Discovery - marriage and living

Daddy went to Seoul to attend his colleague's wedding on Saturday. He was gone for 24 hours only ( yes! Got there, party party and left) but Changunnie and I decided to pick daddy up at the airport as if he were gone for a week. From Changunnie's perspective, there's nothing cooler than riding the express train and being at the airport. Happy meal on the plane means a lot to her. I was happy to go without realizing why until we spoke about the wedding before daddy fell asleep, and he's snoring next to me now.

Our honeymoon was not standard. We waited for one month after the wedding before we headed off to Maui. Unlike other people who were there for the romantic parts of Hawaii, we were there because Kapalua offered unlimited golf inclusive of a lodge and rental car. It was essentially Spring Break for us. We didn't waste our time at all and packed the entire week with golf. There was no picnic on the beach or anything like that. Then, we went to Los Angeles to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Last stop was San Fransico for daddy to interview recent law school graduates to fill an associate role at his firm. Daddy spent the day inteviewing whilst I reactivated my accounts at couple department stores. That night, he told me he found someone (John) and ten years later, right before our tenth anniversary, John got married and daddy went to his wedding.

No wonder I had the urge to pick daddy up at the airport. It's been ten years and I rarely pick him up at the airport these days. Having Changunnie is more than a full time job (and the little rascal declared to grandpa that mummy is mad!) and now that she's a little older and is capable of making conversation, I want her to know how her parents interacted with each other before we had her and for the two of us to have some couple time.

Ten years is nothing compared to the marriage that my grandparents and parents had. It doesn't cut the amount of work it takes to maintain a marriage. When I signed on the dotted line, I thought nothing could be too difficult. In the past ten years, there were days when we wanted to throw in the towel. If you are not prepared to put in the patience, love and care, don't bother getting married. And when we thought we had it all figured out, Changunnie arrived and I can tell you the impact is only comparable by sitting on the crater of Halla San when there's an eruption.

Does it worth it? Yes, every second of it. It's not nice and sweet all the way but that's what makes life interesting. I'm looking forward to the 20th anniversary. In the meantime, what do I want as an anniversary present? Will I have enough time to prepare the new playlist for daddy's iPod? Let's see how well I can fend off dodos at work!

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times

Why do I like to read Winston Churchill's writing and his quotes? How often do you come upon gems like the title?

It's been a really tough month. Changunnie finally settled in her new school. Still some work to do about her teacher's pet traits (and where did she get that form? Unfortunately I cannot point finger at her daddy) but good otherwise and I suppose that is the only good news so far this month.

What really stressed me out is what's going on at work. We have been working really hard to bring in some Q4 P&L. I mean hard, to a point I was at my desk sobbing whilst eating a baked pork chop on rice from the cafe in the basement of my office building with vengeance. It was 2:30pm and I called that takeout set my lunch. I had a go not once but twice at my associate (who in my opinion should have been made VP) two days in a roll. Poor kid was trying to get things done but appeared in front of me at the wrong time and got a full blast. I feel really guilty but apologies can only do that much.

The politics we have to deal with is unbelievable. I thought bringing in the money is important but people just want to fight for credit and along the way, set people up so that when anything happens, pointing fingers is easy. The mere thought of the events send chills down my spine. All I can say is I think I died at least 10 times a day over the last couple weeks. I wish I know how to defend myself and my team members but I feel so helpless. Reading doesn't do me any good either. I became good at spotting politics and schemes people are plotting but I don't have the wisdom to navigate through the battlefield.

It's typhoon 8 today and I got a deep cut on my right heel when I got out of the car in the strong wind. I am on clutches right now and I suppose I have the perfect excuse to wear sweat pants and sneakers to work in the coming week or so. On the bright side? I felt like the wind was going to blow me away. It gotta be the effectiveness of my diet and if that's the thing that brightens up my day, I am living a pretty pathetic life.

Mummy is the school Nazi!

It hasn't been an easy week for Changunnie. I think how we talked about school made school an undesirable place. She was perfectly fine to go to Tutortime and Kindermusik but now at Woodland... It's like for her to enact episode after episode of The Fugitive when we tried to get her to go to school or Prison Break when she's there. I couldn't stop myself from calling at 1 every day to see how she was and each day has been a report of crying and clinging onto either grandma or a teacher.

Grandma called today and reported some progress. Changunnie stayed in her class with a teacher in a corner all by themselves and she didn't cry for Grandma or Grandpa after the initial sobbing. Grandma tried to put her on the phone and she said pretty loudly and sternly "I'm mad!" and pushed the phone away. I went home with a box of pumpkin cookie that she likes. The moment she saw me, she said "don't look at me!"

When she saw my bag, she said " what do you hve for me?"

I decided to walk away with the bag and ignored her. I was angry, very angry. She might be young but that behaviour wasn't acceptable. She can call mummy a school Nazi but she has to learn that we have to do lots of things that we aren't 100% up for. Just like going to work....