Hi, I'm Lilian! Here Are 5 Things You Should Know About Me.

I love chicken wings, and I will ration them.
Ever since I was a little kid, I loved eating, and I pretty much ate everything. My absolute favorite food in the world, as a kid, were chicken wings. My mom made these amazing soy sauce chicken wings, and once they hit the table, I made sure to count how many were in the dish (dinner was usually served family style). Then, I would count how many people were sitting around the table, and after doing some mental math, I would announce to everyone how many chicken wings they were allowed to eat that night. What if it was an odd number, you ask? Well, of course, I got the rounded up number!
Nowadays, I don’t ration chicken wings to my family and friends, but I still love to eat. My list of favorite foods have expanded (to which I have many in the Seattle area so let me know if you ever need a recommendation), and I’m not afraid of trying new foods either (probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten was a fried scorpion in China - I’ll tell you that story another day).
I’m a slow reader, except when a book catches my attention.
I didn’t read many books as a kid. Of course, in school, I’ll finish all the required reading that was necessary, but not without dragging my feet and procrastinating until the last minute.
Then, the Harry Potter series came out. All my friends started reading it, and I was curious. And I was hooked. It was like I had a superpower; I could finish each book in a couple days. Nothing else existed in the world (“Don’t bother me! I know we’re road tripping through Canada, but I need to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!”).
Today, I read more personal development and business-related books than fiction, although I am trying to expand my horizon by being part of a book club my friend started. The last book I read was Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to change their mindset, fight their fears by jumping head first into action, and show their unique gifts to the world.
Dogs and cats love to cuddle with me, but I’m allergic.
My older brother likes to remind me, from time to time, that he grew up with a pup, but I didn’t. Thus, the allergy. And it’s really the most annoying allergy ever because dogs and cats are so cute and cuddly (so it really doesn’t stop me from petting them)! My theory is that they have a sixth sense that helps them detect which humans are allergic. And those are the humans they decide to love even more (we could be in a room full of people, and they will come sit right on my lap).
Currently, the same, animal-loving brother has three cats and a dog, and I will start having a runny nose and bloodshot eyes within 20 minutes of walking into his house. It’s really quite the curse, but perhaps I will get allergy shots one day and finally get a Shiba Inu like I’ve been dreaming of. Either that or a Samoyed - are those really hypoallergenic? Let me know.
Coffee makes my heart literally skip a beat.
When I was in my senior year of undergraduate at UW, I picked up drinking coffee. But this was like, a ton of half & half with four packets of sugar kind of coffee. Over time, I did wind it down to one packet of sugar, but the coffee was necessary when I had 7:30am classes during my Master of Professional Accounting program (I didn’t use to be a morning person).
During my first year of work as a Tax Associate, I kept drinking coffee but noticed a change. Ten minutes after taking a sip of my coffee, I started getting heart palpitations. I felt jittery, and frankly, it felt like I was having a heart attack. It didn’t want to feel horrible anymore so I had to quit coffee.
I seamlessly converted into a tea drinker, but it’s the same as that annoying pet allergy: I loved the smell and taste of coffee. Once in a while, I would test whether I could drink coffee again. Within the last year, I’ve been drinking cold brew and drip coffee (with no added milk and sugar), and (cross your fingers), it has yet to make me feel like I was having a heart attack.
I’ve traveled to 13 countries (and counting…).
Since I could remember, my family took a vacation every year until I was in college. I’m also lucky to have family and friends living in various places in this world: New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom to name a few. To me, traveling is so much fun because you get to expand your outlook of this world, learn about other cultures, experience different foods, and most importantly, learn about yourself.
The last country I visited was Japan. I just quit my corporate tax management job to start a professional organizing business (maybe you’ve heard of it: Peony Professional Organizing?), and I decided to head off to Japan by myself for two weeks to celebrate. It was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve ever had. I thought I would be by myself most of the time, which was great because I could sleep until whenever I wanted, eat whatever I wanted, and do whatever I wanted. But what I didn’t realize was that any time you heard English spoken around you, you end up striking a conversation with that person. I met so many people and bonded over the fact that we were all tourists, discovering a country that was completely foreign to us. I highly recommend traveling to an international country by yourself. Plus, I’m looking forward to adding four more countries to the list next month.
What’s something I should know about you? Comment below!