Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Taking a break until 2005...

Happy Birthday to Cecille! My dearest dearest friend. My world is a better place because I know you. 

it's that time again:

Christmas Cookie Exchange:

I was really self-conscious because of the tortilla casserole disaster the other night, but last night went much better. I made six dozen frosty snowball cookies, individually hand-rolled in powdered sugar and sprinkles. They were a hit, as were all the Christmas cookies (try this one). Everyone that showed up was Chinese, including 8 kids running around. I haven't been able to experience that in a while, so it was nice. Once in a while you just want to get back to your roots.

Headin' Out and Week 23:

We'll be leaving by lunchtime today for our drive down. I feel bad about Manny driving all those hours because I've been keeping him up at night (but of course, he's all smiles about everything in general, which makes me feel even worse). I haven't slept much since Sunday, because I've been having strong abdominal pains at night. I almost called the doctor Tuesday, but it finally subsided. I think it was because I've been eating large lunches or dinners since Friday (group lunch, Saturday party, Monday potluck, etc.). It culminated in our Christmas lunch at an Indian buffet on Tuesday with lots of curries. I doubled up in pain that night. I think I'd better take it easy with the holiday eating. Oddly enough, I've slowed down in my weight gain despite eating more. I've been a real worrywart about the baby's health - can you tell? When I pray and come to a realization and acceptance, I'm fine, then a few days later it starts up again. I just want her to be alright.

Food for Thought

Christmas Power Point (Click on Merry Christmas)

Christmas party at the Rangel home. More about it below. 

With Ceech, Peg, and families at Chili's for lunch. More about it below. 

the fun has begun:

Yesterday I had lunch Ceech & Jeannie, Peg, and their kids. I had some presents for the kids, but didn't really expect anything for me. I guess I couldn't dodge their generosity (thanks!). What's more fun than being around cute kids? Not much that I can think of. As we were leaving, someone swung the door open and Ashlyn, Peg's daughter, immediately covered Ceech's son to protect him. What a good big sister.

Last night, a group of us went to Israel and Annette's (Izzy and Nutty's) home for a Christmas party. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think I can handle driving in the middle of the night very well these days. Manny couldn't make it because of work, but I'm fine with representin'. He was all set to go, but the lab tool was down all day. One thing I like about us being in the same field is that I understand his job.

I bought a pretty silver and jewel Christmas frame for the exchange. I almost wanted to keep it. I think I got the gag gift, but it could've been a serious gift, so I didn't say anything. :) They had this question book and I think we all know each other a lot better now than we ever thought we would. ;) Roland said I should do a freestyle dance solo for one of our church offerings, which I politely declined.

I was so disappointed in the tortilla casserole I brought. It was a cousin's recipe, but I think instead of flour tortillas, the recipe should've called for tortilla chips or cornmeal. It was all mush. At first I was thinking, "Now people will think I'm an awful cook," but I guess I learn the most when I'm humbled.

Happy Birthday, Gerard (yesterday), Dad, and Salina! 

With Larissa at Stonestown Mall in SF. 

At Gerard's 50th birthday. 

Gerard, Baby Doll, and Francesca. 

Brookdale Lodge. 

Holiday lunch with old coworkers at Fiesta Del Mar. 

weekend

Saturday morning, Manny met with Bryan for bible study and then went to work while I got my holiday haircut. I seem to have a lot of energy these days, so I'm trying to put that into cleaning and reorganizing before it runs out. Saturday night we went to Gerard's 50th birthday at Brookdale Lodge. The directions link from the site took us to Mapquest, which took us on a swervy curvy run all around the mountains. Good thing I had a plastic bag in the car. I was supposed to capture Gerard's surprise, but we ended up arriving half an hour late. Of course, on the way back, we took a different route and cut our commute in half. Sunday after church we met up with Larissa (pronounced Lareesa) in San Francisco. I bought her her gift (purple slippers) on the spot because I didn't know what would be comfortable for her. Kind of a lame thing I do sometimes, but foolproof.

Me, E., and her mom at the Christmas Tea. 

Our table of goodies and mango tea (I crossed out the name). 

do i look fat?

We had a Christmas lunch at Fiesta Del Mar today. One of the topics that someone brought up (not me) was whether I looked fat or pregnant. The consensus seemed to be that I look fat, unless the observer knows in advance that I'm expecting. Something that I've learned over the years is that people aren't very discreet with me. Maybe they think I'm open to all sorts of racial and physical comments, but I'm telling you, MEN, you need to watch what you say to a woman. Stick some Twix in your mouth, like that commercial.

