the post to end all posts!!!!

yup, it's time. here it is... a pictorial smorgasbord of the aforementioned crazy schedule that preceded the insanity that is residency..... i hope you enjoy...

5.20.07
the wedding day
(Courtesy of Joe Latter)

5.21.07

We had this lovely surprise waiting for us in the honeymoon suite...

5.22-24.07
...and the honeymoon continued, in lovely Santa Barbara...

I know, totally touristy, but we had to do the bed&breakfast and the two-seater bike :)

5.24.07
dinner at providence, another pseudo-honeymoon splurge at one of the restaurants I've been dying to try in LA... mmmmm this grainy cell phone picture obviously does not do the food nor the restaurant justice. but twas truly a great foodie experience.

5.26.07
first sabbath after the wedding

so it's traditional to wear the traditional han-boks to church the first sabbath after you get married, if for no better reason than to announce your new matrimonial status with bright eye-popping colors and to embarass the heck out of the couple. andy was a good sport, as you can see, and allowed my mom, aunt and me to choose a very pretty floral matching set. ah yes... that's why i married him ;)

later that evening... we had a 1st bday celebration for !!!

cupcakes, goldfish, and 10 billion courses of chinese food were enjoyed by all...

the lovely mommy and guest of honor, who looks pretty happy there ;)

5.27.07
graduation

5.29.07 - 6.3.07
FINALLY... the REAL HONEYMOON
four seasons resort, lana'i at manele bay

we rented a jeep, explored almost every square inch of the island, kayaked, ate GREAT, great, food... the lodge at koele, which was the sister resort to our beach-front resort, was where bill gates got married- as pictured on 3rd row, left.
we could understand why.

here we are at a literally deserted beach. it's called polihua beach, and only accessible if you're willing to brave about 30 minutes of bumpy, rocky, unpaved terrain.
we were soooo happy when we got there (as you can see).

it was totally worth the drive.

6.3.07 - 6.5.07
the honeymoon continues...
Honolulu, Oahu

good times @ the Polynesian Cultural Center

Remembering Pearl Harbor

oh my.
this is just one of the *ahem* many desserts we enjoyed, but in particular this culinary and artistic masterpiece was from the pineapple room, alan wong's enclave at the ala moana shopping center- it's literally on the 3rd floor of macy's. but we went there, out of all the other places to eat lunch in honolulu, because of a superlative dinner at alan wong's restaurant.

this was one of our entrees- ginger crusted onaga (Long-Tail Red Snapper with Miso Sesame Vinaigrette, Organically Grown Hamakua Mushroom and Corn). excellent fish, cooked perfectly, and reminiscent of the best chinese steamed fish you've ever had.. but BETTER. we also enjoyed the ridiculously tender "kalbi-style" short rib. it's like the best galbijjim you've ever had... but BETTER.


and for dessert, a little something they call "the coconut"

we now have a new favorite restaurant of all time. too bad it's an ocean away :(

6.10.07
another weekend, another state
this weekend: Jason & Sharon's wedding in Orlando, FLORIDA!!!

(this picture totally does not do the bride justice... she was gorgeous. jason looked ok too. hehe)
lovely ladies

lovely cake

lovely (??!) afterparty

(sooooo happy for our friends, and sooo happy that our wedding planning days are OVER!)

workin' hard for the $$

so i've been avoiding my own blog until i could properly update with pictures, and slideshows, and basically a spectacular multimedia presentation of life since the wedding.... but like so many other things in my life since i started work, i've decided that i just have to LET GO of my foolish ambitions. so here i am.

i'm on my lunch break currently, sitting here in a small office at the VA mental health clinic, counting the hours until i can leave and check out some of the local Korean markets. it's not that i don't enjoy my time here... it's just that i have whole city to explore, and dinner to cook, and there are only so many substance-abusing depressed vets you can see in one day before things start to get repetitive.

