Survived

About three weeks ago I got an email from HR and it was about a job that I have applied a several months ago. HR asked me to add some more information such as resume, letter of recommendation, etc. This position was for full-time ASL instructor at high school. I thought it was too late since the school season has began.

Sunday I got an email from one woman and said she got my resume and saw that I graduated from McDaniel. She asked me if I would like to apply for substitute. I thought it would be a good experience for me and I feed my resume fat, so I told her yes.

In a few hours later, she emailed me and make a request to meet her next morning. My mouth fell on the floor but brave enough to agreed with her. I thought she must be despire finding somebody to sub for a class. After meeting her, I learned one teacher had to leave for a month for a reason. Seriously, my meeting with her took about fifteen minutes. All she was blah blah about job position. That's it. She didn't even interview me for this job. She said I got the job as long-term sub and normal sub but I have to email my transcripts, letters, and fingerprints first before start the job.

Last Monday was my first day of a job and it almost killed me. That job was a bit different than I thought it would be. I'm taking a place that support students. I do not teach a class, but going to several classes to check on deaf students to make sure they are okay. I also have to teach two deaf girls for math--2 grades girls. I also work with one deaf boy on his writing skills. I'm co-teacher for one class. Crazy! I tried to memorized what I was supposed to do and what they wanted me to do. Stressed!

After a week, I was exhausted! The place was far and it took me a hour and half to get there! Wednesday was worse because I have to teach my ASL class at TU. I left the apartment at 7 on the dot and didn't get home until almost 10pm. Crazy? I thought so, surprised that I survived on that day. The next day was hardest day for me because I was ready to fell on the floor and sleep. Oh boy... I will still have to do this for another week. The teacher will return on 27th.

Oh yeah, over the week, two people asked me for my email because they wanted me to substitute for them when they need in the future.

Sheese, it sounds so tiring! I don't want to think about it because I have to go to work tomorrow morning!!! So let you know that I survived...

Family Reunion

My family voted was to stay one of beach houses in Florida. It turned out we had lot of fun! It made me wish all of my family live close, so we can spend time together often. It didn't matter how much we spend time on the beach, a pool, inside of house, or else. My favorite activity was getting together every nights.

I was sad to know the day was end of vacation and go back blah to the reality world. I'm looking forward for next reunion--two years. Sighs, two years--too long! I don't have much to say but grateful for a great family I have.

P.S. the top of the shirt said, "I survived the gulf coast oil spill" and bottom "Fifevergnugen 2010, Destin, FL"

A Necklace

My family is going to have a family picture next week. We all agreed to wear white shirt and tan pants, so it would look good with background of beach. Of course, we added some color in it.

Girls in family were talking about making their necklaces for family pictures. I realized I need one as well but the problem is--what kind of jewelry do I want to wear? But really, I wanted to have something to go with my new white shirt. I ended up make one necklace to go with it. I hope it looked good with new white shirt and I look good in it. I need Annie, or anyone, to see if it looked good before I take it with me to the family reunion.

A Shark?

Annie and I made last minute decision to go a beach for fun. I was thinking to get some tan but I do not know if the wish would works before the family reunion. My body wanted to be alike lobster, but I tried to coax to be alike uhh tan.. I don't think my body listens me, sighs.

Anyway we got up early in the morning and found a good spot to put our towels, chairs, stuff to show people that the place was ours. Just like any animals pee or spray odor to make an announcement, it's mine! I knew Annie loves beach and I thought she would run to the waves but she didn't. She just stand and stare at the ocean. I encouraged her to go in because I do not want to go in. I'm---umm--chicken. I wanted to see Annie to go in first before I go. I know it sounds silly but how it works for me.

Annie's facial expression changed and said, "Something was wrong.. You can see there are lot of fish jumping..." I couldn't believe what she told me and I tried to see what she see. She had to describe how she see and I finally understood what she means.

You can see dark spot there. That means lot of fish in that area. One fish jumped. Actually there were lot of fish jumping crazy. In this picture, there was one fish jumped.

Again, can you see a circle around the dark spot? Annie was right, something was there.

Annie decided not to go in yet but need to go to the bathroom. I was left alone and waiting. What am I doing right now? Of course, staring the ocean. Suddenly I saw something come out of ocean....

GASP! A SHARK! Good thing, Annie didn't went in the water!

