Mountain Valley Ranch - Medford, Oregon

Dear friends I have been away for a about a week for an awesome and relaxing vacation in Oregon.  I will do my best to give a recap of the incredible experiences that took place. 

Sunday 9/14
We left LA around 3 and pushed our way up for 6-7 hours to Cupertino to stay over for the night at Kuan's.

Monday 9/15
We woke up at 630 and dined at the Original Pancake House. We ordered a gargantuan apple pancake that had 3000 calories. It was ridiculous, but to split it 9 ways it meant only 300 calories per slice. -___- Took off from the sweet home of Apple Computers Inc. and 7 hours later we made it to Medford, OR. Bought the groceries we needed at Costco and made it to Chuck's ranch by 5. We unpacked, prepared for dinner, and enjoyed a relaxed time in the cabin. It's pretty crazy how it's all solar powered and the water is pumped from a fresh spring.  

Tuesday 9/16

Waking up in a tiny cabin with 7 other guys in pure wilderness is a one-of-a-kind experience.  We spent most of this day just checking out the ranch walking around the property.  We got to swim a little bit in the pond, but it was way too cold. Ate dinner at Fish Lake and spent the rest of the night relaxing and talking outside.

Wednesday 9/17

This day was dedicated to rafting down the Rogue River.  We left the ranch around 11 and visited Amy's house.  From there we headed towards Eagle Point rented the rafts that we needed.  We planned for the full day ride which is 3.5-4 hours long. @_@ The water was freezing and the rapids were not that intense, but we had an unbelievable time because all of the danger we put ourselves in.  We were trapped under two trees and were pinned down by the branches.  Jason freed Dave and I as if we were 9/11 victims. It was pretty crazy because it was an all-naturale, uncontrolled course. Even if it was a class 1/2 course it put all those water rides at amusement parks to shame. We ate dinner then went back to the ranch to celebrate Christine's birthday.  Happy 20th! We had a good few rounds of Naked and called it a night. The homeboys however had their own action in the cabin playing for imaginary winnings in blackjack.

Thursday 9/18

Jackie, Christine, Shaina, Tiff, and Victor left early in the morning and the rest of the guys woke up nice and late and spent the day relaxing because of the tiring rafting adventure.  We cooked lunch and I got to ride the ATV around a little bit.  ATV's are awesome, but I never knew they were kinda expensive.  You also need a lot of land that you can just tear up. One day... Anyway, we then decided to go shooting, and pulling that trigger was so exhilarating. We shot skeet with a 20 gauge shotgun and another 22 rifle.  Later that night we cooked dinner and Amy's family came up and it was cool to share our experiences from China with them. We cleaned up and called it a night for the next day we were to leave bright and early.

Friday 9/19

We headed down from Mountain Valley Ranch and decided to stop in Berkeley instead of San Fran.  350 miles later we arrived at Hubert's apartment and he took us on a tour of Cal.  Berkeley is a pretty cool city, reminds me like an Ivy League/East Coast school, but just in California.  The people there are a little artsy and out there, but I think they're more real than a lot of the Orange County heads I see in Irvine.  I had the impression when I was there that Berkeley was like the complete reciprocal of Irvine.  Minimal chain restaurants and stores, pedestrians, busy, and small streets.  I see a lot of culture in Berkeley, which was pretty cool.  After we decided to eat at Zachary's which is a Chicago style deep dish pizza place.  It was pretty cool because we ran into JennKo there and Sarah Jay met us up.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to Cupertino to catch our z's and to wake up in the morning to work our way back down the 5 to LA.

The trip was really a lot different than I expected and I had a lot of fun and deep conversations.  Relationships were built and strengthened and what I went to Oregon for (a vacation) I definitely got.  Bring on the school year. I have a lot of responsibilities and commitments I need to keep, but I'm taking things slow and so far I feel good. My future to me seems a little unclear, but I'm really trusting that He would reveal more to me ask I seek Him.

