Decking the halls

Sorry about all the photo-free posts. We retrieved our camera from Eric and Kristen, but are now having computer problems. Brian is hoping to get the problem fixed very soon. Then we'll post our Thanksgiving pictures and so forth.

Both of us are crazy busy with work this month, but have found time to deck the halls! In our neighborhood, people don't put lights out on their house (ruins the "historic charm," we suppose)-- rather, people decorate with candles in the windows, wreaths, evergreens and poinsettias in their window boxes and so forth. We have candles in our windows and, in our doorway, a gorgeous fresh pine wreath that Sherry decorated with red satin ribbon, and poinsettias on either side of the door. It's very welcoming! Brian put fresh pine garland all along our staircase, all the way up the third floor, and it looks so beautiful! (We're hoping to post pics when the computer problems are resolved.)

On Saturday, our friends Abby and Courtney came over, and the four of us headed up to New Hampshire to cut down our Christmas tree. It was so fun. We picked out a beautiful blue spruce and had no problems driving it home. We went to dinner when we got back to Boston, then went back to our place, where the four of us put up the tree and decorated it while having some nice mulled cider and listening to Christmas music. The tree truly looks lovely. Then, we all settled down, with a nice red wine, cheese fondue, Christmas cookies, and brownies, cozied up by the fireplace, and watched It's a Wonderful Life. (Who doesn't love that movie?)

It was nice, and we all kept commenting that we felt so normal to be doing such things, especially Courtney, who is currently on two months of trauma, and whose daily working hours that are generally something like 3:15 a.m. to between 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., with Saturday off to sleep. (Courtney passed out about halfway through the movie.) (Brian's on trauma in March and April, so basically, don't expect to talk to him, hear from him or see him in the spring.) For now, though, Brian (and Sherry) had a great Saturday night, and after Courtney and Abby went home, we watched another movie, Akeelah and the Bee, which we also enjoyed.

Hope all of you are enjoying the holidays!

Married

Married to a Surgical Resident
(a poem by Sherry)
Being married to a surgical resident is . .
coming home late from work on a December night,
seeing the car in the dark driveway,
a snowstorm brewing above . . .
looking for your spouse,
upstairs, downstairs, all around the house . . .
calling out for him to no avail . . .
and eventually, going outside again,
peering into the icy cold car,
to find him curled up, fast asleep . . .
apparently too tired to walk in the front door.

Phinally, Phliz!

We were so excited this evening to receive a Save The Date to the wedding of our very dear friends, Liz and Phil. Liz has been Sherry's friend since age 11, and Brian's since age 12. And Phil has been our friend for at least four or so . . . but it seems like he's been with Liz since . . . age 11. And it feels like they've been engaged for about that long, too! The date has been set, folks, and we are so excited for June 2, 2007! We are so happy for them and cannot wait to celebrate! To read more about Phliz, a simply phlabulous couple, check out their wedding website, www.phlizwedding.com.

Wheh do ya pahk ya cah?

We can't do our post-Thanksgiving post until Eric and Kristen overnight us our camera (Brian left it at their house), so we're hoping to do it at the end of the week. In the meantime, here's an interesting article (click for link) for those who look surprised when we list our home's three parking spots as one of its most coveted assets. An uncovered parking space in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, which isn't too far from our neighborhood (both are in downtown Boston), just sold for $250,000. Every year when it snows, fights break out over snow-cleared street spots (and in summer they break out over spots that people mark by putting furniture, like chairs, in them). Now, picture us looking out from our house with three cozy spaces (and only one little car). We love our pahking. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We're with family, and will blog about it later.

Enjoy the holiday with your loved ones, and take care.

Birthday Wishes for Dana!

Happy Birthday, Dana!

Happy Birthday to our longtime friend, Dana. Dana lives in Atlanta, where she is a successful architect. We remember her coming to visit us in Boston when we lived here before (1998-2000), and telling us all about the architecture as we showed her the city. We still sometimes quote the factoids she quoted to us to other people. And no, we don't fact-check them first; it's DANA! Of course they are right. Here are a couple of cute pictures she sent us last spring-- one of Dana, her boyfriend Todd, and their dogs, and another one with Todd's family. Dana's been a wonderful friend ever since she and Sherry were sorority sisters at UCLA.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Today was the birthday of my dear husband, Brian Michael. We celebrated by heading to the Boston Bruins game after work with our friend Darren. Darren has been Brian's friend since they were both medical students at Stanford together, and they are now both in Orthopaedics at Harvard, which was an unusal residency match story. (Darren was also a groomsman in our wedding back in 2002.) We had a fun time and it was a good game; the Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime. Brian works so hard, that he deserved a night off in the middle of the week.

