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WildChineseBeast
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Name: Eric
State: California
Birthday: 11/24/1980
Gender: Male
Interests: Running, Dancing, Meditation/Prayer, Reading, Traveling, Cooking, Hearing Live Jazz, Playing Tennis, Hiking, International Affairs
Occupation: Environmental Engineering Cons
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Wildchinesebeast
Member Since:
5/13/2004
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| Yosemite National Park I finally went to Yosemite National Park. It was a group trip with my new church in Davis, Waypoint Community Church. We went with a group of over 30 people, so at times, it felt like traveling with a mobile semi-refugee camp. But it was good fellowship and some nice sights. We hiked up Vernal Falls (where I rediscovered that I really need to get in better shape) and explored Tuolemne Meadows (where I rediscovered my passion for singing John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in large public audiences).   Vernal Falls 
"Almost Heaven, West Virginia..." On a Big Granite Rock overlooking Tuolemne Meadows Quick Update: I moved to Northern California a couple months ago. Monica got a construction management assignment for her company in Northern California near the Bay Area for 1.5-2 years (anyone know Rodeo? Martinez?) Plus, I really wanted to explore a career in water resources planning and my company's Sacramento office is really strong in that area. So we decided to move up north together! Unfortunately, Monica's project, scheduled to begin in June, got delayed and we're stuck being long distance until (cross your fingers) late October. Until then, I'm roaming Norcal solo. The wedding is planned for January near Palo Alto. | | |
| Hey everyone! There's a lot to write about, but I wanted to share some pictures first. A couple weeks ago, Monica and I went skydiving for the first time in Perris, CA. It was kind of a last-minute celebration before leaving to Northern California. It was SOO incredible!  Everything I would have imagined and more! Here are some pics....  
Monica and I were fine on the ground........................but I admit I was a little scared just before the jump.    
Falling at 120 mph from 13,000 feet! My mouth got dry. 
Monica claims that she was "much more calm and relaxed on the way down than I was". I guess you can be the judge.  
Not all parts of the fall were as graceful as I''d hoped.
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| I promised the story of how I proposed to Monica so here it goes. Warning: It's Long:
The Idea
My idea was to do a "Message in a Bottle" theme. I'd write a proposal letter on some parchment paper, place it inside a bottle with some dried rose petals and then secretly bury it myself on the beach. I'd then mark the location and come back the next day with Monica. We'd hang out on the beach and while building sand castles together, she'd "discover" the bottle. Sounds easy, right?
We had always wanted to go to the Ritz Carlton at Dana Point so I used this as my excuse to schedule our 2-year anniversary date there.
The Preparation
So on Friday evening, two days before our 2-year anniversary, I left work early and drove 3 hours to Salt Creek State Beach at Dana Point. It was my first visit there and it was so breathtakingly beautiful, I knew this would be the perfect spot to pop the question. I asked some police officers and visitors for the most secluded, most intimate spot on the beach. And after some diligent searching, I knew I had arrived at "The Spot".
And it was perfect. Quiet area, soft waves, beautiful sunset. I buried the bottle about 1.5 feet deep.
I knew that the only way that my plan would fail would be if I couldn't find the bottle afterwards, so I made sure I marked the location well. I found this 70 lb rock and carried it halfway across the beach to "The Spot". It was SO HEAVY that I had to break 4 times just to let my arms rest! I got a little OCD, so I got two more medium-sized stones and half-buried them close to the bottle. I then got REALLY OCD and got a big stick, and buried it vertically in the sand so that the intersection of the 3 rocks and the stick would mark the exact location of the bottle. I drove back to Pasadena where Hye Young would meet me later that night and we spent the weekend together. 
The Day
October 8th, Sunday 4pm, we return to Salt Creek State Beach and I'm trying my best to act as if I've never been there before. I ask her to give me directions, but I know exactly which turns to take. I ask her how much the parking fee is, but I know exactly how much I need to pay. I even ask some strangers where the beach is, but....you get the picture.
"One of my bible study group friends told me about this really beautiful, quiet location at the end of the beach. I think we should check it out!" I say. So as we walk closer and closer to our destination, I squint my eyes to look for "the spot".
AND IT'S GONE!   
No rock! No markers! I look and look and it's not there! Outwardly, I'm trying to remain calm, but inwardly, I'm panicking. I have no idea how this is going to work! Maybe I'll get lucky.....
Luckily, I remember the general vicinity of "the spot" and lay our blanket down near there. I've got an idea of where it is, but it could be anywhere within a 10 x 10 ft area.
In the process of lounging around, Monica starts writing my name in the sand with her finger.
Brilliant! "That's a great idea! Let's do more of that! But I think the words maybe need to be bigger!"
So I start writing our names in the sand too. But instead of drawing 2-inch tall letters, I draw these HUGE, GARGANTUAN letters in the sand. Which just happen to be 1.5 feet deep and fall in the general vicinity of "The Spot".
With each letter that I write, I get a little more hopeful that it'll turn up. But even though I THINK I'm getting closer, it could still be in the hook of the "C" that I made of just under the "H".
After about 1.5 hours, ten 4 foot size letters later and about 200 lbs of excavated sand, I'm tired, sweating, and I'm starting to run out of letters to write with. Our 6pm dinner reservations are approaching rapidly and I don't have time or the energy to write the Great Gatsby. Although I might have began my letter writing in a playful spirit, I'm now starting to show noticable signs of panic and a sense of urgency. And Monica can begin to sense it too as she watches her boyfriend mindlessly dig letters in the sand for hours. 
So, I'm tired, don't know what to do and completely desperate. The sun is setting. And I look around the beach, and it's still just absolutely gorgeous. 
The Question
Luckily, I had a backup. I had a copy of the proposal letter in my pocket. So I told her the truth. I told her about how I had come the night before and buried a bottle in the sand. She was completely surprised and had no idea of what was going on the entire time! I got down on one knee, took out the ring that I had placed in our backpack, read my letter (sorry, it's a little too intimate to share on a xanga) and asked her to marry me.
She thought about it and screamed, "Ne!" (Yes! in Korean) and I instantly became the happiest guy on Earth. 
I think it was better this way.
Epilogue
A few weeks later, I created a replica of the bottle and placed it in an engraved wooden wine box filled with sand from Salt Creek State Beach. It reads: "October 8, 2006 To My Beloved Chagi" I might show you a picture later if you're interested.
So what happenned to the bottle? We never found out. Monica even asked me if we were going to return tomorrow armed with shovels. I said no. Maybe it's better that we don't know what happenned to it. It could have been washed away. Maybe somebody found it. Somebody maybe saw me burying it and thought I was a terrorist and called the police. Maybe some other guy had the same "Message in a Bottle" idea, took my 70 lb rock and placed it somewhere else! Or maybe it's still sitting there buried right now! Or......
ERIC'S SECRET FANTASY STORY FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOTTLE: A random single couple decides to spend Saturday afternoon making sand castles on the beach. And the girlfriend discovers this bottle, opens it, reads the letter, starts crying and asks her boyfriend if he really wants her to marry him (I didn't put a name on the letter). He turns to her and says, "Ahhhh.............. I.......... guess so"
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| Baby Tyler
I know I was supposed to tell you my engagement story, but something incredible happenned this week that I have to share! My sister just had a baby boy! His name is Tyler and he was born in Minnnesota on December 8th. Luckily, it was a very quick and easy birth (Thank God!). Isn't he adorable? Monica and I are looking to come back to Minnesota sometime to see him (maybe February or March when he's a little older). I'll keep you updated.
Baby Tyler
Baby Tyler and his brother, Connor
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| A ton of stuff has happenned in my life since my last entry. I will begin with one of the most important:
I'm engaged!
I became engaged to my caring, intelligent and beautiful fiance,
Monica, in early October on the day of our 2-year anniversary. We're
still in the very early planning
stages of the wedding. But it will likely be a small wedding in
December of 2007 somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area. I know it
may sound as a surprise, but I'm just really really excited and ready
for this!
I've discovered that marriage is one of those things where before
you're ready, you'll always have that small, annoying speck of doubt in
the back of your mind about whether this person is really right for you
or not. You can set timetables and have all these preconceived
notions about when you THINK you'll be ready. But you'll never really
know if and when it will actuallly happen. And then, out of nowhere,
BOOM! It just happens. And once you enter that state of finally
"being ready", that magical state where every bone in your body is
telling you that this is right and that you can't even IMAGINE living
the rest of your life with someone else, you just look back and wonder
why it took you so long in the first place. You're there. And it's
amazingly wonderful!
My next blog entry: The Engagement Story
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