Magic in Charity: Every $10 made at Siamese Pixie Store, #2, #3, #4, and
geek stuff PLUS whatever I made with Adsense is sent to Thai Red Cross, my mom's favorite charity. As of June 1, we are at $2.56 toward the next $10 and so far have donated $30.
I went online to shop for an item I needed for the kitchen that I couldn’t seem to find in the stores. [I can't say what the item is until it is given. Read on to find out why.] My friend @MacabrePhotog was the one who inspired me to get one of these, but he himself does not have one.
When I tweeted him that I bought him something, he was quite surprised. Another friend chimed in asking it was because his birthday was in a couple of months.
Nope. I don’t need an occasion to buy a friend something.
This notion of a gifting without an occasion was quite new to @MacabrePhotog. He sent me a message later saying that he couldn’t remember the last time someone bought him something for no reason.
Welcome to my circle of friends, I told him.
I have made some new friends this past year or so. And they haven’t yet gotten used to the fact that I’m quite good at random gifting.
Old friends know that I would come back from a farmer’s market with the last of this season’s Asian pears because I know they like them; that I would turn up with extra cream puffs if I ever go down to Beard Papa’s; or that I would make extra meatballs so the new moms could have them later.
Yet another trait I’ve picked up from my mother.
As long as I remember, my mom and her friends have always picked up something for each other when they were out somewhere. I’m not talking about souvenirs from far away places–but yes, we received those too–but from a trip to the mall or a stroll through a market.
Bags of mandarin oranges were messengered over from Aunty Rae’s office–because she found a great deal from a fruit vendor when she was out to lunch. Aunty Sida’s driver dropped off barbecued duck for our dinner since she was at the restaurant that’s famous for duck. Mom just sent some tote bags she picked up from today’s shopping trip out with my brother as he headed to the sports club to hand it to Aunty Jim.
You get the idea.
Mind you, this was even before cell phones. They did manage to call each other before stuff get sent over. But a lot of the times, things would just show up.
Even while I was away in the U.S., I could come home in the summer to find a pile of Thai souvenirs my mom had collected for me to take back to give to people for Christmas. And 1/3 of that pile would be from the aunties who thought of me while they were out shopping. Not to mention something else they had gotten for me specifically.
Buying a treat for your friends once in a while never hurt anybody…as long as you can afford it, of course.
That was the message I got from my mom and her friends. My mom never really taught me to do this. I just learned from watching her and the aunties.
One of the very last things I got to do with her before she had the stroke, and eventually passed away, was to hit the mall with the aunties. It was in February and the mall was full of Valentine’s Day stuff. My mom sent me slinking off to another cashier station to buy everyone a red carnation each. (”But mom, there are ROSES!” “The roses are too pricey. The aunties will yell at you for wasting money if you get those. Get the carnations!”)
Aunty Sida outdid us by later passing around bright red hand towels with “love” printed on them to everyone. But we didn’t even see her buy anything! The trick was that she spotted them on the way to the restroom. She had them held, then texted her driver to buy them up while we were in a different section of the mall! LOL
Now I found myself wandering through Target, calling my friend Aurora to ask what size shirt do you think our friend Jim wears because I found a $5 Captain America t-shirt he’d love.
I’m a lot more like my mom that I thought.
Oh, and if you’re thinking I would be driving Brandon crazy with my shopping for other people, guess again. The mister does the same thing.
A lot has happened since I got back from Costa Rica. As I was coming to grip with how to take life a little bit easier, this shit went down in Bangkok.
My family home is literally in the war zone. I mean, they had been since the Red Shirts camped out not 200 meters down the street. Everyone is safe now, but my dad and brother, my uncle and his family, and our family maid were more or less held hostage by all of the activities all around.
My brother did take a heroic run to take an elderly neighbor with a heart condition to the hospital and returned home with food and supplies to stock up. And he did it again the day after the city was ablaze, to take my dad with a severely painful “stuck shoulder” to the doctor. Ah, calcific tendonitis, calcification of the tendons in the shoulder! You know just when to reveal yourself!
I didn’t realize I’ve inherited my mom’s ability to worry too much.
Hellooo anxiety! Thanks for visiting.
I’m sure the level of angst I had since last Tuesday was multiplied by each mile away from Bangkok. And that inadvertently made me shut down and mentally run away again.