I couldn't believe it was a shark! I wish Annie was here! I...just grabbed my camera and tried to take a picture of shark to show Annie. I saw it AGAIN and caught it. My brain was racing--a shark! The shark is in the ocean! Should I warn people who already in the ocean? But how?! I decided to stare and see if there is more sharks in there..

I started to see some more and realized it was not shark. It was a dolphin! In this picture, there were a baby and a mother dolphin! I didn't realized until I downloaded from camera to iMac.

Oh boy! Lot of dolphins! Annie finally come back and I was excited to tell her what I saw. She was able to see some dolphins as well. She said those dolphins are porpoises because their nose are short. I thought it was neat and learned how they get their food by push fish into shallow places. That's how fish got trapped and got scared.

Dolphins and fish didn't stay much longer, I think it only last an hour. The beach started to fill up with people. It became a normal beach. We had fun time.

A Pool

I wish I had a pool in our backyard, actually we do, but I wish it was a private pool not public. Going to a friend's house and use their pool could be fun. Annie and I ended up babysitting a family in New York. They had a new pool and we tested their new pool plus a cool slide.

Annie and I stayed there from Saturday to Tuesday morning. We ended up swimming with kids every afternoon until our bodies became too wrinkle. Oh boy, we were experiencing horrible heat waves since last week and continuing today. I'm praying for the rain to cool off. Sighs, the humid were bad and heat was eh, enough to make me want to escape and live in North Pole.

Those kids were trying to kill me. Two young kids tried to climb on me while oldest kid fighting with them.

Annie complained that I didn't show exciting enough--encouraged me to make a funny face. Okay, I did, but I know she didn't mean that beside a smile.

That cool slide, one last turn of the slide surprised me. Look at my hair, haha.

Anyway I forgot to take some pictures of fireworks! Dang, we went to family's friend's house. They had cool downhill garden that we can sit and watch the fireworks. Really, we are sitting front of lake. There was a boat on the lake with all of cool fireworks that they were ready to fly and act for us. I was wondering about the loudness of fireworks but surprised I was able to handle this. (even two kids got scared of it)

I guess that's it--what I did over the weekend. Swim, playing with kids, sleep, etc.. You get the picture, right? Happy belated July 4th day! I hope you all have fun time over the weekend.

Audiograms

This morning I went to my appointment for mapping. Surprised the appointment was simple and easy. I had to take test for each CI. Darn, they didn't test with both like they did last January. It was alright because we can assume it's five dB above from CI. I have created the audiograms for you to see how much it has improved since January.

Last January Steve was not happy with the results what he saw, but this morning made him happy. I guess I'm happy as well. :D

Steve did not want to change since it was a good mapping so he only adjust one specific area for right CI and did not change anything on left CI. I left the office with very little change and I was surprised because I got used to big change every time I went for mapping. I hope my CIs will continue improving and hope will get some more good news in six months. My next appointment will be on December 14th.

This Morning

A week ago, one of counselors asked me to give a talk on Father's Day. My topic was on "Honor Our Spiritual Father". He said I'll be second speaker for this meeting. Perfect, I like second speaker than last. Oh boy! That topic was tough to find the resources but managed it through changed several times how to present the topic. Yesterday I spend most of day working on this topic. Actually I did trying to find resources and ponder about the topic before pour my brain on the paper. But the lds.org wasn't working for one or two days, every time I typed "Respect" and I always get the result was "no word matched", grins. Last night I finally got it and satisfied with it when Annie found one good story I really liked a lot.

Annie and I discussed what time we should leave our apartment to get to church early to get things ready. Annie need to explain the bishopric how it works when she interpret for me, where to sit, etc. We decided to leave 8am. We usually leave at 8:30am for 9am meeting. I was getting nervous about my talk.

Annie got up early to prepare the lesson for primary. I got up awhile later and get ready for church. We left the apartment at 8:05am. We hit the road and arrived church at around 9:45am. I almost missed my chance to give a talk.

WHAT? 9:45?! The church starts at 9am, right? What happened?! We should arrive at the church at around 8:35am but ended up got there 9:45am?! Did alien got us? Did we missed the road? Did something block the road? Did the police stopped us for speeding (but it shouldn't take us that long!) Did something has happened on our way to the church?

