Category: Rant/Whine

Ranting and raving and whining and bitching. Oh yes!

Oh Happy Day

Today wasn’t a happy one for me personally.

First up, I had to get a couple of separators back in my teeth as they came right off on the first day of having them. My teeth have been sore all week so at this point, whatever.

Then off to get my vision field test. I didn’t remember the last time my eyes were dilated, so I told my boss I’d come in after that was done.

Yeah right!

I had to hold my phone at arms length to try to call my boss. It was that bad. I could kind of drive but at 11 a.m. it was really, REALLY bright out even with the paper glasses they gave me to wear. I barely made it home but I had been squinting so badly my head started to hurt.  I braved the computer screen, turned the brightness down low, but still couldn’t read anything to save my life.  So I resigned to the couch for most of the afternoon.

Yeah, totally understand what a vampire must feel like.

I wanted to take a picture of how HUGE my pupils were for you guys but even the bathroom lights were a little bit too bright. I kind of look like this.

Eeeek!
Eeeek!

However, this frustrating day does have a few good perks.

Our friend Matt called to let us know he and his wife are expecting their first baby.  Their little boy would probably share my birthday.  Exciting news!

And of course, I had the chance to finish up packing and made final arrangements for our Miami trip tomorrow.  Irena and Danny are tying the knot, and it is an honor for us to be able to be there.  Another friend of ours and his fiance will be joining us too.

Coconut Grove, here we come!  I will take a shot of rum for the pain in my teeth and brave at least ONE bite of real Cuban food.  But at least mofongo is soft enough.

Hmm…mofongo…

Back to packing.  I might not be blogging from there but will DEFINITELY be tweeting and sending pics.

BTW – Anyone with any tips on how to get around the area without a car, please do share.  We were told that we wouldn’t need one so we didn’t plan on renting one.  Hope that’s not a mistake.

Motherless Day

“So what are you doing for Mother’s Day?” asked the perky medical assistant taking my vitals.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Nothing?”

“Well, if my mom hasn’t passed away, she’d be in Thailand so that’s kind of hard. Besides, Thai Mother’s Day is in August, so…”

“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

It still feels a little funny telling some strangers that my mom has passed on. A lot of “where are your parents?” question when people find out I wasn’t from here. I usually go with “My dad and brothers are in Thailand still” and hope that THAT would be enough clue for people. But most people followed with, “What about your mom?”

She’s dead.

Oh my god. I’m so sorry.

No, no. That’s okay. Really, I have nothing else better to do than trying to make you feel better about a line you’ve just crossed. Seriously. It’s my fault for not having a living mother you can asked about. And it’s my fault for not telling you straight off.

Hi, I’m Oakley. I’m from Thailand. My husband’s white. My mom’s dead.

There. Is that better? Great.

It’s been over a year and I’m still not comfortable saying it out loud to people.

Does anyone ever get used to saying it?  Could one?

Sloth Flu

I almost literally slept through this week.

Coming down with some kind of sickness, I was expecting that after 2 weekends of wind, sun, and mead.  I just didn’t quite expect it to hit so hard.

Wednesday morning, I woke up with a sore throat and zero energy.  I called my boss and went back to sleep. I woke up for breakfast, made echinacea defense tea, and went back to sleep. I woke up to snack and shambled out to my cooking class with Aurora. (Link up soon.)  I came home, watched LOST, took Tylenol PM and went to sleep. I kept checking for fever but there was none.

Thursday morning, I woke myself up with a cough, found myself still with a sore throat, zero energy, and now, no voice.  I kept checking for fever but still there was none.  I called my boss for another day off then called for appointment with my doctor.  Strep? Flu? Whatever it is was leaving me exhausted.  I shambled out to get separators put in my teeth in preparation for braces coming in 2 weeks from now.  Then I schlepped over to the doctor.

Good news, not strep or flu.  But sinus infection again apparently.

But she only gave me paper prescription for antibiotics in case things get worse.  Let’s put some faith on my body being able to fight this thing off by itself, she said.  I’ve been doing so well this year so she didn’t want to start me in on the antibiotic vicious circle again.

And now my teeth are hurting from the separators.  On top of the sore throat, I also can’t really chew.

Great.

I dragged my butt to Fresh & Easy and bought chicken soup ingredients, tossed all that in the crock pot, made some more tea, and went to sleep.  I woke up when Brandon got home and ate some soup.  He rolled me into the car and into the theater to see Star Trek with my friend Erin.  Half way blinded by all the lense flares, thoroughly entertained by the movie, and completely in bliss from seeing all my hot boys in space (Chris Pine makes Kirk adorable instead of smarmy and Zach Quinto makes Spock so fuckin’ hot it’s illogical!), Brandon rolled me back into the car and put me in bed.

