dragonlance. for those not in the know, dragonlance is a series of science fiction books which up until a couple of weeks ago i had entirely no interest in reading. back in the day, while my recollection was always of my twin immersing himself in dragonlance books, I was always on the complete opposite end of the spectrum in reading babysitter's club, books by mary higgins clark and sweet valley high with anne of green gables and the little house on the prairie series thrown in for good measure. but recently i was presented with a draglance book and if it had been given to me under different circumstances or anyone else i would of laughed in their face and said, i don’t do science fiction and handed it right back to them. but i found myself picking up the book one night and starting to read it little by little fearful of what i would learn but intrigued at the same time.

it took me a while to get into it, a couple pages here and there as i do all my reading right before bedtime and since ive never been into any type of fantasy games (magic or dungeons and dragons), i really had no clue what an elven dwarf or kender is or what they even look like or if im even using these words properly at the moment. i really had a hard time trying to picture them in my head and on top of that, i found i also had trouble remembering fictitious city names or characters (fistandantilus - I still don’t know how to pronounce this properly or tika? tas? pretty similar to me) and had to flip back every so often to refresh my mind of who exactly they were in the story and all this is probably why i never had any type of interest in science fiction ever. i never really understood role playing or why it was so fun but to be fair, this might be because in reading this book, i forced myself to read it word for word and not to just gloss over certain paragraphs when it got boring and you know what, after a while i started really getting into it.

i found myself staying up longer and longer to read each night and even brought the book down with me to san diego and stayed up till the wee hours of the morning just to finish as i was so concerned to see the outcome but lo and behold, what did i find? this book was part of a trilogy! i was not forewarned of this, if i would of known i wouldn’t have been expecting there to be a decisive ending but imagine my disappointment when i got to the end and poof there was nothing. it ended without really ending if you know what i mean. I even flipped in disbelief thinking some of the pages might have been ripped out by accident and only then did i notice on the inside cover of the book that there were other two books listed in this series. what a huge letdown.

i was all set to go out and buy the other two, yes that is how engrossed in them i was and when i need a book i need it right away but then i learned that my twin had the other two books and boy oh boy was there a crapload of dragonlance books at home. two whole shelves worth in fact and this in no way means i intend on reading all of them but i found a couple other interesting ones i could probably get into. im always looking for new books to read, i go through them pretty fast and i never know what books to buy when I enter a bookstore. some of my best books were recommended by friends or stolen off their bookshelves so for my faithful readers, if you know of any good books please email them my way. i wont go into details here but i feel like i could write a whole essay on the parallels between my life and this book but i wont. its been a while since a good book has passed my way that I really liked, the last one i can remember was seven types of ambiguity but nobody i know has read it yet so i couldn’t even discuss the ending with them, as in what the hell happened? but now its been so long since I read it that I probably have to re-read it again to refresh my memory. science fiction, who knew?

ive been on a quest lately in trying to cook more and eat out less and this doesnt just mean heating up a lean cuisine for dinner either, this involves actual grocery shopping with purchasing of real vegetables and meat, not the frozen kind. shocking yes i know but ive been doing this for a couple weeks now, at least on weekdays anyways and im really starting to get discouraged. what ive found is that i lack that "chefs instinct" of knowing when something is done or whether it needs more sauce and regardless of what i do, all my dishes taste exactly the same. ive even followed a receipe or two and every single time, something has gone wrong and not once has anything turned out like i imagined. the first recipe was one i received for shoyu chicken which seemed really easy as there were no more than five ingredients total, all recognizable which is my number one criteria in choosing recipes (i dont even attempt to make anything if i dont know what everything is, which limits my options quite a lot as you can imagine) and the instructions were also five steps long. but even with faithfully following everything step by step, i still somehow managed to burn the soy sauce and the brown sugar had turned lumpy on me that it literally became a paste over the chicken that it was barely edible. my apartment smelled like burnt soy sauce for a good week or so but i forced myself to eat it as i had wasted close to half a bag of brown sugar on this thing.

then there was the other time when i was making oven roasted vegetables which sounds pretty easy right? cut up some veggies, drizzle olive oil and pop it into the oven it says. yes i have a recipe book for this too...just to give you an idea of just how little i know. but instead of modifying the ingredients for the amount of veggies that i had, i put in exactly what it said and ended up eating salt for dinner. im telling you, all of this is really starting to make me think that ill never be able to cook and should maybe just stop trying. in the time ive taken on this new mission, ive eaten chicken which started bleeding when i tried cutting into the middle, eaten salmon that was still raw on the inside and i think my worst was when i didnt even boil my frozen edamame completely through. it said boil for three minutes on the package which is exactly what i did, i even timed myself with the microwave clock. it really is depressing.

but all is not lost however as i have learned a couple of things in this experience. i now know the difference between a cucumber and a zucchini, i feel like grocery stores should just put them right next to each other to clearly distinguish between the two, im sure lots of other people have made this mistake before. i also bought asparagus for the first time in my life and my next steps are to learn how to cook green and yellow peppers just because ive always wanted to buy some if only to just add a splash of color to my shopping cart. i sort of know how to cut cauliflower and broccoli now although the first time i tried it i literally cut my finger and ive discovered that for some reason or other i really enjoy cutting meat. i hope thats not too weird?

for now though, i will keep on chugging along if only because its saving me money from eating out all the time and maybe one day miraculously everything will just come together and ill finally be able to make a dish that is cooked all the way through, not burnt and have a little bit of flavor. that is all i ask. when i find that dish, you can bet ill be having myself a dinner party. at least i always have a good stash of wine to wash it down with or to mask the taste if needed.

