OakMonster's Den

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.

“How Did Thailand Come to This?” indeed.  (And this report is pretty accurate and surprisingly unbiased.)

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.

It’s Thai New Year.

Only a few days after the bloody result of the protest. I don’t think there’s enough water to wash the blood off our hands.

(My family is safe, just FYI.  As a matter of fact, my dad has developed an unhealthy habit of taking an after-dinner evening stroll out to see the Reds’ activities in Radjprasong.  /headhand)

Laws should be enforced. I said the same thing when the Yellow Shirts took over the airport. I say it here too for the Reds.

I also believe that police and military have all the rights to protect themselves if their lives are in danger.

Take a look at last footage shot by slain photographer Hiro Muramoto. The soldiers didn’t throw the bomb at themselves, I can tell you that much.

Having said that, don’t be too quick to blame either the soldiers/police or the Reds.

There are words on the street that his full footage also included a shot of a masked gunman in black clothing.  I haven’t been able to find that footage, however, thanks to the digital world, images and videos of the mythical “third party” emerged.

Like this one.

Not Red? Not military? Who the fuck are you guys and why do you have big guns on you?

And these faceless anarchists in black sporting big guns and a few molotovs:

I can only pray for my country on this supposedly happy holiday season.

And I hope you do too.

Well, this post started after I watched the latest episode of “Sood Sanaeha”, the Thai soap I’m following.  Long story short, she finally sees what has been in front of her this whole time, and decides to nab the Chef.  The Chef walks away after her big scheme to apologize to him.

I was actually cheering for the Chef.  Good for you for leaving that manipulative, selfish, whiny bitch!

(Well, this is not the finale. Although to me, it’s a perfect ending right there!  Karma is a bitch, bitch!  But this is Thailand, expect a few more episodes of  the scheming to get him back.)

It then dawns on me, oh my god. There is NO MAN on the planet like that guy!  I mean, he actually tells this bitch he thinks she’s perfect to him despite all of her flaws?  He actually LOVES this narcissistic, kniving crybaby?!?!  Seriously!?!?

I love the lovey-dovey thing he’s been doing since he realizes he had fallen for her while she floats around completely oblivious to his suddenly undivided attention.  I hate the fact that we are now fed the image of a perfect man…who doesn’t exist at all.

Hi. I’m Oakley. I am a romantic comedy addict. AND a romantic comedy hater. All at the same time.

I love a good romantic comedy once in a while.  Some of them I can watch over and over again. Even Brandon starts to recognize them because I would stop and watch whenever they are on TV.

Part of me still wants a tall sexy French man to tell me I don’t have to fly anywhere and take me back to the stone cottage on a vineyard.

To go to a pub after a break up and get pissed on Grolsch and meet a funny bloke who quotes Monty Python…then chop off my hair and start my own company, all the while getting over the break up and learning to enjoy life and love again with said funny bloke.

To follow all the signs that lead to that one true love I met randomly a long time ago on one spectacular evening in New York City.

To be loved by a boy for who I truly am despite the fact that I’m a major movie star.

To have a hunky roommate who actually has been trying to show me what the world is really like while I hide behind a theory of why some men are jerks, but yet he is there to catch me when I come to my senses.

To have someone who manages to fall in love with me just by talking to me on the phone and still love me despite the fact that I am not the gorgeous tall blond he thought I was but a nerdy short brunette.

To meet some guy by random chance who adores me even though I seem to be making all the mistakes like breaking his Rayban and his camera, AND still has feelings for me after 2 years of being abroad.

And to realize that what I want for Christmas is, well, you.

[ Oh yeah, name those movies, get some kudos. Leave your answers in the comments.  (Hint: One of these you may find some clues in recent posts.) ]

In other word, deep down inside I still want to dream that big crazy romantic dream of getting swept off my feet and living happily ever after.

But then again, reality is different than fiction.

I guess–no, I know–I am bitter that romantic comedy doesn’t work in real life.  And then I hate romantic comedy for putting a veil over the eyes of young girls everywhere about what love should be like, setting all of us up for disappointment later on.

Hey, I was once the citizen of Planet RomCom too.  It took many years, several heart breaks, and lord knows how many gallons of tears to realize that life and relationship is NOTHING like the movies.

