{"id":7218,"date":"2026-10-27T01:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:10:30","slug":"reunions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2026\/10\/27\/reunions\/","title":{"rendered":"Reunions"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks have given me ample opportunities to reconnect with old friends, family, and colleagues. Last month, Melody brought us along to her high school reunion<\/a> in Stockton, where we shared pasta and memories before cruising down the San Joaquin River on her friend Darin’s boat. We returned home in time for my red-eye to NYC for an RPB<\/a> Ad Hoc meeting. Arriving one day early gave me a chance to catch up with my parents over breakfast at Miss Korea BBQ<\/a>, with Ed and Jing at Hole in the Wall<\/a>, and with Wei at Gramercy Tavern<\/a>. Unfortunately, I developed laryngitis upon my return, which wiped me out for the next two weeks. Melody was out of town to care for her friend, but I managed to install new garage shop lights<\/a>, practice ping pong with Westley, and scour Goodwill<\/a> for a ronin costume inspired by Ghost of Yotei<\/a>. I still had a cough at the Retina Society<\/a> meeting in LA, and was fortunate to have Parisa cover my moderator role while I isolated myself with Sun Nong Dan’s<\/a>\u00a0sulung tang and Mian’s<\/a> beef noodle soup. I was feeling much better by the time I arrived in New Orleans for AAO<\/a>, where I enjoyed Mothers’<\/a> po-boy and etouffee before checking into the hotel<\/a> and conference<\/a>, and dining<\/a> with Phoebe and Kathryn. I gave my OCT course and sub-day talk on Saturday in between consulting<\/a>, fried chicken<\/a>, and alumni<\/a> receptions<\/a>, then spent the last day teaching for IJCAHPO<\/a> and joining the National Fried Chicken Festival<\/a>, where I sampled past award winners from Bonafried<\/a>, Southern’s<\/a>, and Sun Chong<\/a>. Frustratingly, I returned home with more cold symptoms just as Melody was heading off again for another conference. I spent the weekend with Westley slurping noodles, crafting his katana, and checking out Pioneer’s fall festival<\/a>. Last weekend, I returned to NYC for my high school reunion<\/a> and my parents’ cataract surgeries. Arriving from my red-eye, I squeezed in my Global Entry<\/a> interview before taking the AirTrain<\/a> and subway to Chinatown for congee and rice rolls at Yin Ji Chang Fen<\/a> before dim sum<\/a> with Pornchai, Byron, and Linda. We arrived at Stuy<\/a> afterwards to join student-led tours for the all-class reunion<\/a> where we found few changes to the building after 3 decades save a robotics lab, hydroponics room, and manga in the library. We queued up for Stuy merch, then reconnected with Igor, Ilya, Sara, and Helen in the cafeteria and met Theresa for coffee<\/a> on the way to our 30Y reunion<\/a> at the Electric Room<\/a> to catch up with Hoi Ning, Jennifer, Grace, Julie, Yishan, Itai, and Quinn. The club music made it difficult to hear each other, but I was touched by all the folks who showed up because I had reached out. I spent Sunday accompanying my parents to their post-op visit, then shared fish maw rice noodles at Ji Bei Chuan<\/a>,\u00a0warm egg tarts from Xin Fa Bakery<\/a>, and coconut mochi from Golden Steamer<\/a>, followed by delicious eel claypot rice and lobster noodles from Super Rice<\/a> for dinner. We reminisced about our life in Hong Kong before I hopped onto my flight home. Having spent the month alternating with Melody as single parents, we are ready to share some family time for the holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks have given me ample opportunities to reconnect with old friends, family, and colleagues. Last month, Melody brought us along to her high school reunion in Stockton, where we shared pasta and memories before cruising down the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7218"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7270,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions\/7270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}