Category: memory

2011 in Review

December 29th, 2011 · · Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America, Bob, creative play, holidays, Houston, lists, love, memory, misadventures, silver screen, Stars of my Life, still-frames, the not so single life 29 comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’ve posted yearly recaps since 2008. I’m a stickler for tradition so here’s my recap for 2011.

Previous years: 2008, 2009, 2010

I had a good year.

Note: All links open in a new window.

January

February

  • It snowed.
  • I didn’t see Alan often because of his work.
  • BDF (Best Dudie Friend) visited Austin! This ended up being the only time I saw him this year.
  • BDF surprised me with cookies. His note gets me Google search hits that make me a little sad.
  • Sent out Valentine cards and socks to my girlfriends.


    • Alan and I hanging out

March

  • Alan took me to my first NBA game, Heat vs. Spurs.
  • BFF had cake balls delivered to me at work.
  • My solemate (deliberate misspelling) visited Austin.
  • Went to Austin’s 2nd Annual Bacon Takedown.
  • Went to Sketchbook Project 2011 tour stop in Austin.
  • Hosted my first giveaway on the blog.
  • Attended a free screening and Q&A with director of Meaning of Tea, a fantastic documentary about tea. Really!
  • Alan and I had a two part dinner to celebrate our three year anniversary at Haddington’s and Uchiko (my favorite restaurant).
  • Attended Austin Food Blogger’s Alliance Launch Party and applied for membership.
  • March was a turning point in my life. I faced myself in therapy. I’m still reaping the benefits.


    • At Sketchbook Project event

April

May

  • I got bangs impulsively, changing my do for the first time in 5 years.
  • Took a canoe trip with coworkers, facing a handful of irrational fears very reluctantly. Obviously, I survived.
  • I participated in Leo’s Habit Course and developed a palate for vegetables by eating one serving a day for 30 days.
  • Flew to Boston to see BFF. We drove to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, all three were states I’ve never visited.
  • Read 8 books this month.
  • Totes Awesome Channel was founded.


June

  • Went home to Houston for Father’s Day.
  • Rolled down a hill inside of a ball.
  • I hit a boulder with my car. I always hit non-moving objects. Anyway, this was the start of a chain of bumper problems during the rest of the year.
  • I hemmed my first dress! As part of my new year’s resolutions, I wanted to do 10 learning tasks with sewing. This was my first major lesson.
  • Went to third Annual Cupcake Smackdown

July

  • Met Ashley D, Ashley, and Nicole of Totes Awesome Channel and recorded a vlog.
  • Celebrated my 28th birthday simply with a dinner with Alan and then a movie and drinks with friends.
  • Made my favorite video: 28 Life Lessons from 28 People (for my 28th birthday).
  • I caught up to 2007 and got my first smart phone!
  • My friend, Naz surprised me with a vlog from my dad.
  • I got really cozy with Tennessee Williams and his movies. Cat on Hot Tin Roof is excellent!


    • Celebrating my birthday

August

  • Successfully completed VEDA despite being out of town twice and moving!
  • Met up Hillary and Alex in Dallas for our second girls’ weekend of the year.
  • Moved in with Alan.
  • Used my passport for the first time since renewing it 2007. Alan and I took a vacation to Vancouver, Canada, my new favorite city.
  • Saw the bats in Austin for the first time.


    • In front of the Vancouver Aquarium

September

October

November

  • Posted a blog post everyday in November.
  • Ran two blocks of a 5k for Race for the Cure and raised 460 dollars. Thanks to a lot of you!
  • Went to Texas Renaissance Festival with Brandi and Jessica. It was our third year going and we decided to only do new things. We threw knives, shot bow and arrows, and had our face painted. It was the first time I’ve ever had my face painted!
  • Had my second blogger date with Treavor.
  • Attended a We Are Girls conference with my little. It was incredibly insightful.
  • Had a Thanksgiving picnic with friends at the park. We threw a whole cooler’s worth of ice cubes into an enormous fountain, to create ripples, to help push a soccer ball to a sad toddler across the fountain. We were successful.
  • Had a progressive meal day with Kim, Thomas, and friends.
  • During breaks between eats, we made paper cranes for Kim’s tree.
  • My bumper nearly killed Kim and me and got us murdered in the woods.
  • Made our sparkly tattoos dance.


