my mom just got into a car accident too and now her car is totaled. it's ok though, she's alright, the other party involved is alright, and the car was the old cadillac. man, this is not the week for any kinda car luck.

so there's talk about a HUGE earthquake that will be happening in california sometime REAL SOON. the word is, there is this dood at UCLA who's predicted an earthquake larger than a 6.0 magnitude to occur within the next 6 months or so, before September 5. mind you, this man has NEVER been wrong, and he was apparently just on the front of the newspaper about all this. also, if any of you have noticed, whenever there are REAL extreeemmee temperature changes, an earthquake usually follows. well, sunday through yesterday was sweltering hot... soooo hot that all sorta records were broken (season records, not all-time records). and now, the weather is drastically shifting to become cold again. i expect an earthquake to happen real soon.... stay away from brick buildings. in earthquakes they're sure to collapse and shoot out. not to scare anyone, but i think y'all should prepare.....

meanwhile i need to start closing up my master's paper!! i've only two weeks left til i have to turn it in for approval!!! *nervous fidget* i need to finish on time... i need to concentrate on my kids. IT'S SUCH BULLSHIT! my kids have TWO assessments this week. district literacy tests AND district math tests. both take days to finish. i'm totally coming down on my students hard. =( THEN, to make matters worse (and first grade less fun), is that NEXT WEEk they have the state standardized CAT-6 test. that's takes like a week. what are they doing to our students?!!?!?

i'm a complete idiot. it finally happened. i always drive my car until the fuel gauge reads past the E. i risk it and fill up real last minute. there have been many times when i've tried to start my car, and it took several attempts before my car would get enough juice to start up. well, yesterday was that fateful day when my car didn't start, no matter how many times i tried and pumped the pedal. so benji drove me around to buy a gas canister, which took a while. put some gas in my car and headed straight to the gas station. now i have a gas canister. whee. i promise i won't push my car like that any more...

on thursday i got into my very first collision in 8 years, and it was my fault. i rear-ended someone on the 110 fwy. and lucky me the guy turned out to be a complete jerk. yay for janet! and now my hood is messed up. woo hoo! i was so traumatized...

my doctor's clinic sucks. my first appointment with them made me kind of question the place. then today, i had class starting at 9am, but i scheduled to pick up some lab results right at 9. so i get there, i wait, by 9:15 they're STILL not opened, and i left a very pissy-sounding v-mail message with them. and they didn't even bother to call me back today. what is up with them? and since i finally decided to gt my finger fixed for realz this time, my doctor faxed a referral to a hand specialist clinic. so i call the specialist to make an appointment, only to be told that they don't freakin accept my insurance! uhhh... they need to get their ish together. i'm changing clinics. maybe i should go to a real hospital... =p *sigh*

another packed weekend... just the way i like it! friday nite i watched kill bill 2, i dunno why. i wanted to spend time with friends, maybe that's why i accepted. i still haven't seen kill bill 1, but man... this movie is gory. it's very tarantino-esque. that's all i have to say about that.

i wanted to go to the national AERA conference, which was in SD this year. this is where anyone who's anyone in educational research goes. big names were there, and the presentation that the colleagues at my school gave received double standing ovations! good for them. =) i'll be there next year, although it's way out in montreal. it'll happen. i'm sure benji will be there again, being that he'll be advised under two well-respected professors.

on saturday benji and i helped out with the Manzanar 2004 Spiritual Run. ok, this is 250 miles of running/walking from little tokyo in la to manzanar. it takes a week. they started off saturday morning at 8 am. we had a map of their course, so we drove and drove until we spotted them in burbank around 12:30pm. one runner carries two items to be taken to manzanar: a scroll and burning incense. runners can run 1 mile, .5, 2 miles... whatever they can do. meanwhile, a caravan of a few cars spots the runner, and other cars drive to the next mile mark, where the next runner is ready for the hand-off. benji ran a total of 3 miles, and i ran a little over 2 miles, while it was slightly sprinkling. =p we ended up past santa clarita out on the 14 hwy at 6:30pm. some people had to run in the pouring rain when it was their turn. they said that this was the first time in 13 years that it rained during this run. a total of about 10 people were there yesterday. they camp out every 50 miles. at 6:30 we had to leave, so we turned around to go back down to LA. the rest of the people kept on their way. hardcore.