Here are some pictures from our night! For more pictures click here.

In addition, we'd also like say to Brian's twin brother, Happy Birthday, Eric!

Finally, to our dear Texan gal, Happy Birthday, Shannon!

November 16th--

What a wonderful day, for so many wonderful people to have come into this world.

Fall Days and Sherry Hsieh's Birthday

Happy Fall!

That's our front door to the left showing off our autumn wreath, so we thought we'd send you all some hospitality and tell you to come visit us when you can. ;) We had a nice weekend. We spent Saturday with our friends Sherry and Jens, celebrating Sherry (Hsieh's) birthday. We went to the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in the afternoon. It was a perfect fall day, sunny and warm, but crisp, with the smell of fires burning, and beautiful autumn trees in the Sculpture Park. We had a wonderful al fresco lunch there and then wandered through the sculptures. It was a lovely afternoon. Saturday evening, we had a celebratory dinner at Elephant Walk, a French/Cambodian restaurant that we all like, that can always be counted on for good food.

We didn't take any pictures on Saturday, but there's a cute picture of the Sherrys together a couple of weeks ago, if you scroll down. In any event, Happy Birthday, Sherry Hsieh!

We had a productive Sunday. Among several other projects we completed (all house related, of course), Brian's getting his "gym" set up in the basement. He painted that half of the basement and laid the flooring, and his amazing gym set that his brother bought him looks great down there!

Hope all is well with all of you! Take care.

Autumn Update

We have not posted much over the last few weeks, because it has been a very busy fall season, the nicest part of the year here in New England. We love it. So, we thought we would provide an update. First, HAPPY ELECTION DAY! We hope everyone voted, no matter their beliefs or political leanings. As Sherry's mom always puts it, "If you don't vote, you can't complain." (And as Sherry likes to add, "And the more you complain, the longer God lets you live." :)) And as Sherry's immigrant cab driver put it this evening, "Millions of people in the world do not get the chance to vote, and would change places with those who can in a second. How can you not vote if you have the privilege?" We believe it is among the purest of all civic privileges and duties.


For four days a couple of weeks ago, both Brian's mom, Ann, and stepdad, Dale, visited us. Dale left, and Ann stayed for ten more days. It was nice to see them after such a long time. We got to do a number of fun and interesting things, including attending the Head of the Charles (above left; click for link), checking out the U.S.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides"; click for link) here in Charlestown, and visiting Salem's Halloween festivities (as well as its very sad memorials to the executed non-witches) (see left and right; click for link). And yes, the gory 'mom' and his/her/its bloody 'children' above almost scared the pants off Sherry on the streets of Salem! We also saw a show and had a nice dinner at the Oak Room (see right), among other things. Dale was very helpful in helping us set up our wireless internet and printing, and Ann was very helpful with a whole host of household activities, including helping us paint our living room and meeting several workers at the house for us. Thanks, you two!

We already posted about Sherry's birthday, but we're posting some photos now of our great day with Sherry and Jens at the Isabella Stewart Gardner and other festivities.

Sherry also recently received a lovely ring from her sister, Stacy, to match the one that she gave Stacy for her birthday (also in October), so they have "sister rings" now, which is nice.

Also, we want to say Congratulations to Sherry and Jens!, our dear friends here in Boston.
They are expecting their first child at the beginning of May, and they recently have begun their second trimester. They are in our prayers and wishes for a healthy pregnancy and easy delivery. We made Sherry take a "belly shot" when we got together on the 29th, and here are the results. As we can all see, Sherry still looks like she could throw on a bikini tomorrow!

Finally, speaking of babies, our baby nephews, Lucas (2) and Tanner (1) have had a fun fall thus far. With Tanner's first birthday, pumpkin patch visits, and Halloween on the agenda, their activities have made for very cute pics sent to us from their parents. Here are two. Now, really. Could they be any cuter? Exactly.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall!

For more photos from Ann and Dale's visit and Sherry's birthday, click here.

Sherry's Birthday and Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Happy Halloween! We are at home with Brian's mom, Ann, who is visiting, watching Friday the 13th, making caramel apples and enjoying having a few trick-or-treaters. They are so cute; we wish we had more! (Unfortunately, our door was just painted today, so its kind of a challenge for the kiddies, who have to read the sign, and make sure they knock on the glass panes on the door!) Charlestown has nice Halloween festivities, like the Halloween parade over by the Monument, which is good for beckoning the little ones. After dinner, we're hoping to take a jaunt over to Beacon Hill, which is also really festive for Halloween.

