Spaz Attack

Thoughts from a big spaz who has lots to spaz about.

Saturday, July 31, 2004

Thumper won't eat doggie biscuits but loves my unsalted crackers. Such a funny dog.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

My body is so weird. Sometimes, I eat everything in sight and other times, I have absolutely no appetite and have to force myself to eat.

I HATE Verizon Wireless. The last couple of months, I noticed on my monthly bill that Verizon had stopped sending detailed information of who I called, when, how long. Instead, it just said how much I owed. Truly, I was in no state to call them and ask about this so I waited until yesterday. I called to request that they send me this information and guess what they said? Well, first, they said that I could get it online. Trust me, I've done this before and it wasn't a fun experience. I told them that I didn't have internet access and I wanted to see this information when I paid my bill. Their answer was that I would have to pay 1.90 for each detailed statement. What the F? Pay money to see my damn bill? I was irate. I was stunned. I was upset for all the non English speaking folks who don't go on the internet (my mom for one) and also for some people who can't even afford a computer to check their bill. Is this a sham or what? I told them that my bill, on average, is about $130 a month, this month it was $260 and that I wanted to see what I was paying for when I am writing out my damn checks and that I was not able to get to the internet to do so. I spoke to three supervisors and they all wouldn't budge. I was mad enough to try to cancel and they said that I would have to pay the $175 cancellation charge according to my contract. I asked if it stated on my contract that I would have to pay my bill when I couldn't even see what I was paying for. They said that in the contract it said that they could change whatever they want. I hate them. What a stupid company. After my contract is up, that is it. It's the principle of it. I am not going to PAY to see my bill.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

I'm still feeling crummy but I decided to get my ass up and moving. Yesterday, I spent the whole day in bed but today I told myself that I would not think about how I feel and try to ignore it. It is kind of working.

Monday, July 26, 2004

I am too tired to write, eat, breathe. It's so sad.

Yesterday, when I was coming back to Portland from Los Angeles, the plane was overbooked so they asked for volunteers to take the next flight. For volunteering, they were offering a free ticket to anywhere that United flies. I was like, "What the heck. It's only a two hour wait. Plus, Jason and I have been planning to go to New York in September" So I volunteered. Then, five minutes later, I was just sitting down, and this man asked me if I was Cristina Park. I said yes and he told me that the stewardess had made a mistake and that I could take my flight. I was like Ok. He escorted me to the plane and right before I was about to walk in he gave me something that looked like a ticket and said, "We still have to give you these free tickets for volunteering." Isn't that cool? Yeah! :)

Thursday, July 22, 2004

I feel like shit right now. Too bad I'll be leaving for a mini-"get away" to LA in thirty minutes. Damn, talk about bad timing.

Jen, I wasn't able to email you back. Breakfast Sunday!

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Korean dramas are friggin' hilarious. Why the hell do the guys in these dramas think they could pull off just about any girl's arm? Do you know what I am talking about? Some girl will be walking away and he will yank her arm and pull her somewhere. What the hell. Isn't that like aggravated assault or something?

Also, there are WAY too many coincidences in Korean dramas where a certain girl and guy run into each other like ten kazillion times in only four episodes!...at the movies, at a restaurant, anywhere! Geez!

Also, is this wierd of me? Sometimes, I will see a Korean actress and I will think something along the lines of, "Man, she looks just like Jenny and Annie if they morphed into one person or if they could have a daughter together." Jason said that is odd. haha.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Heidi gave me a recommendation for a Korean drama but before I got myself hooked in front of the TV for hours on end, I asked her for a summary of what I should expect. This is what she wrote back to me:

"As for the korean drama, its the same old korean sappy love triangle dramas...rich guy meets poor girl...they start having feelings for one another...rich guy and poor girl play hard to get. bad girl wants rich guy. rich guy hates bad girl. bad girl jealous of poor girl. bad girl do bad things to poor girl. nice/caring guy likes poor girl. of course rich guy and nice/caring guy are related somehow and they are...rich guy likes poor girl, bad girl sad. evil thoughts!!! poor girl like rich guy and so nice/caring guy sad. no evil thoughts though. and so the story goes on...in the end, good people finish...itll probably be a happy ending unless the poor girl has some kind of deadly disease..."

Haha...I was laughing off my seat. She is so right! Typical Korean drama. Not a second of originality. But then, why are they so addicting?