I know a few people who still wait for Mr. Darcy (both Jane Austen’s and Bridget Jones’) and keep throwing away opportunies or perfectly good relationships because it didn’t fit what they have in mind.  You know, how it should be on Planet RomCom.  They’re miserable for that.

It’s back to that Team Jacob v.s. Team Edward conversation we had recently.  Do you want something real or do you want something to swoon to?  I chose the practical love I can rely on with not a lot of swoon factor.  Hence, the stack of romantic comedy I have around the house.

I guess swooning is like a drug.  Once in a while you need a fix. And since we can’t be 16 again to get the full effect of raging love hormones, we go to our “dealer” and get a romantic comedy.

So, scoot on over, darling.  Tonight, I need me a little “Pretty in Pink”.

One week in Bangkok. One movie. One episode of a Thai TV novella.

And I’m hooked on the one, super hot Ken, Theeradej Wongpuapan.

This is Ken. He's yummy.

I only went home to Thailand for one week and I came back completely obsessed with a Thai TV novella, just like the rest of the female population in the country, Sood Sanaeha, directly translated to “Recipe for Love”.

It’s all about the leading man, Ken, who plays a chef.  He was tasked to teach a superstar to cook because she wants to win the heart of a tycoon, also played by one of my favorite Thai idol, Willy McIntosh.  Of course, the superstar and the Chef fought it out (foreplay!) at the beginning as they slowly fall in love.  Aww….

Anyway.  This obsession all started for me when my friend Pitch took me to see Rod Faifa Ma Ha Na Tuh, BTS: Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story, a blockbuster Thai romantic comedy of the summer.

Look at this trailer. The story itself is relatable and ADORABLE.  I mean, yeah, kind of predictable, but cuuuute!  I’m sitting here smiling watching the trailer.  The theme song is catchy as hell, even to non Thai speakers.  The leading lady, Cris Horwang is so frickin’ cute.  And of course, Ken is just…delicious.

Anyways. At first, I wasn’t going to get in on the soap action.  But everyone insisted that if I have the hots for Ken, I should watch the soap.  So I did the one night I was able to while in Bangkok.  And that was that.  No use getting all tied up in it.

But then a week later, Tong, my BFF, posted a long scream for “Kru Kook”, Teacher Cook, aka Mr. Chef, on Facebook.  I was sorely disappointed that I missed out on the fun.

Until I copied the word Sood Sanaeha in Thai into YouTube.

Now I’m a mere one day behind everyone on the scream fest over Ken…and enjoying the ability to forward past the traditional Thai drama, slow pans, long reaction shots, etc.

And obviously, pause for some close ups. 

I told you about my multi-talented friend Note, the co-owner of Kinnaree Gourmet Thai and tarot card reader extraordinaire.  The latter, at least our group of friends think she is anyway.

I promised Note that I would blog about my month-to-month prediction, so that as time ticks on, we can come back to see how accurate she really is.

Before we get to that, what she said about my overall future gets me giggling.

She said that although I am a team player, I work better alone. Same thing with my social life, great with friends and going out but rather be at home.  She said that I will do well in an international environment. And that if I was to change job, I will find success in working on my own with international connections.

Gee. Doesn’t that sound like I should persue blogging and writing full time? LOL.

She also pointed out that my generosity and willingness to help people will get me in trouble.  Yeah, well, that was proven last year when I loaned money to childhood friend who actually was scamming off everyone she knew. Her poor mom was following her trail paying off the debt, including mine. But I digress.

Also I have to watch my dedication to work. Note pointed out that my doing well at work often means I’m so consumed by it and neglecting the household. Again, that’s true. I lost myself in whatever it is I’m involved in and forget to take care of my personal life.  Brandon knows this well from 2 years of Thrill the World back to back with my Big Gala.

Now, the 12-month prediction.

December: There will be secrets involved either at work or at home. Somebody has a secret and that will complicate things.

January: Watch out for some work harmony issue. That schpiel about me being too generous has something to do with that.

February: Great partnership at work and at home.

March: Other people will have bad news that I would take it upon myself to worry about.  It’s not my bad news but I’ll be bothered by it quite the same way.

April: The lady doth daydream too much. LOL. Something about me not being able to concentrate on the present, instead dreaming about things that could be.

May-June: There will be some obstables I must get over in these two months. Everything will be a struggle but I will win in the end.

