12.10.11
Posted in My FAMILY at 11:17 am by admin
Well, I’m back from AZ and finally rested enough to report that we all survived the 50th Wedding Anniversary weekend in one piece! Yay! 
However, I think my parent’s version of the 12 Days of Christmas will now sound more like: “On the 3rd day of December, my family subjected me to… 150 balloons, 70 friends & family, 20 potluck dishes, 14 loaded tables, 10 garage sleepers, FI-IVE…BIG FAT LIES (which made the kids go to church on Sunday to ask for forgiveness)….. 4 carloads of family, 3 daughters who have a “Dan”, 2 necktie-blindfolds.. Aaa-nd Aaah Surprise 50th Anniversary Parrr-teeee!”
Well, as some of you know, one of the most special surprises for this anniversary, was Karen! Karen was my parent’s first foster child back when they lived in Hawaii. They loved her very much, but were not allowed to adopt foster children at the time. So when they left for Japan, they had to leave her behind. Over the years, they lost contact, but in 2010, they finally found her on Facebook! So, Karen flew in from PA to rejoin the family and not only got to surprise the folks, but also the older siblings, who hadn’t seen her since she was ~2yrs old. 
Now naturally the family welcomed Karen back home, by stuffing her in a 3 bdrm house with ~17-20 people and then making her sleep in the garage with up to 9 other refugees (i.e. family). But of course, no hazing is complete without experiencing the symphony of snorers (AKA: the Train (Steve), the Plane (Carol’s Dan), and the Whistler (Carol)). And if that wasn’t bad enough, the stupid Reverse Osmosis (RO) water tank kept making the worst sounds throughout the night. Fortunately though, Karen passed her initiation with flying colors and fit beautifully into the chaos of the family, as if she had always been here. 
Oh, so the morning of the anniversary party, we had to lie, so that we could get out of the house, to decorate the church. And good thing the Christmas Nativity scene hadn’t been put up yet, because I know the baby Jesus would have lowered his head in shame, for all the lies we told our parents. But then when it started to rain and lightning all of the sudden, it was like, – I get it God, message received.. No more lies after this! –
Anyway, back to the party.. So here’s the thing, my folks were blindfolded so I wasn’t worried about getting Yofu to the church without him realizing it. Especially because he’s often oblivious to his own surroundings anyway, and easily distracted in general.. BUT, Madre is a different story and I KNEW getting HER to the church would be tricky, so I told my siblings to make sure they crossed the train tracks early (since it’s right near the church) and then drive all over. Well, it didn’t matter, because the lady is a human GPS system and no amount of turns could confuse her. We would have been better off doing a bunch of figure-eights in the parking lot. So, even though the location was obvious, at least the volume of guests that attended was still a big surprise for them.
Overall, despite some minor obstacles of the day, everything seemed to worked out well and actually even better than I had imagined at times.
Anywho.. as much fun as the surprise anniversary gathering was, I’m also very relieved that it’s finally over. It’s been a year full of challenges and I’m thankful to everyone who contributed to this. In addition I’m especially grateful to (my) Dan and (niece) Amanda for giving me hope and providing the motivation that was needed to see this through. Thank you and I love you all SO much!
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11.14.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:06 pm by admin
From the moment Steve proposed to Alison (back in Sept), and told us that they would be heading to Monterey (no family/friends) to be married on Oct. 8th, Dan and I have been trying to think of the perfect wedding gift. After all, Steve is family to me and we love Alison beyond belief. Here’s the thing though, what do you get a couple that could buy themselves whatever they want? But more importantly, didn’t seem to need or want anything? Then it hit me, you give them something they wouldn’t ever expect.. Something that you know they’d never get from anyone else.. basically, you get them the ONE thing they ‘didn’t’ even want!.. And THAT is when we decided to give them their very own wedding!
The Happy Trails Wedding was this weekend and it was everything we hoped it would be. Steve and Alison arrived, dressed to perfection (thinking that Dan and I were taking them to a fancy restaurant). But instead, the 6 of us met them out front, all dressed up (Chris & Dan in tuxedos, Eric in his Sr. Chief uniform), the ladies all in black dresses. Then Miho gave them the gift box with the 4 Somethings: Old (16yr old surf wax from when Chris & Steve surfed together), New (carabiner clip keychain), Borrowed (Chy’s tiara on a wedding veil), & Blue (garter with blue trim). We told them that they had to wear the items.
Once they were all set and ready to go (thinking we were about to leave for the restaurant), that’s when we explained that tonight, our gift to them was that we were giving them the wedding they never wanted! And then we opened the door and began..
