Funny pic my wife sent me today...

Thank for this one, babe. Heheh, but to tell you the truth, I would be more like the female path rather than the male path. I think you would be the male path!! =)

To My Dearest Mona

On Oct 23rd, Thursday around 8am, we lost our dearest youngest female cat, MONA. She is this cutest little thing. We got her as our third cat from a friend whose cats gave birth to 6kittens last year.
In the beginning, I didn't really want to have a third, because when we got the 2nd, Snowball, our eldest Muffin was so upset and depressed and got really fataly sick, he refused to eat and drink for a whole month. We had to spend day and night with Muffin and injected salted water to his body every ten minute to keep him alive.
So I wasn't very warmed up to Mona the first several weeks. But she was just so friendly around me and had to stay right next me every second of her awake moment. One day she started massaging my belly. That was IT! From that moment on, I started loving her the same amount, even more because she is the only girl in the house but me.
She really likes hanging on the balcony, stretching all out and let me rub her. She likes being pamperd by me and her older brothers. She can never stay by herself.
She loves Snowball, but Snowball always locked her in and beat her up, and every time when I looked at them, Snowball would look around pretending he wasn't doing anything, Mona would look so innocent and I had to take her out of Snowball's paws.

It took me quite a few days to stop crying just the thought of Mona. I wrapped her with my towels and sent her for cremation. I believe she is always around us and I want her around.

Dear Mona, mom is thinking of you everyday and wish you happy in the place you are in now. I will always cherish all the moments between us and keep you in my heart forever....

I LOVE YOU MONA!

VISA

Congrats on your visa, Zoe!! We'll be home very soon! You are the best and I love you!

10 Things I Love About You ---V

My fault that the list hasn't been finished before the anniversary. Last week was just hectic, meetings after meetings. so today I will list all the rest things I Love about you:-p in my next post.

Firstly, I want to say " Amazing Anniversary!" It was so unique and really once a life chance to spend in a Monastery!
We left early Saturday morning and met up with our tour mates; 4 couples, two families also brought their young kids and two singles as well. It took us a very breezy two and a half hours to get to such a peaceful and tranquil monastery.
Right away we were invited to have our very first meal there. Since all monks already got lunch at 10:30, we were all by ourselves. The food was just beyong words , even though all veggies, they managed to make them so tasty.

Well since too many things happened during the weekend, I am just highlighting some here. We played basketball with the monks, 6 vs 6 in half a court in front of a pagoda! Imagine how crowded that was. Surreal!

We went to sleep by 8pm and all got up at 4am Sunday. Some went to hit the bell for the Monastery first and then gathered for chanting and walking and praying for an hour. Still dark outside.......breakfast with all monks at 5:30, yummy...........

to be continued

10 Things I Love About You ---IV

4 more days to our Anniversary! Remind me of last year:
you arranged a very romantic dinner at TMSK ( quite a fancy restaurant with traditional Chinese musical instruments performance) , in order to get to restaurant on time, you wore the suit to office in the morning, though you normally just wore tank top and flip flop there. You just told me to get dressed up nicely. I was really surprised by the time you got home in suit and took me all the way to that restaurant. The food and wine was amazingly good, let along the modern performance with historical instruments. Very memorable and romantic! Thanks!

I am sure this anniversary will be as memorable and special as well.

Well No 7 thing I love about you: Patience
I thought I was a patient person till I met you. Remember when Muffin caught the fatal disease. He refused to eat and drink anything for a whole Month! Our friend/vet gave up after the first two weeks with all kinds of treatment and gave Muffin loads toys to play for his last days. But you still patiently injecting rice water for him again and again in case he got dehydrated. Muffin had to receive IV everyday at 5am and many rounds a day till 2 or 3am. You would take the morning and late night shifts by holding his little paw and just sat with him going through these motionless time. Miracle was Muffin survived!!! even though he would never grow bigger. Our vet was so moved and shocked by this and even wrote a book about how Muffin survived!

