OakMonster’s Den

Rachael tagged me on MySpace. Might as well post this here too. Anyone who’s reading this, YOU are tagged!

A - Age of your first meaningful kiss:
20. Yep. Late bloomer over here.

B - Band you are listening to right now:
No band really, but Jason Mraz. Been obsessing since I dreamed about him last week. LOL.

C - Crush:
Does Brad Pitt count?

D - Dad’s name:
Jed.

E - Easiest person to talk to:
Brandon. Cheech. And my Snoopy.

F - Favorite ice cream:
Ben & Jerrry’s NY Fudge Chunk. And the evil Crunch-covered Bryer’s Dibs.

G - Gummy worms or Gummy bears?:
Worms.

H - Hometown:
Bangkok, Thailand.

I - Instruments:
Piano. Guitar. 3 Thai classical instruments.

J - Junior High:
Mater Dei School, Bangkok.

K - Kids:
Don’t want ‘em. Want kittens.

L - Longest car ride:
Road trip to Amarillo, Texas with my friend Jen and her family.

M - Mom’s name:
Noi.

N - Nicknames:
Oh (real Thai nickname). Oaks. Oak. Oakmonster. Oakster (college).

O - One wish:
All debts disappear.

P - Phobia:
Lizards/Geckos. Falling/Height. Deep water.

Q - Quote:
A life lived in fear is a life half lived. Strictly Ballroom, baby!

R - Reasons to smile:
Brandon. Music. Cable modem. Roof over my head, food in the fridge, and wine on the shelf. Sunshine. Temperature above 70F. Cheap long distance phone card.

S - Scent:
Brandon’s shirt. Monsoon rain. Ocean mist. Thai jasmine. Cookies in the oven. Comforter/Snoopy after an hour in the sun.

T - Time you woke up today:
6:45 a.m.

U - Unknown fact about me:
My room back home is Pepto-Bismol pink. Still.

V - Vegetables you hate:
Nothing I really hate. Used to hate bell pepers but I’m okay with them now.

W - Worst luck with:
Finding good bras in the US and well-fitted pants in Thailand.

X - X-rays you’ve had:
Chest (lungs). Stomach (ulcers). Ankle.

Y - Years since you’ve been to church:
I’m Buddhist.

Z- Zodiac Sign: Scorpio.

Oh yes. I prostrate at the feet of Dr. Lars Hertzog, the uber Trojan eye surgeon, who took his time to look at the eyes of the helpless little Trojan-alum youngling.

Yes. I went back to Dr. Hertzog from last year’s needle explosion incident, and he remembered me! Sure, I didn’t need to come to him about dry eyes and warped vision since he’s a surgeon and all, but he was the first person I could think of. And man, he did take time to take care of me.

Yes. The eyes are unsually dry. As I found out, it is called Dry Eye Syndrome. The good doctor said it is more common in women than men, older than younger. My research turned this up as one of the symptoms of menopause.

Great. My mom and I are both carrying artificial tears on top of our defective lungs.

Anyways. The doctor said that it’s also a part of the vicious cycle with eye inflamation. The inflamation slowed down the production of tears. Not enough tears don’t help the inflamation. Etc.

Apparently, even with a week of night gel and 3-4 tubes of drops per day weren’t enough. This is probably beyond my optometrist anyway.

So, like a kitchent sink, Dr. Hertzog stuffed stoppers into my tear drainage ducts in the corners of my eyes by the nose. Yes. Tiny silicon plugs were inserted into the drainage ducts to prevent the tears from flowing out of my eyes too quickly. To give you an idea…(not for the faint of heart).

Yes. Ew. And yes. They are working beautifully. And no. They don’t hurt. I felt them on the first day and once in a while when my eyes are starting to dry up. But not so much. And also no. I still can’t wear contact lenses yet. I am to return on Columbus Day morning to check the prescription and make sure everything is working out.

Finally.

YES! I CAN SEE!

(By the way, does anyone has USC v.s. Notre Dame tickets they want to sell? I have a customer for you.)

Fuck that optometrist business. Tomorrow I’m making my appointment with an ophthalmologist.

The hydrating eye gel and constantly putting in eye drops don’t do anything to improve my vision during the day. I still have the same 30-minute window of 100% clear vision after I wake up. Doesn’t matter what I do, my vision starts doubling up after that.

It’s beyond the contact lenses at this point, I’m sure. And I’m not going to keep going back to the that optomologist office to have her billed me to death for abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

Besides, walking around not really seeing anything is REALLY taxing on my mental health. Can’t you tell, already?