I've never really dieted, probably because I spent a few years starving when my family didn't have much. I have been so tempted to quit eating, though, especially when people tell me, "Wow, you got fat!" And this before I became pregnant, when I was 110 lbs at 5'3" (there, I've told the world how much I used to weigh). I personally don't think that's fat. Sure it's a lot heavier than I used to be, but it's still not fat. One other conclusion I have is that many men won't notice your new hairdo or outfit, but gain a couple pounds and it's a major headline! Read all about it! I guess I'm one of the lucky ones that gains it in my face and arms where everyone can see.

On a side note, I think I'll go on some kind of diet, at least watch what I eat, after the baby is born.

Don't take this too seriously. Of course I'm not mad about it and I'm not obsessed with my looks (you can tell, esp. these days). I only feel really hurt when I know people have ill will behind their comments. But I just have to shake my head at some of the conversations I've had (real, not exaggerated):

Me: Hey, B, I haven't seen you in a while [2 years], how have you been?
B: Wow, you got fat!

Me: Merry Christmas. Thanks for having us over!
O: Your face got fat! It's okay on you, though.

Me: There are hardly any macadamia nuts in this macadamias mix.
M: I see you're working on your second chin.

Doctor's Office:
(Me stepping on the scale)
Nurse: Whoa! (and that was all she had to say, while she laughed)

And today:
D: Oh, congratulations, I heard!
Me: Thanks!
D: It's too bad for you. Because you're in that stage where you don't look...well, you look...ff...
Me: Fat?
D: YEAH!
Me: Thanks, D.
(table proceeds to discuss my fatness)

christmastime is here:

Well, Christmas shopping time is here, anyway. I want to take time off work to take care of things, but of course I can't. Saving up that vacation time for my pregnancy leave. I'm not mailing out cards this year, but if everything turns out fine, I'll be sending out the baby announcements in April or May.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, insanity and all. Going to Ranch 99 all year is more than enough preparation for Christmastime parking. (I just realized that Ranch is an appropriate name because you're herded like cattle there) Christmas, to me, is a time for reflection of the year, enjoying traditions with Manny's family, and reunions with old friends. And I've had good memories as well, even before I came to understand the significance of Christ's birth. I mean, we didn't get presents growing up, so it wasn't about that. But I loved the look and feel of the world around me. Light displays, carols, cartoon specials (Charlie Brown Christmas!), playing in the snow with our dog. And I had no idea about the commercialism of the holiday till I was much older. I did get sick almost every year, but at least school was out.

Okay, Christmas Plans so far (would like to see more friends, but we'll mostly be out in San Bernardino County):
Dec 17: Christmas lunch (work)
Dec 18: Gerard's 50th Birthday/Christmas Bash
Dec 19: Larissa's in town!
Dec 20: Israel & Annette's Christmas Party
Dec 22: Christmas Cookie Exchange at Melinda's
Dec 24: Christmas Eve Party
Dec 25: Presents in Pajamas, Visit my parents
Dec 26: Cecille's
Dec 29: See Tedd and Monica before their wedding
Jan 1: Tedd and Monica's wedding

For the cookie exchange, I'm going to try making these Frosty Snowballs. I also need to finalize my lesson on Finances for the Women's Study. What a time to be teaching about that! :)

Manny put up some Christmas lights in our room. I love it. I'm looking forward to getting a tree next year to hopefully signify baby's first Christmas. I'm in week 22 now. I'd like to say time has flown by, but it really hasn't. 9 months seems so long. Maybe it's because I still get morning sickness. But I figure no discomfort is worse than actual labor, so I can't really complain too much. :)

Question for the Sanrio Savvy

This is CoroCoroKiririn. He has a female counterpart. Does anyone know what her name is? This site might help. I got someone a doll of "her," so a name would be good.

Things that start with "S":

Sick:
Well, I spoke too soon. I finally came down with a pretty bad cold. Not being able to take NyQuil, we didn't get much sleep this weekend.

Strange:
A while back I mentioned how a mystery couple accidentally called us and were recorded on our answering machine. Their voices sounded just like ours. Well, they've struck again. The thing is, if they have our number programmed, they must know us, but I don't recognize the voices at all (and I think I'm pretty good at that). We always have to replay it a couple times to convince ourselves it's not us. The last time they "called," the guy said "Okay, okay, I'll take you to Popeye's." While this is something Manny would say, it definitely wasn't us. The sound was more faint this time, but still the conversation was foreign to us. I'm still too cheap to get caller ID.

