For the past month, I've been contemplating numerous jobs and have been eagerly looking for an out-of-the-norm job. Ironically, the finger to this statue is pointing in the wrong direction cause the solution to my job hunting problem is in the opposite direction.

Job Hunting Killed... Monday, February 28

After what feels like months of seriously stalking Craigslist, WorkNPlay and other Korean job Internet sites, and agreeing to several interviews, I finally came to a decision about work.

I scored that daycare job in Bundang that I was really hoping to land, so I'm stoked about that. It'll be my main job. I've decided to drop my early morning Samsung tutoring and I've picked up an afternoon job, 3 days a week.

One of the requirements for the daycare job is that I get a health check, so I spent my morning getting poked, probed, measured, and eyed for that. As for my afternoon, Snickers and I headed out to one final interview; an interview for an afternoon job that I later on today accepted. I have a couple of days of training and orientation for my daycare job but because the new school semester starts at the begining of March, this means my afternoon job will start in two days.

My days of lesuirely sleeping the hours away and having only my training on my mind are over come this Wednesday!!! Dang. I guess I can't really complain though considering the mad cash flow that these two gigs will bring in. With all my money means combined (sponsors, personal training, daycare, and the afternoon academy) I will have officially doubled the salary Dankook use to pay me and I will have tripled the amount of cash I pulled in when I first arrived in Korea... nice!!!

Regardless of the sweet money that will be rolling my way, I am really looking forward to working at the daycare. Am a bit apprehensive about the afternoon daycare though; they're a bit choking with all the books and what not they expect me to teach. I miss the freedom of tutoring already and the pure freedom the Asan church classes allowed me. I don't know, can't really say anything concrete about it yet cause I'll know better come Wednesday. I will say this though with regards to this job, it will feel strange to work with foreigners again but it'll be pretty sweet to have my own personal classroom.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is your cup half full or half empty?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.
-- Chinese Proverb

(Shots taken yesterday at Granny Kim's house)

Coffee with a Side Order of Drama

Talk about one annoyingly rude Korean man on a major high power trip!!! This was the scene that went down today outside the window seat where I sat sipping on coffee with Kat. Neither Kat nor I knew what had really happened but something had surely happened.

All I know is that some Korean man had taken it upon himself to confront two young male teens outside Coffee Bean downtown for one reason or another. He showed up with a bike (we assume he had chased down the two teens on it) and upon confronting them, he made them sit on their knees on the cold damp ground for all the downtown crowd to see. I felt so embarrassed for the two boys and seriously wanted to tell the older man to relax.

At first it was a local security officer who stepped in and tried to make sense of the drama that was going down.
But when the Korean man, who clearly was milking the whole "I'm-older-so-I'm-right" Korean hierachical thinking, ignored the security gaurd police were then called in. And thank God too cause honestly if I had to see such crap go down for any longer I would have seriously gone outside and given that man a piece of my own mind.
I know Koreans are all about age, the older you are the more power and respect you're given, but I've seen way too many Koreans totally take advantage of this social norm. Today was mad proof of this fact too!!! I know you should respect your elders but Korea takes it to a whole different level, a level that most foreigners don't agree with. And as far as I'm concerned, respect at the level to which so many -- too many -- older Koreans have come to expect is to be earned!!! I don't see what a grown man bullying two teens not even half his age when combined really teaches them, beyond many negative things that is. He was flat out humiliating them... what a bully. What a big, over-grown, over-aged bully!!!

Anyways, the police took the two teens away in the cop car and the annoying Korean man drove off on his bike.

All this went down while Snickers was at Granny Kim's house. He had stayed over last night at her house with other members of the K-Fam and it wasn't until much later in the evening today that he returned.

And in between coffee with Kat and the return of Snickers, I chillaxed with Mi Nam, caught up on some emailing and played around with Photoshop.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...

What social norm do you think too many people push to extremes?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.
-- Peter McArthur

Today's events all centered around one thing -- Snickers' cousin's baby's first birthday.

