unofficial thyroid cancer survivor

it's unofficial because i'll have to hear it from my endocrinologist in june when i see him. he's in charge of my thyroid cancer. but this morning was my 5th year of body scans. most of the technicians (not to mention the doctor) have been there since my diagnosis in 2003. and most of them remember you. it's really nice to see a familiar face when you go through such a important yet very stressful ordeal.

i'd like to thank everyone who has supported me through the years. it's hard to imagine going through it without my friends and family. thank you all! i really couldn't do it without you. ♥

i am radioactive girl

i got my i-131 pill this morning, after two days of injections in the upper cheeks of my derriere. the pill comes in one of those lead containers that you imagine dry ice starts flowing out of. the technician who administers it used to handle it with these huge forceps but now have it down easy. it goes from the lead container to a plastic cup to my mouth. it's hard to imagine that something the technician won't touch is something i have to ingest. but i suppose if she's handling a ton of these pills a day, the accumulation would be harmful.

i am not quite glowing but slightly radioactive. i have this special card that i take with me in case i travel and set off security alarms. craziness huh?

death cab birthday

venue: the fillmore
(sold out)
artist: dcfc
who: betty
when: 23 april 2008 (wednesday)
doors open at 7p

since this show was scheduled the day after betty's birthday, it was the perfect birthday gift. so, i woke my ass up on a sunday at 10a (usually i sleep in on sundays) to buy us tix. i was only limited to two otherwise, i would have purchased more. and apparently, the show was sold out by 11a.

whenever we go to shows, even sold out shows, there are always scalpers offering tickets. last night, there were scalpers asking for tickets. it was kinda strange and exciting that we had tix to this sought out show despite them playing another show at the greek in june.

one of the best things about going to the fillmore for a show are the free posters they give out afterwards. they are limited and is an awesome souvenir to take home. i was quite excited about them as we were denied the posters at the beautiful south show back in 2006. wow, that was the last time i was there. towards the end, we waited by the exit to get first dibs on the posters. the staff said they wouldn't give them out until the band stepped off the stage.

death cab always puts on a great show. they sound pretty awesome live. then, there's ben gibbard's trademark sway-with-his-guitar-and-singing which may have been the cause to his slimmer, more toned frame. honestly, this loses some of his charm. the whole nerdy, black frame glasses and chunky demeanor was adorable. but he's lost the weight, the glasses and is sporting longish greasy hair. blegh. clearly, i am not a fan of his new look. despite the disappointment, it doesn't take away from the quality of the show since i could barely see the stage anyway. one more thing about the swaying and i might have mentioned this in previous reviews of death cab shows, it's kinda distracting. and constant! he does it through fast songs, slow songs and almost non-stop for the hour (or so)-long set. i don't think i've ever seen anything like that before.

last but least, i must comment about the crowd. not only we were like the only asians there (that i could see in the dark anyway) but we were easily the most attractive people there. it was really odd. all of sudden, i became aware that i was surrounded by nerds and unattractive people (even in the dark). there were quite a few fatties there. not just slightly overweight but morbidly obese fatties. when cheering for an encore, the ground shook like a 4.0 scale earthquake. i had to move away from under the chandeliers. there were a couple of really old people there too. old like 60 y/o old. there was this kid who brought his dad or granddad. and the white haired man was totally rocking out. it was kinda cute. anyway, i don't remember this at the last two death cab shows... totally bizarro.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ remains constant just like ben gibbard's swaying

twin peaks weekend

the other day, i was reading this story on lara flynn boyle. they mentioned her and how she was much prettier when she was in twin peaks. not as skinny and healthy-looking. it got me thinking... i should watch twin peaks. haven't seen it in a while and have the entire 2 seasons, plus the pilot which previously sold separately as well as the fire walk with me movie.

in case you couldn't tell, i'm a huge twin peaks fan. my sister and i even threw a twin peaks themed halloween party back in 1997. last night, she and i were re-watching season 2. just hearing the music in the opening credits took me back to 1990. i was a sophomore in high school. my friend simone and i used to be on the phone as we watched twin peaks because she was too scared to watch it alone. it's really ironic that even though twin peaks is far from innocent, it was certainly a time of innocence for us. ah, youth...

last meal

my last meal before my 10-day diet. i had two generous helpings of this spicy mac & cheese with tomatoes. it was delicious! my sister made it specially for me. she also made it for my birthday last year.

