I was very “social” before hitting age 25 :D. I had “friends” and part of friends was being around their others friends to; basically, a lot of people. One kind of people that I often didn’t get along with the most were Christians. To be clear, I don’t hate Christians or anyone that belongs to any religious group. I simply hate when one tries to shove their religion or ideas in my throat. I think we are all more alike than different, so we just have different names of what we believe in and also at a different commitment.

A believer of whatever religion will always say theirs is the better one; the mightier one. I happen to be around Christian believers so they would say the usual “believe in Jesus” or “Jesus is the almighty” and so on. The conversation eventually lead to me saying, “Well, if Jesus is real, why doesn’t s/he show up right now or do something to show they’re real?” Obviously, not a very good way to discuss religion.

Anyway, today, I’ve reached a different light. Imagine this with whoever your mighty/supreme one is. For the past six months, there was an issue that bothered me a lot. After doing some math today, it just happened to be the exact math I needed for the issue that bothered me. That’s just the short version of my enlightenment and not the point of this entry.

The point of this entry isn’t that God, Allah, Jesus, or whoever is real or fake. It is that whatever bigger power is out there, they are watching you. They have a plan for you. They won’t show up at your door. They won’t make you a millionaire from your sadness. They won’t give you a promotion after you’ve dedicated your soul to a job. They won’t give you a job after you get fire. Believing in a bigger power is not instant access to your need. Believing in a bigger power is to understand that what you went through and are going to go through is just a part of the plan.

Some days are going to suck. Some days are going to be great. It is all just a plan. So on the days it sucks, don’t let that get in your head. On the days it’s great, be grateful. Someone is watching you and things will be ok. Carry on. Get up, dress up, and show up.

It's really rare that I'll have these moments of the same age. Like my last post, this one takes place during my kindergarten year too.

Josh and I ate at Culver's tonight for the third time in a row this week. This memory didn't come to my mind the first time, but tonight I realized how much we spent on ice cream for the past three days. Then I thought, "thank goodness we don't have kids (yet)" because it would be two to three times what we've been paying, which is $6+ every time. Then as I ate the last scoop of the 1 scoop turtle sundae tonight, my memory traveled back to that day my family and I went out for a walk around town and ended up at an ice cream shop.

I had to be between six or eight because we lived in the house where I attended grades K-2 of my first elementary school. My dad is a rare dad. He likes to read and write so we went to the public library often. The library is split into an adult and children section. While my dad went to the adult side, I followed my sisters to the children side. My oldest sister at that time was about fifteen and she somehow knew how to HTML code, and taught Pang Khang Photography and me. I was completely clueless at how a computer worked, but I swear, our first Yahoo search was JIMMY LIN! LOL!

Diagonal from the library at the other corner was an ice cream shop, Dairy Queen (DQ). If you've been to a DQ before, or just an ice cream shop, it's not cheap! It's even more expensive if you've got about six children that want to hold their own cones too. That day was an interesting day, now that I think about it more. My mom doesn't really come to the library with us, but she did that day (SPOILER ALERT: and maybe that's why we ate ice cream that day?). I remember we walked around and maybe all of us were like, "oooooiiie, ice cream." My mom doesn't know much English, but she knew we wanted some ( :'(((( why am was I such a needy child...and adult) so she told my dad to find out how much it cost. My dad came back with some prices on the lower end my mom gave him the money.

He must've not ordered enough and thought we knew we had to share. I think it was me who was unhappy about that (oh gahhhh, why must I be so rebellious, needy, demanding, and ungrateful?!!). He said that we should share because we can't finish one of them alone. Then my mom said it's just money and to get enough.

This memory breaks my heart because it wasn't that we couldn't finish the ice cream on our own, but because money doesn't grow on trees and I/we put my parents in a sticky situation. My parents weren't banking either. We had just arrived in the US for about two to three years and my mom was making minimum wage and those ice cream was maybe 2-3 hours worth of work. Now that I am older and coupon all the time, I would go back and tell my kid self to wait for a deal ... in 20 years :D

That memory is told in a few sentences, but as the person that lives it, there's a wave of memories rippling off of it. Now that I am at the age my mom was when she came to the US with six kids, I constantly picture her in my shoe and me in hers. Tonight as I ate my ice cream, I imagined what it was like for her to feed six kids. It's a lot of work, not just the moment, but everything that leads up to the moment. I wasn't sad my mom took care of us, but tears filled my eyes because of my mom's strength my entire life, and how much of a pain I was as a child to expect so much out of her and my dad. I know, I was just a kid, but I wish I was a better kid. I wish I understood how much my mom struggled and instead of asking more from her, I would've accepted what she gave.

Thank you for taking time to read this entry and I hope it helps you view life differently.

Wow! <--I like that word. Lets start with over the weekend, I went to play volleyball with three other Madisonians. One of them was surprised of how old I really am and how I look. Age conversations can be controversial sometimes, and sometimes not. Generally when people find out I look nothing like my age (with and without makeup), they ask what my trick is. I really thought about it. It was a lot of water and not a lot of alcoholic consumption, junk food, and soda. ... and no kids :D I would probably look even younger if I wasn't in a relationship, teehee! Lets get to the point.

In many of our long car drives, Josh asked me, "If you could be one age forever, what would it be?" I immediately said 28. When I was 18, I knew that being 28 was the oldest I would allow myself to get my life together to get ready for my 30's. Seeing my married sisters, one at 18 and one at 24, it wasn't the timeline I wanted. I want to be clear that there is no one way road in life and life can happen in any order to anyone at anytime. Just because someone's journey is different from mine, doesn't make them less or more than me; to each their own.