My (Sherry's) birthday was over the weekend, and we had a nice, low-key day. We painted our living room (not so fun), but then headed out to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where we met up with our friends Jens and Sherry. After the museum, we had hot drinks by the fire at the Ritz and enjoyed the fall day, and then had dinner at Figs. We then went for ice cream, apple turnovers, and apple cider. It was a good birthday. We'll post some pictures soon!

Happy 1st Birthday, Tanner!

Our cute little nephew, Tanner Eric, is a whopping one year old today!

Happy First Birthday, Tanner!

Tanner has the most adorable, joyful smile, and he is growing like a weed. (This picture was taken several months ago.) Good thing, too, because as Lucas' little brother, we're pretty sure he'll be getting and giving his share of little boy roughhousing in the years to come. For now, though, he's just the sweetest baby boy.

Stacy's 3-0 in Chicago

Happy Birthday, Stacy! My (Sherry's) sister Stacy turned 30 over the weekend, and had a surprise bash weekend in Chicago to celebrate. No one told her anything was planned, no one told her she was getting on a plane, no one told her where she was going (until the ticket agent did) and no one told her anything about what would be happening once she got there. In short, we all arrived late on Thursday night because of the bizarre snowy weather (!?!), and checked into the W Hotel into a great suite with a fabulous lake view. (We later discovered that Snoop Dogg was staying there too, when we ran into him and his entourage in the elevator.)

On Friday, we had a great brunch, walked around the city, went to Navy Pier, rode the Ferris Wheel, and took a great boat cruise around the city that pointed out all the great architecture. We rounded out the day with a drink at the bar at the top of our hotel. We then got ready for the evening-- cocktails and appetizers in the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock (click for daytime view; we enjoyed the dark, with beautiful lights!), typical Chicago-style pizza at Gino's East, and bar hopping around town. We had a great time.

On Saturday, we went to the top of the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the U.S. and currently the second tallest in the world. We also did some shopping and went back to the hotel to relax a bit before heading out. We then got ready (while listening to fun music and drinking champagne), and went to dinner. Dinner was at Japonais, a nod to Stacy's birthplace-- Tokyo, Japan. The restaurant is a hip, fun place with great sushi and wonderful service. We all liked it, especially the birthday girl. Her favorite part was when the waiter brought out a gift in a little blue box at dessert. :) (It held a pink tourmaline birthstone ring.) Afterwards, we had some fun with what Stacy does now-- by surprising our favorite teacher with tickets to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was a hilarious, fun musical. We spent the rest of the evening dancing the night away and celebrating. (Except the part where my purse was snatched at a bar.)

On Sunday, we had a great jazz brunch at Bistro 110. Then we checked out the Field Museum, and the King Tut exhibit there. (After going for a nice drive around the city, we made a simply wonderful tour stop at a police station across the street from some charming, boarded up projects so that I could get something to let me on the plane to fly home. ) Soon, it was time to go home, but a great time was had by all!

For some more pictures, click here.

Nice Weekend In Boston

For fun, we're posting some pics that Sherry's sister Stacy e-mailed us to show Sherry her new haircut. Looks beautiful, Stac!

We had a very nice autumn weekend here in Beantown. Fall is here, for sure. There's a bite in the air, football games everywhere, the smell of fireplaces burning occasionally, and the leaves are just starting to turn. Friday was actually very chilly, and Friday night was downright cold, but we had fun anyway. We headed to Harvard Square, had dinner at Border Cafe, a Mexican restaurant we like. It is the only restaurant we know of in town that plays country music, and it's always packed, laid back, and perfect for a Friday night. Afterwards, we walked a couple doors down and saw The Departed. If you don't know, it is the new Martin Scorsese flick set in Boston. Several scenes are set in the Charlestown neighborhood (where our house is), mostly down by the naval yard. For you Hollywood gossip fans (Tina, Adrian, Liz), when the movie was filmed last year, Leonardo was still dating Gisele Bundchen, and she lived in our apartment building in the financial district. Anyway, the line for the movie on Friday was long and Boston as a city is pretty psyched on it. We thought it was a great movie. The cast is fantastic. Several people said it was even better than Mystic River, though Sherry disagrees (Brian hasn't seen Mystic).

Saturday was gorgeous. We had lunch at John Harvard's in Cambridge (a fun pre-game place we've liked since Sherry was a student), then met up with friend and fellow orthopod, Jamie, and his wife, Kristi (a pediatrics resident), at the Harvard football game against Cornell. Harvard won, 33-23, and we had a celebratory glass of wine afterwards at The Red House in the sunshine, on what is sure to be one of the last days of the year when restaurants in Boston boast al fresco dining and drinking options. We came home and actually hung up the curtains we bought for the bedroom a couple months ago. They look great.