December

  • I decide to like Christmas. I discovered it took more energy disliking it than it does to give into the cheer.
  • Partcipated in Austin Food Blogger’s food swap.
  • I was without a car the whole time I was in Houston for Christmas (the bumper needed to be replaced) and was touched to have friends pick me up for dates.
  • Sewed couch pillows with help from mom.
  • Hosting a “Never Have We Ever” dinner party tonight. Post to come!


    • Bob hanging out with snowman

In writing this post, I realized this year was really sweet for relationships. It may have a lot to do with my prioritizing close friends over acquaintances and then learning to set boundaries. Recently, I’ve been in a funk about not having a life’s calling but I have to say, I’m really content with my tribe. Word on the street is that it’s the relationships that really matter.

Wishing you a terrific end of year celebration! Lots of love!


Question: What happened this year with you?

Friends of Proximity

November 8th, 2011 · · love, memory, National Blog Posting Month '11, pursuit of happiness 29 comments - Tags: ,

Making friends with people I routinely see is easy. Be along side someone everyday of the week and the chances of stumbling on some awesome commonalities go up. I think that’s why people label friends in their lives by venue. High school friend, college friend, neighbor friend, church friend, work friend, camp friend, Internet friend. We pay homage to the chapters and locations of our lives that made these friendships possible. As I’ve grown older and became more keen of life’s patterns, I recognized that most friendships don’t survive the ending of proximity. Most people I meet aren’t still in touch with their high school friends (My tiny high school and the friendships I see still fostered on Facebook are an aberration.) I’ve adored many coworkers but have managed to only keep 4-5 as friends after holding 10 jobs in my life time. I’m always saddened when I leave chapters not only because I know that life will be uncertain until I find my next groove, but also because I have to leave the people behind. There’s just not enough time and room for everyone you meet and share french fries with to continue on in your life.

My college friend, Deesh likes to remind me of that one time we took a final in our final semester in 2005 of college together. I had asked him if he thought we’d still be friends after college. He laughed because he couldn’t imagine it otherwise. Cynical, I just thought he was being a bit naive. Maybe he was, but it’s now been over 5 years since graduation and I’m having dinner with him Thursday. In September, I blogged that I was sad that Jessica moved away and got married and I mourned the loss of our friendship. Just a couple months later, we reunited for a weekend. Last year for VEDA, I watched 20-30 people post a vlog everyday for the month of August. It was our first year doing it and at the end, I thought, “Man, another chapter done. I probably won’t keep in touch with most of these awesome people.” Now I share a collab channel with four of the girls I met and tweet at a slew of them still. We make plans to meet each other even.

I wanted to take a moment and marvel at some of these friendships. My college friend Kym and I really just spent one summer together 5 years ago and yet I email her weekly. Kim and I met in 2001 in college and I email her DAILY and see her when I’m in Houston. Cindy and I only really shared a few months of living in the same town when we first met. I respect the importance and fond memories of friends whom life physically moved away and with them the friendship dissipated, but the friendships I managed to keep alive with emails, phone calls, chats, letters, and care packages, they really have a special place in my heart. You can say there’s no closer proximity than the friendships you carry with you.

This post is written in dedication to my BFF, a high school life friend.

Weekend Recap

November 7th, 2011 · · memory, National Blog Posting Month '11, pursuit of happiness, Stars of my Life, still-frames 24 comments - Tags: , ,

Jessica, a close friend of Brandi’s and mine, moved away over a year ago. We saw her just once since then and it was at her wedding. A happy occasion but not the perfect time to catch up. We reunited finally over the weekend and traveled south for a day to attend the Texas Renaissance Festival. We’ve gone twice before. To put a fun spin on things, we decided to skip out on most of the activities we’ve done before (no more riding elephants!) and pick the attractions we’ve never done.

