My sister and her husband are in Vegas right now, and I stayed behind in SD, partly because I wasn’t invited LOL, partly because they’re there celebrating my ex’s ex-girlfriend’s birthday (she’s married to my sister’s husband’s childhood friend now), but mostly because it’s hot enough to melt crayons over there 😅
And we could live so happily If no one knows that you’re with me I’m just kidding, but really, really, really Please, please, please don’t prove I’m right
Jessie’s looking for a nanny and they must be flat-chested, unattractive, located in San Diego, and good with dogs (in that order) 😆
Also, they filmed You down the street from my apartment in LA. I stopped watching after the second season because it was getting too far-fetched and crazy. I’d rather watch true crime 😆
I woke up and broke my glasses (I always fall asleep with my glasses on, and the metal hinge finally snapped this morning), so I ordered another of the same pair, but it takes a couple weeks to make. I walked to Vons in this hot ass weather to get my steps in and decided to reward myself with a venti iced unsweetened green tea, but the Starbucks inside Vons was out of green tea. We were supposed to celebrate Christine’s husband’s birthday tonight downtown at Basic, but Pammie’s been seeing a chiro and doing PT and she threw out her back, so instead I’m in bed watching old Bones reruns, wearing my prescription sunglasses at night like an asshole, and migrating my old work Mac to the new Mac they sent me. Another wild Saturday night in!
It’s also a full moon tonight. Do with that information what you will 😜
I’m Team Apple (I have a work-issued Mac Studio Desktop, a personal Macbook Pro laptop, an iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch), but I’ve never been more envious of PC users before today 😅
My wandering soul Found solace at last I wanted to know How long it would last
Blue Merle – Every Ship Must Sail Away
Oh, change is in the air And you wear it oh so well I asked you if you cared If you care, I couldn’t tell
José González – Heartbeats
One night of magic rush The start a simple touch One night to push and scream And then relief
When I don’t have Food Network or ID on while I work, I’ve been watching old Bones episodes because they’re always showing it on BBC America and WeTV for some reason. They also have a channel called ‘ALF‘ that only shows old episodes of Alf 24/7 LOL. I used to watch Bones when it was on nearly two decades ago. I forgot how much I loved all the sad music 🖤
My favorite breakfast burrito in SD is from this place by my old apartment in La Mesa called Super Oscar’s. I recently found out they closed down and turned into a Better Buzz Coffee, which I’m not mad about, because I love that place. I’ll take SD Mexican food over LA Mexican food any day. My favorite place by me in Redondo to get a breakfast burrito is Phanny’s. When I asked for hot sauce, though, they gave me a dang Tapatio packet. -1 star for their lack of homemade hot sauce, but 4/5 stars for this view, though 😍
Anyway, I recreated my favorite breakfast burrito from Super Oscar’s with tater tots, eggs, ham, cheddar, and turkey bacon, all wrapped in a carb balance tortilla. What has become of my life?
My sister finally picked up the key to their community pool. You would think a sign like this wouldn’t be necessary, but despite all the dog parks, ‘clean up after your dog’ signs, free dog waste stations, and trash bins on every corner, people still let their dogs shit all around this neighborhood.
Pammie used to take a trash grabber and trash bag with us on our walks, and fill it up in one go. I was like, ‘You should bring three bags: one for trash, one for recyclables, and one for compost.’ She was like, ‘I’m not trying to fix all the world’s problems.’ 🤣
More recently, we were on another walk, and I could hear this kid having a tantrum behind us. I turned around to give him a death glare LOL and saw a whole ass family (parents and three kids) in swimwear. We were walking back from the grocery store, so we had to drop off the groceries at the house before continuing our walk. While walking past the community pool, we saw the same family outside the gate, and the dad was trying to reach over the gate and open the door without a key, but he couldn’t do it. The kid who was throwing a tantrum earlier starts crying again because he can’t go swimming. Pammie nods at my lanyard of keys and was like, ‘You have the pool key. Want to let them in?’ I was like, ‘Not on my watch!’ 😅
My sister pays a ridiculous monthly HOA fee (half my rent!), and access to the community pool is an included privilege. I also take pictures of cars illegally parked in red zones and houses with decorations still up well after the holiday. ‘What are you gonna do with those?’ she and her husband asks. ‘Keep them on my phone in case I need a reason to report them to the HOA.’ ‘You don’t even live here!’ 🤣
One of my absolute favorite breakfast sandwiches is the Farmhouse Egg Sandwich from Einstein Bros. Bagels, only second to the Bacon, Eggs -n- Cheese at Eggslut. I’m p serious about breakfast, I even bought a Bacon, Eggs -n- Cheese shirt in Bone Thugs -n- Harmony Old English the last time I ate there:
I only have it when I’m flying out of Terminal 1 at SD Airport, or when I pay the additional expanded range fee to have it doordashed to my sister’s house. I looked up the ingredients, and thought, ‘I could make that.’
Einstein’s sells some of their shmears in tubs, but not the kind that goes on this particular sando (country pepper). I sub’d Whipped Garlic & Herb Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I also used uncured turkey bacon instead of real bacon because that’s what I had on hand. I always get my Farmhouse on a jalapeño cheddar bagel instead of the default cheesy hash brown bagel, because I like a little spice in my life.
It turned out amazing, and I will def be making it again!
There was an assassination attempt on Trump over the weekend, and I thought, ‘How is this only the first time someone tried to kill him?’ I also thought of this quote from The Wire:
How did that kid shoot him and miss? Lee Harvey Oswald was able to assassinate JFK while he was in a moving car.
Also, in unrelated news, I saw this shirt at the mall:
(306 total players – 264 eligible players) x ($10 buy-in) = $420. $420/264 eligible players = $1.59 LOL
I may have won less than $2, but the health benefits are priceless 😆
StepBet allows you to participate in 3 challenges at a time, so I’m doing 2 other challenges that are a bit longer (6 weeks) and the pots are much higher ($94,000 total). Hopefully, I’ll win more than $2 😜
I always get sparklers for my holiday gift bags from TOPS Malibu, and I always buy a ridiculous amount because I refuse to pay extra for shipping LOL. They always send a free surprise gift with their orders, and this last order came with a small pouch of sunflower seeds.
They remind me of the gorgeous sunflower fields I saw in the countryside in Spain:
I planted one of the sunflower seeds and this little sprout grew 🌱 It’s supposed to mature in 3-4 months! 😆🌻
I want you to stay
‘Til I’m in the grave
‘Til I rot away, dead and buried
‘Til I’m in the casket you carry
Obsessed with this song.
I once went to a Billie Eilish show in 2018 when she was only 16 before all the Grammy awards. 16-year-old artists have 16-year-old fans, though, and my ears are still ringing 6 years later from all her young fans screaming. I vowed to never see her live again, but I like to listen to this song while I’m getting my steps in (if I’m not listening to my twerkout playlist).
I once ordered ‘carne asada chips’ at the taco shop near my apartment in LA, and the cashier was like, ‘You mean, steak nachos?’ What in the gringo ass taco shop?
Another time at the same taco shop, I had called in my order for pick up. I went there and there was no parking. I waited 5 minutes for a space, and this guy swoops in and takes my spot. I was so mad and hangry, I parked behind him and blocked his ass in and stormed inside. We were stuck in line together, and he apologized for taking my spot. I said I was just picking up an order and leaving, so he’d be able to leave later. I took my food, walked back to my car and released the breath I didn’t know I was holding in. People have been murdered for less in LA! Let alone carne asada chips 😅
Sometimes I have to remind myself, ‘You’re in your forties now. You need to calm the fuck down.’ After that incident, I started doordashing my carne asada chips, and now I’m making them at home! 😆
I was watching DDD earlier and they featured Mrs. Potato. I had a sudden craving for chili cheese fries, which I used to doordash all the time in LA. ‘Where do they make good chili cheese fries down here?’ I asked Pammie, and she was like, ‘IDK… Wienerschnitzel?’ LOL. I’m not a food snob (JK, I totally am). I just instacarted all the accoutrements, and made it my damn self! (I also had a Power Day and did over 10K steps today. Get off me.)
My Spiritual AF card of the day says, ‘Revenge is wack and petty and gives you wrinkles.’ Well, Asian don’t raisin, and my nightly skincare routine keeps me young, so I may be wack and petty, but at least I have no wrinkles 😜
I was at the post office earlier this week mailing 4th of July goodie packages to a couple of my friends who don’t live in SD, and I mused to myself, ‘What’s the next holiday?’ Pammie’s like, ‘Labor Day. Remember we have that Harry Potter Padres Theme Game that night?’ ‘I meant the next holiday I make gift bags for. Ooh, Halloween!’
