OakMonster’s Den

Drinking Buddy of the Year: Celeste

It wouldn’t be a good time without this one. She is present at almost any work party I threw. We drink after work. We drink at her house. Hell, when there was that accident at Candice’s wedding, I was even there when she downed tequila to numb the pain while waiting to get out of the damn place. And of course, if we look back at 2006, she’s the one who started us on the Bar Hopping Shopping!

Bar of the Year: Library Bar

The Library Bar marked a LOT of the milestones since we discovered it last year. The departure of the former Big Boss. The last hoorah with Cool Cat VP Greg (RIP). More debauchery that one could remember. And the last time was my birthday Friday and it was fantastic! Friendly people. Cool and relaxed atmosphere. And Wolfgang Puck’s next door. Best. Bar. Ever!

Lifetime Service Award: The Bangkok Three - Joy, Tong, Lily

You know who your best friends are when tragedy strikes. When my mom passed away, the ladies came out in force to support me. Lily pretty much was my chauffeur and assistant the entire trip, driving me all over town. Tong, with her great aunt passed away about the same time, still came to my mom’s wake and cremation. I cried on her shoulder. Joy couldn’t attend because of her new born baby, but sent her love and support through email and phone calls through the whole ordeal. Without them, I wouldn’t know what to do.

Newcomer Award: Downtown Drinking Gang

It is amazing who you meet while working in Downtown LA. I gathered a few new friends to join us at happy hour from all sorts of places. Dave the New Guy. El Heffe. Dancing Fools Robb and Al. The more, the merrier!

High Point of the Year: Awards Dinner

The Awards Dinner in November was the most involving and insane project I have ever been involved in and yet it was the proudest moment of my career. Oh, and the after party? It was an anti-party party, but it was fun too. Heh.

Low Point of the Year: Mom’s Passing

I don’t think I have to explain that one.

Best Holiday: My Birthday

Christmas was fun, but my 2-part birthday party was the best time of the year for 2007. Friday night boozing with Downtown friends and Saturday night home-cooked meal with a group of close friends, drinking wine and singing karaoke in our tiny apartment. I could not ask for more!

Song of 2007: Far Away, Nickelback / Code Monkey, Jonathan Coulton

The first one was already a favorite song of mine that took a whole other meaning since I went home to see my mom for the last time.

And the second one, since James introduced me to the wonderful little world of JC, I just couldn’t get the song out of my head.

Movie of 2007: Pan’s Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is technically 2006 movies, but I didn’t see it until 2007, so sue me. Anyway, the movie still haunts me to a point where I’m dying to see it again but at the same time so afraid to get my heart broken again to do so. The movie that makes that much of an impact on me deserves to be on the best list.

Halloween Costume of 2007: Padawan OakMonster

Well heck, I spent a lot of time and money on this and I looked damn good.

Restaurant of the Year: Takami / Chronic Tacos

Takami is THE place for me this year with celebration of Amy’s birthday and our company Christmas party to top it all off. But as for home town cheap eats, Chronic Tacos, a late discovery, is the best damn joint in Long Beach!

Book of the Year: Atonement

HP7 was indeed a great book. But all things considered, the book that left a lasting impression and captured my imagination more is Atonement. I just hope that the movie would do the book justice.

Oh, and I came to realize I only read almost 7 books this year. Not many at all! Doh! Little Children. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. The Dresden Files: White Night. The Kite Runner. Atonement. Out: A Novel. And half of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. Now I’m a few chapters into Middlesex.

TV Show of the Year: Top Gear

I’m probably the last person on the planet who just now fell in love with Top Gear.  My favorite episode so far?  The Car Football Part II.  You just cannot help smiling at this!

Biggest Change of the Year: Living Room Upgrade

It started with the couch. Then the entertainment center. Then the computer armour. Then the big screen HD TV. Then the X-Box. Soon the end table to match.

Best Decision Made This Year: Separate July Vacation

Brandon and I went our separate way this year in July. I went home and he went out to New Mexico. I got to see my mom one last time and we had a few lucid moments together and I didn’t have to worry about Brandon. And Brandon got to spend time with his family and away from the madness that was the Sad Summer of 2007.

Best Plan for 2008 So Far: Hawaii

Oh yes. First time for me and my dad and first for Brandon since he was 12. This quick trip to paradise may be a short stay but we all should have a lot of fun.