Ask Brandon what I’ve been doing these past few evenings. That’s right. I sat in front of the TV and didn’t move. The good ol’ self defense mechanism when things got too much for me to handle, I just ran away into TV Land.
As things seem to be returning to normal in my hometown, I came across another fork in the road of life.
But making the decision on which direction to take wasn’t a problem. It seems things have been decided for me already.
Those who have read “The Alchemist” know this well: “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”
So many things happened to so many aspects of my life these past few weeks.
First, a few weeks ago, Brandon and I were deciding what to do for Memorial Day weekend. Do we stay? Do we go?
Do you want to go to Monterey to re-do our disastrous first romantic getaway or go to Hearst Castle? How about Joshua Tree before it gets hot? We couldn’t decide but we know for sure we didn’t want to be in town.
Then I saw posts from our friends in Portland. And I was reminded that we told them we’d going to visit them this year. Why not now?
Cheech’s dad is visiting but he’s leaving tomorrow morning, leaving him enough time to clean up and be our host. Matt and Traci are lined up for dinner on Saturday night, and Rachel for Sunday breakfast.
And then just last week, another universal alignment.
Did you know that I’ve always wanted to do archery? I don’t recall having shot any arrows when I was in Thailand, but I sure as heck ran to the booth the first time we went to Renaissance Faire. I was in love with the long bow. But I didn’t quite find time or resources to explore further or take it up.
Then I started to go to shooting range with Brandon and his colleagues. As much as I like to shoot firearms, I don’t really care for the noise. I’d prefer something quite as deadly but a lot quieter. We’re back to the archery conversation. And again, it didn’t go anywhere.
And then, out of the clear blue sky, Brandon’s coworker posted something on Facebook about his daughter doing archery class. He found out a new range has recently opened in Los Alamitos. He was telling me as we got in the car to go get dinner. But he suddenly changed his mind about where to eat and we ended up at Pasties…which is down the road from the Archery Outpost.
We popped in and I already felt right at home. We chatted with the friendly staff, and got the tour of the place and a bit of the history of this family business.
This comes in the heel of my decision to step further back from my involvement with Thrill the World Los Angeles.
The universe couldn’t have been clearer about its plan for me.
6 days in Costa Rica and I came back with a new look at life.
I went 6 days without the internet (except for a 30 minutes I hopped on to check in with the hubby when I arrived and before I left), work, or television.
I went 6 days without much of anything but gallo pinto, rum, and time.
Yep. Nora and I didn’t do much of anything during our trip but relax and go with the flow.
We landed in San Jose at 9 a.m. on Thursday and we were at Calilu restaurant to wait for our shuttle by 10 a.m. The shuttle to take us to Playa Conchal was to pick us up at 3 p.m. We sat and ate, made a new friend with a Canadian girl, learned to play Gin Rummy, and watched the rain fall.
Our driver was awesome and we learned the meaning of “Pura Vida”–pure life–or pretty much the answer for anything in Costa Rica: excellent, fantastic, I’m well, etc. Our Canadian friend ended up saying good bye to us as “Puta Vida” and “Puerto Vida” after another 5 hours in the van. LOL.
Having gotten into our room at the all-inclusive Paradisus Playa Conchal at 8 p.m. that night, we called for room service and cracked open in-room Imperial beers and called it a night.
The next few days was pretty much this: wake up at 8, done with breakfast by 9, and sit out by the pool or swim up to the bar for the rest of the morning.
We explored the hotel’s golf course on Friday, looking for the howling monkeys, bought our postcards, hit the beach, and had a wine tasting class, tasting house wines…meh. Dinner with the Bride and Groom and friends, gambled a bit at the tiny little “casino”, and more drinking with the Groom and his friends.
On Saturday, we were in the swim up bar with the boys until all of us had to get get ready for the wedding. The beautiful sunset ceremony on the beach north of the hotel was awesome and we didn’t get rained on, which was a HUGE blessing. A casual reception followed. Afterward the boys went back to continue drinking in their room and the girls ended up at the pool. I didn’t go with either party but the late night downpour sent all the girls running in the middle of the night from what I heard. LOL.
Sunday morning came, we squeezed in our morning routine before packing up and checked out at noon. At 2 p.m. we were once again on the shuttle, heading back to San Jose. At 7: 30 p.m. we got out of the van in Escazu, just west of San Jose. My friend Richard picked us up and took us back to his farm in Alajuela, just north of San Jose.
