OakMonster’s Den

Bangkok explosions leave two dead

*Update* Two more bombs exploded at Central World Plaza and Pratunam

And now the tourists are getting hurt.

The word on the streets is that it was either the Muslim insurgents from the south, revving up the violence and spreading it to the city. Or, a more possible scenario to me, Thaksin’s supporters stirred shit up.

Either way, the typical gigantic public New Year celebrations were cancelled everywhere. Still, dad said that didn’t stop the private affairs in hotels around town. The fireworks were still going on when I spoke to him.

The family is safe. Well, except for my brother Onk who, while out on a golfing weekend expidition with friends, introduced one side of his face to a pavement. According to him, he was carrying his suitcase and golf bag to the resort’s door and he tripped and landed his face on the ground. Dad is sending the picture over.

When he showed up at the house, dad told him he came to the wrong party. “Onk,” dad said, “This is a New Year’s Eve party. Not Halloween.”

A fan of CSI, I asked dad if his hands and knees were all fucked up too. Dad said no…why? Dude didn’t put his hands up to break his fall? Probably was drunk off his ass, that’s why!

Oh yeah. Onk is reclaiming his childhood nickname. “Stitches” is back.

2006 can be summed up in just one word.

Change.

It started with mom’s health from her radiation earlier in the year to chemo in February, and finally, the stroke that debilitated her in July. I did go home twice in one year for the first time ever, and despite it all, I managed to have a few days of absolutely good times. Then we moved out of the Long Beach College Dorm 2.0 into a quiet residential neighborhood of Los Alamitos. I switched to take the bus. Brandon gets a permanent position. Friends and family all around have their kids for us to play with while we made the permanent decision to not have one of our own. My health issues that mounded up at the end of the year and as quickly dissipated.

2006 is also a year of discovery and exploration. I spent time rediscovering myself and I think I have found her. Brandon and I took many trips on emotional roller coaster together and seperately. Both of us survived and became even stronger for it. I found the foodie in me and now more than ever have never been so happy in the kitchen! I found that 30 is not a bad age, that familyt and riends are the most important things in my life, and that giving and helping other brings me true joy.

2006 has been a true test. 2007 will have more challenges, I’m sure.

And now, the break down of 2006, if you care. Thank goodness I kept a blog. I wouldn’t have remember half of this crap!

January

The Food: Kapaw Thai opens in Cypress and becomes our main source of Thai food since.

The Good: New Year’s Eve at the Tolers’…an awesome time with everyone. Arrival of baby Owen Ching. Pirates’ Dinner Adventure. A trip home to be with mom when she started her chemo.

The Bad: I started 2006 with the coughing flu, like the one I just had. Funny how I’m ending 2006 exactly the same way I started it! Just please don’t repeat the Rose Bowl experience. No, I still DON’T want to talk about it. Oh, also, our Christmas present cash was stolen from our apartment.

The Ugly: Mom’s lung cancer, already metasticized to her liver, now showed up as brain lesions. Later it was put into remission by radiation.

February

The Food: Homecooked meal at my Bangkok home. After that, I was on antibiotics and Cipro for most of the month so not much going on in the world of good eats.

The Good: Being home with mom. A day trip down to tour the tsunami affected area of Khao Lak which entailed hanging out with my dad and a bunch of international architects and flying home from Phuket on business class. We moved to Los Alamitos. J.C.’s visiting from D.C. and told me about her pregnancy!

The Bad: Watching a very scared mom going through chemo. Leinart, Bush, Lendale moved on to the NFL.

The Ugly: The Hot Tub Rash (aka the Ass Rot) episode. Urgh!

March

The Food: Marcello’s at the Bonaventure.

The Good: Cheech’s visiting from Oregon. Discovering the OCTA 701 bus. Thanks to Netflix, getting hooked on “Lost”.

The Bad: Super emotional over everything since the trip home and the move.