i got a haircut today and getting a haircut probably ranks in one of my top five favorite things to do and im not really sure why because more often than not i come home disappointed thinking ive spent too much for not enough results. even after so many years of getting my hair cut, each and every time i have my hopes up that somehow i will come home with a drastic new do that will make my hair look full and luscious even though its always been thin and flat without fail for my entire life.

back in college my mom used to tell me that getting a good haircut was one of the most important things and makes all the difference in the world even if the rest of you looks like crap so she started taking me to her hairdresser where haircuts were fifty bucks and i would recoil in horror at the thought of spending so much. but go i did, a couple of times in fact but that is mainly just because i didnt know where else to go and my mom usually paid for me. and while i never disliked the haircuts i received, i never really loved any of them.

then when i moved to san jose, i was introduced to a hairstylist that all my roomates swore by so i went as well and this is what i call my period with short hair. or my hair nirvana i like to call it. i have never been as in love with my hair as i did then....my hair was short, it looked great, it had body and bounce, it was low maintenance, required very little upkeep and the best part was that it looked as if i had spent hours styling my hair. now i finally knew what my mom was talking about...i swore by my hairdresser and ended up going to her for a good four years until i moved to the city.

that was about the same time that my urge to be able to tie my hair up in ponytails grew too strong that i decided to start growing out my hair and while i still did trek down to san jose in the beginning to get my hair done, i decided that i would find someone in the city that i loved just as much. i mean this is the city after all, full of salons on every block that it couldnt possibly be too hard to find someone right? how wrong i was.

i started my task by asking around for recommendations, the first rule of thumb when trying to find a new hairstylist. my co worker was the first to suggest someone who she claimed cut great asian hair so i made an appt and what a disaster that turned out to be. somehow he was able to convince me that my hair was "wavy" and finished off my haircut using a diffuser...something that no asian with stick straight hair should ever be using and while it looked great when i left, as soon as i washed my hair the next day, it became one limp mess even after i applied all of the "curl enhancing" products i was convinced to purchase.

my next try was also another recommendation by a friend and while he was great in dying my hair back to its natural color, the haircut didnt do much...all he was really able to do was cut off all the shaggy layers i had gotten in my last hairdresser's attempt to make my hair wavy and i ended up hating how lifeless my hair was and always has been. why oh why have i been blessed with unmanageable hair? contrary to what most guys believe, not everyone can have jennifer aniston-esque hair.

and then theres today. i spent a good three figures on my haircut including tip and while my hair is shorter and cleaner i get the sinking feeling that once i wash it tomorrow, i will feel a big wave of disappointment wash over me yet again. and i already know it definitely was not worth the price tag. to think that a couple of years ago i couldnt fathom spending fifty bucks for a haircut and now im spending double that with the same results. sure i know you partly pay for the atmosphere where this place, quite trendy might i add, offered mini cupcakes and wine and even a latte if you like, id much rather save my money and forget all the pomp and circumstance.

so ive made a pledge from this day forward, im going to stop my search for the perfect hairdresser in the city because after at least five or six different attempts, ive decided that no one is better than the one i already had in san jose and that i should just stop looking and the lesson to be learned here is that when it comes to hair, the grass isnt always greener on the other side and if youre lucky enough to find one hairstylist that you adore, then stick with it and stop looking and wasting your money.

a lesson i learned the hard way but from now on i will be driving my ass down every couple months to get my fine, limp, asian hair groomed once and for all. and who knows maybe ill even go short again even if it does make me look like a damn boy.

the grammy awards. award shows these days are pretty boring what with the abundance of them, there seems to be an awards show for everything...nickelodeon kids choice awards, people's choice awards, mtv movie awards, billboard awards and i can go on and on...that by the time it gets to the grammy's, THE music awards show that really matters, weve already seen all the stars perform their hit songs several times already that it kind of loses the excitement.

but and this is a big but here, for those who missed the grammy's tonight, boy oh boy was it awesome. i was extremely impressed by all of the performances. they just kept getting better and better...mary j blige was amazing, dixie chicks (i love love that song), justin timberlake (how come i had no clue he knew how to play the piano?), lionel richie, even the trio of john legend, john mayer and corinne bailey, gnarls barkley....are people in agreement with me here? in fact the worst for me was shakira she always sounds horrible live but even her performance wasnt too bad and all her hip moves more than made up for it. carrie underwood was pretty bland but after all the raucous from the other acts, it was kind of nice to throw a little breather in there. not more than one or two awards were given out before there was another live performance which in my mind is what it should be. i dont really care about who wins what awards too much, i just want to watch everyone perform.

but i wonder what its like being friends or acquaintances with people who are so talented. when i think about my friends, theres only a couple i know who are truly gifted with talent and he is often referred to as the alpha male of the group. but to be sitting at the grammys and watching one by one as your peers take the stage only to outsing or outperform you and knowing that no matter how great you are, youll never be able to belt out a tune like a beyonce or christina must be humbling. even the 15 year old asian violin player has more talent in her one hand than i could ever hope to have and its just not fair. how is it possible that one person can be blessed with not just singing talent but also able to tap (chris brown), play the piano (jt...john legend), play the guitar (john mayer) and with good looks to boot. and here i am, took piano lessons for ten years and i still cant play half as well as the alpha male...but i can play the five chinese songs i know over and over if you like.

now im all pumped up from hearing all these songs with nowhere to go except to try to wind myself down and get ready for work in the morning. oh is the life of the accountant.

uggs. they have become the bane of my existence these past couple of days. it all started when my godsister came to visit last weekend and i made a casual comment to her while planning our shopping excursion of how i wanted to look for a pair of uggs. it turned out that she too was looking to buy a pair but they were all completely sold out in new york. as in not a pair anywhere to be found in the city. impossible i told her. this was california and while yes it might be cold here in sf, i was sure we would be able to find a pair. so off we went, quite optimistically might i add and hit up good old nordy's. as soon as we went to the uggs stand, a salesman came over and said very matter of factly that unless we wore a size 9 or above, we were out of luck. he then proceeded to tell us that not only have uggs been sold out for a while now but that even online they were backordered, some until august of this year. i pretty much just looked at him like he was crazy. this was uggs after all, a shoe that i dont even consider to be very cute but out of practicality, have finally caved and decided that i needed to buy a pair.