My doc appointment with the hematologist last week went well. I don’t have cancer 😮💨 He said that the normal range for white blood cells is 4.5K–11K and mine has been consistently 12K the past year, but everything else was normal, so he’s not concerned. He said it looks like there were some abnormalities in my T-cells, but that would only concern him if my other numbers were low and they weren’t, so he just wants to see me in 6 months to make sure my numbers are the same.
He was like, ‘Any questions for me?’ and my mom was like ‘How old are you?’ LOL he looked hella young. He was Asian and maybe in his 20s or 30s. He also said his babyface can be attributed to his skincare routine 😆
He was asking me a bunch of health questions and then he was like, ‘So what do you like to do in your free time?’ and I was like, ‘Uhh go to concerts,’ and my mom was like, ‘She just saw Justin Timberlake. Twice!’ and he was like, ‘Before his DUI or after???’ Don’t judge me 😑
The only bad news I got that day was when I stepped on the scale in the doctor’s office, and found out I gained a few. I’m still skinnier than I was when I had the stroke, but I’m straying further away from my ‘DMV weight‘ LOL, and I’m sure my primary care physician will have words about it when I see her in a few months.
My friend knows how competitive I am, so she suggested I try this StepBet app. I joined this mini 2-week challenge to start out. The buy-in was only $10, and if you complete the challenge, you split the pot. Over 300 people have joined this challenge, so the pot is $3,000+. Nothing motivates me more than winning, so I might as well make some money while reaping the health benefits 😜
In my day (LOL), ‘rawdogging’ meant something completely different and way nastier 😅 Fucking Gen Z and their jargon. I don’t even ‘rawdog’ on a 45-minute flight to Vegas. In fact, we take bets on whether or not we’ll even get refreshments on such a short flight. Sometimes the flight attendants claim ‘turbulence’ and say they need to remain seated for the duration of our flight and can’t do beverage service. I always get an iced coffee and bottled water after TSA, no matter how short the flight is, because this bitch is always thirsty 😅
Pammie had to go to OC for work yesterday, and there was a horrific accident on the 5, so she stopped at a cafe to wait out the traffic and enjoy a matcha green tea latte. She’s just like my dad. They would rather wait out the traffic somewhere, but I prefer to just sit in the traffic and get to my destination faster. As long as I have Spotify and a bluetooth connection, I can sit in traffic for hours. It’s usually a 2-hour drive between LA and SD, but it can take upwards of 4 hours on holiday weekends 😵💫
Today, on the drive back from my doctor’s appointment in LA, we hit traffic coming back, so my dad wanted to wait it out and eat dinner somewhere. We got back on the road around 6:45pm (usually non-traffic time in SD), but it was a parking lot on the 8. An ambo, police cars and two firetrucks zoomed past us on the shoulder. ‘Maybe someone’s dead up there,’ I mused to myself, and my mom was like, ‘Marion! Why are you always so morbid?!’ When we were finally able to creep past the accident, we saw an unconscious man on the ground getting CPR from the EMTs, his mangled motorcycle just ahead of him down the road. Yikes.
Actual footage of me driving in LA traffic:
Anyway, if my sister didn’t stop in that cafe to wait out traffic, she wouldn’t have heard this song they were playing inside and sent it to me because she knew it was my steez:
If I could be by your side I’ll give you all my life, my seasons I can’t be your love ‘Cause I’m afraid I’ll ruin your life
I knew they were Korean! They remind me of this other alternative Korean band I stumbled upon while looking for strawberry moon vibes on Spotify – The Poles 😅
The Poles never tour the US, though, and I saw that wave to earth is doing a North American tour and coming to SD, OC and LA. Their whole tour is sold out, though! WTF? Am I a Korean fangirl now? 🫰🏻
I need this shirt, except not in crop top form. Although I hate to deny the world the sight of my muffin top, I believe that people from the 1900s (or people who are old enough to have died of dysentery in Oregon Trail) shouldn’t be wearing crop tops. Fight me.
Talking to Pammie about current events is like trying to find meaning in a Pauly Shore movie 😅
My sister has been in Solana Beach for work all week, so my parents are taking me to my doctor’s appointment in LA tomorrow. I got my labs back, and it was negative for lymphoma and leukemia, but my white blood cell count was still elevated and they saw some ‘abnormalities’ whatever that means. Hopefully the hematologist will have more insight for me tomorrow. At least it’s not blood cancer! 😅
I was eating dinner, and my sister and her husband were watching House of the Dragon. I don’t watch it, so I was like, ‘Who’s that? Why’s everyone sad? What’s happening?’ and I was met with this look 😅
My toxic trait is that I talk and ask questions during TV shows/movies. I watched Game of Thrones when it first came out, but I stopped watching after they killed off Jason Momoa in the first season. I started watching it again from the 2nd season during the 7th season when I found out the 8th season was gonna be the final one. I was like, ‘How come no one talks about Rob Stark? He’s fine as hell!’ and Pammie was like, ‘Uhh…’ 😅 Spoiler alert: Rob Stark dies in season three.
Donna and her husband were vacationing on the coast, and she sent us a picture of the beach and was like, ‘David says this is where Dobby’s grave is!’ and I was like, ‘Dobby dies?!?!’ I’ve only watched the first four Harry Potter movies, so I didn’t know Dobby was murdered in the 7th movie. The last Harry Potter movie came out in 2011, so it’s my own damn fault for getting spoiled.
Me: Anyone else die in the movies? Pammie: Sirius. Me: What?! Wait, who’s Sirius again? Pammie: Sirius Black. Harry Potter’s godfather. Me: Ohhh. I confused him with Severus Snape. Pammie: He dies, too. Me: What?!
I’ve somehow avoided finding out the ending of Lost, even though the finale aired in 2010 😅
When your favorite 8-year-old loves Harry Potter and axolotls 💕
I was in Spain for her birthday, but I’m seeing her mom for dinner tonight. Christine messaged yesterday saying she missed our cackles and wanted to hang. We hang out all the time, but it’s usually for a special occasion (birthdays, holidays, Justin Timberlake concerts, etc. LOL). The last time I remember her asking if we were free out of the blue was when she told us she was pregnant 😳 She has since had three kids and her tubes tied, so I don’t think we’re gonna have any special announcements tonight (at least not of that nature). I would say it’s to discuss JT’s DUI this morning, but she asked to hang out yesterday so 😜
Anyway, can’t wait for chismé and cackles tonight!
I’m back at work doing web stuff after weeks of being on vacation, months of being on catalogs, and recovering after a bout with covid. I also have a new profile pic on Slack 😜
Whenever I see a short girl with a tall guy, I’m like, ‘Stay in your lane, girl. He can’t even see you.’ 😅 I’m not super tall (5’7″), but I’m taller than most girls I know. Shi has been trying to get me to expand my dating pool and go back to Asians, but I haven’t been with an Asian guy in 20 years, plus they’re usually on the shorter side. I don’t necessarily love wearing heels, but I like having the option 😜
Get you a sister who drops off a bouquet of your favorite flowers (peonies) to brighten your day when you have covid (you should be writing this down).
Our fabulous tour manager (Nelson from Gate 1) surprised us with sparkling wine on our way to our last city. I forgot my Beats on the tour bus on the last day, and he had the bus bring it back the next day (classic Mayan—I’ve left them on a plane before and paid $40 for the airline to ship it back to me 6 miles to my apartment in LA, because I wasn’t gonna endure the hell that is LAX to pick them up for free). He’s from Barcelona, and has spent his entire life in Spain, except for one year he decided to try out London. He came back the next year because, ‘People are just so ugly in the UK. Do they not have dentists???’ I mean, where’s the lie? LOL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve never been to Europe or done a land tour before, I usually like to be on my own time when I’m on vacation—visit the places I wanna go, eat where I wanna eat when I wanna eat—but I liked it more than I thought I would! Our tour guides in each city were funny and super charming (Pedro in Portugal, Elena in Seville, Andrés in Ronda/Málaga, Rocio in Granada, and José in Madrid), I got to see places I never would’ve gone to myself, we had transportation to each city, plus we got free time everyday to do/eat where we wanted to. The only downside was being stuck with these obnoxious people on the tours. It’s like being held hostage in a group text you can’t get out of 😅 IYKYK.