The Ugly: Commuting on the Blue Line when it was partially down. That was hell.

April

The Food: Goat cheese.

The Good: Compiled my Dreamboat list. You know, all the celebrities that pop up in my dream. (By the way I should add Pierce Brosnan to that list now. Will elaborate soon.) Company spring potluck. Reconnecting with High School Jen and seeing Melissa, visiting from Illinois.

The Bad: Lots of wine and food at Jen’s. Driving home that night perhaps wasn’t the best idea on the planet.

The Ugly: Nothing I remember…or blogged about.

May

The Food: Mead. Bangers and mash. Princess Pavillion’s dim sum.

The Good: Renaissance Pleasure Faire. A good performance review and a hard-earned raise. My friend Nick graduated from USC. My “cousin” Nicky turned 21. Frenchy proposed to Brandy. J.C. and Erick’s friends and family hosted the baby shower.

The Bad: Nick left for Colorado and his sister, Nan, husband Mike, and baby Owen moved to Massachusettes.

The Ugly: Nope. Nothing ugly her either.

June

The Food: Daily Grill’s citrus marinated skirt steak (and also their steak salad) and chocolate layered cake.

The Good: Brandon’s vasectomy. Girls Day Out in Pasadena with Celeste, getting my hair cut and doing some bar hopping + shopping. The World Cup soccer fever. Team Lesser Weevils debut at AIDS Walk Long Beach.

The Bad: A coworker’s cross the line with me via email. (You’ll have to email me and I shall elaborate.)

The Ugly: Mom had a stroke that paralyzed her left side a few days before her last chemo session. They had to stop chemo and started her on a mild oral chemo…which turned out to be working almost miraculously.

July

The Food: Nothing particularly stands out.

The Good: Frenchy’s 30th birthday party on the beach. Meet Captain Bubbles. Zidane’s head butt. Summer potluck.

The Bad: Got hit in the mouth by a tennis ball. That’ll teach me to skimp on paying for a tennis lesson and had to run with true beginners in a huge, community college class.

The Ugly: Pervert on a late evening Blue Line. Urgh! *shudder*

August

The Food: Thais know their food! Lalai Sapp Todd Mann Pblah (fish cake) nuggets. Peking duck. Vietnamese food at Dusit Thani hotel. Note’s Kinnaree Gourmet Thai restaurant.

The Good: Going home to see mom. Hanging out with the aunties and partying it up with my girlfriends in Bangkok. The arrival and survival of baby Joshua Heygood. Getting my piano tuned. Meeting Rose/Token Asian and her sister for the first time ever and saw Thai Elvis for the first time in ages! An attempt at running didn’t go so well, but it did make me want to try again.

The Bad: Seeing mom bound to the hospital bed, still afflicted with the damage from the stroke.

The Ugly: Dragging the drunk Tong into my house. That was definitely ugly. LOL.

September

The Food: Pork!

The Good: USC Football season. The Pig Party. Hanging out with the Andersons and getting to know Olaina as herself instead of “Justin’s wife”. My first painting on canvas. Talk Like a Pirate Day….yarrrrrrgh!

The Bad: Steve Irwin died.

The Ugly: Coup in Thailand. Well, getting rid of Thaksin is a good thing. But man, the interim government is a complete fucktard! So far, I’m not impressed with all their backtracking on almost every major decision they put out. Okay, I’ll stop bitching now.

October

The Food: R23. Wieland’s Brewery.

The Good: 100,000 hits on this blog. Girls Night In at Brenda’s where we stuffed our faces with cheese-based foods and bottomless glasses of fantastic wines. Rose introducing me to R23. OC Police Canine Association Benefit Show. Halloween at work.

The Bad: Our awards dinner. Okay, the event went fine but leading up to it and the aftermath was a headache and a half.

The Ugly: Nothing of note.

