Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Unnie's Wednesday Write Up: What makes Unnie tick?


That's right AddiKts, today I thought it might be fun to make my post a little more personal.  A little more about Unnie & her crazy life.  With some Koreaphile addiKtion thrown in to the mix.

{{Why am I speaking in 3rd person?  Just creeped myself out.}}

This is me;
Unnie
{^_-}

Okay, okay this is actually me;
The other picture is way better looking.  And younger!  Let's just pretend the other picture is the real me. 


Trying to blog about things I am still learning has been fun, trying, exciting, different, exhausting, awesome & eye opening.  But then stepping outside my carefully constructed box is so worth it.  I have been a Koreaphile for a year & a half now.  And everyday I watch dramas & listen to Kpop, I think how happy it makes me to have this wonderful new world opened up to me.  My house is filled w kids & CA, & now w/ the sounds of Fantastic Baby, Daebak!, Aigoos, Aishes, Otakes, and many other phrases as well.  CA has gotten so used to hearing these from me now, that he actually can respond correctly when I express one of these wonderful words/phrases.  He himself has started using Fantastic Baby!  Chincha!!!  Jongmal Daebak!!

Along with Korean things; I love my church.  I love my crazy family & friends so much!  I lost my mother at the tender age of 17 to lung cancer, my senior year of high school.  She was my absolute best friend!  I still miss her dearly.  I lost a brother to drug addiction right after my first born joined us.  I have lost both sets of grandparents.  All this losing of beloved family members, has made me a big advocate of telling people, in my life, how much they mean to me & that I love them.  I love cuddling & snuggling & touching & holding.   Very touchy feely kind of person.  I love to read.  Anything & everything.  I was one of those kids that read the encyclopedia when I ran out of books.  My favorite books are the classics, Jane Eyre, Jane Austen, Anne of Green Gables.  Growing up with 5 brothers I LOVE all things Sci-fi & Fantasy.  I am a true geek!  And proud of it.  I love babies & kids.  I love people watching.  I think people are awesome, funny, & fascinating.  I dislike camping.  I ADORE indoor plumbing & a mattress.  But my kids & CA like camping so I go for them.  I LOVE to smile.  I LOVE to laugh.  I love inappropriate sayings & dirty jokes.  I have a great love of sarcasm & saying exactly what I am thinking.  I am almost impossible to insult or offend.  Sleeping, next to reading, is my favorite pastime.  I hate exercise, so I am very out of shape.  But this year I started doing it regularly, trying to get healthy for my kids.  But I hate being sweaty.  Yuck.  I am a slight germ-a-phobe.  And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the ocean.   I miss Southern California so very  much!  I love animals, ALL animals, but I especially LOVE dogs.  I have a 7 year old female tri colored cocker spaniel named Nicolette.  But we call her Princess Nikki.  She is my shadow & follows me everywhere I go, when I am at home, & will sit by the door waiting for me to come home, when I leave.  Or so my kids tell me.  I am sentimental, & silly.  I love romance & adore high heels.  I have a sincere shoe fetish.  I blame my mom, she suffered enjoyed a shoe fetish too!  My dream vacation would involve being let loose in the Jimmy Choo warehouse!  And laying on the beach.  I do not drink alcohol, never have.  I do not smoke & after watching my mom die of lung cancer am a sincere anti smoking advocate.  I haven't seen an R rated movie since before my eldest was born.  I am a PC gaming widow.  LOL  And I'm okay with it.  I am not a fan of video games myself though.  I get motion sick too easily on the console games.  And I love to write.  {{shock, no way unnie, really?  I can see you guys can roll your eyes too!!  Giggle}}

As for my kids?

What a bunch of hams!  I don't know where they get it from!  
My 13 yr old Monstrosity loves Kpop music, as much as he loves US music, & is constantly asking me to make sure our free agent drive is regularly updated, every time I purchase new music off of iTunes, so he can update his mp3 player.  Including indoctrinating friends at school & church with his love of the music.  I'm so {{sniff, sniff}} proud!  He's also learning Korean with me.  And is a high orange in Korean Tae Kwon Do.  And is very proud of his burgeoning 6 pack.  {{giggle}}


My 8 yr old girl Monstrosity, asked me the other day, if I would teach her Korean as well?  LOL  That actually made me giggle.  She thinks I speak Korean fluently.  Ahh the innocence of youth.  But I did tell her I would include her in my Korean lessons, if she wanted.  She was very happy with that idea.  She has also started calling, every once in a while, her elder brothers "Oppa".   Which my 13 yr old loves!