So we started with face painting. Even as a child, I’ve never had my face painted!




Then we shot bow and arrows. We picked the heavier bows. 27 lbs, when weaker armed individuals should start at 20 lbs. I don’t know what I’m talking about; I’m just repeating what the guy said. All I know is that I could barely pull the string back!


Then we threw knives. I’ve never thrown knives. Turns out, I throw knives like I throw darts. (Poorly.)

Of course we had to conserve some of our traditions. We ate the same foods and took photos with some characters!




It was an exceptional day.


Question: What did you do this weekend?

What It’s Like to Skydive

October 25th, 2011 · · memory 16 comments - Tags:

Posted in my Xanga five years ago:

Wednesday, 25 January 2006

This is for Cindy who’s greedy for details.

I was in the little plane. Squished. My jump-master was to my left, the guy who would be filming me on the way down and two female professional skydivers to my right. We were all sitting on the floor. I felt like canned tuna.

I tried to keep my gaze off the CameraMan’s crotch. The harnesses gathered around the crotch and amplified a man’s area up to the point obscene. Gross.

I waited, waited, waited. It took forever to get up 10,000 feet. Jump-master tried to make small talk with me. His ex-girlfriend shared the same name as me. I wanted to bail when he said that. “Don’t unharness me to get back at your girlfriend.” Laughter. I feigned a mistrusting glare.

Altitude reached. Door opened. LOUD wind all around. The two female skydivers jumped out and they looked really cool jumping out. Movie cool. Then CameraMan stepped out on the step they had outside while holding on to the wing of the plane. He recorded me while I inched out. I scooted on my butt, the jump-master harnessed me to him, and we were at the door in no time. He shouted for me to put my foot on the step but I couldn’t. The wind kept blowing my legs like little Texan flags and I couldn’t firmly plant them. Jump-master ended up pushing us out of the plane.

I watched the DVD from this point on and I made the most unattractive and terrified face going out. The next few seconds were the most exhilarating seconds of my life. I tumbled about, spun, saw clouds every which way no matter what side was up. Everything was still loud. Windy loud. Piercingly loud. My goggles were not strapped on tightly enough so they were slipping off my face and pushing up against my eyes. Making me slantier than I already am. I’m Asian. Most of y’all are Asian [Referring to my Xanga readers]. We do not need help looking slanty. My right shoe was slipping off. I wish I didn’t have these wardrobe malfunctions because they distracted me from THE MOST EXHILARATING moment of MY LIFE.

Finally the chute opened and I get yanked up. It suddenly grew quiet. Just like Kim said. In her words, “it was very zen.” The first thing my jump-master said was, “Congratulations, you just fell 7,000 feet.” I laughed. My right shoe was now hanging on my toes.

The view wasn’t that great. Dry Texan dirt. But it was so peaceful floating. I already decided before my feet softly landed on the ground that this is something I want to do again. And possibly again.

I wanted to post this as a preamble to a post that’s in the works and also so I can have it stored on this blog.

Man, 5 years ago I was 23. Time has flown. (Get it?!)

Oh, contrary to what I wrote and thought, skydiving is not something I want to do again unless I do it at an amazingly beautiful location.


Question: What is the most exhilarating moment of your life?

Jessica’s Married

September 20th, 2011 · · love, memory 8 comments - Tags: ,

Bracelet stuck in veil!

Jessica, Brandi (previous roommate), and I worked at a now closed indoor playground called Radijazz while we were all still undergrads. Usually, you leave a place of work and the work friendships kind of taper off. Knowing this, I really cherish the friendships that survive after leaving a work place. It’s now been 6 years since we’ve worked at Radijazz and I feel blessed to have them still as close friends.

