Monday, October 29, 2007

The benefits of marriage

Greetings All!

This is Abe blogging. I felt compelled to blog tonight about someone near and dear to my heart tonight: my wife Allison. Yes, I may be getting mushy here, but I really do love that lady! :) I did not have a good day today at work...I had a client complain about me for no good reason....so by the time Allie came to pick me up at ADP, I was in a rather bad mood.....but Allie was very kind, and compassionate....even extending me grace as I struggled to comprehend the beating that I got today (figuratively speaking of course). As the night progressed, Allie further demonstrated more of the traits that make me love her more and more every day. She took time to listen to me, care for me, cook me a great meal.....it was exactly what I needed.

In any case--I just thought that I'd blog about the joys of marriage roughly three months in. Although we still have a long way to go (our entire lives), I feel truly blessed to have such a great, Godly woman at my side as my wife!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Adventures in Stereotypes

The following scene just happened to me (Allison) this afternoon as I was picking up our dry cleaning.

STORE OWNER: (Looks at my last name on the cleaning ticket.) So, do you have any family here? (said with a suspecting look in his eye)

ME: Yes. My husband. Abraham. He told me to come here.

STORE OWNER: (With a doubtful look as though he thinks we are talking about different people.) He is....

ME: Chinese

STORE OWNER: (Doesn't comprehend that word.) Oriental.

ME: Yes.

STORE OWNER: (He still doesn't think we're talking about the same guy.) Like...(uses his hand to gesture Abe's approximate height.)

ME: Yes. That's him.

STORE OWNER: Oh. Okay.

It's funny the types of stereotypes we run into now that we're married. People will say an asian joke not even aware that my husband is asian. People will ask about my last name, curious to know the nationality of my husband. Or people won't recognize we're together when we're in line at a restaurant.

The store owner in this case was actually Korean. I've learned stereotypes exist no matter the culture. I hope our (Lord willing) future kids will be an example of God's love for all people and that they would be welcome in this world no matter their ancestries. I hope they embrace their backgrounds and love their features that make them look more like mom or more like dad.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Newlywed Leave

Alas I (Allison) have a job and will shortly say goodbye to my three months of jobless life that I refer to as my newlywed leave. Similar to a maternity leave, newlywed leave is the period between the wedding, move, being setted in and landing a permanent job, which I have all encountered in the past three months.

I can't believe it's been three months since I've had a job. In fact, I'm really glad I didn't have a job to return to after the honeymoon. I've spent the past three months fixing up our apartment, cooking meals for Abe, and having the freedom to stay up as long as I want with my night owl of a husband.

Above all, it's been a time to pause. No more daily grind. No more wedding planning. No more commuter dating.

I've learned a lot about Abe and about myself. I've discovered I really do like my career field. And my local grocery store. I've learned the best time of day to avoid the pushy personal trainers at the gym. And, I've learned patience. I've learned to wait on God and to trust him. You can only job search for so long each day until you have to just give it up to Him and trust He'll provide the right job at the right time.

And I think he has. Taking this job helps give short-term answers to some of the life questions we're facing. It's a new life for me--a new organization, new role, and a long commute to the suburbs, which, thankfully, Abe can join me in for half the week.

So, here I am on a new adventure. I don't know how we'll keep our house clean or where I'll find the time to work out or how I'll not go crazy with all the driving. But I'm trusting God. One day at a time--knowing He'll meet me as I close one chapter and open another.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Simply Pleasure

Abe and I (Allison) had an experience of a lifetime yesterday. We rode on "Simply Pleasure," a boat owned by our friend, Mark, as he took the boat from a harbor in downtown Chicago down the Chicago River to the dry dock where he'll store it for the winter.





Mark invited us and some other friends to join him on, what turned out to be, a 7-hour excursion. As you can see, in order for us to get to the dry dock on the South Side, the city has to open about 20 bridges, causing a traffic nightmare. While we were sleepy from the very early wake up call (we left our place at 7:15 a.m.) and a bit cold, we enjoyed brats on the boat's grill as well as the scenery.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Goochie's Back

Our Toyota Corolla involved in the accident a few weeks ago is now back home. Yea! However, he's missing his nameplate. For some reason, the body shop told me he was ready even though he doesn't have "Toyota Corolla" on his back. So, I have to take it back Friday to have it taken care of. Shouldn't they notice stuff like that?

Anyway, the frustration continued. I drove away and realized the airbag light was on. The airbags didn't deploy in the accident, but they needed to be reset. The body shop couldn't figure out how to do it and told me to go to a dealer who would take care of it for free.

So, I drove the long way back to the Toyota dealer, which I kind of knew where it was. After searching around to no avail, I ended up calling 411, which I hate to do. Anyway, I finally located the dealer. I told them the situation. They said that would be $99. Um, heck no. So, I called the body shop and they decided to pay for it. It's lunchtime and it's going to take 1.5 hours to fix the car. So, I walk to the nearest deli and read a magazine. Thank God they took debit cards!

As you can tell, driving in Chicago (actually, life in Chicago) is incredibly frustrating. People make their own lanes, push their way in, play chicken, and cut you off. I had to honk at two people today alone. I just don't understand it. It's so rude. Why can't people wait their own turn? So, I honk and yell and then get mad at myself for doing so. I know I'm all jumpy because of the accident, too, which happened because a guy wasn't paying attention. Back where I'm from, if somebody does a stupid driver mistake there's typically a reason--not from here, etc. But here people are intentionally rude. They intentionally play chicken with you and speed up to cut you off so you have to slam on your brakes. I know God calls me to give grace to others, but this is really showing me that God has so much more to work in my heart in this area.

On a random side note, I originally thought about blogging today to complain why Chicago drivers typically have 1 or both of their rear taillights out of service. But then I thought that sounds like something a crochety old man would complain about. Well, in my drive to the autobody shop (which, ironically, took me right past the scene of the accident), I had 3 different vehicles in front of me with taillight malfunctions. So, Chicago, check your taillights!

Monday, October 1, 2007

You can have my tofu

I thought I (Allison) would tell you all about my first experience eating Thai food. Now I know I'm way behind the times, but, hey, just be glad I'm eating Chinese! I've always been a picky eater and one who doesn't venture out into new territory very often. Since my parents just ventured into Thai last week, I decided it was time for me to try it.

Abe and I went to his favorite local Thai restaurant. He told me to get Pad Thai, which I have to say was pretty good. Thankfully, I have been around enough asian cuisine lately to recognize what's tofu and what's chicken. My first tofu experience came as a shock--I picked up what I thought was a chicken salad and put it on my plate at a salad bar. That was defintely not chicken salad. Eww...

I did, however, enjoy our appetizer--crab langoon (ok...so in typing this I just wrote "crap langoon" by accident. He hee hee!) :) Seriously, that was really good. I think frying things automatically improves their taste by a good 75%.

So I, of course, had leftovers and told Abe he could have my tofu. But we were eating outside and this large bug decided to fly into my pad thai and dig all into it. Therefore, I did not ask for a to go box. But we paid for our meal with a "buy one entree, get one free" coupon, so we were happy.

On another note, Abe and I are completely without the cars we own today. He's driving our rental and I am driving the loaner car from our mechanic since we decided to take Abe's car into the mechanic for an inspection. I was driving the loaner home when it started raining. I turned on the wipers only to discover they're screwed up and act funky. The way they move is kind of like how they dead people move their hands from side to side in the air when they come out of the grave in the "Thriller" video. Weird.