i feel better now, thanks...

...now that i got my rant out of my system, let me catch up on the past week's events.

...my various out-of-town family members on my dad's side descended upon chicago over the weekend for a big reunion. my cousin jeannie and her boyfriend erik stayed with us. on thursday, we went to millenium park with our cousins casey and his brother ike (from austin,TX) for a special chic-a-go-go taping at the pritzker pavillion. thax douglas, chicago's rock 'n' roll poet laureate, read a poem as part of one of his last readings in chicago before he moves to new york city.

...saturday night was the big party at my eldest uncle jae's (all 3 of my dad's brothers in chicago are uncle jaes). jeannie's younger sister jessica, also from santa barbara, and my cousin inho, who's going to grad school in arcata,CA were also there. the only cousin missing was yonju's brother seunggi who happened to be in LA for the weekend. it's been 20 years since we were all in the same house, and as you can imagine, things were pretty loud with all the catching up going on.

...it was great spending time with my cousin jeannie and her boyfriend eric. cadence had fun playing with them, and i have to admit it was nice having two other people around to read to her and play catch with her and shower her with attention. eric will be going to school at the school of the art institute in january, so i hope to see lots more of them soon.

...all in all it was a long, tiring weekend, but we had lots of fun. we are still recovering from the lack of sleep, and i am already looking forward to this weekend so i can get some more relaxing in.

...i have to say, cadence really loves being with the big extended family. for some reason, when she's at a large family function, she just wanders around playing happily by herself, especially if whoever's house we're at has stairs. if she needs a little attention, she just grabs the nearest adult, and there is never a shortage of grownups delighted to pick her up or give her some fruit to graze on.

...now we're back to the reality of our little family...it's not as loud (except when cadence is screaming) and there's not as much drinking going on (although there is plenty, with ted's beers and all)...i just hope our next get-together happens before another 20 years have elapsed...

i will not raise my daughter as a christian...

…no, cadence will not be raised with a christian heritage. and i know that will worry some of you, but i am so fed up with some people who call themselves christians right now that i would be ashamed for her to be raised with such a detestable legacy. you see, it was the behavior of these such “christians” that caused my teddy to declare yesterday, ‘that is why i am NOT a christian.’ thanks, guys. thanks a lot. all that i’ve done trying to show my husband that not ALL christians are legalistic bigoted narrowminded homophobic greedy environment-trashing sexist rude pricks has been for naught.

i really feel sorry for these elitist holier-than-thou fuckers who are so busy excluding from their association those whom they deem unworthy. what are they going to do when they find themselves in heaven and discover that God is so much more inclusive than they are? will heaven become hell for them? and i just don’t find it very convincing when you say that you don’t have a problem with someone’s lifestyle and then you say that you don’t approve of any of their decisions these past couple years. like why the fuck does a grown woman need YOUR approval? that's like mandy moore hitting jena malone over the head with a bible and screaming, "i am FILLED with christ's love!" in the movie saved!

i am pissed off right now, in case you haven’t noticed. this is one of my biggest pet peeves—people calling themselves christians who show no evidence except for the fact that they go to church and do quiet times and pray before their meals but who don’t hesitate to make other people (who don't also do all these things) feel like shit. come to think of it, i think that’s the exact definition of a pharisee, those people jesus called a brood of vipers and sons of the devil.

don’t get me wrong. i fully intend on sharing with cadence who god is to me. her life will not be entirely devoid of faith or church or even the bible. but i won’t hide from her all the imperfections either, and i will hope that she learns to think for herself and choose her own path in the journey of faith without having one shoved down her throat. and if there’s one thing i will teach her early on about following christ, it will be that there is never, ever any excuse for exhibiting spiritual arrogance by belittling someone else.

crazy busy

...well, it's been nutso around here. guests galore. there is no way i will be able to post anything that makes sense, so here's a photo of cadence and her new friend mia, my friend sang hui's daughter.

...and here, finally, is our new baby hawk mei tai! i absolutely love it! it is SOOOOO comfortable...this is of course my foofy side.

...and this is ted's side. my mom would freak out if she saw this. she'd think it were an invitation for evil spirits to torment our little cadence.

pink is for punk!

...so when i asked cadence which shoes she'd like to wear with her adorable poppy dress, she immediately picked up her pink chuck taylors and said, 'this one! this one!'

...i have to admit i tried to dissuade her from this combination, but cadence is just about as opinionated as a 23 month old gets. so pink chuck taylors it was.

...apparently, that made cadence very happy. and i guess pink chuck taylors look adorable with any outfit on a toddler. i have to say, she's got good taste and she's not afraid to break fashion rules. that's a good combo.

finally...vlogging!

i have joined videoegg so i can embed videos in my blog posts. here's one from a while back. it's cadence dancing to korean TV at my mom's.

i am being OH so productive this weekend.