I was in a Cult?

I wanted to take yoga when I lived in South Korea and my Korean girlfriend found a yoga place not too far from my apartment. It was called Dahn Yoga and it's discipline was based on brain movement or basically a whole lotta shaking along with with killer yoga moves. My class lasted 1 1/2 every day. It is nothing like U.S. yoga and sometimes I had to limp the entire one mile walk home.




This is a picture of Grace, one of my yoga teachers with myself. Dahn Yoga also has locations here in the States and recently was sued by former members. Here is the article. There is also a CNN report on Dahn Yoga found here. I was shocked to read and hear the allegations. I had been attending Dahn Yoga in Korea for over a year and never had any problems. I paid 90,000 won ($90US) a month and paid in three month installments. Occasionally they pressed for me to take special training which occurred over a weekend and was 300,000 won ($300US). I never attended since it would be entirely in Korean and besides I wasn't THAT into yoga.

Classes would be a little different every day so we weren't doing exactly the same thing. But every day we spent 20-30 minutes lying on our backs with our feet and hands up in the air shaking. It was an incredible workout. I was never healthier than when I lived in South Korea. I think it was the food I was eating (rich in vegetables and no red meat) and Dahn Yoga. It's been hard for me to keep up this lifestyle since we returned to the States.

My instructors even gave me additional massages to help my soreness. Most of the people in my class were in their 70's and I tried to keep up with them but failed miserably. I will be watching this story to see how it plays out.

Asian Pranks with a Favorite U.S. One Thrown In

When you wake up in the morning to a temperature of -14 without windchill, you can use a laugh. These are some of my favorite and I can watch them over and over and still laugh. Enjoy!

Mr. Choi

I have a lot of amusing stories of Mr. Choi on my Korean blog. I met him at my yoga class. He was the only one in the entire place that could speak English. What was most amazing to me was that until he had met me, he hadn't spoken English in 50 years. His English was excellent! He had spent time in the U.S. being trained by our army during his military service. He couldn't believe how advanced we were compared to South Korea at the time which was 1970.

This picture he had taken of us the first week we met. After yoga we went out to lunch at a dumpling restaurant. He had the waitress take a picture so he could prove to his friends that he really did know an American. Here is one of the funny stories I have with Choi.


I received this from Choi for a Christmas present. He knows how much I love Korean culture and I loved this business card holder. He loves American jazz which I know nothing about but I've sent him some CDs. I recently sent him a Michael Buble and he really like it.

I had his cell phone with me and if I ever had a problem, he was happy to help me. I wish I had him here sometimes. We will be visiting South Korea in a few months and I'm sure I'll be hanging out with him and his lovely wife. She is one fantastic cook!

In case you wanted to know his age, he just went to his 50th high school reunion and yes, he really wanted to be my boyfriend!

Speaking of Korean men, I discovered another singer I love, Lee Ji Hoon. Poor Rocketman, next business trip to Korea will have him hunting for Lee Ji Hoon CDs. This is my favorite song at the moment:

Long Time, No See!

This picture is of Rocketman right after surgery. He had to keep his face down until we left the surgical center. He's been a trooper. We went in the following day for a post-surgical appointment with Dr. NBM(no beside manner). First a technician wanted him to read the eye chart which he responded something like, "what eye chart." That progressed to a huge letter "E" put in front of that eye which he also couldn't see. She tried holding up fingers, nada. Finally, she just waved her arm up and down. Yes, he could see something moving up and down. This is a normal response to the surgery but we didn't find that out until later in the exam and I was a little freaked. As the doctor came into the room Rocketman said, "Long time, no see." That got a laugh out of all of us because it has been since June 2009 that he has been able to see out of his right eye. If I had thought much more on it I would have cried.

A wonderful surprise was that Dr. NBM was kind and compassionate. He told us that his vision should settle down in the next month but it will take 5-6 months to gauge his final outcome. I wonder if Dr. NBM had read my blog.


This is a pile of Rocketman's books. He manages to read five or so simultaneously. It's a good reflection of his personality. His books seem to end up on the floor by our bed or in the family room. He's not sure how it happens either. I piled them up to take this picture but I'm sure they will be scattered on the floor by tonight.


I can only handle reading one book at a time and I keep the books that I haven't read yet in my night stand or on the shelf in my closet. I love books! I love the feel of holding a good book and the smell. I'll never be a "Kindle girl". I'm presently reading "Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet." It's really good and one that I picked up at Target. I can't seem to leave Target without picking up a book. My guilty pleasures are romance novels. I love them. I can just loose myself in the characters and be swept away.

My Every tine! Love For You!

This is sung by one of the stars of "Boys Over Flowers," Lee Min Ho. It was the hottest Korean drama at the time we left South Korea last April. It had two original soundtrack CDs and a third by the F4 guys from the show. Lee Min Ho was my favorite with his permed hair and cute smile. I didn't know he could sing and he sings a song called "My Everything."

But in Korea there isn't a "th" sound so he sings a "t". Every time I play it, I smile and Rocketman who has heard it countless times loves it when I say to him, "You're my every tine, love for you" just like in the song.

I remember when I was getting tutored in Korean. I lasted a month and it was grueling. My teacher would get frustrated with my Korean pronounciation so I know it would be hard to go from Korean to English. Hangul (Korean language) doesn't have an "f" so coffee is coppee.