Monday, July 19, 2004

I am not a breakfast person. I don't enjoy eggs, pancakes, potatoes, cereal, oatmeal, toast, etc- any of it. I rather eat leftovers from the night before so I have been known to eat pizza, spaghetti, Chinese food for breakfast. Now, Jason- on the other hand- his whole purpose of waking up is to eat a large American breakfast.  He just loves it, and it's so odd to me.
 
I am soo soo craving ja ja myun (Chinese noodles with black bean sauce) right now. In LA, I can't drive a block without seeing a Chinese restaurant that serves this. But here, Jason and I haven't been able to find one.
 
Today should be my last day of total boredom. Tomorrow and Wednesday, I have job interviews lined up and then, Thursday to Sunday, I will be in Los Angeles. I think I will go rent some Korean videos to help me through this day.
 

Sunday, July 18, 2004


Damn, I feel so useless and unproductive. I can't wait to work! (And, seriously, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that I would ever say that with such conviction!)
 
I wanted to share something that was read at our wedding reception by my colleague and friend, Sharon. It was a short story written by one of my students. Before I share, however, I must preface by saying that this was written with absolutely no prompting or suggestions or help from me. The student just gave it to me after she had written it during recess. Here goes...
 
Once apon a time there lived a prince name Jason. He spent most of his time making metesen for the people who were ill. One day when he was walking in a forest he hear a butiful sound. It was coming frome a small house. Then he siad, "you have a nice vioce. Then she siad, "My name is Cristina Park." Next he siad, "my name is Jason Kime. Then he siad, "Will you marry me and be my queen? She siad, "yes yes yes." After they got married they moved to Portland, OR for a year. Then they came back to Los Angeles, CA. They lived happily ever after. The End.
 
To: Ms. Park or Mrs. Kim
From: Tianna Brown, your 2nd grade student.
 
This is exactly how it was written, mistakes and all. I thought it was so cute that I asked Sharon to read it. Even though I couldn't invite my whole class, it made me feel as though they were with me is spirit.
 
 

Friday, July 16, 2004

I have an exciting story (well, exciting to me!), but I want to abridge it as much as possible. 
 
Four years ago, when I was leaving SA&A, I asked Kin to burn all the songs that I love, and had downloaded onto my computer, on a CD for me, which he kindly did.
I loved those CDs. It was a collection of my favorites. Some songs were more popular and mainstream, other songs were pretty random. Rap, old school, 50's, etc, etc.
I thought that the DJ for my wedding might not have these songs so I brought my CDs to the wedding.
Of course, they got lost somewhere.
And I was devastated. Broken hearted. I could never download all those songs again.
After almost two months of searching, I gave up hope.
Until today! I had an idea. Maybe I could ask Kin if they were still in my old computer at work!
I doubted it.
But asked.
And guess what?
It was still there! In all its glory. After four years. Still sitting pretty in my old computer.
I have hope.
I am happy.
Thanks Kin.
 

I just spoke to the Verizon Wireless man and he gave me $50 in credit for nothing! I didn't even ask him for it! We were about to hang up and he just says "I'll give you $50 credit." Cool! I ain't going to argue with more money in my wallet. I think he felt bad because I've been going over my minutes tremendously for the last five months. (Like $50-$60 over. Stupid, I know.)Plus, he seemed really excited when I told him my change of address because he used to live in the apartment building next to ours. Cool. We bonded over our similar zip codes.
 
It's finally hit me. I need to get a job. I just can't do nothing for a whole year. Even though Jason tells me to "take it easy, don't stress," I feel this tinge of guilt. The fun of doing nothing has ended.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

As Juliet once said, "What's in a name?"

In Korean, my name is Soo-Kyung.

My birth name is Cristiana Park.

In America, they changed it to Cristina.

When I was younger, everyone called me Tina.

So my dad called me Teet for short.

Then, in the forth grade, my teacher got confused by what I called myself and what was on all the papers and asked me what my name was. I was confused. He told me to just pick one. I was sick of being called Tina Turner so it became Cristina.

My dad continued to call me Teet and Claudia called me Tina but at school I was Cristina.

Then, Rich and Claudia and a handful of other people started calling me Cris.

Jason calls me Spaz.

Yesterday, my name legally became Cristina Kim.

Juliet was right.