Super:
I brought my coworker and her mom to our church's Christmas Tea this weekend. They're Albanian, and Mom doesn't speak that much English. But my friend who was teaching English in Albania for two years came back this year and was able to converse with them and make them feel at home. The only reason she's back is because her bf flew out there and proposed over Thanksgiving. (Congrats Colleen and Brad!) I believe everything's part of God's purpose and plan. In Dora's brief message on Christmas, she talked about how when her daughter was young, she would be satisfied with the wrapping paper and the box, not really knowing or caring about the wonderful gift inside. And that's like how many are with the gift God has given to us.

Stress:
This same coworker and I can't seem to get along at work. I think a lot of it is my doing, especially now that she's reporting to me and it's a difficult balance. She and I clash on so many different levels, work-wise, that I have often lost sleep over it. And honestly, I'm pretty mean to her at times about what I perceive as a lack of effort on her part. Aside from that one director that was almost harrassing me for a year, she's been the proverbial thorn in my side. And yet we continue to be friends outside of work. She's had some run-ins with other coworkers, so I probably know a lot more than I should. But at least between us, we continue to forgive each other. Love covers a multitude of sins.

Shady:
I was bothered that the aforementioned director came up to our table during the conference and tried to talk to me. He wasn't invited, but showed up for a free lunch anyway. I'm actually afraid of him, because there's just something creepy about him, like a split personality. You don't know what people like that are capable of and it may be more trouble than it's worth. So I just kept my mouth shut these past couple of years. His true colors came through anyway. There are other directors who told us he should've been fired long ago, but he continues to evade it by running to other groups. Even if I don't expose him, it'll all catch up to him eventually. This guy had written me once about how if he'd gone to Stanford instead of Berkeley, maybe something would've happened between us. Yeah, guy, I'm too clueless to know you're 20 years older than me. Either he's delusional, in denial, or he was testing to see if I knew his age. In any case, I'm keeping my distance.

At 21 weeks (plus I had a large lunch). 

conference/week 21/handwriting

It's a Man's World?:

I just returned from this field engineer conference we held at a local convention center and Marriott hotel. Out of 490 people, I counted only 8 women, including myself. This dichotomy became very obvious during one of the training sessions I had to give. I was sweatin' buckets. Looked like Kevin doing the Levi's pitch on 'The Apprentice,' for those of you who saw his waterfalls. But I got some good reviews. I'm just glad it's done. And another plus was that the women's restrooms were always empty. Poor men -- haha, now YOU get to wait in line!

I think my manager finally spotted my belly during the conference. The dinner plate eyes he had when he glanced down kind of brought me to that conclusion. He's going back to India for three weeks, so I won't have to address it until January. I'm meeting with our human resources rep next week to discuss the plan, man.

Week 21 Update:
I finally felt Baby Hernandez move definitively on Sunday during church. During a reading of Isaiah 58. :) Now I feel her "flutter" everyday, so I don't think it's gas anymore. No kicks yet. One of my coworkers said that the worst time is when they kick your bladder. I'm amazed at how I'm still feeling okay, even though many people who are pretty sick continue to sneeze or cough around me. I'm thankful (and sorry about their illness, of course). My doctor told me not to get the flu shot. Primarily because there isn't much to go around. It's fine, because I have a history of becoming sick after getting the shot anyway.

Write and Wrong:
I was writing a card the other day and noticed how one of my handwritings is so similar to my closest friend's writing. Except the numbers look like your typical Chinese writing numbers, for those that know what I mean. It's not like we copied each other, but it just turned out that way. I'm sure writing has a lot to do with personality, but I do notice a number of "groups" of girlfriends will have similar writing. It was especially noticeable in high school. So this handwriting is sort of my straight up and down engineering handwriting.

The other writing came about because good ole mom wanted me to have more feminine, calligraphy-like writing, so she pulled up a font and told me I had to write like that or else. Or else what? I don't know, but I wasn't about to find out. So I also have fancy-schmancy writing that I'll use for certain occasions. It's kind of like how Manny prints in caps when he tries to write neat. Otherwise it's like total chicken scratch doctor's handwriting.

Toyota's New Toys

These would be cool replacements for wheelchairs, except the one on the left, which looks to be slow. They should make that one ten times larger, then at least it would have an anime feel of destruction and deliverance to it. 

racism and wknd:

Re: 6's comment, Manny usually has a talk with his family later on about the issue, when I'm not around. I appreciate him doing that, because I don't have to feel awkward. I don't want our children hearing that, but if it comes up, we have to teach them not to harbor resentment. That was part of Rick's sermon on Sunday, the church's hand in racial reconciliation. Our church, and the area in general, is a big melting pot of races (vs. the segregated pockets in L.A.), so we might not think we have a problem, but then we have to realize the kinds of thoughts we have if a certain type of person moves into the neighborhood. Or on the flip side, believing our identity is in our race and that we have superiority in that.