And because more than just Snickers weren't the only ones to admit that they don't really like this particular family member and his little side family, our mission was to attack and demolish the buffet tables. Too many plates later, mission completed.

I don't mind him personally, though his father freaks me out and I think his other daughter is spoiled rotten to the core, but props to Snickers and other family members for admitting they don't like him -- I think that made me like them even more ironically enough. Mind ya, I found it rather silly to such an effort to even attend the birthday party. After all, attending the party meant a 3 hour drive to get Granny Kim for the party and a 3 hour drive to and from the party in Suwon. Oh, and after the party they all went back to Granny Kim's house... bringing today's travel time total to 8 hours. I opted out of going back to Granny Kim's house for the simple sake that it was a bit too much K-family drama for me. I feared overdosing... hahaha.

Family Photo Fun... Saturday, February 26

Of course, you know who this guy is... Snickers, my husband.

Me with Snickers and my two sister-in-laws.

My sister-in-law with her hoping-to-soon-be fiance but for now boyfriend.

And my other sister-in-law's husband with the twins and Snickers.

And for the sake of these pictures being taken at Snickers' second cousin's first birthday, here's a picture of Snickers' cousin and second cousin.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
If your family wasn't your family, would you pick them to be?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
-- George Bernard Shaw

Some screen shots of a new highly-addicted Korean TV show that I must admit, I too am addicted to it... and that's even before they introduced boxing into the show!

The wives all get to wear two regular sized gloves while the husbands wear one over-sized glove.

And each couple gets to step in the ring for one full two-minute round, to battle it out with their spouse.

For the most part the husbands all tried to defend themselves while the wives all gave it their best shot to beat upon and literally take down their husband.
Talk about girl power... hahaha!!!

Beating the Bad Out of Bad Husbands... Friday, February 25

Couples literally beating each other on TV show called "I hate you but one more time"... I love it.
Hahahaha...

What can I say, I'm a fighter not a lover but I do love fighting.

Being a big fan of boxing and being a boxer myself, I thought the idea of a troubled marriage battling it out in the ring was perfect.

Trust me, the stress relief you get after going a few rounds at boxing is worth it and all the couples agreed after their boxing round that it was a lot of fun and it felt awesome to let out all that stress.

I've been watching this particular TV show that I'm talking about for a couple of weeks now. It centers around four troubled couples that have quite a number of issues, ranging from an abusive husband to a massive age gap between spouses and a husband who has been gambling their money away. At first I found the show to be rather entertaining but now I've developed huge bias towards certain spouses.

I particularly don't like the one couple with the abusive husband. His young wife is so scared of him that she's contemplated suicide on numerous occassions. The way he talks to her and treats her is crap and though this is a TV show, I seriously question how far he takes it when the cameras aren't rolling, like the time his wife showed up at the hospital with blood dripping from her head. The cameras showed her in the hospital waiting room but they didn't show what lead up to the situation. Both Snickers and I would love to step in the ring with this young punk of a husband and beat some sense into him.

Snickers and I definitely don't fight a lot but we do fight, as in play wrestle and try UFC moves on each other. Sometimes we hurt each other in doing so, like when he gives me a huge charlie horse, but for some reason we both think it's hilarious, so we laugh. I can only imagine what the neighbors think of us. They hear all this banging around, a lot of laughing and the odd scream "Ouch that hurts!!!" Fighting is like foreplay for us, I guess... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Where's the line between a dead marriage, a dying marriage and a revivable marriage?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
-- Andre Maurois

After all their hardcore training and insane dieting to maintain their weight for the tournament, it was only appropriate that we take them out and let them pig out on food.

March 11th marks round three for the tournament, with the finals being on March 27th. I really don't understand this cause if you think about it, logically it doesn't make sense. According to KBC's rules, a fighter can't schedule two fights so close to each other, meaning you have to have at least a month in between. But, according to the set up of this tournament, if you win all your fights, you'll be fighting FOUR fights in ONE MONTH... the first two being only a day apart too!
Not sure how the try to justify not protecting it's fighters but at an insulting $200 a fight and the final fight just being a little higher in money, today I felt so disgusted with KBC.
Most Korean boxers can't afford to do only boxing as a career. Not only is it hard to be taken seriously within society here but it's brutally hard for them to get sponsored and the fight money basically just covers their traveling and hotel expenses, and a meal out after with their coach... damn!!!