November

The Food: Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Candice’s Ultimate Brine and Justin’s killer gravy. *Giggle*

The Good: Company international potluck featuring Celeste’s deep fried turkey…and I couldn’t eat much of anything there! (See the Bad.) HSX impromptu mini reunion when Nalin came to town. Homecoming with Michael. Turning 30 and the birthday party at Hennessey’s and essentially an entire week long of birthday celebration. Thanksgiving with the Andersons and belated birthday dinner with Aunty Tim and the family. The Oak Nest (aka papasan chair, a gift from the Andersons).

The Bad: Brandon’s bone spur in his foot. Well, at least he went to see the doctor about it. The shoe insert he has now is a blessing and a half!

The Ugly: My acid-y stomach that, I believe, started all of my other health issues. You see, I couldn’t really eat anything then and vitamins mess with me even more so. I was undoubtedly stressed out on top of that. So my body was in a way “malnourished” and immune systems was shot. Therefore the rest of the year was pretty much down the toilet, so to speak.

December

The Food: Library Bar, discovering Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and Anderson Valley Ale. Wolfgang Puck’s Mac and Cheese. Crab lakes at California Club. Santa Cristina wine.

The Good: Very successful Operation Jingle All the Way. And OMFG - the Parties!!! British group dinner. Abelskeiver Brunch at Amy’s. Library Bar outting to send of Cool Cat VP Greg. OCSD Stanton sub-station Christmas party in Newport Beach. Board of investors party. Staff party. Christmas Eve Santa Run and dinner with Rhino and Erik. Sleep-all-day Christmas with all the fabulous gifts. Brandon starts full time at OCSD. My mom returns home from many months in the hospital. Fucla gets the crap beat out of them by Florida State.

The Bad: The stomach issue lingers. Then I got the flu. Then the food poisoning. Blogger decided to shift to new version and my blog was caught in the crossfire for over a month. Never gonna do that again!

The Ugly: Pleurisy–that inflamed lung rubbing against my rib thing that sent us running to the emergency room in the middle of the night in a panic.

How I love thee. Let me count the ways!

First.

I made dinner tonight and it kicks major ass! Rachael Ray’s Steak dinner set (I used thawed, frozen spinach instead of kale) is phenomenal. I adjusted everything down to make food for 2 and it’s perfect.

Second.

Finally opened the Santa Cristina 2003 Sangiovese wine Brenda gave me for Christmas last year. It’s fantastic.

Third.

Blogger came through and revert me back to my original form. Back on the Old Blogger! Yeeeeees! Sure, I lost a few new posts…not that they were all that interesting anyway, right?…and the nifty tags, but hey, at least I have all of my shit back. And you guys can comment again! It’s awesome!

Fourth.

I have received some money for Christmas so I was going to spend it on getting the Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer, a cook’s best friend. I was at Target earlier, staring it down for many minutes before deciding to do some more price comparison before plunking my money on it.

And then, during dinner, Michael called. His fraternity brothers came through with $125 ticket to the Rose Bowl.

We’re. Going. To. The. Fuckin’. ROSE. BOWL!

It’s been a VERY good Friday indeed.

This is to make up for the photo post I lost when they switched me back from New Blogger to Old Blogger.

Board of Investors Party

Cool Cat VP Greg’s Going Away Drinks at the Library Bar

Me coming to work just a wee bit tired…

A very Trojan Christmas

IMG_0552
Originally uploaded by theoakmonster.

Issue with switching from Old Blogger to New Blogger. Over one month of struggle comes to a close. I got my old stuff back but lose the new stuff I posted recently. So, after this point of the blog in December, things may look odd and posts maybe confusing.

Please forgive me. I’m doing my best to restore what was lost.

Well, you can see I am at home again today. This is my fourth sick day in 3 weeks. It’s fuckin’ crazy.