This song right now reminds me of my Rocketman as he goes under the knife again under the diligent (being sarcastic) knife of Dr. NBM (no bedside manner). I'm sure I won't see the doctor before this surgery either because when he was having his detached retina surgery I was surprised that they were going to operate without the doctor talking to me beforehand for a little reassurance. I told the nurse I wanted to see the doctor before he lifted a scapel to Rocketman and Dr. NBM was none to pleased to have to come out and talk to me beforehand. He does seem to have a hard time hiding his true feelings.

Enjoy!



This is another song called "Sometimes" from the F4 album which shows highlights from "Boys Over Flowers."

Third Times The Charm

Rocketman's exact words. He had a follow-up visit with the doctor that performed the cataract surgery on December 30th. His sight in the detached eye (for lack of a better description) was still horrible even after cataract surgery. She was very concerned with swelling she saw in the back of his eye and told him he needed to see his retinologist ASAP. It wasn't an emergency like right this minute but it was advised to get in the next day. He came home really dazed and confused by it all.

Luckily for Rocketman, his sister-in-law (my sister) is a eye doctor so I called her immediately and had him describe exactly what the doctor said. He then gave the phone back to me and she said to call the retinologist immediately. This was serious. He had had a late in the day appointment as it was and now it was after 6 pm.

I phoned the emergency number for the retinologist and left a detailed message including that two eye doctors felt that Rocketman needed to seen the next day which was New Years Eve. He called back and talked to Rocketman and we were to be at his office by 9 the following morning but he really didn't think it was a big deal.

Before I continue the story I want to comment on this particular retinologist. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard and I'm sure a very smart man but from the first visit he has hovered between being condescending to outright insensitive. He may be very skilled at his discipline but it's clear to me that he didn't have any courses on patient treatment or he just doesn't care. He never hide his feelings about patients who are engineers which Rocketman happens to be. He dismissed and didn't care about our concerns from the moment of Rocketman's detached retina until now.

I wasn't happy when I heard we had to go back to see Dr. NBM (no bedside manner) but I went hoping at least he may have a tad of compassion for Rocketman who has not seen out of his left eye since June and his right eye has also decided to get worse for some reason. We were put in a room right away and Rocketman along with myself (I just can't keep my mouth shut when in a doctor's office) repeated everything that he was told by the cataract doctor. His eyes were dilated and we waited for Dr. NBM.

He came in and looked at Rocketman's chart. The first words out of his mouth were, "You know this COULD had waited till next week." I bit my cheeks to keep my mouth shut. He then looked in Rocketman's eye a long time and said he had scar tissue on his macula. He needed surgery to remove it. It is a serious surgery called a vitrectomy. We asked questions and he answered. I asked about travel since Rocketman is going to CHA with me in a few weeks. Dr. NBM asked where we were going and I told him LA. He then asked me why and I said that I had a craft trade show. He said flippantly, "Oh like scrapbooking and beading." I said, "Yeah, right." My blood pressure had to be pretty high by then.

He wanted Rocketman to get an I.V. die x-ray to confirm how bad the scarring was. All told we were there four hours. I did meet a lot of interesting people again. Two older guys were telling their retina stories to each other to see who's was better. Neither of them had had a retinal detachment but I kept my mouth shut. I met another older lady that was telling me how she had to be careful not to send out her bills to soon. Sometimes her social security check came after the bills hit the bank and what a mess that was. She then asked my how our Christmas was and I told her that it stunk. She asked why so I told her about the intestinal bug we had. Rocketman is still mad at me for saying anything. He thought a quick, "We had a great Christmas" would have sufficed. He should know me by now, I wasn't going to lie. He just thought I didn't need to go into the details so much.

You may wonder why we don't switch from Dr. NBM and the answer is another doctor would not want to take over at this point and so you are kinda stuck. I've been really upset about Dr. NBM because he is just a kid really, in his 30's, and I thought NBM was relegated to older doctors. I really thought training now dealt with the the clinical and mental aspects of patient care. Oh well.

So tomorrow is surgery day. I'm bringing some maedeup to do while I wait. It's a wonderful way to take your mind off your problems and time flies. It will be another six months for his eye to heal and we see results. The poor guy has been through so much already.

Messy Crafting

This was my kitchen table in December. Thankfully, Rocketman was in Asia on a business trip so he didn't see this. I have a huge craft table to work on but it is in the basement and in Minnesota that can be a cold endeavor even with a space heater. I'm not showing a picture of that table because it was covered with stuff too. Winters in South Korea were 20-30 degrees warmer than Minnesota and my blood just hasn't adjusted yet I guess. I was in the middle of preparing for my two television appearances so dinners were on the fly and since I was only feeding myself, I ate in the family room when I did eat.

I have been professionally crafting for twenty years now and I still don't understand how my 6 foot table only allows me to a work area of about 6 inches. This happens every time my creative juices go into overdrive. It's a mystery.

Right now, Rocketman is finishing up on my new craft room and I've been moving my supplies from the basement to the first floor. I couldn't believe the stuff I have. Rocketman reminded me that when we moved back home from South Korea that 100 of the 150 boxes were marked "crafts." I don't remember that or I may have blocked it out in my defense. The next step is to move it up another floor but first tables and shelves have to be moved in.