Catch the Hype... Thursday, February 24

Headed out to Seoul... again for like the hundredth time. Today marked the last day of three consecutive days of the boxing tournament and both the Cheonan Bulldog and the Heavy Hitter from my boxing club were fighting in round two.
Snickers and I arrived just as the Cheonan Bulldog was stepping into the ring for his fight so we literally threw our stuff down and ran to his corner.

The fights for this tournament are all four rounds but yikes did the boxers take a beating. The Cheonan Bulldog won his fight and because he's won all his fights in his professional boxing career to date, today he scored a lot of media attention and coverage.

As for the Heavy Hitter, he scored quite the amazing win when with about ten seconds left to the first round he landed a brutal punch and sent his opponent crashing. It was a win by knock out in the first round!!!

Needless to say, the energy that came with both our fighters winning their fights was insanely high and gave us all a rush. Junior Mint drove both fighters back to Cheonan while Snickers and I followed in our car but even being in separate cars couldn't block the excitement of today. On the highway we hooked our horns continuously and yelled out our windows; it was hilarious.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...

What gives you a natural high?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.
-- Corita Kent

Here's two cell phone screen shots. The one on the left is from my phone and Snickers is the one on the right. These a collection of stats of our phone usage as of December 7th, 2010.

I rarely use my phone for actually talking to people, instead I am hooked on using it for the Internet when I'm in the car or on the go. And by this screen shot of the most used website sites, you can tell what I've been doing a lot of lately... job hunting.

Boo to LG... Wednesday, February 23

Definitely have a bone to pick with LG.

Within two and a half months, I've only dialed out on my phone a total of 3 hours and 43minutes, but within this same time frame Snickers has made 21 hours and 43 minutes worth of phone calls.

Our phone bill totals are mere dollars apart... too close for comfort.

According to our phone plan we get 4 hours of free calls a month, of which I haven't even used that much in three months. We both use KakaoTalk, a free downloadable messanger application, for text messaging each other and our friends. And beyond the other free applications, the calculator and the alarm clock, I've downloaded two Gwen Stefani and Mariah Carey ringtones and use it for the Internet.
Am seriously thinking about ditching my cell phone because being way too attached to it for the fact that it buzzes me every time I get an email, it's not worth the hefty phone bill it sends my way.

I must admit though, I love the fact that I can email and write my homepage from my phone but I hate the fact that it makes me too easily accessable to whomever whats to get in touch with me. Moreover, my cell phone (Optimus) goes through one to two batteries a day... brutal!!!

What ever happened to pagers? And are landlines so yesterday?

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Are you one of those people with your cell phone attached to your hip?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Dispite our great growing hatred towards driving in Seoul, today we headed out to Seoul for a boxing tournament.

Two of UP Boxing Club's boxers are fighting in this week's tournament that runs from Tuesday to Thursday. Today, fighting on behalf of UP, it was the Cheonan Bulldog.

One Up for UP... Tuesday, February 22

Today's plan centered on a professional boxing tournament and because it was out in Seoul there wasn't much time left to day to fit in any other kinds of plans. However, I did manage to get in a good 11km, mind ya that was at midnight.

Anyways, we were out in Seoul today.

Today the Cheonan Bulldog had a fight and besides Junior Mint and the other UP boxer competiting, Snickers and I were the only ones who were able to show up to show our support. Snickers acted as an assistant corner coach and I stood by as one very loud fan... hahaha.
It was an anticipated victory by Junior Mint's mind but he definitely wasn't impressed with the Cheonan Bulldog's win. He hadn't listened to many of Junior Mint's calls and yelling, so the Cheonan Bulldog stepped out of the ring to one very frustrated coach. Regardless, it was a win and I was happy for him.