it's been 4 days on this damn diet and i soooo want a bite of this mac & cheese... and ice cream would be nice too. :(

i am officially starvin' marvin.

shoe friends

this morning, as i headed towards the marguerite shuttle from the train station, this girl comes up to me and says you know, you really have to stop this. and i'm thinking, what the hell? she continues to say you have to stop wearing such cute shoes because it's making me all jealous. hahah!

after taking the train and shuttle together for the last 4 or so years, we finally introduced ourselved to each other. her name is valeriana. very pretty name. pretty girl too. i've noticed her outfits and shoes during the last few years as well. we chatted it up on the shuttle. she told me she really liked the red pair i'd worn last week. and yesterdy, i wore my zebra print boots and she mentioned those as well. i remember people on the shuttle sort of glaring at me when i stepped on the bus and sat down. but i didn't think that people actually talked about what shoes i would wear this day or that. it was a nice beginning to the day. and has made my day so far. :)

upcoming body scan

this morning, i saw my endocrinologist for my 5th and hopefully final body scan. i had bloodwork done for this appointment last week. it turns out that my thyroid levels are too high out of the range (0.8-1.8, i'm currently at 2.2) and may potentially do harm internally (organs, bones, etc.). my dr is prescribing a lower dosage to alternate with the current dosage to offset the levels. i see him in two months for that as well as my body scan follow up.

here is my upcoming schedule:

april 17th, thursday - start low-iodine diet (ugh, i'm going to be starvin' marvin ALL the time)

april 23rd, wednesday - get 1 of 2 thyrogen injections in upper butt cheek (ouch)

april 24th, thursday - get 2 of 2 thyrogen injections in other butt cheek (ouch again)

april 25th, friday - get bloodwork done first, then i-131 pill to be administered in nuclear medicine at o'connor

april 28th, monday - whole neck and body scan in nuclear medicine at o'connor

june 12th, thursday - official scan results and follow-up with dr

every day after a negative scan result - c e l e b r a t e   l i f e!!

3rd bernie date

bernie was in town this week from nyc. we made plans to hang out on saturday night. he drove down from sf to pick me up and drove us to mt. view for dinner at tsunami sushi. we had sushi for dinner on our first date as well. since my nyc trip, my feelings for bernie have somewhat started to dissipate. i think there was too much hype and build up for the nyc trip, that when it didn't go quite as expected (still not sure what i expected from that trip) that it turned out a little disappointing. maybe more than a weekend was too long for the 2nd date.

this time around, however, could have lasted a bit longer. not that i felt rushed but i think it would have been nice to hang out a bit more. i still don't know what i want from bernie, if anything at all. he's a really sweet and fun guy. and i wouldn't mind continuing to casually date him.

french vanilla coconut cupcakes w/ marshmallow buttercream frosting

lisa and i made these cupcakes with french vanilla cake mix, 1 ½ cups of shredded coconut, and coconut pudding mix. the frosting is marshmallow buttercream with a piece of toasted coconut marshmallow and sprinkling on the top. trust me, it's much better tasting than it looks.

blaze of glory

venue: hp pavilion (free tix!)
artist: bon jovi
who: rich, louis & lisa
when: 08 apr 2008 (tuesday)
doors @ 7:30p

i'm as much of a bon jovi fan as the next person who grew up in the 80's and now listens to completely different music. last week, if you told me i was going to the bon jovi concert, i would have laughed. and in fact, i did chuckle when i got the text message from rich saying he had 50 tickets to give away. that's right, 5-0. i almost texted him back a "hahaha" or "are you serious" text. but when i mentioned it to lisa on saturday (at the deanza flea market), she said she wanted to go.

i actually park right across the street from the hp pavilion, every day to catch the caltrain in downtown san jose. so i told lisa, if she could get a ride downtown, i could take her to her car and we could save $20 on parking. hence, begins the adventures of lisa using public transportation. if you know my sister, this is quite a funny picture. it would be funny to see me taking public transportation if i hadn't been taking the train for the last 6 or so years. before the show, lisa checks out the light rail schedule. she's really good with researching things so i didn't think twice to help her. she'd asked her coworker and boyfriend and they told to her that it would be a 10-block walk. yikes. i know for a fact that there is a light rail connection to the caltrain station. but they didn't. so she told me her light rail plans and said she planned on getting off at the san fernando stop. i told her there was a caltrain stop and that she should get off there. looking at the map, the stop is on the other side of the train tracks. and no indication of the underground tunnel that takes you from the light rail platform to the main station. since my train got me to the station before hers did, i told her i would meet her at the light rail stop. it was so cute, like i was picking up my kid sister there. she was adorably pathetic.