Remember one weekend I brought home my clients' 6 year old girl for sleep over. To put her to sleep, you were telling her ( and me) bedtime stories, I can't forget the little girl got so excited by the way you were telling the story that she asked zillions of questions, I fell asleep by the 10th question, ........zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZ

PS I LOVE YOU

10 Things I Love About You ---III

Well haven't really thanked honey for setting up this marriage blog. it just hit me that we as a married couple shares a blog to tell each other and others about our daily (love) stories. How sweet is that!
Our Anniversary is this coming Sat, Oct 18th. To be honest, in the beginning we were quite unclear what to do and where to go, since recently we are in our saving mode and just spent a fortune on a very luxurious trip to beach.... then, my friend who I worked some projects for her company asked me to take a travelling tour for her. (I used to travel massively in the backpacking style, so I have been asked frequently by travelling agencies to take their tours or create new routes for them.)
Anyway, this one is super cool. Because we are going to stay in a Monastery for two days! We are going to get up early ( at 5am) to chant and have noble silence at night and eat all veggies....... the killing part is Morgan and I can't stay in the same room. He and other boys are going to stay with the monks.....I know honey you are very sad now....since we have never been apart.
Just the thought of some peace and tranquility from the crazily fast pace working zone here, we can't help smiling.... a bit hiking as well. We both know it is going to be a very different and unique Anniversary.
Now back to the count down list: No 8
the ability to admit not knowing and learn hard
It is not easy for a man to admit not very good at something or simply not knowing about it. You do it very well. I know it is very hard to deal with every single game lost, ( I am the game queen, haha) such as 24, chess, tittac, scrabble, guitar hero,so on and so forth.:-p but you will never give up and say" nah this game is dumb". You are not. You will keep asking me to play with you again and again untill the gap is shrinking:-p

Also about finance. I really admire you courage nowadays to read and watch finacing news everyday and discuss with me or others. You show me how much you can absorb and how fast learner you are! I am very proud of you!

You are never ashamed to admit " yeah, this is not my strengh" and then you will work hard on that area to improve your knowledge and skills. Way to go, Honey.
PS I LOVE YOU

10 Things I Love About You ---II

Finally got chance to get back here to continue my list. Just read what Morgan wrote about the winter. It is crazy that we talk like a Storm a day and spend pretty all the time off-office with each other for the last two years, and still have more to write and are surprised to read each other's articles.
Well, as Morgan said, I am such a Cali Queen. As long as winter comes, I fly out to beach! The temperature fluctuated badly here, so as usual, my body welcomes the cold/chilly weather with sore throat, dry lips and headaches.....not very myself now. On top of that, our cutest eldest cat Muffin also can't handle the chilliness and starts looking quietly sad and depressed. Morgan was so concerned of him and took out our Winter power HEATER to warm Muffin up!Don't want to see our power bill for this month.
Luckily Muffin and I now are feeling slightly better. I can function well to write and he can sit right next to my laptop.

Now lets move on with our list---No 9:

Humor: the humor you have is not those black one like the Office type ( you know what I m saying). It is more straightforward with some dramatically body languages. I am already laughing now with some of those pictures in my mind.

stretching your right leg on the escalator
doing those ballerina dancing movements
different catwalking styles
help Muffin lift up "weights" ( spoons)
singing Stealing my Ayi Food with golddigger tunes
...............................................my wrist will get very tired if I keep writing out and I can't help laughing now, so.....

PS. I LOVE YOU

Winter Arrival, What To Do?

It's Fall now, but as Winter approaches and the weather gets much cooler, going out to do things becomes less appealing. And Zoe is not a winter person. Sometimes, she insists on not wearing a winter jacket because it feels "too heavy on her." (She belongs in Cali... Seriously, a Cali queen.). More importantly, finding things to do in the Winter can be a pain. You are a bit limited, and a lot of people get bit by the winter bug, depression, coldness in your soul, freezing air - all the crappy stuff.

So what to do when winter arrives?

Luckily, we live in the big city of Shanghai, so there are a lot of things to do. Here's 10 things Zoe and I have done when the weather wasn't so hot (literally and emotionally).