Last night, I woke up with extreme back pain which restricted me from taking a full breath. Right next to the spine on the left side, almost like it’s directly behind my heart. With all the coughing I’ve been doing this past 2 weeks, I feared I might have popped my lung again. Oh please God, don’t let the 2000 Great Lung Collaspe episode repeats itself! One chest tube scar is enough. But the pain and shortness of breath felt way too familiar. The thought didn’t help my breathing.

So, after struggling to calm down and hoping that it was a muscle spasm for good 10 minutes, at 3 a.m. I woke Brandon up and we hit the emergency room.

A lung x-ray later and a few prodding later, no pneumothorax. But the ER doctor thinks it’s a case of pleurisy - an inflamamation of the lining around the lung which can cause sharp pain with breathing, coughing, sneezing and movement.

The nurse gave me 2 Tylenol with Codine and I was sent home with an instruction to bed rest and 600 mg Ibuprofen every 6 hours and to limit the coughing. At 4 a.m. we were at the pharmacy, and exactly 20 minutes after I took the codine Tylenol, I felt the effect. The warm and fuzzy and floaty feeling followed soon by the pain leaving. Brandon came back to the car with an industrial sized bottle of Rubistussin and I’m a bit fuzzy after that. But I managed to eat a piece of bread, drank the cough syrup and went to bed.

As of now, the Ibuprofen doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I think I should go back to laying down…

Last night party? Fan. Fuckin’. Tastic!

We drank.

Who was I kidding when I started with a glass of champagne? Boddington’s is THE only way at a British party, baby!

We schmoozed.

Hello to fellow tablemates, Scott, Lee–my ale buddy, and Dave King of the Dance Floor!

We ate.

Mulligatawny soup, how I love thee lemme count the way! And the pudding. THE PUDDING!!!

We danced.

The band ROCKED MY WORLD! It’s supposed to be the music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. But once they played the 80s, the floor was packed. So most of the night, it was the 80s. To my surprise, our entire table was up and dancing! I have never seen the dance floor so full of dancing old white men! Dave busted the move and danced with all the ladies. Lee was rocking out on his own but boy that man can rock! Scott? Total surprise to me and he was a marvelous dancer too. It was utterly awesome.

And then…Oakley’s rock n’ roll dream came true!

Yep. Volunteer myself to get on stage with other 8 busty, not so skinny white chicks as honorary Robert Palmer Girls. (Representin’ for my Asian sisters, woohoo!) They didn’t say what we were on stage for at first, but the drum intro started. I turned to the drummer and he looked at me and I pointed at him screaming and he smiled. LOL…What a dork! Funny how I know my Robert Palmer’s. Hahah!

So, the band of Blondezillas sort of nudged me all the way to the edge. I ended up by the bassist. We made eye contact. He came over and I got to rock out with him. Fan. Fuckin’. Tastic!

I believe I was the only one imagining I was THE rockstar up there, singing along and rocking out, instead of doing the sexy dance like most chicks on stage did. Seriously. I was living my rock n’ roll dream for the 4 minute duration of the song.

And we danced some more. All the way to the end.

They mentioned slow dance, so we were getting off the floor. But it was “Let’s Get it on”. You cannot NOT dance to Let’s Get it on!?!?! So my coworker Ed danced with me–he’s so nice! LOL. And the hits keep on comin’ after that. All the way to the band’s last song. And even when “Go away now…Show’s over…Closing time” music came on, we were still dancing. Hell, who in the hell would pick Abba’s “Dancing Queen” as the Chase You Out of the Dance Floor song!?! **Buzz** Wrong answer!

But we did eventually leave as the clock ticked closer to midnight.

Thanks again, Big Boss for getting me there! Even it was very last minute. (Thank GODS for Macy’s Junior department!) Demi-Boss, my fantabulous Dancing Queen. And Nhien, for driving me all the way back home afterward.

Let me say it again. Fan. Fuckin’. Tastic!!!

It has begun.