Him winning his fight means that he'll be competiting yet again, on Thursday, so he'll have to keep his weight down for game weigh-in... brutal! He had weigh-in yesterday for today's game, so he got to eat but with him now being 3kgs over the game weight, he had no choice but to head out for a long run while coach and his friend sat down to eat dinner.

Tomorrow another UP Boxing Club boxer will be competiting, I don't plan on attending, I need a break from Seoul driving, but I will be back on Thursday.

Congrats to the Cheonan Bulldog and, no matter what Junior Mint says, a win is a win so be proud.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How brutal is it to have to make two weigh-ins within days of each other?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Just do it.
-- Nike

Do you see what I see?!
I spotted this old skool bench press outside the restaurant where I had lunch today. The weights on it are actually cut plastic containers that have been filled with cement and then attached to the bar.
Holy hardcore, I love it... hahaha.

Hair-Pulling Traffic... Monday, February 21

I've been working hard to get in work-out time because of job hunting, it's been eating up my time... and patience.

Boo to job hunting!!!

Boo to Cheonan too, for it's total lack of decent jobs that aren't insanely insulting in pay and expectations.

I'm trying to line up a job for March, which is but a hop, skip and jump away, so I feel like I've been stalking Dave's ESL Cafe and other such Internet sites for jobs. Consequently, it's been playing it toll on my energy and motivation levels. It's just so discouraging.

Seoul is the place to land a good job so off to Seoul Snickers and I headed yet again. I was there on Friday but upon putting the pieces together and realizing that Cat and I were going for the same job, I told them I didn't want to be even considered for the position.

Today I had two interviews, one for a book publishing company that's just recently started a children's reading program and the other interview was for a Korean daycare that's turned all English. Unlike so many of the jobs out here that are way beyond cookie-cut, the daycare position sounds really interesting. Moreover, I really respect that fact that I'd be working alongside Koreans that are trained professionals that actually went to school for this, early childhood education.

I really want the daycare position.

I really want get back to having some kind of routine, too.

Running off to Seoul for simple interviews is quite frustrating. Interviews last any where from 20-45 minutes so an hour drive into the city and then another hour fight with the city traffic is rather annoying. Then of course you have to drive home!!! Plan is to skip the traffic all together and take the train or express bus in if I score a Seoul job. Driving a car in Seoul is just pointless, that is unless you like testing your stress levels out and raising your blood pressure to expremes.

After battling the nonscense of Seoul traffic, we headed over to see one of Snickers' aunts in hopes of taking a break from the stress of the road and getting to stretch our legs. Snickers' aunt owns her own little corner stop. It was the first time I've visited her shop but it was great. It was like one big free-for-all in that she said if we were hungry or thirsty we could help ourselves... dangerous words when Snickers is involved cause he can eat his weight in food and eat you out of house and home.

Snickers' other aunt, Auntie Almond (K-Gere's other sister who got this name because of the excessive bags of almonds and chocolates she always sends my way), ended up dropping by so we all went for dinner together.


Here's a shot I took of our dinner and below, these are shots of Auntie Almond with her sister's dog and Snickers with the store's guard dog eyeing me in the background.

Tonight, the two aunts I met up with are both K-Gere's sisters; I like them. Snickers of course loves them too but totally blames me for their new fiesty manners... hahaha. I'm always joking with Snickers, punching him in the bum, pulling his hair, hitting his head with my knuckles, but it's all in good fun. Of course I don't intend on hurting him but I also don't refrain from such actions when others are around. At first, onlookers are somewhat shocked at our boysterous ways but it's always funny how quick others are to join in... hahaha. Tonight, when Snickers was in the bathroom, I taught Auntie Almond what I call the "belly-button-thumb-punch"... hahaha... and no sooner did Snickers return to the table but then she tried it out on him... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Do I have to grow up?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
--Author Unknown

Headed out for a date tonight, a date with a married man... MY married man.
Tonight's date was dinner and a movie. We haven't been to the movies for awhile, since January 3rd to be exact, so I got all dolled up and even did my hair special for the occassion.

