Hello, 2009

Believe it or not, its time for my yearly reflection. I have no clue how to start this thing. So much in and around me has changed, so many things that I have not written about. Too many to cover. I could write a book about each event of the last year. Instead, I will settle with a list of the highlights:

- Spring 2008: I spent wonderful quality time with my Nana and Papa while my Papa's health was declining. We played games, we talked, I smuggled cafe vanilla frappucinos into the hospital (Papa declared that they must serve the drink in heaven!), we prayed together.

- May 3rd, 2008: I saw my Papa alive for the last time. When I walked into the hospital room, he exclaimed, "Oh! An angel has come to visit me!" Before my parents and I left, he held my hand and repeated the words "Thank you" over and over again. I will always hold that day in my heart.

- May 4th, 2008: I got the dreaded phone call, and I wept. I learned that my Papa was no longer in pain - physically, mentally, and spiritually.

- May 5th, 2008: I traded my future and plans for God's by giving my two weeks notice to my boss. It was the day that I officially decided to give up engineering, the day I acknowledged that there is something better out there for my life. What a glorious day that was.

- May 24th, 2008: After a 10-minute interview, I was hired as a barista at Zephyr in Pasadena. I always wanted to work at a coffee shop. This was my chance.

- June 7th, 2008: I graduated from the 21-month Servant Partner's Internship. That stage of my life was done, and it was time to walk into the unknown.

- Summer 2008: I had a blast working at the coffee shop, living a structureless life, sailing with my parents, reading the books that I wanted to read (no more assigned reading for me!), sleeping in, and falling in love with Jesus all over again.

- July 2008: God blessed me financially through a settlement from a car accident 8 months prior, and from a sweet 2-week house sitting job.

- July 31st - August 10th, 2008: I traveled to Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, to visit friends, meet new ones, and witness a beautiful wedding.

- August, 2008: I received a job offer for a well-paid, part-time, no-stress job. In February of '08, I wrote in my journal that I felt God telling me I would not have to search for my next job. It would fall in my lap. This job offer was a confirmation of that sense. In March of '08, I asked for a stress-free job where I felt free to be myself. This job was an answer to that prayer.

- October 16, 2008: I released the bitterness and anger I felt over the past year and a half (Dec '06 through April '08). Reading my Goodbye, 2007 post might fill you in some. During my time of prayer and reflection in a rose garden, I was pleading with God that he would help me to see clearly and understand why I went through so much pain and frustration. "What was it all for? What did I learn from all of that???" And then He gently told me that everything was okay. He was orchestrating my life in a beautiful way, and I didn't have to understand it. It was simply a thorny part of my life - painful, but necessary for the survival and beauty of the rose.

- Fall, 2008: I noticed a change in myself. Still young, but growing up.

- December 27th - December 30th, 2008: I went on the best road trip of my life. I went with friends Corissa, Kevin, and Scott on a thousand-mile trip to Portland, Oregon, where we witnessed the beautiful marriage of our friends Daniel and Casey. Our lovely friend Courtney joined us for the trip back to LA.

I believe this road trip embodies the journey of my life in this past year. It was unexpectedly full of blessings, joy, love, and crazy amounts of fun, just like this unexpected year. In the same way that we left, not quite knowing what we would find, and encountering blessing after blessing, I left my job and decided to embark on a new and unknown journey, finding blessings of freedom and joy around every corner. Of course, there were tough times too, like when it took almost a full hour for us to replace the windshield wipers in the dark, rain, and cold, or when I spent hours asking God to help me clearly see the purpose of my past. And things were taken from us, like when we realized that someone stole a camera, leatherman, and cds from our car when we were at a pit stop, or when I lost my beloved grandfather.

But all these things were for our good.

And so here I am. Still humble, but now grateful and soaring, curious to see what God will bring in 2009. Curious to see every day.

If I could do anything in the world...

I would fix it.

I would ensure that everyone in the world had physical and spiritual water.

I would play the guitar and the saxophone every day.

I would create a transitional housing program, offering job training, networking, counseling, and Jesus.

I would swing dance and salsa every week.

I would help create higher efficiency, integrity and integration within and between nonprofit organizations (especially within water resource organizations).

I would live on a boat for at least a summer.

I would live in Africa.