i shouldn't complain. residency is awesome. i got my first paycheck yesterday, and was stunned because i spent most of my first week of work surfing the web in this office, because patients weren't showing up or weren't scheduled... surely that didn't warrant ALL THIS MONEY??!! (ok, it's really not that much, but heckuva lot more than i used to make in med school = $0) i'm just so happy to have an income. and now, when i'm done seeing my patients at the end of the day, i feel no guilt whatsoever about just leaving.... no more checking in with the attending, or waiting for things to be signed, no more frustrating periods of limbo and wasted time... i do what i need to do, and i go home. WORK ROCKS!! ;)

newlywed life is similarly awesome, if i do say so myself. andy's living it up on a fairly chill rotation right now too, so we're definitely enjoying the time we can spend together before we're thrown into the chaos of the inpatient rotations. we've also been doing quite a bit of "home-making"... i'm beginning to understand what that term really means- it's been amazing to watch the empty house we moved into a few weeks ago shift and morph into our home. my goal is to make the place presentable for the many dinners and get-togethers i'm hoping to host in 2 months. a few more pieces of furniture, a lot fewer cardboard boxes littering the family room, and we'll be there.

and now, back to my regularly scheduled programming : "tell me about the voices in your head... when was your last drink? ... how does that make you feel??..." gotta love it.

teaser...

sorry, sorry, this is not a real post... but thought i'd throw out a link to a fabulous album of wedding pics that eli kim, one of andy's groomsmen, took in between his wedding party duties...

here's a sample pic- click on it for the album :)

video of the month

...aaand.... exhale

the past and future few weeks...
may 20- wedding.
may 27- graduation.
may 29- honeymoon in hawaii (as pictured above).
june 3- fly back to la.
june 4-9- pack like mad monkeys.
june 9- fly to orlando for jason&sharon's nuptials.
june 11- fly back to la.
june 13- move to sacramento.
june 15- fly to michigan for wedding reception part deux.
june 17- fly back to sacramento.
june 18- INTERN ORIENTATION.

as the inimitable shirley manson once sang... the trick is to keep breathing.

p.s. more pictures to come!! now that i'm on elena's hip "blog friends" list, i feel the need to raise the caliber of my posts ;)

dr. & mrs.

i became a "mrs." last week. i became a "dr." this week.

it's all over. my wedding was everything i could have ever hoped for, and more. i'm so humbled by the love and generosity i experienced on that day. truly, i am a woman of so many blessings - amazing family, amazing friends, and an amazing new husband.

graduation was all a blur - it's just hitting me now that i'm done with medical school. it all seems so surreal. a self-defense mechanism, perhaps, because the reality of moving away from MY HOME and family for the next 5 years... of saying goodbye to my OHANA, my community that has been so good to me these past 4 years... is too much to bear right now. i hate moving. and goodbyes.

so instead, i think i'll take a vacation. specifically, a honeymoon. i'm off to hawaii on tuesday, for a week... and maybe i can postpone living in real-time for a little while longer.

the wedding season marches on...

another weekend, another wedding in this craaaAAzy summer of luuuuv.
this week's lucky couple?

david and angie... david's our 4th year classmate, and boy don't they make a lovely pair?!

girls' pic... hannah, evelyn, moi & susie - med school classmates & med school classmate's wife, respectively

twas delicious. the desserts, the hanboks, everything. what a way to celebrate the beginning of a beautiful marriage...

new digs

our new home for the next 5 years

downtown disney pda

ok, so we're not really a pda (public displays of affection) kind of couple... so twas definitely awkward to pose intimately in front of our photographer (from whose blog these pics were snatched) AND the hundreds of tourists milling about downtown disney. but hey, a couple's gotta do what a couple's gotta do. and here is a sampling of the results ;)

pb blossoms... oh so delicious

One of Erica's gifts to moi for my bridal shower was a kit for her favorite cookies... peanut butter blossoms. She's a woman of great taste...

et voila! pb blossoms to DIE for...

merci erica!!