Galentine's day

Galentine's Day was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.  5 girls, 5 cards exchanged, 6 tiny bouquets (we were ready for 6, just in case), simple decorations, finger food, a bit of alcohol, and a loooot of laughter.  💛💛💛💛💛

Just Korean

In 2015, I did a DNA test with 23andMe (that's the photo on the left).  And then, last week, I saw there was an update to my data (that's the photo on the right).

This is what I wrote in 2015.

"As you probably know, I was adopted from Korea and have always claimed to be Korean but, throughout my life, lots of Eastern Asians have claimed me as their own, stating that I definitely look like whatever they are...until recently when everyone seems to think I'm Japanese. Aatman got me a DNA test for my birthday this year and it turns out that I'm Korean, Japanese, and a little Chinese!"

😐😑😐
And, now I'm just Korean again.  

Tahoe

I went on a last minute trip to Tahoe with some friends over the MLK holiday weekend which happened to fall right before my birthday this year.  As a result, my friends decided to plan a surprise celebration for me while we were there!  It was so sweet!!  ...and, a little shocking how completely oblivious I was to the cake they made right in front of me. :) Needless to say, I was very surprised!

The weekend started out a little rough, though.  We were all coming off of busy work days and had so much to do.  When we finally made it to Bao and Fiona's place it was already pretty late.  We quickly packed up the cars and went to grab dinner before we hit the road.  While at dinner, the car we had rented was broken into and all of Alex's stuff was stolen.  Jason lost a bag as well.

The rental car was insured and the cabin already paid for, so we exchanged the car, worked through some of the new logistics, and decided to still head to the mountain after a good night's sleep.  Alex stayed behind to start working through his losses.  :(

The rest of the weekend was full of friends and games and mountain air and gorgeous snowfall and yummy food and the most delicious birthday cake ever.  We also worked in some snowy walks, a bit of yoga, Lola time (Kelly's dog), and an Alex tribute snowman.  :)

2019

2019 started off with happy wanderings around the city with Alex and Jason and some others we collected along the way.  :)

Then on New Year's Day, Anna finally took me on the 10 hills trail she's been telling me about for years.  :)  We brought Kelly and Lola with us.

A sweet and simple start to the year. 

Paris

Paris started off lovely.  The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, great weather, great friends, great art, and my mom was with us on her first trip overseas!

...and, then my mom got sick and had to be admitted to the hospital.

First thing of note:  If you're in a foreign country and have to go to the hospital, go strait to the American hospital (if there is one) no matter how far away it is.  If you're in a socialist country, local people may think the American Hospital is very expensive, but there's a good chance it will be significantly cheaper than healthcare in America.  It will also likely house the top doctors/surgeons in the region, most people in the hospital will speak at least a little English, and it'll be an all around nicer facility than the public hospital.

Second thing of note:  If you end up in a public hospital but want to transfer to the American hospital, the public hospital can provide you with all of the information, tests, scans, etc. they've done for you to take to the American hospital (as to not have to do them all over again).  Do not hesitate to move if you think you should.

My mom has severe digestive issues, meaning occasionally her intestines twist up and she is unable to pass anything.  When this happens, she can't eat or drink without vomiting and needs to receive fluids and nutrients intravenously.  It's very hard on her and we're unclear on what triggers the problem.  Mom's intestines twisted at the beginning of our 4th day in Paris.

I don't think it's worth going into all of the details as some can be assumed from the things of note above and I'm not sure I'm up for re-living the rest of it -- but, what I would like to say is how grateful I am for the amazing and generous people in my life. 

Joanna: a friend from my old soccer team who relocated to Paris.  Joanna came to the public hospital with a cell phone charger adapter and food, and then translated for us with the doctor, ultimately ensuring a very smooth transition from the public hospital to the American hospital.  She stayed with us from about 10pm to about 3:30am and kept me sane until my mom was comfortably settled.

Mel: my dear friend who invited us to Paris to celebrate her 60th birthday!  Mel was there for a month and let us stay in the airbnb she rented for much longer than we had intended, making sure I had a comfortable place to come home to and a place to bring my mom when she was released from the hospital.  She was also an amazing emotional support throughout the whole thing, checking in, letting me talk and cry, and making sure I just knew she was there for me in whatever way I needed (in the middle of her birthday vacation!!!).