*Addition* Optometrist measures you for glasses and contact lenses. Ophthalmologist fixes serious eye problems like glaucoma or pieces of needle flying into your eye. Yes, I’m going back to see Dr. Lars Hertzog from last year’s sewing incident.

Chris Cactus tagged me. I wrote this last night but didn’t get to post. So, yesterday here would mean Wednesday 9/21. Enjoy!

10 Years Ago:

1995 was possibly the best year of my life.

A freshman at USC, living in a suite with 7 other girls on the 3rd floor at Fluor Tower.

I was learning the way of the geek in the computer lab under the excellence guidance of the Frenchy; hanging out with my girls of “Sweet Suite” and forging a lifetime bond with Katie, Veronica, and Juliana; terrorizing our RA Tony and making that connection with Daddy Long Leg.

Trojan Pride would be take up 50% of my social life, obviously. You’ll find me selling t-shirts at the USC Helmet Cart by Tommy Trojan from 11-1 Monday-Thursday, eating either Carl’s Jr. chicken star or a Western Cheese Burger. This was also when I began to develop a crush on Joel. With this crew, I’d be doing crowd control at rally on Thursday nights, and marching into the stadium 2 hours before kick-off of all the home games to set up pom-poms and then screaming for almost 4 more hours for our team from the 50 yard line front row.

1995 was a good year for USC football under John Robinson. We won every game but 2 streaks–fucla and notre dame–and continued on to win the Rose Bowl. Anyway. I digress.

5 Years Ago:

I had Been dating Brandon for a few months then. This would be just about the time he tried to break up with me and I wouldn’t let him. LOL.

I was still living in my danky studio apartment on the 4th floor of a art-deco-ish brick building in Mid-Wilshire. Frenchy and ex-boyfriend 2 floors below. But of course, I was spending many nights and weekends at Brandon’s in Long Beach.

Marching onward with my masters at USC, this was the beginning of my second semester. Both of us were still working at HSX then, and we have just moved the office to West Hollywood. This was also pre-Cantor buy-out so we were riding the highest point of dot com era.

1 Year Ago:

You can read the rest of what’s going on from the September archive. But the highlights:

This time last year I was living in Long Beach, the same place where we are now, and toiling for a boutique political PR firm ran by truly evil people. I believe that was the middle of the great exodus. I held the first PR firm survivors BBQ then. I also made my first batch of Gotham BBQ Ribs (or as Brandon called it, Stinky Ribs), started in with jazz dance, of course, watched USC dominated the NCAA.

Yesterday
(Actually, Wednesday)

My coworker Celeste and I took my demi-boss Amy to lunch at the Palms Thai Restaurant. They’ve moved from their old spot to a roomier building about a mile down.

Yes, this is THE Palms with Thai Elvis. But we didn’t see him since it was lunch.

In order to free up the evening for some of us time (as in “not sitting in the same room doing 2 different things” time), I hurried home and tried to finish my Dreamweaver homework. Somehow about 2 hours later, I managed to reboot my way to finish my Dreamweaver homework which should’ve taken an hour or less to complete and upload. Damned video card. Brandon came to do a quick fix and the thing just gave up life and taking to looping the booting screen.

5 Songs I Know All the Words To

1. How do I live, Leanne Rimes :: My wedding song.
2. Losing, Oakley Boren :: My first real single. (No, Frenchy. The high school song doesn’t count!) I wrote the English version first then I put in Thai lyric to it too. I aimed for international rockstardom.
3. Desperado, the Eagles :: My favorite show piece.
4. Sweet Child of Mine, Gun N’ Roses :: My first encounter with the inner Axl. As it turns out, I can do a very good Axl “Aaaaooooow”.
5. You Oughtta Know, Alanis :: My first girl anthem memorized. Followed by I Will Survive, and a year later, Bitch.

5 Snacks

1. Cheez-its
2. Twix
3. Fuji apples
4. Ben & Jerry’s ice creams
5. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s caramel root tea soy latte

5 Things I’d Do With $100 Millions

1. Pay off debts of ours and our parents’.
2. Set up money for our parents to retire on.
3. Get us a home…well, a homebase for me.
4. Invest a hunk of $ so I can do whatever I want including traveling.
5. Set up a foundation to benefit all sorts of causes i.e. AIDS research, keeping Thai youngsters from forced prostitution, scholarship for Thai liberal arts students to study abroad, and, of course, $1M as promised to myself to give to USC Trojan Pride’s program. Oh yes. I have great plans for my money!

5 Places I Would Run Away to
…other than the nearest closet…

1. Home - Bangkok, Thailand
2. Red River, New Mexico
3. Chiang Mai, Thailand
4. Paris
5. Some island off of Krabi, Thailand.