These bus tours tested relationships. You’re stuck with the same group of people for 10 days. This old ass couple was fighting in Italian the entire time. I only understood when the wife told her husband, ‘Worry about yourself. I’m not a baby!’ and ‘Leave me alone!’ because she said it in English LOL. Another couple, the wife was asking the husband ‘Why are you smiling like that, I’ve never seen that smile before’ and this other couple, a gypsy was talking to the husband trying to sell him rosemary branches and read his palm, and when he came back, the wife was like, ‘Do you still have your wallet? Did she put a curse on you?’ LOL same couple when we were in Gibraltar, the husband was like, ‘It’s technically England, but all the waitresses are Spanish and they cross the border to work every day.’ His wife was like, ‘How do you know that? Were you flirting with the waitress while I was in the bathroom?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, we’re friends on TikTok now.’ 😂 I’m over here like 😴 Whenever people are arguing in front of me, I get super uncomfortable and pretend I’m sleeping LOL 😆
This old lady on our tour got her hair braided at the beach in Costa del Sol.
Her husband even went ziplining while we were in Toledo! Retired life is wild 😅
Nobody was my age (they were either in their 20s with their parents or in their 60s or older). This lady asked me what my husband’s name was, and I was like, ‘He’s my dad, not my sugar daddy’ LOL. She was like, ‘Oh okay, I didn’t want to assume.’ 😆 Another lady asked me if I was in school, because she thought I was a teenager! I was like, “I’m 42, ma’am.” She was shocked! She had her daughters with her, and they were in their 20s. I was closer to her age than to her kids 😆 My dad thought her daughters were teenagers, too. I was like, ‘They’re drinking sangria. They’re at least in her 20s’ and he was like, ‘But you were drinking vodka in high school’ and I was like, ‘Not in public!’ 😆
This group of six obnoxious people (three couples) were on the entire trip with us. They were super loud (lots of eye rolls and other people on the tour shushing them), always had something to say/complain about, in their 80s, Italian and from NYC. They had me questioning if I’m ageist, racist, or just don’t like people from New York LOL.
I met three ladies who are married with children, but traveling alone because either their husbands hate traveling or their husbands have bad hips LOL. I would never travel alone. I do a lot of things by myself—go grocery shopping, eat dinner in my apartment, go to John Mayer concerts LOL—but I know I wouldn’t like traveling alone. It’s like watching a movie in a theater alone. I’ve only watched Fever Pitch and Made of Honor by myself in a movie theater, because no one wanted to watch these romcoms with me LOL. I want to be able to look over at another person and be like, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?!” Like in that movie, Shall We Dance?, Susan Sarandon says, We need a witness to our lives…You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness.’
Can I get a witness?
Our trip started in Lisboa, Portugal, and it was gorgeous. The weather was much like San Diego, so it was really nice. Felt like home.
My favorite food of the whole trip was actually in Portugal. We had arroz de marisco (it was a lot like seafood paella, but soupier) and grilled octopus (@ Luzmar, Cascais, Portugal)
I also ate a Portuguese egg tart every day. I’ve never eaten one back home, and now I never can, because they taste so damn good over here. My mom said they’re way better than the ones they have at Paris Baguette 😅
Did you know Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world? I didn’t. I just picked up this bag in Cascais because I thought it was cute. The “I ❤️ España” keychain was a gift from our tour manager, Nelson 😆
My dad: Slow down, we get more drinks at the flamenco show after dinner. Me: *washes down my meds with a 4th glass of sangria*
If sangria was on the menu (and it always was), I ordered it.
Spain is on Central European Time instead of its natural time zone, so the sun didn’t set until close to 10pm! The flamenco show started at 9:30pm and I was already so tired and five glasses of sangrias deep 😅 (@ Tablao Flamenco El Patio Sevillano, Sevilla, Spain)
This photo was taken from our hotel at 9:45pm! The days are so long here ☀️
Me: What do you feel like eating for dinner? My mom: Chinese food. Me: We’re in Spain.
I found a Chinese restaurant that was near to our hotel and actually pretty good considering China’s on the other side of the world! Plus, I’m easygoing and they had sangria (@ Ming 明, Sevilla, Spain)
My dad: Another sangria? Aren’t you hungover from last night? Me: *sipping my sangria* Nah, I’ve been training for this my whole life.
Churros con chocolate for breakfast? Sí, por favor (@ Meliã Lebreros, Sevilla, Spain)
Driving from Seville to Costa del Sol, we passed by this beautiful countryside full of sunflowers. They farm the sunflowers for its oil and energy. BRB gonna quit my job and move to the south of Spain to work on a sunflower farm ✌🏼 Or at Google in Málaga (we saw a corporate office there). Plus, Spain has 17 bank holidays a year!
My sister’s old company has a location in Madrid, so I told her she could work there while I work on a sunflower farm 😏 (@ Ernst & Young, Madrid, Spain)
It’s gorgeous here. Our tour guide in Ronda and Málaga, Andrés, said that the south of Spain is so easygoing. People die of heart attacks and diabetes from all the good food, but they don’t die of stress. And he said if we see someone running (exercising), they aren’t from Spain LOL. Sounds like my kind of country!
As I was toasting my second piece of bread during breakfast, I looked out the window and saw this tourist doing zumba outside. As a rule, I don’t exercise while I’m on vacation. I hardly exercise when I’m not on vacation 😅 I damn sure am not gonna exercise when I’m in Spain!
We stopped by this little town in the south of Spain with no traffic lights called Ronda. We visited one of the most famous bullfighting arenas in Spain. I thought bullfighting was bulls fighting other bulls, but it’s a man fighting a bull! And one of them dies at the end (usually the bull). They still do bullfighting once a year in this arena, but it’s banned in other parts of Spain (like Barcelona). I would never 😅
Nelson (who’s from Barcelona) isn’t into bullfighting either, and wanted us to leave that place with a happy memory, so he surprised us by taking us to this nearby horse farm, where the horses are loved and taken care of their whole lives (@ Reservatauro Ronda)
Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, and his family built a museum there (@ Museo Picasso, Málaga, Spain)
I had to buy some souvenirs from the gift shop. The left is of his famous painting of prostitutes in Barcelona, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It’s part of the permanent collection at MOMA in NYC, so I didn’t get to see it in person. The original painting of the one on the right is featured in this museum, though, and it’s of Françoise Gilot. Picasso married twice and she was one his many mistresses. She was the only woman to ever leave him ✌🏼 She said, ‘Pablo was the greatest love of my life, but you had to take steps to protect yourself. I did, I left before I was destroyed.’ She was an artist in her own right, and also my hero. She just died last year at the age of 101.
As I was exiting the museum, this guy mistook me for a local and asked me for directions. I’m wondering if he understood my broken Spanish or if he’s still wandering the streets of Málaga 😅
Fun history fact: Gibraltar was taken from Spain by the British in the early 1700s, so it’s technically in England. We needed our passports to get in and out. From the coast, you can see Spain and Africa, but it was cloudy today, so we couldn’t see Morocco.
We toured this palace, and it was so beautiful and smelled so good because of all the rose gardens and jasmine (@ Alhambra, Granada, Spain)
There were these ceramic bowls placed all around the palace, and I thought it was to feed water to the dogs (it was hot as balls this day), but the tour guide told us they were just beautiful trash cans 😆
Real Madrid played Dortmund in the final while we were in Madrid. The actual game was at Wembley in London, but 90,000 people gathered at this stadium to watch it on the big screen. Real Madrid won the championship, so it was crazy in the city. The team had a big party at the stadium the next day, but it didn’t start till 10 o’clock. At night! On a Sunday! 👵🏻
No pictures were allowed inside the museum, but we got to see incredible works from Goya, Velázquez, Greco, Picasso, Rembrandt and more (@ Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain)
I went to this other museum specifically to see works from Salvador Dalí, but was delighted to see some Picasso and Gris (@ Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain)
My mom: I’m not really into art. My dad: Who’s Salvador Dalí?
I can’t with these philistines 😅
It was impossible to get a photo of Picasso’s Guernica without a gaggle of tourists in front of it, but I picked up this postcard in the gift shop. I wanted one of Dalí’s most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory, but they didn’t have it because the original painting is also at MOMA in NYC. I will have to go to that museum the next time I’m in New York, so I can see more works from Dalí and Picasso.
I’ve only ever seen jamón ibérico on Food Network, and I finally got to try it at a Starbucks in Spain 😅
These prize pigs are fed acorns and live on free-range grass pastures in the Iberian peninsula. I guess it’s similar to Wagyu cattle in Japan, except jamón ibérico is harder to find in the US (it’s against the law to import jamón ibérico – the hind leg of an Iberian pig, hoof attached, swaddled in fat – because Spain does not have a single slaughterhouse that conforms to the regulations of the US Department of Agriculture).