Richard was a chaperone (”Leader”) of his Costa Rican delegation of 4 11-year-old kids to the international camp in Australia I also went to back in 1989. We have managed to keep in touch these 20 years and here we were, sleeping in his living room in Costa Rica. Who woulda thunk!
Richard took us through the windy roads of Alajuela and up to Poas volcano. We hiked up to see the crater but got the San Francisco treatment: nothing but fog. He then treated us to Costa Rican lunch and ice cream at Pops, the Costa Rican version of Baskin Robbins essentially, and a quick tour through Alajuela town center. Now, THAT is a contrast from our 3 nights at a touristy, vanilla all-inclusive. We got to really see the country and the people! Nora and I whipped up dinner at the end of the afternoon of watching thunderstorm rolled in over the farm, and capped off the day with Richard’s favoriate movie “Across the Universe”. All three of us are Beatles fans so that was quite awesome.
Our last day in town, Richard dropped us off in Downtown San Jose to explore. We dragged our feet through the Precolumbian Gold Museum, lingered over our lunch at the Gran Costa Rica Hotel, and explored the mini souvenir mall. We took the cab back to Richard’s office and he drove us half way to the airport, fetched us a cab, and we said our goodbyes. A few more hours of waiting at the airport and Nora and I were on our way home.
We didn’t do a lot. We didn’t have excursions planned. We didn’t zipline.
But we did enjoy our downtime.
With all I had on my hand was time,I’ve learned to relax for the first time in a long time. I’ve learned to let things go and enjoy the moment. I’ve learned that I can still walk away from work a little and that I can’t let it consume me like I have been.
My shoulders haven’t been up to my ears since I got back as my normal life’s stuff starts circling me.
I’m slowly getting back on the internet life, catching up with duties left behind, and clearing out the DVR.
No, I did NOT give up on Meatless Tuesday. However, I’m giving up on blogging about it.
Guys, the Meatless Tuesday experiment has stuck. 16 weeks I haven’t wavered and my resolution is as strong as before. It’s just that now that Meatless Tuesday has become an established routine, writing about it seems, well, tedious. And absolutely unimportant.
I have been tempted to drop it and go for meat a couple of times when I was stressed out. Sure, I wussed out and got nachos or something as bad for me on those days, but I managed to not eat meat. Or, as of the new added rule, take any swig of an alcoholic drink.
I have a few accidental egg consumption. And maybe even a few more of disguised eggs consumption that I chose to ignore. But I’ve being more conscious of the egg content as well.
I just thought, at this point, when it becomes just as normal as my everyday diet, I probably shouldn’t bore you any more with it.
So here we are, the last Meatless Tuesday post.
Also a few weeks before I may fall off the wagon.
You see, I’m traveling to Costa Rica this Wednesday. The following Tuesday is the day I get back, but we don’t leave until 6 p.m. Having read the guide book, I could possibly avoid the meat during my last day, but I won’t make anyone’s life difficult especially my friend who’s hosting me for the last few days in Costa Rica. If meat and eggs show up, I will eat it. And I’ll take Wednesday off meat instead. Just this one time to not offend my host during travel, that is one compromise I will do.
So, be happy for me, my friends, that I have made a year goal into a lifetime commitment.
And I’m sure you’re not going to miss reading about my weekly diet. ;-D
TED conference is where the brightest minds came together to share their ideas. I’ve heard of the event last year for the first time, and have been wanting to attend ever since.
And I finally got to do it this past week at TEDxUSC, an independently organized event hosted by USC.
In a small world, Amy G told me about her friend who were going to TED who turned out to know @FStop23. As a matter of fact, dude was the one who told @Fstop23 about the conference, who then reminded me to apply for the invitation. I, then, in turn, told my friend Janetta about it. The next thing we knew, our little posse worked out a great deal. @Fstop23’s gang, having a more flexible schedule than the rest of us, secured our seats in Bovard Auditorium. (5th row from the stage, better than my CEO’s seat, no less. Not too shabby there, gang!) I showed up with lunch for one of the gang and snacks in hand.
We’re talking innovation here, so I baked Pim’s The Morning After Banana Bread in muffin form. Ah, the glorious blend of bananas, espresso, and Jameson! Not only I got to feed my little crew, I offered some to the people sitting nearby and some random students as well.
See? Ideas AND muffins worth sharing!
Anyways. TEDxUSC’s format was mostly live speakers with a few videos of TED presentations, USC student films, and musical performances.
