2012 in Review (Long overdue, I know)

2012 has been a year of self-discovery and new beginnings.

Physical challenges (Insanity, Spartan Race) have pushed me to my limit and shown me that I'm much stronger than I thought.  Sometimes sheer will is all that stands between you and success.
I've finally finishing school and working full-time has forced me to reevaluate my time management skills (not to mention my financial management skills!) and learn to balance work and a social life.

So what have I been up to?

I celebrated my quarter century in July with as many close friends as I could gather in the midst of a busy summer. I've definitely had my "quarter-life crisis" moments, but nothing too long-lasting that I can't subdue...for now.

Surrounded by my favourites

In mid-August, I flew to Calgary for a youth conference and stayed with family for a week. I hadn't visited Alberta since I turned 18, so it was lovely to meet some oh-so-adorable new cousins, catch up with old friends, and make new ones. And while I didn't get to snowboard in Banff, I did visit the mountains for some scenic pictures and short hikes. Hopefully, it won't be 7 years before I finally knock the Rockies off my to-board list.

True North strong and free..

My mom's side of the family in Calgary

The end of August culminated in the celebration of another BBH wedding, my dear friends, Jon and Flo. Lively crowd, great band, and of course, what better venue to meet lovely new people? Can't wait til the next BBH wedding! I have no doubt that 2013 (and 2014!) will be full of joyous gatherings ;)

The first night we met.
Photo cred: Derrick Francis Wong

We had to make a pyramid to make the bride and groom kiss
Photo cred: Kuba Photography

BBH crew at the BuTran wedding
Photo cred: Kuba Photography

The long-awaited proposal..Congrats, Viet & Robin!

And of course, to wrap up summer and the end of the beach volleyball season, I finally got the tattoo that I've been itching to get since I was 18. While I had wanted it for my 25th birthday, I had to wait until I was out of the sun for the season to get it. Quick and relatively painless, considering I got it on my rib cage. I'm tempted to get another one, but perhaps I'll wait another 7 years just to make sure I reaaaallly want it ;)

Honestly, it didn't really hurt, but the back of my rib was sensitive

This Too Shall Pass

In November, I flew down to Texas to celebrate my first American Thanksgiving. What a blast! I spent the first five days in Austin and Houston, and the latter 5 days in Dallas. K was a wonderful host and kept me plenty fed...I'm pretty sure I ate at least 5-6 times a day while I was in Austin/Houston. Oh, America, I heart your food trucks. I got to make up for my lack of university partying by bar hopping in Austin. What a crazy college town! When I was in Dallas, H & A took me to the gun range and I go to shoot an uzi! This wasn't on my original bucket list...but it should have been!

My very first philly cheese steak! ermagod SO good

Captain Tom's. I always stop by when I'm in Houston 

My first Vietnamese-American Thanksgiving!

Corn. In. A. Cup.
Corn + cheese + spices + butter + sour cream + hot sauce = $1.50 heaven

In America, I get to shoot an uzi.

It's no secret that I love to eat. And while I stray away from watching television too much, the one channel that I'll always watch is the Food Network. Whether it's a Friday night in or just something to run in the background while I cook myself, there is always something interesting to watch on the Food Network. It got to the point that all the episodes were starting to seem like repeats because I left the channel on so often. Then came Master Chef. While it's not a Food Network show per se (Good job, Fox), it had all the fixings of a good foodie reality show. Master Chef opened up the doors to weekly discussions between M and I about the challenges and contestants, with one contestant in particular, Christine Ha, who became our own fan favourite. You see, Christine is legally blind and yet here she was, cooking up a storm on Master Chef, impressing judges, and surprising skeptics. And, of course, the fact that she was Vietnamese was a proud bonus too. I recognized a lot of her dishes and could imagine my own kitchen here at home bustling with the energy and vibrant smells of the traditional Vietnamese dishes she made. But it wasn't just her underdog status that made me want to root for her -- it was her story:

"My mother was my cooking inspiration. She was a wonderful cook. When I was fourteen, before I'd had any interest in cooking, she passed away. She left no recipes. After I moved away for college, I had to learn to cook for myself.[...] I've since spent many hours in the kitchen using my childhood memories trying to recreate my mother's dishes."

This hit home pretty hard for me, and her words have lingered long past the ending of the show. I've never had much of a presence in the kitchen, and up until the last year, I had difficulty cooking rice with a rice cooker. (Okay, that might be a bit of an exageration, but you get my point.) I've always been fond of pasta dishes and the occasional shepherd's pie, and maybe even corn and crab soup if I was feeling particularly adventurous. I also make a full Thanksgiving and Christmas feast each year with S, so I'm not completely hopeless. But in terms of venturing into the domain of Vietnamese cooking...well, there's not much to be said there. I can eat nearly everything on a Vietnamese menu (also worth noting that it's the only Vietnamese I can read fluently) but when I move out, my new home will be sorely lacking in traditional asian cooking. So, with that in mind, I've made a conscious effort over the last couple of months to spend more time in the kitchen with my mother. I could never forgive myself if I didn't learn how to recreate (or at least write down) some of her recipes. I've always helped here and there with food prep, but never really paid attention to the actual cooking portion -- How long do I simmer this before I add this? How much fish sauce do I add? What can I use as a substitute if I don't have a this ingredient?