My 6 yr old Monstrosity is constantly asking me to play Fantastic Baby by Big Bang as loud as I can, then he dances & sings the English lyrics along with it.  He even "Boom Shakalaka'd" the other day when he finished a level on Little Big Planet. LOL  He also loves watching the kick butt scenes in the action dramas, like City Hunter & now Faith.

My Nolan entranced by BB:

My 11 yr old Monstrosity just kind of ignores all of us.  He has his own interests & they are video games.  He loves video games.  Of course it's my 11 yr old Monstrosity that is wheelchair bound & so video games are his favorite way to spend some time.  Have any of you gone to the "Unnie" page & taken the time to read up on the disease my 11 yr old was born with?  I didn't really go into detail on his disease did I?

As a part of the quick view into Unnie's world I figure a quick paragraph should do.

Ataxia Telangiectasia (tel-en-jick-tay-sha)  Or A-T for short, is an incredibly rare genetic neuro-degenerative disease.  Which means as he ages, his cerebellum, is continuously degenerating, the brain cells are dying.  The cerebellum is the part of your brain that controls all motor & muscle functions.  Only about 500 kids in the US have this disease.  A-T kids come from 2 parents who both have one normal, one abnormal chromosome 11.  Together we have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child w/ BOTH abnormal chromosome 11's.  So my husband & I are BOTH carriers of this rare disease.  A-T kids are normal at birth.  It isn't until they start walking & talking that you notice something a little off.  Usually by age 3 is when parents start to get worried.  Although there are exceptions to all rules.  I know A-T families like ours that noticed earlier because their child had severe immune deficiencies & I know A-T parents who didn't find out till their child was already in school.  What is A-T?  A-T is a multi-system disease. It affects a startling number of body systems, from immune deficiencies, to cancer, to the inability to control any or all of your motor functions, it also causes premature aging, diabetes, heart issues & more.  These are smart, capable kids trapped in bodies that do not do what they want & frequently turn on them health wise.  There are no known therapies, cures or treatments for this disease at the current time.  It also has a life span of late teens/early twenties.  I spend a great deal of my time, bathing, dressing, helping my child to use the restroom & caring for him.  He also has a great many sick days, days where he throws up for no reason anyone can figure.  He is under weight no matter how much he eats.  And we are currently looking into feeding tubes & GI issues.  He cannot walk on his own, he cannot read on his own as he cannot control his eye muscles long enough to track words on a page.  But he is funny, smart, bright, kind & very empathetic to those around him.  He is awesome & a huge source of pride & an amazing example of finding joy in all things.  I cannot regret my life without regretting him & I refuse to do that.  He has taught me strength in adversity & joy in trials & that a sense of humor, even if sometimes my sense of humor is more than a little off color, can make a huge difference in attitude & how you view the world.  He has also taught me to love unconditionally all those around me.  And has shown me I am so much stronger than I ever thought I could be.  I think it is because of him, that my kids hardly ever fight with one another & that we are so close as a family.  He has a fundraising page on the A-T Children's Project website.

{{hmmm..  guess this wasn't a short paragraph after all.}}

How does one go on after such a paragraph?!?!  Talking about coming out to my family & friends of course.   Duh!  Keep up with me fellow AddiKts!!  Now, I have never really "come out" to my family about my AddiKtion.  I didn't call up my parents, siblings, in laws & say, "hey guys guess what I am doing?!?!"  {{giggle}}  Although on my personal blog I have.  {{I know VERY passive aggressive}} I even have this here blog linked up & advertised on my personal blog.  So anyone that reads the personal blog will know about this blog.  And so, some of them, I am sure, do know.  Whether or not it has run rampant through my family I have no idea.  If they were to ask me about all this I would happily tell them.  But so far none of them have asked me anything.  {{Sad face here}}  But recently Psy Oppa has been a big part of the entertainment news over here. And so I have been sharing Gangnam Style all over my personal FB page.  Which has garnered attention from those in my life.  A few questions, but still mostly this side of me is ignored.  Either because they don't really care or because they are afraid to ask.

