rather trying, yet interesting and educational quest for the engagement ring. For example, we visited all reputable jewelry stores along Las Vegas strip twice, but only found one diamond that “almost” met all of John’s standards. I, on the other hand, found two designs at Cartier that I liked very much, but we didn’t get it because 1. the diamond didn’t meet John’s standard and 2. we were sure they were overpriced.

Anyways, after weeks of searching both in Nevada and California, we finally found a place that can deliver our expectations, and placed an order for a custom made ring which we designed together. The priced was very reasonable too! Read the rest of this entry »