5 Things I Would Never Wear
1. Dresses that can be described with the word “poofy”
2. Fluorescent color
3. Daisydukes
4. Thong bikini. Not in public anyway.
5. High heels. I can handle 3.5 inch chunky heel but not 1.5 inch pointy heel. Figured I’d break my own neck in anything stiletto like.

5 Favorite TV Shows

1. House MD
2. Stargate SG-1
3. Nip/Tuck
4. CSI
5. Firefly & Farscape for cancelled shows

5 Greatest Joys

1. Having a piano. Even if it’s a rental.
2. Living to the US
3. Visit home
4. Red River house and the cats
5. Brandon

5 Favorite Toys

1. Snoopy
2. My computer
3. Piano/Guitar
4. JumpDrive MP3 player
5. The kitchen — hours and hours of experiments and fun with food!

5 People I’m Taggin’

Whoever is reading and feeling like doing a meme. Go ahead! Let me know and I’ll link you.

Last night I dreamed that I was back at Mater Dei. Probably 11th grade or so, not a little kid. And that somehow the school had gone co-ed and international. I was walking back to the quad area from lunch in the assembly hall with my guy friend. He had a guitar strapped to his back. My friend Jason. Jason Mraz.

The GAP commercial was one of the last things I saw last night so that explained a LOT. Then again, I love his music. And yes. He IS a cutie.

Anyway. We were horsing around like we usually do. Tag, you’re it! Ow. Quit it! Suddenly, Jason grabbed my hand and gave me this look. The “We’re more than friends. You know it. I know it. So let’s stop that friend nonsense” look. If we weren’t in school I’m sure we would’ve gone for that sweet little first kiss. But we didn’t.

I understood his look, and he did mine. We smiled at each other. I let him hold my hand as we walked through the quad.

I’m with Jason. Wow. Life of a 16-year-old suddenly was a lot better.

We let go of each other when Jason turned to go to the boys’ room. I headed to the bridge to see Tong and another friend. (We have a little “canal”, essentially a long concrete pond that at one point was actually a part of Bangkok’s canal systems. So we have 2 small bridges to get to the other side of the school.) Tong gushed on and on about how awesome it is have guys in school now, and that a few boys we’ve been hanging out with are so cool. Especially that Jason.

“One of these days, you watch me, I’m going to make him my boyfriend.”

I looked at her, chuckled. “I don’t think so.”

“What?”

“Jason’s my boyfriend.”

She laughed. “Yeah right. Since when?”

“Just now.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

“I’m serious!”

“You’ll have to fight me for him, bitch. Hahaha.”

“No, dude. Seriously.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Heard that about Brad Pitt with you too. Honey. Jason’s MINE. Mine. Mine. Mine!”

“No. He’s mine.”

“No. MINE!”

“Listen. He’s MY boyfriend.”

Jason came up behind me and threw his arms around me, pulling me to him, a little bit of holding me back from Tong but more of a hug.

Tong’s jaw dropped to the floor. Literally. It’s a dream after all.

“So, what are you girls fighting about?” A smirk in his voice.

“Oh. Nothing,” I said. I pat him on his arms and turned to look up at him. “Just who gets to keep you. That’s all.”

“Well. I think I know the answer to that.” And he gave me a quick peck on the forehead.

Sweet dreams are made of this.

The bell rang. Tong picked up her jaw and shook her head at us. Jason took my hand. We all headed back toward the classrooms.

Here I am trying to work on laying out company’s newsletter with double vision.

Is that text box on the line? Do I frame that picture right? Is that an R or an 8?

I wish I have bionic eyes right about now.

To quote the newsradio this morning, Mother Nature sneaks up on Los Angeles and slaps us around with rain and thunders.

B and I were awakened last night by roars of thunders. Sleepily, I muttered “It’s so weird in California where we could have thunder storms with absolutely no rain.” Having grown up in a monsoon country, yeah it’s weird when there’s all the sound with no droplets to go with them.

Brandon turned off the fan. And there they were, pounding on the roof.

“Oh.”

As I walked up to the building from the subway station through a mild sprlinkle, lighting flashed over my head into one of the highrises. I flinched and waited for the roar. It was mildly satisfying to know that I could be walking around in this and probably wouldn’t get hit by lighting being one of the shorter things in the area.

And I discovered the best damned song to strut up the streets of Downtown LA in the rain to: The Wallflower’s One Head Light.