I won't even begin to try to explain myself, but I will, on occassion, forget (FORGET!) to take out all the conditioner out of my hair before stepping out of the shower and have to deal with extra slippery hair while drying. Then afterwards, some parts of my hair look greasy as if it's never been washed. Like I said, I won't even begin...

One time, when I was still in college, I was flying home for the holidays, when I got seated next to this older man. He was in his fifties and nearly bald, and we started talking. I don't remember all the particulars of our conversation but I know that we chatted about our visits to other places of the world. He was apparently very well traveled since he was part of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics. Anyways, I told him that I had only been to Korea. yadda. yadda. He then asked me about the different kinds of fakes, knock offs there were in Korea. I told him that I had seen lots, like Gucci and Rolex. His eyes got wide when I told him about Rolex watches and he asked me if I could get him one. "Well....my dad is in Korea at the moment." He asked me about how much they cost, and I told him $40 last time I was there. Then, he preceeded to write me a check for $50 and gave me his business card where I was instructed to mail the watch. He didn't get my number or address.

So, what do you think that I did?

Well, next time I spoke to my dad, I told him to please buy me one. I crossed all fingers that he would, but wasn't really expecting him to. I held onto my check. I wondered what I would do if my dad didn't buy one for me. Could I find one in LA? Should I just rip up the check? Damn, I thought, I don't want to disappoint the man and not come through for him.

To make a long story short, my dad brought home a fake Rolex, I mailed it to this random old man, cashed my check and that was that. I never heard from him. Don't know if he got it. Don't know if he liked it. Don't know....

Just one of the random things that has happened in my life.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Almost daily, when Thumper is sleeping or resting, she is so still that it scares me enough to scream, "Thumper!!!" in her ears until she jumps up to assure me that she is still alive. Jason thinks this is so cruel and has made me promise him that I will not do this to our children.

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Yesterday, Jason, Thumper, and I drove to the coast of Oregon and took in some sun at Canon Beach. Surprisingly, it was stunning- better than the beaches of Hawaii, in my opinion. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't crowded, there was a light breeze. And, to the utter excitement of Jason, there was Some Cliff from Gooneys. Some sort of cliff that the pirates pass towards the end of the movie. I have no idea; I think Gooneys was before my time.

Afterwards, we went to one of the strangest restaurants I've ever been to. Jason and I have been craving Korean food and we thought we saw a Korean restaurant near our house. It's called Be Won. Anyways, we decided to check it out. When we walked in, my first impression was that it was too nice to be a Korean restaurant! You know, I'm used to the hole in the wall places in K-town. The decor was like a four star restaurant and I saw more Americans than Koreans. Well, we thought, how good can this be- Americanized Korean food, but we were starving so we found a seat. The water was brought to us in wine glasses in silver pitchers. Huh! We looked at the menu and the main courses had wine pairings listed next to it, like jap chae with 2001 Robert Mondavi chardonnay. Odd. We ordered kalbi and kim chee ji kae and hoped for the best while expecting the worst. We were impressed with the kim chee ji kae but thought the kalbi was mediocre. The ban chan was ok too. All in all, it was alright. But I can't get over the whole atmosphere. You have to come and check it out for yourself.

While I was having dinner last night, I was reminded of something that happened about a little over a month ago. I decided to provide lunch for my colleagues at school, as a good-bye, thank you, will-miss-you sort of party. I got it catered from Nak Won Catering (one of the best in LA I think). Anways, so it was lunch time and I was all set for my friends to come into the cafetorium. I had placed fliars in their mailboxes so they would know what was going on. Anyways, so there is a line forming as my friends piled food on their plates, and then I notice all these people getting in line who had not been invited! Like parents (parents!!), staff, some so called psychologist who I don't like, etc... It was so annoying. Why the hell would these people think that it is alright for them to get some if they did not even hear anything from me, who was obviously hosting the party? They are so so dense. I mean, and the food wasn't even cheap, like $20 a head, and I had invited 40 people only (all elementary teachers, since my school is K-12, and other school staff). I was worried that I wouldn't have enough food for everyone I had invited. Dude, I would NEVER take anything unless I knew for sure it was for my taking, I would NEVER go to a party if I was not invited. Is it just me? Well, I was a little annoyed but I got over it. There seemed to be enough food and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. At least I knew these people and had worked with them on some level during my three years at 32nd. THEN, this complete STRANGER walks in and gets in line for food. I had NEVER seen her before. She walked in behind a friend of mine so I thought maybe she was a guest. But I soon realized that she wasn't. Anyways, I didn't say anything and she sat there and gobbled up my galbi, jap chae, fried shrimp, etc. and afterwards as she walked out, she told me that "it was the best Chinese food" she had ever tasted. Urg... Now, the reason I bring this up is that I wish I had said something to her. I don't like conlicts and, usually, don't like to confront things, but in this case, I wish I had told her that this was a school function. I mean, this was like a lady off the streets for all I know. Anways, this is a long entry for nothing, I know. I guess this in my way of telling myself to be more assertive (or more of a b) when I need to be.