Sunday was also beautiful, so we had lunch outside with our friend Darren at Tavern On the Water, a casual little place in our neighborhood with fabulous views, that is always packed with locals enjoying some combination of a football game on TV, the view, the food, and some drinks. (Darren and Brian went to med school together at Stanford, where they were friends, and both happened to match into Harvard Ortho the same year, which is very unusual.) Then we came home, and Brian finished most of the staining of our first floor deck and Sherry painted the master bathroom. Looks good. House progress is coming slowly but surely. We've spoken with new painters and plan to hire a company this week to do the exterior.

We both came down with a yucky virus this week, so we're hoping to get better soon. And that's our update!

Back to reality

Our big plans for our September vacation had been to go see our friends Chris and Ann in Beijing. But September became one of our busiest work months on record (Sherry's billables in the first 3 weeks of the month were among highest she's ever billed for a whole month), and we were taken for a ride by our painter and lost $3,700 in the process, and we've been trying do part of the work ourselves since then while trying to hire someone else to finish the job, and we've been working with the police to find and arrest the fraudulent painter (who, the police tell us, has a very long record), and we were stuck having to do a bunch of annoying things like replace all the locks on our house. So, as vacation snuck up on us, we were ill-equipped to plan a trip to China, both time-wise and financially. By the time it rolled around, we still had no plans. We decided to go someplace closer, and plan to visit our dear friends later.

On Saturday night (9/23), we poked around on the internet and could not decide where to go. We then had a rather humorous discussion, as follows:

B: "Where should we go?"

S: "I don't know," and then, randomly, "Courtney went to the Cayman Islands."

B: "Uh, okay. Where do we stay?"

S: "I don't know," then, looking at Expedia, "Here's a hotel."

B: "Um, alright."

Then we booked it. And that's how we planned our vacation, folks. Good thing our friend Courtney went someplace good on her last vacation.

We left Monday morning for Grand Cayman. It's a relatively short flight (only about 4.5 hours total flying time, though there are no direct flights, so the whole thing takes about 6 hours). We had a wonderful, relaxing time.

A few highlights:

It's the tail-end of the low season in Grand Cayman, so even though we had booked a "resort view" room at our hotel (pictured above) for a great price, we were unexpectedly upgraded to the oceanfront penthouse upon check-in! It was gorgeous, with a great view (the actual view from our room is pictured left). We even had our own fish in our room.

We spent a lot of the time at our resort, enjoying the pool, beach, gym and spa. We did a lot of relaxing, reading, sunbathing, playing in the pool, sitting in saunas/steamrooms/hottubs, and ordering pina coladas and lava flows poolside or beachside. Our hotel had "beds" on the beach that you could lay on with towel "sheets", pillows and canopies to keep the sun off. We would just lay there and wait for the lady to come around with the free fruit kebabs. It was a little ridiculous, but fun and definitely relaxing!

We did get out to see the beautiful island, though. First, the crystal clear aquamarine waters were like nothing we've seen before. The water was 80 degrees or so the entire time! We did quite a bit of snorkeling around the island, and loved it. We also loved the international population of the island, and the laid back, happy kindness of the islanders.

One of the highlights of Grand Cayman is taking a boat to Stingray City, and swimming with the stingrays, which we did. Stingray City is not a city, but an area in the shallow waters of the northwest corner of Grand Cayman's North Sound. It is just inside a natural channel which passes through the barrier reef. Fisherman used to duck in behind the the reef to find calm water before returning to the dock. Rather than spill their beer and have sharp knives and fish guts flung about the boat while on open water, they naturally waited to return to the sound to clean and fillet their catch. They disposed of the offal by tossing it overboard in the shallow water, where the stingrays would gorge on it. Local divers eventually realized that the rays, though living in the wild, had become accustomed to getting food from the boats, so they would not only come freely to the boats, but also would gently take food from humans by hand. The coolest thing about Stingray City is that it is not an artificial, man-made aquarium, but rather an area in the middle of the ocean where the water becomes shallow enough to walk or swim easily in, and where the wild animals come freely to the boats and the humans to play, with the hope of getting some food out of it.