Vasilia: a friend who was also on the trip for Mel's birthday.  Aside from being another amazing emotional support, Vasilia made sure that I ate -- giving me gifts of energy bars and snacks with sweet notes to cheer me up.

Jassara and Nancy: friends also there for Mel's birthday.  Jassara and Nancy helped with food, smokes, hugs, and good energy.

Remi and Hasna: the night nurses at the hospital.  Both Remi and Hasna were competent and capable, allowing me to feel comfortable leaving my mom for the night.

Dr. Gueroult: the doctor.  Dr. Gueroult was intelligent, empathetic, and professional (even with the colorful purses and printed pants).  She listened intently and instilled confidence immediately.

Anne: my boss.  Anne told me to not worry about work and stay with my mom as long as I needed.

Kathy: my cat sitter.  Kathy stayed for a week longer than booked without blinking an eye.

I also had other friends and family checking in throughout the process and it all meant so much!

We were in the hospital for 7 days, managed to avoid surgery twice, I learned the train systems quickly, and properly greeting and asking if someone spoke English became second nature.  It was a difficult week, but we couldn't have asked for better circumstances.

Au revoir, Paris.  Merci.

Yosemite

My friend Fan invited me to join her on a trip to Yosemite a few weekends ago.  I had never been, so it was a big treat for me!

Fan wasn't planning to head into the valley (the part of Yosemite from the pictures), but said it would be easy for me to hitch a ride with someone if I wanted to go, so I ended up riding in with Fan's twin sister, Fawn, and her friend Phi. :)

Fawn and Phi claimed to not be very active people and said they would probably do more walking than hiking, which was fine with me -- but, in the middle of the day, some friends in the group said they were by the waterfall if we wanted to meet them, so we decided to go.  It was much more of a hike than we had expected, but Fawn and Phi seemed to be up for it!

We ended up running into our friends on our way up the trail and their way down.  They weren't staying the night and wanted to head out before it was too late, but said the waterfall was just 30 minutes in and it was worth it to keep going.

The waterfall was beautiful!  When we made it to the trail near the base, we discovered that the trail turned into rock steps that you could take all the way to the top and look down!  I really wanted to go to the top.  Fawn and Phi said I had done a good job of pushing them along that far, so why not? :)

We made it to the top with no problem and the view was majestic.  It felt very worth the climb.  Fawn noticed the rocks at the top were a bit slippery with her shoes, though, so we would all take our time with the rock steps on the way back down.

When we got back to the base of the waterfall, there was this path that went off of the main trail to some rocks much closer to the waterfall.  I really wanted to go there too, so I asked Fawn and Phi what they thought.  Phi didn't want to go.  She was moving pretty slow and would meet us at the bridge.  Fawn wanted go with me.

There were signs saying to not go off of the trail, and the walk out looked steep and rocky, but it was nothing I hadn't done before.  A guy had just said to us that it was a bit dangerous, but there were a bunch of people out there so we weren't worried.  We started hiking out.  I was leading the way and Fawn was following me.

There was a spot on a steep part of dirt that was a little slippery, so I called back to Fawn to be careful in that area.  I'm not sure if she heard me because she was farther behind me than I had expected, and seconds later I could hear her falling toward me.

!!!!

A lot of what happened next is hard to remember.  I knew Fawn was falling really fast and I would have one moment to catch her, and that it would have to be done exactly right to both stop her and to make sure she didn't take me with her.  I can't seem to remember if she was in danger of falling off of the cliff or into rocks, but it felt critical for me to grab her and I had to make the decision fast.  As I turned around, I leaned into the hill and grabbed her by the leg as she came past me.  Her body flipped around and her glasses went flying into the dirt, but she stopped.

We awkwardly readjusted ourselves in the dirt for a moment, processing and checking to make sure everything was okay.  Fawn said she was okay, both emotionally and physically, and that she still wanted to go to the waterfall.  So, we brushed ourselves off and hiked very carefully the rest of the way.

We sat down on a big rock close to the water's edge when Fawn pulled up her pant leg and noticed she was scrapped up a bit.  As we were checking it, I realized that I had thrown my first aid kit into my bag to hold my money.  I was super excited I had it!

"Do you need a gauze pad?  Or scissors?  Or, I can blow the emergency whistle!  Oh, are you bleeding, I have rubber gloves!"