Friday, July 09, 2004

Email from Rich

"some possible hobbies for cristina...
baking
sewing
art
sushi
cooking

wait those are all former hobbies...

some unique hobbies...
mushroom hunting
gardening
target shooting
auto repair

now those are some hobbies."

I think Richard might be worried about me since I called him three times today out of boredom! haha...Mushroom hunting sounds fun! Who's in?

Oh my god, I finally have internet. It's been a long time coming. Well, Portland is great. I love the city. Jennifer reminded me that she would also love any city where she didn't have to do jack crap. Maybe she's right. My days are spent pretty frivolously I must say. Running random errands, mostly. I hung out with a colleague from LA yesterday and it was great to see a familiar face.

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote wrote. School ended. I had the worst last day ever and I am not sure I would go back to 32nd even if I went back to LA. Not getting too into all the nitty gritty, it involved an oversized Romanian father of a child I had this year hovering over me and threatening to subpoena me to court and accusing me of "blackmail." What a damn idiot.

Then, after all the Father's Day celebrations, we were off to Maui for five days for outr honeymoon. From Tuesday to Saturday. Then when we got back, we packed like mad, dumping all our trash into boxes for storage, into boxes for the movers, and into boxes for the Tahoe, which we ended up getting by the way. Anyways, it was a crazy. I felt so bad throwing away perfectly good food that I had to "sell" it to Richard so he would cart it away to his apartment. "Come on Richard. This ketchup is good. Don't let the funky color fool you! Take it!" Poor guy, he must have taken away three large boxes of food. I wonder if he will eat any of it. By the end of our move, I didn't care what we were throwing away. I was throwing away perfectly good looking tupperware and utensils in the trash chute of Jason's apartment when this older Korean women saw me. I could tell she was contemplating whether to stop me but went on her way.

Then we drove for two freakin' days. That was fun actually. Ahh...the joys of being newlyweds. I wonder if a two day drive would be as much fun twenty years from now.

Oh, Maui! It was great to get away. (Though thoughts of The Move loomed over our heads the whole time.) All we did was lay by the pool, lay on the beach, luau, Jason played golf, went to a plantation, ate, ate, and ate. I realize that Jason and I are not prone to do too many things during vactions. You know, the options are there, like ATV, biking, etc, etc, but we just like eating and doing nothing. Oh, and I can't post pictures because all we had was a rinky dinky disposable camera. We packed, literally, thirty minutes before we left for the airport. Anyways, I am having some technical issues and am not sure I would be able to post pics even if we had our digital. Hence, all the pictures that I posted before were pictures that others have sent me. I know, what an id-e-o-ta!

Now, if you are dying to get away from LA and want an excuse to visit a new place, please come visit me! I would love to explore this new city with you! The air is great, life seems to go by a littler slower, there are trees (!), the best Thai restaurant ever- Typhoon, and so so much more! Well, that was my sell for the day. That was my way of saying that I miss y'all!

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

So, my thumb is healed. Thank God. I thought I might be the next Paula Abdul tragedy. Life here is going pretty slow. I am Suzie Homemaker over here cooking, cleaning, decorating. And not remotely thinking of finding a J.O.B. It's fun. Marriage, I mean. It's like one long, very long, slumber party with your closest, dearest friend.

More blogs forthcoming once I get internet at home, probably this Friday.

Friday, July 02, 2004

Hello hello! So I'm finally in Portland! I have so much to write but I hurt my thumb while fetching the phone out of my purse. (I tell you, my purse is dangerous!) So I'll write once my ailing thumb is healed. I miss you all very much. :(