a friend of mine went to kenya this summer and returned with this video...it touched me so much that i actually made the effort to try to figure out how to post videos on my blog and this is it

my thank you letter to those who donated but i wanted to post it as a reminder that today would be the day i completed my first 5k ever AND attended a justin timberlake concert (in just a couple hours!)

hi everyone - i did it!!! i can now officially say that ive participated in a 5k. my time wont set any records but i finished in a little under 40 minutes (by my unofficial count from my cell phone) and this was with my co worker with an infected toe! i honestly thought i would end up walking all of it since she could barely walk on friday but lo and behold we only walked for 14 minutes during the entire race. and for those that live in sf, i ran from the ballpark to the ferry bldg without stopping! ive never done that before.

i had so much fun and it was such a great experience and thank you all for supporting me and donating! :) i have never felt so accomplished in such a short time and it was awesome. yes i know its only a 5k but i get to bask in the glory of finishing for a little bit dont i?

i definitely want to do it again next year and hopefully youll want to join team wonderbras! we all got customized tshirts and they turned out really cute too as an extra incentive.

thank you so much i was definitely thinking of you guys during my run and how i didnt want to let you down!

i had the pleasure last night of going to dinner with my mom and some relatives and received the three (although i have four listed, i decided to break out personality and attitude separately for further clarification) key points when looking for a husband/wife and thought i would share my mom's wisdom with you all.

1) skill set - easiest way to put it is that they need to have some sort of skill that would be considered valuable by society standards and no that does not include surfing the net or sitting in front of the tv all day. the idea is that as long as they have some type of skills, this will hopefully ensure their continued employment irregardless of what the monetary gain is

2) personality - very self explanatory i would assume but do they have a positive outlook on life and are they fun to be with? after all you dont want to spend your entire life with someone who doesnt understand your sense of humor or laugh at the same jokes or enjoys the same activities. otherwise those years will stretch out to seem like an eternity and not the happily ever after we read about in fairy tales either

3) attitude - how do they treat those around them? are they only nice to you but treats their family and co workers the exact opposite? if the answer is yes the answer here is dump them. dump them now and get out while you can. you can thank me later

4) health - do they exercise? get regular checkups? take good care of themselves? all the stuff we never really worried about as a teenager but as we slowly start to creep up in the years, all the more vital. so if you are a smoker, i suggest you run out and buy your patch now and quit tomorrow. dont regularly floss? go to your local drugstore tonight and pick some up, i highly recommend purchasing the mint flavored floss and the citrus flavored mouthwash.

while these traits in a mate may seem to be fairly easy to find, i assured my mom that in this day and age it really is not as easy as learning your a b c's. its amazing how looking back to just a couple years ago, if she had told me the same thing i probably would of tuned her out but now that im older and wiser, im soaking up her advice like a sponge and if i get any other little nuggets of wisdom during her stay here, i will be sure to pass it along.

if you are a teeny bopper like me 9pm sunday was a must watch tv moment. i didnt dare believe it when i first heard the rumors but then when it was officially confirmed, i honestly thought this was it. the comeback ive been waiting for and i truly thought she could of pulled it off. the song surprised me, i found myself actually liking it, the beat was catchy, she looked as if she had lost most of the baby weight and the articles written about her rehearsals were positive. in fact they werent just positive they were absolutely raving about how great she was and how she was going to shock and surprise everyone...i was ready. so ready...its britney bitch!

but what the hell happened? i made sure to dvr the pre show, the show and the after show so i wouldnt miss a moment and holy bejesus as if you even need me to say it, all my dreams were crushed with that first shot of the back of her head. you would think for all the money that she makes, she could at least get some decent hair extensions but i could literally see holes where her scalp was showing through. ive seen pictures of her with just short hair recently and she should of just came out with that, she would of looked so much hotter.

and her outfit...where the hell was her publicist? her manager? why werent they there to get her to cover up her belly at least. i literally had to watch her performance with half my eyes covered and i just felt so embarrassed for her...i wont even go into the dancing or the lip syncing but supposedly one of her heels broke off during the show so i went back to go watch it and couldnt really tell if it was true or not. at this point i have watched it five or six times and the shot of 50 cent's face halfway through pretty much summed it all up. it would of been so great if she came out and blew everyone away.

damn what a disappointment. she danced better during her rehearsal video than during the show! as if britney wasnt bad enough, the entire show itself was a big letdown. i didnt get to catch most of it last night so i watched it on dvr today and the only decent parts were chris brown, alicia keys and timbaland and jt at the end and that was it. it took me less than 30 minutes to watch the entire two hour show and i hated that half the show took place in the suites. i know they were trying a new format to boost ratings and all but if i wanted to see half naked girls writhing around a pole id go to a strip bar. i want to see full on performances complete with laser beams and set backdrops and choreographed dancing with backup dancers ...i want the works isnt that the whole point of an awards show? none of this singing in a hotel room crap.

ill stop now but boy was i feeling let down after this although i havent completely given up yet. im still secretly hoping shell shock everyone at some point and make a career comeback, it will be the best thing ever. maybe her video will do it...i just want the old britney back!

