OakMonster’s Den

Friday night out with the girls in Downtown LA. Holy shit did we have a great time! Takami was fantastic and Elevate was hoppin’ once the DJ arrived. We met some cool new people after trying in vain to get rid of some assholes. So much fun!

Saturday, B and I ran some errands which I ended with a bottle of Limoncello in one hand and tawny port in the other. And then I fell in love with a condo 2 doors down from us. They had an open house and these two cats totally indulge our curiosity.

Guys, I have found my perfect place to live. This 3-bedroom condo has everything I want. And by that I mean a granite counter top kitchen with an island. 2 car garage with extra space for a workshop. The price is right. The location is obviously perfect.

The only problem? We have nothing to down the house with. I guess after all these times of raising money for charity, perhaps I should raise some for my down payment, huh?

So I was floating on the imaginary bliss of buying and owning a perfect home for the rest of the afternoon. And then the Trojans damn near made me suicidal.

Holy fuck, boys! That was way too close for comfort at 27-24. And we got REALLY fuckin’ lucky. But then again, we weren’t too bad for having our 3rd strings running amok.

Erik showed up with some steaks so we grilled that. As the game wrapped up, the posse grew bigger with the addition of K9 Steve and we headed out for the late night show of 3:10 to Yuma.

Oh. My. God. You have to see 3:10! Drama through and through. Acting, obviously, is fantastic. I mean, Russel Crowe makes look so easy, like he was just being himself through the whole thing. Christian Bale gets a wee bit too intense sometimes, but that’s Christian for you and what makes him so much fun to watch. (And I wanted to steal Charlie Prince’s double breasted white jacket the whole time.) I have never really seen a Western, so I can’t tell you. But the boys said this is as traditional as it gets and therefore was very refreshing to see. I’ll take their word for it.

Today had been whirlwind too. I went with my aunty and cousins to a Cerritos park to give alms to the monks or “Taak Batr”. Traditionally, monks would walk around the neighborhood with this metal bowl–”Binntabatr”–and people would give them food as a way of making merits/good karma. Being in the U.S., that tradition has to adapt a bit. So, the temple sent the monks over to the park, people show up to give alms and pray a little bit. I haven’t done this in a while so I went and it was a very pleasant.  At first I thought it might be painfully long or complicated, but it wasn’t. So, I’ve signed up with Aunty Tim to join the crew monthly.

I’m not horribly religious, but that was just enough for me. Good for my tired little soul.

We went to brunch after the morning ordeal at Sam Woo. After I stuffed myself silly, I found out that Brandon’s dad and sister and her entourage were heading out to have lunch. Well, I got to watch Dad, Stephanie, her boyfriend Tom and son Max, Lauren and Morgan Claire stuffed their faces. Well, in case of Claire, it was with handfuls of ketchup and the onion part of onion rings. We then took the gang to see the dream condo, and then off to the beach. Claire is a handful sometime but she’s so cute you almost can’t help forgiving her for the tantrum she threw 5 minutes ago.

Steph and the crew left after the beach. Dad was heading back to his hotel too but I persuaded him to stay for dinner. Hey, if the man only comes out this way once a year, even if it’s for his work, I’d capitalize on family time.  It’s good for everyone in the family.

At one point, the boys got into the Men v.s. Women conversation about being pack rats and creators of clutters. Dad complained about mom’s ability to fill empty spaces all through the house but won’t let him put his peanut butter and syrup in a kitchen cabinet.

“I mean, she took up the whole god damn house and I can’t even have a corner in HER kitchen for a jar and a bottle. I really don’t get it!”

“What else are in that cabinet?” I chimed in. “I mean, even *I *have a system for this kitchen. See, this cabinet is all vinegar and sauces, and that one has spices.”

“What’s your point?”

“I mean, I totally understand why mom would be pissed off. I wouldn’t want to see peanut butter and syrup here with my balsamic vinegar and chicken marinade.”

Dad stared blankly at me.

Then Brandon saved the day. “You see, dad. It’s like you putting a philips head screwdriver in with the pliers…”

“Ah. I see.”

Men. Women. Mars. Venus. No kidding.

But anyway, our suggestion was for dad to put his two breakfast items (yes, his breakfast is indeed toast with peanut butter and syrup) where mom keeps cereal and bread. That ought to stop her freaking out. That totally makes sense to me so it should for her as well.

And here I am. Wrapping up this rest-less weekend. But it was worth it though.

Dear John David,

[with ETA here…last night when I started the entry, I was on the way out to see a movie and I had 3 shots of limoncello so I couldn’t really write.]