My mind was blown.
So much energy in the place. And so positive! Bovard auditorium has never felt so large AND small all at the same time. I mean, there’s so much more out there to know and to discover that you feel so tiny, but yet all the spirit of discoveries and innovation makes you feel larger in life, like you too can do ANYTHING.
Like Woodstock for the brainiacs.
Peace. And free ideas. Rock on, man.
I’m not going to recap everything from the event because they’ll post all of that up on TED website soon. However, these are the ones that made an impact on me.
Then we were in space with Dr. Nicholas Patrick, NASA astronaut. How your perception of everything changed when you’re in space. Like the value of letting go and holding on. One of the most intriguing things he said: You can see the [environmental] policies from space. How the policies are affecting the earth. We can’t see it down here but they can see it from up there.
And while in space, we explored a little further with Paul Frommer, the creator of the Na’vi language for Avatar. Instead of discussing the language, he instead introduced us to how to use Na’vi in romantic situations. Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?
The video of Temple Grandin’s presentation at earlier TED conference was very fascinating. “She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids,” says the description. Ms. Grandin herself said that the world needs all kinds of minds. And the mentors are essentials in bringing in more great minds. Funny how in WIRED magazine a few months ago, Thokil Sonne advocates for the same thing for the 12 shocking ideas that could change the world.
Michael Yap, CEO at the Media Development Authority of Singapore, talked about new media in sharing experience. The whole putting another billion people online is one thing. But then he showed a video of a “Food Lab” which has sensors in your ladle and in your pot, which transmits to the other pot and ladle so you can learn to cook, knowing exactly how much force you need to stir a pot at what temperature. I’m not alone in thinking that it was a little creepy of a way to learn to cook.
Food should be something personal. Look at all the processed foods out of the factories, they’re nothing like a home cooked or even restaurant meal. Human element is needed to make food good. Oh yeah, I’m off on a foodie tangent there for a bit. But see? Wouldn’t have stopped to think about how I or we learn to cook and what food really means until Michael showed us that.
Then there’s a sit-down chat wiht Jeb Corliss, the Human Bird. Dude puts on a flying squirrel suit and jumps off planes. He said it’s not because he has no fear but that he harnesses the power of his fear into training and meticulous planning of every tiny little steps to ensure that everything goes right. If you do that enough, you have nothing to fear. While I can understand what he’s saying, I still think dude’s fucking nuts. And awesome.
And of course, Al Seckel. At this point, we’ve been in the auditorium for 4 hours now. And then Al came in and fucked with all of our brains with his sensory and visual illusions. It started with all these crazy visual stuff then it was also audio. You know, Stairways to Heaven going backward on its own was mumbo jumbo but when you look at the “hidden lyrics” while you listen, suddenly you hear every word that wasn’t there. But all of that comes down to how your perception was formed (by the age of 8 thereabouts) and what we think we believe in. Total trip.
We closed with the behind-the-scene of OK Go’s Rube Goldberg music video with Adam Sadowsky of Syyn Labs himself with a video intro from the band. (Tricked me. For a second I thought OK Go was REALLY behind the curtains! Boo on you, Adam!)
Like that wasn’t enough. There was an interactive reception afterward with “toys” you can play with like interactive physical therapy game that needs you to move to accomplish the task–a gentler Wii, if you will–and then there’s this laser thing that traces your image and projects it onto a wall (look at Janetta below playing with her laser shadow), and some models showing off wearable arts by Psycho Girlfriend like a dress made out of plastic tubings or pool foam “noodles”.
Now, at the reception.
<rant>
Us paid customers to TEDxUSC got red badges and no wrist band. I’m assuming that they too assumed we were all of age. Students in attendance were carded and given wristbands if they are over 21.
It is a blessing and a curse of looking like a college student even though I graduated from that very same college 10 years ago. The bartender wouldn’t serve me. because I had no wristband. I told him we red badgers didn’t get one so here’s my ID. He refused to check my ID and brushed me completely aside.
Look, motherfucker, if I was an underage trying to get a drink, would I BEG you to check my ID!? I PAID to be here at this event and have been in the fucking auditorium for 6 fucking hours. AND YOU WON’T SERVE ME MY MOTHER FUCKING WINE?!?!
Yep. I almost went Woodstock 1999 on his ass.
I found another bartender who listened to my situation, kindly looked at my red badge, and checked my ID. Wine was served with a smile AND an apology for inconvenience.