Dan cued the Star Trek: Next Generation theme song. We had the happy couple proceed down the lighted wedding trail with scattered petals and meet us at the livingroom. Eric performed the (humorous and yet extremely thoughtful) Human-Klingon ceremony (so apparently now this marriage is binding on this planet, as well as another). Then the couple exchanged Candy Ring-pops and the ceremony ended with the kiss, Star Wars music, and confetti.
Then dinner was served by world renowned Chef Dan. We had almond champagne, as Chris gave his toast, welcoming Alison into the family. We had the official cake cutting (Chris and Evelyn picked the perfect cake to go with the topper we ordered), and finally the Beer Dance. Basically, instead of a money dance, everyone had to present the bride/groom with a bottle of beer in exchange for a dance.
All in all, we had a blast! It was a total group effort and I’m sure Steve and Alison felt the love that we all put into this.. and hopefully “the wedding they never wanted” will be one of those special celebrations that they never forget.
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09.06.11
Posted in Happenings from home at 8:40 am by admin
I played Laser Tag for the first time yesterday.. actually, I wasn’t going to play at all, but I finally decided to try one game. Well, by the end of game TWO, someone scored over 1000 points higher than her Marine counterpart, while still managing to sport the flip flops.. hoorah! Aaah yes, nothing says victory like shooting little 5 yr olds with a laser pointer gun, accompanied by a Dr. Evil laugh.
So, in the middle of the game, I started noticing that I was repeatedly dying even though no one appeared to be around. I thought my gear was broken, until I finally discovered this cute, 7-ish yr old girl strolling along behind me, repeatedly shooting ME in the back! It was like looking in a mirror of evilness. I thought once she realized I could see her, she’d turn and scurry away, but NOO-OH. She just stood there, patiently waiting until my gear started to turn back on, and then the little stinker would shoot me again! And every time I thought I finally ditched her, she’d pop up out of nowhere with her angelic face, and shoot me again in the back! I finally changed strategies and hid. Then I spent the remainder of my time, hunting her down, and shooting the crap out of her. I know, I know.. that’s horrible… especially since I may have even had a smirk on my face at the time.
Then there was ‘Dan the Man’, who seemed to have forgotten that we were never in the military, because there were times when he would suddenly drop to one knee and direct us with military hand signals… seriously Dan?.. it’s Laser Tag, not Afghanistan.. use your words. Chy and I had no clue what the heck he wanted at times, but there was no time for eye rolling, because I was too busy tracking down my nemesis. Poor Chy.. between Dan and I, she probably never wants to play laser tag with us again. 
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08.06.11
Posted in Happenings from home, My FAMILY at 2:55 pm by admin
While my parents were in town, Madre had the unfortunate experience of using my tweezers (that require ~15 mins to remove one hair from your eyebrow). So while discussing my crappy tweezers, my folks start raving about Yofu’s super tiny tweezers that he got from Japan long ago. They explained that they’ve never come across such great quality small tweezers since then (which now explains why they’ve hid them from me for years!).
Anyway, Yofu decides to go online to show us what they look like, and suddenly exclaims that he found the very same tweezers for just a couple bucks.. yay! SO, we both order one and I was totally excited, thinking about how happy I was going to be, now that I could finally pluck my eyebrows in less than 5 mins.
So when the mail arrives the next week, I rush to open my package, practically humming a happy song, imagining my super-tiny-Chuck Norris-quality tweezers… and… this is what I see..
What the french toast is this?? I knew Yofu’s brows could get a bit crazy when the hairs go rogue in all different directions, but dang! If these are the “SUPER SMALL” tweezers, I’d hate to see what his “normal” sized tweezers look like. So, the good news: I can definitely pluck my eyebrows in less than 5 mins. The bad news: I may lose my entire brow in one pluck!”
But on the bright side, once my eyebrows are gone, I could still use the tweezers as tongs for serving salad. So, let this be a lesson to you all.. when Yofu finds you super small tweezers online, have him double check the DIMENSIONS first!
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07.22.11
Posted in My FAMILY at 4:27 pm by admin
I guess someone didn’t get the memo that wearing Superman lounge pants, does NOT make you Superman!
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06.24.11
Posted in Happenings from home at 10:32 am by admin
The other weekend Dan’s father asked him to order a small wooden sign that read “ELEV 5520″ (elevation 5520ft), for their Arrowhead cabin. Dan said, “Yeah I can order it, but you realize there’s a woodworker sitting here who could probably make that for you”. Dan’s father looked at me and immediately responded, “Oh yeah, that would be even better, because I wanted it look funky.” [Say what?!] He continued speaking and I couldn’t help but laugh aloud, because he was completely oblivious to how his comment came across. So I interrupted, “Wait a second.. so what’s THAT supposed to mean?” Of course, then he tried to explain that he meant it (“funky”) in a good way [but I know good-funky and this ain't a soul music or fashion-related context].
