Well, I’m back in the States, and trying really hard not to be depressed about it.  Seoul was wonderful.  I’m already scheming a return (more on that later).

I didn’t blog as much as I’d planned.  Two weeks is a short visit, so the days were crammed full.  Virtually all of our time was spent visiting family, and taking care of grandma.  She’s in the beginning stages of alzheimers, so she swung back and forth between complete lucidity to asking who we were.  She can’t walk on her own, although she tries to, so someone had to be with her at all times.  And now she has heart failure.  So, it was a wonderful and meaningful two weeks, but blogging wasn’t something I was in the mood for.  Plus, I never got a chance to hang out with Elaine (booo!).  Anyways, here’s a summary of the Korea visit….

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[photopress:dinner.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Spent an evening with the parents in the ‘burbs of Spring Branch.  My mom cooked a very yummy dinner with Korean banchan, grilled fish and miyukgook - seaweed soup traditionally eaten on birthdays.  Yum!

[photopress:lion.jpg,thumb,alignleft]While helping my mom prepare dinner, I noticed a new stuffed animal on the shelf.

Me: What is this?
My Mom: 2006 is the Year of the Dog.  So that’s a dog.  
Me: But this is a lion.
My Mom: No, it’s a dog. 
Me: Dogs don’t have manes. 
My Mom: It was made in Singapore. It’s a dog.
Me: What does being made in Singapore have to do with whether it’s a dog or a lion?
My Mom: It’s a dog!
My Dad: It’s a lion that looks like a dog…[my mom starts to argue]…ok, ok it’s a dog that looks like a lion.  Can we eat now?

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3:17pm. The phone at work rings.

Me: Hello, this is Jen.

Mom: JENNIFER???!!!!

Me: Mom?

Mom: WHERE ARE YOU??!!!!

Me: Uh, at work.

Mom: YOU’RE NOT IN JAIL, RIGHT???

Me: What the….?? No, I’m not in jail……

Mom: WHEW!! I came home and saw your phone number on the caller ID. Then I checked voice mail and there was a voice message from Harris County Jail asking for collect call. So I thought it was you.

Me: hahaha - You thought I was calling you to come bail me out?

Mom: Yah! Oh, I was sooooo scared! I was thinking, ‘what did she do?? what did she do??’

Me: Ok, obviously the call from the jail was a wrong number…..Hey, wait a minute…..how come you automatically thought it was me and not Christine or Daniel? Am I the child most likely to be a convicted felon?

Mom: hahaha - yeah!

Me: Gee, thanks mom.

Mom: I just went to a health fair and got lots of free pens. Come home and I’ll give you some.*

Me: Ok, thanks mom.

Mom: Ok bye.

Me: Bye.

I love my mom. The woman is hilarious.

* My mom feels her children don’t visit her enough, so her strategy is to constantly bribe us with random things like free packages of toilet paper, oranges, soap, carrot juice, free pens from health fairs, etc.

This weekend was all about new running gear. Yay!

By the way, being a member of local running groups really pays off. At any of the running stores around town (Luke’s Locker, Runsport, Fleet Feet), members of HARRA (Houston Area Road Runners Association) get 10% off merchandise and a buttload of other stuff. Discounts can also be had for members of HoustonFit and Power in Motion.

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‘Cause sometimes you feel tired, feel weak,
and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
and just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter,
no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.
- eminem

Although my running-related blog entries have been on the light side, I’m still faithfully chugging along. I did encounter a few unexpected challenges this week, however…..

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whew. It’s been a crazy busy week. Work, life, etc. Finally have a breather, so some [hopefully] quick updates:

• Went to a wedding last Saturday in a little town 1.5hrs north of Houston. Supposedly. It took me ony 45 minutes, which really scared me. I think I might drive too fast. Anyways, the chapel was cute, the wedding was sweet and the town was small. The drive was beautiful, though. 
• Bought a new desktop computer to replace my sad little P2 333MHz. yay.
  Dell Dimension 8400 Desktop; Pentium 4 Processor 540 with HT Technology (3.20GHz, 800 FSB, 1MB); 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs); 160 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM); 128MB PCI Express ATI Radeon X300 SE; Integrated Gigabit Ethernet. I’m especially excited about the 3.2G processor, the HT and the PCI-express slots. whee. The PC comes with a bunch of apps, but they’re all getting deleted when I reformat the HD to install XP Pro. I’m also installing a Lite-On DVD drive. Dual layer, baby. rawk. 
• Li’l Bro is graduating this weekend from the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas in Austin. Relatives from the East Coast are flying in, and we’re spending the weekend in beautiful Austin. In August, Li’l Bro’s moving to Galveston, TX to start med school at UTMB. *sigh* They grow up so quickly.
• Kirby the cat is coming back to stay with Skokie and me for the summer. Skokie will be estatic. Kirby will be less than pleased.
• mmmm…..yogurt.
• Huge report due next week. ack.
• I really, really, really want to go to the beach over Memorial Day weekend.
• I’m replacing the sunk faucet in one of my bathrooms and it’s driving me crazy. But the faucet looks super nice, and the project is almost done. oooh, I should have taken before/after pictures.
• It’s 5:20pm. I’m outtie.

Laters.

After weeks of blood and sweat, L’il Bro’s finally completed his thesis. [insert fanfare] The Sis and I have been able to monitor his progress by his away messages on AOL Instant Messenger.

Here’s his away message for tonite:

things i have regained now that my thesis is done:

- my laziness

- my will to live

- massive amounts of sleep

- a dysfunctional liver

p.s. someone remind me to turn it in tomorrow