I still regret not buying a jamón ibérico pillow from the souvenir shop across the street from our last hotel 😆
I kept seeing this Museo del Jamón everywhere. I thought it was a museum of ham, but it was just a bar/resto that specializes in ham 😆
There was also a La Casa de las Carcasas across from our hotel. I was disappointed that it didn’t mean ‘house of carcasses’ like I thought it did and didn’t see any dead bodies. I google translated ‘carcasas’ and it meant ‘casings’ in Spanish. I thought, ‘Oh maybe it’s sausages!’ so I was double disappointed when I saw it was just cell phone cases. I really gotta brush up on my Español. How embarazado. JK. ‘Embarazado’ means ‘pregnant’ in Spanish. I’ll never make that mistake again 😅
A guy I used to date when I was sixteen responded to my Museo del Jamón story on instagram, and this was our convo 😂 I’ve either gotten more morbid in the last 25 years, or I was better at hiding my freak flag when I was a teenager 🏴
It’s so hard to find iced coffee in Spain. One of our tour guides said people here like to buy a tiny cup of espresso and sit in front of it for hours. We were walking by a cafe, and he was like, ‘Remember these faces. They’ll still be sitting here when we walk back this way in a few hours.’ 😂 He said Starbucks hasn’t been super successful here because people don’t take their coffee to go. Luckily, they have these chilled coffees to go at the rest stops for all the tourists, complete with a straw you can pierce the lid with Capri Sun-style 😅
I ate a lot of seafood paella (or arroz de marisco). It takes like half an hour to prepare, because it’s made to order, but it’s so worth the wait.
Same Mayan, different country (@ Mcdonald’s, Granada, Spain)
Sometimes you don’t want anymore paella and just need to UberEats a McDouble to your hotel 😅
Spot the tourists (it’s my parents).
My dad was so worried we’d get pickpocketed, yet he was the one walking around with a big ass selfie stick, carrying multiple bags, and misplaced everything (our luggage locks, his glasses, his whole ass luggage—he left his luggage on the curb in front of the airport and didn’t realize it until we were checking our bags!). Like, should you be the one holding all our passports, my guy? 😅 I’m the one over here getting mistaken for a local LOL.
We spent an afternoon in Toledo before going to Madrid. It’s one of the oldest cities in Spain, but I can’t remember much else of what the tour guide told us. It was a lot of information. One of the ladies on our tour, Denise, was like, ‘Is there gonna be a test at the end???’ 😅
Actual footage of me trying to eat my tapsilog while another customer was singing horribly off-key. Why do tone-deaf people always want to do karaoke???
These orange trees grow all over Andalucía, or the southern coast of Spain. The fruit is bitter, though, and is mostly exported to make marmalade, so no one eats them off the tree.
I had to take video of this as proof that the parrots followed me to Spain 😅
Nori and I would always be sitting outside Starbucks on our lunch break at the beach, and the parrots would be in the palm trees yapping away!
On top of seeing a Skechers store in every major city, I saw so many tourists wearing them (including my parents). I can’t get away from this fucking place 😅
We stayed a few extra days in Madrid, so my dad booked a hotel for those days. It ended up being a hostel in the fucking ghetto. This is just like when he booked us at this shady ass hotel in Queens with a reggaeton night club at the bottom of it. My sister ended up booking us at the Hilton New York Times Square after that first night. We ended up moving to the Hotel Madrid Plaza España. It’s a Meliã hotel, and most of the hotels we stayed at on this tour were Meliã hotels, so I already knew it was nice. My dad is the kind of person who never checks reviews, and only booked this place because of its walkability to the city center.
I woke up with the worst headache that day. I hadn’t had a single headache since the strokes, and I used to get migraines all the time. I thought it was because I drank too much sangria the night before, or because I was on week 2 of vacationing with my parents 😅 but now I know it’s because I had covid. Needless to say, I was already so irritated this day. It was hard to get an uber because a lot of the city streets were blocked off since Real Madrid won the championship the night before and the city was celebrating. So we had already uber’d to the hostel, uber’d to another nice hotel that was booked and had no vacancies, and schlepped our luggage another few blocks to this Meliã hotel.
My sister (and KD, my favorite 8-year-old LOL) would have loved the in-flight movie selection.
All things considered, I will def be back here again! I loved everything—the people, the art, the culture. I took the rest of the week off because I need some ‘me’ time to wind down before I go back to work, so I’m just gonna rest and get rid of this virus. Or move to the south of Spain to work on a sunflower farm. I haven’t decided yet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Welp, I finally got covid. Half our tour bus got sick towards the end of our trip. I took a test as soon as I got home last night, went to bed, and woke up 20 hours later 😅
Spain recap soon. Perhaps when this virus has left my body ✌🏼
Update: Supplemental paid sick leave for covid ended in California in 2022, so I guess I’ll be reporting those sick days in kronos 😅
I haven’t seen this iconic carpet since Deane, Sarah and I vacationed in Portland in 2017!
My parents like breaks while traveling, so we flew from Madrid to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Portland, and are now waiting for our flight from Portland to SD. We’ve been traveling since 6 in the morning (which is really 9pm PST time the night before), and we don’t arrive till 9pm (PST) tonight. We have to go through customs every time we land, go through TSA again, had to pick up our luggage at baggage claim in Portland and re-check our bags. We flew business class, so we have access to the business lounge during our layovers, but I don’t care about free food and drinks in the lounge, or even the free meals on the plane. I’d rather sleep on a direct flight and not deal with any of that shit. Especially since I keep getting flagged for random security checks 😅
This old man in a wheel chair was wheeled to our waiting area in Madrid. He was yelling and cussing at the staff because there was no airport bar in our terminal where he was departing, and there was one in the terminal he arrived in. But since he has wheelchair assistance, they wheeled him over to our terminal. He kept screaming for them to take him back to the old terminal so he could go to the airport bar. I’m like, ‘Sir, it’s 4 in the fucking morning and too damn early to be yelling this loud and def too damn early to be drinking.’
I got stopped by TSA in Madrid also. They swabbed my bag but found nothing. I also got ‘randomly selected’ for a security check when I was boarding the plane in Frankfurt. I had to go to a private area where they searched my bag again and swabbed my clothes. Like, do I give off terrorist vibes? Or did they not like my Michael Myers shirt? 😅
I’m going, going, back, back to Cali, Cali
I follow Chino Moreno’s wife on IG (partly because Chino’s IG is private, but mostly because I’m a creep) and I saw he was in Hamburg, Germany. I had a layover in Frankfurt, but I google mapped it and Hamburg is 5 hours away 😅 I also have a layover in Portland and he lives in Oregon, but he’s touring in Germany. One day, the stars will align and I’ll meet him 😆
Also, I’m tired as fuck, because the first leg of my flight home from Madrid to Frankfurt was at 6am, so I had to get up at 2am 😴 which is really 7pm the night before pacific time. I just know I’m gonna be all kinds of fucked up when I get home. I was messed up for days after I flew home from Nashville and they’re only 2 hours ahead 😅
I just want to eat some Portuguese egg tarts, watch some flamenco, eat paella, see some Picasso paintings in Málaga, eat some churros, see some Salvador Dalí art in Madrid, eat Ibérico ham, and somehow get into the Deftones’ sold-out show in Madrid.
Update 6/4/2024: I was able to do everything I wanted except see the Deftones. Their intimate show in Madrid was sold out, and they also performed at the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, but I was nine hours away in Granada that day. Luckily, lots of people posted videos on instagram, plus Amazon streamed the music festival.
I was hoping to find out if I have cancer or not after my Spain trip 😅
I have a doctor’s appointment with a hematologist after I come back from vacation, and they called yesterday and said they wanted me to do some bloodwork a couple weeks before my appointment, because some of the test results take that long. So I got my labs done this morning since I leave tomorrow.
My favorite phlebotomist was there, and she complimented my mani 💅🏻 I get my blood drawn every few months, and she always remembers me. She asks who brought me to my appointment because she knows I don’t drive yet LOL, and she tells me about her kids. I hate needles, but she always makes me feel so comfortable.