you know you are getting old when on the morning of your 29th birthday you find yourself sitting in the office of a hand specialist getting a steroid shot directly into your inflamed tendon as a result of a bowling night more than three months ago. yes you heard me correctly...bowling. not the most glamorous of reasons right? imagine everyone asking you why you are wearing the wrist brace and having to explain that it was from bowling. usually the first question after that is along the lines of just how long were you bowling for? and the answer to that is four games of which i bowled damn well for and was the top two scorer for each of the games. at least it wasnt for nothing but that one night of bowling has caused me more pain and trouble in the past couple months than i would have ever imagined.

i was diagnosed with de quervain's tendonitis a little over two months ago with strict orders to wear a thumb spica splint 24/7 for a month and if things didnt get better, the next possibility was getting a steroid shot. the only problem with this was that the brace they gave me was so big and bulky that it was pretty much damn near impossible to type at work so i would only wear it at night. stupid i know but when your job is number crunching and excel is your life, not typing is pretty much out of the picture. so i would wear it while sleeping only to wake up in pain each morning as soon as the brace came off and the pain just got worse and worse so i went back to my doctor who referred me to a hand specialist and that is where i found myself this morning.

at this point i would of pretty much begged for that steroid shot but when the doctor actually told me he was going to give me one directly into where it hurt the most, i was starting to have second thoughts but before i could fully process everything, within 5 minutes, the needle was going into my wrist and boy did it hurt like hell and then continued on for the next couple hours. i could barely move my wrist but i was told that the pain should be gone in three or four days but i would still have to wear a brace for a month to give time for the tendons to heal. this time, im following doctors orders to the tee. i told him about my typing dilemma and he outfitted me with a much slimmer and dare i say fashionable one where my fingers are actually free to type. after all i am blogging am i not? not even a little tendonitis can keep my away from updating this thing for my faithful readers.

when i initially got the brace, even though it was pretty cumbersome, i thought it was pretty damn cool that i had to wear one since ive never had a brace of any kind before. ive never broken any bones, never needed a cast for anything so this was pretty much the closest ive ever gotten to having a real injury. sure it may not sound so cool once people find out its from bowling but i felt like i was a tough chick walking around with that thing. although i really should learn how to embellish my stories a little better in person and sound convincing at the same time so that i could get away with some much better reasons, bar fight, skateboarding accident, you name it. although im not sure how cool it is once you see "the hand center" logo plastered on my brace.

a great start to my last year in my "20's" but rest assured that ill be following doctors orders and wearing this thing all the time now because i certainly dont want to have surgery and ive been warned that would be the next step although only 10% of the people even need to take it to that next level. so lets hope this works and that you will be seeing me back in a bowling alley in the near future.

i signed up for a 5k a week or so ago much to the shock of most of my friends and for good reason too because i dont run. ever. i might do a step or kickboxing class here and there even branching out to hip hop and strip tease every once in a while but running? never. i always found it to be so monotonous the couple of times i have ventured out there but i knew i wanted to sign up for a 5k one of these days so when my friend started her own team i had to join. plus its for a good cause (breast cancer) and as an extra incentive, were all going to wear matching pink t shirts...thats the plan anyways.

i even coerced my co worker to join with me so i can have someone to partner with since im sure ill be the lagger of the team. i had originally signed up with the intention of walking the entire time but as people have been donating money to help my fundraising (im well over my goal of $250 already!) i felt that i should really put forth some extra effort so now ive set for myself a goal of jogging/walking the entire way. a big upgrade i know.

but i even went online and printed out a how to go from a couch potato to running a 5k in just two months. seeing how i only have six weeks until my event, i skipped right ahead to week 4 and today was my first real day of training and following the guidelines. i have to say, it went by pretty fast, i stayed on the stupid treadmill for a little over 20 minutes jogging/walking a little over 1.5 miles which i dont think is very fast but i followed my little guideline to the tee. and surprisingly, because i was so damn focused on the time and alternating between walking and jogging in the intervals it said that it was probably the fastest 20 minutes that i have ever passed on the treadmill. now i am known for starting lots of things and not following through to the end so i dont want to jinx things too much seeing how its still the very beginning stages but ive set my mind to really sticking with this plan and i may just surprise myself at the end of this. thats what im hoping for anyways.

everyone has been super supportive of me which i greatly appreciate...quite unlike my twin whose initial reaction was, youre asking for money for a 5k? try a marathon first to which my retort was...a 5k IS like a marathon for me and if you dont believe me, just ask those who ive gone running with after getting winded after just two blocks.

so wish me luck and ill be sure to keep my faithful readers updated on my progress.

of course the one week that i didnt vote, my favorite girl was kicked off. figures with the week that ive been having. now im not sure who im going to root for anymore, pasha maybe? although my bet is for lacey to win it all...benjis sister of all people. too bad this wasnt a piano/flute duo competition, im sure my twin and i would take it all. and to make things even worse, for some reason the show never got recorded on my dvr so i was only able to catch the last thirty minutes of it and missed all the solos. i was looking forward to it all day today too and i here i sit, after having had a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner with a glass of wine fuming at the fact that the one and only time my dvr has failed on me has to happen today of all days. there really is no justice but i will pick myself up and stop ranting and raving for a second to ask, is anyone up for going to the tour with me?

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.