Quickwrite

Do you remember in elementary school when the teacher would put aside 10 minutes in the morning for all the students to do a quickwrite... basically 10 minutes of writing whatever you feel like on a sheet of paper? I feel like doing that today. So here it is, 12:34PM >start<

I am listening to the Marie Antoinette soundtrack right now at work, trying to get in the mood to actually get some work done. This soundtrack reminds me of running. I first heard the soundtrack a couple of years ago, when Yona sent me the mp3's from Japan. I remember listening to this soundtrack during my Brentwood runs, after my gym session with Russ. I don't remember any of the thoughts that went through my mind during the runs (there are usually a lot) but I do remember the feeling. Somehow this soundtrack always makes me feel like I'm on the outside looking in, observing how trivial and menial my problems really are. Makes me feel small.

I like feeling small. This is probably why I love to go to the beach, especially at night. When you see something so vast like the ocean, or even being one out of many on a crowded beach, it just makes you feel so small. In comparison to those around me, how important am I really? How many people does my existence effect? Do my problems, worries and quandaries carry any weight when compared to everyone else's? I like fading into the background, thinking that my existence is meaningless and unnoticed. I don't know why that is, I just do.

So everyone is talking about Halloween today. I thought for a minute that it might be fun to dress up but then realized I would probably have to wake up at 6 am to properly dress up. You see, our Halloween theme this year is "Mad Rapp," taken from the TV show "Mad Men." I never know when to put the period inside the quotes or outside. Anyways, for a girl to dress up in the 60's era it takes a LOT of effort. Not necessarily just the clothing -- since I'm sure I'll be able to find something that will fit the era. But the hair! There is just no way Asian hair will curl and tease up into a hairdo worthy of the 60's. Although this does remind me of a photo I came across of my grandmother when she was young and she did have the bob going. So needless to say, I will not be dressing up. Maybe I'll bring Lulu dressed up in a 60's-esque dress. Again, it all depends on how early I wake up tomorrow.

Which brings me to my next topic- sleep. I knocked out on the couch yesterday around 8pm. I woke up at around 10pm -- just enough time to take Lulu out one last time and then crashed again until 7:45AM. That's almost 12 hours of sleep! I finally felt well-rested. I've been so lethargic lately at work. It's starting to worry me -- I'm used to the usual bout of exhaustion but this feels largely like something else. If I go back in history to the times I've had any problems with sleep (falling asleep, waking up, still feeling tired), they were all at points in my life where I was confused, depressed or generally unhappy. I really hope this is not the case now.

Oh what I'd give to be at home right now. Now that I'm living alone I feel so guilty leaving Lulu every morning. I guess she expects it. She somehow knows the difference between my getting ready to go to work or when I leave the house to run a quick errand. When it is the latter, she makes a huge stink about my not bringing her, usually in the form of excessive barking. I wonder what her cue is? Is it the time of day I leave? The amount of time it takes for me to get ready? My choice in footwear? All I know is that when I leave to take a jog, do laundry or take out the trash, she barks like crazy, as if she knows that technically, I could bring her along. But when I get ready and leave for work, she sits there silently.

Okay! That marks 10 minutes.

Can't Finish My Chipotle

Geolocate this post

Christmas plans?

Come on people! Crate & Barrel and Bloomingdale's already has Christmas stuff up! We need to decide... are we doing Secret Santa? Are we changing up the rules? Handmade only? Is Aai flying here? Are we flying to Indiana? Am I getting a real tree? 

I... need... to... KNOW!!!

Weekend Recap

Had a gratifying weekend... finished (almost) all of my errands on my to-do list, had a lot of great food and shared it all with good people. =) Weekends like this almost reverse the ill-effects of a 60-hour work week.

On Friday, I had one of my favorite San Gabriel Valley meals -- hainan chicken rice at Savoy Kitchen. Surprisingly, the drive east was shorter and faster than I remembered. This may have been fueled by the fact that I had to pee so I was rushing M, who was driving... despite the fact that his bumpy suspension was extremely rough on my bladder.