2007 Monthly Highlights

January: USC beat Michigan at the Rose Bowl. Our fridge died and resurrected. Mario Danelo, USC’s kicker, died in an unsolved mystery. OakMonster.com was born. Snow in Malibu. Frenchy got married. Departure of the Big Boss.

February: Proud owner of the red Swingline stapler. My first Oscar nominated films marathon. My first adult pink eye.

March: Las Vegas with the Aunties. My first set of Moo cards.  St. Pattrick’s Day’s impromtu party sprung up around a vat of stew. 5 seconds of fame on KTLA Trafficast man-on-the-street promo. Bono became a knight. My first American air show at Point Mugu.

April: Departure of Amy. Legally change my name at Thai Consulate. The beginning of the Summer of Sorrow with Justin’s mom fallen ill.

May: Brandon in DC.  Departure of Michael. Renaissance Faire in Thai costume. The beginning of Karaoke Revolution addiction at James & Aurora’s. Impromptu sing-along session at Amy & Pete’s.  Meeting J.C. & Erick’s son Joshua for the first time.

June: Hope in humanity is restored when a middle school boy returned my credit card wallet to his teacher.  Brandon in turn gave him a family pack of tickets to the K-9 benefit show.  Justin’s mom passed away.  Coworker Lianne gave birth to baby K.J.  Coworker Candice’s wedding and the pyrotechnic accident that injured Celeste.  Cousin Nicky’s graduation.  My first geocaching trip.  BFF Joy gave birth to baby Jett.  Team Lesser Weevils breaks last year record raising funds for AIDS Walk Long Beach.  Got a bad sinus infection and had to get on the plane to go to Thailand.

July: Seeing my mom alive for the last time.  Watch Harry Potter 5 twice–once before finishing HP7 and again in IMAX 3D after.  Finished Harry Potter in 26 hours.

August: Amber visited from Colorado.  Reggie the Alligator captured and displayed at LA zoon.  My first Bat’s Day Black Market.  My first time at an American zoo at San Diego Zoo. Departure of Eva.    My mom passed away.

September: Baby boom - announcements from Aurora, Nan, Beth and Celeste’s brother.  Talk Like A Pirate Day caught on at investor’s meeting. 14-year-old hairdryer died. USC’s (and frankly, the entire BCS) crazy football season began.  Girls Night Out in Downtown LA.

October: K9 Benefit Show.  Avenue Q. Marking 50 days after mom’s death, my first time at a local Thai temple.  SoCal’s fiery Fall.  Spectacular Halloween.

November: The Awards Dinner.  Operation Jingle All the Way got us a Marine to adopt.  Shane’s dad closed his beauty supply store.  My 2-day birthday celebration.  Cool Cat VP Greg W. passed away.  Marking 100 days after mom’s death by myself.  News broke on USC football may be going to the Rose Bowl.  20,000 visitors.  Mom would’ve turned 66.

December: Girls Night In at Nhien’s.   Mad holiday season at work and at home: 2 parties at my work, one at Brandon’s, and dinner at our place.  One week without hot water.  And now hot water is coming out of the cold water tap as well.  *sigh*

New Year’s Eve Plan: Nora is coming over tomorrow to have dinner and spend the night.  We don’t have any invitation to any party or to go count down at anyone’s house as yet.  So we might end up at home, by the beach to watch the fireworks on the Queen Mary, or at someone else’s house.  We shall see. 

Wishing you a VERY HAPPY 2008!

Still no hot water, kids.

The landlady decided to get rid of this old heater which breaks down every 6 months altogether.  So, water will be shut off tomorrow late morning through evening.  Then we should have water AND hot water after that.

Oh, and I went and got me a flu-like energy sap and achy-all-over-ness.   Called in sick and slept most of the morning and the afternoon.  I mean, I couldn’t move this morning as if I was ran over by a herd of reindeer over Christmas or something.  Am getting spurts of energy alternating with utmost exhaustion though.  But I’m mostly exhausted.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  I seem to get this same fever-exhaustion every time I’m coming out of stressful period in life.  Who knew I was stressing over the holidays!

Hello from the empty void that is Downtown Los Angeles the day after Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas dinner last night. I made my first prime rib ever! Using Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Holiday Table as a starting point, I made the horseradish garlic crusted prime rib with wild mushroom sauce, candied carrots and creamed pearl onions. Instead of the potato cake, we had regular mashed potatoes, putting some traditional dish into the otherwise quite “fancy” dinner.