As Pammie, Christine and I were scarfing down our nachos, chicken tenders, burgers, and garlic fries before the show, I looked around and noticed no one else had food. I forgot people in LA don’t eat 😅
I think we broke Christine 😆
Her husband sent us a picture of her the next day wearing a JT shirt with a huge smile on her face and was like, ‘She’s been like this all morning!’ He told her being VIP at the JT show was like when he and I had floor seats at the Young the Giant show, and Christine was like, ‘IDK what metric system you’re using, but JT≠YTG.’ 🤣
I made Christine’s family banana bread, partly because I had some black ass bananas, but mostly to soften the blow of her going up to LA for the JT show with us this weekend while her husband stays at home with the kids 😅
I had enough nanners to make 3 loaves, so I made some for Pammie and my parents, too. It smells so good up in this bitch right now 🤤
No BBQ? No alcohol? No dogs? And where do I exit? 😅
I’ve only seen the bestie once since I had the stroke and have been in SD. She moved to Murrieta a few years ago, and it’s about as equally far from my place in LA as it is to SD. She invited me to her city’s birthday bash next month. Not sure what the celebration entails, since there won’t be any BBQ, alcohol or dogs LOL, but there will be fireworks at least. Plus, I would love to see Alicia and her fam, so hopefully I’ll be driving by this time, so I can make it!
My parents were so traumatized after teaching my sister to drive when she was 16, so when it was my turn to learn the next year, they hired a driving instructor 😅 Jessie offered to help me practice driving, though we’ll use my car instead of her new Lexus SUV, and she will probably leave her newborn baby at home (good call LOL). She also said Pammie can ride in the back, but the second she says something, she’s outta there! 🤣
After Chel sent me this photo of this stray cat she took in, I sent her a gabillion IG reels of cute cats. She was like, ‘Ok whyyy do you have so many cat videos at your disposal? 🤣’ I follow a lot of animals on instagram, and bookmark a lot of cat videos, and now I can finally share them with someone! Yes, I’ve already invited her to do kitten yoga.
My favorite cat on instagram is named Francis. He’s 13, but he still looks like a kitten because he has dwarfism 🥹 You’re welcome 😽
Through some excessive light googling, I found the baby registry of a guy who ghosted me once 😳 It’s a blessing and a curse, the shit you can find out on the internet…
My sister and her husband are back in Vegas this week for her husband’s birthday, so I was packing to stay at my parents’ house. She was like, ‘Do you need that makeup on the desk?’ and I was like, ‘Nah, it’s for Halloween.’
I watched the movie, Chef, on a train on my laptop with an audio splitter and a boy I don’t talk to anymore. All of my memories of this movie are tied to him, and now I have new memories.
They have a Chef food truck (inspired by Chef Roy Choi and Jon Favreau’s movie) inside Park MGM. We picked up breakfast here before heading to the airport to go home. It was *chef’s kiss*.
We sat in the last row on the floor, so when he moved to the stage in the back, it was like we had front row seats 😍
When Lance Bass shows up at your concert 😏
Growing up, he was tied for my least favorite *NSYNC member (with Chris). Now, he’s one of my favorites! His instagram makes me LOL. My then boyfriend got me the *NSYNC dolls for Christmas one year, except he accidentally got a duplicate of one of the members, and no Lance. My set has been incomplete since we broke up in 2005 😅
JT sang all of the hits. If you’re like me, and like to google the setlist before the show, here you go.
He didn’t sing this song, but the DJ who opened for him played this one and all the *NSYNC jams. I felt like I was 18 again. My sore stems the next day from standing for his nearly 3-hour set reminded me that I’m not, in fact, 18 anymore 😅 I forgot all about this gem. The Legends of Summer show with JT/Jay-Z at the Rose Bowl was one for the books.
I can’t wait to see him again next weekend in LA 🤪
We ate at Roy Choi’s resto, Best Friend, inside Park MGM. It was sooo good. I’ve had Roy Choi’s short rib tacos before (he has a brick and mortar and food trucks in LA, plus he had a Kogi Taqueria inside the Whole Foods in El Segundo near my apartment).
If frosé’s on the menu, I’m ordering it.
The food was amazing, and Roy Choi himself even came out. He dapped my sister’s husband and said wassup to us because we obviously recognized him and I don’t think any of the other patrons did.
I had to get a Best Friends shirt, so I could rep him back in LA.
There’s an Eataly in LA, but this was my first time at this Vegas location. It was also inside the Park MGM. It’s like an Italian food hall. We had Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, Hot Honey Soppressata pizza and gelato. Everything was so good and fresh. Andiamo!
We got our steps in and walked to The Cosmopolitan Hotel to eat at Eggslut. There are a few Eggsluts in LA, but I haven’t been to this location in Vegas since I stayed at the Cosmo for a work trip. Sabrina and I ate at Eggslut at two in the morning on a Tuesday, because we were over partying at the Marquee Nightclub (where our coworkers were) and just wanted some breakfast sandos 😅
I should be listening to my JT playlist in preparation for his concert tonight, but Incubus re-recorded and re-released my favorite album of theirs from 2001 today, so I’m just over here re-living my youth.
I hate when I fly out of this gate, because I was looking forward to having fries from The Counter for dinner. Instead, I had to get this stupid sandwich from Jetbox Market 😅
You guys, every day I play Wordle, and every day I start with the same word – ‘pious’. Nori always starts with a different word, but I’m like, ‘It’s gonna be ‘pious’ one of these days.’ And guess who got it on the first try today??? Should my lucky ass walk to the liquor store and buy a lottery ticket?
I only did 200 steps yesterday LOL, so I was going to make up for it today by walking to the Farmer’s Market and to Christine’s house to drop off some pizza cupcakes I made for the kids earlier. But then Christine offered to pick me up, drive me to CVS to pick up my meds and to the Farmer’s Market to eat.
Christine saw so many people she knew at the Farmer’s Market, and she put on her sunglasses, and was like, ‘That’s why I hate fucking coming here.’ I was asking her if she’s ever ran into an ex at this thing when we saw my ex. I haven’t seen him in years, and unless he’s one of the three people who still reads this blog, he doesn’t know that I had a stroke last year and have been in SD since. He’s the type of guy who broadcasts everything on social media, while I’m more private (my sister’s husband is convinced I have a secret family in LA LOL). When I first moved to LA, my ex was also living in LA, and he and his then gf had recently broken up, and he asked if I needed a roommate 😳 I’m like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’ I’ll just keep renting this room in this 60-year-old man’s house, and keep declining his invites upstairs for wine until I find a new place 😅 Christine kinda looks like me (we get mistaken for sisters all the time), and she was like, ‘I hope he doesn’t see me and think I’m you.’ She was making me laugh, and she was like, ‘Shh, he might hear your laugh and come looking for you!’ LOL He was on his phone, so he didn’t see us. Jessie ran into him and his wife at Total Wine last week. Is this what we get for boozin’ it up and not getting our steps in? 😅 Pammie got off work early and met up with us and ran into him in the parking lot 😆 They chatted for a bit, and he was surprised to find out they lived so close to each other. Maybe I should stop walking everywhere 😅
I’ll just get my dang steps in tomorrow after I carbo-load on these mini donuts. Okay, and this bag of kettle corn, too.
I saw this instagram post about a girl who had a stroke in her 20s, suffered facial paralysis, and uses a wheelchair because walking is difficult for her.
Katherine Wolf is only a couple months younger than me and has lived for 16 years post-stroke. I once read that stroke survivors only live 5-10 years after having a stroke, so that gives me a little hope.
I consider myself v lucky after having a stroke at 40. You can’t tell from looking at me that anything’s wrong—I didn’t suffer any paralysis, so nothing’s droopy, I can still walk. The only things really affected were my balance (which wasn’t great before, as demonstrated by my attempts at snowboarding pre-stroke), my penmanship (which used to be impeccable, but now I only sign restaurant receipts and rent checks) and my voice (which I used to see a speech therapist for). I don’t like talking in person much or the phone because I sound a lot slower, and sometimes the pharmacy or whoever I’m calling can’t understand me and I have to repeat myself. I would rather text or email because you can’t tell anything’s wrong electronically. I’m still able to do my job as a graphic designer, I just work mostly on my laptop instead of my work desktop, because it’s easier now for me to use the trackpad on my Macbook than grip the pen tablet I used to use as a mouse on my desktop.
On the plus side, I have a Disabled Person placard for life so whoever’s driving me gets primo parking, I got a boatload in tax-free disability checks when I was on medical leave last year (which I saved because I assumed I’d have to pay taxes on that money), and I haven’t had one headache since the stroke (I used to take Excedrin every day for frequent migraines).
I haven’t driven since the incident, but I think once I get behind the wheel, it’ll be like riding a bike. The last time I rode a bike, I fell off, though, and I wasn’t that great of a driver before… I totaled my car before this, rear-ended someone in my new car, and drove from SD to LA after the stroke at night even though I had double vision and had to drive with one eye shut 😅 In my defense, I didn’t know I had a stroke until I went to the urgent care clinic a couple days later when I was still feeling off. They were like, ‘You drove here?!’ They wanted an ambo to take me to the emergency room at the hospital, but I wasn’t sure what my insurance covered, so I was like, ‘Nah, my friend, Nori, is down the street at work. She can take me.’ And that was the last time I drove!