While we worked there, we had a weekly dinner club that met every Thursday to cook and watch Grey’s Anatomy. We always had to really make sure our food wasn’t terribly interesting because Jessica, as adventurous as she is (she hunts and fishes and can spit farther than any boy I know), is not adventurous when it comes to food. She loves her Wishbone’s Thousand Island, chicken tenders, and ketchup! In fact, Brandi approached me during her wedding this weekend and said, “Guess what we’re having for dinner? It’s her favorite.”

I erroneously guessed chicken tenders and ketchup, which got all around me giggling because it was the best guess!

We had Mexican. Her other favorite.

So Brandi and I trekked it four hours to Texas’s coast to see our Jessica get married. She’s been out of Austin for about a year now and I miss her so terribly. The last three years she was in Austin, we shared a parking lot. I could come over unannounced and pop myself on her living room floor to go through her magazines as if they’re my own. She’d come over to bum an egg or two. The only thing I hated about going to her apartment was her crazy pet squirrel who attacked me once. Even then, I loved her too much to let the most demonic squirrel I’ve come across keep me away.

Seeing her this weekend was the first time I saw her in a year and it was simultaneously a joyous and heartbreaking time for me. I loved seeing her in her white dress and happy but I’ve never missed being able to just walk across the parking lot to see her as much as I did at her wedding.

I’m back in Austin and I find myself grieving a little. I’m wishing her the happiest married life and will cherish our memories. Maybe we’ll catch each other once in a while?


She got dressed so fast she forgot to take off her shorts!

Wordless Wednesday: Vancouver Aquarium

September 14th, 2011 · · memory, still-frames, wanderlust 19 comments - Tags: ,









For more Wordless Wednesdays from others, click here.

The High School Ten Year Reunion

September 12th, 2011 · · memory 14 comments - Tags:

This past weekend, I attended one of the events (the most informal one) of my Ten Year High School Reunion. 23 of the 48 (two were not present during that photo posted above) showed up for the informal happy hour, some of whom I haven’t seen in ten years. It was so lovely to see everyone and I wished more of our class showed up.

There’s a popular notion that people show up to their reunion hoping to upstage old bullies and indulge in delicious schadenfreude. I’m pretty confident that our reunion was nothing like that. Everyone looked even better or the same as I remember them ten years ago. Cute and awkward girls have blossomed into glowing women. Everyone hugged all in attendance as soon as she arrived. It was a heartwarming experience and felt something like coming back to an old home.

The reunion reminded me that as a class and in comparison to preceding and succeeding classes, we were misfits. A perfect illustration of our class’s personality involves a Halloween tradition our high school had. We were a school for Pre-K through 12th grade. Every year for Halloween, the high school classes each had a hallway to decorate so that the Pre-K through 4th graders could parade through in their costumes. Normally, the hallways were decorated with the usual G-rated Halloween decorations. Ghosts and witches and scarecrows. During our sophomore year, our class decorated our hall as if it was a mental institution. We had REDRUM splattered in red on white walls and a stretcher with a classmate laying on it with her intestines hanging out. I remember we pulled a blanket over the intestines for the super young kids. We had lullabies playing and a strobe light flickering. We had girls muttering to themselves in wigs and grabbing kids from under the stretcher.

Needless to say, we broke the tradition after all the angry phone calls from parents.

We were a handful and I love the memories.

I know it’s impractical because of all the states we span (though a big chunk of us live in Houston, Dallas, Austin!), but I wish we didn’t wait ten years to reunite.

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 49)

July 1st, 2011 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), memory, on the nightstand 20 comments - Tags: ,


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel, we chat about what’s been going on in our lives.


Youtube Link


2.


Growing up, I never owned a thermometer. I guess my parents never felt the need for one. Anyway, I learned a few days ago that you can have brain damage with very high fevers so I had Brittany bring me a thermometer. I was amazed at how high I clocked in (102.4) for how temperature stable I was feeling. I worked in a medical setting for the first 4 years of my working life and took patients’ temperature all the time. Surprisingly that didn’t take away from the novelty of my own thermometer. I think I took my temperature 10 times in a span of 20 minutes just for fun.


