Vegetarian Hot Dog

Almost every day at work, Carrie comments on the lunch menu. She has a love passion constant desire for food that is bad for you and will make it known to the world when there are things wrapped in bacon or grilled cheese (with tomato soup of course). But there is one item in particular that makes her go immediately into a overeater second-lunch mood: hot dogs. She loves hot dogs and criticizes when they make them "too fancy" with mango salsa. So naturally, this was the best choice for her birthday cake.

Before I made this cake, my roommate and brother asked, "Why a hot dog?" Simple answer, "Because she loves hot dogs." It wasn't until I saw their confused faces that I realized how uncommon it is to say that someone loves hot dogs. But if you know Carrie, it's not that surprising.

My version didn't turn out quite as good as the linked one, but I was still pretty happy with it. I bought a couple buttermilk loaf cakes from Whole Foods to save time. But Whole Foods does not sell frosting - it's not fairly traded organic vegan compostable blah blah. So I made my own:

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 box of powdered sugar (1.5-2 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp milk

With an electric mixer, whip the heck out of the butter. Then add the sugar, then the vanilla and milk. Use on everything, yum.

For the dog, I used 3 drops of red food coloring; for the bun, 2 drops of yellow. Of course, I didn't have any regular cocoa powder like the link suggested, but had some hot chocolate mix so stirred that into the bun mixture. That made it a little grainy, which actually worked well for bread. For the ketchup and mustard, I used the leftover yellow and red piping icing from the turkeys. But if I do this again, I think I'll just mix more food coloring in and pipe it on. I had also made some green icing "relish" but it didn't harden quickly enough to use.

In any case, it had the desired reaction. Hot dog cake: two things Carrie loves in one.

Gobble Gobble

As a kid, turkeys were either 1) dry pieces of meat that weren't as good as the ham, or 2) a hand. You know, when you take a crayon, trace your hand, draw some feathers and a little gobble gobble. In that spirit and using this, I set out to make this Thanksgiving a little more cute this year.

I made a few adjustments to the linked instructions:

• Walgreens was out of regular Whoppers, so I used the peanut butter ones instead, which I think worked out better anyway
• I trimmed a side of the top Oreo (like the pb cup) to make it stand better
• I used the Oreo crumbs as the eyes

I brought it to work, Nate's friendsgiving, my family's Thanksgiving, my friendsgiving, and just had a bunch on my coffee table til they turned stale. They were a hit! I should have made more. Except that I felt a little sick eating all the bits and pieces. Next year, I might go healthier.

Happy Turkey!

You are not special

YOLO. Carpe diem. Live like you're dying... Common phrases, especially in commencement speeches. This is one of the best ways I've heard it contextualized:

http://lybio.net/david-mccullough-jr-you-are-not-special-commencement/speeches/

Stranded in Thailand

Earlier this week, I was stranded in Thailand with no comfort from this sign:

I'm on a grand tour de Asia, but traveling during summer holiday season presents some challenges. In particular, sold out nonstop flights to hot spot destinations. With that in mind, I booked the only overnight flight from Singapore to Sydney left, connecting in Phuket, Thailand (it's the opposite way, I know I know). Long story short, the airline had issued me a connecting flight that was physically impossible to make -- the ticket counter closed even before I deplaned.

With no other flight to Sydney until Friday (for $4000!), I spent 43 minutes on the phone with the travel agent (roaming charges, sorry Google) and rearranged my travel plans. Luckily, there was a Korean Air flight leaving just after midnight to Seoul, where I could connect to Tokyo (my destination after Sydney). Thank you Korean tourists!

Then... the flight was delayed. Flashbacks to just a few hours ago, I panicked. But Korea Air ftw! On the flight, they moved everyone with a connecting flight up to the front for to deplane quickly. At the gate was a wonderful Korean man holding a sign with my name. He escorted me to my Tokyo flight, which was waiting for me and we took off no less than 5 minutes past schedule. Jetstar, please take note: THAT is how you do a connecting flight.