Friday I got up and again shambled out to go to work.  One of the bus people picked me up to carpool to work. She was leaving around 1 p.m.  My boss saw my face and told me to go home with the carpool lady.  I got home around 2 p.m. and slept the rest of the day, woke up to make myself some omelet–the only thing I could gnaw on with my teeth hurting–and watched Let the Right One In with Brandon.  My nose started to actually clog up.  I took Nyquil and went to bed around 10.

11:30 a.m. this morning, Brandon woke me up.  I finally have the real “sick” feeling of snotty nose and a cough.  Still no fever to speak of but I do walking around feeling like I have one.  We ran some errands.  And here I am, forcing myself NOT to go back to sleep. But I don’t think I can stave that off.

Sloth flu.  I guess you can call it that.

Cakey Dilemma

I went to my local cupcake shop, Charmed Cupcakes, to buy some for the office birthday party tomorrow.

“I would like to get 3 cupcakes, please. And can you please put them in one box?”

“Actually, I can’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t put 3 cupcakes in one box. But I can do two of them in one and one of them by itself.”

Odd. I’ve gotten cake in bigger boxes before. “Oh, I guess that’s okay. Now, I would like 4 more cupcakes, please.”

“Do you want them in one box?”

“Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

She put 4 cupcakes–eventually 5 cupcakes because it was buy 3 get one free promotion–in one BIG box.

However, 3 cupcakes don’t qualify to go in ONE big box.

Thank god the cupcakes are really good here.

Obligatory Earth Day Message

Happy Earth Day.

I’m not much of an environmentalist but I’m slowly becoming a plastic bag usage nazi.

I have canvas bags in my car and use them for my grocery shopping everywhere, and I refuse to take any plastic bags whenever I can carry my own loot out of the store…which was met with a LOT of  “Are you sure?”

Yes I AM sure I can carry my prescription and a bottle of Nyquil out on my own.

Yes I AM sure a loaf of bread, a pack of sliced cheese, and 2 tomatoes won’t need a bag.

Yes I AM sure I won’t need a bag for ONE bottle of Dr. Pepper, doesn’t matter what size it is.

It’s not just us shopper who need to change. It’s the shopkeepers as well.

I do recycle bottles and cans at home because we have a recycling trailer thingy close by.  And with the amount of sodas and Yakult consumed by Brandon and I, respectively, it would be ridiculous not to recycle those.

However, if our apartment has a full recycling trash pick up like those in private homes, I would recycle everything possible.  I think it is worth the time to recycle.

Finally, my biggest environmental guilt.

I am a big guilty for not bringing my coffee mug down to Starbucks.  I was doing that for a while and ended up with up to 3 unwashed mugs on my desk.  Now that I’m doing Starbucks latte type only once a week, I probably should pick that habit up again, and bring a plastic bottle in for my occasional iced tea treats.

Now only if we can do something about garbage BAGS we put all this stuff in.

And it wouldn’t be Earth Day without this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcnVzjakBQA]

Running Ragged

Funniest quote of the weekend:

We rode the Passport bus to the Grand Prix and back from Alamitos Bay.  Somewhere by the Bluff on our way back, we spotted a couple of ladies walking down the street holding hands.

The woman in front of us turned her head completely, pointing at the couple, excitedly telling her friend, “Oh my GOD! Girl, look! Look!  Lesbians holding hands!”

The friend wore a Lakers hat and she didn’t really turn her head to look back, so I could only assume she’s local.

I live in a diverse existance and I am an openminded person.  Sometime I really do forget there are folks out there who might have never seen a gay couple in their lives.

But pointing and gasping at lesbians holding hands? Really?  I mean, what are you on a safari trip, pointing out exotic creatures?

Sure, curiousity is one thing. But so openly pointed some PEOPLE out as if they were novelty creatures, that’s just rude.

But anyways. I digress.

Hi.  How are ya?  ;-D

It’s been an interesting few days.

I’ve gone from a mother hen in the cooking class on Wednesday.

To a blob of exhaustion on Thursday, sleeping off my usual post-stress system crash for most of the day, just to drag myself out to my bus buddy’s retirement party in the evening.

To an IT guy on Friday, hunting down missing softwares and install them on my own new computer. Our actual IT guy popped in here and there to log me in as admin so I can install stuff my(goddamn)self.

To a social butterfly on Saturday, going out to see Sunshine Cleaning with Amanda, then we met up with our hubbies for dinner at Long Beach’s only Korean restaurant, Cafe Sura, THEN we met up with our friend Zak who introduced us to his lovely fiance down in Belmont Shore.  (By the way, Belmont Station? Seriously? That place is dumpy compared to everyone else on the strip.)

To a overheating Long Beach Grand Prix attendee on Sunday.  It started with a great party at Keesal, Young & Logan to which I was privileged to get invited, then we went to the Grand Prix itself.  I still don’t understand the appeal of really fast cars going around the tracks 85 times.  But at least Formula 1 cars are not just going around in big circles.  I probably took over 200 pictures, only 4 of which I actually caught the damn cars.  I’ll put those pictures up soon.

It’s been kind of busy but in a good way, really.  How’s your weekend?