[Super Duper Fantastic] ISFP/INFP. 4w5. World Explorer. Super Hero. Rose-colored Glasses.

Oh, I finally made it! It’s New Year’s Eve, and I have an entry for every single day of this year. Congratulations to me!

*pat self on back*

*removes the link*

I have some cooking ahead of me today. In fact, water is boiling as I type this. RV loves having people over, so what better way to start the NYE evening than with dinner and friends. We have a ton of stuff on the menu, so while he’s out shopping for the rest of the ingredients, I’m getting some stuff done too.

It has been a fast year. That’s really all I can say about it. One of the toughest in terms of work, but everything else seemed to fall into place rather nicely. I passed two of the four exams. Two to go. Jaw surgery is going to happen in 2009. Seems like I’m moving full speed ahead.

Made some great friends who are there for me and always up to doing just about whatever. I remember how I used to look for that. Well, found it! It was an extremely fun summer that I tried to keep going through the fall and winter, despite how busy our schedules got. I told myself that I’d put myself out there and date in 2008. I did that. In fact, I signed up for some online dating site that a bunch of my friends ended up signing up for too. Kinda neat time in our lives. A new experience. Dated a guy for a little bit, but then I met RV, and a relationship sorta just sprung up out of the blue.

My 101 in 1001 is back in full force! I’m crossing things off here and there. I hope the economy improves, but I’m not counting on it. Just gotta learn to save and make do with what we’ve got.

Alright, back to cooking!

An update on the 101 in 1001 list:

092 – Visit Hearst Castle.
Crossing this one off the list! RV and I visited Hearst Castle on our way up from Southern California. Rather than stop by on our way down, we decided to squeeze this into the latter half of the trip. Actually, the morning after Christmas, we tried to reserve two spots online for Saturday afternoon. There were two spots open, so we were about to reserve that. However, to make reservations, you have to create an account and log into the site first. By the time we had that all set up, the two spaces were gone! What are the chances of that!?!

So we were both a bit disappointed. We could either reserve an early morning slot or wait until Sunday. Waiting wasn’t really on our list, so we decided to leave LA early. We would stay in a motel or inn nearby the night before and just head over to Hearst Castle from there. Unfortunately, because we had late dinner with Carlos in Hollywood, we ended up not leaving LA until 10. The drive was quite long, and when we arrived in Morro Bay at 1am, we were stuck with very few options on where to stay – whatever was open. Meh. The place was alright, except the pipes weren’t clean, so the water was all gross and rusty.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to drive up to Hearst Castle. Our reservation was for 8:40, but since we arrived 15 minutes early, we were able to squeeze onto the tour group ahead of ours. Great views. Interesting tour guides. Freezing cold fingers. It was $20 well-spent. And now I can cross #92 off my list.

Not long after RV dropped the L-word on me, I was throwing it back at him. Sometimes it felt like the right moment to say it. I was probably using it more than he was. Things are going well. At the same time, I’m beginning to sense some hesitation within myself. I’m not quite sure how this is all turning out. I see him so often that I’m beginning to feel a little antsy. I think he sees it too. As much as we love spending time together, it just becomes that – coexisting, rather than experiencing something fresh and new. On the one hand, being able to be that comfortable with each other is very nice. But still, I like to keep things exciting. I know that things will be different when I’m working my butt off again and will have less time to spend with him, so for now, I’m enjoying all the time we can spend together.

We are spending this evening apart. We’ll see each other later tomorrow when we head to the De Young Museum.

Photos are from the day after Christmas. We watched the sunset over Los Angeles from Griffith Park.

Photos of the sky the day before Christmas Eve during our drive from LA County to Orange County.

An update on the 101 in 1001 list:

020 – Document jaw surgery. Before and after.
About a week and a half ago, I went in to see the oral surgeon to update him on my progress. The deteriorating bone structure caused by all the movement of the teeth has been cause for concern, and he advised that I check out a periodontist as soon as I can. I don’t know WHEN I can, but I’ll make better efforts in doing so.

