Colonial Williamsburg

I've managed to escape - thanks to a sinus infection. I got up with my parents to explore Williamsburg and I was just exhausted. So my parents have left me in the hotel to rest. Heh ... being that I'm sitting at the hotel computer, it's clear that I'm not sleeping. Although I do have to say that I'd actually rather be sitting here instead of "exploring" Williamsburg. I dunno, I've already been to colonial Williamsburg when I was in 8th grade and nothing has changed. I don't mind walking around this place, but I do have to honestly admit that I'm bored outta my mind! The only thing to "explore" is the town square, which consists of shops and is quaintly organized. Talk about a small town! As if the fact that Williamsburg during Christmas is supposed to be significantly different from Williamsburg during the summer. My mother apparently wanted to experience a "historical Christmas". She's so bizarre ... There's a part of me that's screaming, "Get me back to New York!!!" God, I hope I won't think like that when I get back to LA.

For the most part, I've been walking around with my ipod on and my headphones in my ears. I've been doing this not to look like a moody teenager, but more so that I might avoid arguments with my mother. It's proving to work because I've missed about half of the things she's said to me! Simmone doesn't get provoked and no argmuent ensues! Although I have managed to hear some things and observe my parents, who have their moments of hilarity. For example, you'd think a couple would stop arguing about driving directions when they own a GPS system. Not my parents!

Mom: Exit here!
*Dad pulls the car onto the exit ramp*
Dad: Hey, exit 83 is over there! I saw a sign up ahead!!!
Mom: No! Turn here!
GPS: Re-calculating
Dad: SEE!!!!!!!!

I've also decided that I think my mother is socially awkward. It took her 30 mins to tell a story which should have taken 5 mins max. I'm not saying this as criticism - it's more like an observation. And I will say that it kills brain cells while waiting for the punchline that never comes!!!!

But all that aside, it looks like my mother is enjoying the trip ... I think. One minute she's laughing and the next minute she's expressing how she's disappointed with Williamsburg. *shrugs* I dunno! At least my family is together for the holidays.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Muffin-Cake!

I think the only thing I'll miss about the East Coast is the foliage. Since pretty much everything in CA is Evergreen, you don't get to see too many fall colors. I was up in Shelton, CT this past weekend to take a break from the city.

One of my college friends is from Connecticut and his parents let me stay with them. As a good house guest, I wanted to bring them some Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins made by yours truly. However, I didn't have a muffin pan. So I baked it in a cake pan and voilà!

Muffin-cake!

Yup, that's the phrase I coined. Muffin-cake. Ha! And it was damn good! It's basically pumpkin bread with a filling made of cream cheese, lemon peel, and an egg. It's a really good combination that I highly recommend! But I did end up getting a muffin pan while I was in CT because we were wandering around a mall and I found one for $10. Yay! Although I probably will make muffin-cake again in the future just because I like to say the word "muffin-cake". ;0)

Vacation Highlights!

I like to steal pictures from my friends. Mwahahaha!

Home - for now. 

One of my friends took this bird's-eye view of Queens, the Bronx, & Rikers Island at night.

So I'm back in NYC. I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled, but at least I don't feel like I want to slit my wrists now. Right now the city certainly doesn't look like the picture above. It's raining, no thanks to the stupid hurricanes.

I think as a rule, when I take vacations I should plan on being gone for 2 - 3 weeks because this is the first vacation I've taken in a while where I've come back feeling rested and relaxed. Highlights were definitely times spent with childhood friends. It seems that everyone has stayed the same (which thrills me), it's their circumstances that have changed - which is the way life goes, I guess. One of the best times I had was with one of my girl friends, Margaret (photo on right). She was having some portraits taken a while ago and decided

 to have fun with them. I think it's hilarious, as I'm sure she does too! Little do many know, that all us Chinese American gals look like this under our clothes. Seriously! Every night at midnight, "Poof!", we transform. All make-up and costume is done without lifting a finger. It gets a little awkward sometimes, especially when we're out in public and then all of a sudden "Poof!". It's just really inconvenient to have to re-dress to today's modern period and avoid people's stares. So yes, I look like this inside, too - except my costume is blue and I'm holding a lucky red envelope. Yesh, we're all exotic on the inside! ;0P (I love you, Mag!) But moving on to our bonding experience ...