you see here in sf, its gets cold. my flip flops for the longest time was what uggs were to most people but you cant always get away with flip flops here unless you want to freeze your toes off. so then i would always wear socks with tennis shoes which got annoying after a while because i was sick of having to sit my butt down and tie my shoes before going anywhere. so this is when i decided to get uggs. i do realize that i am a bit late in this fashion trend if its even one at all but ive been exposed to this shoe for quite a many years now. in fact, des was the first person i knew to own a pair, which is no small feat seeing how we were living in good old sunny san diego. if memory serves me correctly, i used to remember her walking around in her pink pair when we were younger and just recently, not more than a month ago, she was sporting another fuzzy beige pair down in la. but yet still i wasnt dead set on owning a pair.

before my godsister came, i looked for knock off version of uggs but for some reason or other, they didnt fit me right. so i gave up after one trip and didnt continue on my quest until my godsister was here. to continue my story, i was convinced the salesman at nordy's had no idea what he was talking about so we continued on our search to bloomie's. we hadn't even gotten to the uggs stand yet, just walking in that general direction when we were stopped once again and right away told the same story we had heard at nordy's. can this be true? since when did uggs become so popular? have i been living in a cave of the no fashion zone? i certainly think not.

in our desperation, we tried one more place. a specialty shoe boutique that carried uggs and while they did have uggs in my size, they were in the most ugly color possible. i was still not yet convinced that our search was over so we headed home and started browsing on different shoe websites and on the uggs website and lo and behold, it was confirmed that yes indeed the color, size, and type of uggs that i wanted was "expected" to be back in stock on 8/15/07.

now the thing that i cant figure out is if uggs are so damn hard to find, why is it that everyone and their moms seem to be wearing a pair everywhere i go? is it just because they had caught on to this trend before they became popular? even when i was watching the movie because i said so (horrible by the way, save your money for something better) diane keaton was sporting them all throughout the movie. diane keaton! i think they might even have been the exact same ones that i wanted too.

so desperate times calls for desperate measures and i have moved on to finding my uggs on ebay. somehow the fact that i cant seem to find a pair anywhere has convinced me that i must own a pair. the first thing one will notice is that most of the sellers are from china. fake uggs im sure. either way im not chancing it so after much time wasted, i seem to have found a pair with the buy it now feature for a whopping 150 bucks. 150! i can not just can not believe that uggs are so expensive. if i end up buying this sucker, it will be the most expensive pair of shoes that i own...and i own a shitload of them. more than any high heels or pointy toe shoes or boots and im not quite sure if im ready for that yet.

this item now is sitting in my "watch this item" bin while i contemplate whether buying this pair of uggs is worth it or not. ive never even tried on a damn pair...knowing my luck ill buy it and hate it but i need something to just slip my feet into...ive decided i will sleep on this decision, maybe consult my ugg expert and see what tomorrow brings.

ive always wanted to post a what i love type list but never really got around to it so i figure what better time than now for my first blog of 2007 and here it is.

1. ponds cleansing towelettes - or the target brand version anyways. one piece of advice...always buy the generic version...theres no harm in kirkland or target or walgreens brand and you probably won't even know the difference anyways. so i came across these suckers by accident really when i realized i had forgotten to bring my face wash and makeup remover to san diego. as my mom has always taught me to never go to bed with makeup on, i took myself to target and purchased myself a 15 pack of these things and they are amazing. i swear my skin is baby soft and all you need to do is just wipe and toss. thats it...no need to put on any additional lotion or anything really and it leaves your skin feeling clean, moisturized, supple and with that awesome ponds cleanser smell and who doesn't love that.

2. wawanesa insurance - im a big big proponent of this company. my friend introduced it to me a while back and since that day, ive been trying to convert everyone and anyone i know whos looking for car insurance. sorry pioroda. ive got three or four folks who have signed up already and all of them have saved tons of money...if you dont believe me, just go to their website, fill out your information and wait for your quote to come in the mail and compare. ive even used them for one big accident and i had no problems. the only thing is usually car insurance policies are for six months and with them, they only offer one year policies but who cares really...you're always going to need car insurance. so get online and get your quote now and you can thank me later but only if you live in california.

3. bes foundation - now you knew this would make my list didn't you? it took me a while to warm up to wearing any type of foundation on a regular basis but this is different. its so light that it doesn't ever feel like you have anything on. i used to wear it out of obligation once or twice a week but now ive come to love it and use it everyday. it evens out your skintone and gives you that "glow" or so i tell myself anyways. have i been brainwashed or what? but it really is as easy as swirl, tap and buff. ive even got my mom hooked on this thing.

4. vodka press - my new drink of choice on a night out. it used to be a tokyo ice tea which is pretty much just a long island with midori instead of coke so you can imagine how that would turn out sipping it all night long so i decided i needed to find myself a more "grown-up" drink. so along came the mojito which i love but it didn't make it on this list due to its hard to find factor. not all bars offer it...i guess the crushing of the mint leaves is too much work so a friend introduced me to the vodka press one night and now im in love. its the perfect combination of not too sweet and yet with enough alcohol to give you a slight buzz without having you puking by the end of the night. much better than the vodka tonic which most people go for.