My only mistake is that I didn't eat regularly through the day and so I developed a nasty ulcer from starving all day and binge eating/drinking in the evening. =/

After Savoy, I joined some co-workers at Saints & Sinners, a small bar on Venice Blvd. Most of the night was spent sipping on Seabreezes while watching Pasos and Kam break out their dance moves in the small space behind the bar seating. It was an interesting night -- definitely not a group at work I would have normally expected to see at a bar together. There was a lot of spontaneous dancing, lots of laughs and amusement watching Curley crushing on a random guy she thought looked like Twilight's Edward. Haha.

Oh, and I should note that this was my first time drinking a hell fire. I have no idea what was in this drink, just that it was a lit up shot dropped into some type of energy drink and smelled like bubble gum.

Surprisingly, even after staying up on the phone until 5am, I was able to wake up before 10am on Saturday and begrudgingly got ready for a day of errands. I brought Lulu out and M joined us for a day of running -my- errands. He was a good sport -- there were a lot. We went to the dog park to watch Lulu bird hunt. Then I picked up my dry cleaning and complained about the astronomical prices for dry cleaning in West LA -- even after a 30% off coupon it came to about $7.50 per item. I remember cutting out Penny Saver coupons in Cerritos to go to Continental Cleaners for $1.25 an item! Geesh.

We grabbed lunch at Good Stuff where Lulu scarfed down a bowl of steamed veggies. Then we headed to Century City to pick up my presale stuff from Bloomie's. I'm so glad I have work clothes this week. After the mall we headed down to Pet Smart so I could exchange Lulu's water fountain. The CatIt fountain was not refilling properly and the gurgling water noise started to annoy me. I bought her a new Drinkwell fountain and am so much happier with this one. It has a huge water reservoir and requires less frequent filling. 

After Pet Smart I gave Lulu a quick bath at home and pacified her with a greenie before leaving for the next set of errands. We drove out to Ktown to get my lashes done.

We then headed down to Bellflower so I could show M what REAL Indonesian food is like. I looooove the fried oxtail at Toko Rame -- and that night they made it perfectly. I wish it was something I could make at home... maybe I should try. :D

After stuffing ourselves with buntut goreng, siomay bandung and nasi bungkus, we headed to Target to go walk it off. I was really good and stuck to my shopping list. It was really weird going to the Cerritos Target because I'm so used to the layout of the one on Jefferson. It was also super huge. After Target, I went to Goldilocks to buy some Ensaymada and Mamon -- mmmm. Then the perfect ending to the day -- we went to Guppy Teahouse to have some brick toast. I think the last time I had this was with Aai!

After dessert I rushed home to feed Lulu some dinner. I felt bad that we got back so late but I figured after a half day out Lulu was probably knocked out for most of the evening. 

Today (Sunday) I slept in a little and woke up at around 11:30am... about a half hour after R texted me letting me know that they were headed to my apartment. We agreed to meet at 12noon so I lazied around the house until G called at 11:57 to say they arrived... and literally took 45 seconds to get dressed and let them in.

We headed to the Brentwood Farmer's Market for some tamales and empanadas... they are so good! There aren't very many food vendors at the farmer's market (mostly produce and clothes vendors) and these two stands are probably my favorite. 

We took the food back to my house to eat and then left for the Getty Museum a little before 1pm. Today was the last day of the Bernini portrait sculpture exhibit so it was pretty crowded. We walked around and stalled as long as we could -- M was late. We watched the 11-minute orientation video, bought some bottled water and finally decided to just wait in line for the Bernini exhibit.

I am a big fan of Bernini's architectural work in Rome but I'd never given much attention to his sculpture work. It was amazing to see so much real-world human emotion and personality captured in such a stoic medium. It was a small exhibit but enough to witness Bernini's mastery over marble. After exploring the exhibit, we took a walk around the gardens to enjoy the scenery. That was the aim at least, unfortunately I was unable to enjoy it as much because of the abundance of railings everywhere. Even though they weren't railings against sharp drops, it was still enough to stir up uneasiness in me.

