Planning to Pay it Forward... Saturday, July 6

Upon waking up after 1pm, I moaned and groaned and turned over in my bed, annoyed that I had honestly slept half the day away and totally skipped out on our initial idea of waking up super early.  

"I don't want to miss the morning again!!!"  I yelled out to Snickers.

Originally we wanted to wake up super early and be beach-bound by 9am.  Well, that was the plan but going to bed close to 4am quickly jeopardized that.  And, despite us being somewhat convinced we still could pull it off, it just didn't happen.  

New goal starting next week:  be awake every morning by no later than 9am!!!

We basically vegged the rest of the day, caught up on some solid puppy-love time with our four-legged beauties, watched a movie, and then packed up our camping gear for what was initially supposed to be our early morning beach-bound plan.  We debating bringing Pyen, Bal and Pac because despite knowing they absolutely love the beach we weren't sure if our so-called private beach which is almost always people-free would be, especially with the warm weather.  Ended up leaving the pups with a friend, making our beach-bound camping trip a romantic get-away for two.

Grabbed some coffee and then jumped in our van -- Lady Ghini -- for a leisurely two hour trip out to the beach.  Upon arriving, we headed out for a late night dinner of fresh seafood and flirtatious chats, over-the-table winks and borderline "get-a-room" manners.  It was one of those dinners that was packed with walks down memory lane and giggles.  Sometimes I find it super funny that I've been married now for over three years especially when I consider I only dated about seven months before we got married.  I remember one homepage commenter calling Snickers "The Rebound Boy" from my relationship with Q and though at the time I was quite insulted at this comment, I can't help but be highly amused at it now.  If Snickers was a so-called rebound than dang, I did good and what's the real deal like if this is just a rebound?!  I love Snickers and he loves me and that's all that really matters.  

I always find it revealing when others try to knock down the happiness of others.  I think it only goes to reveal the lack of happiness in their life and, in the case with people discrediting my relationship with Snickers or calling him the rebound, a lack of love in their life.  If I want to love a man who doesn't speak English well (or any English at all as was the case when I first met him), who is from a totally different walk of life and from the polar opposite corner of this globe, than so be it.  No one thinks it strange that I love Pyen Chi -- a four-legged creature that licks her own butt and drinks out of the toilet if you let her -- so why is it strange for me to be in love with a man that's not of my culture or from my country?!  

I've been thinking about this a lot lately -- happiness and love.  The other day I had a new member join my club and I was quick to question the validity of what he was saying when he contradicted his words by not knowing how to put on handwraps and being all over the place with his footwork.  I won't go into the details of it but will note that I was quick to note some marks on his body and instantly I was reminded of Du San, a student of mine from Dankook who told me a week prior to his suicide that he was "going away".  I've got a couple of "Du San"s at our club -- members who are looking to fit in and be a part of something beyond just themselves.  Everyone wants to belong, everyone wants happiness and everyone needs love.  Snickers and I talked about this over dinner tonight and decided that we're going to make a camping trip for our members, making sure we extend the invite to some particular members that we know may need this trip more than others.  

You'd be surprised how just a little bit of kindness goes a long way and I'm really finding this out via running our boxing club.  I've been so incredibly blessed with friends and family in not only Korea but in Canada who have supported our venture.  Whether it's friends in Canada who have bought t-shirts from me via the mail, friends here who have joined our club, or friends dropping random emails of praise and encouragement, I feel up to my ears in good vibes and positive thinking so I really want to try harder and pass it on to my members.  Us slaving away at the prep work of our club was but only one part of the equation of making our great club but we really wouldn't be any where if we didn't have members coming out and that's a fact.  Having said this though, I know we have to watch ourselves.  We don't want to be used and abused for being too "soft" and already I have experienced certain members trying to use what they think as being friendship as a get-out-of-respect-for-our-business card, as Snickers put it, and that's not cool.