daybee’s posterous

friday, june 12.

woke up super early and set out around 6am to find me housing in berkeley. i think berkeley has more than its fair share of weirdos, but found one that i think i could love, which if all goes well, means i'll be living with in north berkeley a few blocks from the gourmet ghetto. i'm actually pretty excited about the good eats in berkeley. stephen took me to brazil fresh squeeze cafe - delicious little corner shack (which i attribute all to the bright green cilantro garlic sauce) - and smart alec's - which actually has very tasty air-baked fries (unlike the ones from nyc's better burger), though one should beward the copious amounts of garlic that it's loaded with. after dinner, we headed over to our hotel in san rafael and got a real treat watching the sun set over san francisco while driving over the bridge.

saturday, june 13.

woke up semi early for an 8am race start at the marin headlands. unspecific directions and bad road signs led to us getting lost (we weren't the ony ones!), which made for a hectic start to the race, but the view was just gorgeous. what a great re-introduction back to the bay area for me. it really makes me excited to move up there. had a final meal up north at gregoire - which i'd summarize as buttery, but yummy. the potato puffs (basically fried balls of mashed potatoes) are a must try, but i think more than one would've given me a heart attack, haha. on the drive back down to LA, we stopped in bakersfield for dinner with stephen's mom, aunts, and co. got to see some very cute baby pictures and hear some hilarious family stories. haha. i felt so bad going empty-handed and leaving with a car-load of stuff, but it really was an unexpected stop into town. discovery of the weekend: sweet surrender cupcakes. i've eaten a lot of cupcakes over the years, but these are BY FAR the best i ever had (cue drake song: best i ever had, best i ever had... haha, suxors, i'll never be able to say those words without thinking of that song now). three big reasons: 1) the cake is actually good - moist, and not just a vessel for icing overdose like most other cupcakes du jour, 2) the flavors are plentiful and creative (peppermint? delicious), and 3) they preserve well -  i brought them into the office for my co-workers and three days later they are just as good, if not better than when i had them on saturday. also, an honorable mention goes to dewar's candy. the peanut butter flavor tastes just like the taiwanese peanut candy, but with a softer texture and a taffy-like chew . if sweet surrender's cupcakes weren't so good, i'd be raving more about it, but no such luck for dewar's, i guess.

             

Click here to download:

birthday_weekend_part_2.zip (18935 KB)

thursday, june 11.

stephen treats me to an early birthday dinner of japanese tapas at ronin izakaya because we'd have to "eat healthy" on friday given our saturday trail run (7k for me, half-marathon for him) at marin headlands. it was a particularly thoughtful choice since he knows i that i love tasting lots of different foods, but i hate eating a lot. :) oh, how difficult life is for me. anyway, it is now easily one of my favorite restaurants in LA. garlic edamame, ahi taco shimi, oxtail, braised pork, wasabi mashed potatoes, and ronin fried rice. all get a thumbs up from me. interesting notables: the garlic edamame actually tasted more like it was cooked in chinese black bean sauce. mm.. suck away! haha. the taco shimi was topped with a generously thick (but not too thick) slice of ahi tuna, which made it extra savory, and the guacamole with extra twist was a perfect balance for it. the oxtail was wonderfully stewed, extremeley flavorful. if i had to complain, it would be about the pork, which was maybe a little dry for my taste, though the poached asian pears it came with were extraordinary. all of it washed down with the house hot sake, which was delightfully sweet.

       

Click here to download:

birthday_weekend_part_1.zip (5046 KB)

Just reading up on stuff to do in SF in case I have any free time there in between house-hunting and trail-running this weekend. Here's my favorite one of "Frommer's Favorite Experiences". Haha. Whoever wrote it must be a fan of another NL West team. :)

Watching the San Francisco Giants play at AT&T Park: If it's baseball season, then you must spend an afternoon or evening watching the National League's Giants lose at one of the finest ballparks in America. For only $10 you can buy a bleacher-seat ticket on the day of a game. Even if the season's over, you can still take a guided tour of the stadium.

i used to love yogurtland, but lately the lines have been snaking out the door and the overall experience is just not as enjoyable anymore. it's too bad trips to yogurtland will probably become more and more rare. :(

i don't like taking pills because they taste bad. i drink water when i take pills because i think it will make the bad taste go away. i end up drinking what feels like a full day's worth of water. i dislike the feeling of my stomach being filled with too much water. i hate taking pills even more.