"Um, I think I just need a bandaid... "

"I have tweezers!  Or do you need a stinger wipe?  Or an antiseptic wipe??"

"I'll take the antiseptic wipe.  I know you really want to use your first aid kit, but I think I just need a bandaid."

"Do you want a butterfly bandaid, or this kind of bandaid....?"

I gave her the biggest bandaid I could find.  :)

Fawn cleaned herself up, applied the bandaid, and then we sat for a while in the midst of the waterfall, doing our best to appreciate the power, beauty, and scale.  Now that things felt a little better, I said with a bit of levity, "You almost died and I totally saved your life."  She smiled and thanked me for catching her.

It wasn't funny to us until we were in the car ride back to the cabin trying to figure out what had happened.  The only things we could come up with were that Fawn was falling really fast and we both felt like she was in danger, but we couldn't picture anything but the trail being really steep.  Then I remembered that the first thing Fawn said to me when she stopped was, "What did it look like?".  She started laughing and said, "That is what I said!  I wanted to know what it looked like cause I was in it and couldn't picture it."  I started to laugh too.  "How did I respond?".  She said, "You said, 'I don't know...'".  Then we laughed very hard to the point that Phi said she was worried about us because it sounded nervous.  I could feel it in my body that I needed to either laugh or cry.

After telling the story back at the cabin, one of the girls on the trip said, "So, I guess what we've learned is that we should hike with you because you can catch people AND you bring a first aid kit!".  Haha.

I don't think I've ever felt so clear and so scared in my life.

#Baofi

On a perfectly cloud covered slightly rainy day, Bao and Fiona got married for the fourth time.  :)

I'm not sure why there were four times -- though I think one was at city hall, then Singapore (Fiona's family), then maybe Vietnam (Bao's family?)?  ...I guess after that much practice you would expect that the fourth time would be flawless, regardless of the wavering weather -- and, it absolutely was. 💖

L.A.

I forgot about L.A.!

Back in July, I took a quick trip to L.A. to see my dear friends, Pam and Kim!

Pam is the kind of person who lights up a room.  She's smart, classy, beautiful, and knows exactly what to do in any situation -- even if that means to just laugh hysterically at the absurdity!  Kim is Pam's delightful, sassy, sharp as a tack, sister.

We went to the Getty, to dinner somewhere I can't seem to remember (but, the food, service, and ambiance were fabulous), and to The Sherman for brunch -- but, mostly we just spent time together and caught up.  :)

Both of them moved from the Bay to L.A. about a year ago?  And, I'm so glad they're still in my life. 

Maui

I landed in Hawaii completely exhausted, and pretty sure I was about get sick (after going to Powell/Vegas/OSL, and then heading straight to Hawaii early Monday morning with no breaks in between).  I was heading into two days on Oahu with Stacey and friends, and then 5 days on Maui in a vacation rental with 9 people to celebrate Phuong and Huy's 5 year wedding anniversary. 

!!  Crazy, but so much fun.


Time on Oahu with Stacey was sweet and chill.  I felt like I got to relax and recover a bit -- but, that we also got some quality time:

Lunch, beach, shave ice with Cara
Dinner at Monkey Pod
Stand up paddle boarding in Waikiki
Lunch with Mike and Abigail
Ant-Man and the Wasp


Then, I was off to Maui to celebrate Phuong and Huy's 5 year anniversary!  I didn't know most of the people in the condo, but they were all lovely and it was really fun staying together.  The celebration was beautiful and delightful, and just a wonderful night all around.  I felt so honored to be a part of it. 

Here's some highlights from Maui:

Meeting Phuong and Huy's amazing friends and family
Staying at the condo with everyone
Boogie boarding in the ocean with Thu Mai and Steve
Pool games with Steve, Ben, Jenny
The anniversary celebration!
Taking all the polaroids
Spa day
Meditating with Steve and Thu Mai at the hotel
Clapping with Ethan
Face masks with Jenny and Tony
Red beach with Yuki
Finding the labyrinth
IAO Valley
Eskimo Candy
Nakalele Blowhole

OSL

I met Danny at the airport (me coming back from Powell/Vegas and he coming in from Chicago), and off we went!  We were both, separately, out way too late the night before but, if we didn't stop for a nap, we could still catch most of the performers on Friday -- which was the start to a very sweet, emotional, and ambitious weekend.