I would go on a retreat by myself for a week.

If I could do anything, I would be involved in a movement where living simply, sharing resources, and loving even strangers would be “cool.” Not the celebrity “cool,” but the God-fearing, Jesus-loving, fall-on-your-knees-and-give-with-humility-because-you-
don’t-need-anything-but-the-Father’s-shalom, grace-and-love kind of “cool.”

I would open and run a coffee shop.

I would finally fix my skateboard...

I would surf every morning.

I would travel to all the nations, meet all the tribes, experience all the cultures, and learn all the languages (or at least Spanish, French, and German).


What would you do?

Blue Planet Run

18 days ago, twenty people from all over the globe started a very long run...15,200 miles around the world.

The Blue Planet Run is a run with a message: "we can and must begin today to alleviate the catastrophic burden placed on over a billion people who, every day, must drink unsafe local water, or travel long distances on foot to search for safe water for themselves and their families."

The Blue Planet Run Foundation has funded 11 NGOs, supporting them as they implement water projects all over the world. From what I know of it, I like this foundation. (They help bring water to people who need it - how could I not like them?)

This run around the world is very intriguing to me. Its seems like a very long, hard, and inefficient way to raise awareness and money, but I could be wrong. In any case, this is cool.

Check out the website and see when they will be running through your town.

Just as a heads-up, here is a summary of the rest of their running schedule:

Belarus: now through June 25th,
Russia: June 26-July 19,
Mongolia: July 20-23,
China: July 25-28,
Japan: July 28-1,
USA: August 1 - 26,
--California: August 1- 6
----Los Angeles is August 5th, (anyone want to spectate with me?)
Canada: August 26-28
USA: August 28 - September 4

Water for People

One of the things about my job that I am most grateful for is my introduction to the non-profit organization, Water for People.

I talk a little bit about the organization at the end of this post. There is a lot of wonderful things I can write about Water for People, but for your sake and mine I'll keep it short.

My top 3 favorite things about Water for People:

1) They have found that the best way to help a village is to empower the people to take care of themselves.

2) 82 to 85% of all funds go directly to the projects. That is an amazingly HUGE percentage. Some non-profits lose 80% in administration and have only 15 to 20% left for the projects.

3) They don't have a cookie-cutter solution. They go to the town, find out what they need, find out what they want, find out what they have, and then create a solution that will fit best. If the town just needs a bucket, then they give the people a bucket and help them plan financially for the next time they need a bucket. brilliant.

Carollo Engineers (the company I work for) supports Water for People by fundraising during the month of May. Carollo has several offices throughout the country that participate in this fundraiser. Because God knew I would love it, I somehow became the point fundraiser person for in the Pasadena office. Let me tell you, I had NO CLUE how much I love fundraising. We've made t-shirts, sold cookies, given presentations... and it has been a blast. We're even raising money! :)

And now to the point of this post.

We are having a Happy Hour in Pasadena to support Water for People. Spread the word.

The purpose of the happy hour is to raise awareness and to raise more funds. The party will be at Bar Celona, who has offered to donate 15% of the revenue from the happy hour to Water for People. There will be a raffle, where all gifts have been donated and all the money raised will go to Water for People. There will also be a mix of people, from college, engineering companies, the Pasadena Fire Department, random people I have met while fundraising, hopefully complete strangers that I didn't even invite...

So if you are in the area, or if you know someone in the area, or if you can get to the area, please join us at the happy hour! The more the marrier!

Here are the details:

Who? Carollo Engineers, Water for People, Bar Celona and you :)
What? Happy Hour!
Where? Bar Celona: 46 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena CA 91105.
When? Wednesday, May 23rd, 5 - 7 pm
Why? To help Water for People get water to the people.
How? 15% of your purchases at Bar Celona will go to Water for People.

Please let me know if you can go, and please invite your friends! My hope for this event is that people will become more aware of the water crisis around the world and of the ways that Water for People is working to counter the problems, that we will raise money for the organization, and that we can meet other people in the area that are supporting the cause.

If you have any questions, please post them and I'll see what I can do to answer them.

