OK, I thought my life was getting to busy to continue to talk about what's been going on, but then I figured out that if I didn't write about that stuff, I'd hardly have anything to write. So here's what's been going on.

Thursday (9/21) I successfully picked up Yujing from SFO. I hadn't been in a long time, so I'm amazed I didn't make any wrong turns or get horribly lost. I was planning to get there a lot earlier, but I ended up late because --- as I was heading out the door, I forgot I wanted to bring Four Swords over to Kittoe later in the day. So I figure I just stop by my parents' place to pick everything up. I get everything, but can't find the games. And then I realize that the games are at my place. And I left Yujing's body pillow on my bed =p. So I drive back to my place. Hook everything up, but realize it would be better if I bring along the AC adapter for the GBA, which is at my parents' place. Pick that up, did a quick check to make sure everything hooked up OK, and then by that time was really late (and I also had to pick up lunch at McD). Matt was busy with his family all night, so I just went over to Kittoe to play X-Men Legends II after spending the day with Yujing and sharing with her the joys of LocoRoco.

Friday I went to the graduate students' Activities Fair to help out. Which was OK. Now I regret going around and asking questions about some of the clubs. I thought I would get another chance at the general activities fair, but of course I forgot I would be at work (among other things). I ended up skipping practice (which was probably good, I don't think very many other people showed up). BBQ and poker at Andrew's new place. I went down big early (first to buy back in), but ended up winning the most at the end, I think. I think I was up like $19 while Jeffery was up like $17. I don't even remember the big hands I won anymore. Except that Jeffery folded to my Aces when he was holding Jacks. So that was a good call by him.

Saturday I went up to SF to visit the drawgroup. Got to see Leah and the whole gang, which was really nice. It would have been even nicer to walk around the park, but it got cold and windy (as always), so we just sat around Kristin's place and talked. I had some time to kill, so I drove down to the Metreon to walk around. Bought some stuff at the Sony store and stopped by the Titanic exhibit (finally!). Apparently, they are staying til like January or something (they were originally scheduled to move on early September). So I still have time to go look at the exhibit. $22 for adults. There wasn't enough time for me to go through the exhibit (I'd like to listen to the audio tour), because I had to meet Sandy and everybody at Coco's. I was a little early, so I took a walk around the block to think about things. Dinner was good (excuse my manners!)...I need to do that more often.

Sunday I wanted to go to service with Sandy, but it was time for the Time Spiral prerelease. So I went down to the SJ convention center with my brother. I won't go through all the details this time, but I did get a foil timeshifted card (shiny...). I wasn't too happy with my deck, but I guess maybe it wasn't really that bad. The mana curve was really not too great. I had two each of the Kavus and the double-strike Slivers, but they each come in at 5R and I think it hurt my deck a little. I dunno. I thought my brother had a bunch of cool cards, especially slivers and creatures with come into play effects, but I guess he didn't have much luck. I lost the first 2 matches and drew the 3rd match (although they were all 2-1 and close games), and then played against a guy playing 5 colors and way too many cards. I'm almost wondering if he was playing with his entire card pool. Oh well.

Monday I went to practice. One word. Disastrous. 'Nuff said. Although I got a good mile in afterwards.

Tuesday I went to small group. I originally wasn't planning to go since I didn't make it to service on Sunday. But Hanlin specifically invited me, so that gave me the extra push to go. Did a little bit of sharing, which it seemed like the other people appreciated. I'd really like to talk more about the issue I'm going through in depth, probably when we split up into guys and girls.

Wednesday I went running with Hanlin. It was a good pace. I felt good.

Thursday everybody decided to just get together and finish up X-Men. Accomplishment (although obviously I only contributed at the very end). And we ended the night just standing around at the infinite spawn point gaining a few levels. Hahah.

Friday I went to practice after having thought about the mistakes I made on Monday. From how it went on Friday, I think it's a doable path to go down. But for really bad luck, I fell down and sprained my ankle while doing my warm-ups. It could really not have come at a much worse time.

Saturday I went to the car wash with the rest of the Canaan people. That was fun, and meeting new people was nice. Several times, I found myself relating more easily with the kids in the youth group than with people my own age. I guess this has always been the case with me. It's harder for me to stand around and talk to people about work, and how life is going, where I went to school, etc, etc... I'd rather just have fun and talk to people about random, inconsequential stuff. Make silly jokes. That's how I relate to people. Afterwards, headed off to Stanford to talk a little bit to Yujing. She told me that maybe the path that I've chosen down is not as great as I originally thought. But I can't think of a better way. Is it even ideal that I should work to bring things back to how they were originally? Or is change a natural progression of things? I know the argument is that if something makes me unhappy, I shouldn't do it, but we can't always do what we want. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and put in the effort. And I don't want to give up Stanford Wushu. I made a commitment to really try hard to get back into Wushu and hopefully even compete this year. I'm not at the point to run away yet. But, Yujing brings up a good point that I need to be aware that I don't uncomfortablize other people. I hope she was talking more about the Monday fiasco, but hopefuly I'll be able to check in with her and Lawrence over the next few practices. Then I went over and argued with Matt about the finer points of the Character Contest V. He's doomed. Picked Roll over Yuna and Ryu over Mega Man. Doomed. And then finally back to Kittoe, where I was surprisingly not late. We basically played a game of Bang! which is an interesting game. Maybe there are few enough cards that you can learn what they all do really quickly, but it would have been nice if there were a few words (like reminder text) on some of the special cards.

Whew. On to the future.

Sunday I'm finally going over to service with Sandy to see what it's like. Don't know yet if we'll go to the Raiders game afterwards or not. And then meeting up with Patricia to talk. About you know what, of course. I originally signed up to flyer-up, but I think I have to give my ankle a rest. Stupid ankle!

Monday is practice. We'll see how the ankle is. Stupid ankle! Byron's community group was moved to Monday this week to accomodate the adopted family.

Tuesday is the demo. I would like to participate....stupid ankle! Sandy's community group is having fun night, so I'll probably join them.

Wednesday everybody usually goes running at Gunn. Stupid ankle!

Friday is the first class demo...urgh. Stupid ankle! And it's the Moonlight Run. Double stupid ankle! Argh!

Saturday morning will be the Time Spiral release (won't be stupid like last time), and then at night it looks like Timmy's free to do our second rallye. And hopefully we can get our parents to come too.

And life goes on. The good thing is that even though this is incredibly busy compared to how my life was before, I'm really happy about it. Now this is what I've always wanted life to be like. So I'm glad. I think I will always remember this point in my life. Hopefully it's a turning point.

Oh and one more thing. LYDIA IS GRACE'S SISTER!!! o.O***