I had a regular doctor’s appointment last week with my primary care physician, and she had good things to say about my progress. She took me off one of my pills, so now I only take 9 a day instead of 10 😅 My dad wanted to take me off the anti-depressants, too, because his friend’s wife used to take them, and she ended up committing suicide. I think they’re helping me, though, so I’m gonna keep taking them. Mama needs her Prozac 🤪 The doctor wants me to see a hematologist again, because she tests my blood every few months, and my white blood cell count has been consistently elevated every time. She said she wants to rule out any autoimmune diseases or blood cancers 😳
I usually have Food Network or ID on in the background while I’m working (it’s either Guy Fieri or Evil Lives Here, there is no in between). My sister uses the live streaming service, Fubo, and last week, they removed both channels (among others). You guys, IDK how productive I’m gonna be without Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives playing in the background ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Update: I signed up for Sling TV because I can’t live without Guy Fieri saying something is ‘out of bounds’. It came with a free month of Showtime, AMC+, Starz, MGM+ and Paramount+.
BRB I’m watching Past Lives on Showtime right now and crying.
Pammie and D were supposed to go to a concert downtown and stay at a hotel tonight, but his friend had a birthday party, so they sold their concert tickets, but the hotel was non-refundable, so Pammie and I had a little staycation (@ Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina)
I had the biggest lobster roll I’ve ever had, watched the Padres murder the Diamondbacks, and got a free mule from the cute bartender (s/o to Giovanni!) because he thought I was sick (this is just how I sound now after the stroke) (@ Water Grill)
We went back to the hotel and watched The Idea of You. I loved it 🥰 I might have to go to Coachella next year so I can meet the love of my life…
FYI, I *love* staying in hotels. We went up to LA once for a doc appointment and were gonna stay in my apartment. My sister didn’t drive my car, so she left my house keys in SD (they were attached to my car keys). We had to stay in a hotel that night, and I didn’t mind one bit 😆
Walked to get my iced coffee at Casa de Otay this morning. I saw 7 roly polies on the way there, and I thought it was good luck, but Pammie was like, ‘I think you’re confusing potato bugs with lady bugs.’ Eps. Well, I saw 7 of them, that’s lucky, right? 😅
Fun Fact: I’ve never seen a Star Wars movie, but I have seen The Mandalorian series, because Baby Yoda’s so dang cute.
We once did a collabo with Star Wars at work, and my boss had to explain to me what a Stormtrooper was, a Death Star, a Sith Lord…
I was gifted free tickets to Comic-Con one year. I knew I was out of place when I looked up at the big screen and thought aloud, ‘What movie is this?’ and some dude looked at me like I was crazy and said, ‘It’s Return of the Jedi!’ I’m pretty sure I was the only one within a 10-mile radius who hadn’t seen a single Star Wars movie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You lit your cigarette Oh, how quickly we all forget That bed you made, you must lay in it Lost in a fruitless cause False hope was all you bought Oh, and the answers didn’t seem so far
Jessie and I were supposed to see The Brook & The Bluff at the Belly Up last year, but she had to go out of town that day, so we ended up selling our tickets. The show was sold out, so we made a nice little profit. I’m so glad I get to finally see them, though. I bought tickets to their upcoming show with Stephen Sanchez at the YouTube Theater inside SoFi Stadium in LA. I have another show the week before in LA, and I figure I’ll be back by September.
I love YouTube Theater (I’ve seen Bon Iver there and may or may not have sobbed violently), but the last time I was there was to see Local Natives a couple years ago. I specifically bought front row center balcony seats so I could sit if I wanted to (mama’s too old to stand for the duration of an entire concert). They didn’t end up selling enough tickets (which I thought was odd because Local Natives are from LA, and I’ve been to shows of theirs at bigger venues), so they closed the balcony section and gave everyone who had seats up there seats on the lower level. This was never communicated to us before the show, so we took our sweet time, ate some banana pudding at Orleans & York Deli, skipped the opener, and paid $50 for parking. When we finally got there, the only seats they had left were ones where we had to stand the whole time behind these obnoxious Angelenos who talked throughout the entire show. I haven’t seen Local Natives or been back to this venue since. I’m obviously still mad about it LOL. I bought front row balcony tickets again, so hopefully they don’t do me like they did in ‘22 😅
If I slowed down near the fire station, that’s nobody’s business but my own 😜
I’ve always wanted to have an astronaut picnic (where you can only eat and drink stuff they have in space—MREs, freeze-dried foods, Tang, etc.), and now I know where I can get all the accoutrements. Am I cooler than you thought I was? 😅 Boys, try not to fall in love with me.
Also, I found out that my friend’s husband loves the Deftones, too. She was like, ‘He totally did the whole ‘Couchella’ thing and streamed Coachella from home.’ I did the same! 👵🏻
Got my steps in bright and early and walked to Casa de Otay for my iced Mexican mocha. We ran into Bruce Wayne, my favorite frenchie ever, and he wanted all the cuddles this morning. I even saw Thierry Henry (my favorite German shep) and Lucille (my favorite doodle). It’s only 9am, and I’ve had a great morning so far 🤎
It’s a beautiful day for a ball game (@ Petco Park)
When your bestie invites you to the Padres game and the seats are right behind home plate, you go right?
Our seats came with free food and drinks and access to the Home Plate Club. I def can’t go back to regular seats after this. A pair of season tickets in this area run for about $75K. Uhh, just invite me again next time your contractor gifts you tickets 😜
The Padres won and we witnessed our first grand slam in person. I had such an incredible time. Thank you, Jessie, Abe & Oscar! 🤎💛⚾
I walked five miles to CVS to get my steps in and pick up my meds today.
I also downloaded the fitbit app (you don’t need a fitbit watch to use it, you can sync it to your phone). The Nike Run Club app doesn’t track your steps, and you can still set up challenges against your friends, so I like this better.
I didn’t see a single dog on my walk, but I did see one squirrel, two lizards, and a few butterflies. I also saw a bunch of kids from Eastlake High running a mile in tiny ass shorts. Did I swap out my Gucci bag and Beats Studio Buds for my cheapy Target purse and Amazon earbuds in case I got robbed? Yes. Did I take a Lyft back? Also, yes.
I’m back at my sister’s house, so I made some sinigang chicken wings tonight. My sister’s husband missed my cooking while I was away (I know, I was surprised, too! 😆), plus my sister doesn’t cook and I cook most of my own food and give them all my leftovers.
Sinigang is a sour soup and a staple in any Filipino household. When I saw this recipe on instagram, I knew I had to make it. It reminded me of these fish sauce wings I first had at Pok Pok in Portland. I also had it when they opened a location at the Cosmo in Vegas, and a few times when they opened a resto in LA. They’ve since closed all their locations (even the flagship in Portland), so I love that I can make these wings at home. It was so easy and sooo good. I’ll def be making it again!
Not to be dramatic or anything, but today was the best day of my life (@ Spirit Yoga Studios)
I was like, ‘If one of these puppies falls asleep on me during savasana, I’m gonna have to adopt him.’ I don’t make the rules ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I can only do yoga now if puppies are involved.
I can’t remember the last time I was in PB… to get a brazilian wax at Viva Brazil? To drink Adios, Motherfuckers at PB Bar & Grill? To party with Jesse and his friends when he still lived in PB, crash on his couch, and get offered coffee and ketchup packets in the morning?
Sometimes, I forget how nice San Diego and SoCal really is. I def take the beach for granted. My apartment in LA is on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, literally 2 miles from the beach, and I never go.
Here’s to more puppies and more beaches in the future 🐶🌴
Pammie and and I walked to Paris Baguette to get our steps in before I inhaled my croissant and cold brew. The girls were texting when we were walking back, and Shi and Christine’s husbands’ friend had a heart attack while they were playing some pick up ball this morning! He’s our age! Scary…
I’m gonna take a shower now and get ready for puppy yoga and maybe google a CPR class we can all take 😅
I have 3 days and just under 7 miles left to complete this Nike Run Club 60-mile challenge Shi put us on a couple weeks ago. Home stretch! Also, never in my life has someone called me ‘pure of heart’ 🤣
I weighed myself last Monday and had only lost a pound after a week of exercising more and eating less. It was discouraging to say the least, but I kept at it. The pounds used to melt off when I’d diet and exercise before, but I have to remind myself that I was heavier back then, and I’m in my forties now 👵🏻
I had to do some bloodwork yesterday for my upcoming doctor’s appointment, so I weighed myself and I’ve lost a few more pounds. My blood glucose is down, my good cholesterol is up, my bad cholesterol is down, my other numbers are mostly good and within normal range. Good health is measured a little differently these days. Hopefully my doc has good things to say about my progress. Words of affirmation is my love language LOL.