for dinner we went down to torrance to have dinner with my best friend and her bf. i miss her. =( i always get nostalgic when i see her, esp. when we're just chillin in torrance.

today i have a meeting with the chinatown collective for community action. we're making plans to turn our students into rallying protestors! yeah! watch out may 1st (international worker's day)! too bad my kids are too young to take out. =/ speaking of my kids, i was pulled out of my class completely last minute on wednesday for some sort of meeting. a sub showed up in my classroom about half and hour after school started, and i had no lesson plans for her. i always type up very detailed plans for when i know i have sub. she had to decode my lesson plan book. anyway, a handful of other new teachers were pulled too. no one knew why. finally, at the conference table, we were told that we were selected to help buy stuff that would help new teachers. apparently our school was approved for a grant of a WHOLE lotta money to be spent only for new teacher support. we had to basically look through catalog after catalog and just shop. i shopped all day. i bought for my grade level a digital camera, color printers, projector, laptop, videocamera package, shelves, office supplies, books, radios, TV/DVD/VCR combo, overhead projectors... man. i went all out. they said to just write everything we want down, and if we're over we can just cut. shopping is hard work. i hope we actually get the stuff... it'd would be cruel otherwise. my fellow new teachers in my grade level are expecting some nice new presents.

i did this program last year and it comes very, very highly recommended by yours truly: =)

Now in its 11th year, the Summer Activist Training (SAT) program invites
applicants for the 2004 program, to be held in Los Angeles from June 24-27,
2004.

SAT is sponsored by the Garment Worker Center, Korean Immigrant Workers
Advocates, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, Pilipino Workers Center,
and the Thai Community Development Center.

Summer Activist Training (SAT) is a three and a half day program which
offers young Asian Pacific Islander Americans an opportunity to gain tools
for community organizing and direct-action campaigns. Participants will
also have an opportunity to learn about community issues while networking
with other activists.

The training will cover topics including: reasons for organizing, the role
of the organizer, mechanics of direct-action organizing, and outreach
strategies.

Participants will receive free lodging and meals for the entire weekend and
should come prepared to stay for the entire weekend (i.e. sleeping bag,
toiletries). Applications are now available. We are looking for young APIA
adults who have demonstrated a commitment to positive social change in our
communities and who would welcome this opportunity to gain
valuable organizing skills.

Applications can also be downloaded at
http://www.summeractivisttraining.org.

Applications must be received by
Friday, April 30, 2004. Please
submit applications to:
KIWA
Attn: SAT 2004
3465 West 8th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Or via fax to: (213) 748-5876
For more information, please contact
Cindy Cho at (213) 738-9050
or via e-mail at .

san diego was great. =) the first nite we got there benji and i crashed at chris murphy's new pad out in san marcos. thanx for letting us stay over! =) the next morning, i got to see one of my former students from upward bound, and another who was in EAOP when i was just a first-year at ucsd. i hadn't seen or heard from him since he was in middle school, so u can imagine how trippy it was to see him in the context of a college student. he's done very well for himself, being at ucsd as an engineer major. well, both of them are. and being involved as a college advisor, student org member, etc... they're already immersing themselves in college life. good for them =)

then i dropped by the cross, got to say a few hellos, then we headed over to mission valley (long time, had to remember hard which way was the best to get there), and i met up with jorge, a former co-worker/supervisor with whom i worked throughtout eaop and upward bound. we caught up and talked over coffee. it's always so nice to converse with him. bought a few books for my kids while at borders. benji browsed the record stores and got a few books as well.

then we made our way back to the cross, hung out for a little bit. there was an event going on, so we got to see a few more familiar faces. =) met up with chris again, and headed out to mira mesa. we ate pho, then had REALLY good boba at tapioca heaven. good stuff. i must vouch for that place. i was gonna try to make it to richard's, ian's, jas's place to watch friends with them, but dinner was a little long. then benji and chris went to watch hellboy, while i made my to sorrento valley to hang out with my old roomies. we planned to go out to PB bar and grill, but didn't make it. we just watched tv and crashed. ahh~ the good ol' days.