To be honest, the festival was kind of a blur (mostly due to borderline exhaustion, a few too many sips of beer, and a put put game in the middle of the festival that included a wine tasting.).  We went to all three days and saw so much music.  Here are the ones I remember in no particular order:

Beck

Janet Jackson

Future

Janel Monae

Jaime xx

Saltnpepa

Portugal. The Man

N.E.R.D.

Odesza

Big Gigantic

Knox Fortune

Beyond that, we did sleep a bit and had a few nice brunches, my favorite being Outerlands, for which I had a gift certificate, and for which the idea of actually kicked off Danny's extended stay last summer and our first Outside Lands.  

Outerlands describes itself as "Locally sourced, organic fare served in a warm, handcrafted setting."  The atmosphere is casual and classy, the food delicious, but the chairs left splinters in my legs.  Say no to wicker! 

Powell

I was invited to join an annual family and friends trip to Lake Powell for 8 days.  It was a trip full of beautiful canyons, jet skis, wake board surfing, cooking, hiking, and just hanging out together on the water and under the stars.

I wasn't sure what it would be like living on a boat with 11 people and 2 dogs for 8 days -- but, it was magical.


The moments:

All of the games with Kaleigh
Driving the boat
Learning about Jocko
Heads Up game starring Dan and Annette
Dan's recaps of what happened while we were gone
Getting to know all of the lovely Ermshars including Bella and Beau
Late night talks/songs under the stars with Kaleigh, Geoff, Patrici, Kendall, Cynthia, Stephen
Jet skiing through the narrows
Paddle boarding to the bat cave, and then quickly back to avoid the monster (beaver)
Paddle boarding in the dark of the night to see the reflections of the stars on the water
Climbing the anchor ropes with Kaleigh and Patrici
Hanging out in the hammock
Wakeboard surfing in the canyons
Discovering that Beau is god
Rainbow bridge
Patrici and Kendall's badass surfing
The return of Beau


The trip ended with a very full night in Vegas:

Michael Jackson One
Yummy sushi dinner
Pool party - Fetty Wap
Patrici pointing at me when the dj would ask who was celebrating a birthday - haha
Late night best room service ever

Hatched

"Decisions made without premeditation often lead to unforgettable experiences of a lifetime."

I read that quote in a Daily OM email sent to me recently.  Soon after, a friend of mine dragged me to watch the new Mama Mia movie -- which seemed to have the same message (and, was an unexpectedly awesome viewing experience. :) ).

Here are a few of my favorite un-premeditated decisions (in no particular order):

• Moving into the ghettos Oakland 
• Going to Costa Rica and Australia 
• Taking a surfing lesson
• Adopting The Luscious Frankie J
• Signing up for aerial classes
• Producing the first warehouse show
• Joining a soccer team
• Chasing the moon 

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C. S. Lewis

NOLA

A few months ago, my friend Jackie booked a trip to New Orleans.  She had planned to go by herself, but her mom suggested that she find a friend to go with her, and the only person she could think of who would maybe do that was me! :)

Getting to New Orleans was an adventure in itself -- a delinquent Lyft driver, the slowest security line agent, (and, as a result) a missed flight, a sketchy flight consolidation service, a left behind purse, and the loudest child in the waiting area ever.  Luckily for me, there are more Lyft drivers, people waiting in security lines are kind to people about to miss their flight, sketchy flight services don't know how to write down credit card numbers and you can book the flights they found for you much cheaper(!), a kind woman will wait for you to come back for the purse you left behind, and, when your seated next to the loudest child on the plane and his parent is across the aisle, the parent will give you his aisle seat for your middle seat so he can sit next to his child.

It was a challenging day, with many golden moments. :)

I arrived in NOLA about 5 hours later than planned but it worked out great!  The city was humid and alive with music, and I was so happy I made it!!

