the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! :D

thanks everyone!! i've never had a birthday quite like this. :D

so. it all started yesterday with a card from the nic team <3>


...and punches from annie. punkster. :p

then, i had dinner with the mum at tsing tao on solano. kkanpoong calimari and jjajangmyun and green been in black bean garlic sauce. mmmmm soooooo good!! :)

as birthday presents, momma gave me $100 (so that i wouldn't have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for a while) and some wine soda. i (and prolly she herself) thought that it was half-wine, half soda...but it turns out it's all soda. just wine-ish. deceptive!! anyway. it's pretty looking. :D




then i came back home, tried to get some work done, failed, then opened a bottle of soda, waiting for genaster to come home around 11ish. i was pretty wiped out, i guess from a whole week of constantly moving, so i decided to take a nap til about 12:15. then genaster socked me while i was in bed and gave me some cake (tiramisu!! :D) and this:



hee. i heart genaster!! :D

i hit the sack afterwards, only to wake up from the bombarding of text messages at midnight. people. :)


this morning started off with my 830am class.
having to go to all my classes weren't so hot, but eh. whatev.

...it just feels weird how it feels like i never left for nic. :p everything seemed normal except for the fact that God taught me so much since before i left...and that i was getting my japanese mixed up with spanish. i don't know why, but they sound the same to me. :p

oh. and mi bears lair buddy rachel m. lee came by. i couldn't wait for her to come and treat me to tacos from el tacontento (or whatever it's called. the mexican place. :p), so i bought it myself. then she got mad at me. kinda. not really. but she treated me to jugo de mango-fresas!! sooooooo good!! (especially since it was up-sized by the owner. :D) i heart rachel!!

anyway. i finished my classes and came back home after bumping into jianni. then i checked my email and stumbled across this birthday e-card from annie. too bad i can't upload the whole thing here...it was AWESOME. it by itself made my day (but don't tell her that. :p). something along the lines of "happy birthday...or else!!" :D




annie. you's a funny enemy-for-life. :)


how different monday feels without work. so liberating. :)

anyway. i decided to sabbath for my birthday.
best decision ever. kekeke. :D

i played some guitar, sang for a bit, worked on a couple songs, and read some job. mang. what a book. i read half of it on the plane and it was SO GOOD. questions like:
"why is there evil in the world?"
"why is there pain, suffering, and heartache?"
"how can the justice of an almighty God be defeated in the face of evil, especially human suffering - and even more particularly, the suffering of the innocent?"

God put on my heart the book of job during nic through PT's message. i've read it before, but it never occured to me how profoundly relevant it is to my life and to things that surround me. a lot of unanswered questions, but i know that God will reveal everything i have to know in His time. it's weird how God has me reading this book at this point in my life. what God timing. :)

anyway. i will blog more about job another time.
it's worthy of its own column. :)

back to the rest of today:
genaster and kat to the makster took me out to dinner at manpuku - shoyu ramen and negihama roll and saba nigiri (<3!!)







...this is me trying to horde all the food. :p




oh. btw. my nic bracelet broke. :'(



...but i put on a new one i got from nic. :)




kat mak treated me to ici - earl grey and orange-currant. SOO GOOD. :)



after all this totally amazingness, we came to sacks and got an awesome seat next to the window (and outlet. hee). so now i'm blogging away here at sacks, having finished my amazing ici ice cream and while listening to "open my eyes" by hillsong (SOOOOO GOOD!! i can't believe i haven't listened to it til now. now i'm listening to it on repeat one for the 21st time. just 20-30 more times to go. :D)


the best part of today was that God was a part of everything that came by today. sabbaths are so awesome. i want to learn to integrate it into every day of the week, not just fridays or birthdays. :)

...to rest is to walk with God. :D

i celebrate because of all the Godsends. :)




...and now that i finished this blog, i'm going to start typing up my nic journal fo y'all folks. stay tuned!! :D