Magic Number 23

23 has been one of my favorite numbers. It keeps showing up in my personal life.

Birthdays
I was born on October 13, or 10/13, and of course 10+13=23. Then I discovered that a number of my closest childhood friends also had number 23 in their birthdays. For example, the two best friends from junior high school were born on February 3 (2/3: 23) and February 25 (2/25: 25-2=23). Then my best buddy in senior high school was born on May 28 (5/28: 28-5=23). If fact, I joked with him that had he born a day later on May 29, there would be still 23 in his birthday: 5/29: 529=23 squared!

The pattern began to fall apart later on. The friends I mentioned above were all from China. After my family moved to America, my new friends, using similar simple mathematics, would have something like 24 or 21 in their birthdays. Close, but not quite 23 anymore.

Running
The first time that 23 came into my life of running was during my junior high years. Around every New Year the school would hold long-distance running competition, and everyone had to participate. My grade had 92 boys (note 92=23*4), and during the first of such competition, I came in almost dead last. The winter after that I began to practice long-distance running, and the next year I came in 23rd, an impressive feat considering I suffered diarrhea the day before the competition.

But the number truly showed up many years later, when I picked up running again in 2003 & 2004. I joined a running club to train for marathon, and in the process I ran four races, including two half-marathons, one 10K, and one leg of a marathon relay. Here are two pictures. On the left were the T-shirts I received, and on the right were the pin numbers I saved from the races. There were 23's all over!


Wait, you may say, there is no 23 in 5321. Well, use a little bit of imagination and read it in reverse: 1235. Not only there would be 23 right at the middle, 12 and 35 have a difference of 23.

(This is an indirect update that I am helping my parents to pack up stuff before moving. The T-shirts and the race numbers - yes, I will keep them for a while.)

Near Misses

I take pride in being punctual, and my definition of being punctual is not just being not late, but also not early. :-) The last few days, however, I probably held on to that definition a bit too extremely, as I seemed to apply it to catching airplanes - three times.

Act 1: Oakland Airport. Saturday morning. 7:30 AM flight to Burbank, California. Decided to take BART. 5:45, left Berkeley house (15 minutes later than planned). Ran half of the way. 6:00, reached North Berkeley BART station. 6:05, the earliest train of the morning arrived. 6:32, arrived at Coliseum/Oakland Airport station. 6:40, AirBART shuttle bus left BART station. 6:55, shuttle bus arrived at Oakland airport. 7:05, printed out boarding pass for Southwest flight. The security line at Terminal 2 looked very long. Fast walked to Terminal 1 (for other airlines). 7:15, passed security check point in Terminal 1. Fast walked toward Terminal 2. Saw the long line at Terminal 1 and smiled. 7:25, got on airplane. 7:35, airplane took off.

Act 2: Burbank Airport. Sunday morning. 10:15 AM flight to Salt Lake City. After breakfast at friends' house, got in their car at 9:10. Moderate traffic. Pr*yed with friends (husband and wife) while on the highway. 9:45, arrived at Burbank airport. 9:50, got in the security line, which was long and moving slowly. 10:00, heard my name being called in the PA system. 10:05, heard again "final boarding announcement" for my flight. Finally talked to people in front. "Go ahead!" they urged, "If your name is called, it's no time to be waiting around! You've got to push your way through!" Blushed and got to the front of the line. 10:10, got through security check point. Without putting my belt back on, began to RUN. 10:14, arrived at the gate. Jumped on the airplane. Door closed behind me.

Act 3: Salt Lake City Airport. Tuesday afternoon. 4:40 PM flight to Oakland. 3:00, finished a meeting at customer office. Said goodbye to everyone. 3:05, while I was packing, a critical issue came up. 3:15, sent out an email to delegate the issue. 3:20, finally left customer office building. 3:32, filled up gas tank for the rental car. 3:38, hit into heavy traffic on a local road when a friend called. 3:43, finally got on freeway. 3:50, changed lane into Highway I-80, thinking that I should be near the airport in 5 minutes. 3:55, realized that I had gone the wrong direction! I should have waited for I-80 West sign; instead I merged into I-80 East! Almost gave up at that point, thinking ways of getting on a later flight or even spending an extra night here. 3:58, finally got off the freeway and turned back. A very long red light. 4:02, finally got back on freeway. Going 80 mph on Highway 80 (that's the speed limit sign, right?) 4:10, airport in sight. 4:15, returned rental car, asking, "My flight is 25 minutes away. Do you think that I have a chance?" "You might! Can't guarantee it." 4:20, Rushed into security line. Relatively short line. 4:25, passed security check point. Put belt back on. Fast walked to gate, as boarding just started. 4:30, got on airplane with 10 minutes to spare. Pleeenty of time!

