Happy Mother's Day!

Here are the happy mothers on Mother's Day!! It also happens to be the birthday of Jellybean's Mother (shown here in red). Happy Birthday!!!

There were eight of us that schlepped from Forest Hills after church to Woodside. Two subway lines, four elevator rides, and several blocks later, we arrived at Sripraphai starving. Our hunger was satiated with their awesome papaya salad with mussels, squid, and shrimp and equally delicious duck salad (my preference is the papaya salad though). On the right, you see me scrapping up the last remaining bits of the papaya salad. To die for!!! I love their tilapia fillet dish with curry and eggplant and this time I ordered it mild. Last time, I thought I could handle the spice so I ordered "medium"...I thought my mouth was going to implode from all the heat. I was with J the first time, and our eyes were full of water. Poor thing, he had indigestion for two days!!!

Once the food arrived, the eight of us fell silent. The food was praised by all (thank goodness, since I picked the restaurant). After the meal, you see on the left that my mom and I are conniving behind the birthday girl. Several minute later, out came a banana cake with a candle on it. I think Jellybean's Mother was surprised.

Two hours later, the group emerged from Sripraphai and headed back to the 7 train, 61st Street Station. The station is located directly underneath the airline landing pattern for LaGuardia Airport, so here I am with mom, as we enjoy watching the planes fly low above us. Thankfully, we look nothing like Mr. Roarke and Tattoo as we exclaimed, "Da plane! Da plane!"

We Froze our Butts Off for Depeche Mode

We're city folk. Therefore, we don't own cars. So The Quirky One and I took the LIRR to see Depeche Mode at Jones Beach. We thought we would be 2 out of oh say, 10 people needing a shuttle bus to the theater...when in fact there must've been a few hundred of us. I couldn't believe it.

Fooled by the warm weather of the afternoon, The Quirky One wore summer clothes: flip flops, capri pants, and a tank top with a light zip up sweater to the concert. I was dressed a little more warmly but all thanks to luck really. When we got to the outdoor theater (our first time to attend), the wind picked up as we realized how much colder it can get right by the bay! Needless to say, we froze our buns off. I was afraid our toes would fall off too. So, it was even more reason to buy Depeche Mode paraphanelia. We ended up wearing our newly bought purchases to provide extra layering against the wind.

I've waited 17 years to see these guys. This is a shout out to my JHS peeps!!!! We wore black, teased our bangs high, and listened to Depeche Mode's Violator on our Sony Walkmans, and thought they were just simply amazing with the hits that came off that album: "Enjoy the Silence," "Policy of Truth," and "Personal Jesus." Here's to you ladies! Boy how we've grown: three of us are getting married this year, two are engaged, and three (including yours truly) are still standing.

Thanks goodness I always manage to sneak in my camera. I don't know why I bother though. I never have terribly good seats but the camera has a video function. So sometimes I take a video...but then I'm always singing so I just end up hearing my voice on the video. That's definitely not a good thing to post. Ha!!! I'm a little disappointed that they didn't play Policy of Truth tonight. It's my favorite song, I have to admit!!! It elicits such strong JHS memories!!!

The Quirky One and I were on the lookout for lots of Asians at the concert considering our group of friends who listened to DM were all Asian. We were surprised to find very few Asian folks at the concert and even more surprised to hear a lot of foreign languages being spoken. There were A LOT of Europeans there. It's the first concert I've been to where English was not the predominant language (As a side note, a Pearl Jam concert was the concert where most of the voices I heard singing belonged to men.)

On a final note, which serves as a funny story to boot: when The Quirky One heard that I was a DM fan and how long I've been listening to them, she was startled at how far back they go. She's only three years younger than me but got into them in college. I told her that I was listening to them in the late 80s! A few days later, in the excitement of perhaps finding another DM fan, she asked if she could borrow my DM disc collection so she could burn copies. I had to break it to her that I listened to them on cassettes and never got around to buying CDs!!! Funny, huh?

I'm Frrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Depeche Mode tonight at Jones Beach Theater.

More to come about my crazy week!

Week of Hell: Finals

So my body feels like crap owing to all this crazy stress. I know what it feels like to be at 100% vitality (a unit of measurement used by The Accupuncturist) where it feels like I have tons of energy, my body is humming, and I'm whistling out loud on the street cuz I just feel so damn good. When I feel this good, it's like I'm flying (no seriously, sans drugs just needles)!! Right now, I feel aches in my muscles and my joints are creaking like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, and my injured shoulder is back thanks to my lifting my heavy laundry bag and carrying it like Santa Claus two blocks to my local laundrymat a week ago (you will not believe how much I would give for a washer and dryer in my apartment right now). I could kill myself for being so careless!! I should've known better.

Tried to push up my appointment with The Accupuncturist and I can't get one!!! I like seeing him at the end of the day cuz I don't feel rushed since there's no one after me. He's gotten so popular...in part, thanks to my recommending him to so many people. Folks have seen how good I've been looking these past few months and have asked my secret. Silly me. I told them it was him. Seven people have now seen him, thanks to my referrals! Shit. So no good deed goes unpunished. I mean, I'm really happy for all of us taking charge of ourselves to be healthier people. But this sucks that he's getting popular!!!

Breathe JoJo. Breathe. Note to self: Must learn to share and get over your only-child mentality.

*sigh* Got two papers, both due on May 12. One on the balikbayan box and the other on Karl Marx and his labor theory of economics. Shite!

Ok, I can do this. I can get through this.

Acceptance, submission, surrender. All these attitudes are key to my well-being. This is my journey. I have to embrace it with love.

Remember the light at the end of this week's tunnel. Visualize 3 weeks in Costa Rica in July: surfing, volcanoes, ziplining through the cloud forest, the incredibly diversity of animals and plants, the beaches. Remind myself of how incredibly blessed I am to have the opportunity to study a discipline that really fascinates and excites me, that I have the intellectual capacity to critically analyze and cogently write about topics that interest me, that I have an amazing job that supports me, and that I ultimately have the physical and mental capacity to heal myself and get through this pain.

Perhaps I should re-phrase the title of this post to "Week of Acceptance, Submission, and Surrender".

Costa Rica Surfer Chick!

Costa Rica, baby! Here I come! I wanna be a surfer chick. I wanna be a surfer chick.

I'll be attending an all-girls surf camp through Third World Productions for a week so I can learn to stand on a board and ride a wave. Then, two weeks of traveling around the country. Yeah!!!

I will realize the dream in July!