Car Trouble, Part 2:
Maybe Rommel's starting to rub off on us. Saturday we had to take Manny's car in for a new battery and coolant system. We won't have another free Saturday for a while, so we did the taboo thing and had the dealer change the tires as well. As I was driving behind Manny, I noticed him swerving to the right. Within a couple hours, his right front tire was flat. There wasn't any obvious evidence of puncturing, so very likely the dealer was at fault. So Manny had to go back again today. I'll be at a conference and Manny has a live customer demo tomorrow, so good thing it'll fixed before then and we won't have to worry about carpooling.

Christmas Shopping:
This year was the worst in terms of my procrastination. Last year I started buying gifts in June (I seem to go back and forth between extremes in many areas of my life). But after running from one crowd to another, we're just about finished. Manny has always noticed children around us, but I noticed this weekend that he was looking at Asian kids more intently, talking about what our kids will be like.

Ideal Job:
If someone were to ask me what job really suits Manny, I'd have to say one of those characters in big costumes, like you see at amusement parks. They don't say anything, they make kids smile, and they often walk funny with their big mid-sections. At Francesca's last roller rink party, Manny wanted to don a Spongebob Squarepants costume and skate around the rink with the kids chasing him. But alas, he will probably be a process engineer for years to come. I guess he could always moonlight.

The Pacifier:

Watch the trailer for the new Vin Diesel movie -- it's action packed.

Yi Li Sha Bai = Elizabeth?

I was listening to Chinese news this morning and they were talking about Fei Lu Jia (Fallujah). I've always wondered if some committee got together and decided how they would translate the names of these places. Because they have to have characters that make sense and match up phonetically (except in certain cases like San Francisco or America, which are just translated as Old Golden Mountain and Beautiful Country).

Entertainer names, too. I remember part of actor Gregory Peck's name (To Kill a Mockingbird) sounded something like "Chicken Butt." But who was it that decided how his name would be translated and what characters would be used? Yi Li Sha Bai is Elizabeth, like Liz Taylor. The name sounds like "one grain of white sand," but I haven't seen the characters, so for all I know, it could be "clothes strength shark white."

There's this site that butchers translates your name. Let me know if you know of a better one. I have a list of Chinese names for the baby, but my mom thought it would be easier if she just named it phonetically based on the first name, like this site does. I guess there's still some time to decide.

Been having problems getting onto blogger. This time I'm keeping a copy so this doesn't get erased again.

Car Trouble:
Manny's car battery died on Monday. I get to be his chauffer for a change. Last night, when we first tried to jump start it, the jumper cables didn't reach. Since his car was blocked on one side, we had to put it in neutral and turn it around. Two security guards came by to see what we were up to. At one point, the clamps touched and sparked a miniature fireworks show. We got it to work. Later we went to Bryan and Orawin's place to get the Sunday School materials and catch up a bit. They had this big stack of games. I could hear Kevin in my head saying, "What is it with married couples and their board games?" :) We made a stop at the grocery store before heading home. It felt like a date for some reason. Maybe we just haven't been out on a weeknight in a while.

Pregnancy Week 20:
Baby Hernandez and I are at the halfway point. I've gained 15 lbs and she's supposed to be about 10.5 oz. I was hoping to feel some movement by now, but I don't think I have yet. I think I felt some "fluttering" two weeks ago, but I thought maybe it was gas (with good reason). And nothing since. I'll ask my doctor in two weeks if there's still no movement. For myself, I hardly ever want to go to the doctor for anything, even an emergency. But for the baby, I want to be in there every week!

The Name Game:
We've started thinking of baby names. I think we have the first name down, but I'm not sure what to do with the middle name. At first we wanted to use my maiden name. Then I wanted to give them Chinese middle names. Now I'm thinking maybe an Western middle name, but Manny thinks a Chinese middle name would be better to remind them of their ethnicity. I'm just not sure. I'm not giving out the potential name(s) yet, but I was just kidding about Beyonce. I'm feeling the pressure from Manny's family to name our kids after relatives as well. I know in the end they'll love them no matter what their name.

The Race Issue:
It kind of bothered me that Manny's grandfather pulled back his eyes, saying that's what the baby would look like. And Manny's dad said if it was a boy, his middle name should be Bruce Lee. They don't mean anything by it, but Asians are pretty sensitive to racial stereotypes and slurs, I think. Some of the things that friends or acquaintances say could easily get them killed in certain circles. Well, that's a topic for another day, but I don't think they realize all the wrath I feel inside for that split second before I realize it's a harmless joke and just smile. Ignore the ignorance. After all, I know his family loves me regardless of what race I am.