After the museum, I met up with F, an ex-rapper, at Starbucks for some coffee. I think I've discovered my Starbucks drink for the moment -- an iced soy caramel macchiato. I love that the first sip kind of tastes like Chinese soy bean milk. I had a venti-sized iced coffee because F is bad with the Starbucks size conversions -- I asked for a "medium".

After catching up over coffee, we decided to head down the street for some dinner. We settled on Osteria Latini since we both hadn't been before. I'd only seen the outside of this restaurant which looks -really- small and casual based on the two awkwardly misplaced tables on the sidewalk. The interior is actually pretty charming -- it's a bit narrow but the clean decor accented with orchids and wine bottles give it a kind of modern Italian twist.

I was really impressed with the food. The menu didn't look too appetizing at first glance... it was pretty standard Osteria fare. At first I settled on the Ravioli Aragosta but then I heard the specials for today... and all of a sudden I was debating between the pappardelle with crab and asparagus and the John Dori grilled with a shiitake mushroom sauce. As always, the John Dori won out -- one of my favorite fish. We started with the tuna carpaccio which was amazing and the beet salad which wasn't so much. :P We had the server recommend us some wines -- I ended up with a pinot noir which was actually pretty good. (And I'm not a big fan of wine) We ended the dinner with a caramelized banana topped with meringue and a blood orange sorbet. Yum.

The food was great but I think I was most impressed with the service. Everybody there had such a great attitude and was so nice. The timing of everything was perfect and the servers weren't too overbearing. The wine pairings were perfect (at least mine was) and even though the restaurant got crowded towards the end of the evening it didn't ever feel claustrophobic.

Overlooking The Gardens At The Getty Center

New Couch + Pillows

Bought some pillows for my new couch today at Crate & Barrel & Anthropologie with M. It took us a solid 2 hours (I think) to find the perfect combination of pillows for the couch that would be eclectic yet not overbearing. I'm so happy with the way it turned out -- can't wait to find some cutey things to hang on the walls now to complete the room. =)

Redecorating

It's finally time to dump the stinky, fringy couch that Tofu has been using as her chew toy and other unmentionables and get a new couch! I wasn't quite ready to commit a couple grand to the couch of my dreams just yet -- since my living plans are still up in the air. So last weekend, Yona and I went to Ikea to pick up a cheap "interim" couch. Unfortunately, we found none that were up to par with our snooty couch potato tastes and I ended up going a little over budget to satisfy.

We went with the Kramfors sofa, which you may more readily recognize when it is in its leather form. The fabric and overall shape looks like the sample picture below, but we opted for an "L" shaped couch that had a chaise at the end.

So hopefully, I'll be recovered enough on Sunday to set up the new couch and redecorate a little so that it doesn't look so bland. I have a dark brown rug so I'm thinking either black or graphic-printed pillows and definitely some artwork to put above the sofa so it doesn't look so low. Eeeeeh. I love redecorating.

Athai's 88th Birthday

This Saturday was our great-grandmother's 88th birthday. We joined the family for a mini-reunion at Chosun Galbi in K-Town. Yona and I were the first to arrive, and Vina joined us shortly after. I ushered Vina into the bathroom to draw on some eyebrows so that it didn't look like she just had them waxed off. =P

It was a huge hustle & bustle when the crowds started to arrive. We had about 35 people in our party so we were ushered into our private room, but our aunts didn't let us sit down until they put our placecards down on the tables to match the intricate seating chart. Needless to say, we stood around for a good 15 minutes before we were allowed to sit down.


As usual, we were seated on the "kids side". I hadn't seen the family in over a year and it was so weird to see how much everyone has grown in the past year! Charlton was the "cool, older college cousin" and Oliver and Aaron are about 16. It's not only amusing to see the kids grow up in size but to also witness how they've each grown into their own personality. The majority of the night was spent watching the boys show off their cell phones and sidekicks. Bear in mind that these guys are our uncles. =)


"The girls" were a bit older. Here we are taking a picture with my mom's cousins.


Audrey is 7 and is super cute. She's been taking ballet for 2 years and showed off some of her moves to Vina. 5 moves to be exact.