1. Stay home and watch DVD's - China is great because you can get DVD's for 5 kuai each. (That's about a dollar, and it will be a dollar soon if the currency rate keeps going the way it's going...). You can get a whole season of "Everybody Hates Chris", some peanuts, tea, some candles lit around the house and you got yourself a night (or day). Insulation isn't very strong (still!) in China, so get an electric heater, a fleece blanket and snuggle up with your honey.

2. Art Exhibits - Art exhibits are inside, and it makes you feel like you have a bit of taste in your life even with the gey winter skies lurking over our heads (or it might make you look and feel pretentious... Perfect for Shanghai!), but nothing says romantic than the two of you guessing what the artist felt and though when he or she created this work of art. This may lead to painting at home, something I think I suck at - and if we had more space and no accident prone cats at the apartment, we could start painting. But to get back to the topic, it's a cool place to go for culture and stimulate that right side of your brain with your loved one. (and they might have free wine and cheese there. Pretentiousness is the bomb!).

3. Vacation and get the heck out of dodge! - If you have money and time, this is the way to go. Zoe and I took a trip to Sanya during Chinese New Year (CNY for short) and although the weather could have been better (it rained a bit in Sanya), we escaped a major snowstorm, so we were blessed. Also, it was cool eating barbecued fish by the beach with a nice big bottle of Qingdao (Tsingdao) at an outside wooden patio during the "winter". Very memorable. If you are in China, you can always get great packages for two on Ctrip.com. They have packages in Chinese and in English. I like the thought of wearing swimming trunks and flip-flops in the middle of January. hehe

4. Hit the gym together - what does spinning, body pump and treadmill all have in common? They raise your heart rate, thus raising your overall body temperature. We already go on our own about 3-4 times a week. I generally do different things like lifting free weights (aka the testosterone zone), while Zoe might go for bellydance classes (I don't do belly dance), but every now and then, Zoe and I will find those classes that work for the both of us that we can both enjoy, especially during the winter. Also, it's those Winter months that are key in getting that beach body you want for the Summer, packing on Winter pounds are hard to get rid of!

5. Anyone up for some karaoke??? - One of the best things to do in China is to sing karaoke. Some folks are reading this and thinking, karaoke means singing in front of a bunch of people you don't know at an open karaoke bar. No. You can get your own room. Some folks might read this and think if you book a room for karaoke, you have to invite an army of folks to sing with you. No. You can book rooms for just two people, and that's our kind of room. "The Mini Room." We sing all the duets, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ni Zui Zhen Gui", even "Upgrade U", and no one else is in the room to tell you the both of you guys sound so... mushy (or bad). Zoe has a really good voice and I... well... I get an A, in effort, especially if there's a nice fruit plate for us to dig into for energy.
I'll just list these five for now, I have at least 95 more, but these are some of the ones I like the most that come to mind. Activites are good!!

10 Things I Love About You---count down

This month is our 2 years' Anniversary! Time really flies when having fun! We have had an amazing time in the last two years. We have been knowing each other more and more, better and better, which makes our marriage stronger and stronger.

This year, more and more people, we know or we don't, have said we look alike..... last year, I thought that was just a joke people were pulling around newlyweds, now I truly believe what others are seeing in us. They see comfortable, easy, supportive and happy relationship through our increasinly alike body languages and features.... crazy....

From tonight on till our Anniversary day, I will write down ten things I really love about you. They are all equally significant to me.

No 10: All the suprises you have given me! Remember in 2006, you took me to a super cozy lounge bar and the second when we sat down, you pulled out of your jacket a beautiful lily like a magician.... I still can't believe how you did it, the whole time we were together.....no way you got that long branch in your jacket!

I told you I liked the movie Hitch and the next day, you got me a CD for Hitch!

For the last anniversay, you made me a mixed CD. That was just unreal. You carefully arranged all of our pictures and put them under different categories with all kinds of music we love and have shared during those special moments.....