As a result, I've been writing everything down, almost obsessively, and in finite detail so that I won't forget a step when I try to recreate it. And chances are, it'll probably take a few tries until I perfect it myself, but at least I'll have it written down somewhere. Mom has since taught me how to make my absolutely favourite prawn dish, as well as her staple fish sauce seasoning and a few other dishes as well. Next up: pho, bun rieu and canh chua. I hope to be able to cook these dishes by the end of the year!

As an aside (actually, M lost a bet and I participated just for the fun of it), M and I attempted to 'see' through Christine's eyes by embarking on a blind baking challenge of our own...

We may have made too many peanut butter cookies...

I have no doubt that 2013 is going to be spectacular. If 2012 was the year of self-discovery and new beginnings, 2013 will be a year of transition and growth with a side of adventure. My first full year of working full-time with no schooling. This means saving, saving, saving! And also...traveling, traveling, traveling. I've got lots of places I *want* to travel to this year (Dominican, Turks & Caicos, Rome + Greece, Miami...and the list continues to grow..) but I know I have to put some priority on paying back my school debts.

Upcomings: Glass blowing! All-girls snowboarding workshop! Swedish House Mafia! Tough Mudder!

I promise my next update won't take so long =P

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mama

My mom was not always my idol.

As a teenager, my mother was my enemy. I lied, I bickered, and I sneered at my mother's well-to-do attempts to teach me right from wrong. I always knew everything. I was always right. I don't think I was a particularly difficult child, but that didn't mean I didn't make mistakes. And I'm sure many of my mistakes kept her up at night, wondering if she had screwed up somewhere along the line. Looking back now, I can confidently say that she didn't. In fact, I am so thankful that she put up with my behaviour and teenage angst.

It wasn't until I was finished school, working, but still living at home, that I began to see and fully appreciate how much my my mother had given up to raise me and my sister. I saw the late nights where she would stay up, waiting for me to get home from a night out partying, just to make sure that I got safely. I saw the early mornings where she would wake up to pack us lunch because we liked to sleep in and then rush out the door without eating. She'd always manage to wrap up toast so that I wouldn't have to skip breakfast, knowing that I wouldn't eat otherwise. I saw a woman who would commute 4 hours a day to work one of her four jobs that enabled her to pay the bills and keep food on the table. My parents would often fill up my gas tank for my car, knowing that my money could be better spent on tuition and textbooks.

I could probably pinpoint the turning point in our relationship sometime during my first year of university. I lived in residence and went home every weekend. One Sunday afternoon, shortly after dropping me off and driving the half hour back home, I called her, nearly in tears, because I was lonely and missed her (my campus wasn't very big, and most people were still out visiting their own families on the weekend). Without skipping a beat or asking any questions, she got right back into her car and came back to pick me up. I spent Sunday night at home and she drove me back Monday morning for class.

My mother had gone from being the person I spent years running away from, to the person to whom I turned to, regardless of the circumstances. I have so much respect for her now, and I'm a little disappointed I wasn't able to realize it when I was younger. Even now, my 13 year-old sister rolls her eyes at me when I tell her that mom really does knows best. I can only hope she realizes how lucky we are before it's too late.

Tell you mother you love her -- every day, not just today. I realize that I am very fortunate that she is still such a big part of my life. I know in the years to come, I still have much to learn.

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
-George Washington

I love you, Mommy.

Mom & I, 1990
One of my fav pictures.

A Good Life

There's just something about this song that never fails to pick me up. If I'm tired, frustrated or bored, I throw on "Good Life" by One Republic and by the time the chorus rolls around, I'm already bopping my head and tapping my foot.

What is a good life? I tried flipping through my old philosophy texts from my first year at university. On a rather ambitious venture, I decided to take a course entitled, "The Meaning of Life". Yeah, ambitious. In retrospect, I should have known that a single semester studying the works of Descartes and Dostoyevsky, among others, wouldn't teach me "the meaning of life." To be honest, I'm not sure if I've walked away with much from that class, apart from my first (and possibly only) A+ paper in university.

I'm not sure what constitutes a good life. "Good" is relative. I know that I have certain goals I want to achieve (be a realtime court reporter). I know the kind of person I want to strive to be (honest, inspiring, humble). I know that I want to leave some sort of legacy, even if it's only the lessons I pass on to my children ("Never waste food"). I want to be able to live my live fully, wholly, and at the end of the road, have no regrets. Then, I will have lived a good life. I need not have walked on the moon or herded elephants in Africa -- though that would be pretty cool. I want to say that I did everything I wanted to do. I suppose that's what pushes me to accomplish all the items on my bucket list. Some are ambitious (land frontside/backside 180), some are a little out of my hands and depend on others (Stanley Cup for the Leafs, anyone?), while some are downright daunting (stand on Kjeragbolten, join a paintball league). But I'm determined to do it all, hopefully sooner rather than later, but definitely by the end of the road.

"When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did."
-- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do. One day, I'm gonna go to all the places that they mention in the song, and then some, and I'm gonna make my own "Good Life" video.