One was married at 18, had kids, and she worked then finally went back to school, and now has her bachelors. The other married the semester before her college graduation and had kids. There is absolutely nothing wrong with their timelines, but I feel like when you marry and have kids, you don't have as much "me" time. It felt like they were both sent away right after their schooling. I didn't want that. Before I even started college, I made it a goal to live with my parents two years after graduation because I knew I would venture out. My two years at home was "my way" of paying time, costs, and labor to my parents, which does not measure to all they've given me.

Why 28? Because we spend our first 18 years in school and work, then we spend 4-5 years in college or work, and then we finally have 4+ years to have to ourselves or work before we commit to other people beyond ourselves. Lets get these 18 advices going:

1. You'll be old enough to meet the age 25+ for rental and car insurance discounts. 
2. By that time, you'll already be done with your bachelors and maybe even masters, and all you have to do is work, work, work, work, work. 
3. You've had just enough time to explore not just physical places, but also mentally. You know yourself and what you're willing to tolerate.
4. You've had your fair share of parties, drinking, meeting new people, and determining who gets to be with you on the next couple of years in your life. These people are going to bring you down or help you grow. 
5. If you landed a job right after college, you would've had a 2+ year work history with them to use as your income for a mortgage loan.
6. Lots of credit cards and high credit lines :D - hopefully you're also responsible with paying them off too.
7. You have your own car, and maybe even paid off. Being able to drive anywhere is like a free bird.
8. You've learned to love yourself and this allows you to understand how to love others and also understand when others don't love you.
9. You've traveled atleast 2+ times outside of the country
10. Reserving hotels or cars is nothing new, and you're in a rewards program that gives you free nights to stay.
11. You'll live on your own for a while and realize rent sucks and it makes you want to quit working because you're just working to pay rent at a place you're barely at.
12. Maybe you might regret going to college, but at least it's something you can still feel good about when you feel like such a failure.
13. Sometimes the best time is just staying in. 
14. Maybe you'll be married and have kids, so just enjoy all the time you have to yourself before hitting 28.
15. It takes a lot of drive and motivation once you're 28 because people have burned you out or the government sucks, but don't let that stop your positivity and imagination.
16. Keep dreaming. I know, having too many dreams is bad, but I think you would hurt more if you didn't have enough goals to aim.
17. If you're going to start a youtube channel, start early and you won't have to work as hard to get subscribers.
18. Start saving to pay for your education or a house down payment.

I came across a post about school lunches and was reminded about my experience as an elementary kid. The story was basically the mom packed lunches for her kids because she thougth they didn't have free lunch. Even though she packed them lunches, they still grabbed some food items during lunch. By the end of the year, she was sent a bill. Then she explained to her kids about the lunch charges as a parent; $1.75 for breakfast and $2.75 for lunch.

Hi, this is just a random post update; more of a post for future me.

This weekend Josh went to GA from Thursday - Monday, so it was a time I decided to test out how I spend my time. I was originally going to hang out with my friends since we haven't hung out since Thailand, but I had to use it time to get myself together. I also had Monday off and was able to see what working more at my part time place was like too. Lets go:

1. I slept with the TV on every night ... because I don't like to sleep in silence if I'm alone.
2. The moment I got home from work or the store, I stayed on my comfy sofa the entire night. It was finally Sunday night that I got myself to pick up the living room, kitchen, and bathroom.
3. I didn't really eat at set times; with Josh, there was somewhat of a schedule.
4. What I enjoyed the most was just simply running my errands at my time. Being in a relationship, you tend to put both schedules together. Some days, I just want to run to the store, get my shopping done, and call it a day. 
5. Those sounds boring, lets see what I accomplished: 1) An application for a bank challenge 2) Sourced at TJ Maxx & Ross, q at VS and CVS, and ended my night with dinner at the Hmong store.

WOW! You guys, I am currently in looooove with the Philips Sonicare Essence Sonic Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush, priced at $24.95; sooo in love that I have to make a video from with this entry.

For the longest time, I thought the pulsar-battery toothbrush was good enough. I used it for the past 10 years and every time I got a new toothbrush, it cost $8-$9. Now that I'm actually doing the math, it makes more sense to have a good $25 toothbrush than 3+ pulsar toothbrushes. Alright, let's get right into my favorite features! Again, I can't believe I am writing about toothbrushes.

Let's start with identifying parts of a toothbrush because I will be using these terms.

Here are the essence offers:

1. Better reach: This is super legit important because it is "designed with a unique slim angled neck, and contour-fit bristles for greater plaque removal in those hard-to-reach areas." I can actually feel the difference that the toothbrush is cleaning my teeth a thousand times better than my manual and pulsar toothbrushes. With the neck being much less thin, you can close your mouth like those times the dentist told you to let the sucker tube thing suck your saliva or water.
2. Smartimer: Each time you turn the toothbrush on, it's automatically on a 2-minute timer, which is the recommended brushing time. Knowing this makes me "excited" brush my teeth. I know it sounds funny, but it makes me feel like it's a game; how much can I clean in 2 minutes? I just feel like before I used this toothbrush, timing myself was tedious. But when I use this toothbrush, I know that I just need to keep brushing and then it'll stop.
3.  Flossing: Obviously the toothbrush can't literally floss your teeth, but the way the brush is created and the power in it clean your teeth so well, it feels like it was flossed.
4. Toothpast: I noticed that my foaming toothpaste wasn't foaming like crazy either. When I used my manual toothbrush, it used to foam a lot, but it didn't with this one. BTW, if you end up getting one, make sure the toothpastes are done before you take out your toothbrush.
5. It just feels like a dental visit after you're done with a brush. That's all I can really say.

Click here to purchase on Amazon: Philips Sonicare Essence Sonic Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush, White