Here are all of the grandkids (plus 4 great-grandkids) with the guest of honor. The woman who started it all. =)


Linda gathering the kiddles for a picture.


My uncle and his family, who flew in from Dallas. His wife speaks more Indonesian than Yona and Aai combined.


My two great-aunts... they are both younger than my mom. The one on the left lives in Utah and the one on the right lives in Diamond Bar.


My great-grandma with her oldest living daughter and her youngest son. She had 8 daughters before she finally had a son!


Wait a second, Charlton isn't old enough to drink, is he?

He wasn't.


Where did the other "8" candle go?


Singing "Happy Birthday!"




Athai with 6 of her children. (D'you notice everyone in our family has a dimple on the left cheek?)

Towards the end of the night, we gave Athai our gifts and I had her open mine before she left. I found an old picture of my great-grandma, my grandma, my mom and me in a row. We are all our mother's first daughters so since I was a kid, whenever we reunited, we stood in a row in order of generation and took a picture. This gift was especially timely because this year marks just about the 10th year that my grandma passed away from cancer. Coming across that photographed earlier this year touched me so much that I wanted to share that with my great-grandma so I blew up the photo and framed it for her. She was so happy to see the photograph that she started passing it around and explaining the tradition to everyone. I was happy that she was happy, but also embarrassed because the picture was taken in 1992 and I was wearing a B.U.M. Equipment t-shirt. I will have to scan the photo and post it tonight. =)

The iPod Project

I've been wanting an iPod installation in my RX ever since the day I bought my car. My last car (CLK) had an auxiliary input which I had connected to my iPod at all times. I was extremely disappointed to find that the RX did not come with one built in, but always planned to get one installed when I had the time.

Finally, almost two years later, I had the time and opportunity. It was mostly prompted by my impulse decision to give into my constantly-changing wish list and buy a new iPod. I'd been wanting a new 120GB or 160GB iPod to house ALL of my music but wasn't willing to break my free iPod streak. Then one weekend I realized I had a gift certificate lying around that I could use towards the iPod Classic so I bought one online right away.

I already have dedicated uses for each of my current iPods, so this one was definitely going to be for my car. I gave the Lexus dealership a call to get an estimate... after being ping-ponged between service reps, I finally got a number: $595. Really??? I mean add that to the actual retail price of the iPod plus maybe a case and that's $1,000 just to listen to music in the car? No way.

I was pretty annoyed at the ridiculous estimate. I decided to focus my negative energy on finding a slim, sturdy case for the iPod at Best Buy. I browsed the iPod accessories and found nothing -- they had a couple of armbands and a bunch of colorful Liz Claiborne and Steve Madden "fashion" cases. What the? You would think that Best Buy would be even more complete than the Apple store, and carry every third-party accessory possible. Wait -- in this case would those companies be referred to as "third-party" or "aftermarket"? :P

Anyways I didn't find a case so I started wandering around the store. I ended up in the mobile area (cars, not cell phones) and asked a Geek about what options they had for iPod installations. He recommended that I go down to Al & Ed's and buy the USA Spec unit and bring it back there to install for $70. Not a bad idea. Off to Al & Ed's.

So I went to the Al & Ed's on Sepulveda and asked for an estimate to get an auxiliary jack installed. They said they only recommend doing the OEM iPod install and it would cost me $489 for the full NAV-screen interface version or $370 for the USA Spec, manually controlled iPod version. I opted for plan C -- how much to get just the part and install at Best Buy? 30 seconds of awesome negotiating skills later, he agreed to install the unit immediately (30-minute wait) for $250. Not bad, saves me an additional trip and the hassle of making an appointment at Best Buy. Instant gratification is everything. I agreed and they got started.

So 30 minutes later, the guy was done as promised. He asked me for my iPod to test it. Well, it literally came in the mail the day before and I hadn't had a chance to set it up or sync any music so they did a quick demo with my iPod nano, which worked perfect.