5. shu uemera eyelash curler - not much needs to be said here except it really is the best curler out there. all the magazines say so so it must be true. and it really does work - its a godfind for non-existent asian eyelashes.

i had originally meant to make this a top 10 list but ill have to stop now with just five as this has taken me much longer to write than i originally anticipated and i need time to think of the next five.

good old san diego...after a stressful hour or so at the oakland airport this morning thinking that i would miss my flight (who knew so many people flew the day after xmas?), i arrived at the san diego airport greeted by warmth and sunshine. ive forgotten how perfect the weather is down here. wearing only a tanktop and light sweater, i was sweating within the first five minutes and swearing up and down that i didn't have the foresight to bring my sunglasses. ive been away for too long.

its been at least six months since ive been back and my first day here went by pretty quickly. my mom came to pick me up and right away i got my first san diego craving out of the way...dumpling inn. kung pao chicken anyone? i somehow managed to run over some shopping carts in the parking lot along the way but why get wrapped up in unnecessary details.

then it was off grocery shopping where we ran into des's mom, not even a minute after i had just texted des i swear to you not but here in san diego, anytime you're in the convoy area, you're bound to run into someone at some point. once that was checked off the list, james came over to eat dinner with my mom and i where we or i should really say she discussed relationships, dating and marriage for a couple hours or so but its the same message ive been getting without fail since i was 26 so i will spare you the details.

once my mom retired for the night, james and i went off to tea station where we ran into some people from church whom i pretty much couldn't remember at all but seemed to remember who jon and i were pretty well but i just chalk it up to those holes in my brain. a pretty perfect night in san diego if i could ever have one...but however, there is one big difference on this visit.

the fact that no one is here this time around. usually a san diego trip meant big gatherings at hong's for poker night or eating at claim jumper's together but on this trip it seems the only ones who will even be in town are myself, james and des. ameer and hong are off in la working. jon is also working up north and for the first time isn't home for the holidays, a big role reversal for us there. jimmy is on vacation. grace and nancy are at home playing wifey (literally and figuratively) and well thats pretty much my safe haven of san diego folks right there. i guess its up to james, des and i to get the most fill of carne asada burritos that we can. but san diego does feel a bit different without pulling up to hong's house and seeing everyone's cars outside, so much so that ill be hauling my ass up to la just to meet up for dinner.

thank goodness for james and des...seriously without them i would probably be here doing something horrendous, like actually get some studying done for the exam.

its funny how the more i pay in rent the harder my laundry situation seems to get. when i was living in san jose, laundry was never a big concern of mine as i always had a washer/dryer in the unit. the worst it got was when i had to share with four other girls in the same house but even then it wasn't too much trouble. but now here i am, paying almost double the rent i used to pay with no washer and dryer anywhere to be seen and now its routine to schedule my weekends around laundry day. when i first moved up to san francisco, the laundry room was located in my building down the hall which wasn't too bad but it was my first time having to use a laundry card and i think the first time i washed a load, i ended up washing six articles of clothing only to be laughed at by my roomate at the time. but i learned and got used to it and learned to fill the washer up to the brim to get the max out of your money. then one year later, i moved out into another apartment with another roomate where there was only one laundry and one dryer machine for the entire building. so instead of doing one load at a time, i learned to do laundry at a "laundromat". yes i am a surburbian girl at heart and laundromats in my world just did not exist.

so every couple weeks i would pack up all my clothes, lug it down to my car, drive to the laundromat with my ziplog bag full of quarters and sit around for a couple hours reading a magazine while waiting for my laundry to be completed. the first couple times was pretty fun but as the novelty wore off, it just got tiring. i could count on a good three hours of my day wasted where i couldn't do anything else but laundry. not only did i have to wash my clothes, i also had to fold it right then and there so i could lug it back to my apartment to be put away in their proper place and then i would just have to repeat the cycle again in a few weeks.

so i did that for a year and moved again. see a trend here? now i am living in a one bedroom by myself with the highest rent ive ever paid in my life and i thought all my laundry woes were gone forever for i had moved conveniently into a building right next to the laundromat i frequented. this was great i thought, the laundromat is right next door, i can just run up and watch tv while waiting and even have the luxury of folding the clothes in my own place...it will be almost as good as having it in my building. but what happens within the first week i move in. i receive a permit notice that the laundromat next door is to be torn down within two weeks and to be replaced by god knows what and torn down they did. all that is sitting there now is a big pile of dirt and construction trucks.

and now herein lies my problem. this was one of the only laundromats near me with parking and parking at a laundromat is crucial. so what ive been doing recently is packing up all my things and driving myself down to the safe haven of fremont where my brother lives to take advantage of his in unit washer and dryer. good old suburbs. although it does seem to be pretty silly to drive forty minutes down just for laundry but ive managed to get in a couple good games of clue or monopoly and my boba fix out of the way.

but these days im just tempted to bring it to a wash and fold place and have it done for me. and it may just be me gaining weight but i swear that ever since ive been doing laundry at jon's place my jeans have been coming back tighter and tighter...its got to be the dryer right? ahem.

i took two new classes at 24 fitness today. a strip tease and a salsa class. i wasn't quite sure what to expect as i had heard that it was best to wear an additional three layers of clothing and i had gone unprepared in only a tanktop but my fear subsided when i saw that everyone else in class had only one layer on and that there were several older ladies in the room. ive got to be able to strip better than a mom right? that question i can't answer because i was too damn busy the whole time watching the instructor that i have no idea what i looked like. it wasn't pretty im sure.

now for those that know me know that i don't have a sexy bone in my body or any rhythmn that seems to make any sense for real dancers out there but boy was the class fun. what i hate the most though are those show offs who have gone to every class and know all the moves and insists on standing right up front next to the instructor with arms flailing and hips grooving. being the hypocrite that i am, im sure i would be doing the same thing if i had the moves but for some reason my hips just wouldn't move in the same way.