The kicker? I went back to the motherfucker who refused service earlier with my empty plastic cup of red wine and asked for a refill. “Of course, miss. Here you go.” Not event asking for that godforsaken wristband he couldn’t live without a half hour ago. Whatever.
</rant>
Despite the ID incident, the event was great. Our little gang had a great time.
I ran into someone I know during the break. I asked how he was liking the event. He said that he didn’t understand why the program should be interrupted by music and student films. And he thought not all speakers were worthy because they weren’t all innovation that are practical. What’s with that human bird guy or that autistic lady? A kid with looping electric violin? Really? For business executives like him, he said, he felt like he was cheated out of his precious time to spent 2 out of the 6 hours with what he considered nonsense instead of finding out more about cutting edge innovation.
My friend Janetta just looked at him and said, “You’re not at the right conference then. That’s not what TED is about.”
This Easter weekend brought out friends old and new.
Saturday I spent the morning with my hubby cruising down to San Pedro for a feast that is breakfast at Gaffey Street Diner. The rest of the day I spent baking, mostly.
That night, the hubby set me loose to party with my Twitter crew.
We threw an early birthday party for @always_blond at @fstop23’s place. The ever gracious host didn’t call off the party when he heard that his daughter-in-law had gone into labor earlier in the day. However, we had contingency plan as to where the key is and what we were to do if he had to run off to the hospital to hold his first grandchild.
All the usual suspects were there: @macabrephoto, @sendchocolate, @vbesack, @joncruz and @dananner who brought her daughter. We also met @kerbehr and @hankito for the first time and I hope we didn’t scare them off…too much. @phraktyl and @phraklet made an appearance after a long absence. Finally, a surprise drop in from @anaperiodista completed the crew.
In the middle of all of the party, of course, @fstop23 suddenly yelled out, “Sophie’s here!!”
The condo exploded in squeals and applause.
I had made a promise to @fstop23’s daughter-in-law, who adores the Nigella’s Guinness Chocolate Cake recipe I make, that she would get her own cake once the baby’s here. So I came to the party with one cake for the birthday girl, and a small one to be delivered to the new mama.
“@fstop23, take the cake!” I called out after him as he was grabbing his keys.
“Oakley, she just gave birth. I don’t think she’d want to eat anything right at this moment…” He didn’t even get to finish that sentence.
Almost every woman in the place is a mother. They weren’t going to let him leave the condo without the cake. And some plastic utensils.
“She hasn’t eaten anything since she’s gone into labor. She KNOWS you’re here with your friends and the cake. AND you’re going back out there without the cake?! Are you fucking kidding me?!” That’s pretty much the general chatter.
He sent a picture back to us a while later of the mama holding the baby. A hospital bed table in front of her, on it was the cake–with a fork stuck out and a good chunk of missing.
Great time was had by all that evening as we rocked out to Rock Band. @phraklet singing Eye of the Tiger was adorable. @macabrephotog posting the pictures of our butts on the internet–whoever stood in front of him during Rock Band–wasn’t quite as adorable but funny as hell. And here’s a payback…
What a night, indeed!
Easter Sunday usually is just another Sunday for us. But this year we were invited to have dinner with Amy. I have just visited with Amy last month but Brandon hasn’t seen her in a couple of years. The mister doesn’t like to drive up to Los Angeles that much so once in a blue moon he’d do the honor.
We missed the earthquake on our way there. Amy and her niece filled us in on the action while Kaya, the golden retriever, showered us with love. We also made a new friend with Jenni who arrived a while later and we all hung out and chat and drank wine while waiting for the roast.
And the what a roast that was! I’ve always known Amy is an awesome cook. But hot dang it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten her cooking.
Besides, it’s kind of nice to eat someone else’s cooking instead of my own once in a while.
The weekend wrapped up with a surprise message.
My high school friend and former BFF Jen has finally joined the Facebook.
Another point for social media.
And here’s to new friends, old friends, good friends, and 4-legged friend!
I’ve told you about the 2010 Baby Boom with all the friends and their babies coming in this year. But I don’t think there are enough babies to go around for Easter…
On that note, the Boom has begun:
March 19: Zachary arrived a little early for J.C. & Erick and Big Brother Joshua.
March 24: Chloe arrived a little late for Aurora & James and Big Brother Dresden.
March 25: Conor arrived on cue for Irena & Danny, first time parents!