July: Disappointment, she said.  That was the only word she gave me for July.

August: Temper rises and there will be some “third hand” interferences in my life. Like someone will try to mess things up for me.

September: I will “lead the army to victory” at work.

October-November: Again, obstacles. This time I will get tangled up in things. I will feel stuck. (Gee…during that time of year, could Thrill the World be something I get tied up on??)

There. You now also have the map to my future year. Stick around to see what may come true!

As for now, Note didn’t mention in her cards but I’m enjoying the time at home.  I had lunch with my family and the Aunties today.  We stuffed ourselves silly with a seafood feast, had great conversations, and remembered mom while at it.  Her friends miss her dearly and I once again serve as the proxy for my mom in hanging out with her friends.

Tuesday is Lalai Sap with the Aunties, movie in the afternoon with a friend, and dinner with Gnarly Kitty.  Wednesday is a day-trip to Aunty Or’s house in Khao Yai now that it’s finished and completed with the backyard orchard, corn field and mini rice paddy.  Thursday looks like a lunch  and shopping date with sister in law and dad. Friday is exclusively all Gang of 4 and a night out with Tong per our tradition. Saturday, last lunch with the family and off to California I go.

International lone wolf, I am!

Sawaddee from the Big Mango, y’all!  A nice, crisp, 75F “winter” Bangkok, no less.  I am enjoying the cool morning here.

I arrived at dawn yesterday and what a day it was!  My brother and sister-in-law picked me up in his brand new BMW X5.  We had breakfast and I was left to myself all morning.  I unpacked, played some piano, and took a crack at the Nikki Heat novel before succumbing to sleep after lunch.

My friend Note called to wake me up and off I went to her condo for a 4:30 p.m. pool party that didn’t happen. LOL.  Another friend showed up and we just hung out waiting for other people.

Meanwhile, in addition to her Kinnaree restaurant, Note has developed a new talent for tarot card reading.  I experienced her talent first hand last night which I will post later. Yes, it deserves its own entry!  Let’s just say that my general card is a Star. So is Lily’s.  It’ll be a good year next year.

The gang later assembled at Kinnaree Gourmet Thai on the back patio, away from general population.  3 other friends showed up for dinner. A few of us partook in a bottle of prosecco.  One of the friends brought home made cupcake and Note was off to assemble an “Earthquake” platter.

Those who are familiar with Swenson’s Ice Cream chain would know that an Earthquake is a big bowl of several scoops of ice cream.  At the request of our gang, Note emerged with a platter of almost every variety of ice cream she had at the restaurant.

I had a plate of half eaten cupcake in my hand as I reached over to get a scoop from the platter.  And SPLAT! The cake landed onto the ice cream.

“Oh my god! 2012 on a plate, you guys! Cupcake meteor!”

We laughed our heads off then.  And of course, I would repeat the same thing a little while later.  After I stopped laughing, I downed the damn cupcake to prevent future disaster.

We then took the party back to Note’s condo where we hung around as two more people get their fortune told, provided commentaries and real estate advise as we went.  All with the background of this cheesy modeling show Thailand has on, sponsored by a “talent” school, teaching modeling, stage presence, acting, and singing type deal. The models were quite horrible less this one girl who can actually act.  There was one hot boy on there that overacts worse than Henry Rollins on Sons of Anarchy.  I thought he was hot until I saw him work the runway. Smarmy and over abundance of narcissism killed it for me. But I totally digress there.

The next thing we knew, the girls’ phones started ringing. It was close to midnight and their moms were wondering where they were at. We knew we all had to go home.

My dad and brother just got back from a business trip this morning. I got to eat breakfast with them, now both are back in bed sleeping off their tiring trip.  I am going off to hang out with Lily and Joy and her kids at Royal Bangkok Sports Club for a swim and lunch.

The plan so far:

Today: Sports Club. Dinner with my bro and his girlfriend. Possible trip to Night Bazaar with my sister-in-law and the girlfriend.

Monday: Lunch with the family and Aunties.

Tuesday: Shopping at Lalai Sap Alley with Lily and the Aunties. Catching a Thai new rom-com hit, almost out of the run, with 2 MD friends later that evening.

Wednesday: The Aunties are taking me to Khao Yai. Aunty Or finally finished her home and they want me to see it.

Friday: Shopping with my gang. Dinner with family.