That afternoon, I synced up all of my music and brought my iPod (with newly added playlists) to the car to test. As soon as I plugged it in, I knew something was wrong. It docked my iPod so that I wasn't able to control my iPod at all and played my music in order. After about 5 minutes of Aaliyah I gave up. The whole reason I chose the 120GB Classic iPod over the 160GB was to take advantage of the 2.0 firmware which had the Genius playlists.

I stormed back into my apartment and started to do a little research. I found out the exact version installed in my car had the ability to toggle between settings. I just needed some way to get into the dash and flip a switch. I went back outside (it was about midnight at this point) and tried to access the unit. Wow, dashes are built in such a way that if you don't know what you're doing, you definitely cannot get past the plastic. I gave up 5 minutes later and went to sleep defeated.

Yesterday I drove back to Al & Ed's, planning to ask them to make the quick switch to the "direct mode" so that I can happily play my playlists and browse through my music while driving. (Which, of course, is safer than talking on your cell phone while driving) They are closed on Sundays. :( Super-frustrating.

Today I finally got the chance to go back and get it fixed. It took about 15 minutes of tinkering, but I can finally control everything through my iPod and still even use the track buttons on my car to move forward and backward. I lost the ability to display the song title and artist on my screen but oh well, one can't have everything right?

Now finally, a working iPod installation:

Something Smells

Sometimes I wish I wasn't blessed with such a sensitive sense of smell. It's great for cooking and eating but annoying in a lot of other respects.

My biggest annoyance right now is that my apartment smells and I haven't had time to mop. Something about the pergo/laminate type of floor in my new apartment is so annoying to mop down. I had no problem doing this 2-3 times a week at my old place but now it takes a lot of effort to swiffer, vacuum corners and mop. (That's the order I do it in) It probably also has to do with the "donut" shape of my apartment. I like to mop and sweep in straight lines and it was easy to do it at my old place since it was just one long room. But the way my current apartment is set up, there are a lot of obstacles to maneuver around it just gives me a headache to think about it.

I don't know what it is but I've noticed that lately my apartment starts to smell much quicker after cleaning. What am I talking about, of course I know what it is! We have 3 animals and poor circulation. Anyways, I can't wait until Saturday to take the time to give everything a good rubdown.

Another annoyance that comes up with my sensitive olfactory system is that my nose is just as sensitive when I'm asleep. So that means if one of the dogs have an accident (albeit diarrhea or vomit) or the cat takes a dump, my sleep is disturb and I cannot leave it be. This has been extra annoying lately as Tofu's stomach is super-sensitive and she has been having a bad month.

Also, at random times, a seeping burning smell will come into the apartment. At first I thought it was through the fireplace, but who in their right mind would light a fire in a fireplace during the dead heat of summer? I think it's coming from the alleyway... there is someone in my neighborhood that likes to burn things late at night.

Lazy Weekend

What a long and lazy weekend.

I slept in on Saturday morning, after a night of too much sake with dinner. I woke up at about noon and went to satisfy a ramen craving with E and his roommate L. The entire morning was cloudy and gloomy so it was the perfect day for Daikokuya... until we arrived and I realized everyone in Los Angeles had the same idea. There were 23 parties before us! But Daikokuya is just one of those things... once you get there and smell the aroma you just can't go with any other alternative. So you wait.

As we did for about an hour. But, as always, it was worth it. It was a long lunch... I think I left at about noon and did not get back until 4:30. (Again-- where does all my time go)?

When I got home, Yona was getting ready to go out to her gallery show. I decided to put off all of my school/busywork til Sunday and took over the couch. I watched a few TV shows back to back until I was so tempted to take a nap. At around 8:30 I started getting ready to go to a birthday party with K. I toyed with the idea of flaking out and being productive and going for a run instead but I knew that if I stayed at home I would end up going straight to bed. So off I went.

First we swung by K's house, which was the gathering point for some of us leaving from West LA. I had a home-brewed Kumquat Vodka Screwdriver. It was... interesting. Then we headed off to the venue -- Isis Gallery in Inglewood. Yes, I went to a random birthday party in a warehouse in Inglewood. Couldn't even say what I expected.