Couple Must-Have Items... Sunday, February 20

I usually don’t even bother to give a second glance at the cheesy relationship articles that Yahoo posts online but a specific article caught my attention. It was titled “7 Surprising Ways Happy Couples Stay Close”.

Here’s the seven things it listed as must-have items.

1. A beautifully framed picture from your falling-in-love days.

Looking at a photo of the two of you sitting in a canoe, or wherever, all gaga over each other, is an instant way of returning to that state when you were falling in love. You always want to stay in touch with that magic chemistry you first had and strive to go back to those days in some way.

2. A movie you both love.

3. A unique anniversary to celebrate.

Your wedding anniversary is a lovely date to remember, but it's not the only milestone that matters. It's even more intimate to celebrate less public moments, such as your first kiss, first vacation together or -- hey -- even the first time the pregnancy test turned blue.

4. An empty-nest dream.

Tom Lee, Ph.D., a professor of marriage and family studies at Utah State University, recently completed a survey of 1,400 married people. One of the findings was that couples who regularly discuss their long-range plans are more likely to stay happily married. "If you have a long-term view, you realize that the daily ups and downs don't mean as much," he says. "Talking about your shared future communicates, 'I plan on being here.' The message is that there are plenty of good times yet to come."

5. A fight that never ends.

Every couple has areas where they'll never see eye-to-eye. Every marriage has its own uniquely prickly issue -- maybe for you it's time spent with your in-laws, conflicting attitudes about money or differing styles of disciplining the kids. The point is, you can agree to disagree and still have a happy, healthy relationship -- if you both accept your differences with grace and good humor.

6. Mad money.

Sure, you have funds earmarked for bills and savings, but every couple also needs a just-for-fun account. Spend it on a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip, a pricey bottle of champagne or front-row tickets to a concert you're dying to see.

7. An oversize beach blanket.

Forget about taking it to the shore with the kids; this one is for lovemaking anywhere in the house.

The Seven Things that Keep Snickers and I Close:

1. We have dates.

Day date, mini dates, dinner dates… dates can range from a simple walk around Dankook Lake or a drive out to one of our favorite spots in Cheonan to a more pricey or elaborate event like a trip out to Lotte World in Seoul, but they always include just the two of us. No one else is invited and often our cell phones are ignored.

2. We give each other space and we don’t question time spent in this space.

We already spend a lot of time together. In addition to living together, we also go boxing together, often go run together, and do so many other things together. But as much as we are a couple attached at the hips, we do know that time apart is just as important to a relationship as is time together. Snickers hates leaving me home alone but I’m quite the homebody, so I like using the time to catch up on emailing or whatnot. I think it’s healthy to have a life outside of the relationship so I’m often telling him to go hang out with his boys. Moreover, because I trust him, I don’t quiz him about what he did or bombard him with a dozen questions. What he does with his boys is his own choice and I’m confident and secure enough in my relationship with him and with me as an individual to respect his space and trust him.

3. We play “catch”.

Despite the fact that we’re a pretty smooth-sailing couple and are relatively argument-free, we realize that because we are both equally very stubborn someone needs to step down and “catch” the other person or an argument will never end. Sometimes a “catch” can be as simply being quiet and hugging the other person or it can be simply saying “stop, I love you” when an argument is starting to escalade.

4. We have a “When-We-Leave-Korea” dream.

Our plan to leave Korea within the next year or two is what motivates us to keep plugging away, save money, and personally it keeps me sane when Korea gets a bit too much for me. It allows me to let things more easily roll of my shoulders and it paints a picture of better things to come.

5. We agree to put up with things we don’t like for the sake of the other person.

Snickers doesn’t really like Mi Nam and I don’t particularly care for my mother-in-law, so he often walks Mi Nam by himself and I occasionally suggest visiting his mom. We know doing such things is like scraping your fingernails down a blackboard, painfully annoying, but it’s us trying to show the other person that we do want them to be happy and that we do support them.