It’s going to be a busy but relaxing week!

…I’m ready to go.

Are you ready for me, the Big Mango?

So I leave LAX tonight, arriving in Bangkok at 6 a.m. on Saturday.  (Yes, time traveling. It’s awesome.) Let’s say, I’d probably get home around 8 a.m.  I’d be done unpacking by 9 a.m. and I get to relax for a while.

3:30 p.m. I am off to my friend’s condo for a pool party.  A few hours later, we’ll mosey down to Kinnaree Gourmet Thai for dinner and drinks, my annual pilgrimage.  Hopefully, someone will drop me off at home with a nice buzz.

Yep. I’m rolling out of the plane into a party yet again.  Last year, it was my school’s homecoming.  This one, it’s like an informal reunion anyway.  It should be fun.

The rest of the week?  Outside of going to see New Moon with my sister-in-law and one-of-these-days-sister-in-law possibly on Sunday and shopping with my BFF on Friday, my schedule is wide open.

Just the way I want it.

I’ll be blogging and tweeting at the weirdest hours for you Yanks.  Also, just the way I want to do.  I mean, I haven’t blogged regularly for MONTHS.  Now I can get back on that wagon again.

I have a lot of well wishes from friends an coworkers.  Of course, everyone jokes that I’d better get back on time this time and not stuck with airport closure again.  All I can say to that is that so far, the Red Shirts are indeed planning a a major protest, if they do as plan, after I leave, and hopefully, they will stick to that plan.  Additionally, we haven’t gone all out warring with Cambodia yet, so I guess I’m still okay to fly.

Yep. Little Miss Brightside over here.

See you on the other side!

When our beloved excuse themselves to disappear into their video games, we call that being a [insert game name here] Widow. For example, I was an World of Warcraft Widow, an EverQuest widow, and most recently a Fallen Earth and Fall Out Widow.

Now, the table is being turned around.  I’m making a widower out of Brandon for the next few months.

As in, a Italian Class Widower…

Nora and I are taking Italian lessons together in Irvine on Saturday mornings, starting this weekend on through January.

A USC Football Widower…

If you’ve read my blog long enough, you’d know that Brandon is not allowed to watch any USC game.  Not that he would to begin with, the boy’s no sports fan.  But anytime he actually sat down to watch, even a few minutes, it all went to hell.  It was entirely my fault to have him and his friend sat down to eat dinner and watch the USC-Texas game a few years ago.

A Thrill the World Widower…

It wasn’t supposed to be as big of an event this year with Thrill the World. But then Michael Jackson died.  So now we’re in 120% go for this year’s event.  I’m still leading the PR/Publicity campaign. And now also a dance instructor.  Oh crap, I have to freshen up!

A Big Gala Widower…

Oh yes. The giant work event. A lot of pressure to raise money in this economy. A lot is at stake for the people we serve and for, well, the wellbeing of our non-profit.

And finally, A Thanksgiving Widower…

I’m heading home to Thailand for Thanksgiving for a quick week.

On top of all of this, I have 3 blogs of mine, a Tweet Up social life, and, oh yeah, the monthly cooking challenge.

Thank GOD we are putting long camping trips on hold until spring.  With my Italian classes, we couldn’t go far. And with my crazy schedule, I won’t have time to train. I guess the timing works out.

However, the Mister has scheduled us some together time of date nights, our monthly massages at Massage Evny, and game nights.  Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 just came in the mail.  /rubs hands together…heeheeheehee…

Am I nuts do be doing all this stuff? Perhaps.

But am I having fun with all the madness? Oh fuck yeah.

This will be one of those years I’ll never forget.

Pim of Chez Pim texted me on a lazy Saturday mid-morning to ask if I wanted to meet up at Yai in Hollywood for lunch with her and some friends.

Holy crap!

Brandon and I have just rolled out of bed at 11 a.m. and we were to be in Hollywood by noon!?!  Pim assured us we’d make it a Thai time noon, so don’t worry if we were late.  And surprisingly, we arrived first. LOL.

I Yelped Yai (or P’Yai for us Thais) as “THE mothership for Southern California Thais”.  Because it is.  I remembered when my mom and I came to the U.S. in 1993 for my 2-month English immersion class at Whittier College, my “aunt” Tim brought us here for lunch. And later on, my mom’s best friend Aunty Or, who was kicking it in Pasadena while her son attended Art Center College of Design, would also bring us back to P’Yai for meals.