I'm heading to Sydney on Monday. Let's hope take 2 is successful, otherwise you may find me 'Working From Beach' back in Phuket ;)

Always my right leg

I've never broken a bone or sprained an joint. Never been to the ER or had to be ski patrolled down a mountain. But in my adult life, I still often get hurt, with scars to prove it. And it's always my right leg.

2008: Fighting crime (jumped off of a swing, landed on my right knee on gravel)

2010: Chasing a robber (got pushed (intentionally) into rocky mud water during a Mud Run)
2011: Gun fight (snowboarding, fell off backwards from a box, hit my shin on the side of it)

2011: Attacked by ninjas (snowboard slipped under me, slammed right knee on ice)

2012: Saving a baby from a speeding bus, evidence below (left foot slipped in the rain walking downhill, hit my right knee on the downward slope)

Gosh, I need to stop trying to save the world. It's really messing up my knee!

TYPTWD

Yesterday was the first ever Take Your Parents to Work Day. I've been working here for ~3.5 years, and being able to open up campus to my folks beyond a good, hearty meal was amazing.

After the day ended, I sent this email to my parents, fondly nicknamed by my team "MaChoi" and "PaChoi" (off of my own nickname/email address "sachoi").

Hi MaChoi and PaChoi,

Thanks for coming to TYPTWD (Take Your Parents to Work Day)! I had a lot of fun giving you a tour around campus, introducing you to my teammates, and showing you a little bit of what I do at work. I hope you had a fun day and are still full from all of the snacks. Enjoy your new mugs, mousepads, and the 1000 photos you took!

I also want to say thanks for being such awesome parents. The speaker today showed a slide with a man jumping in the air and it said, "If you give people freedom, they will amaze you." I think I'm able to do this because you raised me with a lot of freedom and trust. You have always allowed me to be myself and do what I enjoy, and supported me with positive encouragement. You gave me a lot of independence growing up -- dropping me off and picking me up from my friends' houses every weekend, and letting me take $20 from your wallet whenever I needed money (I spent it all on beer and drugs. Just kidding!). You let me decide which school to attend (luckily I chose Berkeley) and travel the world. You didn't force me to play the piano (sorry Mom) and let me live on my own (even though you still don't like it). The only thing you ever said, "NO!" to was getting another ear piercing. But that's not so bad. I knew you trusted me, and that gave me a lot of confidence in myself. Now that I'm an adult, I understand how the way you raised me shaped who I am.

Today reminded me of how you both attended every orchestra concert, open house, Parent-Teacher meeting, Back to School night... Thanks for always being there for me.

Love,
Your daughter, sachoi

Age 25 is gross

Mom (translated from Korean): My kids are turning 25 and 27 this year?! 24 and 26 are OK, but 25... that's gross (징그러)!

When I was a young warthog, I came up with a list of 9 things I wanted to do before I turned 25. Last year, I did a one-year-to-go check in. Time is up, let's see where I landed:

1. Visit Thailand -- FAIL, but not for lack of trying
2. Learn Spanish -- FAIL... for lack of trying
3. Do something, anything! in microfinance or non-profit -- FAIL, I'm a corporate sell-out. But I did start sharetocaresf.org with Helen, which was completely unexpected.
4. Fully and regularly donate 10% of my net income  -- SUCCESS, I don't think it's quite 10%, but it's pretty close
5. Take the GMAT -- FAIL, I think grad school may be out of the picture
6. Be a size 4 again -- FAIL, but at least I didn't go up a size!
7. Commit to a church that I love  -- SUCCESS, City Church SF
8. Live in a different city -- SUCCESS, NYC is my 2nd city
9. Go to the gyno. Not because I want to but because I should.  -- SUCCESS.