6. We have a weekly allowance.

Instead of sitting down to get all anal about money matters, we came up with a weekly allowance. On Sundays we take $100 out of the bank, split it 50/50 between us and how we spend our half is our personal choice, no questions asked.

7. We’ve made it a rule to be brutally honest to each other.

Honesty, trust and respect have always been the three main ingredients in our relationship. If we can’t be honest to each other than we can’t trust each other and if we can’t trust each other than we can’t respect each other. So because honesty is such an important ingredient, we agree to be brutally honest with each other even when what we want to say isn’t exactly what the other person wants to hear. Moreover, if we can’t be honest with each other, our spouse, than who can we be honest with?!

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What keeps your couple close?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone - but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.
-- Bette Davis

This was the scene I came home to today after being out with a friend for coffee. I walked in on Snickers on all fours washing the floor.

And then he continued by doing a little bit of sewing.

I thanked him for cleaning the house my making him a homemade latte and cookies but what should come to the door but a gift from Canada.

So we had coffee and Reese Peanut Butter cups... delish!!!

Touch My Carbs and Die!!!... Saturday, February 19

I eat 5-6 times a day, sometimes even 7 times if I’m having a really long day, so eating every 2.5 to 3 hours means I’m never quite full but never really hungry. My belly is always content. However, I eat when I’m bored and now that I have way too much time on my hands, I’ve had to come up with a lot of creative ways and distractions from keeping myself away from the kitchen. I try to keep the house temptation-treat friendly, meaning I try not to buy dangerously delish, naughty, body-killing snackies, but it’s hard when your friend owns a Paris Baguette (bakery) and Snickers is always bringing goodies into the house.

And beyond boredom being my enemy, my inability to stop myself or limit myself to just one piece of this or that dangerously delish treat is another one of my enemies.

Grain products, any and all, that are in my house pose a challenge to me on a daily bases because I do love my grains. Pita crackers, rice, biscuits, cookies, cereal, and even oatmeal seem to sit haunting me from the kitchen shelf.

I am a grain-junkie… hahaha. I crave carbs like a fat kid craves Smarties. Touch my carbs and die... hahaha.

Snickers is a sweet-tooth junkie… hahaha.

I’ve been trying to distract myself from indulging in grains by keeping my water bottle by me at all times but it’s hard when I’m sitting beside Snickers and he’s nibbling on random sweets. I never really had a sweet tooth but he’s converting me and it’s killing me.

Lays Potato Chips’ motto is “bet ya just can’t eat one” and though I can eat only one potato chip and feel no pull to eat another, I struggle when he opens a box of crackers or cooks up a full rice cooker full of rice.

I crave rice?!... yup, strange as it sounds but I am just as happy eating a bowl of rice as the average person is eating a bowl of ice cream. I prefer brown rice but will eat white rice cause it’s hard to resist it’s aroma filling up the house. And as bland as you may assume it tastes, I have been known to eat a full loaf of bakery bread in one sitting... oh gosh… hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What do you crave?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.
-- Adelle Davis

Couple shirts, couple rings, couple shoes... couple cuts?!

Shared Pain... Friday, February 18

They say shared pain is half pain but that wasn't quite the case today when I woke up to a bloody finger. Snickers and I hold hands when we go to sleep [feel free to add your make-me-gag comments/looks here] so whatever he cut his finger on, perhaps a straw piece of plastic that had become a casualty of an earlier on wrestling match, then cut mine.

So much for half pain, this was double pain.

Being now married, I have a lot of "doubles" in my life... my family size has doubled, I have double the mail, double cell phone bills, laundry loads have doubled as well as the dirty dishes, but now I find I have half the patience for people in annoyingly silly yo-yo relationships or unhappy relationships. A relationship is work and it is what you make of it, or least that's what I've found to be true from my own experience. I was smart in that when so many people were doubting my new found relationship with Snickers and throwing in their measely two-cents about me leaving Q for him, I didn't listen to any of them.

Did you know, I only dated Snickers 8 months prior to marrying him?! We've now been married a year, which is longer than we dated.