The birthday party wasn't that bad. I thought it would be cheesy because it was themed -- black and white. The fun part was to see what everyone's interpretation of "classy black and/or white" attire was... definitely varied opinions. One girl was in a white tank, white super short-shorts and a gold belt. Another girl was in an off-white gown with a sheer shawl. Almost all the guys were in black dress shirts and black pants but there was the occasional white tie.

Anyways the party was open bar and I had countless "pink" drinks that I am convinced were NOT greyhounds. They were too sweet. I danced a lot that night, dare I say too much. I was sweating and it's never good to sweat in public. Yecch. It was a lot of fun though, there was a lot of good music. Towards the end of the night my stomach was wishing I kept closer tabs on how many drinks were passed on to me. We did stop by a taco truck on the way back which was awesome -- nothing beats a greasy carne asada quesadilla at 3 in the morning.

Funny thing is that I actually got home, took a shower, went to bed, and Yona STILL wasn't home. Last night was the first night that I came home to an empty house -- Yona is usually already in bed when I come home. (Her bedtime is 10pm)

So today I woke up at around noon. I lazied around the house and watch a lot of TV. I think. After a few hours of TV, I made a long to-do list of things I *had* to take care of today... like homework, blogging, housework, mopping the floor, giving Lulu a bath, etc etc. As I do whenever I have a long list of to-do's, I procrastinated and watched more TV. Stupid Kimora show, I must have seen at least 4 back-to-back episodes. Then I started to get stir-crazy. I decided to take my iPhone in to the Apple Store to get it checked out -- I dropped it on Saturday night and it started to act wonky.

So at 5pm I went to Century City. I was pretty excited -- I was hoping to get a replacement phone. In other words, I wanted an excuse to upgrade to 3G. I got to the Apple store 45 minutes before my Genius Bar appointment time but the guy let me skip the line and he looked at my phone right away. He turned around for 30 seconds, worked his magic, and my phone was fixed. Literally, took 2 minutes in the store. I didn't know what to do. I didn't even have time to be disappointed. I just turned around and went home.

Then on my drive home I started to think... what if Yona wanted to use my old iPhone. I mean her current phone sucks and she can't even text. Maybe if she NEEDED a replacement phone then I could upgrade and unlock my old phone and give it to her. That would certainly be enough reason to shell out a couple hundred on a new iPhone, right? So I went home, convinced Yona, and in a few minutes we were off to the Apple store in Santa Monica. =)

When we got home I set up both phones to get them working. (Yona is on T-mobile so I had to unlock hers to get it to work) Once they were working, we took a break and watched last Monday's Heroes episode, then I went back to the computer to finish playing around with my phone. Cleaned out playlists. Cleaned out photo albums. Downloaded a couple new apps. Made some ringtones. Downloaded some new music.

All of a sudden it was close to midnight and I realized that I did absolutely nothing on my to-do list today.

Mud Run Challenge

Last week during our town haul meeting at work, our managing director announced that the "lead team" was going to split up in two teams and compete in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. To add to the mix, they also prepaid for an additional team of 5 to come and compete, and started taking volunteers. Only one volunteer came forward, Kamron.

So ten minutes later, Kam is at my cube asking me to join the team. I quickly gather in my mind everything I know about the Mud Run from Linda who went last year: fun, grueling, messy, challenging. I decide what the heck, I've never really set a physical challenge for myself and this might be the best way to get motivated to start working out again. So I put my name down.

And that's when practicality settled in. I only have 2 weeks to train. 6.2 miles of rough terrain, inclines, river crossings and other obstacles. Crawling through the mud. Knee and hip pain whenever I try to run more than 2 miles. Before I freaked myself out, I went jogging that night just to see how far and fast I could go.

I walked/jogged about 4.5 miles in just under an hour. It's a very slow/easy pace but it wasn't that bad. My heart kept up very well, all of the cycling I did this summer definitely helped. My legs, however, weren't in the best shape but I think this is something I can train up for, if I can find the time. Unfortunately I was super sore for 2 days after that so I haven't had the chance to run again. Will definitely go again tomorrow night.

Watching Angel Groom

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast