Dear myself,
I’m writing this so I can look back on it a year or years down the road and remember God’s goodness, how I am blessed, and the great time I had over the weekend prior to my 26th birthday as well as the day of.
Friday, March 5th, I have the day off from work. I hitch a ride down to good ol CT with my good ol buddy Joe Yu. Haven’ seen him in a while so it was fun to catch up during the 1.5 hour drive there. Aside from the usual sarcastic and semi-inappropriate jokes, freestyling to rap beats was a good time! It almost makes me want to get back into rapping again. The days of Verbal J are long gone. But maybe a collab with Inbeom can be in the works when he gets back? For kicks and giggles? One last time? Sounds like it’d be fun.
Friday night I arrive home to a grand dinner of chicken, pork, AND kalbi. GEEZ! My mom has tirelessly prepared a feast to my liking and I was able to dine with family and close family friends. I got birthday wishes, TWO cakes, money (holla!), and a sweet little “brithday” (that’s how she spelt it) card from a little dongseng, hannah.
Saturday morning I renew my driver’s license and relax until it becomes time to trek back up to Boston with mom, dad, and halmuni (grandma). 2 hours later we arrive at Boston. Eat another awesome dinner at Kaze for one of my favorite dishes, shabu shabu. Later in the evening, I have my joint partay with my almost-twin Julie Lee at Saint. A bunch of friends show up to celebrate! Maybe 30+? I’m bombarded with people offering to buy drinks, but I am not a fan of getting wasted so I defer and decline a good amount. Still I ended up double fisting an Amstel light and my drink of choice, coke and rum (thanks Cheol-min). I keep myself sustaining a buzz throughout the night making sure I don’t tip over that fine line. Towards the end we dance the night away. It was fun. Celebrated with friends, met new ones, and still 2 more days to go before I actually turn 26. I cab it home and knock out.
Sunday morning I get a wake-up call from Jee Lee. I’m surprised she remembered about it! I can’t get myself to get up for morning service, so I go to 2pm service at the Newbury site. After service I get to chat with One Love team 1 that just got back from Reynosa, Mexico! The excitement and passion in their eyes and tone of their voice while sharing parts of the missions trip was a huge blessing to witness. Praise God. After church, we grab dinner at 88 and hang out at my fellow staff member Amy’s apt. She cooked some mandoos and after devouring those we head over to P Eugene’s for some poker. Gotta get ready for the poker tournament fundraiser! Needless to say, I end the night down 10 bucks….I’m a bit rusty.
Monday, March 8th…my birthday morning, back to work. The weather is AMAZING. 50 (close to 60) and sunny. Oh man, I love that weather. I have Jay Sean’s “Do You Remember” on repeat the whole day as I do my work. Two people were out that day but the extra work load I had to take on seemed miniscule. I was just on cloud 9 and nothing could get my off. The whole day I was getting birthday wishes via calls, texts, facebook, in person. My blackberry was about to blow up. Just a year ago things were so different…God is good. He’s always been good. It just takes the high points in my life for my ignorant self to see and realize this. I end work at 4:30 and head home.
Monday night we go to Upper Crust for dinner. Alex, Simon, Amy, Yooree, and Paul join me to celebrate. We get my favorite pizza, tomato basil and garlic…mmmmm along with 2 others. As we chow down, I get grilled by the gang. “What was the most adventorous thing you did last year?” “What are your 3 goals for this year?” (For the record they are, 1. Get a new job/position/promotion. 2. Take my GMATs. 3. Gain 15 pounds of muscle…Simon added a 4th goal for me – get a girlfriend). Then they all decided to play the “Who would James go well with” game. Haha it was interesting to see their choices. For the sake of keeping awkwardness to a minimum, I will refrain from stating who they were. Haha. After dinner, we dropped off Amy. Before we left her place, she played me her rendition of a right-hand-only happy birthday song on the piano. Haha thanks Amy!
9:45 pm, off to bowling….BUT not before we stop by McDonald’s for some ice cream. That night, I bowled the best game of my life, 221! Shattered my old record of 181. I then went on to bowl the worst game of my life, 101. Haha…fail.
Thanks everyone for the birthday love, wishes, blessings, rides, dinners, gifts, thoughts, drinks, and everything else. I have been blessed beyond imagination.
Love,
Myself