Well, I am more than grateful and beyond of anything to Heavenly Father for protect us this morning because we could died this morning. We have witnessed horrible accident, just one car accident--not two. I took the pictures from Annie's cellphone to give you some ideas why I said we could died this morning. I wish I can get closer for better picture, but I couldn't. People would think I have no feeling if I do that.

click on that picture to enlarge for better visual

That guy went about 50 mph from north on 30 Route. We were driving from south the opposite side. I did not remember how fast we went but we were not in hurry. I was very nervous about giving a talk. I was looking at the paper and stared at the street. I saw that silver SUV on left side but suddenly the SUV started to drifting to right--in our lane! I felt Annie noticed that and slow down as hoping that the person in SUV might realized what he has done and get back in his lane. Nope, he didn't! I do not think I did blink even one at that scene. I just stare--horrible and everything I feel couldn't move. It's like a classic movie with slow motion, but really it was happening so FAST because he was speeding.

I even had time to make a map for you to understand what I mean. It looked wrong to me because the length but give you some ideas.

So Annie stopped fast and I saw EVERYTHING from there to there. I even saw how front window smashed, but not shattered. Annie and I saw same and different. I told Annie to call 911 FAST. She couldn't find her cellphone. I found it backseat and gave it to her then got out of the car and ran to the SUV. Inside of me, I really DO NOT want to go and check on that person to make sure he is okay. Annie was talking to person on cellphone. I had to forced myself to get close to see inside of SUV. At first, I was looking at right side of SUV but realized I couldn't see very well because it was umm smashed so badly. I had to go left side which I REALLY DON'T WANT to go there.. I was so scared to see bloody, missing parts, open body, etc. It wasn't my best part to handle this situation like Tim, Heather, and Dad could handle.

Anyway, I forced myself to look inside of driver's side. I saw mexico man in 40's. He looked unstable. He was like dizzying as trying to figure it out what happened to him. He speak something I don't understand but I gesture stay. At least there were no blood on his face. The airbag saved his face. But I saw the left side, I couldn't believe but it looked like that driver's legs might pinned (possibly cut off). Actually the driver was pinned pretty serious. He couldn't move at all except his head and one of his arm (right). Goodness, it was only one in this SUV, not a family or something like that. Anyway, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to step back and check with Annie. But I smelled something stinky.. I got afraid because of gas. I saw that SUV was leaking. I told Annie I smelled something and it was NOT good news. Annie told me that she heard buzz. We realized where the noise came from--that pole SUV hit.

That pole hold two logs for wires. Top of log broke in half and fell! But lucky, it fell and got stuck. We got scared because it might fell and hit that SUV and us. We were in bad position. After about five minutes, the police arrived and asked who has witnessed this accident. It turned out that only Annie and me saw everything. He asked us to stay and fill the form to describe how it happens.

Finally more police cars, firetrucks, ambulance, etc. Of course, add to this listing, BGE truck to check that pole. But BGE left and came back after everything cleaned on that street to avoid troubles. I realized I might missed my talk at church. I asked Annie to call the church to warn them that I might not make it because of this situation. Annie tried to call but failed because of disconnect or busy. Annie gave up.

The police came to us and ask to explain how it happened. He asked if that driver was in our lane. Annie answered yes. THAT hit us so hard. It caused me feel sick and shake, Annie too. I realized we could die because both of us went fast. I think that SUV went faster than we went. The police was upset with that idea but glad that we were okay.

Annie told me that she heard police officers were discussing who was that man. They couldn't find ID of him. It seems the SUV wasn't his. The police told us it turned out "special situation" and asked us stay to wait for the investigator to arrive. We need to explain it to investigator. It sounds like that man could possible doing illegal, immigrant, or something! Oh boy..

I looked at what they were doing with that SUV. They were trying to cut SUV roof off, basically, rip the SUV apart to free that man. They realized that taking him to the ambulance was not good enough so had to get a helicopter to get the man to the hospital.

After an hour, we were done with everything and both of us were sick. Annie was going to cry. I was going in shock--more likely body shaking so much. We decided to go home because I couldn't focus if I go to the church. But we were stuck because of police cars, firetrucks, etc blocked us. But they were starting to leave the scene bit by bit after the helicopter took the man. We finally able to turn and go home.

After about five minutes, Annie and I started to discuss if we should go back to church. We changed our mind and turn again to get on the right track to the church. I don't know if there would be enough time for me to give a talk. We finally arrived at 9:45am. I need to copy one page from my talk for Annie because somehow it printed only two pages and I have three pages. While Annie was trying to copy the page, I went to the meeting and try to get counselor's attention that I'm here. He saw me and smile. He seems happy to see me here. I gesture that I'll be right back. I walked back to the library and told Annie that I'm still on for talk. Suddenly one of counselors left the meeting and meet us. We explained what happened then went in the meeting.