3.


Today will be my first day back at work after taking two days off. I was starting to develop cabin fever and am glad to be out of the apartment, and off my couch.


4.


“Most little girls, I think, grow up with the instinctive understanding that we have the power to direct the way the world sees us. It is why fashion has such a powerful pull.”
– Ruth Reichl, Garlic and Sapphires

 

I finished this book this week and it was a very entertaining read. A memoir by Ruth Reichl about her time as the New York Times Food Critic. She would go to the restaurants as herself and then a few times under various disguises. I recommend this for light and fun summer reading.


5.

Maybe this summer, I will relearn how to swim.


6.


Last week I received happy mail from bloggers; this week I got happy mail from friends I’ve met in real time, one happens to have a blog now. I have delicious cookies and treats from Sarah and a letter from Jennifer. I think everyone should have a pen pal or two. It makes checking your mail something to look forward to.


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ Brittany coming over on her lunch break to give me sick supplies ♥ getting Solemate (deliberate misspelling) and BFF to watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof so that I can discuss the ending with them ♥ Alan bringing over a honeydew smoothie before going to work ♥ coconut mocha smoothies ♥ having sick days ♥ True Blood premiere date with Brittany ♥ catching up with Solemate for the first time in months ♥ having BFF and Best Dudie Friend as sick buddies via gchat ♥ reading time ♥ 2nd episode of True Blood being on hbogo.com


Question: What’s something you didn’t have growing up?

VEDA – Sad Story About My Parents in Vietnam

April 7th, 2011 · · love, memory, VEDA, videos 10 comments - Tags: ,

Originally, this VEDA entry was suppose to be a 1 to 3 ratio of sad story to funny stories. Unfortunately, I underestimated how long the sad story would take me to tell so I’ll have to lace in more happy entries for VEDA in the future. Tonight, I vlogged about my mom’s first birthday as my dad’s wife.


Youtube Link

“He’s going to die!”

March 28th, 2011 · · memory, misadventures, pursuit of happiness 18 comments - Tags: ,

I was 22 years old and had just gotten my heart broken by my first boyfriend of four years. My parents had taken to blowing up my phone because I was MIA for three days. I usually talked to them everyday but couldn’t bring myself to talk to anyone. My dad left a voice mail threatening to come up to Austin if I didn’t call him back. Not wanting to deal with hovering parents while I grieved, I reluctantly called them back.

Dad:
Baby?

Me:
(In between cries and hiccups) Hi. Daddy. We. Broke. Up.

Dad:
Is he crying right now?

Me:
No.

Dad:
Is he crying to his daddy?

Me:
No.

Dad:
Don’t you cry to your daddy.

Me:
Fine but you called me first!

That was our conversation in totality. Note how he didn’t even ask the whys and whens of the split. He didn’t need to know. It was enough that we were over. It was enough that I was crying and my ex was not.

The next day he called to apologize. He told me he was sorry to be so rough with me the day before but he just wanted me to see this break-up as practice. I remember being so perplexed on what he could possibly mean by “practice.”

“You know, when you meet that someone who is perfect for you and get married and have kids and live your life, what do you think will happen?”

I remember being afraid to let him finish this thought but I braced for it anyway.

“He’s going to die!”

My dad had tried to make me feel better about my first break-up by likening it to practice for when my future spouse dies. It’s so awful that the memory of this still makes me laugh 5 years later and this story still gets requested by my friends at gatherings.

Brutality aside, I think I get what he was trying to tell me. We are on borrowed time. Nothing and no one is really ours. Everything and everyone gets given back. A break-up is just one way things get taken from us and at the time, my break-up was just a small introduction to the greater losses life will bring me. No wonder I’m so scared of losing my loved ones. I can’t imagine how unbearable the pain will be when the losses become bigger.