we met up at this bar i've driven by everyday for the last 4 years. and yesterday was my first time in patty's inn. funny. we stayed there for a bit for drinks and talked about getting garlic fries. the hp pavilion used to be the sharks arena. so, stadium food is served including garlic fries. plus, i remember getting garlic fries there even though, the last time i was there was 2 years ago for the madonna show (that i'd forgotten to blog about, oops). actually, i didn't get garlic fries at that show. anyway... on arrival at the pavilion, we begin our search for garlic fries. there were fast food stands like round table, ¡una mas!, tied house and other concession stands. we walked and walked but nowhere could we see garlic fries on anyone's menu. so we decided on regular fries & nachos by where our seats are. but as we are in line, i see someone with different fries and told lisa to scope it out. it turns out that round table (we didn't think to check their menu for garlic fries) was selling them. but no nachos. so i went to get the nachos nearby and lisa got the fries (after waiting in one line only to be told later that she was in the wrong line). ridiculous.
bon jovi started playing right as we got in line for food. and we could hear you give love a bad name inside. we completely missed daughtry, who apparently was on american idol. we were in section 208, row 14 which is quite high up but facing directly towards the stage. i didn't know what to expect but i was pleasantly surprised. they were very good. it was interesting, most of the songs they played started off like it was their first song and ended like it was their finale song. there was so much energy. they played about 20 songs straight without any major breaks. i was also surprised that richie sambora had a nice singing voice. plus, jon bon jovi has aged very well considering the whole rockstar lifestyle. lou mentioned that he didn't have nearly as many wrinkle's as our friend ro's former coworker sun-min (or however she spells her name) who is asian and younger than him.

lisa and i stayed until they played living on a prayer which was the last song before the encore. luckily, rich got a copy of the play list from last week's show so we knew what he was going to play during the encore and it didn't interest us enough to stay and fight the crowds and traffic getting home. we both had a fantastic time. thanks rich!

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ not sure that i'd see them again but glad i went...

non-stop saturday adventures

during the last few saturdays, i've been going to step class with my friend claudia. and then, we'd have a light breakfast afterwards. we've been friends since 1993 or something ridiculous like that. when she was at ucsb and i was at ucsd, we'd visit one another about once a month. we hadn't seen one another for a year or two and finally reconnected.

last saturday, it started off as usual. with step class in the morning, only, claudia couldn't make it so i went alone. and then home to shower and off to the deanza flea market with my sister for some fresh kettle corn. mmm. we've graduated to the large bag now as well as eating like half the bag while we are there. the deanza flea market is the first saturday of every month. and we try to go every month to get our kettle corn fix satiated. we've also started washing our cars after the flea market. she is big on doing it yourself especially with a new/nice car. we didn't have the energy to clean the interior so we only did the exterior. despite that, gigi is now a happy clean car.

my best friend kelly was up from LA for her birthday. her parents threw a dinner party at their house saturday evening. after the car washes, my sister and i had a light lunch (we hadn't eaten anything except kettle corn) and i had to run to the mall to get kelly a gift. on the way home, i also picked up a burnt almond cake from peter's bakery for her. she's the one who introduced me to peter's.

i went home, got ready, wrapped her gift up and left. dinner was fantastic. we stuffed ourselved silly. for dessert, not only was there burnt almond cake, there was guave cake (from aki's) and this banana-pineapple dessert as well as fresh manju, fudge brownies and mango-coconut squares. omg. can you imagine?

i wanted to take her to the new xanh restaurant for a quick birthday drink since she hadn't been there yet. and since they have a full bar now, they are opened late. on saturday, they had a dj and were opened until 2am. almost like a club. we get there and like a club, there was a bouncer type guy at the front checking ids. the night was titled la femme bleue. i'd never gone on a saturday night and was happy to see that it was really hopping. crowds came and went but for the most part, it was packed. it was nice because the lounge area had plenty of seating and good lighting. i was pleasantly surprised.