Next up…
April 17: a girl, first for Lynda & Sean
May 27: a girl, first for Olaina & Justin
July 3: Eva & Ricky’s 3rd.
Mid July: Brenda & Jon’s first baby.
September: Doe & Wyatt, first baby for the couple, a new sibling for Big Brother Eli.
Guys, at this rate, going meatless is becoming a normal part of my routine. Very comfortable with it now.
Then again, it’s easy to do when you have a restaurant downstairs selling awesome vegetarian/vegan sandwiches at lunch time.
Breakfast:
The usual coffee treat from Starbucks
Fage yogurt with peach puree. Yum!!
.
Lunch:
Half of the French Onion Soup Melt sandwich from Mendocino Farms. Grilled onion on melty aged gruyere on pretzel roll.
Organic tropical iced tea
A nice dose of sunshine
Afternoon snack: crackers and a big spoonful of whipped cream cheese.
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Dinner:
Trader Joe’s frozen entree of paneer masala and spinach rice.
.
Satisfactory level: So so. Well, the breakfast wasn’t all that substantial and the lunch, although nice, was a little bit on the light side. It also didn’t help that I was cutting up 7 lbs. of meat to make the St. Patrick’s Day Guinness Beef Stew when I’d usually be cooking dinner either. LOL.
Thoughts: Like I said, it’s becoming more natural and less of an obligation. I was VERY tempted to drink while I cook dinner but I did very good. Then again, knowing that I’d be indulging the following day is a pretty good motivation.
**
Oh yeah, St. Patty’s day at my house was off the hook. We have a full house this year with my friends and Twitter gang. Lots of food but not a lot of booze consumed. Well, you know, it’s in the middle of the week after all. But we managed to have a few Irish car bombs thrown about.
I had two. And was still standing at the end of the night. Yey me, the wayward alcoholic!
I don’t know why nobody has pointed out before, but my Twitter/blogger friend Dave Conrey called me a Thai-rish.
Kiss me, I’m Thai-rish! LOL.
He said he’s going to make a t-shirt out of that. I’m still waitin’, Dave!
**
The week of fun-ness to balance out the crazy work week continues tomorrow as Brandon and I will go on a little romantic getaway to Sunset Strip for the night.
Why?
Well, you’ll have to tune back in later to find out about that now, won’t you?
I went to my college friend’s wedding yesterday. I knew she is religious and as I received the invitation, I found out that he is too. It’s a match made by God, essentially.
I have been to many weddings: a full mass in beautiful cathedral and Christian-light ceremony which I really don’t mind. I’ve been to the we-made-our-own-tradition, and this-ain’t-about-God/gods ones, and those are usually quite fun.
But this one totally takes the Holy Roller cake.
It’s a little bit frightening when every sentence of the introduction of the ceremony had either God or Jesus Christ in it. And then realized that most of the people there were from the bride and groom’s respective churches.
The speech about marriage being a union of a man and a woman as intended by God, now that I came to expect. I remembered going to a Catholic wedding once with my gay “fiance” Cheech as my date. (Hey, Cheech did say if Brandon wasn’t going to marry me, he would do it just so I didn’t have to leave the country. So yeah, he was my gay fiance! Haha!) We were late so we were in the back of the church anyway, but when it got to the man and woman part, we were rolling our eyes and stifling our giggles in the back.
Here, I rolled my eyes to myself and softly “pssshh”. In hindsight, the folks I heard singing the hymn behind me later on probably were damning me to hell the entire time I made side comments like that.
Especially during the submissive wife section of the speech.
I thought for a second I had traveled back through time. It was said at least 3 times that the wife is made out of the husband, and must be submissive to him and follow him. He is to follow Jesus and she is to follow him. He may not understand you or anger you, but you should listen because he is your husband and you have to trust that he is right.
Did the wind blow so hard we landed in 1910? I wasn’t really sure. Until the kid next to me stared playing with his iPhone out of boredom.
To each, his/her own flavor, I understand it and respect it.
Another friends’ wedding was the complete opposite to this one. Theirs was a spiritual union. They mentioned that love is for all and marriage is for all as well. That the couple would listen to each other and be supportive of each other’s choices. Perhaps those on the other side of the gay marriage fence would be offended by someone turning their wedding into a bit of a political soap box. Well, that’s how I feel about getting Jesus preached at.