Visiting L. A.

I don't remember when was the last time that I went to L.A., or why I went, probably because weblog was not invented yet. This most recent visit over the weekend turned out to be quite memerable.

I went to visit a couple who were teammates of mine in Shenzhen for two years, and it was such a thrill to see them again. Their 10-month-old daughter had not joined the family when they left Shenzhen, which reminded me that they had come back to America for almost a year. How time flies! I flew in Burbank airport early Saturday morning, and I spent the rest of the day with them as they would spend a typical Saturday, including to take their baby to the swimming pool and tour around the husband's current office at World Vision. It was relaxed and fun.

One of the highlights was to participate in a Mandarin learning class at their church in the afternoon, and the students were all Cantonese speakers. With a heart to serve in China one way or another, they were eager to improve their Mandarin. I know first-hand, by observing my own parents, how challenging it is for native Cantonese speakers to make adjustments when speaking Mandarin, yet their enthusiasm moved me. I was given the opportunity to share with them about learning Mandarin, which turned out to be a listening lesson for them too. :-)

Then we got some visitors for dinner and afterwards. One went on the same English teaching trip with me last autumn, while another couple, whom I have missed, left China about two years ago (they were in a different city). We had a lot to catch up with each other, but soon we kept bringing up fond memories of China. Just by hearing them, I knew that these two couples were not done with China yet. We are going through different seasons.

*** Reposting Note ***

The following eight entries were all originally posted on my Xanga site from the end of April, when I returned to the Bay Area for a lengthy home visit, to present (June, 2007). There were more entries on the Xanga site, while these few were the most representative of my encounters and thoughts of my current trip. I repost them here in preparation to move my blogging activities to Blogger.com.

Christy (Repost)

(Originally posted on Xanga on Wednesday, June 20, 2007)

This is probably the first time that I use a person's name as an entry's title, not to mention it's a girl's name! Yes, if you know me and care about me, you really want to pay attention. I think I fell in love with this young woman. ;-)

Have you ever read Catherine Marshall's novel Christy or watched the TV series based on the book? Yes, that's the Christy I am talking about. :-)) More than the inspiring young lady who is the leading character, I truly fell in love with the story. I am currently going through the DVD set for the TV series that was aired in 1994, and one big reason that I was so captured was that somewhat I could relate to the story. That sounds a bit odd, because the story was about a 19-year-old girl pursuing a career in teaching at a remote and poor region in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. While it's true that I've been to remote and poor places - and teaching English on some of those trips, no less - I can honestly tell you that teaching is not exactly a career that I am pursuing. But if you ever want to grasp what it is like to do missions work, or more precisely, to reach out to people with pride and hardened hearts - not by preaching to them, but by building relationships through meeting their real needs and speaking their heart language - while overcoming your own weaknesses in a harsh environment, you want to read the story of Christy (and, of course, other characters in the story).

I just reached the half point of the DVD set. In the episode that I just finished, Christy's father, while visiting her, suffered a stroke. There was a great need for Christy to return home with her parents in order to take care of her father, but the place needed her, as the people were facing a very difficult winter coming up. Christy was torn. Eventually, as the story went, her father got much better and there was no immediate need for Christy to leave the place. For those of you who know me and care about me, now you see another reason why I am drawn to the story.

But I know a few people who would be drawn to the story too. In fact, the story of Christy may be more dear to them than to me. I personally know a few sisters who are now in a faraway place, working also with "mountain people." They too left their family and friends, they too have had many obstacles to overcome, and most of all, they too have experienced time and again the grace of G*d. They are the real life Christies.

This is what I am going to do. As a matter of fact, in more than a month's time, I will have an opportunity to visit them. When I finish watching this DVD set, I will wrap it up, and I will take it to that faraway place as a present. (Yes, they do have DVD players and computers over there. It is, after all, almost 100 years after Christy's time.)