the next day i picked up benji from nikh's place, then went to ucsd. dropped him off at groundworks books, then headed to the TEP office to meet with the TEP professor that i had TA'd for for 2 years. we caught up, and it's always so nice to talk with her too. =) and i was really happy cuz i had parked in a 20 min loading for an hour-and-a-half... and didn't get a ticket. ah, the simple things in life. after the meeting i went back to groundworks to get benji, and pretty much together we cleared out the children's books section. got a few posters for our class too. they got some good posters over there.

being that it was such characteristically beautiful san diego day, we made our way out to la jolla shores to chill and tan. again, it was interesting to be in SD with benji, because it was sort of out of context. although we both went to ucsd, we missed each other by a generation (he had already graduated by the time i joined apsa). so i only really knew him in the context of post-ucsd life: ucla and teaching. afterwards we showered back at nikh's apt and watched cartoons.

then, the big dinner with apsa folks! a very festive gathering with plenty of food. it was very comforting and nostalgic to have seen them again. =) they were like a family to me while i was in sd. i had, of course, some feelings of guilt for not having maintained more consistent contact with some of them, though. so i'm really glad i put in the effort to call people and get the word out to have this dinner happen. =) yay! and in the tradition of apsa, we got boba afterwards. at around 10:30, benji and i made our final goodbyes and headed back home to LA. =)

alright apsa folks, i got it straight now. the dinner will be this friday at 7:30 at San Tong Palace, off convoy (the Lollicup plaza). be there! =)

well, here i am back in torrance takin care of business. my family has been beyond busy in assisting my grandma move from her apartment in which she lived with my grandpa for the past 10 years. now that he's passed, she's moving to another apartment where her friend will be her neighbor. i worry, though, about her living alone. now, the thing i don't get about it is that my mom gives me a hard time about me not living with her. then she somehow skips decades down the line to a hypothetical situation where she'll be in a convalescent home because i won't want to live with her. then she'll just want to go back to korea, she says. number one, i never said didn't want to live with her. in fact, i told her quite the opposite. number two, she also has a son. she makes it sound as if i'm her only child and her only option. given all that, she's helping her mom to move into an apartment by herself? i don't get it. moms.

well... it being april and all, it's time to make plans for the summer. i have a number of options. if finance was a motivating factor, my choice would be easy. however, money is not what drives my decisions. time and experience does, however. so, i have option 1: teach summer school and make some cash, also leaves ample time to chill and lesson plan before the school year begins. option 2, apply for ucla travel study program at university of hawai'i, manoa to study indigenous /native history, its people, and the sovereignty movement... but it will cost me a LOT of $ that i don't think i really have. a LOT. option 3, apply for the paulo freire institute summer program in buenos aires, argentina to examine the economic development, human rights work, and educational curricula. cost is pretty much nothing, as it covers airfare, transportation, classes, and daily allowance! hello. but there's a BUT... only 15 teachers of urban schools in socal will be chosen. what are my chances? well, janet i sure as don't know. why don't u just apply and see? ok. =)

any thoughts? anyone? help me.

oh yes, also. benji and i are making a trip down to SD later this week. got free time? i miss u guys... =*( expect a call from me if u haven't heard from me in a while, crocodile.

alas, it is spring break for LAUSD schools on traditional calendar track. what to do with myself this week? well, i've already made a list of ish i gotta do. for those of u on my case about my fractured fingers, i've FINALLYYYY made an appointment with the doctor to get it seen. also, made an appointment with an accountant to file my taxes for reals this time! no more 1040EZ dinky income stuff. i'm a real salaried professional now. ooh~

so much to do... betta get started. laundry, teacher supply store, target, big lots, bank, car wash, maybe cut my hair?, appointment with my masters thesis committee, take students out, work on my classroom, visit fellow teachers, soccer, go down to SD, and celebrate a special one-year anniversary!!! =)