It looks like the plan is to schedule surgery for August 2009. I’ve taken the month off just in case. If I’m not using the time to recover, I’ll use the time for some much needed vacation. I had to shift around some time to make the month long PTO work out.

The orthodontist recently put in a spring next to one of the smaller teeth, so that space can be created. They’ll later have the dentist put a cap on it to make it look proportional to the other teeth. But man, that latest wire and spring was such a pain in the mouth. Seriously! The appointment which normally lasts 20 minutes took an hour. Ugh. I was in much pain, and the assistant putting everything in was having the hardest time.

Turns out that RV’s mother has had jaw surgery done before. Instead of an underbite, her correction was for an overbite. I keep telling myself that this whole ordeal is worth the end result. I think everyone around me has said the same thing. Fingers crossed for good results.

Looks like I survived the Christmas Eve dinner/party with all the relatives as well as Christmas with RV and his family. His mom has a lot of sisters, and they each have a bunch of kids, so it was a nice big family gathering. We did the whole White Elephant gift exchange, and I ended up with these two silly ornaments. I don’t even have a tree! I guess it’s time to put up a mini one and start the collection going…

I gifted RV with an Apple iPhone. Yeah, he’s one of those guys now. Actually, he’d been wanting one for awhile, and I was curious about the hype. Folks, they’re pretty darned useful. At least some of the applications are. I’m tempted to getting one for myself if the rates aren’t so bad, but for the time being, I’m going to use RV’s. But we went into the AT&T store on Christmas Eve to get the phone. It wasn’t activated until later in the evening, so before he knew what was happening, I grabbed the phone, threw it back into the box and wrapped it up. Talk about a test of patience. Luckily, it wasn’t yet activated, or he’d probably have thrown a fit.

On Christmas morning, the kids were awake before the parents. Didn’t do much though since there weren’t a lot of presents to be opened. By the time we went outside for some fresh air, it was probably 4pm. It had been stormy off and on. RV and I found a local hookah shop/lounge that was open, so we checked it out before Christmas dinner with the family. Yes, we shared a piña colada-flavored hookah for Christmas. How totally random! After Christmas dinner of prime rib, asparagus, and mashed potatoes, we went for a drive to the beach.

From Freewill Astrology:
“I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.” That was Michelangelo talking about how he approached his work as a sculptor. He didn’t build the statue, in other words, but got rid of the unnecessary stuff that was surrounding it. I suggest that you try this approach in 2009. You have the potential to create a great thing — maybe even two great things — by chiseling away the extraneous material that’s obscuring their unique beauty.

Got it. Will work on chiseling away and removing the unnecessary and extraneous. Merry Christmas!

I’m here in Fountain Valley with RV and some of his family. We arrived yesterday after a very long drive and a quick stop in Tustin. Got to see L – YAY! He seems to be doing well. Sometimes I wish he’d update his blog [*ehhem* Hi L!], so I would know what’s going on in his life. We caught up over some Jamba Juice by his work.

After dropping off our bags at RV’s aunt’s house, we had some delicious Korean fried chicken. The rest of the evening involved movies, conversation, and beer… Not sure what time I finally went to bed, but I can’t imagine it to be very late because I was just exhausted from the driving.

Will take pictures at some point to make these posts a little bit more interesting. RV’s aunt has a very odd neighbor who puts on some Christmas light/radio show in front of his house. He got all worked up when we parked in front of his house for a few minutes since it was “prime location” for his show. From what I’ve heard, not many travel far and wide to see this show, but he probably thinks differently. Maybe I’ll snap a few of his “show.”

Update: Photos of the set-up!

Older sibling syndrome has me constantly pestering RV. In a playful way, of course, but man, I can get annoying! I hope he can stand me for the next week while we’re on the road. Hahaha.

I’m really digging the latest version of WordPress. I didn’t really look into it much until I discovered that I could edit my posts with a click of a button. Super convenient and easy. No more manual upgrades, they say. Plus, a customizable Dashboard to make throwing posts out there a breeze. If you’re not already on that train, jump on it.

Anyway, there’s a whole video on the new features.