happy one-week-after-earth-day!

Check out my friend Oliver's piece for FiLife on saving both the environment and your money. I am proud to say that I semi-contributed tips #1 and #5!

Speaking of green -- I just bought a new green shirt yesterday, which I hope to wear for my gig on May 9 (click on "event details"). Actually, just looking at that website, I hope I don't blend in too well...
Anyways, most of my favorite tops are green, and I have a good feeling about this one.

positive experience**

Last Monday, Stanley and I saw Black Kids and Mates of State at The Independent in San Francisco.



I wasn't really familiar with Mates of State, but thought the wife-husband duo was really sharp and each partner so in tune with the other with the rhythm and delivery of their songs.



What was really a treat was watching Black Kids sing and dance live. The girls were awesome in their shout-singing and rocking out. And the lead singer, just as I had hoped, made me swoon from his interesting intonated speaking -- "What did you think of Judgement Day [the opening act]? They're from here, right? Suh-poooooorrt thehhhhmm*" -- and of course, from his weird dancing moves where he puts his hands up to his head and can't quite seem to hold his head up when he occasionally separates his arms from his armpits or sides. It's kind of Madonna-esque, like he's holding in something and needs to release it, but won't, and I find it kind of sexy. (Don't laugh!)

You can see what I mean from their official video, "Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)."

Here is another video to check out: "I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" (the closing song for their act that night -- it was sooo good!).

And more pictures.


* = "Support them."
** = "positive experience" is a phrase coined by Michael Dausch circa February/March 2009 to describe an intensely pleasurable experience.

jeune maman et le bébé

These pictures made me happy today.

Say hello to Kalea Joy. She looks a lot like Emily as a baby...and she's inherited the Chen lips!

Click here for my post on Kalea's cousin Elliott.

being made new

Easter Sunday has always been tricky for me.

Here is a holiday where you are supposed to be so overwhelmed by joy by the resurrection of Jesus Christ that you want to shout and clap your hands in gospel-music fashion and proclaim to the world, "He has risen indeed, Alleluia!"

Everyone is dressed in their Sunday best. Although it's usually too cold for it, girls will wear the pretty but unflattering floral print skirt, exposing their pale legs without tights, and pretty sandals, only to be imposed on by an incongruously heavier jacket (like a denim jacket or hoodie) covering the pretty solid color top that goes with the skirt.

The church service is a little different than usual. The stage will now house multiple flower pots with daffodils or cali lillies. The sermon will become more self-aware that the message will apply to both the non-believing guests who were invited by family members or friends and the established believers. The service will also run longer since there will be an Easter baptism, in addition to communion.


This Easter,

I woke up feeling a little depressed and not cheerful at all. The last couple of days I had been upset by a relationship that no longer seemed sustaining. And in general, it has been increasingly harder to ignore the gnawing ache in my soul from feeling like I am not living out my purpose on this earth, even though I do not know and am too afraid to find out what that purpose is.


As I got dressed for church service, I initially put on a respectable pink shirt with my best jeans -- I don't have any pretty floral skirts -- but decided against it.

If I am to celebrate Jesus' resurrection, I want to be myself. Since when did we have to make celebrating Jesus' being with us, so formal? So, I changed into one of my "Holy Spirit" screened tees and my more comfortable rugged jeans instead of my best (tight) jeans.


I didn't bring any non-Christian guests to the service.


I came to the service

alone,

hungry

for Jesus' touch on my life
because I so desperately need it

from Him,

not from people's happy mood-clapping, pretty attire, a pretty stage, or a self-deprecatory sermon...



I want to be made new.

what california weekends are made of

We are the Chen's....

or at least three of us are. Judy and Emily are married and have adopted their husbands' names and relinquished their Chen status. You would think that my being the last of the Chen daughters would make my parents regard my carrying the Chen name in a more elevated light, like as if I were the the last of a dying rare species... No, not really.

Before that picture was taken, we celebrated Daddy's and Judy's birthdays.


Pink guava cake.


A Cantonese cuisine dinner in Milpitas.

Before dinner, my parents and Judy and Fred and CalebMicahAbbyElliott and myself hung out at the lovely Hakone Garden in Saratoga where there also happened to be a wedding that day.



















Before that, I had a little adventure at the California Native Plant Sale at Hidden Villa in Los Altos. (Absolutely gorgeous.) I was supposed to meet Judy and the gang there, but they didn't make it, so I was there on my own. Tried to call Judy to see what plants she wanted for her yard - that was the purpose of the excursion in the first place, but I didn't have any phone reception...doh. So I did my best, asking the nice guides what they recommended for a partially shaded backyard that was flat and apparently, "abusive" to California native plants (native plants don't need water during the summer; thus, they're better suited for sloped landscapes where any extra water can run downhill), according to one volunteer. I went with a toyone shrub, a.k.a. "hollywood," and an achillea perennial. I was told that both plants were tough enough to withstand any terrain. Hope it all turns out okay.

Continuing on my "dating myself" theme, I really had a good time on this little adventure. Admired some chickens on the farm, took in the hills, and enjoyed listening to jazz music in my Honda Fit as the road gently curved, framed by the trees, and accompanied by a bicyclist. There's something about listening to jazz music in beautiful scenery that makes me feel so happy and...privileged.














Scenario in my head before arriving to the nursery -

Girlfriend Carolyn: Judy just left a message saying she and the rest of them can't make it to the nursery...should we still go?

Boyfriend Carolyn: Sure. Do you want to go?

Girlfriend Carolyn: Yes...but what about all this driving? Would you rather just go straight to Hakone Gardens and save the gas..?

Boyfriend Carolyn: It's fine. Let's go to the nursery first, you wanted to see what it was like -- it'll be fun.

Girlfriend Carolyn: Okay. (thinking to herself, 'oh, how sweet!')

On a final note --

I've been feeling "tragically" blessed (as my brother-in-law Fred put it) the last few weekends. The weekend before this last one, I went to Napa for the first time since moving to the Bay Area, with my friends Jenny, Judy, and Natalie. It was wonderful.










(more photos here and here).

IHTFP.
("I Have Truly Found Paradise." My fellow Beavers will understand; the Bay Area, the South Bay especially, is an extension of the 'Tute anyways).