a quiet entrance into 2009

Just a while ago, I was writing about how awesome our last New Year's Eve was. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed. Where does time go?

New Year's Eve report

Yesterday was a mixed bag. The plan was to have a party at our house. But because only two people said they could come, Mom decided it wasn't worth the trouble and called off the party altogether. This was a let-down as I had been looking forward to it for several weeks.

To make matters worse, my laptop got infected with viruses again. Getting rid of that shit was a major pain in the ass. That is definitely not how I wanted to spend New Year's Eve. Fuck the losers that write these things. >:(

On the other hand, canceling the party made New Year's Eve much less stressful. For those who have never hosted a party before, cooking all that food and cleaning up the house can be daunting. It was nice to get some rest before the New Year. They say every cloud has a silver lining. So true.

But what really made our day is that the Shieh family had us over for dinner. There was lots of good food as Aunt Cynthia is a great cook just like Mom. Though it was just our two families at first, Connie's friend Michelle later came over. The more the merrier!

I saw Saving Private Ryan on TV while the girls made chocolate toffee cookies. All of us then gathered to watch the Times Square ball drop. The cookies were soon ready - and they were absolutely delicious. Just because this was a quiet gathering doesn't mean it wasn't fun.

However, Cynthia and Uncle Dong are both early sleepers. Therefore, my family left around 10 p.m. so they could get some rest. Considering that our own party was canceled, I'm grateful that the Shiehs invited us to theirs.

The other good news is that my mother has planned a New Year's Day dinner and invited three couples over. In addition, my aunt and cousins are coming over tomorrow to make bread and will be staying for lunch. I guess the New Year won't be so bad after all. :-)

2008 in review

The past year certainly had its highlights. For me, the best part of 2008 was when we we went to Yellowstone and the Upper Midwest during the summer. That was extremely exciting as I had always wanted to visit Yellowstone a second time. The trip to Southern California was enjoyable as well.

The downer is that I had to miss out on Anne's wedding in Taiwan because of my summer physics class. The wedding was a big deal as Anne was my first cousin on Mom's side to get married. At least there are the anniversary parties to look forward to. ^_^

I'm proud to say that my New Year's resolutions for 2008 were overall a success. Aside from getting my driver's license just two weeks into the new year, I also did rather well last semester. Considering that Berkeley isn't exactly known for easy classes, receiving an "A" in Stat 157 gave me a huge confidence boost. Two out of three ain't bad.

For those curious, my goals for 2009 are to not stay up too late, kick a few bad habits, be more independent, be more confident around girls and make more "offline" friends. Yeah, maybe five is a bit ambitious. Haha.

Currently watching: Saving Private Ryan