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!!

pre-wedding insomnia

omg. someone knock me out. i just spent waaaaay too much time surfing this eeeevil and enticing thing that is the www, and stumbled across a blogring of brides-to-be who have decided to take their planning to the blogospheres. one particular bride, who happened to get married at the ritz carlton laguna niguel, painstakingly detailed the trillion-and-one details that SHE personally oversaw for her wedding. she also proudly displayed pictures of the 8+ binders (color-coded and labeled, of course) she had compiled, filled with pages from magazines, ribbon samples, and pictures... all lovingly placed into sheet protectors and organized into 8+ categories of wedding STUFF.

the work paid off. the wedding looked amazing. i would have LOOOOOOOVED to be a guest. i'm thoroughly humbled. definitely envious of her abilities/ambition/willingness/wealth. and yet, somewhat disgusted at my envy.... because even though my wedding is very important to me and i have obviously found it worthy of quite a bit of time/effort/money... it's still just a wedding. one day. and certainly not worth time in the wee small hours of the morning that could be spent in blissful, non-wedding-obsessed slumber.

in any case, to assuage my troubled conscience, i then spent quite a bit more time poring over nytimes and bbc articles. to read about something "real".

i'm really not as tortured as i sound. but yes, every bit as neurotic.

L <3 V E is in the air!!!

The Wedding Season begins....

Andy and I had the privilege of attending a gorgeous wedding at Greystone Mansion/Estate in Beverly Hills this past weekend... the beautiful bride and handsome groom? Amy Lee and David Kim, fellow classmates who started dating a few months before we did during 2nd year of med school.

The grounds of the estate were lovely, and full of impressive backdrops... so of course, we tried to take advantage--
It was quite cloudy and occasionally rainy, so the little parasols they provided were much appreciated...

As Pastor Um mentioned in his message, in the Bible, rain is a representation of the Holy Spirit... in which case, this marriage will be most assuredly blessed with a HEAPING portion of the Spirit!! Congratulations to the happy couple... and let the madness of wedding season commence!!!!

finally uploaded

ah... my lovely bridal party at the bridal shower. seriously, what would i do without these ladies???













one of my maids of honor, youn, loooooves her oranges. as you can see.

best weekend ever.... EVER!!

i'm seriously in a state of almost-quite-there-nirvana. the invitations are OUT. andy's back from jamaica. and i just spent the entire weekend with my ladies- my lovely bridesmaids + bridal assistant aka indispensable friend ida- and it was amazing.

more pics will be added when i'm feeling a little less lazy, but in the meantime- luckily, my bridesmaid sharon LOOOVES to document things on her xanga and i have never been so happy that she does... (thanks sha-mo-mo!!)

friday: i meet up with my 2 gorgeous maids of honor who flew/drove in from outta town, round up the unsuspecting bridal party, and the invitation bonanza begins!! (truly, i know that i am blessed with the most patient, generous, nimble-fingered friends in the world...)

saturday: the bachelorette party........ *ahem* i had fun. 'nuff said.

sunday: the most wonderful bestest bridal shower in the world!!!!!!! i felt literally showered with love, and have never felt more fortunate or undeserving of such an outpouring.... but boy do i appreciate it!! :)

i realized this weekend how much i've missed the "all-girls" experience... in other words, my life as i knew it before med school. we giggled, gossiped, chowed down on gourmet fare & junk food & everything in between, stayed up late talking, and oh so many other wonderful girly activities. of course, i realize that i can never go back- having a relationship, and especially getting married is not exactly compatible with the single gal lifestyle... and i don't wish to go back either... but just for this weekend, it was... like coming home.

body image and whatnot

of all the things that i wanted my wedding day to be (i.e. happiest, bestest day of my life), the thing that i wanted it LEAST to become was/is a deadline. more specifically, a deadline for losing as much weight as humanly/healthily possible. speaking of which, please excuse the grammar and generally funky english- i'm a little sleep and calorie-deprived.

as i was saying before i was so rudely pushed off track by my errant inconsiderate thoughts, i'm a little concerned with the attitude that i've been adopting as of late, regarding body image. namely, wanted to have as little a body for the best image possible. this is not to say that i don't think i need to lose weight- Lord only knows how well i know THAT... but gosh, i'm becoming freakin obsessed.

the thing is, it would be bad enough if i spiraled into a dark hole of fad dieting and carb-starved depression... i just don't want to drag my bridesmaids down with me. and sadly, i find that every single one of them is worried about body image to some extent. i know that nearly every woman is unhappy with some aspect of their bodies, and of course i sympathize, but damn i feel guilty.

ANYHOO, some good has come out of this extreme dieting that i've been going through recently. all this time i just assumed that i wasn't losing weight because of my lack of self-discipline. i somehow cultivated this idea that i was just too "weak-minded" to restrict myself. i've learned these past few days that this is not the case. i'm STRONG, dammit!! this is a freakin revelation... i'm empowered- grumpy as HELL because of carb-restriction- but ready to tackle this mountain (of flesh, as it were) with all flags flying....... (i love me my mixed metaphors)