the first thing my manager asked me when i got into the office this morning was if i knew how to embed a youtube video in ppt. i didn't, but being the geek that i am and being genuinely interested in how to maximize my use of microsoft office programs, i said i'd figure it out. haha. quick google search pulled up a youtube video on how to embed a youtube video in ppt. ironic?

anyway, when i asked what presentation he was putting a youtube video in, he said he got a call from our cfo on his cell phone this morning at 8am as he was rolling out of bed. what could possibly be that urgent, he thought? well, the cfo had asked him the same question of how to embed a youtube video in ppt. hm... well, that's not an everyday skill one needs for a business presentation even in the media & entertainment business and if he's calling his cell phone, it must be urgent, so he asks mr.cfo what presentation he needed it for... and get ready for this... he was asking for his son, who needed it for a school project... are those crickets chirping i hear in the background? haha. hilarious. i got a real kick out of that. it was like stepping outside, breathing in two lungs full of fresh air, and getting reminded not to take life so seriously.

in case you're a geek like me and curious:

oh, and those youtube pop-ups are ingenious. used one for the first time on this video (b/c i didn't have the custom option in my control properties) and loved it!

also, the jakes started following me on twitter! haha. that's the second time something like this has happened after i mentioned something on my twitter. last time i was raving about tender greens, they started following me too. what a great way for businesses to keep an ear to the ground.

went to watch stephen's childhood friend's band, huntingfield, perform at the roxy this weekend for their album release party. extremely intimate space for watching live performances. if you ever get a chance, go!

actually ended up enjoying one of the opening bands, the jakes, more. haha. i feel bad about it - like i walked down the aisle toward the groom, but ended up leaving the wedding with the best man - but they're really quite good.

also, happy birthday, lyds!

i started reading it this weekend and got bored quickly. taking a break this morning, decided to give it another go. i used to think jay leno was annoying, but reading this gives me a healthy light-hearted respect for him. haha.

on jay leno's marriage

fav excerpts:

On marriage.

JL: I had this discussion with Drew Barrymore on The Tonight Show. She was asking about being married, and I said, “You should always marry your conscience.” By that I mean, in show business—it happens in sports and politics, too—you go through the usual avarice, and you need someone who will go, “What are you doing? You don’t act like this.” If you wind up with someone who enjoys those things, you go to hell pretty much together.

On each other.

JL: Well, probably the sense that you don’t want to be somewhere else when you’re together. I mean, I’m home every night after work. I don’t go out—no boys’ night, card night or any of that stuff. I don’t feel the need.
ML: He thinks the same things are important that I think are important, the same things are wrong that I think are wrong. We have the same temperament, and we understand each other completely

On mutual admiration and having the same values.

ML: I think we’re both saying the same thing—the quality we admire is somebody who aspires to goodness.
JL: Yeah.
ML: Here is who Jay is: When we were first going out, he’d get off at the Comedy Store late at night, and we’d go get groceries at the all-night Ralphs on Sunset. One night, there was this man harassing a woman. Suddenly, Jay yelled, “Honey! Hold on, we’re coming!” and he started walking across the lot, and the guy took off. Jay said to the girl, “Do you want to me hang around or follow you a little way? To make sure this guy...” She said no. I’d lived almost all my life in Hollywood, and there aren’t any men I ever went out with who would have done that. He didn’t even think twice. Right there, I said, “Okay!” I mean, a component of love, really, has to be admiration.

On humor.

ML: I don’t think it’s an accident that comedians have the longest marriages in show business... It’s a huge advantage. Being funny is just the best way to get through life in a relationship... I mean, I can’t ever fight with him—he is very even-tempered.
JL: If you marry someone, there’s really nothing worth fighting about. I mean if you marry someone who is not crazy—that’s the first step. Because everything emanates from that. So when the wife says, “I have to do this.” Well, is this that important to you? All right, then. It doesn’t matter that much, so why argue?

On the secret to marriage.

