Happy Birthday Alexis!

Alexis has been nudging me to blog something (anything) for a long long time. She even moved the blog over to blogspot to make things easier. So here it goes – one of my first blog posts anywhere – and Happy Birthday Alexis!

Since I’ve been out of touch for so long, I’d like to start this post by revealing a little about what I’m working on these days. I’ll say in advance that this is going to be a long read. They’re ranked in order of importance/effort:


1. Losing Weight – This is first on the list because I can’t stop thinking about how hungry I am everyday. I’ve put on a considerable amount (I can hear Alexis saying, “tons” with raised eyebrows and hand gestures) of weight since I graduated college. Living in Hawaii, or more precisely, eating in Hawaii was the killer. What can I say – I love eating good food. The extra weight, besides being un-sexy, actually caused some sleep problems to the extent that I would wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat (I sweat enough during daylight hours) and in the morning I would feel like I hadn’t slept at all. I was tired and got headaches all the time. I saw a sleep doctor here and found out that I had obstructive sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea can be caused by many things, but is pretty common among Asians (because of nasal/facial bone structure). I slept over at the sleep clinic (I highly recommend this), was wired up and videotaped over two separate nights. They found that during the night, I would stop breathing 39 times, mild for older people, but serious for a young adult. At one point during the night, my respiratory system shut down completely, not long, but still very serious.

I’ve been told by Alexis, my mom, my dad, and about 80+% of Chinese people that I need to lose weight. You can now tack on the doctor and the nurse.

So I’m on a diet and I’m at the gym everyday. I did some dieting (watermelon/seaweed) on my mission and in college (lean protein, low carb, no sugar) and had some success. Here’s how I’m doing:

July 10th: 239lbs (Start of diet)
July 24th: 228lbs (The nurse asked me how I did it! Mark says “teach me!”)
August 1st: 224lbs (Broke the diet one night for Alexis’ b-day dinner)
August 5th: 222lbs (Measured at Charlotte’s check-up)

Compared to a few weeks ago, I feel better already. Alexis tempts me (come on just have some of my ice cream) but I hold to the rod. Hopefully as I get skinnier, my sleep and headaches will improve.

2. Playing with Charlotte – Since I’m not in the lab so much these days…see # 4 below, I am taking advantage of the time I have at home with Charlotte. She cracks me up. I have to get up before she does to go work out, and then when I get back, she’s ready to play. I give her a quick change and she’s off crawling around and showing me how much stuff she can put in her mouth. I’ve treasured this time alone with her, and I think she loves it to. She has this huge smile, which involves everything from her forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth, and a geeky giggle that makes me so happy.

We went to take some more formal pictures at Sears today (part of Alexis’ b-day present – you can ask her about the other part). The pictures turned out great! Charlotte looked a lot more girly than she usually does. We got BOGO for our package, so we’ll have plenty to pass around when we get them.

3. Thinking about Alaska and SF – Our b-days and anniversary are all in August, so we try to do something combined to celebrate. This year we’re off to Alaska on Saturday for five days and on to SF for three more. I’ve been sorting out the must-sees dos and eats for Alaska, but apparently, their summer is coming to an end. The daytime highs are barely 60 degrees (a relief from the DC 90+ degree weather) and some of the mountains are getting snow. In any case, Alaska will be beautiful and we’ll have pictures up when we get back. I can’t wait to get back to SF and walk on the streets, thinking back all the memories! I spent some of the best growing years of my life in college in the SF bay area. I went to class, learning from some of the brightest people in the world. And I went to church and found my faith. The west coast is familiar and I’m glad that we can have some time there.

4. Lab rotations – I finished my first year of classes at USUHS (aka USELESS or U-SISSIES) and over the summer I’m supposed to do two lab rotations, ideally to figure out what kind of research I would like to get into for my thesis project. My first lab rotation was awesome. I worked on HIV in Dr. Quinnan’s lab and supported another graduate student with her research. (She’s tracking the evolution of HIV in a Chinese HIV+ patient who has non-progressive disease). I was thoroughly impressed by the lab staff, who taught me many new techniques, just so I can learn them. Dr. Quinnan also went out of his way to think up possible thesis projects and even said for some of them, “I think you are the right person at the right time to do these projects.”

My second rotation has been pretty worthless. The lab studies basic immunology through mouse models. I was initially paired up with a grad student who already graduated. He really didn’t care about showing up in lab, and needless to say, he didn’t really care about me showing up either. I asked the P.I. about learning some new techniques (cutting slides/confocal microscopy) and he paired me up with this lady from China. When I went to coordinate with her, she told me, “I’ll email you when I have something for you to do.” Hasn’t happened yet. Disappointing – but at least I have time at home with baby.

Classes will start when we get back from vacation and it’s pretty clear in my mind which lab I want to join. HIV is very complex, and seems like a good puzzle for me to work on for awhile.

5. Kaplan – I started teaching at Kaplan when gas in Hawaii was nearly $4/gallon. I am still teaching for Kaplan because it’s been a great part-time gig. I’ve been keeping the students happy by teaching them the Kaplan methods, and Kaplan has been rewarding me consistently with raises. On top of that, Kaplan has provided affordable health insurance for our family. We’re in the thick of test-prep season, so I’m teaching 4 nights a week now. I don’t mind it too much because it’s easy, rewarding work. And I love it when my students say, I got into _________!

I’m going to cut this off here. I hope it was a worthwhile read. Thanks for making it to the end of my update. I’ll post more frequently and I’d love to hear from more of you too.