you wouldn't think it but i got a really good workout out of all of this. its amazing how much sweat one can work up in salsa class and my abs even hurt a bit as i sit here typing this. but im really just not cut out to do dancing of any sort, my arms seem to want to go one way while my legs the opposite. who knows, maybe after a couple more classes, ill at least learn how to work my hips a little more.

if you're lucky ill show you some of the moves i learned today next time we're out but then of course i showed off some of the moves i learned in hip hop class a while back only to be laughed at (loudly i might add) and i hadn't even finished my entire eight count yet.

ive been following the kim family story this entire week now and sadly, the worst has happened. i can't even imagine what the family must be going through...its really just so sad. next time you're off on a trip anywhere, be sure to let someone know where you are and when you plan on coming back...it took someone four days from the day they were trapped to file a missing person's report and even then, the person filing it thought she was maybe overreacting and the family was just taking an extended vacation. so really...make sure someone knows where you are at all times!

its been a while since ive posted anything of substance on this site which is duly noted as my viewership has dropped to an all time low of six hits a day compared with my at one time high of twelve or thirteen. how the mighty have fallen but really i don't have a good reason for why ive been away. there's been a couple of times when the blogging bug would come to me but by the time i was able to sit my ass down in front of my laptop, all thoughts just seemed to go away. a problem lots of bloggers have except for maybe my brother as he is the only one i know who posts religiously.

but back i am and hopefully to stay this time but no promises. what spurred me to blog you might ask? two things. i was so damn giddy at the news that britney has filed for divorce that i felt compelled to share the news and my thoughts but now that its been a week's time, the moment has passed me by but this is probably the most exciting celebrity news ive read in a long while. while it was never a question that they would get divorced, it did come as a shock to me it happened so quickly at just two years of marriage but what's even more great is that she looks damn good serving those papers. anyone see her on letterman recently? oh how i love a good comeback. let the transformation begin! or so i hope...i have heard rumors this is all a publicity stunt and they really aren't getting a divorce but i musn't let those rumors quell my enthusiasm until i hear othrewise.

the second. my ten year high school reunion was two weekends ago. an event i obviously didn't go to but not because of lack of trying. i did my best to muster up some enthusiasm to get my twin to go with me as there was no way in hell i was going alone but alas he had to work which is probably just as well because from what i heard from my one friend that i still keep in touch with, it wasn't all that great. the same old cliques hanging out and a whopping turnout of 20 people. im not sure what the turnout is for other reunions but considering we had a class of 70 or so people, it's not too bad i guess. another 280 bucks i saved on a plane ticket.

but it did get me thinking. i would think or hope that ive changed a lot from high school, i consider myself to be more outgoing, a bit more confident (yes if you can believe it) and in general just more fun to hang out with. back in high school i was not in the geek group (no hiding out in classrooms playing dungeons & dragons...ahem) but i wasn't quite in the popular group either. back then i had my first boyfriend whom i religiously followed around everywhere with and looking back on it now, i was such a stupid fool and brainwashed. brainwashed into convincing myself that yes it was ok to jump out of my two story bedroom window in the middle of the night and run away for a couple days and that yes it was ok to follow the boyfriend to college and if i hadn't ended up enjoying my college years so much and have things work out in the end, i probably wouldn't be quite as happy reflecting on those times now.

but moving on. what i learned from my one source at the reunion was that everyone was pretty much damn near married, engaged or pregnant. i suppose this isn't surprising as i am in my "late" twenties now but it still comes as a shock to me. yes its the natural progression after being out of college a couple years but while some others around me have moved on, i remain rooted deep in the living in a hugely expensive apartment in the city with no intent of getting married anytime soon. i do have to say though that one of the main advantages to getting married is the huge amount of money one could potentially save in living together and then the prospect of finally getting my mini bulldog. ive been watching rob and big on mtv lately and it has renewed my desire to own a bulldog.

but things for me in the days since high school or even college have not changed much since and im not quite sure whether this is a good or a bad thing. im still studying for the goddamn cpa exam which will only haunt me hopefully for one more year but as a friend recently exclaimed, it seems that you're always studying for the cpa exam! why yes that's because i am as i seem to have problems sitting down for a good couple of hours and doing problems. woe is me - how i wish i just got it over with right after college and now here i am, six years out and back to square one again.

im still living in apartments paying exorbitant rent. i have made a slight upgrade in this area as i now live on my own. something ive never experienced except for one semester in college and while i was worried i would hate it, ive come to rather enjoy being able to do whatever i want, have friends spend the night without having to clear it with anyone and getting the entire refrigerator to myself. it has made me a bit more of a clean freak but some extra windex and swiffer never hurt anybody.

i still don't know how to cook jack shit although i have attempted to make a couple of my mom's dishes in the past couple of weeks and not one of them has yet to turn out the way i remembered. ive even attempted a couple recipes from my chinese cookbook and even those haven't turned out like the pictures. im still eating my lean cuisines on some nights and ling ling's and my new favorite snack these days is roasted garlic triscuits topped off with some american cheese. don't knock it until you've tried it.

any fresh vegetables i buy still without a doubt will whither and die before ive had a chance to use it all. im still not quite sure how to cut cauliflower as i cut myself the last time i tried. i do however have all my own utensils complete with a set of knives, two cutting boards and a brown sugar container. its the little things that matter the most.

i finally put up some pictures of my family and friends this weekend which surprisingly has made a big difference in my happiness. im not sure why but just having one or two pictures up on the walls of those that care about you can make your day so much brighter. why it took me six years to do this i have no idea...i blame it on ofoto and the fact that actual printed pictures have gone the wayside for years.