The story of Jennifer Pan was the very first true crime podcast I listened to. My coworkers and I used to listen to the podcast together while we worked and would audibly gasp at all the crazy parts. Now they’ve made a documentary about it on Netflix. I know what I’m watching tonight! Another wild Friday night in, y’all…
This song always puts a smile on my face, because I think of this video whenever I hear it. I added it to my twerkout playlist so I can smile through the pain when I feel like crying (always).
I’ve watched all of these TV shows/movies (Fleabag, La La Land, Normal People, and Past Lives) and can honestly say they’ve all made me ugly cry. The only one I didn’t love was La La Land, but this dream sequence was everything, though 💔
Do I like hockey now? Whenever I go to the gym, I get on the elliptical machine in front of the TV playing the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s good, uh, motivation 😏
Shout out to the man who offered me a seat in the full sauna in between workouts at the gym. At least I think it was man… I have to take my glasses off in there because they fog up and I look like an idiot 😆
Update 4/23/2024: It def was a man. The same guy offered me his seat in the sauna today, too. Chivalry ain’t dead, y’all!
Update. 4/24/2024: Another guy offered me a seat in the sauna today, because it was full as fuck and I was the only girl in there. Is that chivalrous or is my bar set really low???
I didn’t think I’d like crispy rice, because I thought it’d taste like hard, undercooked rice (which I’ve gotten the two times I’ve eaten at Tocaya Modern Mexican!). But I had some crispy rice in Nashville of all places, and it was the best thing I ate all weekend. It’s more like toasted, cooked rice which is super yummy.
Plus, Bobby Flay always makes crispy rice no matter what the challenge is on Beat Bobby Flay:
My rice fell apart when I fried it (even though I froze it overnight!), so I made a bowl instead of individual portions. Still tasted good, though! I followed this recipe, but I added chives, chili garlic crisp, and sliced jalapeños because I’m extra ✨
I was at the gym ellipticalling my life away, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs were playing on the TV in front of me. I’ve been to maybe one Gulls game when I was a kid, and the ice skating rink I’d go to in the winter in DTLA was sponsored by the Kings, but that’s my extent of hockey knowledge.
This guy pops up on the screen, and I was like 😍 Do all hockey players look like this?! After some light googling, I found out his name is Tom Wilson, he’s #43 on the Washington Capitals, he’s married with no kids (but he has a dog), and he was suspended for six games last month for hitting another player in the face with his hockey stick, and has previously been suspended five different times before that. A guy with a beard and anger issues? Sounds like my type 😅
I did a mile on the treadmill yesterday, but spent the rest of my Saturday sweating like a whore in church for KD’s first communion (was the a/c off? why was it so hot in there? 😅) and drinking my weight in Jarritos Hard Sodas at Christine’s. I made up for it today by going extra hard at the gym. I finally broke 20 miles, even though it took me 6 days to do so. I remember when Jessie would be training for marathons, and she’d take the coaster up to Oceanside and run 20 miles back down, and I thought she was fucking crazy 😳
I can’t promise this blog won’t devolve into Nike Run Club leaderboard screenshots. Fair warning.
Christine’s cousin, Cher, was telling me she was recently at Verbatim Books (a used bookstore in North Park), and she was showing her kids this Childcraft Encyclopedia Book Set from the 80s that she used to love when she was a kid. I was like, “OMG I had those books! The Make and Do one with all the crafts was the best.” And she tells me she opens up the Make and Do book because it was her favorite one, too, and written inside was, “Marion Choa, age 11.”
It was like a scene out of Serendipity, except there was no John Cusack LOL. For those who’ve never seen Serendipity, #1 Have you been living under a rock? and #2 Read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia.
My mom must have donated the books to a local Goodwill, and they somehow made their way to a used bookstore in North Park. Serendipity, y’all! I totally believe in fate and kismet and signs and all that bullshit. At the same time, I believe that some things just aren’t meant to be…
Maybe the love of my life will buy this set of books from Verbatim out of nostalgia, and I’ll be flipping through the Make and Do book at their house one day, and I’ll see my name written in there. Only in movies, right?
I want you to notice
When I’m not around
So fuckin’ special
I wish I was special
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doin’ here?
I don’t belong here
My wild Friday night consisted of emailing this dressing company to see if this vinaigrette I used to buy is discontinued LOL. I also went to the gym, took a shower, did a whole ass skin care routine, and took some melatonin gummies. Yes, I’m blogging this from bed. Yes, it’s 9pm.
Update: Through some online sleuthing, I found out that Tessemae’s filed for bankruptcy last year and was acquired by another company this year. They haven’t responded to my email yet, but I did email on a Friday night after hours, so I’ll give them a few business days 😆 Otherwise, I may have to try making my own dang ranch vinaigrette!
I get my brows threaded pretty regularly (my eyebrow lady in LA was wondering where the fuck I was after the stroke because I used to see her every 6 weeks for the past decade), and I’ve been seeing my sister’s eyebrow lady since I’ve been in SD. I’m going to a party at Christine’s house tomorrow, and her daughter’s fucking savage. She once told our friend (who’s a girl), “I like your mustache!” LOL, so I always make sure my shit is groomed when I see her 5-year-old ass.
I’ve been staying at my parents’ house, so my mom took me to her waxing lady, and I forgot how much waxing hurts more than threading 😅
I had her drop me off at the gym after so I could use their elliptical machines and the sauna. This guy got on the elliptical right next to me, even though there were a million other machines far, far away from me. IDK if he could hear my loud ass twerkout playlist through my earbuds or if he just liked my Michael Myers shirt 😆
Going to 24 Hour Fitness in East County and waxing my eyebrows? Is it 2000???
I instacarted the shrimp, and they got it fresh from the butcher, so it was wrapped in paper and I didn’t open it till today. Luckily, it was already deveined like I requested, but the shell was still on, so it was an extra step of prep. Also, I’ve never worked with rice paper before, and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Handling them after they were steamed was something akin to dealing with a used condom. IYKYK 😅
I also made some cucumber salad in case our meal wasn’t Asian enough.
Me: (looking through my parents’ medicine cabinets) You guys got any muscle relaxers or pain relievers? Vicodin? Oxy? Tramadol? I think I went too hard yesterday. My legs hurt. My dad: That’s normal. The soreness should go away in a day or two. Me: I don’t have a day or two. Shi is hot on my tail. I have to beat her today.
Now I’m sitting here with Bengay slathered on my fucking stems smelling like my dad after he plays basketball LOL 😅
Astronaut In The Ocean (Remix) – Masked Wolf feat. G-Eazy & DDG
That’s why my girl never leave me
When I’m in it, she get creamy
Dance (A$$) Remix – Big Sean feat. Nicki Minaj
Wobbledy wobble, wo-wo-wobble, wobbin’ Ass so fat, all these bitches’ pussies is throbbin’ Bad bitches, I’m your leader, Phantom by the meter Somebody point me to the best ass-eater
Cockiness – Rihanna
She may be the queen of hearts But I’mma be the queen of your body parts
No one can do you The way that I do Boy I want you I love it, I love it I love it when you eat it
WHATS POPPIN – Jack Harlow
She heard of my deep stroke She said, “Babe, does it hurt when I deep throat?”
Jessie’s husband is probably the closest I’ll come to having an actual husband (we have the same birthday, we both hate yellow mustard, and we joke that we’re gonna marry each other after Jessie’s untimely death LOL). He always gets stuff with my name in it, and even got me a 4-pack of sours from his favorite brewery. If he wasn’t already married to one of my dearest friends 😜
I read that a routine can help you feel in control of your life, so instead of focusing on things I can’t control, I can set small goals. Like if I fall asleep without taking my makeup off or brushing my teeth, I’m usually like no bigs because I never get cavities and hardly ever get blemishes (only at the most inopportune times, like when I have a party to go to), but last night after I took a shower, I brushed my teeth, put on my cat headband and did a whole ass skincare routine, and took these new melatonin and ashwaganda supplements I instacarted because I’ve been having trouble sleeping.