We fed Shane and his dad, Big Erik and K9 Steve. Poor Steve was on patrol last night, so I packed him a to-go box. But he did have a few minutes to eat, so he actually sat down for a meal at our place.

Good times.

The “Naught” part of Christmas? Hot water.

That’s right, kids. Our hot water went out again. This time, in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. We ran into our landlady, “What am I going to do?! It’s 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve!”

So Brandon and I spent most of Christmas morning boiling water for our bath. This morning, we were up around 5 to do the same.

To add insults to injury, Brandon dropped a drinking glass at Christmas dinner. He swept the kitchen but didn’t quite got everything. And guess who ended up with a shard in her foot at party’s end?

I saw a piece of glass and tried to tweeze it out. It was this itsy bitsy puncture but bled like a geyser. Figured I had half a bottle of wine up to this point. I thought I got most of it and the rest of it should probably work itself out over night. Oh, was I wrong about that.

I took my first gingerly step out of bed this morning. It felt fine so I put my weight on the foot.

I felt the sharp pain all the way in my ears. And I started bleeding again. There was still something inside my foot. At this rate, I was going to go to urgent care and have my foot taken care of. But then, I caught a glimmer of the glass.

Ah. Fuck it. I can do this.

I hunkered down and put the tweezer to it. I got a hold of something and I started the slow, agonizing pull.

A 5-millimeter long, as thick as an acupuncture needle shard of glass came out.

Ouch is right.

Other than that, I think we had a pretty good Christmas.

ETA: Still no hot water when I got home  I went over to James and Aurora after dinner to use their shower.  A girl has to wash her hair!  Besides, I didn’t want to risk getting a cold.  I have been sneezing my head off all day today.

I popped in my Christmas Day CD from my beloved Victoria’s Secrets Christmas compilation as I drove out on my Santa Round, taking presents to friends and families.

“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening. In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight. Walking in a winter wonderland,” crooned Tony Bennett.

I started to giggle.

Here I was, in my short sleeved shirt with the windows rolled down, driving down the sunny street where today’s forecast looks like this:

I usually protest temperature dropping under the 70s, but welcome the cold during Christmas. I have spent a few snowy Christmases in the harbor of Washington state and one more in the mountains of New Mexico. So I somewhat like the idea of Christmas winter snow. It adds to the festivities of the season.

Being in California, I understand the lack of snow, but usually the heater has to be turned on or the fireplace has to be roaring. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas until the $2 Santa hat can actually keep you warm.

Today, I can barely wear the hat on my round. Too damn hot. Brandon is close on running the A/C but fortunately the sun set and the temperature outside starts to drop a bit.

Anyway. Wishing you a very merry Christmas wherever you are and whatever the temperature may be!

From my #1 Christmas movie of all time (so far) Love Actually.

And for you geeks out there, Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime!

The day after Brandon’s office party, where I showed up wearing the elf hat and chugging the big ol’ mug of Guinness, one of his colleagues from another department came up to him.

“Was you wife drunk at the party?”

“What? No! Why? Because that giant mug of Guinness?”

“Well, we figured she’s got to be drunk wearing that elf hat and all of that.”

“Nah. That’s just how she is, man.”

“Oh.”

Brandon’s sergeant chimed in at this point that, yes indeed, Oakley is quirky that way, with or without the booze.

“Now don’t you be spreading the rumor about his wife,” the Sarge warned the guy.

Dude. What the hell!? I mean, just because I like wearing funny hats, that equates drunk? This guy must be hanging out around some REALLY dull people.

Look, dude. I wear that hat EVERYWHERE. It’s the holidays for god’s sake.

And then, there is always this thing about being the only geeky one in the office and sometimes in good company of other non-geeks. Suddenly you realized that you’re the only one who actually watch SciFi channel or “Chuck”, play or talk about video games, or understand the beauty of “all your base are belong to us”, “uber pownage” or Jonathan Coulter. (JC is my new music obsession at the moment, thanks to James.)

“Oh I wouldn’t spend that $50 on a game or spend all day playing it,” someone said. “That’s just like a total waste of time and money.”

That’s all relative, my friend. Some people use that same money and time in a bar somewhere, fix up a classic car, tweaking new speakers in their arsenal of sound systems, or do whatever it is that they do for a hobby. OUR hobby happens to be games. There may not be any finished product at the end, but hey we enjoyed those “wasted” hours as much as anybody else doing what THEY love to do.

