You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Personal' category.
Son, yesterday, you blew me away. You made me cry endlessly and stopped my heart cold. When I saw your face, I fell in love once again in my life. 9 months I thought about what you would look like and today, my questions have all been answered.
Around 4pm, your mom started pushing and pushing and even the doctor said that she was a great pusher. She pushed so hard that her face turned maroon but after 20 mins of intense pushing, your heart rate dropped below 40 bpm. Dr Wang said that she was going to perform an emergency C-section if that were to happen and at the drop of a hat, they wheeled your mom off to the O.R. My heart dropped in an instant but that was all second fiddle when the mad dash to the O.R. was happening.
The best way to explain it is “chaos”. I keep telling people that nurses and doctors were coming out of every door, closet, hole in order to get to the O.R. As I chased your mom down the halls, Grandma and Grandpa Choi finally ended up finding your mom and I but under very stressful and frightening conditions. To add to the pressure, they were escorting your grandparents to the waiting room. Another nurse starts prepping me but by the time I get to the entrance of the O.R., they tell me to hold on for just a minute. I stood there while thoughts of every worse case scenario came into my mind. By the time they let me in, they had already pulled you out and I heard your voice for the first time. You made me tear up in an instant. “Congratulations! It’s a boy” they all shouted! When they heard that I didn’t know your sex, they all took a moment to say how amazing that was and how that is how things should be.
I finally made my way into the O.R. and the moment I did, they handed me a pair of surgical scissors to cut your umbilical cord and then I saw your face. I cannot recall what I thought the moment I saw you cause I had mixed emotions about your mom’s surgery. I could not see her or hear her and the thought that she was not there in your very first moments, well it made me very sad. Of course, I didn’t have my camera on me as I got lost in the shuffle. As funny as it sounds, the only camera I had on me was my iPhone and well, that was gonna have to be good enough. So I must have taken about 50 photos in just a few minutes before I had the opportunity to give you a kiss. After pissing on the nurse, getting I.D. tags, diapers and being weighed, I was able to finally take you to the recovery room where your mom was going to moved to.
After what seemed like an hour, your mom was wheeled in and I was able to see all the pain she was in. I have never seen your mom in that much pain, she is usually a trooper when it comes to pain and it tore me up inside. In all her agonizing pain, I knew the one thing that would counter the hurt was to see, hear and feel you and to me, this photo is worthy of the one picture to represent your first day. To your mom and all the mom’s out there, you have my continued respect and thank you for doing what you do. Men would definitely crumble if we had to do anything near that. Thank you to all the doctors and nurses at Kaiser for your talent and skill and most of all, your love. It really shined through and thank you to my wife, you will never know how much I love you. Happy birthday my son!
To follow this blog, go to CalvinGreyChoi
I am not a huge fan of landscapes but last month, I had the pleasure of having JPG Magazine publish my image, “Where the two colors meet”. I submitted it under the Night Time theme.
I was given some money and a year of free subscription on top.
I will keep submitting until I can get my portrait work up and exposed.
Here is the image below and you can click on the link below to view the virtual magazine. I’m on page 63.
http://www.jpgmag.com/issues/19/full
Tiny Bella Photography
Children & Wedding Photography
http://www.tinybella.com
email: contact@tinybella.com
Toll Free: 888-687-6832
My beautiful wife turns 29 today (Yes, she does look 20) and getting closer to that big 3-0 seems so strange.
On a last minute note, I call just a handful of people to meet up at a place called the “Pantry Cafe” (http://www.pantrycafe.com) in downtown off of S Figueroa by the Staples Center. People have been talking about this old town LA restaurant and how great their food is. We have passed by on one occasion on a Sunday morning and the line was very Very long. So we figured the “hype” must be true (although we all know that 90% of things hyped is just that: hype). All these people in LA cant be wrong, right?
Well, we all know that the day was hot! Over 109 in the Valley! At 9pm in downtown, it was probably a “cool” 92 degrees. Since half of the people coming were running late (Alice, Paula, Methuse and I) decided to take a walk down 9th St. Took some photos and drooled over the new lofts getting built.
Now, we know LA is in interesting place but people had their eyes on us like we were from Mars (Granted we looked like a bunch of tourist but everyone on the streets looked like tourist). So when that got old, we started to head back to the restaurant to meet everyone else.
When we got inside, it looked exactly like what I’d expect an old restaurant in LA to look like. We went over the menu and two people ordered the Rotisserie Chicken, Fried Chicken Steak Dinner, Pancakes, French Toast and Philly Cheesesteak for me.
Let’s just say that the first group that got their chicken dinners looked like eating a bowl of dog food off the streets of downtown LA looked more appetizing than their meals. Gail tried really really hard and it truly was a good effort but we knew that it was humanly impossible to eat more than a bite of it. Alice said that the next day she was still mad about the food. Paula just squinted her eyes (that’s a really bad sign).
The second group (breakfast and sandwich) weren’t that happy either. The pancakes were eh, the french toast was ok and the Philly was alright… and that’s a stretch. How is it possible that people can talk about a place like this as if this was the Mecca of breakfast food in downtown?
(yes that face on Cathy was the exact same face we all had at the end of our dinner service)
Anyways, here is a big thumbs down to you “The Original Pantry” and to all those who speak of its “glory”.
Recent Comments