YAYYYY! drew and cheryl won Dancing w/ the Stars! =) happy happy i am.

falling in love... w/ LA

with the amazing 70+ degree weather we've had this february, i've convinced a few friends to help me off my out-of-shape butt and into some spectacular places around the southland.

(2 weekends ago) niners, me, & gloworm w/ a view of the freshly painted Hollywood sign. what an "adventure" -on what was practically a paved road, we somehow managed to get lost and then had to dodge so much dog and horse poo! pitifully, i was sore already by the end of the hike.

last weekend, glo & I went to Temescal Canyon. we rebels ignored the fire warning signs that said the trail was closed off (but don't worry, i'm a scaredy cat at heart and only did it b/c we saw all these other people doing likewise). i would have posted the picture of us at the top but there was so much pollution, you can't see the oceanview at all... this one was taken by a miniture waterfall. surprisingly, i wasn't sore at all after this hike even though it was much harder! yay!

i'm hoping that getting outdoors will become somewhat of a habit. =) someone's gotta keep me accountable to this...

but as much as i really love things about LA, i was hit last week w/ a sudden realization. i really want to spend part of my life living in asia. it's a bit of a big deal admitting this in a public space...but i'm hoping i WILL live out this dream eventually. impatient person that i am, i started freaking out wondering when and how i was going to get there... but i was encouraged this weekend by a friend who admitted that he committed to going to asia about 10 yrs ago and is only just now leaving for a 3-yr stint. In some ways, it's more meaningful b/c he's spending the "prime" of his life there. i don't know all the details of why God's put this desire in me...but i'm finding more and more peace that He will fill in the (very large) holes.

which leads me to my favorite hike of my life so far...

this was taken this past summer... so many, many steps! and i had so much sweat it looked like i peed in my pants (i was wearing khaki shorts). but wow, the view was amazing and there was such a sense of accomplishment at the top! but i must admit we cheated and took the cable car down. =)

playing around some more w/ the picture option...



showing off... this is the pumpkin that Gloria and i carved for our small group contest this past Halloween... we're creative geniuses, yes? haha, actually, we're not. we just used this tracing thing, some carving tools, and a lot of patience. =)











This is one of the other creations... i thought it was appropriate for the upcoming Singles Awareness Day celebration. =)

pink...also for v-day. (just wanted to try a small picture)

a test... does this work? btw, this is Stanford in Nov.