ML: People always say, “Work on a marriage.” I think if you work on knowing your own faults and trying to correct them, you’re not going to have to work on your marriage.
JL: I got a job. I don’t need another.
ML: When we got married, it dawned on me that his then manager, who was a lawyer, would want a prenup, even though Jay didn’t have a lot of money then. So I decided to preempt it for him. I told Jay, “You know your manager is going to want a prenup. I’ll be perfectly happy to sign it, so don’t worry.” And Jay got mad. He said, “What? You’re already planning we’re going to get divorced?” We just trust each other in a really deep way.

ML: I knew a lot of funny and interesting people, but I didn’t know very many trustworthy people. But with Jay, I didn’t have to think about it. When a quality is there, it stands out.
JL: There are no jokes about wives. If someone is joking about their wife onstage, consciously or subcon-sciously, they mean it.
ML: Jay’s thing is, you elevate the powerless person and make fun of those who are misusing their power.

Sidenote on career.

JL: I think that’s the key—not to take yourself too seriously. It’s not high pressure unless you make it that way. It’s not like doing CPR. I was always happy with whatever level I was at. If you’re always looking for the next level, you’re not going to be happy.

On going through hard times.

SS: Did it make your relationship stronger?
ML: Absolutely, because you know, however steadfast your feelings for each other, your life circumstances are going to go all over the place. We’ve been through the death of my parents and his and the loss of Jay’s brother. We started off with not very much money, and now we have a lot. But we’ve stayed the same. The great thing about Jay is whatever he says, that’s it. It’s genuine.
JL: That’s right! I put my foot down. It’s the law!
ML: No. If he says, “Oh, I’ll do that,” then it’s done.

ML: The whole thing is simple: Pick the right person; be the right person.

you have been warned, so read at your own discretion, haha.

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so, mosaic, the church i'm attending out here in la right now put on a show called "broke" yesterday in lieu of regular service. at first, i thought it was weird. half-way through, i thought it was cheesy. by the end though, i was bawling - tears streaming down my face, runny nose kind of crying. definitely hit some heart strings. i couldn't really put my finger on why though.

tried reasoning through it later, but wasn't really satisfied with the answers i came up with. waking up this morning, i was hit with a thought that maybe the reason why it was so hard to put my finger on exactly what opened the floodgates is that it wasn't just one thing. it always frustrates me when i can't fully relate what i'm feeling or when i don't have all the answers, but this time, i figure i'll try anyway because maybe laying down a few pieces of a the puzzle at a time, the picture will slowly start to come together.

the show basically follows one couple as they become "broke" in life, love, work, everything. spoiler alert, there's a happy ending, but it took a lot of bravery and truth to let their lives unravel and then a lot of grace and love to pull it all back together. when i put myself in their shoes though, i realized that it goes against my natural inclinations to admit that something is in the crapper and then once it's hit rock bottom to forgive when i have been wronged. i worried that because of these faults, i was somehow, unknowingly, slowly, but surely running my life and the lives of those around me through a grater. cue tears.

after the show, the "site catalyst", goodie, told a story about how he accidentally broke his 6-year-old daughter's clay artwork, superglued it back together, and pretended like nothing happened. a week later, he found out that his daughter knew it was broken already, but he was surprised that she didn't say anything about it, so he asked her how she felt. she said, very honestly, that she was sad it was broken, but even more sad that he didn't come to her and tell her what he did. this is really when the walls came crashing down for me, and i think it's because this is just how God's heart breaks for humanity. we break things, try to patch it up, and go on with our merry lives, but in reality our perfect relationship with God has been severed and in dire need of repair. i think God cries for the broken relationship, but he mourns our refusal to make things right with him - especially because he's already extended his hand - accessible to everyone and free for the taking. if we'd only be honest with ourselves and admit our need for reconciliation... but oh, what a hold vanity has on us.

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wow, i think writing really is therapeutic for me. somehow organizes my thoughts better. of course, at the time, none of this was really processing. just an overflow of emotion and me frantically trying to nonchalantly wipe away tears, blow my nose, and keep my eyes from puffing up. hehe. anyway, it was a really good show for me.

haha. now i seem so depressed. i'm not though. life is a work in progress and realization is the first step, so as much as i was an emotional wreck on sunday morning, i think i'm in a good place now. haha. the last time i cried this much was also in church. last february, actually - the first time i went to origins, now called trinity grace, in nyc. apparently, there's something about God that resonates in my deepest workings.

oh btw, if you're in the la area they're putting it on again this friday at the mott auditorium, 8pm. you can buy tickets online, here, for $5.