as we were there celebrating kelly's birthday, i ran into all these people i knew. and they all got shots for kelly. she's a mom and rarely ever goes out anymore. it was fun just being the two of us. like old times. hahah. and randomly, we ran into people who went to high school with us. and it turns out, that some of these guys went to the same elementary school as me! small small world. then, there was the random guy who tried to play all mysterious and turned out to be totally annoying. he sat down next to us from the other side of the room. didn't even introduce himself. even after we asked him. it would have been one thing if he was really hot. but he wasn't. and guys can't really be mysterious and average-looking. he was young too. he had bad skin and bad b-o which is never hot. quite the opposite. blegh. what is wrong with boys? ok, i'm done griping.

it's hard to believe all this happened in one day. but it was fabulous hanging out with lisa and kelly, albeit separately. incidentally, i slept in all day on sunday. i guess i was low on my sleep levels.

parlez-vous français?

this spring, i am trying to learn french again. i took french in high school and a little in college but didn't really get to use it when i was in paris in the summer of 1998. ugh, that was nearly 10 years ago. i'm due for another trip...

anyway, i hope this doesn't end up being as sad an attempt as my spanish class was last year. at least this time, rather than trying to pronounce everything in spanish in french, i'll try to pronounce everything in french, in french! confusing, i know.

tweaked

after comments from my sister and my friend lou about the picture below, i decided to do some photoshopping (heehee, another form of shopping i enjoy!). they don't look like chocolate cupcakes anymore, right?

mostly martha

mostly martha made in 2001 is the original version of no reservations starring catherine zeta-jones & aaron eckhart. while i absolutely adore aaron eckhart, i don't think i will watch no reservations after having seen mostly martha.

i love foreign films. if there's a foreign version of an american film, i'd rather see the foreign version. i don't see a whole lot of german films but after watching this one, i think i'd like to see more. i thought this movie was really charming. it was happy, sad, romantic and funny. all good emotions to feel in a movie. if you want to see no reservations, you should skip it and see this one.

stella im hultberg

last friday, i went to an art opening of mrs. im hultberg's first solo show in san francisco with my cousin nina (thanks nina!). i really do enjoy art in most forms. especially music, as you can tell.

i've been admiring mrs. im hultberg's work for some time now. i discovered her work on the talented karen cheng's blog from perth, australia. she was in sf last year for a show but these shows seem to open on a friday which is when family dinners are at my parents' house.

back to the artwork... she depicts who i assume are asian women, in a very ethereal way. most of her work has a sense of flowing in them. on the one hand, the women are usually very ideal looking with the pouty lips, large eyes, high cheek bones, petite body frames and beautiful long black hair. as you can see, hair is one of the flowing elements. i purchased "lovely day" on the left. it's a gorgeous piece of work. she also paints on tea stained paper. brilliant, really.

this one on the right is one of my favorites. the expression is a combination of relief and/or anguish. and very sultry. the background colors of the purple and pink blend beautifully with the mauve in the leaves in the subject's flowing hair. it's sooo dreamy. which is probably why it sold out many shows ago. it was this piece that made me want to go see her work in person.

april/may shoes

okay, okay. they are not brown. and yea, yea, i know i'm not supposed to buy shoes until april, er, i mean june. clearly, every other month isn't working for me. so i'm changing it to every 6 weeks. which means, i get a new pair in may/june. they are sexy, oui ou non?

adding baking to the mix

most of my readers know (all 5 of you) that i do some baking from time to time. actually, i bake once a week. anyway, my sister suggested that i start taking pictures of the baked goods and post them. so, these delightful strawberry cupcakes (thanks to kelly for the recipe!) are the first to display. they are a really pretty pink color. not sure that my camera phone does it justice. click on the image for a closer look. what do you think? do they look good?

i ♥ ♥ jens lekman pt.2

venue: bottom of the hill (sold out!)
artist: jens lekman (soloact) & a horrendous opening act
who: ro
when: 23 mar 2008 (easter sunday)

yep, ro & i saw jens lekman two nights in a row. the two nights were different. the bimbo's show was bigger with a full band. and last night's show was him, his guitar and tammy from the band. oh yeah, the easter bunny came to last night's show too.

the opening act was called something-claro (with a rolling rrrrr). as soon as he started singing, he lost me. i was answering work emails (thank goodness for my phone). it was the longest set ever. and one of the worst openings i'd had to endure in a long time. his songs were repetitive. and the worst part was that he couldn't shut the fuck up inbetween his songs. ugh. if he didn't talk between his songs, it would have felt like one long boring song. thinking about that guy gives me a headache.