So then in an attempt to further support his ‘compliment’, Dan’s father referred to the engraving on his birdhouse that I had done awhile back… and THAT is when I knew for sure that his “funky”, was NOT the stylish/cool version (cause that engraving was definitely [cough] not going to win any woodworking awards).
Anyway, the birdhouse reference made me realize that he was actually right though! My engraving ability really does need improvement.. hahaa! I’m OK with that though and since practice makes perfect, I decided to make the ‘funky’ sign he wanted anyway.
I beat the sides, sanded it, and burned the edging to age and give it the look that his father described. And fortunately since it appears that his expectations of my work is pretty low, I *should* be able to meet his standards.
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06.13.11
Posted in Bus-Blog at 1:00 am by admin
My fake earplugs have been so successful on the bus, that I started wearing them on my walk home as well. Many times now, when hobos see the neon plugs, they just keep walking. Man, I love these things!!
SO.. last week while riding the bus to work, this hobo came over and asked if I had “any spare dollars” [btw, who has "spare" dollars?.. what kind of question is that?].
I was going to ignore him until I realized that I forgot to wear my earplugs! Dang it! So I replied “nope, sorry” and went back to reading. But my Hobo friend didn’t go away and instead hung around to ask what book I was reading. I closed my book to show him the title on the binding, but he said he couldn’t read it. So I flipped it around to give him a better view of the title, but he repeated again that he couldn’t read it. Then it hit me.. OOH, he *can’t read* it! .. sheesh, how insensitive of me!
So I read it aloud ["Lone Survivor"]. He seemed pleased with the title and wanted to know if it was a good story ["yes"], and whether I liked it ["yes"]. And was I a student ["yes"]. And what was my major ["undecided"]. He was happy with my answers [evident by his huge smile, exposing all his missing teeth]. Then he continued talking, as I just listened and nodded, wishing I had remembered my earplugs. I definitely made sure to have them on my ride home.
Anyway, what’s interesting is that I noticed on my way home that now another guy at my stop is wearing earplugs too.. AWESOME!! And I’m wondering how long it will be before our entire bus starts wearing them!
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06.06.11
Posted in Bus-Blog at 9:39 am by admin
A guy in my racquetball class always wore fleshtone earplugs when he played, because the courts were so loud and it got me thinking that maybe he was onto something. So, I took some bright neon colored earplugs, cut them thin enough so that I could still hear clearly, and started using them on the bus to prevent riders and hobos from talking to me. And I’m happy to report 2 weeks later, that my fake earplugs work beautifully!
In fact, one evening this super obnoxious drunk dude, began annoying the riders with his racist comments, as well as singing in Spanish at the top of his lungs to anyone listening to their music. At one point Drunky turned to me while I was reading, but then I heard him say, “Oh, she can’t hear me..” and moved on to pester the next person. After drunky got off the bus, he moseyed on over to a nearby tree and proceeded to urinate on it.. nice! Then instead of using the cross walk, he sauntered into the middle of the bus lane, put his hand up like a traffic cop, and waited until the on-coming bus came to a complete stop in front of him. Then, he wobbled to the next lane and repeated the process. I wondered if he’d try the same technique with the trolley, but no such luck!
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06.01.11
Posted in Happenings from home, Random Postings at 5:55 pm by admin
I started emailing some people about my weekend and then realized that I should have just put it on my blog to save time.. duh! OK, here you go..
This weekend we were up in Lake Arrowhead and this concert we attended got a bit crazy. Actually, Dan and I arrived in the middle of the concert so most of the crowd was pretty buzzed as we made our way to the front. So, I’m standing there and this 50-ish yr old drunk lady bumps into me as she stumbles to the front row. At first she seemed annoyed that I was even there, until she saw my UCSD sweatshirt and suddenly she got all crazy-eyed and screamed, “UCSD?! I’MMM UCSD B*TCH!!! Class of..(80-something). YAAH!!” Now she’s thrilled as she grabs me, hugs me, and shouts, “KAPPA GAMMA blah blah blah” – I don’t remember the sorority, but you get the picture. Anywho, suddenly a different lady on my other side shouts, “What..UCSD?!? OMG, MY daughter goes there! AAAH.. YAAH!” She’s so excited, puts her arm around me, and insists that her boyfriend/hubby take pictures of us together. Then some random dude wearing shades (it’s like 8PM at night) joins our photo shoot. As the concert progressed, Shades continued to mingle with everyone, jumping around from person to person. Then he’d stop by periodically to update me on what was going on with everyone else (like I cared).