I just hate it when people single you out because you’re different. I get made fun of all the times since I was a kid, just enough off the norm to not be normal. I embrace my abnormality, but occasionally people do really rub it in to you. I don’t make fun of you for being “normal”. Leave me the fuck alone on being geekier that you. Sheesh. But I digress.

I know I complain or roll my eyes sometimes when I go to dinner with Brandon and his bunch of geeks. It’s always game talk. WoW this. EQ that. What quest to do. What zone to run through. A gig of something. Megahertz of other. Funny clip of a chipmunk. How about that liquid helium footage.

But after spending a whole lot of time among non-geeks, I really start to appreciate all the geek talk. Suddenly, I’m back where I belong. With people who talk the same language and adore my elf hat.

Just got a confirmation from my dad. He’ll meet us in Honolulu in January for Emily’s wedding.

Oh, I didn’t tell you?

We. Are. Going. To.

HAWAII!!!!!!

Emily is the youngest daughter of my dad’s best friend Ray who lives in Hawaii. Ray’s been bugging my dad for years for us to come visit.

When I told Brandon about it, he looked at me and said, “Okay. Let’s go.” Surprised the hell out of me. Really?

“Well, that’ll take care of what we’re getting each other for our anniversary, right?”

Damn skippy, baby. Damn skippy.

I love the smell of bacon in the morning.

But when it starts to linger through the afternoon, one must brave the cold breezes through the house just to get the smell out a little bit more. Our kitchen vent is not powerful enough to do anything, really.

Since I was going to make my breakfast skillet this morning and the house was going to smell like bacon anyway, I figured I’d just go ahead and make a batch of Jessica Gorman’s Olive Oil and Bacon Truffles.

And before you say “Ewwwwwwwww…”, that recipe is for doggies. That’s right. I did baked dog treats for a few friends for Christmas. Remember, we don’t have kids over here so we spoil our friends’ “kids”.

So anyways. The smell of bacon was nice when we had our breakfast.  But by noon, it was just getting old.

We left the windows and doors open all day to catch the cross breeze but there just wasn’t a lot of breeze to cross. We also lit some candles to aid the effort.

And now, our place smells like cucumber melon with a hint of bacon grease.

Lovely indeed.

Holiday parties…holiday parties everywhere…

Last night was the company party for our investors. My “job” was at the piano and behind the (brand new Fuji FinePix) camera. I had a martini late in the game which, fortunately for me, didn’t hit me until I got out of my car at home.

Today, I was at Brandon’s department party where I amazed his coworkers (who were drinking these luscious martinis)…

…with the ability to consume this amount of Guinness…

Tomorrow, my company staff party. Lychee martini, come to mama!

I played the piano and sang. A few friends joined me. Even some guy I don’t know joined me!

Folks, this is what happens at a holiday party for our investors with a grand piano in the entrance foyer, separated from the rest of the party where in you can barely hear yourself talk.

So us in the foyer had a blast doing half-ass sing-alongs from The Sound of Music, some other Christmas carols we had no idea what the words are. Well, I play by ears and mostly to the key of C. And I have not practiced my Christmas songbooks this year yet. (I’m late! I know!). So I churned out whatever I remembered. And people tried to sing along to whatever they knew.

Hail to the Chief (when the CEO walked in but he didn’t get that joke). God save the Queen (some Brits in the house requested that). USC Fight Song, of course. Desperado (one of my repertoires). Moon River. La Vie En Rose. Piano Man. Jingle Bell. Santa Baby. Sound of Music. Do a Deer…a female deer. Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me. Etc.

The best moment? You see, I have a softer, lyrical adaptation of Meatloaf’s “I’d do anything for love (but I won’t do that)” to play as one of my “muzak” when folks walk into meetings. That and Metallica’s “Nothing else matters”, for untrained ears were pretty good piano music. Anyways, at the end of the party, as everyone had enough alcohol in the system, including yours truly, and not many people left hanging around, I bust out the full rock version. I was totally rocking out at the baby grand all by myself when one of the investors walked up to me.

“That’s a great song,” he said.

“Meatloaf,” I uttered.

“I know,” he replied. And then he started to sing along to the chorus. I chimed in with the girl’s part toward the ending. And he finished the song.

He applauded. I got up to shake his hand. He gave me a hug and left. I don’t even know who that guy was.

Good times for all!