Free dessert, thanks to my blog.
Summer is more than halfway through! Can’t believe how fast time flies. I’ve noticed that once it hits July, the pace quickens even more. But I’m determined to make the best of the rest of the summer, and to enjoy it and learn new things.
So to the updates – I’ll start from last Thursday. After work, I ate IKEA for dinner and drove back to SoCal with Kevin and Kim. It was definitely the latest drive I’ve done. We left around 8 PM and arrived around 2:30 AM. Glad that we got home safe.
The next day, I ate lunch with my family at a new restaurant they discovered. I hadn’t stuffed myself with that much good Chinese food in a long time. After the manager saw me taking pictures of the food, and my dad explained to him that I write reviews on a website, he came back with a free dessert for us. I guess having a blog pays off. (I have yet to write the review – will do).
The crew.
In the afternoon, I picked up Robert and took him and my brother to Malibu, where we were attending a four-day summer church conference at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Those were a great four days. I definitely learned a lot, and the speaker, Ernie, brought along thirteen people from his church in New York, so we met a lot of cool new people.
We had two messages a day, plus singing, workshops, and free time in between. We also played basketball, ate decent dining common food, and enjoyed the lovely weather and spectacular views.
The message that stood out to me most during the conference was the last one that Ernie gave. He talked about how Jesus didn’t ascribe to the organization of religion. Jesus actually broke a lot of religious customs during his ministry, because he knew that many of the traditions meant going through the motions, and was no longer about the relationship itself.
I left conference feeling refreshed – just the combination of the amazing atmosphere, quiet time, messages, and interaction with other people made it an awesome experience. Special shout out to my group-mates JC, Vincent, Robert, JGo, JNg, Benny #1, Johnson, and Alan.
Right after conference, I dropped off my brother at home, took a quick 20-minute nap, picked up Kevin and Kim, and left for Berkeley. Of course, we stopped for In N Out at the halfway point. Around 9:30 PM, 80 miles out from Berkeley, we saw fireworks go off to the right of I-5.
Random town and fireworks.
We decided to pull off the freeway and found ourselves a perfect view of a random town. We stayed about 15 minutes in the darkness, watching fireworks go off over the shining city lights. It was beautiful, and I couldn’t have asked for a better, more impromptu way to enjoy Independence Day (last year, I was driving back, too, but missed all the fireworks).
I had Tuesday off from work as well (a nice little five-day weekend for me), so I chilled for most of the day. Ran a few errands, picked up my street parking permit for next year, and ate dinner at Crepevine with Karl.
The rest of the week was pretty routine – went back to work and continued to enjoy the summer.
Chill days at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com.