i still like to frequent clubs or lounges whenever i can although these days you're probably more likely to catch me at a movie theatre (be sure to watch borat...its pretty damn funny) or when time permits, at my brother's playing a game of clue or monopoly. who said board games weren't making a comeback? its hard to wrap my head around the fact that in two years, less than two years actually i will be thirty years old and isn't it amazing where the time has gone. i still have the mentality of a college student except i get up, go to my salary paying job and at night im back to studying for the cpa and forging around in the fridge to see what i can possibility eat for dinner and i wouldn't trade it for a thing...for now anyways. come back to me in a couple years and i may be singing a different tune.

but for now i will carry on my merry little way and hopefully wake up one day with a better clarity of where im going in life or if not that, at least the ability to cut my own cauliflower without slicing my finger open.

my brother is now famous! see the pictures and the video here. well it's audioless for now but you can watch his hand motions. maybe ill become the black sheep of the family now. ha.

while i do consider myself to watch more tv than the average person, there's only been a couple shows in the past that ive followed religiously. commander in chief was one i loved before it got cancelled. grey's anatomy but the new season doesn't start for another month. most recently it was top chef and now it's so you think you can dance. im addicted and i only have megan to blame.

it all started when i was down in la a month ago and got invited to megan's new pad to watch this "show" that she was obsessed about. seeing how i had nothing to do and it was literally meggo's second or third day moving cross country, why wouldn't i agree to go? and from that moment on i have been hooked. ive watched it religiously every wednesday and thursday and if something else comes up, i make sure it's being recorded on jon g's dvr.

next week is the finale and im secretly hoping travis takes it all. but what's more exciting is that for the first time ever, there's going to be a so you think you can dance tour coming to a city near me. tickets go on sale this weekend and jon g doesn't know it yet but he's going. he has to mainly because everyone else ive asked has rejected me outright. my own brother included.

one of my co-workers loves the show too and for the past two weeks, we've been going to hip hop class together of which i suck at of course but it's a good workout and it doesn't hurt that the instructor is cute as hell too. now i know im a bad dancer when the only times ive been told that i dance well is from white people. no offense to the white people reading this but it's true...they've got no rhythmn which is me apparently trapped in an asian girl's body. but that doesn't mean i can't love these type of shows (dancing with the stars is NOT one of them though) and while i am speeding along to the ripe old age of 30 in a couple years, im still a teeny bopper at heart.

a notion further solidifed by the fact that i was carded while ordering a glass of wine during dinner tonight and the waiter commenting that i looked very young. i could only smile and secretly relish in the fact that im asian and all asians look half their age.

my brother is a bonafide author...sort of.

im back and i have no desire to return for a long long time. to taiwan that is. ive always had a love/hate relationship with taiwan with the high being love boat obviously which will always count as perhaps my best summer ever and since then in 1997, ive only gone back twice. once three or four years ago with enid and carolyn along with jon and victor and the second being this past week. the two big differences between the two was that the first time i stayed at enid's house, someone who actually knew her way around and could take me places and liked the same things i did and also that i visited during the wintertime. i never really understood why jon and victor were so bored the last time they went back that they spent their hours wasting away at an internet cafe chatting on aim of all things but now i get it.

the reason for my return this past week was i was a bridesmaid for my best friend's wedding and while the wedding itself went off without a hitch and i fit into my bridesmaid dress (my biggest worry at the time) the trip overall didn't leave a very positive lasting impression of taiwan in my mind. at all. and here are a few of the reasons why.

1) it was just too damn hot. and humid. coupled with the fact that my grandpa isn't a fan of the cold so the a/c was hardly ever turned on and that there was no a/c in my room which made sleeping at night practically unbearable and doing anything during the day pretty much worthless, leading to some pretty boring days. so much so that i finished the historian, a 650 page book while i was there. a really good book for those looking for something to read.

2) the fact that each time i saw another set of relatives i was told matter of factly that i had gotten fat and was very tall. which is to be expected i suppose as i was told the same thing the last time i visited but it still was able to make me feel like a wide tall freak of nature walking the streets of taipei. and one wonders why girls these days have image issues.

3) for some reason, the instant i hang out with my relatives, i revert back to being a ten year old. someone who tags along to whatever is decided and unable to voice my opinions in my horrible chinese. another sad fact that my eleven years of chinese school has not been good to me in the past couple of years of not practicing. i honestly had a hard time trying to get my thoughts out and apparently i seemed young and clueless enough that my aunt had to proclaim to me that if i felt the need to use the bathroom while riding the bus on my own from taichung, there was one available in the back.

4) the two things i look forward to the most while visiting is the food and night market shopping, both of which i didn't get a chance to do much of. oh don't get me wrong i ate like a whale out there (how could i not when i was fed five times a day, my relatives certainly weren't helping me in my "fat" phase) but i ate mostly at home. i ate nothing at the night markets the two nights i went and as for shopping, wll let's just say, next time i know to go by myself and not with relatives. i went with one suitcase and left with one suitcase which was pretty disappointing, i usually come back with at least one of just of stuff ive bought over there.