Gotta love it

Hey friends,

I was just reflecting on some random stuff that I have recently come to love, and I thought I would share. (this is not a comprehensive list, and it is in no particular order)

1) Yoga. Thanks to my wonderful friend and housemate, Erin, I have discovered the wonderfulness of yoga. After my manic mondays at work, I go to my yoga class and find myself in some awkward, but somehow amazing position. As I am trying to balance on one foot, or going a little closer to doing the splits, I totally forget about the busyness of life, I think about how funny the room of 30 or 40 of us must look, and I simply relax, meditate, and sometimes pray. Its amazing. Not only is it relaxing, but I'm more flexible and I have less back problems. Haha. That sounds like an advertisemnt. Oh well. What can I say? I like yoga.

2) Salsa dancing. Thanks to my wonderful friend Jen and her 23rd birthday, I got to go salsa dancing this weekend. AMAZING. First of all, I love dancing. Secondly, salsa has a beautiful rhythym that is easy to pick up and move to. Thirdly, I love dancing.

3) Fundraising for Water for People. It is currently my favorite part of my job, but it isn't even a part of my job. I am helping make t-shirts, plan a happy hour, do a bake sale, and I get to learn more about Water for People and meet a lot of interesting people in the process. (check out their link on the right). Going to be in Pasadena in May? You should come to the happy hour. I'll let you know when and where in a couple weeks.

4) Talking to the security guy in my office building. His name is Fred, and he is cool.

5) Playing my guitar. I don't know that many songs, but that's OK, I gotta start somewhere. Whenever I need to talk to God or vent or relax, but I don't know what to say or do, I just pull out the guitar and sing. Its wonderful. (I'm not sure my housemates think that, but they at least tolerate it. :))

6) Jesus. I guess I haven't just recently come to love Jesus. I've loved him for a long time. But my current love for him feels fresh, new, deeper, stronger, and closer to complete.

7) Driving with the window down and the music up. Again, I've loved these things for a long time, but I appreciate it more than ever now that I spend 40 hours every week in a quiet cubicle with no window. Thank God for windows and music.

8) Spending time with the neighborhood kids. They bring me back to reality. Even when they are fighting, not sharing, demanding attention, not eating all their food, asking for more candy, crying, etc., they help me remember what is important in life.

9) My beater 2-door, 1990 Honda Accord.

-Dents: 2.
-Stains: countless.
-Oil spilled in the trunk? Check.
-Almost broken lock on the driver-side door? Check.
-Problems getting my key out of the ignition because of the broken Parking indicator? Very much Check.
-Can fit more people than there are seatbelts? Check.
-Missing transmission fluid dip stick? Fortunately, that is no longer a Check.
-My friends and often times carpool buddies, Erin and Preethi, have likened the process of getting out of the back of my car to emerging from the womb. Haha.
-Priceless memories? Check.

10) Reading the countless comments on my blog, which help me to know what people are thinking, what they disagree with, what they relate to, what else I should write about, how to improve my posts, and... oh wait. that doesn't happen. hmm... anyone out there? (hint hint, wink wink).

the real 10) Taking my grandpa on dates.


So great. so great. :)

In Memory of 2006

its 2007, folks.
can you believe it?
i can.

2006 was so jammed pack with life that if the new year hadn't come, I think 2006 would have exploded.

I remember standing in Downtown Disney with my wonderful friend Katie a little over a year ago, counting down the last minute of 2005. Tears came to my eyes when the clock struck midgnight, and I looked at Katie and said, "I'm going to miss 2005, it was possibly my best year so far. I don't know if 2006 will be able to match it."

I was so naive back then.
2006 trumped 2005.
Hands down.

But this year, I have learned my lesson:

I didn't shed a tear when 2006 walked away, because 2007 walked in.

This year is already off to a good start too. I got to praise God at midnight, I got to spend time with my good good good friend Jenna, and on new years day I got to drive home from san luis obispo down the 101, looking at a beautiful spotty-cloud dusk, and listening to Anathallo. That, my friends, was amazing.

happy new year and all that jazz.
I hope and pray that we all allow 2007 to be the best yet.

I'm feeling reflective, so its time for a story

There once was a little girl who had no clue what her future would hold.

She wanted to grow up and be the next Amy Grant. (Now give her a break, she was just a little girl.) Deciding that show-biz wasn't the life for her, she knew she had to choose something else. She liked the ocean, so she thought that maybe she would be a marine biologist. She liked school, so maybe she would be a teacher.