Naturally, while Pim was visiting Los Angeles from the Bay area, she would call up her friends to meet her there to eat like how we eat at home.

And eat we did.  With plenty to take home too.

Our party of five was seated at the table for a party of eight, and we used up all available surfaces for all the foods we ordered.

I joked to the waitresses that we ordered as if we have never eaten food before in our lives!  Then again, Pim claimed there is no Thai food like this up in the Bay area.  And while there are good places in the O.C. for me, there is no place like P’Yai.  Of course, we’d go a wee bit bonkers.

This was also the first time I have met Pim in real life after over a year of reading her blog and corresponding via email.  And of course, it was also the first time I met her Thai friend and her friend’s hubby.

Brandon said if he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought the three of us were friends from years past.  We talked like we knew each other all our lives.  And we ate like that too–as in, no nibbling just to be polite in front of people you just met.

We went to town at Yai. AND lost our heads at Bhan Kanom Thai, the dessert shop half a mile down the street.  Brandon and Pim’s friend’s husband just stood back while three of us screamed through the place, shoveling all sorts of goodies into our arms.

I haven’t had that much fun eating and chatting in a long time.  It was a lot like going home.

That’ll hold me over until November.

I was putting the laundry in the washer yesterday, an automatic motion I usually don’t think about much any more.

Coins in.  Water runs for a few seconds.  Add soap. Let water run some more.  Add laundry.

A thought popped into my head.

“When was that first time you used the washing machine?”

I grew up in Thailand in a household full of service staff. In the 3-attached home complex, 3 families, each with its own maid, shared a cook,  a groundskeeper, a laundry lady, and a driver.

Pretty much everything has always been done for me.  The cooking. The cleaning. The laundry.

Until I came to the U.S. for high school, I have never used a washing machine before.  Sure, I have washed a few pieces of clothing before then at summer camps, but that was all by hand. Even when traveling abroad on my own, the adults were doing the laundry be it my chaperon to the international camp or the many host families I lived with.

Besides, with the maids doing all the work in Thailand, not a lot of people use washing machines back then.  It wasn’t like someone could teach me back home the way the cook showed me how to make basic Thai food. (Kicking myself now that I didn’t take interests in cooking back then. But that’s another post for another time.)

It was my aunt here in Garden Grove who taught me how to use the washer and dryer while I was staying with her during the transition into my high school host family’s home.

That was also where I learn the “water then soap then water” trick to not get clumpy detergent powder or concentrated amount of liquid detergent in your clothes.

A flashback so vivid it stopped me in my track.

How far I have come since 1993!

Next month, I would have been in America longer than I have been in Thailand.

Next month completes my 16th year in the U.S., then I’m on to 17th.  (Yeah, I just gave away my age. So?)

For that one moment in the laundry room, I did have half of my life flashed before my eyes.

I remembered my mom reading to me my fortune she got from a psychic back when I was in 7th or 8th grade.  It was predicted that I would study abroad like my brothers, but unlike them, I would live abroad and “leave [mom] behind”.

I laughed.  No way I would ever do that, I told her.

I stood my ground that I would be studying at Thammasat University, the anti-Chulalongkorn was where I wanted to be.  I would not be going abroad because that would be snooty and pretentious and I wasn’t about to leave my friends.  And even if I’d study abroad, I would come back here because my brain wasn’t going to drain out of my beloved motherland, and because I would never leave my mom.

Well, obviously the trend-bucking, anti-establishment, friends-loving, patriotic me died somewhere during my first visit to the U.S. in March 1993.

After 2 months of having tasted the freedom of American life, I didn’t quite want to go back.

Fortune teller was right about all of it.  I think my mom kind of knew after my summer in the U.K. in 1992 that this bird wouldn’t stay in the cage for long.

I wasn’t sure if she expected that I would really leave her behind.  I never thought I wouldn’t be there when she passed away.

So yes, I did leave her behind in that sense.

August 1993.

Everything changed then.

August used to be just another month with except for Thai Mother’s Day on the 12th, and meant the end of summer and beginning of school.

Now, August is the anniversary of my life in the U.S. and the anniversary of my mom’s passing.

16 and 2 years respectively.

What a journey so far.