So often I hear of friends' unhappy marriages. Marriages that were distroyed by a cheating spouse or where they thought having a kid would patch up an already nose-diving marriage. I always am surprised when I hear of these relationships and I can't help but compare it to my own relationship with Snickers, a relationship which started with two people who didn't even speak the same language, who came from opposite sides of the globe, and who seemed to be from opposing walks of life.

Lately Snickers and I have been addicted to this Korean TV show called "Marriage is Crazy". It's a show that centers around four married couples who each have a child and who each have their own set of numerous problems. I always feel strange watching this show but can't help but watch. There's one particular couple that drives me mental and causes Snickers to yell at the TV screen. In this couple, the wife is seriously afraid of her husband, her husband who has hit her numerous times and, consequently, she's had to go to the hospital.

I can't stand couples like this, couples so happy. I feel sorry for them because I don't understand why they'd let it get to such a point, such extremes, where they're so unhappy and in the case of this couple on TV are contemplating suicide.

I married Snickers till death do us part and though my mom jokes and says "well this can be arranged", I think my marriage is as happy as I make it to be. A relationship is work and I work at it everyday. Somedays it's like child's play but then there are days, like Chusoek, that require some work.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Are you happily married?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The conception of two people living together for twenty-five years without having a cross word suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.
-- Alan Patrick Herbert

Trust me, his sad frown was a real frown. My man was definitely not a happy boy today!!!
He was covered from head to toe in what appeared to look like an allergic reaction so he spent the day in the buff, mummified in wet towels.

Mummified... Thursday, February 17

I’m assuming we’ve all been to the emergency room and have experienced the same frustration of not being tended to or not being answered to. Well that was what happened to me today. I had lots of questions and no one had any answers.

What had happened leading up to me rushing to the hospital was I woke up today, rolled over on my floor mat and at the sight of Snickers’ back I let out a big gasp. His back was overly blotchy and red. It looked as if a mosquito bite had grown enormous and taken over his back. It looked bad; it looked just flat out wrong, wrong and painful. And it was painful, as I soon found out by the distrot look on Snickers’ face when he rolled up.

I told him to take a cold shower, hoping it’d cool his burning, itchy skin but the relief was very little, so I insisted we drive to the hospital. The hospital had a skin specialist; we’ve come to him before about this very same problem. Once a year Snickers experiences this freakish thing that looks like a bad allergic reaction. It usually only lasts a day or two but this year he got it the other day and it passed within a couple of hours only to resurface today… and it came back so much stronger.

At the hospital they gave him a needle to the bum, which they do for all patients. I’m assuming it’s just some dose of extra vitamins. The doctor had no explaination as to what the heck was going on with Snickers’ skin though but insisted he go and buy the medicine he prescribed.

Snickers and I are both anti-pill poppers. There’s nothing a good night’s sleep, eating extra oranges, or a hearty bowl of chicken soup can’t cure, after all it’s not like we get sick often. And as for boxing injuries, a few days off training usually does the trick. A baggie full of pills to down doesn’t sit well with Snickers but he agreed to buy them.

“Thanks but no thanks” I told the doctor. I know my husband. He’s going to waste my money and buy your pills because he thinks that’s good manner but those pills will be sitting in our garbage can within an hour or two.”

“Amy… please make the itching go away, please!!!” Snickers whispered to me. I looked at him and he looked so sad. My poor baby was itching from head to toe so I stood up and became somewhat demanding.

“What’s wrong with my husband?” I asked.
The doctor rambled on about something but Snickers reinforced what I had already guessed. “They don’t know” he mumbled to me.

For the rest of the day I tried to baby Snickers. I let him milk the situation too. He ended up buying the prescription pills but it was only because of me that they didn’t make them to the trash can. Well, they did but I took them out. Sponging his high fever hot skin with a wet chilled towel was pretty much the only form of relieve he found so he spent the day on the floor, covered from head to toe in wet towels.