Here's the list (missing a couple of brunch places):

Bourbon O Bar
Airboat swamp tour
Wedding parade
Jackson square
Walking along the Mississippi River
Commander's Palace Restaurant
Frenchman St x 2
Art market x 2
Kayaking tour
Three Muses
The Spotted Cat
Cafe Du Monde at night!
NOLA sign
Walking Bourbon and Royle

On the airboat, we ended up sitting next to this guy who kept laughing at everything.  Jackie and I also tend to laugh at everything, so we enjoyed his company quite a bit.  After the tour, which was about an hour from where we were staying, we were thinking about how it would've been nice if we had kept in touch with that guy because we all got along so well.  We never asked him his name or anything about him, though, so we were pretty sure we'd never see him again.  We did both happen to capture a short video of his laughter.  :)

We went to dinner at Commander's Palace that night and, afterwards, I was standing next to our Lyft trying to get a photo of the restaurant sign.  When I turned around to get into the car, I noticed that the guy from our airboat was standing behind our Lyft!!  He started laughing as I ran up to him and Jackie got out of the car to join us.  We couldn't believe we found him!  We exchanged information.  Connected. :)

As we were driving away, Jackie started to explain what was going on to the Lyft driver.  He said, "Oh, that guy?  He was in my Lyft."  The Lyft was dropping him off at the restaurant when we booked our ride!  WUT?!

Our airboat friend lives in New York.  Jackie happens to be heading to New York in October... :) 

So many shows...

I haven't updated the shows since last June!  Here's most of them:

Bucko: Whaleman - challenging, incredibly performed
The Skivvies: Pride Rock - so much fun!  so much underwear!
Fallen Heroes, Rising Stars: A Juneteenth Celebration Through Dance - great cultural experience
A Night with Janis Joplin - where concert meets theatre exactly the right way
Andrew Bird (Mountain Winery) - delightful night under the stars
Splendour (Aurora) - beautiful performances, interesting considerations
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - technically amazing, a deep and physical look into autism
Matt Nathanson (Wente) - so fun!!  beautiful little outdoor stage
Hamlet (Phoenix) - fights looked really good!  show was great!
South Pacific - not a show i will probably ever see again
Shakespeare or Space Wars - take 2.  :) still great
Outsidelands: Gorillaz, Wild Horses, Vance Joy, Metallica, Empire of the Sun - filled with perfect moments and great love and great friends
Lady Gaga - great musician
Something Rotten - so much energy and hilarious
Shannon and the Clams - awesome girl band
Constellations - thoughtful work on perspective
Beach Blanket Babylon - with mom and dad!
Alicia Olatuja (SFJazz) - beautiful voice
JD McPherson and Nikki Lane - so much energy and fun
Elixir of Life - my humble return to the (park) stage
Paco de Lucia Project - MIND BLOWING
LCD Soundsystem - disco ball!!
SFIHHDF - still my favorite
Bright Star - was worth waiting for the end.  great performances
Snap Judgement - interesting smart night of storytelling
Norm Lewis (Feinstein's) - completely charming
Circus Veritas - defy gravity
Black Rider - standing the test of time and showing the tragic beauty of a broken heart
Aladdin - delightful!
Audible presents Fresh Voices with Becky Braunstein, Jesse Hett, Kenice Mobley, Joe Nguyen, Bret Reybould, Bethany Van Delft, Emily Winter and host Sean McKenzie / Doc's Lab - some of it was good. :)

We're No Doctors - really cute. 

Asian AF - kind of funny and kind of weird 

The JMJ Project: Proof of Life (Potrero Stage) - interesting ideas around how we represent ourselves.  i think.  

Thomas Dimuzio w/ Matt Waters (Center for New Music) - awesome!!
Brass Mafia - upbeat fun all day
What They Said About Love (Marsh) - love takes work
Tune-Yards - wow, so complex and confident
Skeleton Crew - touching, hopeful
Streetcar Named Desire - well performed
Glen Hansard - so much depth and emotion
Weightless - beautiful, inventive fable, exceptional muscians
Heisenberg - finding and defining love
Retolt.  She Said.  Revolt - soren was my favorite part
Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies - relevant, fun show with tough subject matter
Wolves (MTC) - teenage girls...
Alvvays, The Drums - loved the light work, loved the drums, alvvays were great
Amadeus (Davies) - live orchestra!
Jamiroquai - groovy
Head Over Heels - brilliant!
The Mystery of Love and Sex - really well done
Django Django - so great!
Vietgone - i loved everything about this show :)
Japandroids - fantastic drummer, super loud
Kendrick Lamar - we showed up twice, it was totally worth it
St. Vincent (WeWork party) - sexy
Editors - pretty good
David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori - curran stage, inspiring
Flash Gordon Live - super cute and fun
The Mushroom Cure: A Psychedelic Journey - challenging audience, interesting look at ocd and a journey to relief