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Turning 30 (aw, sh…)

I will be 30 next month. I am trying not to think about it.

Well, I’m trying not to think of it in the “Shit, I am going to be 30… why, god?! WHY?!” kind of way and instead the “How can I turn this into a reason to do ridiculous things that, under other circumstances, I would probably not do this year?” kind of way. After all, 30 is the new 20 (by the way, this statement does not sell me on 30).

At some point in my 20s I realized my 30th birthday would be on 01-30-13. Exciting, right?! So I wanted to do something special because this is never going to happen again. “I will have 30 days from the beginning of the year until the 30th birthday to do 30 things to celebrate the occasion!” I started making a list, I started mentally budgeting and decided that I should probably put away about $10k for all the things I want to do (one of the celebrations included renting a venue for a masquerade party).

On my current budget, I can afford a masquerade party at a public library. Seriously, I thought this would work.

Anyway, it’s the month before my birthday. I didn’t save up money. I didn’t book my trip to swim with beluga whales at either the Georgia Aquarim or Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I don’t even know what I am doing on my actual birthday.

I kind of came to the conclusion that I failed at this “project” until Patrick suggested that I accomplish my task list throughout the year. Oh, right… brilliant! So I’m going to go ahead and share my list of things to accomplish next year. Hopefully, sharing this list will make me feel committed to this project and will carry it out throughout the year. This strategy worked well last year.

Problem is, I don’t think I even have 30 good “celebrations” yet.

1. Swim with a Beluga (or some kind of up close and personal experience)
2. Steampunk Party!
3. Get a scooter
4. Host a masquerade party
5. Learn how to sail
6. Disneyland!
7. Do laughing yoga
8. Learn how to drive manual
9. Indoor skydiving
10. Visit http://www.skyzonesports.com/ (caution: this site has auto play sound)
11. Have a Thanksgiving feast (not on Thanksgiving)
12. Kayak in Hawaii
13. Dim Sum Party!
14. Travel overseas (Hong Kong? Europe? Bali?)
15. Make and eat a pizza (being really ambitious here)
16. Get a goldfish!
17. Host a private screening of a movie in a theater (http://www.dickclarkproductionstheater.com/)
18. Screen an old movie (with a projector preferrably) and wear clothes from that era
19. Ride a train to a destination outside of L.A.
20. Visit a museum
21. Go on The Price is Right (kind of dreading this, actually)
22. Make a movie
23. Have a big Chinese family dinner gathering at parents’ house
24. Do a factory tour (of anything: donuts, tortillas, furniture, cars)
25. go to a farm or petting zoo (with goats and llamas or alpacas)
26. Celebrate at a barcade (Dave and Buster’s or other arcade/drinking/dining environment)
27. Learn CSS
28. Visit New Orleans
29. New tattoo in a new city
30. Go to Graceland

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Grandma

My last remaining grandparent passed away back in February. This was my grandma aka “mahmah”, my dad’s mom. I saw her pretty much every single day from the time I was born until I moved out of my parents house at age 21.

Some people aren’t close to their grandparents and some people are very good friends with their grandparents. I can’t really say that we fell into either category. My grandma didn’t speak English and I only speak a limited amount of Cantonese so it’s not like we had very meaningful conversations. She wasn’t like my mom and dad who would praise or punish me. She was just there, always, and ready to give. Mostly, she would give food.

Grandma didn’t make traditional chow mein or artfully steamed fish, well she did but that wasn’t what I liked about her cooking, she would make dishes like ground pork and shrimp omelets! Salty wontons in soup! “Spanish” rice with cut up hot dogs! Curry! Battered and fried stuffed eggplant!

Grandma's Hands

These are the familiar, possibly provincial, possibly just resourceful, dishes that I grew up eating and this is today my “comfort food”. Of course, nobody knows how to make this stuff in the family, nobody wanted to learn I guess. All the dishes were just so weird and so very “grandma” I’m sure no one ever though “Oh yes, this will be a good dish to share… with people.” No, it was just dinner, good old weird dinner dishes.

Sometimes I remember that she won’t be cooking for me anymore and that thought is enough to bring me to tears. It’s not that I only miss by grandmother for her cooking, it’s just that grandma and food go hand in hand and it very much the core of the grandma experience. I miss pretty much everything about her sometimes and it feels like this void that can never be filled again.

I'm glad I have this picture

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Christmas time is here

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. Well it’s the main holiday of my favorite part of the year.

Patrick is in St. Louis with his family. I’m here in LA and have come down with a cold. A pretty miserable one at that. Not only do I have a cold but I also am having an allergic reaction to something in my bed. This means  I can sleep for about 4 hours before I wake myself up with scratching. Hopefully that will go away when the cold does, which should be tonight.

I haven’t come up with a final meal plan for Christmas yet but I think it will either involve duck or a turkey. Not sure what I am going to do with my family for their presents. I was going to get my mom a massage from Burke Williams and take my sister out shopping for some new clothes, and not sure what to do for my dad, but instead I have spent too much money on myself so I am not doing anything. :/ I know, it’s terrible.

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Non-Turkey Day

San Francisco was a fun trip. Though, it’s definitely different when I visit with someone vs visiting alone. I had a good time but a weekend is never enough time in the city. I do miss that place a lot.

boring update: I’ve finally decided the dishes that I will make for Thanksgiving this year. The menu is as follows:

Roast Duck with Butternut Squash, Shallots, Porcini mushrooms and Green Beans
Blowtorch Prime Rib Roast
Leek Bread Pudding
Crisped Smashed Roasted Marble Potatoes
Honey Glazed Baby Carrots
Caesar Salad with Croutons and Shaved Parmesean
Cheaters Pillsboughry Dinner Rolls
and Tracy will be making dessert.

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Drip, Drip, Drip

Oy, the upstairs shared bathroom in my parents house flooded earlier this week and leaked down to the lower level of the house. Thus beginning ASBESTOS REMOVAL SHENANIGANS of 2010! Not really, it’s not quite as fun as that. It’s more like LOUD AND INCONVENIENT WEEKEND OF APRIL! There’s a clean up crew here right now and my uncle is moving out of his room. They’re pretty much going to be tearing everything out.

Pictures to follow.