We took a boat that made two snorkeling stops on the way to Stingray City. While snorkeling out in the reefs, we saw beautiful, wondrous tropical fish of all sizes and colors. There were so many that you could practically touch them as they swam around you. Brian and some others also saw a sinister four-foot long eel! (Sherry was perfectly happy to have missed that sighting.) When we arrived at the area called Stingray City, several people (including us) said, "Is this the right spot? We don't see any stingrays." The captain cut the engine on the boat, and like stealth hovercraft, tens of stingrays honed in on our boat and waited for us to get in the water. They rub up against your legs and bodies to "play," and let you hold and kiss them. Brian stayed in the water the whole time, playing with them, and even held and kissed them. Sherry was a little more hesitant, but tentatively got in the water, reached over to pet them for a bit, and eventually retreated to the boat to capture Brian's adventures on film. For both of us, it was a unique and incredible experience. We also made several friends, as it was a small boat, so the tourists got to know each other. Coincidentally, our boat consisted of several Cal, Stanford and Harvard graduates, and a Chi Omega alum, not to mention a very fun tourist from Monaco and a nice diving family with a hilarious and precocious 11 year old boy. We all had a great time, and kept seeing one another on the island thereafter.

We also had a unique and awe-inspiring trip to Rum Point, which is basically a pretty cove on the island with a bar at it, and some crazy directional signs (see right). We arrived late, when the bar was closing, and everyone soon left. We then had the entire cove and beach area to ourselves. We opened a bottle of wine to enjoy the sunset by, and snorkeled and played in the 80-degree water. As the sun was almost finished setting, an incredible thunder and lightning storm picked up, and we watched it in the shallow, warm waters, alone, for well over an hour, maybe two. It was like nothing we've ever seen before, and was very romantic. We eventually decided to pack up and leave to head back for dinner. We got in our car and closed the door, and that very second the downpour started. It was perfect.

Another highlight of the island is all the terrific restaurants with excellent seafood. We had more good meals than we can list or count, but some standouts were the fun, hip atmosphere and good food at Deckers, and the trendy atmosphere and good sushi at Bamboo. Our last night, we had a wonderful dinner at Reef Grill. We sat on a balcony on the edge of the moonlit ocean, and our food was delicious. A Caribbean band played below us and dancers filled the dance floor. When we finished our meal, we joined everyone on the dance floor, enjoying the water view and soaking in the Caribbean flavor of our last night. It was truly memorable.

When the week was over, we were relaxed and happy. That is, until the pilot on the flight home said over the loudspeaker, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my job to take you back to reality." The collective groan of the passengers signaled the end of our fantasy. As we landed in Boston late that night, in the freezing rain, and made our way to the curb where the cab stand attendant was yelling at everyone, we knew we had made it back to reality. As Brian talked about all the patients he needed to round on at 5 a.m., Sherry thought back to a time when Brian's biggest worry was our week-long "synchronized swimming" contest-- Brian, in warm, clear ocean water, with the sun setting behind him, a grin on his face as he decided aloud, "I need to add in some scissor kicks. For style points."

For more pictures from our trip click here.

Happy 30th, Maya! Happy Birthday, Julie!

We've been away on vacation, which we will post about later, but in the meantime, we want to send wishes to two dear friends who celebrated birthdays while we were gone.

First, Happy 30th Birthday to Maya, pictured left, who celebrated the big 3-0 in San Francisco! Maya is an internal medicine doctor at UCSF. We hope you had a terrific birthday, doc! May your next 30 years be as wonderful as the first.

Second, Happy Birthday to Julie, pictured right, who celebrated a birthday as well! Julie is a special ed teacher in Sacramento. Hope you had fun, Jules!

Both have been friends of ours since we grew up together in Sactown. We miss you, ladies!

XOXO

While we try to post congratulatory posts to our dear friends when they are due, sometimes things overwhelm us, and we forget. One of those is that our friend Leslie became engaged several months ago to her love, Brad, but we never posted about it.

Congratulations, Leslie and Brad!

Leslie is one of my (Sherry's) good friends from back at the Chi Omega sorority house at UCLA. (Click for links; the house seems to have a nice new website, for all you Chi-O alumnae blog fans. That means you Ms. "Social Advisor" Stuessy!) We wish Leslie and Brad a wonderful engagement and a lifetime of beautiful moments, as sweet Leslie so deserves. I have so many awesome memories with Leslie, and she truly has a heart of gold.

Speaking of Chi-O love, this little lovebug is Dillon, the firstborn of our friend Jill. We finally have a pic to put online!

Welcome Baby Dillon!

Jill was my roommate from XO's Pink Posey Room (do not ask if you don't know), sophomore year, and has been a wonderful friend for a long time. Jill is a great teacher, who now lives in Phoenix, but who started her career through Teach for America in Manhattan. I remember so well my first trip to New York in college, visiting Jill (who had already graduated) in her little apartment. We were broke, but you can't imagine how much fun you can have with Jill while broke.