5) im not sure why ive never noticed this before but there's at least two salesperson for each customer anytime you go into a store. even at the duty free shops in the airport they were following me around like a lap dog and even when i said in my most polite chinese that no im just looking they still kept tagging along. it really is quite annoying...

this isn't to say that there weren't some positives to my trip. i was quite impressed with the subway system there, i could figure it out pretty easily and it was clean and organized much to my surprise. i did get to see grace married off and even had time to club together one night...ahh the good old days of love boat. i learned my tolerance level in drinking was quite high there but i guess when you're comparing to waifish 100 pound girls, it's not that easy to beat.

and now here i sit at jimmy's luxury apartment with the free a/c blogging away at three thirty in the morning not tired at all as i didn't wake up until 2pm today. jet lag is a bitch isn't it. but ive never been so happy as the moment i stepped out of lax to be back. my bug bites have already gone down considerably and i haven't felt the need to take two showers a day. california...it really is the best place on earth to live.

i was introduced to the world of jollibee this weekend (to be pronounced jolly-bee not jolie-bee as i initially thought) and apparently it's all the rage in the philippines. ive never even heard of it before and had no idea this existed here in the bay area but it really is like entering a whole new world.

saturday when jon g had a craving for fried chicken my first response was oh kfc is right down the street but little did i know that it was jollibee he was craving. he assured me it was the greatest thing on earth, i mean it's got to be right if we're driving thirty minutes out of the city for some fried chicken so i go only to be in a state of bewilderment for the next hour.

first off - it really is a fast food place. think in n out but with a picture of a squirrel (i think it's a squirrel) greeting you as you enter and the entire place was filled with filipinos. i really had no idea. and it just so happened that while we were there, half the place was closed off for a kid's birthday party complete with loud filipino music blaring out of a radio.

the menu consisted of literally just spaghetti and fried chicken. there's this red pork dish with egg that i like a lot but surprisingly enough they only served it during breakfast hours. breakfast hours! i was like who eats this in the morning but then again what do i know? and i got pretty excited because there was this boba drink on the menu but the only two flavors were taro and coconut which aren't my favorites but i had to try. so we order what else, the spaghetti and fried chicken along with my boba drink and this would be my first foray into filipino spaghetti.

i never even knew there was such a thing as filipino spaghetti but it's really good. it's sweeter and has bits of hot dogs in it and the fried chicken was nice and crisp too - i won't dare to compare to kfc here and the best part was it came with gravy and a little white container which i naturally assumed would be mashed potatoes but it was rice. oh my goodness - rice at a fast food restaurant? maybe this is the greatest place on earth.

but i spend the next thirty minutes while eating trying to figure this all out. apparently there's three of these jollibee's here and how is it that i never knew this existed? it's "comforting" and "reminds him of home" as jon g told me and i wonder - is this his 99 ranch for me? have i found the filipino equivalent? i left the place with a confused look on my face and almost felt as if i should of walked out with a balloon in hand as i felt like i had just visited an amusement park or something.

i guess you do learn something new everyday.

fantasy leagues. most if not all of my guy friends belong to a fantasy sports team of some kind. usually basketball or football but recently ive even heard of golf and nascar getting entered into the mix. seriously folks, nascar and golf? how do you even play fantasy for those type of sports? i never really got it. i even had a friend who was in six or seven different teams at one time and whenever the conversation would turn to fantasy sports, i automatically tuned out but not anymore because i am a proud owner of my own fantasy team! of celebrities that is and it's the greatest thing ever. who knew my us weekly subscription would turn out to be this much more entertaining. and it's all in thanks to my twin.

apparently some writer on espn.com initially wrote an article on creating a celebrity fantasy league and my twin being curious like me was eager to try so he formed one and surprisingly ten of our friends joined. ten! the way it works is that each team has to consist of 3 boys and 3 girls and you get points for how many times their picture appears in us weekly. more points for being on the cover obviously and negative points for appearing in they do it too or the bad fashion police section.

with 60 celebrities to choose from and drafting performed via email, it seemed to move at a snail's pace but then after the second round or so, things started rolling a bit faster and boy was the drafting process stressful. i came up with my very own draft list of all the celebrities i would possibly take and one by one, i slowly had to cross them off the list. i even got my co workers and friend (singular) into it and the friend even went so far as to call some of his (yes male that's correct) friends for suggestions. it was great though...every couple minutes at work i was refreshing my email to see if a new person was drafted and at some points, when people were taking too long we even had to follow up via text to figure out where they were. watching da vince code? that's no excuse for holding up the draft.

but now the draft is all completed, everyone's rosters have been set and one of the guys playing even made up a nifty spreadsheet calculating everyone's scores with a separate tab assigned to each player. this is our first week and lo and behold, damn angelina and brad had to have their baby and their pictures are plastered everywhere in the magazine. needless to say i didn't have a very hot week but no worries, ill catch up. i mean im the biggest celebrity guru i know!

we start add/drop and trades this week too which is a completely foreign concept to me but im hoping if i get my perfect team i won't have to worry about doing any of that...it's way too much work.

our first week scores should be coming out in a day or so so wish me luck in my first foray into fantasy leagues and keep up to date on our own celebrity blog too. don't feel guilty - you know you want to and please no comments or hints here on who to take as we are only in week 1 of this and i wouldn't want to give away any secrets. please email me if you have any good suggestions. ha that's not cheating is it?

im putting a boycott on nice restaurants for a little while. for how long i haven't decided yet but ive come to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. and by nice restaurants i mean where the total for one person is $75 or more. ive been eating at really nice places a lot lately and each time, it's rare that ive walked out thinking wow that meal was so worth $150. because most of the time it isn't. i can usually get the same amount of satisfaction if not more at a grubby little place in chinatown or a thai place around town. i mean for what ive spent on one meal, i can eat at chinatown for the entire month and it would be just fine.

the fun of going to nice restaurants is that they're usually well known and reviewed online so it's always fun to try it for yourself after reading the review and then compare. plus the decor and space itself is pretty spiffy and cool looking and sometimes the plating is interesting to see too (a term im now using after watching top chef). but i mean for that, i can just go get a drink at the bar or something and sneak a peak at the plates coming out of the kitchen to see what they look like.

so in turn this has led to my conclusion that i need to ban nice restaurants because no matter how much i look forward to it, i usually end up disappointed at the end of the night and a little poorer too. from now on, i will concentrate on finding new cheap to medium priced places around the city to eat at.