I'm on for a show. I even had to tell why I arrived late but simple. I started my talk right away. My legs still tremble. I got through for ten minutes. I'm done. My talk was over. I sat down and was about to melt on the seat. The meeting was over. A lot of people came to me and said good talk! I love your talk! Thank you for your wonderful talk! Blah blah blah. Funny, it was almost too much for me! Haha.. (They might shocked that I can think...) Anyway, I knew we made right decision turn back to church. We were planning to go home after second hour, but ended up stayed for whole meetings. I feel a bit better and more calm than we came in.

Whew, that morning exhausted me. That sucks because the picture of man in SUV, the look of SUV, etc still popping in my head. I tried to push it away or put it in trash but couldn't. That took me back on my mission in Olathe, KS. I had a car accident on the highway. I remember how it happened and all people working on us (me and my companion). I remember that the holy ghost was with me to communication with people even my companion was in shock. I knew Heavenly Father protected us--we didn't get any major injuries from this horrible car accident, only minor injuries. Everyone were surprised that we survived in this car accident and got minor injuries. In ER couldn't believe their eyes that we were okay after heard how it happened. I felt I was lucky, but I realized Heavenly Father loved me so much and let me alive longer. That remind me of one story in Book of Mormon, what story? Umm, olive trees? Yeah, it is about olive tree and I think it's in Jacob? Ah, yup! Jacob chapter 5.

After witness this morning, I can imagine how the man felt. It has sinked in my heart and grateful Heavenly Father for protect me--again. I hate the feeling of lump in my throat when I think about it. But I'm okay for now.

BEWARE!!!

Sometimes we wanted to look pretty, but sometimes it is okay to be ugly. I remember mom said being pretty must suffer. (eyes rolling) Of course, it leads to dye my hair to hide some gray hair. I was not thrilled to go for it, but I did it about two or three years ago. I had no problem. NO PROBLEM!

Sure... (eyes rolling) Annie wanted to dye her hair and I decided to get one as well since I haven't done mine for awhile. My roots showing the different color already. Last Saturday we bought stuff for dye. I mean real stuff! Annie have been learning and studying how to use those stuff instead going to beauty to pay lot of $$.. I do not have that kind of money right now. She did dye my hair many times. She did not make one tiny mistake.

I have decided to go a little lighter what I had right now. My hair is almost umm dirty blond.. light brown? I don't know. So I risked my life to use different number for dye and hoped it will turn out good. We came home and Annie dyed my hair.

Oh uh. My hair looked uhhh too dark. Not TOO DARK BROWN. Just brown. Umm, I don't know HOW BROWN it was. I don't like it very much. It forced me to wait until Tuesday to get different kind of dye to fix the problem. Of course, one thing we had to do is to remove dye color from my hair and start it over again with fresh.

OH WHOA! WWWWWHOAAA!! I looked SO OLD and FAKE!

That....was too much! Eh, that was normal because it removed stuff so Annie can dye with new color. Okay, Annie put stuff on my hair. I had to wait for about thirty minutes. We played wii while waiting. Finally it was time for me to jump in the shower to clean it off. I went to the mirror, OH THAT look--scared me! It didn't change anything! Well, it did change a bit but STILL the same.. UH OH OH.. HO HO. No, I'm not Santa.. I'm not Mrs. Clause, sorry.

Annie had to run to the store and buy different kind and came back. We tried once again.. NOTHING WORKED!!! I gave up and had to give my hair a break. I started to feel a little panic. I do not want to go to work with this hair. I wondered how the students' react to this? I feel idiot.

Today Annie stopped by to get different kind (again) and talked with worker about my situation. Both of them think the thing will help to solve the problem. Guess what? It did improved but barely!!!!! I wanted to SCREAM! It turned out I have gold and red hair. Annie took me to the store and show it to the worker that she talked before. Both of them discussing and what to do with it. I hate that feeling!

This time we try with toner. I can feel burning on my skin. Sighs, I'm tired of dying. I'm tired of taking showers. I'm tired of washing my hair so many times. I'm tired of waiting, waiting, and waiting. I'm tired of sitting while Annie working on my hair. I'm tired of everything!

And THIS? (The picture, you see below, wasn't right color..) Is that what I got when Annie put toner?! I don't know if it was better after toner. Too blond? It is hard to see this picture but my eyebrows and hair didn't match very good. Honestly, I don't know but beware! If you see me next picture being bald, then you know what happened to me.