Tag: momma

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 77)


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel, we discuss our superstitions.


Youtube Link

I talk about some weird ones I inherited from my mom. Like not gifting drinking glasses, cups, or mugs. It’s supposed to mean the friendship would end. So if I were to give you cups or mugs, I’d ask for a quarter or something to simulate selling instead of gifting. I also talk about two Arabic phrases I picked up as superstitions. Comment below and let me know what your superstitions are. I’d love to know!


2.

Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the year of the Dragon. I meant to mention some Lunar New Year superstitions. A lot of these might just be Vietnamese but here are the ones passed on to me from my mom. We are to eat vegetarian for good luck the first day of the holiday (It’s a two week holiday.) The first day of the year, you’re supposed to have a fairly clean house but you’re not supposed to clean. Also, no taking out the trash! It symbolizes throwing out money. I also read from another Vietnamese blogger that you’re supposed to not wash your hair for that same reason and wear red for prosperity.

I wore red but my hair needs to be washed everyday.


3.

I’ve had these kids I babysit for since they were both born. They’re the only kids I babysit. I truly love them. Really. I will always babysit them til they no longer need it or I’m no longer in the same city. Anyway, I’m digging their conversations lately.

4 Year Old:
I had a bad day

8 Year Old:
How come you had a bad day?

4 Year Old:
The other kids laughed at me during lunch.

8 Year Old:
[Redacted], when I was your age and kids laughed at me, I just pretended they weren’t even in the room.

4 Year Old:
Oh! Okay. I’ll try that next time.


4.

One of my goals is to have my mom meet Bob. She’s terrified of dogs. My parents live close to where they run their store. She once walked to the store carrying my dad’s dinner that she had just cooked when a neighborhood dog approached her. What did she do? She threw my dad’s dinner at it!

Recently she cooked me a huge batch of bone marrow. I love bone marrow. (Refer to my Totes Awesome Channel vlog about ideal meals.) I posted the picture of mom’s bone marrow on Facebook and my crass Best Dudie Friend commented, “Oh No! I’m going to miss you, Bob!” I thought it was hilarious and told my mom that BDF thinks she cooked up Bob.

“Tell him how can I cook Bob when I don’t even want to TOUCH Bob?”


5.

The Sketchbook Project needs to be postmarked by Tuesday and I have 13 more pages to complete! Panic!! I’ll be out of town this weekend and busy too so it’ll leave me Sunday night and Monday night. Last year by the first of the year, I had all the pages planned and mostly done! Anyway, want to see two pages of what I have done?

Hee.


6.

I took today off of work because we’re going to Dallas for the weekend for a wedding. Sadly, there won’t be any time for us to stop by In ‘N Out. I guess I will just wait til when I go to Vegas!


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ a close friend to laugh with and make cleaning dog poop out of my car bearable ♥ a well-timed hug ♥ a supreme burger along side chili cheese fries and a decadent nutella milkshake with chocolate covered pretzel crumbles ♥ new music from Treavor and Peter ♥ planning Valentines with a few girlfriends ♥ authentic Chinese food date with Brandi ♥ cuddles ♥ vote of confidence from Cindy ♥ Deesh and Bing taking in Bob for the weekend ♥ blueberries and strawberries in my cereal ♥ BDF helping my friends draft professional correspondences ♥ BFF helping me come up with 7 quick takes ♥ one of my favorite months drawing near


Question: What are some of your superstitions?

7 Quick Takes (1)

  1. A plane crashed into an IRS building here in Austin yesterday morning, killing two people. I just read the pilot’s 6 paged suicide note. I’m really sad for the innocent man who showed up for work and never came home because some sad twisted man could not take rein of his life and own responsibility for his unhappiness.
  2. Yesterday, during my lunch and on my own, I went to the Blanton Museum to see their exhibit on desire, aptly named On Desire.

    No photos were allowed at this exhibit but if you’re in Austin, I recommend it. It highlights a great span of desire, touching on heartbreak, confusion, sex, love… I sometimes find art hard to relate to but a lot of the pieces on display in On Desire really touched me and spoke to me. Very.. human.


    I’ve always loved the Blanton’s peaceful grandeur.

  3. Lately, I have a lot of mind chatter that is self-deprecating. I’m starting to worry that it’s excessively self-deprecating and I can’t seem to find my way out of it. Yet, anyway. I’m toying with the idea of talking to a counselor. My insurance covers it after a deductible.
  4. This video of a three year old sobbing over Justin Bieber is heartbreakingly CUTE. Such anguish for a little one.

  5. In the last week I finished the first three books of 2010: Fup, The Shack, Bonk, and am almost done with 50th Law. I think it’s amusing that when you read a handful of books all at once, there’s a lag in finishing books but then you start to finish them at the same time. Book reviews to come of all three (four?) books soon.
  6. My mom had my fortune told by this Asian dude who records his take on your life on tape. According to him, per my mom, the funnest years of my life is from age 24-34. She said according to him, I’ll get married and start a family at around 34/35. Interesting. Everything that has happened in my life, my mom claims she already knew was going to happen to me. My dad, a skeptic of fortunes, was gleeful to report that the fortune teller thinks that any degree of charismatic magnetism I possess comes from his side of the family. Ha! My parents crack me up.
  7. I’m most hungry for reassurance right now. Cuddles. Chicken soup. Hugs. Murmurs that everything will pan out. For now, I settle for still wearing Valentine’s day socks and knickers, and chocolate chip cookies.

Making Bánh Cuốn with Mom- Part Two

Here is Part One.

As stated in Part One, Bánh Cuốn (directly translates to “rolled cake”) is rice crepes rolled with minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. Apparently, it’s traditionally eaten as breakfast food but I could eat it any time of day. You dip it in a special dipping sauce and it’s usually garnished with cilantro and sauteed crispy scallions. Part One was my mom making the sauteed scallions. Here is the second and final part. Enjoy the video.

Editing and annotating the video has given me a craving. I guess now that I know how to make these crepes, I can try… OR I can just be a lazy daughter and wait til I go home to Houston next. Hee.

A Mini-Vietnamese Writing Demonstration from my Mom

I’m a bad Vietnamese girl and do not know how to read or write in Vietnamese. I was telling my mom about how I was talking to Kym (who is a literate Viet), about how Anthony Bourdain seems so carefree and in love with life. What really captured what I was trying to say is this Vietnamese phrase that directly translates to “in love with life” (but it means so much more than just that). I was having a hard time communicating to her the phrase so I tried to phonetically sound it out for her. However, it didn’t quite land. Here’s the snippet of our conversation.

Kym: what vietnamese phrase?
me: um
i cant spell it but it directly translates to “in love with life”?
Kym: oh man. i don’t know
me: ew duh
Kym: i’ll have to ask my parents now
me: like “love world”
Kym: i want to know
me: love life
Kym: OHHHH
HAHAHAHAHAHA
me: its suppose to mean like a personality trait. someone. who is enamoured with life/full of life, dreamy
Kym: i think it might be yêu dời.
EW DUH I LOVE IT

I shamefully told my mom about this conversation. She was so embarrassed by her daughter, she gave me a mini lesson right then and there. She demonstrated what all the little accents and squigglies do to pronunciation. A common assumption is that all Asian languages are comprised of funky characters instead of script, but Vietnamese is actually all script, save the accents and “squigglies.”

I totally would have taken a class in college but UT didn’t offer the classes til after I graduated!

My parents in their 30s…

This is a photo of my parents when my mom was pregnant with me at age 31. Pretty momma!