during the opening act, EVERYONE was talking and no one was listening. when jens lekman came on, it was completely silent. you could hear the bar serving drinks. and again, he was better than perfect. the sound there is pretty awesome too. the only negative thing for me, personally, is that i couldn't really see. but that's sort of the case at most venues. especially the small venues. that is, if i'm not sitting at the bar or something. the bottom of the hill is a much smaller venue compared to bimbo's. the song list was slightly different. and songs were played differently as well. he transition into songs without a beat and seamlessly. he can really bellow out those notes. he's amazing. it's hard to believe he wrote black cab when he was 18.

during the encore, he sang se a vida é (that's the way life is) by the pet shop boys from their bilingual album. jens's version was slow and beautiful. this show was really very special.
after the show, he had this sort of meet & greet thing. after the last two shows at bimbo's, he says he will come down and dance with the audience. we never stayed for those. and i rarely make the effor to meet musicians unless they are at their merch table. jens was different. i actually wanted to wait around with the rest of the crowd to meet him and get a picture. we waited a bit and followed the crowd to the smoking area outside. he was singing with his guitar. after which, i squeezed my way to the front to get a closer look and the chance to tell him how much i ♥'d him. he is so much cuter up close. he's tall, skinny, young and cute. and has the coolest white shoes. he's also as funny and down to earth in person as he is on stage. i was so nervous and as a result, was a total retard. i kinda froze. told him how much i enjoyed all three shows and glad he did this afterwards because i could barely see him from where i was. and then, he hugged me! i don't think i've ever hugged a rock star before. well, maybe we hugged the caesars but that was after hanging out with them all night long. anyway, i think i'm still feeling shiny & happy from last night.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
i would have seen him a third night if he played another show in the area, alas, he is in portland tonight...

i ♥ jens lekman pt.1

venue: bimbo's (sold out!)
artist: jens lekman & the honeydrips
who: ro
when: 22 mar 2008 (saturday)

before the jens lekman show, we went up early to get some dinner. lou (thanks lou!) recommended rogue to us. he said to get the kobe burger and a hazelnut beer. he's been into hazelnut flavors lately. i personally love hazelnut anything so i'm not complaining. ro & i order the exact same thing. a kobe burger with their white cheddar and a hazelnut beer. the burger was soooo good. and for some reason, ro got twice as much french fries as i did. the hazelnet beer was also quite delicious. we could only eat half of it but wow, it definitely hit the spot. we were happily satisfied and ready for jens.

we got there around 9:15ish. which just so happened to be the end of the honeydrips set. i think we were there for 1 and a half songs. we concluded that he played for like 20 minutes. weird.

the show was sold out. his show back in november was pretty packed and surprisingly not sold out. this show was everything i remembered except better because i knew most of the songs. he also sang a new one about google maps. and the nina story, i don't think i'll ever get sick of it. here is a line from the chorus: nina i can be your boyfriend, so you can stay with your girlfriend. and if you want to hear the story, you'll have to see him live. it's totally worth it. he's also very interactive with the crowd. for example, he asked people to whistle because he was missing a sax player on one song. and there was the pocket full of money song where the crowd sings part of the chorus. it was so much fun.

i think he sounds better live than his recordings which is already flawless. he sings every word perfectly that it makes you listen to his lyrics more carefully. he's totally brilliant. it's so hard to describe how good and wonderful he is. just thinking about him and his music makes me all warm & fuzzy inside...

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

i am legend

last night, i watched i am legend starring will smith. the only thing i knew about it was that it was based in new york and there was some sort of zombie invasion. when i was in new york with bernie, we saw cloverfield also based in new york. after the movie, bernie's roommate pascal said he was sick of seeing movies where new york is the target of vast destruction. i guess they both had seen i am legend. and i remember thinking, everything bad happens here. or los angeles. what's interesting is that the movie is based on richard matheson's 1954 novel originally set in LA, not NY.

anyway, i'm probably the biggest chicken shit when it comes to horror films. and this movie was no different from the others. as a matter of fact, it was one of the scariest films i've seen in a while. needless to say, it scared me shitless. there were parts i couldn't bare to watch. i actually had to talk through the scary parts to keep myself distracted. and i stayed up reading to keep my mind off of the movie.

i know, that's why i call myself a chicken shit.