You can NOT be a USC quarterback and try to grow a beard. Haven’t you learn from when Carson and Matt tried back in the days?  Every time those boys attempt to grow beard, their games suffered.  Uncharacteristic suckage came with that beard, my friend.

27-24 against the Huskies isn’t a victory.  Luck is on our side.  I mean, did someone slipped out of the stadium and slaughter a chicken to please Jobu so we could recover that fumble or allow that end zone interception?

I mean, JD, buddy, you did great when you were on a roll.  We had some great momentum there.  And then…whoosh…the beard took it all away.

The beard is a curse, Booty. Please listen to us. Shave. And you and the Trojans shall be victorious.

Fight the fuck on,

OakMonster

Amy the Gridiron Goddess, my Cardinal and Gold blood sister and an all around good friend, took over KROQ this morning for a good few minutes of football talk.  Here’s the podcast.  And she’s about a third of the way in.

Now, YOU write to KROQ and tell them how cool she is.  Tell Kevin, Bean, Ralphs, Psycho Mike, Alex, Lightning, and even Lisa @ kroq.com that they need to have the Goddess on every Friday to talk football.

And go Trojans!  Beat the Huskies!!!

For 14 years you have never let me down. But I guess 14 years is a long time. I was only a few days ago when we got together last. This morning, as I stood in front of my vanity, I held you in my hands as you took your last breath.

RIP my faithful hairdryer. You have served me well.

P.S. Who knew that a well positioned space heater works fantastically in drying you hair!

On top of having an emotional break last night (still going on today, by the way), I also had 2 back to back nightmares…something about haunted house, me and Celeste sleeping on the kitchen floor, Mexican cannibals and their herd of flesh eating cats. (No, I don’t know where all of that came from other than perhaps residual images from Resident Evil: Extinction.) I felt like I slept for the total of 2 hours max.

To ensure a good night sleep tonight, I had me 2 glasses of wine with dinner.

And big ol’ hug from Brandon and a good 2 hours on the couch, catching up of last night’s House and Eureka.

And wrote a long email reply to my brother about us going through the grieving period, I guess that’s what you call it.

And had a long IM chat with Joy, sharing precious moments she had with her son Jett. (Oh, and remind me to share the email conversation our gang is having over us vying to be Jett’s favorite aunty!)

And a long IM chat with James who shared some insights and some fantastic pictures.

And a long chat on the phone with my Amy the Gridiron Goddess who share the good news that she will be on KROQ at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. So y’all tune in and listen!

Yeah. I think I’m ready for bed now!

I just wrote an email to my brothers.  It goes something like this:

You don’t know what it is at first but suddenly your heart flutters and you feel like you couldn’t catch your breath.  Then your heart sinks.  It feels so heavy as if it’s pulling your shoulders the floor along with itself.  Anxiety attack?  Sounds like it.  But it isn’t.

But then tears well up in your eyes, and you realize it’s mom you’re missing.  What you feel is a hole left by her absence.

And then you cry.  Sometimes the whole sinking heart thing goes away.  Sometime it doesn’t.  Someday you wake up crying and you feel fine for another week. Someday you feel it through out the day as you march on with your day, just to come home and surrender to it once you turn off the lights.

Well, there I was. Lights out. Tears came.

Does your heart do that too?

A friend of mine who lost her mother to cancer a few years ago said that grief creeps up on you like that.  She said it was hard the first year.  You thought you were doing fine and then wham! it hits you out of nowhere.  So far I had about 3 of these in the past month.  A few pangs and one of the day I could barely get anything done at work.  I thought keeping busy would be better, but man it was hard trying not to burst into tears every 5 minutes.

I think the first call home to talk to Daddy was the trigger for that one.  It felt odd calling home and not having to ask about Mommy.  And today’s melancholy is probably also triggered by calling dad yesterday.  And the fact that, surprise!, Brandon’s dad is coming to town in the next few days.

So here I am. Awake. With my heart slowly sinking down this bottomless pit of whatever it is. Trying not to cry too much.

I have done a LOT this weekend, well, aside from throwing up bad fish and chips.

For one, we got ourselves a new couch…

…and a new “computer station”.

Brandon and I haven’t had a new couch since we have gotten together, so this is quite a big deal for us. We don’t really own much of any “real” furnitures. It’s either Ikea, Target, or someone gave us something. It’s quite a huge leap into respectable adulthood over here.

Now, the TV stand, replacing a folding card table, is acting as Brandon’s computer station for the moment. We’re looking into a computer armoir so he can hide all of his computer gadgets when he doesn’t have a project to work on. Once we get the armoir, that TV stand is going to replace our current 10-year-old Ikea entertainment center, which will in turn allow us the room to upgrade our TV to an HD, which will in turn provide a justification for us to get a Playstation 3.