I remember when we were living together in the sorority, neither of us had money for dinner one night (the cooks got the weekend off, so you had to fend for yourself), nor money to go out with our other friends that night. (It must have been the end of the month or something, before we would be getting work paychecks or financial aid checks.) So, the two of us stayed at Chi-O and, looking around our room, in clothing pockets, change cups, and so forth, came up with enough cash to get corn dogs at the mall in Santa Monica (complete with people watching), and have just enough change leftover that night to go to the nearest open video store (which for some reason at the time was up in the canyons in Bel Air somewhere, near Mulholland) and rent one video. After checking out at the video store, we had one quarter left between the two of us, and we decided to put it in the gumball machine at the front counter, and split the gum. When a giant gumball with foil wrapped around it came rolling out, we were kind of grossed out. But then, the teenager at the counter told us it meant we got two free movies. We were psyched, and spent the whole evening watching movies, with sodas and bags of microwave popcorn one of us had stowed away. I remember driving back down through the canyons to the sorority in the rain (yes, it does rain in L.A.), in Jill's little convertible, with our movies, and laughing with Jill that there was no one else in Bel Air that would have appreciated those free movies more!

Ahh, the good old days.

Five years later: Reflecting on September 11, 2001

This is Sherry writing. With all the coverage of the five-year anniversary of September 11, 2001 on the morning news programs, which I often watch or listen to while getting ready for work, I found myself drawn back to that day five years ago, remembering what it was like then, and reflecting on the five years since.

I woke up very early that morning. It was my second day as a lawyer; I was brand, spanking new, with the utter excitement and towering aspirations only fledgling lawyers can muster. I was up by about 5 a.m., and on the road by 5:30 a.m., as I had a one-hour commute from our apartment in Los Altos, California to my office in downtown San Francisco, and I intended to spend an hour at the gym there before heading in. On my drive in, I heard on NPR that a small prop plane was believed to have hit the World Trade Center. Using my cell phone, I called my fiance Brian, who was asleep, and told him to get up and watch the news. He turned on the TV and relayed the breaking news that it was not a small plane, but rather a jet, believed to have been hijacked, that had hit one of the buildings that we had loved so much in New York. He told me it looked really bad. He continued to watch the news, whose feeds were live and faster than my radio. He told me me what was happening as it came in.

Suddenly, he said, "Oh my God. Oh my God." "What?" I said. " A second plane just hit the other tower. I just saw it. I just saw with my own eyes-- Oh my God. What the . . .? Is this an attack? It's an attack." I was panicked. Moments later, I began to see other cars pull off the side of the road, the drivers looking stricken and horrified, as the news must have come streaming through their speakers or cell phones. I think Brian told me there might be more planes hijacked. Minutes later, I arrived at the BART rail station, where just like the day before, I would take the train in the rest of the way. By then, I was desperately trying to call my friend Ann Mah, who lived in lower Manhattan. The lines were completely tied up. Everyone on the train was in a panic. Upon arriving downtown, I went straight to my office. It was almost 6:30, and I was the only one on my floor. I remember being terrified.

I turned on the computer, and the news sites were refreshing by the minute. The planes had been hijacked. Each tower falling. The Pentagon had been hit. Another hijacked plane off the radar. Where was it going? How many more were there? Was the west coast to be attacked as well? Unsubstantiated reports of car bombs going off (turned out to be untrue). While I wasn't crying yet, I knew deep inside that our country was under attack, and I felt so alone. Within minutes, several secretaries arrived and asked if they could go home. I looked at them and said, "It's my second day as a lawyer. Can I make that call?" Just then, a partner came in and told us all to leave.

Walking back to the train, I remember people huddled around radios and televisions that street vendors (flowers, etc.) had set up. I remember people sobbing. I remember wondering if my train car would explode and, afterward, when I was driving back in my car, seeing lines of cars parked on the side of the highway, their drivers tuned to the news, probably sobbing by now, as I was. I remember coming home, Brian and I holding each other, wondering what was happening. I remember worrying that Ann (seen left, in a picture taken in her Soho flat in September 2002, a year after the attacks) had been hurt by debris or the falling tower.

I don't want to relive all the images I saw that day, but some will never leave me. The poor people in the upper floors of the towers, begging for rescue, to no avail. A photgraph of a woman about my age (25 at the time) and a man, both in suits, holding hands as they jumped. I remember CNN showing the looks on the faces of doctors and nurses outside New York's hospitals as they waited with hundreds of stretchers to treat the survivors that would never come. I remember praying every day and night that they would find survivors, and then wondering if God heard my prayers.