*UPDATE*
Today - A holiday dinner and dancing event at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Last minute engagement. Someone dropped out and the Big Boss extended the generous invitation to me. So now I can be Nhien’s date to the event…as we scope out how they put up their shindig for our own gala next year. So, I ran to Macy’s and bought a dress and a pair of shoes all in 25 minutes (plus another 15 of standing in line) and under $70. Oh yeah.

Saturday - Finishing up the last bit of Operation Jingle All the Way packages. Work on Christmas cards.

Sunday - Christmas brunch at Amy’s.

Wednesday - Brandon has a Christmas lunch. I have to work at our Holiday party for investors in the evening.

Thursday - Drinky with the Cool Cat VP who’s leaving us. *Sniffle* Losing yet another drinking buddy!

Saturday - We have invitation to THREE Christmas parties, kids. THREE! Goodness. But we are going to the OCSD potluck one down in Balboa.

Sunday - Finishing up presents for coworkers and such.

Tuesday - Bake cookies for Brandon’s potluck.

Wednesday - Brandon has a Christmas potluck. I have my staff holiday party in the evening…which I also have to put on.

Day before Christmas Eve - Brine the turkey and do other necessary prep work.

Christmas Eve - Christmas dinner for our “orphans” Erik and possibly Rhino. Rhonda and Eric are back from Colorado and they may join us. Justin and Olaina have been invited but I don’t know their schedule yet either. So, the house will be somewhat open to visitors all day.

Christmas Day - That’s it. Everyone else can now serve ME.

As for my health, I’m much much much better. The last bit of hacking and coughing up the nastiness. I can finally smell stuff…AND TASTE FOOD! Yey. Yesterday my sense of smell was coming and going, but today I think it’s almost all back.

And finally. Nintendo Wii? ROCKS. I had a play date with my friend Aurora last night. We had such a good time playing Wii Sports! Seriously. Who’d need a gym if you can do Wii Sports Boxing!?

Happy Friday, everyone!

Saturday early night:
Sore, sore throat. Thought it was from all the screaming I did at Amy’s watching the game. But then it hurted in my inner ears too. You know, where you feel your ears and throat connected? It started to feel strepthroat like…

Saturday late night:
Woke up choking on the nastiness that was forming in my lung. Took a Mucinex. Went back to bed. Throat and ears still hurt like hell.

Sunday morning:
Woke up with a better sore throat but getting all rattly and phgelmy in the air way. Mucinex kicked some more ass. Fever ran through the day.

Sunday night:
Sore throat almost gone but fever kicked up. Called Nhien ahead of time. 101-102 fever refused to break even with Tylenol and Tylenol PM. Didn’t sleep well that night.

Monday morning:
Called Nhien to confirm. 101-102 fever continued. More Tylenol. More Mucinex. Sore throat subsided at end of day. Fever downgraded to 100. Nose started to get a little runny.

Monday night:
Nose is completely stuffed up. Fever still going strong at 100, but did break in the middle of the night. More Tylenol.

Tuesday morning:
Still feeling like crap. Take more Tylenol, Mucinex, and Sudafed. Headed out to work. Didn’t really know how I got through the day. Decided to leave detail oriented stuff to be dealt with tomorrow. Coughing up less stuff. Actually, doesn’t cough much at all. I heart Mucinex.

Tuesday night:
Still stuffed up. I’m sitting still, but I feel like the room is slowly tilting to the right and even more slowly turning that way too. I don’t know why…

*UPDATE*

Wednesday morning:
Woke up feeling much better after a full night of sleep. Full night! Yey. Then again, I went to bed around 8:30. I did wake up to a dream that Celeste was banging down my door to fix my Christmas tree decoration. Heh. All the grossness is getting more concentrated. That’s always a good sign. I’m down to just a gulp of cough syrup and a Sudafed now, medication-wise. Got energy in bursts and when I don’t have it, I really don’t have it. Still a little heady but much better than yesterday.

THANKS everyone for your warm wishes.