But something you need never fear from me is asking me questions!  I LOVE when people ask me questions.  Whether I know the answer or not.  Whether it is personal or not.  I am not big on keeping myself quiet.  You may have {{ahem}} already noticed that about me.  I'm kind of a spaz.  Sometimes, I get self conscious about my weirdness & I worry that other people think I'm a lunatic or just weird.  But then, sometimes, I embrace my weird side fully & shout out I LOVE KOREAN STUFF!!!  LOL  My point is, I am who I am.  I never pretend to be something I am not.  I would love to be one of those quiet, calm, looked up to kind of ahjummas.  But I'm pretty sure I cannot pull that off.  I'm too eclectic & odd.  I admire the quiet but I have never been able to pull that off.  I just get so excited about everything in life so much.  And I have to let people know I am excited.  Dongsaeng says I'm bubbly.  But I think I just come off as annoying, slightly over bearing & obnoxious.  {{giggle}}   Like a little yappy puppy dog.

As for my writing style?  I prefer writing to you as if we are already in the middle of a conversation.  As if you have all been a part of my addiKtion, from the beginning, & we're old friends visiting.  I hope when you read my writing, you can almost hear my voice in it.  That you can almost see me roll my eyes or wink or wiggle my eyebrows over a semi naughty sentence.  I want you guys to read my posts & feel like we just talked about a show or a topic together.  And that is why I love getting comments from you, the readers.  The whole reason Dongsaeng & I started this blog, was because we wanted a place where we could all come & dish & squee & go Krazy, with other like minded Koreaphiles like ourselves.  My Unnie page is updated w all my favorites but I don't know your favorites.  I've learned about some of you & know some of you by name.  Some of you are readers but never leave comments.  I don't know if its because you are still too worried about what we'll think or if you are worried it will out you to your family or friends.  We would never do that!   We remember how scary it can be to admit to those around you about this addiKtion of ours.  Like I said not even all of my own family knows.   When I call you AddiKts it isn't because I think you are addikted to me but because we are all of us AddiKted to the Korean world.  You aren't MY AddiKts.  You are my FELLOW AddiKts!

So please, write to us.  Send us emails, if you prefer to remain in the shadows...giggle.  Or leave comments on our posts.  Or go to the FB page & leave comments on there or follow us individually or TCA itself on Twitter.  The links to those places are all over the blog.  So I won't link them in this post.   Dongsaeng & I are working behind the scenes very hard to make this blog a haven for Koreaphiles everywhere.  Not just for non Koreans either.   For any & all people no matter their race or gender.  Born here?  Born overseas?  Born in Korea itself.  We welcome all of you!  We can see who visits us on our Blogger Dashboard.  We see the many different countries, that for some reason, actually like reading what 2 white, stay home suburban moms have to say about K Dramas, K Pop, K everything, even though we have never actually been to Korea itself.  We think it is so Daebak!

We are humbled, of course, we're also very very puzzled as to why you guys like reading what we have to say or think, but mostly we're incredibly humbled.  When we started this blog we intended to just dip our toes tentatively, into the shallow end of the pool & test to see if anyone would want to keep up with us.  But here we are just 4 months later & we have over 35,000 page views.  And average around 500 to 600 views a day.  Which is probably incredibly nothing, compared to Drama Beans or EYK.  {{BTW we totally stalk both of those sites!  We are die hard "Nasties"!!}}  But for us?  That is a  HUGE number of people reading us.  {{Seriously what do you see in us??}}  We are actually working on establishing our own domain & domain name & dropping blogger completely.  Which is exciting!  But instead of dipping our toes in, as planned, we feel as if we've been pushed, head first, into the deep end of the pool!  It's exciting but intimidating.  We hope we continue to hypnotize entertain you with our take on all things K related.

That pretty much sums it up for this week AddiKts.   I hope you enjoyed a break from our regularly scheduled WWU & the quick view into what makes me tick.  ;)  Although more than likely this was my most boring post ever!  Totally understandable for you to feel that way guys.

Before I close completely, did you guys hear about Psy?  Gangnam Style is the #1 MV in the US on iTunes!!  And I also want to leave you with an interview CNN did on Psy Oppa & Gangnam Style.


AND his appearance at the Dodger Game in L.A. this week.



In case you can't tell Dongsaeng & I are so incredibly stoked to see Psy Oppa in the US news so much!  It has been fun showing everyone that we aren't as crazy as they think we are.  Although yes, I think it incredibly ironic that we are using a Psy MV to prove our lack of crazy.  LOL


Saranghamnida,

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