I remember in the days afterwards, the father weeping for his missing daughter, apologizing on camera that they had exchanged harsh words the last time he saw her, and begging for his daughter back, asking her to yell at him again. The family members in the days afterwards, standing in lines, holding pictures, bringing hairbrushes, toothbrushes, or, worse, the biological children of the missing, to provide DNA samples in hopes of identifying their loved ones.

I remember going down to the streets of San Francisco with co-workers to join a prayer chain for the victims. I remember that, as liberal a democrat as I am, I loved George Bush when he stood on that pile and promised to make the terrorists pay. I remember looking at all of the photos of the victims, the children and the elderly, the men and the women, the dear old fire chaplain who had rushed to the scene to help, the heroes of Flight 93, and the men and women in uniform who marched up as others came down-- and wondering whether they suffered. The victim whose picture haunted me the longest was Jennifer Kane (click for link), I guess because she was my age, and just looked like someone who might be friends with me and my friends.

I remember Erin and Kyle Kalmbach's touching wedding that weekend, where everyone was wearing ribbons, and the emotional fragility of every guest was palpable. We were relieved to celebrate something and see happiness in the world, but thoughts would linger to those who would never again see those moments. Erin and Kyle's honeymoon was cancelled because the airports were shut down.

In the weeks and months that followed, I remember sensing panic whenever a plane went by, and the many times we had to walk down 32 floors of One Market because of false bomb alerts. I remember all those who died of anthrax, and I remember being terrified of an anthrax attack, even though those fears seem silly now.

I remember that I thought about September 11 every single day for over two years. Close to three, I think.

Life has changed a lot, and it hasn't changed at all, since then. Brian and I were married nine months later, and I remember thinking of 9/11 that day, and being so thankful for each one of our family and friends. We've now been married for over four years. I'm not a baby lawyer anymore, and in some ways I don't recognize the innocence I had back then in general. Brian is no longer a student, but a surgeon. The "dot com" boom is gone, as is the vernerable San Francisco law firm where I worked that day. We own a home, and we live on the other side of the country. Our friends and families have moved on, matured, gained perspective, married, had children, and/or become very successful in their careers. We've welcomed new friends and lost loved ones. We've greeted long-lost relatives. We now have two beloved nephews we didn't have then. Thousands of lives have been lost in the "war on terror," and some aspects of it I just cannot get behind. But most days feel just like September 10, 2001. We laugh again, we make plans. We're all back on planes, and I never flinch when I hear planes or sirens anymore.

In spite of it all, we continue our daily lives, marching ever forward, and refusing to give in to the daily fear that the terrorists sought to instill in us all. And one thing that makes me proud of my country is that I know that, while we will never forget, we will never give in, never end our continuous push toward our futures. God bless you all, and God bless the families of the 2,973 who were lost that day (click for link). We will never forget them, they will always be with you, and they are looking out for all of us from above.

NOTE: In all my thoughts of 9/11 today, I forgot to add that it is both a sad and happy day in our family. It is my brother Brad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Brad! We love you dearly!

2nd NOTE: I've edited this post to include several pictures that Brian and I took on the first anniversary of 9/11, when we were in New York for the wedding of our friends Chetan and Erin Bansal. For more pictures we took of the WTC site, click here (starting halfway down the page and continuing to the next page).

Please share your own thoughts and memories in the "Comments" section below.

Blogging Maya in Uganda

Our dear friend Maya wrote us several times over the summer to tell of her time in Uganda. We are thankful that she has made it back stateside again safely. Maya is an internal medicine doctor at UCSF, and traveled to Uganda to provide medical care. Some of her e-mails were so interesting to read, we thought we share you all with some clippings from her correspondence and a couple of pictures she took (unfortunately, she didn't send any of herself!). And speaking of African travelers, we forgot to mention that our good friend Marta also visited us briefly over Labor Day Weekend. Marta (a friend since the days when she went to high school with Brian) spend a good amount of time in the Peace Corps in Africa, but is now an engineer in Phoenix! Also, Sherry's sister Jodi informs us that she, her husband Rich, and daughters will be spending Christmas in Kenya! Anyway, back to Maya:

"My pick-up in Uganda went smoothly . . . My current housemates are all off on a trip for the weekend. It didn’t matter much the first night, since I went to sleep at around 6pm and slept for 13 hours, but as the morning is turning into afternoon here on my second day, I’m getting a little stir crazy. The house is on a cycling black-out schedule as well, and I’ve been without electricity until just now."

