what's the next best thing to flying business/first class on an international flight? having an entire row to yourself. and that's exactly what i had, thanks to my dad calling in (he's a million-miler so he usually gets an entire row to himself when he flies economy). so the flight wasn't packed, but i was the only one in the flight with an entire row to myself (row of 3 seats). a lot of people were looking at me, some were giving my dirty looks. some were tempted to take my empty seat. well, one woman with a 2 year old baby saw my empty space and asked a flight attendant if she could sit there. the flight attendant then asked me, so being the pushover that i am, said 'okay.' i just assumed it would be temporary, but when she started moving her bags over - boy was i pissed. my entire row had just become one lousy seat.

if you didn't already notice, i said the baby was 2 years old. that was pretty much the end of any sleep i could have potentially had. the baby was one of the most hyperactive babies i had ever seen:

- she kept opening and closing, no, slamming the tray table... the woman in front of her was PISSED.
- she kept on wanting to wear her mom's shoes, which were these wooden shoes that made clicking noises, and jump in them.
- she sneezed her food on me... twice. so now i have all these little green (from chewed up peas) and peanuts on my clothes.
- whenever i tried to sleep, she kept on poking me.
- and the best part: her mom fed her coca-cola, so the baby slept only for an hour for the entire 14 hour flight. she only slept because her mom fed her tylenol cold to get her to calm down.

why didn't i switch seats? on hindsight, i should have, but i had a window seat, and having a middle seat would have dropped my chances to sleep to nil.

speaking of sleep, i only slept 4 hours since Thursday evening US time (630am korea) until Saturday night... i didn't get that much sleep before the plane ride because i had to catch a 430am bus to the airport. so i just slept 15 hours!

in korea now for a quick 3 day trip... the place has definitely changed. it was nice seeing my relatives again, and i keep forgetting about all the hierarchy that goes on in korean families. actually, not even families, but in general.

can't wait to get back to the US.

some items of note:

- graduated this week... and i already can't remember where i put my diploma
- went to san francisco and ate some goodness
- aileen bought me an ipod photo as a present
- going to korea tomorrow, then italy next week


so after standing in line at the post office for over an hour, i realized that the more advanced cell phone ring tones are actually annoying. at first, i thought that the these 'polyphonic' mp3 ring tones were pretty cool and considered purchasing some. however, the cooler ring tones get the longer the owner wants to listen to them. that is, you hear these crappy songs instead of the annoying rings - but for longer periods of time. people like these songs they actually paid money for, and will let their cell phones ring for an extended period of time. it's like, "yeah... i'm cool. i got this badass rap song. i'm gonna play it for y'all a little longer."
argh! so annoying!

this is a very sad story... and i'm no mother, but things like this really prevent me from sleeping. i am naturally an insecure, therefore, often paranoid person. so whenever i hear stories of people just randomly being killed/raped/tortured it really freaks me out. i mean, can you imagine just living your normal happy life, perhaps cooking dinner or watching TV waiting for your kids to come home, and all of a sudden they don't. in some cases, you're sleeping in your own home, and your kid just disappears in the morning. you become a celebrity, but in the worst circumstances possible. you become a prime candidate for oprah.

the absolute worst part that really keeps me up late at night is knowing you cannot control what happens. you are powerless to prevent it and can never predict it.

another sad reminder of the things that still happen in this world, and that this world is far from perfect.

so i am in the process of moving in to my new apartment, and it's pretty nice. i actually like my old one better in terms of layout, but in terms of everything else, i like my new one better.

i've been just chilling the past few days working from home, and watching a ton of TV. i feel like a housewife, or more proper, homemaker. i've done aileen's laundry, dishes, cooked dinner, groceries, watered the plants, and vacuumed. aileen got mad at me for doing her laundry... go figure. so never do aileen's laundry. another thing i learned this week is that Judge Judy is really unfair and biased against men.

in any case, i've been working out lately and using the treadmill. today, a girl was also working out on the bike. we didn't say anything to each other, and the room was pretty quiet. i started my run, and then she started to run on the treadmill next to me. i noticed on the corner of my eye that she was looking at what speed i was going, and when she did that... i got nervous. why did i get nervous? well... first i'm asian which means unnecessarily competitive, second, i'm a guy so i have my pride to protect. especially after being aileen's wife the past couple days.

in any case, she couldn't hang with me at my speed for very long. she only ran for 5 minutes, got off, and left.

yeah. i sure showed her.





(yes... i'm very bored)