Ahhhh… my poor baby.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's going on with your body?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.
-- Pliny the Elder

What a night. Finally was able to return to boxing, so after a brutal workout I sat there on the floor with my hubby. Both of us were so sweaty, so exhausted... so happy.

And Black Skinny was there to add to the happiness of the evening.

Reigniting the Passion... Wednesday, February 16

It's been some time since I've been back boxing. I had a false re-start the other week. I hadn't yet got the go-ahead from my doctor but I was super eager to return to training, not so eager to think about the consequences of jumping too soon into it though.

I've kept up with my jogging but must admit that being away from my boxing really ate away at my energy levels, not to mention my motivation levels to get up and do things, and it really frustrated me having to not box. Consequently, my sluggish days and low-energy ways wore off on Snickers, so he too missed a lot of training. The fact that Snickers February fight got canceled definitely played a role here too. KBC canceled his fight after they realized that his opponent scheduled two games too close to each other. Snickers said he wasn't too bothered by it but I could tell it got to him and he was disappointed. Heck, even I was really disappointed by it. He's more than itching to get a fight.

Today we decided that enough was enough. We are boxers, boxing is what we do so the boxing club is where we are to be. And on that note, we had a packed day of healthy eating and hardcore training.

The other day Cat told me about making mini egg omletes in muffin tins so I tried that out. Snickers didn't care too much about them because of them being loaded with spinach but I thought they were very delish...

... as did Mi Nam.

Mi Nam's been a bad boy lately. Barking at random odd sounds, jumping on my blanket, but today he did something that left both Snickers and I sitting with dropped jaws. There, right in front of us, Mi Nam did his little "poop dance" and squeezed out a biggie right in the middle of our family room floor!!!

Mi Nam's lost weight recently, though we don't know why, so we thought we'd buy him an additional bag of food to give him in the evening. Turns out that particular food doesn't sit well, or very long for that matter, in his system so he had no choice but to let it go... let it free. Nothing in life is for free though so his "free" was at the expense of me cleaning it up and then having to sit in a freezing house for a good solid hour while we aired it out.
Needless to say, Mi Nam got "time-out" and Snickers gave him the silent treatment for the rest of the day.

After airing out the house, Snickers and I jumped in the car and headed out to get him a new tire for his tire exercises. Unlike so many people who go to the fitness gym to lift weights, Snickers prefers to do "tire training", a series of various exercises that involve, you guessed it,... a TIRE.

He used to have a massive transport truck tire for training but when he was in Japan the city workers took it away. Today he got his new tire.

And he was so happy to get it... hahaha.

So with his new tired picked out, picked up, and at his training spot, we headed back to Ggum Guum and got ready for boxing. Knowing today I'd be heading back to boxing was enough to make me as super giddy as a school girl... hahaha. I was so excited, way too excited.

When I arrived at the boxing club, I was greeted by numerous high-fives, lots of smiles, lots of body shot punches, and lots of questions from my buddies and fellow UP members. It felt so great to be back at the club but what made it feel all the more great was when I turned around and saw Black Skinny. He too has been away from boxing for awhile (because of work and fathering a young boy).

So there I stood with Black Skinny to my left, Snickers to my right, Junior Mint in front of me, and many of my boxing friends standing around me. It felt good... it felt great.

It felt right.

Q was there too and even though he's my ex, it felt good to have him there too. UP Boxing Club has changed a lot since I first joined it and so have those whom I've considered my "team mates". Black Skinny and Q are the only two original team mates of mine that I still have, with Snickers and the Cheonan Trump being two team mates we added to our crew two years ago. Whether or not Panty Boy Jr. will return to boxing any time soon is questionable but we still are in touch as I am with my other inactive team mates.

I miss my old team mates. Training without them just isn't the same. Our team of UP boxers use to do everything together but the team has gotten a lot smaller and the dynamics of it are obviously different. Regardless, whenever any of my team mates are present at training, I feel so pumped to train. Having Black Skinny there to train beside me tonight just made tonight's return to boxing so great.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Did they miss me as much as I missed them?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.
-- Christopher Morley