"Just got back from a rafting trip on the Nile. I'm sore, dirty and still in my swimsuit (it's 10 at night and we started at 8:30am), but it was a great time. The British med student I met, Anna, and I went yesterday afternoon to stay at the rafters' campground on the Nile. It's an hour from Kampala. There was an overland truck stopped there as well full of Aussies and Kiwis being driven around like the African version of a European bus tour except they have to set up their own tents and have cooking duty. The bar there was blasting music until past 2am at anotherwise idyllic spot on a cliff overlooking the Nile. It was interesting to meet some new people, but i'm much less enchanted with the whole overland truck thing.

We went out rafting today with 30 people and ended up in a boat of only 4 (3 girls with chicken arms and one middle aged South African who chain smoked between rapids), and our Ugandan guide. Poor guy; he'd say paddle hard, and we'd do our best, but it wasn't the same as the neighboring rafts with, say, five guys and two girls. Needless to say, we flipped at more than half of the rapids and ended up swimming all the class 5 and some of the class 4. I only swallowed a couple gallons of water. Actually it really fun, and I managed to keep my contacts in for the whole day. The third girl on the raft had just finished her first year as a kindergarten teacher in the US and was spending a month in a village teaching preschool and a class on sex ed to 9 year olds. There was also a couple who worked at the UN, as Swiss guy who organizes UN sponsored sporting events in contentious areas to try and bring good will and a Belgian woman working on the elections in the congo. We drove home this evening with an amazing red sunset over the tea plantations. I also saw my first monkey on this trip, unfortunately he was suicidal. He actually ran into the middle of the road into the side of the car in front of us. Sad. Must go shower. I'm actually a little sunburned. Even SPF 45 can't stop the equator sun."

"My week at the government hospital was intense with really sick patients and extremely limited resources. They were constantly out of stock for simple things like gauze and important basics like pain medications. For you MDs, I saw a multiple patients with hemoglobins under 3 and one as low as 1.5. For you nonMDs, a normal hemoglobin is around 14, and when you're that anemic your blood is pink instead of red. Doesn't really seem sustainable with life. His palm was ghostly white, and you could see his heart racing through his shirt, but otherwise he was just hanging out chatting with his family.

Last weekend we got away to the border between Rwanda, Congo and Uganda to go gorilla trekking at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. I got to see a troop of 21, including two enormous silverbacks and a 6 week old baby. I was so close it was surreal. One bonked me on the head with a tree branch. The 14 hour bus ride to get there was a big part of the adventure, 3 people standing between each row of seats the entire length of the bus for hours at a time and toddlers riding patiently for the whole trip without ever apparently needing to pee. Hopefully not just a sign of severe dehydration.

I just got back today from a weekend safari at Murchison Falls, where I got my fix of elephants, giraffe, hippos (including one who was grazing our campground through the night), buffalo, baboons, many different types of antelope, and unfortunately only a trace of leopard. The waterfall is distinct because it's really narrow at the top, so the water surges over the edge then thunders into the cliffs. It was fun to think I was seeing this point where all the water of Nile passes by in such a small amount of space.

This evening we saw a Ugandan dance troupe. Besides the beautiful and VERY energetic ethnic dances, there was a ton of audience participation including one of the performers' 3 year old son who wandered out among the dancers in the middle of a performance with his drumsticks until they brought him a little drum which he beat with far better rhythm than I'll ever have. I got to get out there and shake it a little bit myself, thankfully under the cover of a large group of other audience members."

WELCOME BACK, MAYA! Thank you for doing such good in this world.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a relatively uneventful Labor Day Weekend. Brian had his first days off in six or seven weeks or so, and Sherry worked most of the weekend. However, we did have a very fun overnight visit on Saturday from our friend Karen. We had lunch on Newbury, where we ordered a bottle of wine and got a little tipsy (oops), went home and took a nap, went to dinner in the North End, went to a show, and ended up at Whiskey Park. It was good for people watching, at the very least. We also had a nice dinner at Figs in Charlestown with Abby and Courtney on Monday night.

Here's some fun news! Our friends Shannon and Steven and their darling daughter Emerson have a new blog! (Click for link.) We are so excited to read their updates! Aren't mommy and baby beautiful? We don't have any fun pictures of our own from the weekend yet, so we thought we'd steal some pretty ones from their site. :) Congratulations to little Emmie on her christening.

Also, we want to wish a very safe trip to the Williams Family, who today are moving to the other side of the globe. Good luck, David, Jenni, Verity, Annelise and Moriah (pictured right)! Their blog (click for link) tells us they've already made it to Frankfurt okay! Yippee!

(If anyone knows why vertical pics come out so much bigger than horizontal ones, please let us know. It's annoying!)