on other culinary news if you can call it that, what im most excited about is that harold's sandwich is going to be on the menu of the new wichcraft that is opening up at the new center down the street from my work. this is big news! harold if you recall was one of my favorites on top chef and is now who im rooting for in next week's finale.

and on top of that, ill be hosting my own little dinner party in the next couple of weeks where i will be in charge of cooking (with much help of course) and as i just received my first shipment from the wine club i joined a couple weeks ago, it should be fun. yes im turning more and more yuppy as the days go on but i do live in white yuppyville here so they must be rubbing off on me.

usually on a saturday night one can find me out at a bar somewhere drinking and dancing it up or at the occasional movie theatre but this past saturday i went to church. yup we drove a full hour down south to go watch martin perform with his church dance group, something that ive been wanting to do for a while now but last time we planned on going, i woke up too drunk and hungover to attend much of anything. but we made it this time and well...it was definitely interesting.

now im not a very religious person at all but i have been to my fair share of fellowships and church retreats and i always leave feeling a little touched (especially if there's lots of singing, something about the music can usually conjure up a tear or two in me) but at the same time, completely baffled because i just don't get it. jon once asked the question on his blog, how can someone NOT be interested or curious about religion when it affects so many people? but honestly im not. call it ignorance or what you will but ive never really thought too much about it except that i don't understand it. i don't have too many close friends that are religious and for those that are, we've never really discussed their beliefs before but it does boggle my mind. how is it that so many people can believe in something so strongly and yet there's no evidence that it even exists? i remember once in high school one of my friends who's now a pastor told me how he had to make a top ten list of people he wanted to "save" and i was number one on his list. i didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing as did he mean i was so lost that i needed saving? or that he considered me such a good friend that he wanted to make sure i was ok? i still don't know to this day.

but i honestly didn't mind going to church at all on saturday. it was a different way of spending my weekend and it was eye opening. apparently the church we went to was one where everyone prays out loud which ive never been to before and wasn't sure if i liked it that much. the noise level kept getting louder and louder and everyone towards the end was in a near frenzy and there was this mom sitting right next to us bawling her eyes out one minute and crying out to the lord and then the next minute she was perfectly fine. all this while i stood uncomfortably with my hands clasped in front of me making sure i was looking at the ground at all times. not to over generalize but i usually find that people turn to church when something tragic happens or when they've reached the next step in life and has that feeling of now what and don't know what to do with themselves which is probably why im skeptical but i don't want to get into it too much here as i still haven't completely wrapped my brain around it.

what's important here is that i finally got to watch martin dance and i didn't burst into flames the moment i walked into church. now that's what i call a good weekend well spent.

my new favorite reality show that ive been addicted to the past couple weeks is top chef on bravo. i accidentally stumbled across it when i was home sick from work one day and was channel surfing and now ive watched every episode that ive missed, more than once some of them, ive read all the bios of all the contestants as well as the judges and even read the weekly judge's blog. yes the show really is that good...there's still a couple episodes left this season so i suggest everyone to jump on the bandwagon now.

a couple reasons why this show is so great. one is that it's based in san francisco so it's kind of cool to see spots that you go to on tv while you're trying to figure out which grocery store they're shopping at or what neighborhood they're driving in...stupid stuff like that. i know for a fact that the house they stayed in was somewhere in my neighborhood but i still haven't been able to figure out where it is just yet. why i care i don't even know since obviously they're not there anymore but i just want to see it. but the main reason why i like this show so much is because every episode, a guest judge participates and it's always a chef at one of the sf restaurants and ever since ive moved up here, one of my things is trying out new restaurants and reading online reviews so it's neat to see which restaurants are featured. so far, they've had chefs from le colonial, aqua, citizen cake and fleur de lys. i get this little sense of excitement anytime they mention a restaurant ive heard of or eaten at...for example, this past week's episode, their cooking challenge took place at frisson and it was one of the places ive eaten at and i got so excited i had to call up some people. stupid i know but i can't help it.

secondly this is a show about cooking with no added gimmicks or crap mixed into it. what matters here is the food. ive seen a couple episodes of the reality network star show on food network and on that show, it's not so much about the cooking but rather about how you perform in front of the camera. and the fact that america gets to decide on the winner is stupid too. for all we know their food could taste like crap. and ive seen the previews for cooking with celebrities or whatever it's called and that's bull too. basically it's just going to be the chefs doing all of the cooking while the celebrity cuts up an onion or something. but none of this ho hum stuff on top chef. here it's all about the cooking and having watched it, it's given me that much more respect for chefs. and the judges are all from the culinary world and widely respected and decorated or so i read anyways and take cooking very seriously so you know the judging is valid and honest.

third, the cast is awesome. every single one of them have strong personalities but it's not over sensationlized like a real world or big brother. they're all here for one reason and one reason only. and that is to be the top chef. duh right? i mean obviously since that's the title of the show but none of them seem to be there to get their 15 minutes of fame or do outrageous little stunts or say stupid things to get more air time and if they are, well they certainly have got me fooled. ive grown to have tremendous respect for them and my favorites are le anne, harold and tiffani. i can't decide between the three of them who i want to win and it troubles me. usually i have one person im rooting for through and through but now since i like all three of them so much, im bound to be upset even if one of them ends up winning. and while i hope beyond hope that stephen doesn't win it since ive never seen anyone more hung up on himself than he is, his comments have been pretty entertaining thus far so i hope he sticks around for a couple more episodes.

honestly after watching this show it makes wish i had a better palette and was involved in the food industry somehow (and no not as a waitress for you smart asses out there) but for now i guess ill just have to be content to visiting the restaurants and wasting my money that way but now ill enjoy the experience that much more.

if you find yourself bored on a wednesday night at 10pm...turn to bravo and get hooked like me...then we can have intelligent conversations about why dave is such an emotional basketcase and cries at every episode but you still end up loving him.