But by the time I reached my building, Blisters in the Sun came on. I started to giggle at the security check in. So I hit “next”. Up the elevator with Gun n’ Roses’ Sympathy for the Devil.

Nice.

Yes. My MP3 collection is quite eclectic.

Thunders seem to be sending the vibration through the building. This is kind of fun. Heh.

Now, an off topic update.

The eyes issue. 2 things that affected my vision for the past, oh, month or so now: extreme dryness and inflammatory. Apparently, my eyes go so dry that something irritated them and they inflamed. Also, it appears that I’m also allergic to preservatives in eyedrops (like Visine that I’ve been using). Yesterday, by 3 p.m. I couldn’t see the letters on my computer unless I put my nose up to the screen, so I moved up my appointment and ran home to it. There were no use for me at work if I can’t see.

Still. No contacts. It was a good news, bad news situation. Good news is that the inflammation is done. Gone. Bad news is that my eyes are still left extremely dry so she couldn’t fit me with contact lenses yet.

What???

Apparently I dropped the list of eye goop she jotted down for me in her office, the one I supposed to have been using all this week to moist up my eyeballs. So, she didn’t call me and tell me that I was supposed to be using this stuff this whole week. I’m wasting more time and still having to wait another week for my contact lense fitting.

Lovely.

My eyes are getting better. But boy amd I feel tired! Everything is so different when you can’t see straight. I mean, 2 days ago, I wasn’t sure if I saw green pedestrian light, so I didn’t cross the road. Now, I can see a little better–a little blurred to super blurred outside of 5 foot perimeter.

I’m soooo tired folks. Turning my head with these glasses. Mentally exhausted from trying to make sense of all the figures in my vision.

And add to the craziness, did I not call it that Suzie wouldn’t go to the final 3??

I’m thinking it’s Marty for INXS, y’all. For the fact that I’m still singing “Trees” right now. As much as I like how “Pretty Vegas” sound, I still can’t remember it. “Trees” on the other hand, stuck like dried drops of sap on my poor car.

Oh yeah. My video card at home died also. Yeah. Fun day, huh?

Okay, I’ve only recently started to watch Rockstar INXS and I’m sooo hooked.

I’m rooting for MiG. But I have a feeling INXS would pick either JD or Marty. Last night, though, MiG seemed to have suffered a case of Jordis. There was something missing in his performance last night. Nonetheless, MiG is a beautiful piece of man with a big, big voice and can put on a great show. Just not last night. But, MiG, dahling. I’m still rooting for you!

On the other hand, JD rocked the house. I usually don’t like JD. Something about his face…so smuggy I want to punch him. But he really got me involved in his performance last night. The showmanship of this one is awesome.

Marty did well too, but still there’s something I don’t like about his voice. And as much as he plays up to the camera, there’s something awkward about his stage presence. Everyone else seems to be more comfy on stage than Marty.

I love Suzy’s voice and style. But I don’t think she’s going to get to front INXS though. I know this is an open for all, but I believe they really want a boy to front the band. I’d buy her album if she ever comes out on her own though.

My prediction? It’s going to be between JD and Marty for the band. But these 4 here are going to be famous either way.

…over Los Angeles yesterday. I was on the 34th floor.

Someone had a radio and the earlier report said that it’d take about 24 hours to fix the problems, so we were allowed to leave the darkened and stuffy building.

My original problem was that I took the Metro in. Without the electricity, I wouldn’t be able to get out of town. Ditto 2 other folks from Long Beach. But, like a knight in shining armor galanting in on a noble white steed, Greg F. drove in that morning and we begged him to drive us home…in his white Honda. And he did.

We climbed down 34 flights of stairs. Around 16th floor they announced the returned of electricity and elevators were in service. Not one to take chances, 4 of us continued the descend while a few others went to wait for the elevator. My calves are killing me.

I asked Brandon to fire up the grill last night to celebrate our escape from LA with Greg and Michael. It was truly a bizarre day.

Oh yeah, we’ve found out what’s wrong with my eyes. Apparently, I’ve been developing a mild inflammation in my eyes — hence my eyeballs are slightly warped and causing the blur. But the inflammation flared up out of control in reaction to the new contact lenses. So I’ve got my eyes dilated to help with the pain, and been put on steroid drops. I’m going back in for a check today. By the end of the week, I should have my new lenses.

You’ve read about my dilation issue from last October. Well, after 12 hours, my pupils are still quite dilated. I have to drive with that goofy UV protection plastic thing under my glasses, AND I’m wearing them now looking at the computer screen. The white screen kills my eyes right now.

Yeah. And I have my Dreamweaver homework to do still.

This week is going just great for me…. *sigh*