Before the stroke, I would sleep at like 2, 3, 4 in the morning (on a weeknight!). After the stroke, I was sleeping more than half the day. I was also on medical leave and didn’t work for 6 months, so sleep filled up a lot of that time. I sleep a normal 8 hours now, but I’m usually in bed by 9 or 10. I’ve noticed that I’ve been staying up past midnight some nights, even though I’ve been in bed for hours. I had a restful sleep last night, but I took the gummies like at 9pm. I think I need to take them earlier, because it takes me a while to digest things. That’s why if I take an edible, I do it before an event and during the event, because it could be hours before I feel the effects 😅
I also did 30 minutes on the treadmill an hour after breakfast, lunch and dinner today. It’s the only way I’m gonna complete this Nike Run Club 60-mile challenge Shi has us on this month!
Chel’s friend (who’s our age!) passed away from a heart attack last week. Everyday, my family tells me I’m lucky to be alive still after having a stroke at 40, and I’m always like, “Am I, though?” 😅 Every time I hear a story like this though, I feel lucky…
Shi sent us a challenge to do 60 miles by end of April on the Nike Run Club App. I hate exercising, but I’m competitive as fuck. Let’s do this!
Donna’s son has been staying at my sister’s to train at the Olympic Training Center nearby, and he had a meet in LA today, so we went up to watch him compete, have dinner with his friend who lives near me in Manhattan Beach, and stopped by my apartment to pick up my passport before my trip next month. It was raining most of the day, and we had just finished telling him about all the tickets I’ve racked up in LA, when this big ass truck hydroplaned and spun out behind us in the rain. Luckily, he didn’t hit anyone or us. We think Elijah might be our good luck charm 🤗 He placed 2nd at the meet today, just being edged out by this kid from UCSD who PR’d.
I can only eat pad thai now when it’s topped with a whole ass lobster tail (@ Nawa Thai Manhattan Beach)
My passport was exactly where I thought it was (even though I haven’t used it since 2020), and I picked up my mail and got a random ass check for $1600 for some Wells Fargo lawsuit settlement. I haven’t banked with Wells Fargo since I had a private loan there for art school over a decade ago, so the check was very unexpected.
I went to the disability office earlier this week and there were like literally 100 people in the waiting room and spilling out into the hallways. I was like, “I’m not waiting in this fucking line,” and told the dude at the desk that we just needed a form to report the disability income I received last year, and he was like, “Everyday, people ask me for a 1099G form to report their disability income, and I’mma tell you the same thing I told them. It’s FREE money. You don’t have to report it. The money comes from social security taxes you’ve already paid.” So I don’t have to report the disability checks I received and saved last year, and now I could buy all the banana pudding ice cream I want. Or a Tesla. I haven’t decided yet.
On the drive home from LA, I found out Donna’s kid likes the Deftones just like his auntie, and we listened to them on the whole car ride home 🖤
The first time I heard this Smiths song live was when Morissey performed it at Fuck Yeah Fest in LA in 2015. I remember I was so high during his set, Deane looked over to me and was like, ‘Why are you crying?’ LOL.
Now I’m streaming Coachella sets from bed in my jammies at 7 o’clock on a Friday night 👵🏻
I was like, “Do I need to reset my chakras? Is Mercury in fucking retrograde?” Because I like to blame everything but my own life choices for my absolutely sour mood 😅
If you need an abortion (whether it’s medically necessary for your health, you were raped, or you simply don’t want a baby), you’re welcome to cross over to California where abortions are safe and legal, and stay at my apartment in LA, no questions asked ✊🏼 Well, I have some questions… Like, how are you getting there, because I don’t drive 😆 The nearest Planned Parenthood is just a few miles away (I’ve been to that one and they’ve taken care of me despite their shitty Google rating!)…
I usually do my taxes as soon as I get my W2 in January. I only have one job, I don’t own a house, I’m not married, and I have no kids, so it’s fairly easy and I always get a refund. I just upload my W2 to hrblock.com, answer a few questions, and my refund usually gets direct deposited a few weeks later.
Since I had the stroke last year and received tax-free disability checks during my medical leave for six months, I waited till the eleventh hour to do my taxes, because I assumed I’d have to pay taxes on that income. It took months for my disability to get approved, so I used up all my sick time and vacation (which I was max’d out on) to get paid in the meantime. When my disability finally got approved, it was retro to when I applied in January, so I got a ton of money and it was all tax-free. I didn’t need the money, because I wasn’t spending $5,000 on doordash every month anymore LOL, so I opened a high-yield savings account and just let the money sit in there and gain interest ever since.
I never got a form with the disability income, and HR thinks I should’ve received a separate W2 for that income. I had my friend who goes into the office near my apartment check my mail, and I didn’t receive anything from the company they use. I also emailed my contact at the company, and she just forwarded my email to someone who could help.
I’m too young to know anyone else who has had a stroke or gotten short-term disability LOL, so if you know someone who has, please send them my way to give me some insight 🙏🏼
If I don’t have to pay taxes on those disability checks, I’m either gonna buy a Tesla with that money, or doordash some banana pudding ice cream from Coldstone, I haven’t decided yet…
Sidenote: You don’t want to mess with my boss ass bitch sister. I can hear her in her work meetings sometimes making her employees cry 😅
Our catalog comps were pushed a few days, so I took a nap this afternoon, and had the weirdest dream. A groomer was calling me to confirm the address to drop my dogs off at. He says my ex-boyfriend’s old address, so I call my ex like WTF? And he tells me we’re married with two dogs.
I woke up, because my sister texted me that she saw Lucille (my favorite dog) on her balcony outside.
Ah, it’s been a year now
Think I’ve figured out how
How to think about you without it rippin’ my heart out
I know, you know, we know
You weren’t down for forever and it’s fine
I know, you know, we know
We weren’t meant for each other and it’s fine
But if the world was ending
You’d come over, right?
Congrats to Maneet Chauhan for winning Tournament of Champions for the second time! Her first belt was on display when we ate at her resto in Nashville, and now we have to go back there to see her second belt.
I have dreams about the chicken tandoori poutine I ate there 🤤
Where are you now?
Do you still think of me?
Or does your heart belong to someone else’s?
Love, oh, my love
I wonder sometimes, were you just a dream?
I sit in the dark
Wondering if our paths will ever cross again
I once danced to Janet Jackson’s Miss You Much off her Rhythm Nation album for my Modern Jazz class in 1989. I’m sure there’s a VHS tape of my performance floating around somewhere 😅
Not to be dramatic or anything, but I would die for this handsome boy 😍
I rarely lose my shit over babies or children in general (they just don’t give me the same feels that puppies or food do LOL), but I love this kid so much 😭 I had a full head of hair when I was born, too, so that’s why Pammie said he looks like me 😍
Christine and Pammie met baby Isaac today, and I stayed behind because I’m still sick. I instacarted Jessie her favorite strawberry rhubarb pie from Julian Pie Company and some Tillamook vanilla ice cream, and Pammie gave them my Easter goodie bags and our pasalubong from Nashville (a onesie from the farmers market that said, ‘y’all’, strawberry rhubarb jam from Lucky Ladd Farms, and merch from Justin Timberlake’s resto, The 12/30 Club) so I was there in spirit.
If you need me tomorrow between 10:03am and 12:23pm, I’ll just be out on my parents’ deck wearing this goofy ass eyewear I amazon primed just for this occasion.
I tested them out right now, and the sun looks like the moon through these lens. Science! 🤓
Donna’s son, Elijah, is a champion pole vaulter and is trying to qualify for the olympics in 2028. The Olympic Training Center is near my sister’s house, so he’ll be staying at my sister’s while he trains there for the next few weeks. He’ll be staying in my room at their house while he’s there, so I came over to clean it up a bit. “Isn’t the cleaning lady coming tomorrow?” my dad asked. “Duh. That’s why I’m cleaning.” I’m the kind of person who clips my talons and pumices my feet before getting a pedicure, I’m def gonna tidy up my room and bathroom before the cleaning lady comes. What am I, an animal? 🤪 I mean, I am a little bit, but Leticia doesn’t need to know that…
Jessie and I have always joked that I’d marry her husband after her untimely death and it’s good to know we can still joke about it now that they’re with child 😅
We’re all supposed to meet baby Isaac this weekend, but I don’t wanna see Abe with another woman’s baby I’m still sick.
Trying to explain to Shi what ‘split’ sauce is reminded me of this scene from Schitt’s Creek 🤣 If we had a cooking show, I’m sure it’d be exactly like this!
The height of my tissue pile directly correlates to the horrible day I’ve been having. I would’ve called out sick today, but my catalog comps are due at noon. I just finished, so gonna instacart some medicine and sleep for a million years.
