What We've Been Up to...

First of all, let me say that Hee Jeong is just wonderful. Seriously. At the risk of embarrassing her, she is truly a great woman who proves time and time again how patient and loving she is despite difficulty and adversity in both her life and in our combined lives. Here is the long and short of it.

Recently my father has been less than healthy, so it has fallen to me to do what I can to help him. In other words, I have begun to take over some of his weekend work which involves taking pictures of buildings which are later published in either a paper brochure or online. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but I don't really ask a lot of questions either. The work can be extremely tedious and not without frustration, as I have discovered. I have a whole new level of respect for my Dad and the work that he does and the speed with which he is able to do it (for the record, I am considerably slower than he is when it comes to getting around).

So, what does this have to do with my wonderful fiance?

Put simply, she not only volunteered to help me, but became nearly indispensable on travels. She serves as navigator and morale officer, keeping my spirits up when I would just as soon turn around and go home.

I won't lie. There have been several times in which I lost my temper and became very upset, not with her, but with the frustration of the job, and I took that out on her. This is very troubling to me since she openly volunteered to assist me when most people would have just said "good luck with that," and send me on my way.

The worst part of shooting photos (aside from having to travel to some unsavory places in the Los Angeles area) is the fact that we aren't able to spend out time together in a quality sense. Despite the fact that we are together, we aren't able to do anything enjoyable. Since she works during the week, the added work on the weekends leaves her completely drained, and I certainly feel bad when I complain to her about it. Whereas before we were able to go out to malls or see movies or simply stay in and do puzzles, we now sit in a car for the better part of the day hoping that we are able to snap off a couple of quick photos and move onto the next stop.

We were able to finish earlier than usual a couple of weeks back, and we spent that time exploring the outlets in Camarillo. Not a bad experience, but we were both rather disappointed with the prices, which we had thought would be lower, and that some of our favorite stores were missing.

Recently, the highlight of our weekend has been kicking back after a long day with a couple of Coronas (complete with limes!) and watching movies on her laptop.

Last weekend, however, all of this extra work, coupled with her already stressful life, finally caught up to her, and Hee Jeong was sidelined for the weekend. I certainly don't begrudge her the time off. Rather, I was quite happy that she was able to take the time to rest. To be honest, I feel a bit guilty taking her time every weekend. I don't know how I will ever be able to repay her selflessness and willingness to help both me and my family through this troubled time.

Isn't she cute?

I know that I don't say it nearly often often enough but, 감사하다, 우리 희정이. 참 사랑하다. And I wish I was studying Korean harder so that I could say something more romantic.