Ever had one of those days?

Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong?

Today was one of my longest days at work. The "to do list" was quite formidable to start out with: run two western blots, count and snap freeze cells for the proteomics group, do a kill curve for SHEP cells, in addition to several routine lab management tasks. Componded to it were several "unplanned to do lists" like chasing after people to borrow equipment, troubleshooting, babysitting William while Kelly plated her CES study, and helping Mark as he went solo for his first western. To spice things up a bit, everything that could go wrong went wrong: gels wouldn't run, things wouldn't dissolve, I cut myself, experiments had to be repeated because of inadequate dilutions, experimental procedures were forgotten, and well... at some points, I felt like my brain was shutting down! It was a long day.

But despite the chaos and the exhaustion, today was actually a really good day. There were so many nice little surprises scattered throughout the day that made it great. For one thing, everyone was so nice and helpful. Xueyuan would stop what she was doing to answer my questions, Kim offered to take over some studies, and Ruth even offered to postpone her own research so that we could use her lab's equipment to run our experiments first! Little William's impromptu visit to our lab was also really fun. Well... you guys know about my obsession with little kids. William is about 1.3 yrs old, just learned to make "animal sounds" and how to get into everything that he's not supposed to (but in such a cute way that it just makes you laugh)! Then, Maya, whom I haven't talked to in over a month called and we had an amazing time catching up :) I miss you so much Chiqui! And THEN, my roomates came home and brought me some fabulous looking home-made food! Turns out that we got a last minute dinner invitation and they had waited for me to come back for two hours before they got so hungry that they went ahead. AND, as I thought that things wouldn't get any better, I read Rachel's blog and saw that she had dedicated an entire entry to answering each and every one of the comments that I had left on her xanga! You're such a sweetie girl! Rachel is a perspicacious youth girl that I met in the Mexico mission's trip back in August. She's the one educating me about all the benefits of coffee! ;) Gracias~

Looking back... I feel so blessed. I had a good long day.

Too much to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving has come and gone but there are things that I will always be thankful for... holiday or no holiday. At the top of that list is of course God, who is so real and so tangible to me now that I wonder how I could have ever doubted of His existence. And when I think of how unworhty I am of all the gifts that He has has blessed my life with, I am overwhelmed and wish that I could understand why He would do something like that... for someone like me?

I am deeply thankful to my parents, who have done more than their share of sacrifices so that my brothers and I can live the life that we do today. They immigrated to two countries for us, started completely from scratch TWICE for us... and we still find things to complain about. And so much for my "desire to be independent" from them when I still always call mom and dad when I'm in real trouble. Thank you and I love you!


My life is blessed by my two silly "little" brothers (in age, not in height) who keep things "interesting" with their quirky humor and incoparable wit. I really am SO thankful for both of them, each with their own talents and outlook in life. Tomas, the "smart and independent one of the family" actually helped me move to Philly twice before he moved to Vancouver all by himself :( He's one of my best friends now, even though we fought like cats and dogs when we were little. Andres, the "good-looking and artistic one of the family" never ceases to impress me with how well-behaved and caring he is despite his status as a TEENAGER (Ahhhh!) I am so thankful for each one of them, and for what they add to my life :) Miss you dudes!

I'm thankful for Min-ching's friendship and for her three trips to Philly (yes, for all of you out there who have not come to visit yet.. are you paying attention? THREE TIMES)! Aside from a few hours here and there spent searching for the best cheese steak and the best cheesecake, Min-ching actually spent most of her last trip here helping me paint my room! Thank you SO MUCH! I'm also thankful that we got to re-live the old days of when we were housemates... chatting into the early hours of the morning about every topic imaginable, although we forgot to go out and buy ice-cream at 3:00am like we used to :) I miss having you as my housemate~

To be continued... I still have so much to say but have to go catch a bus for NY right now!