Dang, 4 for 9, those are some bad stats. Looking at what I accomplished, they seem to be the foundational things. Thailand, Spanish, MF, and GMAT aren't things that influence my day-to-day. (Except for the size 4 thing -- I need to get my lazy bum to the gym more!) Honestly, I'm surprised. I thought your early 20s were the time for doing wily things. Well, I guess I'll flip it. Early 20s -- ground myself. Late 20s -- go nuts!

Stay tuned for The List: Age 30.

Lent

Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter Sunday.

For most of my life, these events didn't mean much to me. The church I grew up in didn't celebrate the first two, and the latter was always associated with coloring and finding Easter eggs.

But in the last few years, these four events have held great importance. No, nothing traumatic happened -- actually, the opposite. Life slowed down after college, and with it, my spiritual life. Small habits like journaling, prayer, and reading went to the back burner. I found myself living life and playing, but never finding enough time in the day to get back to those habits.

But when something is important to you, you make time for it. At least, that what I keep telling myself. So for Lent 2012, I am giving up my time.

In the words of Chuck D (pastor at my church):
"As people addicted to comfort and convenience, we're often unaware of how we live to feel good about ourselves, to gain a bit of affirmation, to exert influence, to maximize our own pleasure, to satisfy our immediate needs. Lent invites us to intentionally frustrate ourselves, to engage in a season of deprivation, which actually makes us more aware of the depth of our dependence on any number of things – a substance, our reputation, control, achievement, being right, being comfortable, being secure.

Lent is NOT a behavior modification program. It's not about going off chocolate or caffeine or alcohol. It's about frustrating what Thomas Merton calls our "false self," our illusory self, the part of us addicted to living the lie, a life of hiding."

I spend nearly 3 hours a day sitting on my butt in a moving vehicle. My evenings are often spent finishing work, catching up on my social life, and scouring deal sites and real estate listings. I can give that up for 40 days to get out of my "Live Life" mentality and become uncomfortable being comfortable.

To all you out there observing Lent, I hope that you find yourselves challenged, frustrated, and in the end, closer to God.

Sarah Chois rule the world

In my high school class, I remember there were 6 Sarahs. Sarah on student govt, hot Sarah, athletic Sarah, Sarah something, some other Sarah I didn't know very well, and... me. But back then, I was the only known "Sarah Choi".

In '04, I joined Facebook when it was still in it's infancy. I searched for "Sarah Choi", and with only a handful of colleges in the network, low and behold, there were 5 of us sprawled across America. I friended them all. One messaged back, "Hey! Have we met??" Hmm. Not the brightest of us.

Later that year, as my friend was signing me in at his dorm lobby, he asks, "Hey, did you sign in already?" Scrawled on the last box: "Sarah Choi". My friend yells, "SARAH CHOI!!" and a girl at the elevator whips around. She had graduated just before I started and was visiting a friend.

When Facebook reared its ugly head to the global world, I started getting requests from people I had never met. At first, I would respond back. By now I have stopped responding to all Facebook, LinkedIn, and yes, even Google+ requests for some other "Sarah Choi". I tried, I really did. But there are too many to keep up.

My senior year, we were doing freshman outreach during Welcome Week. Sitting at the table on Sproul, my friend says, "Yo, stop signing yourself in to make our list look longer." But I had not. Later that week, as I traipsed the hallways of Unit 3, I look at a door and written on that piece of construction paper... can you guess? "Sarah Choi". She wasn't home that day, nor did she end up joining our fellowship. Nor did she reply to my welcome to Cal email. Bringing us down, Sarah. Was it because your new friends kept finding me instead of you on Facebook?

When I joined Google, a "Sarah Choi - Finance" started receiving many of my emails. There was even one time she received my postal package (shipped to Mountain View, then to Seoul, then back to Mountain View, then finally to NYC). "Sarah Choi - Finance" is no longer at Google, but now there is a "Sara Choi - YouTube".

A few days ago, I posted some stuff to sell craigslist. Here's one of the replies:

To all you Sarah Chois out there, I hope you share my love for our name as much as you share my actual name.