But, man, having to sit on a windy and chilly rooftop for one-hour while getting Jesus beating into me totally gave me a glimpse into what my personal hell would look like.
This lovely heavy-handed Christian flavor also continued through the reception which is, you might have already guessed, a dry one.
Thank GOD the bar was only a few steps away. I kept running into the bride’s cousins there. LOL.
However, the redemption came with the Chinese banquet.
11 fucking courses of fantastic Chinese food, y’all.
There were only 8 of us at the table up through Course 4 before 2 of them left. We did pretty good considering one of the friends doesn’t eat seafood.
Appetizers, and there were five: roasted duck, jelly fish salad, seaweed salad, marinaded tofu and mushrooms, barbecued pork, and sliced beef.
Honey walnut shrimp
Scallops, snow peas, carrots
This green soup with seafood bits in it. Funny part is I asked the waiter what soup it is. He said it’s vegetarian. Me: Oh, ok…wait is that shrimp? Him: Yes. Me: Er…ok…
Beef and asparagus sauteed in some wonderful sauce and served in this crispy noodle bowl. Our friend Ed called in “Poetry on a Plate”.
Wonderfully crispy skin fried roast chicken with wonderfully moised meat, served with shrimp crackers.
Abalone with bok choy and shitake mushrooms.
Steamed whole fish with ginger and other spices. De-boned whole at the table. It was pretty cool. Sweet, sweet fish. So very tasty.
Egg fried rice with whatever was left in it: a little barbecued pork, some shrimps, some scallops, some chicken.
Mango pudding. Lovely, not too sweet little cups of heaven.
Cake: you either get chocolate cake with whipped cream filling or yellow cake with strawberry cream.
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The holy rolling ceremony may have turned me off. But the food definitely got me thanking the Lord!
And I’m also thanking God to have blessed me with the diversity in my group of friends. So far, nobody kills anybody over their political or religious believes.
Today, the Universe decided that it hates people in my life.
1. Brandon tore his calf muscle
As he changed the oil on his car on Friday, Brandon discovered some coolant leakage. Upon further inspection by the auto shop, there are more than just that. We think the Anniversary accident knocked things loose. So, this morning, instead of waking up to drive me to my stop, the Mister decided to sleep in a little. I left my car 5 blocks down at my bus stop.
As he was walking over to the car, Brandon stepped off the curb and, according to his ER doctor, probably landed wrong on his heel. He heard something popped and he was in excruciating pain and couldn’t put his foot down. Being a Marine, dude sucked it up, hobbled across the 6 lanes to the other side, then his body went into a bit of shock and he sat down and passed out for a second. He then proceeded to hobble some more to the car, got in, calmly called me, and drove himself to the ER about 8 blocks down.
I received the call around 8:30. By the way, I’m in Downtown LA, 25 miles away, with no easy way to get home at that time. You see, my special commuter bus runs 3 times into town and twice out in the evening. If you need to get back any other time, you’ll have to take the Disneyland bus to Norwalk Station and either catch 2 more buses to get to my house or someone else have to come get you from the station.
Thank GOD for my former bus buddy Patty who retired about a month ago. I called her asked for a ride and she was available. Now, skip to read #2 and come back to read the rest of this.
Patty dropped me off at the ER and I waited for a good hour before Brandon hobbled out on crutches. Torn calf muscle, he said, and possible torn tendon but they don’t know that yet. And now we were off to his physician to get a referral to see a specialist and get an MRI or something else. His doctor gave him a shot of stuff and sent us home with vicodin.
2. Patty’s car died on the way to rescue me
After she hung up with me, my friend Patty went to finish her errands. Her car sputtered and died on the way home. Thank GOD her sister was home, so she drove over to sit with Patty’s car until AAA arrives so Patty could use her car to come get me.
3. A coworker had to go to the hospital
Meanwhile, as I ran from work to come home to take care of Brandon, a coworker apparently got ill enough to need to be rushed to the hospital.
4. Burbank DMV’s computer system went down
My boss took the morning off to go to her DMV appointment. System was down so no appointment could be kept. She pretty much wasted her morning.
5. The bus before my usual home bound bus broke down
Ana took the bus into town with me this morning. She usually takes a different bus or she would drive. However, she was getting on the earliest bus home. She waited, and waited, and started to get panicky about the bus home. As she found out later, when my usual bus showed up, the one she was waiting for has broken down. So she was on a super crowded bus back, behind her usual schedule.