Coming to my work place or back home in the middle of a weekday to see me...

you know I loved the magazines OK and Self, you always beat me by buying them and bringing to me first... ( though I don't read them any more)

you brought me the stuffed bear from coffee bean.

you surprised me with the set of glass sea animals, the dolphine, penguin and whale..

the beautiful necklace with a colorful sun flower charm you gave me

this list can go on and on and on....

you bring happy surprises to me daily, like today a nice silk handbag:-p

I really love the thoughts behind all of these surprises!

PS I Love You

Fen Dou, 奋斗

There's a hot catch phrase that's buzzing around China, the world is "fen dou"(奋斗）. It means to work hard to have a better life. It refers to something people do in their twenties when they work so hard to live a better life. Almost like how the Japanese say "ganbatte". (Yeah, I have a thing for Asian languages...)

Today I was told that I married relatively young (March, 2007 - I was 24, Zoe was 25... I love older women.). That might be true in certain circles. But you know, there was a time in China where people were getting married at 14. Jeez.

Anyway, I figured that the live Zoe and I are living is a "fen dou" lifestyle, but I don't think we could do what we are doing at the age of 30. I promise. I don't think we would mesh as well. Period. Here's an example.

These days I've been filing out tax forms, working on visa packets and loans for my college (you don't want to know the number), with all of this, America's economy is currently 'screwed', and I'm far away from home, particularly, Dad and Mom. I have a bit of baggage, but I'm lucky enough to maintain a positive attitude, but there are times where I just break down.

Zoe, as mature as she is, helps me up. Sometimes, I feel bad and ask why she does this, and she tells me, "I am your wife." That's really not easy to do, but she does it and I am lucky. If this was years later and life was like this, it would be a pain in the butt for us to get to know each other. At least we are young, yet mature enough and have the energy to tackle life's obstacles and grow together with it. All of this is for a better future.

And I'm all about a better future.

So here's to all those young fiancees making their plans to walk down that aisle and those married couples out there... Keep 'Fen Dou-ing'!!

Our Story

I think I've finally figured out how to use this thing. Now I got some separate accounts going on, so this is way more convenient for me.

Anyway, one of the most intersting things about Zoe and I is abotu how we met. It's so good, it's even been in the paper.

Back in '06, I wrote hip-hop for a blog called Shanghaiist and attended a mixer at a place called Senses. (it's closed now, but now it some new bar... this happens all the time in China.) Zoe was there with some friends. I saw her there, but she paid no attention to me. To this day, she tells me I wasn't much to look at at the time. it's ok, I was in my gym clothes.

So we were all getting ready to leave Senses and everyone (it was Zoe, myself and all our mutual friends) was telling each other our addresses so we can see who lives near each other and so on so we can take the same cabs back and save money. Zoe recites her address in English and I recite mine in Chinese.

Low and behold, we live on the same cross streets, in the same apartment complex, in the same building and we've never met!

After that day we bumped into each other more and more. Had a date at Big Bamboo, Sasha's and this Turkish place by Hengshan Road. She got sick once, I took good care of her, we got to know each other better, and next thing you know, we got together. Serendipity.

Today is Septemebr 21st and it's two years from around that time that we met and in about three weeks, it will be about two years from when we started officially going out. It's been a great journey, but this is the begining of a new chapter. More to come!

First Post!!!

Wow, this is our blog's first post. Holy Cow!

This is Morgan of Morgan and Zoe (See the pic on the left. I'm the foot massager.). I'm from Brooklyn, NY, Zoe's from Shanghai, China (ever heard of the 2010 World Expo?) . We've been married since March of '07 and we're still going strong.

These days, we've been working on getting Zoe an immigrant visa to the states, which is going well. Preparing all the papers is a pain, but if you want to know more about that, just ask me. Soon we'll be home and that's all that matters (even with all the ecomonic and financial mishaps of the states... Lehaman Brothers??? Closed? C'mon!!!)

Anyway, here are a few pics of us. We were in Sanya on Hainan Island recently and we loved it. We're looking forward to our next vacation, but everyday is always a new and great journey with Zoe. Love you babe. More to come!