Highlights of my Day... December 31

1. Ah,the last day of 2008… it’s been an interesting year.

My strongest memories of 2008:
- my first professional fight
- joining “The Club” in Busan
- having surgery
- feeling extreme homesick for the first time… and for a long time
- my student Du San’s suicide
- Junior Mint’s comeback fight
- turning into a wangtta
- the best summer vacation of my life!!! (Thanks Canada)
- family reunion
- my scooter accident in Daejon
- Panty Boy Jr. quitting our boxing team
- getting sponsored by the Cheonan Trump and Adidas
- being focused on two TV documentary shows
- watching Q cry over a book I wrote him
- the death of one of my best friend’s fathers

2. To sum up 2008 in two words, I think “unexpectedly whacked” would pretty much sum it up. I started this year off thinking that Korea was the country for me, thinking that I’d be here for at least another couple of years. Q and I would get married, we’d buy a house in Cheonan and I’d continue working at Dankook. But then I went to Canada in the summer and realized just how different my life is in Korea, how lonely it tends to be and how secluded I’ve made myself here. And that’s when I realized that having no one who calls me up to ask me how my day’s been, having no one to go on an early morning jog with, and having no one that really knows me beyond my first name and smile really, really sucks. I use to want more but was ok when I settled for less, now I need that more.

3. Finally got my hair cut. I think the last time I got my hair cut was right before I went to Canada for the summer.

4. Around mid-afternoon I got a phone call from someone very close to me, asking me to wire him a rather large lump sum of money. His mother had unexpectantly been taken to the hospital and so now he was faced with pretty hefty medical bills and expenses. I wired him the money even though Q’s eyes bulged out his head when he heard the amount. He said I was a bit off my rocker for even considering it. Mind you, considering who he is to me and the fact that he’s older than me, I knew he was depending on me to help him but was rather embarrassed to ask me for my help, and you know what, I think that’s why I was quick to help him.

5. At boxing today I got into a very weird, very unexpected, and very intense strange mood when I found myself in the center of a very loud Korean conversation by which I had no idea of what they were talking about. They were all laughing and giggling, so I started to giggle too. That’s when they turned to me and I blurted out (in Korean), “Oh I miss Canada... I miss English… I hate wangtta!” I have no idea where that came from but no sooner did I say it but my eyes swelled up with tears and so I quickly turned and started to pound away at the heavy bag. Junior Mint asked me if I was ok, by which I responded with “I am never really ok.”

6. Tonight’s plans for New Year’s Eve were kind of up in the air the whole day. I had been asked by a new friend of mine to join him out in Osan but I was kind of hesitant. I wanted to do something different tonight but wasn’t sure if hanging out in Little America with a bunch of testosterone high, drunk American men was really what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out but, and no offence to my new friend, but I really wanted to end the old year off with those I really love. So instead, I stayed in Cheonan and had a pretty low-key evening.

7. My New Year’s Eve celebrations started off right after I spent way too much time in the bathroom getting ready. I don't consider myself to be a particularly high-maintenance woman but I do take care of myself and like to look good. Tonight I sported my new stiletto leather boots, a mini-mini skirt with some leggings and an off-the-shoulder shirt, wavey hair, and some smokey eyes. I splurged on a very delicious meal, left my clean-eating at home, and treated myself to an overly expensive glass of wine. Mind ya, one glass was enough to send me into giggle mode and so for the rest of the evening I sported my perma-smile and was overly talkative… to everyone!

8. New Year’s Eve, Christmas, my birthday, and Thanksgiving are the four days of the year that I allow myself “freestyle eating”, as I call it, and so I headed over to Baskin Robins to buy the perfect ice cream cake, of which I should note that I was careful to only eat a sliver of. There was no way I wanted to start the new year off with any more poop horror stories than already experienced!!!

9. Being in the chatty-Cathy mood that the wine had brought about, I ended up saying some really silly things… hehehe. I told some crazy driver to watch her driving “… because you can’t afford to hit this Pollack!”, I got into a silly conversation with some pudgy dude at Baskin Robins over which flavour he should buy. I tried to convince him to buy the pumpkin cheesecake ice cream and told him that if he didn’t like it then I’d buy him his own Baskin Robins… hehehe. Then, as if my conversations weren’t entertaining my date enough, I told some dude in the elevator that he should tame down his hair gel and then I asked the GS 25 guy if he thought I was pretty…. Hehehe.

10. Time ticked away and before I knew it, I was checking the clock and low and behold in less than one minute it’d be midnight. “Oh my gosh.. one minute, one minute, one minute!” I yelled out as I scrambled to get the cake ready. At midnight I called up Junior Mint and, in my best attempt to remember how to say "Happy New Year's" in Korean, I yelled it out at the top of my lungs... hehehe. He responded with a huge laugh and a "I love you Amy!"... hehehe. So midnight came and then midnight left. The new year was finally here and there I was with two of my favourite Koreans in the comfort of my own house and with a huge smile on my face.

QUESTION OF THE DAY…
Have you already broken your new year’s resolutions?

QUOTE OF THE DAY…
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.
-- Joey Adams