Heeheehee.

With all of these new additions to our humble apartment, we have been busy all weekend rearranging our space. Well, mainly me, reorganizing my closet and office to move things in and out. So far, it’s working out great. I actually have more room in my closet now than I need, but we’ll see how long that’ll last. LOL

So while we waited for the couch to arrive, I watched my Boys in Cardinal and Gold owning Washington State 47-14 while making dinner of home cooked chicken soup made from scratch (Thanks Martha Stwart!) and organizing my room at half-time. With the protection coating on the couch, we couldn’t even sit on it last night. I spent the rest of the evening watching Torchwood on the floor.

Brandon still can’t quite get into Torchwood but I’m all over it because I’m hooked on Gwen, the police officer turned Torchwood agent. I still didn’t like Captain Jack Harkness that much in this. He felt all stiff too me, but I was just starting warm up to him this last episode. (The gun range scene…me-ow! Sign me up for lesson anyday, Captain!)

But having just seen Dr. Who’s “Utopia” episode where Jack’s running wild, flirting with everybody and every species, I REALLY do like his character. I mean, where is THIS Captain Jack in Torchwood?!? It makes me wonder what happened between now and then that makes him all cold and bitter. It was more like he was trying hard to appear Vulcan. A charismatic guy walking around trying to be all emotionless, and what you have was a walking piece of hardwood flooring. That explains what I thought was bad acting…he was just trying so hard to not show any emotions! Ah-ha!

Finally, by popular demand, here are the pictures of my cupcake creations.

The Pirate Cupcakes (Devil’s food cake with chocolate rum frosting)…

…and my Little Piggies made with the Pig Pickin’ cake recipe.

It feels like Bangkok…except for the 66F temperature. Heh.

An Alaskan storm finally moved into LA area after playing hard to get for the past day and a half. It’s pouring here in Los Alamitos and 2 sets of thunders set off a few car alarms.

Brandon and I are totally loving it!

The rain is TOTALLY welcomed in the parched California. I mean, sure, some assholes are going to bitch about the traffic. But seriously, I’d rather be in this for days than being in the worst drought in history.

Wait a second…does that mean the Trojans will play the Cougars in the rain tomorrow night?

Oh, please gods! Let’s not give the Washingtonians the edge of having THEIR kind of weather!!!

ETA: It’s 4:40 a.m. I have been up for the past 2 hours throwing up and sitting out a stomach pain.  I haven’t spent this much time on YouTube, TMZ, Perez Hilton or the Superficial in my life!  So much for going to dim sum tomorrow with James and Aurora.  *sigh*

There’s something highly satisfactory about punching with hot pink punching gloves.

Yesterday when I stopped at Shane’s gym for a spell, I spot a pair of these laying by the punching bag. I tried them on and got quite a giggle out of them.So I returned today to the gym, having had a day from hell and approaching deadline…well fuck, tomorrow IS the deadline, donned the gloves and give the bag a good beating. The bag? It’s fine. My hands, not so much.

But my god. It felt so good to beat on something. With hot pink gloves. I mean, HOT pink. It makes me almost want a pair of Hello Kitty or something adorable like that. I don’t know. It’s like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All adorable AND kickin’ yer ass up and down the block.

It’s just so much fun to be cute AND deadly!

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Originally uploaded by theoakmonster.

Yarrrr. Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day to yer from Captain Bubbles and Speedy Lopez!

What’s on my shirt? That be skulls and cross bones. Yarrrr!  More here.

And yes, I dressed like a pirate to the monthly meeting with our investors today. This, minus the bandana, that is.  Corporate Pirate, anyone?  Actually, it was quite well received as a picker-upper opener for the meeting on a gloomy day.

So, up at 5 a.m. to get to the office and prep the meeting.  (I’m the full-time A/V girl now, don’t cha know.)  After that, I brought out the cupcakes and the voluntary potluck commenced.  CFO brought in some homemade butter rum cake.  And shiver me timbers, let me just say that my little rum-”flavored” chocolate frosting had the alcohol content of a mormon compared to the Lindsay Lohan that was the butter rum cake.  Then there was olive and cheese spread and fresh bread and fruits from the farmer’s market to round out the feast.  Ahh…the feast that went on…all…day…long!

But since I was there early, I got to leave early.  By 3:30, Shane and I was at Dempsey’s having some grog.  Then the massage therapist at his gym was giving away free 5-minute chair massage.  I was the first in line for that too!

After all the excitement and decompression, Brandon and I ran some errands, had spaghetti, and watched last night’s Eureka.

Life is good for Captain Bubbles.  Even for one day a year.