At one point Ms. UCSD started whipping her hair all over the place, got super dizzy, and fell over. I managed to grab her before she hit the ground and helped her up, which made her hug (borderline strangle) me for 10 secs straight, as she kept thanking me repeatedly for “saving her”. I finally managed to pry her off of me and then she returned to la-la land. Later she turned around and shouts, “Your not in KAPPA GAMMA Blah are you?!”..[Nope].. “I know, cause you’re NOT GET-TING CRAZY! You gotta get CRAAY-ZAAY!!” I figured it wasn’t necessary though, because she definitely had enough “cray-zay” to cover the both of us.
Shades later stopped by to point out Ms. UCSD who had now removed the flower she had in her hair and was eating it!! Say what?.. We watched her slowly chew the petals as if mesmerized by the flavor. Then she started to spit them out, which just made them stick to her lips.. I still have a hard time believing she actually graduated from UCSD, but whatever. The next time Shades came around, he had a tower of ~8 plastic souvenir beer glasses stacked together (that he managed to accumulate throughout the night). So I asked if I could have one and once I was able to convince him that I wasn’t under age, he finally gave me one.. Sweet!
Then a mosh pit started and that’s when things got even crazier. Dan stood between me and the moshers to be sure that I didn’t get hit, but shortly after that, a major fight broke out in the pit and next thing I know I’m being choked as someone grabbed the back of my hoodie and started pulling me away. At first I assumed it was Dan, until I was dragged backwards past him and kept going.. so I turned around and lo and behold, it’s Shades! He said he was worried that I was going to get hurt and wanted me out of the way. Then he let go of my hoodie and off he went again into the crowd. How hilarious!
So basically, if I had been abducted by a creeper, Dan wouldn’t have even noticed, because he was more entertained watching this fight! Such a male.. sheesh!
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05.07.11
Posted in My FAMILY at 8:13 am by admin
With Mother’s Day around the corner, it’s only appropriate that I talk about my mom. After all, my mom is one of the sweetest persons in the world (really). She’s warm, loving, caring, affectionate, and everything else a mother should be..
And so that’s why it’s really funny that she never wants to talk to her own kids when we call. It’s true! She avoids us on the phone like the plague, making up excuses why she can’t talk, when we ALL know that she just doesn’t WANT to. Then Yofu will say, “Well, you know your mom, she’s like this with everyone”.. uh yeah, but we’re her KIDS! Am I the only one who finds this odd?
Here’s the thing though, IF you can get Madre on the phone, she’s her normal loving self. She won’t rush you and is genuinely happy to talk to you. It’s just getting her to the pickup the phone, THAT is the problem. Basically, when I really want to talk to her, it’s like a mission (i.e. calculating the best day/time to call, to increase my probability for success). So here’s my recommended strategy [btw, this is highly classified info I'm about to disclose, so cue the Mission Impossible theme song and proceed]…
OK, first call Yofu and the minute he picks up the phone, say with a sense of urgency, “I have a question and I really need to talk to Madre.” Of course, this is when Yofu may say, “What?.. Why can’t you ask me? I might know the answer.” [-avoid the temptation to say, "yeah right" or else be prepared for 5mins of Yofu justifying why he's just as capable as Madre at giving advice, while attempting to throw in some added guilt for doubting his abilities]. SO.. instead, respond with, “OK, we’ll it’s about my last period. I had really bad cramps causing my bowel movements to..” [don't worry, you don't have to finish that sentence, because by now Yofu is already frantically searching for Madre and will force the phone on her like he's afraid the estrogen (or any other funk) might spread through the ear piece and touch him].. Mission accomplished!!
But why go to such efforts, you might ask? After all, if Madre doesn’t want to talk on the phone, why force her?? Well, the simple answer is: I’m selfish. And when I need guidance, Madre has the amazing ability to see the things that I fail to. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, she empathizes and is able to express her thoughts in a way that gives me a sense of clarity and makes me believe I possess all the tools I need to face my situation.
Therefore, she may not enjoy getting on the phone, but I’ll continue to use whatever tactics are necessary when I really need her. Anyway, THAT is why I enjoy Mother’s Day..because it’s one of the few days thoughout the year when I don’t have to ’suit up’ for a mission. Madre understands the unspoken Mother’s Day rule that you HAVE to talk to your kids when they call. So for those of you who have moms that long for every opportunity to talk to you, then calling them on Mother’s Day is basically your “I love you” gift to them. But for me, on that day, the moment my mom gets on the phone, it’s as if she’s given me an “I love you” gift as well.. and that makes the day extra special!
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