The Grind

So I decided to switch to blogger only for the reason of convenience.  When I upload photos here, it automatically uploads to my Gmail account so I have an online gallery set up. =p Yes, so it's been a good and long ride with Xanga (1600+ days), but it's time to turn over a new leaf.

So a few things that came across my thoughts this week. First, every few days we get LA Times in our mailbox so I get the enjoyment to read up on what's going on outside of Walnut/Hacienda Heights.  As I guessed it was covering the elections and I'm beginning to get irritated about how excited people get about who they are advocating.  We all know that most politicians make hopeful promises that they can't quite keep, but what amazes me is that every 4 years it seems like everyone forgets that! There's like this refreshed honeymoon period with the candidate again. On top of that, there so much twisted quotations that goes back and forth, taking things out of context and blowing it up. It's really a cycle. Not to say that we throw politics out the door, I know the necessity for it and the liberties I gain from it. But I want to say that it seems to have gotten muddy through these years.  All I can wrap up with is that Jesus, the Word in the flesh is the only one that will keep ALL His promises. Let it be true...

Well this week has been pretty much work and stay home. I sleep a little earlier now, usually before 1, but for some reason i sleep for like 9 or 10 hours! I don't know why I'm so tired?? If I didn't want to read my Bible I would sleep more. -__-  Anyways I was at work from 2-8 today and coming back I felt a hint of routine working life. The 9-5 Grind is nothing to look over. It's so easy to lose your focus of your purpose for each day. Coming home I just want to relax and get my brain sucked into some TV. But each day has its purpose and its lessons that I pray we embrace and not overlook or take for granted. It's late, Hosanna.

It's not about YOU

Hello hellos,

There have been a lot of thoughts that have been running through my mind these days and I have settled on giving this a shot again. I feel like I'm in a blogging stage to really just pour out all of my thoughts and experiences I'm going through. So sit tight, here we go....

Today I decided to go with my dad to Costco and run other errands as well before I had work. We got all the items we needed and we got in line. While unloading our cart the "assistant" to the cashier was cracking some wise-guy-joke about his coworker with the cashier. From my memory he said, "Hey what's going on with your homegirl "Maria"'s hair? Look at her she got that girl mullet cut goin' on." The cashier shrugged off the petty comment and began to ring our items. When finished my dad whipped out our costco gift cards. Now when I say this, it seems like a pretty normal thing, but my dad pulled out about 8 cards to compensate the $120 bill. Our family buys costco gift cards and apparently puts $25 on each one, exactly. For what reason you may ask? Well one has been to give as gifts to my mother's customers and I guess also it's a security reason if you put too much on one card? Anyways, my dad is swiping one by one and sometimes it takes a little time for the gift card to finish the transaction to swipe the next. As the total is being deducted by each card, cashier says "Wait for it to clear," to my father. Under his breath the "assistant" mutters "You would think he got the idea by the third card, haha." At that very moment I didn't know what to do and I had a few seconds to respond. This worker just totally treated by dad with pure disrespect in his impatience and arrogance. A million sarcastic as well as serious lines went through my head trying to figure out what would slam this guy the most. "Awesome customer service," "Hey could you be any more helpful to this situation?" "I'm jealous of you to work with someone like this everyday." But in the end, I said nothing. Pure silence and I didn't even look at either one of them in the eye. Walking to the car to load the groceries I was still thinking of what would have been good to say, but I got nada.

The reason I tell this story is I wonder if my silence stemmed from my cowardice or my self-control to not flip out over insignificant situations like this. I pray for the latter, but does it really matter? To be the witness God calls us to be, I really think it is to not saying anything. Nothing you say can change him, and anything you say will fuel him. Fools like these have nothing better to do and just want to create something out of nothing. There are more important things around us to address and open our mouths about. There are absolutely so many situations that scream injustice in this world far heavier than horrible customer service. Let's open our eyes to see the bigger needs and issues of this world.

Don't talk crap about my dad though. Good night.