The Korean bath house was not exactly the most conventional spa experience we've had. We walked in to have a relaxing morning and the woman behind the desk asked us, "You been to Korean bath house before?" When we said, "No." she then said, "Ohhh!!! Culture shock! Follow me!" Er, okie, um... what did she mean by culture shock?!? By the way, when a middled-aged Asian woman goes "Ohhh! Culture shock!" with a smirk on her face, you know you're in trouble. Before we knew it, we were hustled into the locker room and were told that clothes were not allowed. Dress code: NAKED. Holy crap! Wait! What?!?! Um ... okay ... Now, I'm alright with being naked with other women, but they're usually women I don't know. I've never been naked in front of any of my friends ... AWKWARD!!!!! But hey, you only live once right? So we stripped down and entered the bathing area. If anyone has ever been to a Japanese bath house, a Korean bath house isn't much different. There were two jacuzzis, one with hot water and one with cold, a steam room, a sauna, a mud and tea sauna, and a whole lot of naked middle-aged Korean women. We tried everything - although I had to stay out of the cold water jacuzzi because the scented water was making me dizzy, which led Mag to exclaim, "My God! We're being drugged!" After about half an hour, we were basically ambushed by two masseuses who were two middle-aged Korean ladies dressed in black bras and what looked like black granny-panties with girdles attached. Body scrub and deep tissue massage then ensued. It was odd ... I've never had my boobs scrubbed before. It was truly a bizarre sight: Naked girl on table being massaged and scrubbed by lady in bra and girdle. At least Margaret wasn't on the massage table next to me or else neither one of us would've gotten through the whole ordeal without laughing. I suppose we've crossed a certain level of intimacy and now there is no going back. Hahahaha! 

Highlight #2: The Beach!

Manhattan Beach

I loooooovvvve this beach! Well, I love other beaches in CA too, but out of all my favorites, this one is the closest to my house. I think this is what I miss most about home - the smell, the sound, the sun, and the breeze. There's nothing like it!

The Rude Boy, a.k.a. Rudy lookin' at the horizon.

The second stolen picture.

The same friend that took the picture of NYC earlier, took this while traveling north on the I-5.

Tranquility and open air - no one can convince me that NY is better!

When ever I'd be on the road like this as a kid, usually traveling to or from a vacation, I always used to pretend that I was on a trucking adventure. Hahaha! I will also miss the feeling of open air. Everything is so close together in NYC that it's really claustrophobic, which stresses me out because I feel trapped. *sigh* Ah well, hopefully I'll get a lot of work this year so that I can move back next year. For now, I can look forward to January, because I will be out there for all of that month.

The Mid-Vacation Check In

It's the Drama Shorties!

By definition, a Drama Shortie is of 5ft 1in or shorter and was part of the South Pasadena High School drama program between 1999-2002.

In other words, Roz, Rudy, and I have been friends since elementary school and we all went through the trauma of our high school drama teacher. This is the first time all three of us have been together since 2003 and it was quite a happy reunion. Unfortunately, some people have no skills at taking pictures and I had to crop a lot of crap out. So it's a bit disappointing that the picture isn't any bigger.

I feel like I've been out in LA for ages, which is a wonderful thing, in my mind. I'm definitely catching up with the sleep and just feeling relaxed for the first time in a long time. I don't wanna go back to New York! *sob!* But I still have a week left out here, so I won't think about NYC until then!!!

Similarly to my last post, it's always refreshing to come home and watch my parents. They just bought a brand new flat screen HD TV. We had just finished watching the American men's volleyball team win the Gold at the Olympics and reporters were interviewing the head coach when:

Dad: "Wow. You can see all his pores and blackheads."

Me: "Well, you did get an HD TV for higher definition - so there you go!"

Mom: "Yuck!"

For the most part, it seems that my parents are quite happily moving along as "empty-nester's". My parents built a monstrosity of a deck in our backyard, which used to consist of an empty hill covered in ivy:

I actually really like the deck, although it does look a bit intimidating upon first glance. We live on a hill and it allows one to see an impressive view:

The deck also gave way to gardening, which seems to have given Mom a new semi-hobby. I say "semi" because she isn't actually doing the gardening - she tells the gardener what she wants:

Perhaps this is what I will look like in 40 years?!?

Clearly Mom isn't too happy about having her picture taken.

I've decided that my career coach stresses me out. I had a coaching call with her this past Thursday and I totally started to panic when she asked if I had any auditions lined up for when I returned to NY. I answered "yes", which was a complete lie, but I didn't want to hear anything from her. I know lying to a coach who is trying to help you is counter-productive, but I REALLY didn't want to deal with someone lecturing me or making me feel like I'm not doing anything. Actually, she already made me feel like that with me not being truthful so I can only imagine it would've been worse had I told her the truth. It's not that I plan on sitting on my butt doing nothing when I get back to New York - for those who know me well, they know that I'm quite motivated and tend to drive myself crazy when I'm not doing anything. Essentially, I've decided that I need to end coaching with this lady because I need to stop obsessing about my career for a while. It'll be good for my own mental health and tolerance for NY. Thankfully, I only have 5 more coaching calls with this lady, which happens weekly. Now that I have an agent, I'd like to see how things go according to my own pace. It's difficult to not worry about things I can't control when I have someone constantly over my shoulder reminding me about them.