In the third grade she got glasses. (Yes, she was young for glasses, but oh well. Not everyone has perfect vision.) Every time she went to the eye doctor, she wanted to know why. "Why is he making me watch the tip of that pen? Why is he writing something down? Why does changing the lenses and saying 'one, or two? two or three? two or four?' help him know what perscription I need?" So she decided to become an optometrist. She told her optometrist the news, and he said there was no money in it. He told her "you should become an eye surgeon, they make more money." After considering his advice for a while, she decided to become a laser-eye surgeon. And when it came time to apply to colleges, she applied for all the pre-med programs in the state. She got into almost all of them.

She picked her college and her major, but she was nervous. "Am I doing this because I want to, or because I decided in sixth grade that I would?" Early spring semester of her senior year of highschool, her grandpa wound up in the hospital with heart problems. While sitting in the ICU with him, she kept staring at the medical machines. That night she realized she didn't want to be a doctor. She didn't want to do laser-eye surgery because of the eyes, but because of the lasers. She liked the machinery. She needed to be an engineer.

So at the last minute she chose a different school and a different major. She began her engineering experience having no clue what she would do with it. Maybe she would do bio-medical engineering. Maybe she would work with planes. Maybe she would become an astronaut. After struggling through 2 years of general courses and lower level engineering classes, she doubted her choice. Engineering was hard and it wasn't personal. She didn't like doing math all the time and testing this and analyzing that. The summer after her sophomore year, however, she came across the idea of civil engineering and transportation. She had been living in a city where they had actually made one-way roads in order to keep the traffic away from the low-class, run-down areas. That bothered her and she wanted to change it, so she decided to become a transportation engineer.

Two years later she graduated from college. She went to a far-away country for a month, where her world was turned around and flipped upside down. She fell in love with it. She fell in love with the people, the place, the weather, the culture, and the life. And they didn't have running water. That was stupid. It was raining every other day and they had pipes, but they didn't have running water. She decided that she could fix that problem, that she could figure out how to get the water to the people. And once again she changed her mind: she would do water engineering.

So fourteen years and 11 careers later, this girl went from wanting to be the next Amy Grant, to wanting to work with water.

The next battle was finding a job. In her four years of college, she had taken only one water course, which unfortunately had nothing to do with the water engineering she was interested in. She went from one civil consulting company to the next, not finding a place that fit her desires or a place that fit their needs. She again began to doubt, but this time she started to doubt all of her choices. Did she pick the wrong college? Did she pick the wrong major? Should she have just decided to be a missionary? She could have just moved to that country that she loved and stayed there forever.

And then she found it. She found the job that she never could have dreamed of. She does master planning in infrastructure. She looks at a city, looks at where the people are and how much water they need, and then looks at how much water there is and where it is stored, and figures out the best way to get the water to the people.

And here's the best part:

The country she fell in love with is in Africa. The company she works with helps support a non-profit agency called Water for People, which does work in Africa. They help people build and maintain water systems. They help people get water. To top it all off, a woman in her office is on the board for Water for People and is working with them in India this month. She is taking extended time off from the company to work with Water for People, and the company had no qualms about her leaving for so long. Her job is waiting for her when she comes back.

So the story ends with this:

There is a slightly older girl who still has no clue what her future holds, but she is extremely excited to find out.

to be continued...

a little advice:

My friend, who shall remain nameless, has been extremely busy and consequently very tired. One night he dreamt that he was eating an extremely yummy and very chewy piece of food. He started to wake up and realized that he was actually chewing something, so he reached in his mouth and pulled out an earplug! It was the middle of the night and he drowsily rolled over and fell back to sleep, not worrying about the fact that he was chewing on his earplug. But in the morning when he woke up, he looked down at the plug and discovered that there was only half of it left.

YUCKY!

I feel an obligation to stick with the theme of my blog, so....

what should we remember and how should we adjust accordingly?

remember:
- this story and try to avoid repeating it
- to not go to bed hungry
- to stay rested and avoid crazy dreams

adjust by:
- maybe duct taping your mouth if you wear earplugs?
- or maybe duct taping your ears...

at least make sure that they are in tight.

sweet dreams! :)