Phuong's LJ

You are just one click away from perfect happiness. Don't blow it.

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General Updates
Scribbling on a paper journal
[info]ilubmoney
I've left my LJ in a state of nearly complete privacy. So I'll start with some general updates for you interested parties.

Work
  • For those that don't know--most of you, probably--I'm currently working 3 jobs. One is for the money, one is for the love of the job, and one is a combination of both. The less I like it, the more I get paid. :P

  • If you're wondering how the counseling gig is going, things are going better. And by better, I mean that I'm getting more cases and more experience. I recently bought the book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. It's a good resource for parents and for those working with parents. I'm considering buying a few cheap, used copies online to give away to parents whom I think would read them and would benefit from them.

  • Also, because of the counseling job, I am both pleased and slightly surprised that my graduate education is put to good use. I'm finding myself pulling out textbooks and old notes as resources.


Holidays
  • Had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was low-key and involved a memorable dinner party with a Jon Troast performance. It also involved a new haircut (not a great photo, but a better one to come) and a pretty, red trenchcoat I decided to buy at the encouragement of my more fashionable sister.

  • My family put up our Christmas tree. I don't remember if I mentioned this in a previous entry, but our special family tradition is that each of us gets a new ornament each year. This being said, I'll have my 25th ornament this year, and Jenny will have her 6th ornament this year. She was very sad that she had the fewest ornaments out of all of us, and we have way too many ornaments anyway, so my parents made a new rule that we'd only hang up 5 ornaments each on the tree this year. Aside from our ornaments, the only other things we have up are the lights and the angel at the top. I like it. I'm pretty sure it could qualify as a Hallmark commercial seeing as how all the ornaments are strictly Hallmark.

  • I'm looking forward to a lot of holiday things coming up. There's the ski trip in Tahoe in a couple of weekends, which I almost couldn't go to because I thought I couldn't afford it. There's also the holiday events around the South Bay that I want to check out. Downtown SJ has what looks like a Christmas festival, so I want to check that out this weekend if I can.

  • Due to the slimming of expenses, I'm only buying gifts for family this year. I might do cards, though.

  • For those of you sending Christmas cards and who happen to ahve my new address, please don't send me anything. I'm having trouble receiving my snail mail and am working to get that fixed, but please don't send anything til then. Or send it to my Torrance address (email me for it).


Personal
  • Things with MF and I have been fine, as usual. I can't wait til he comes home later this month so I can show him a bunch of new, local discoveries.

  • One place I wanted to check out with him is uWink, a "social entertainment restaurant." It's a restaurant that has various computer games at the table; you can even play group games with/against other tables. Sounds like fun if you ask me. Plus I'm told it's a good first date place. For those in the LA area, there's one in Hollywood, and up here, it's in Mountain View.

  • Some of you may or may not know that I'm going to my own personal counseling. It's just general good practice for therapists/counselors to have their own counseling, and not to promote the profession so much as it's to take care of ourselves and help us keep ourselves in check for work. For me, I have some concrete goals that I'm working on in therapy, all of which will be part of my 2009 resolutions. One is making friends with girls. I'd just like more female friends.

  • I love playing pool, and I like going to Shirley's pool mixers for this reason, but I really, really dislike being flirted with by various guys there. I've considered buying myself a silver band to wear on my left ring finger to signal to them that I'm not available. MF thinks this is an unusual thing to do (I think he explicitly said "crazy"). I don't think this is that odd, but I do think it's kind of lame that I'd buy myself a ring to do it instead of MF getting me one. Think it matters? I'll probably just keep an eye out for a silver ring. I think I wear size 5 or 5.5 (can someone drop hints to MF for me? he doesn't read my LJ :P).


I think that's all for now. Is there anything else I'm missing?

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you need to update more, especially educating us about new places you've found! what is MF's contact info? ;)

I'll try to do that more; I kind of miss posting photos, too, so if I go off on these new adventures, I'll bring my camera to try and encourage more posting. ;)

what are you doing Thursday afternoon from 11-1? Kim and I are having lunch in San Jose. Join us if you can!

Thursday's my 15-hour work day. :( Maybe we can get together over the weekend? I've been wanting to check out a couple of the farmers' markets down here (either MV or Sunnyvale), and downtown SJ has the pretty Christmas setup, too. :)

I have finals until the 19th. But we should definitely catch up during breaks. I'll be back in the bay around December 26th. We NEED to hang out. Yes, NEED! =P You can introduce me to new places. yay. Are you going to CAMS' reunion?

My schedule's funky during the holidays, too. My Tahoe trip is from the 20th-22nd, then I'm in Torrance from the 23rd-29th. We will definitely be in touch, though! I'm gonna grab Kim, too, so she can do my long overdue makeover and transform me into an age-appropriate 20-something. :)

Oh, also, because I can't be there on the 19th, I can't make the CAMS "alumcheon". So bummed! I hear so many people are going. Are you? We should make our Bay Area reunion happen. :P

That uWink place sounds fun. Too bad its a Cali thing. I'd think there'd be an equivalent over here.

That and In N Out are good reasons to be out in CA. ;) If the uWink thing works out here, I'm sure they'll start one in NYC in no time.

I don't think it's that strange to wear a ring to ward off men. I've considered it before, half-joking, but partially serious. Unfortunately, my diamond solitaire is too big for my left hand... my hands are different sizes. Haha.

I haven't logged in to LJ for a while, so I've missed all your private entires. I'll look over them today ;) Glad to hear you're doing well, though.

No need to log in to check the filtered entries; when I say "private," I mean they might as well be stored in Word docs in my laptop. Part of it is that I'm going through some work-related things right now that require me to be confidential with my information. The other part of it is that I'm generally satisfied in other areas of my life, and happiness does not a good story make (a lot of times).

I'm glad you're posting, though. I miss your photo posts with the latest cute things you've bought.

I went to uWink in Woodland Hills for a friend's birthday last year. We played games until our free games were up and there's plenty to choose from and you can even compete against random people. The whole concept of it isn't a bad idea. They could work on their food though...

I've heard the same comments about their chain in Mountain View. I'll probably just stick to the appetizers or smaller entrees if/when I go.

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