| I was stuck in traffic this morning. |
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Monday, July 11th, 2005
@ 6:34pm |
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When I'm stuck in traffic, I can't stand getting stuck underneath a freeway underpass. If I can anticipate it, I pause before the underpass and let the car ahead of me move through before I swiftly scoot my car under and out.
But there are times when I'm caught unawares. In the dark shadow of the bridge, I start having morbid daydreams of being smashed Nimitz style in an earthquake; that the concrete comes tumbling down, squishing me in my car.
As I sit there waiting for traffic to move, I scan the trees for any sign of an earthquake. The shocks would absorb any initial trembling, so I rely on my eyes for clues. Are the trees swaying? Are the leaves quivering?
~~~~~~~~~
Another weird habit I have? I hold my breath in car tunnels. Everytime I leave Little Tokyo downtown, I'm taking the 2nd street tunnel northbound underneath Bunker Hill.
Inhale! hold it, hold it, hold it.... Phew! |
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| Bye bye baby, bye bye... |
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Saturday, July 9th, 2005
@ 7:55pm |
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She'd stop chirping after I fed her.
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As much as I wanted to keep her, last night I gave the little baby hummingbird up to a wildlife rehabilitator whose home is an official hummingbird sanctuary. According to the woman at the sanctuary, my baby hummingbird was an Allen's Hummingbird about a week shy of learning how to fly.
At best the little bird could fly about a foot high and about 3 feet away. Sometimes she would cling to my fingers and just flutter her soft wings very rapidly - it tickled so much!
I'm confident that the little bird is going to do well and thrive. She was healthy and uninjured, and now she's in the hands of a professional. The wildlife rehabilitator had up to 60 hummingbirds in her care. Walking in her front door, you just see cages and cages of hummingbirds. I stood next to one of the little cages while a hummingbird hovered. I paused to listen to the hummmmmmmm of it's wings.
This is actually the second hummingbird I've found. The first one was in a dazed torpor when I found it last year on the sidewalk. I knew that it was a male because of it's bright, iridescent colorings. The male gender of birds are usually more elaborately decorated in order to attract females. All I had to do was hold him for a little while to let him rest. I thought maybe he had accidentally run into the large glass window nearby. After a few minutes cupped in my hands, he regained his composure and flew away.
It really is amazing how tiny, light, and cute hummingbirds are. They're so weightless in your hands. You wouldn't even know there was something there if it weren't for the rapid beating of their hearts pulsing against your palm.
I already miss the little one, hummingbirds are too unbearably cute! I had planted Mexican sage in my garden to attract them, and it pleased me to no end to have them buzz by as I pulled weeds.
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Taking a nap. |
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| She's so cute! |
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Friday, July 8th, 2005
@ 12:55pm |
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I found a baby hummingbird when I was taking a walk this morning. I looked high and low for a nest and couldn't find it. I just couldn't leave her on the sidewalk. She was smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, basically she was cat food. I'm going to atttempt to raise it. I once hand raised baby love birds. But what to feed it? Sugar water? Maybe I could water down baby lovebird food and use transfer pipettes? I really hope she makes it.
I've got her in a little box and have snuck her into my work. But damn she keeps chirping! I've got the radio on, hoping it will mask her chirps.
Well, she seems to be close to flying soon though and she has all her feathers. If anything, I'll help her rest and see if there's anything for hummingbirds to eat at the pet store. |
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| I geeked out... |
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Wednesday, July 6th, 2005
@ 4:18pm |
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Left to right: Mugen(Samurai Champloo), Nicholas D. Wolfwood(Trigun), Sakura and Naruto(Naruto), Lulu(Final Fantasy X)
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I totally geeked out this past Fourth of July weekend, by the way.
Hung out in Orange County at Daespring's house and played Halo 2. It had been a while since I'd played versus another player in a first-person-shooter, and boy did I suck! (Well, it could've been the beers.) I thought the Socom skills would translate, but I was wrong. Like a newbie I blew myself up with my own grenades and fell off cliff edges to my death.
The next day, Gosh and I went to the Anime Expo in Anaheim. I got some pictures of cosplay. Some of my favorite anime/video game characters are pictured above. I couldn't figure out where these kids came from:
They're Japanese school kids armed with various weapons. I thought they might have come from Battle Royale, but they're not wearing the famous exploding-decapitating-neck collars.
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Video Games Live is playing at the Hollywood Bowl tonight...
A live concert event featuring full orchestra and choir performing music from the greatest video games, plus laser and light sequences, video clips, live characters, and a special segment dedicated to retro arcade classics! |
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| Things you don't see everyday... |
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Tuesday, July 5th, 2005
@ 7:29pm |
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This weekend I saw a cat being walked on a leash for the first time. It was a sleek and beautiful abyssinian cat, who had an owner with matching tan/fawn hair color. I can't help but look at pets and see what similarities I can pick up in their owner.
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I saw my food and it saw me. Gosh was inspired by an Iron Chef episode where the chef cut out and grilled the cheeks and eyeballs of a large tuna, so he ordered a tuna head for the restaurant this past weekend. The eyeballs were as big as golf balls! Once you get over the fact that you're eating eyeballs and cheeks, it tastes pretty good - very flavorful, reminded me of steak a bit. |
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| Downtown Last Night |
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Saturday, July 2nd, 2005
@ 3:37pm |
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left to right: Downtown, Bonaventure Hotel, view from BonaVista rotating bar
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Ozomatli had a free show downtown as part of the Grand Performances series at California Plaza atop Bunker Hill. The stage is set up outdoors behind a water court, between tall skyscrapers, and nothing but the stars above. Not only are Grand Performances shows free, but they let you bring in food and alcoholic beverages. So naturally ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) monkeymisschief and I packed up a couple bottles of wine and hors d'ouvres to enjoy.
Ozomatli brought in a huge crowd last night. We were camped at the very top of the amphitheatre and long ago gave up any hope of actually seeing the band over everybody's heads. Monkeymisschief and I spent the whole show sitting on the ground as picknickers. We nibbled on food and sipped the wine, bobbing our heads to Ozomatli singing, "Como ves, como ves, la historia no es como crees..."
We were the exception to the rule however. An Ozomatli crowd is always on it's feet, dancing. But somehow we got so engrossed in deep conversation, we became oblivious to the crowd around us. Piaopiaoniao had scored seats down by the stage, and according to her, people started dancing in the water fountains. At one point, the whole audience was up and stomping so much the upstairs amphitheatre floor started to sway!
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After the show we strolled through downtown to the Bonaventure Hotel for the BonaVista Bar. Due to it's tall cylindrical glass towers, the hotel building is easily recognizable and has been featured in many movies.
I like going there just so I can ride the glass elevators to the top floor. They shoot out of the lobby and rise along the exterior of the building. It's a swift ride to the top that always leaves me with a giddy reeling sensation.
The circular bar gives you a spectacular 360 degree view of the city. The floor rotates almost imperceptibly slow. It's so fun to look out the glass walls every now and then, only to be surprised that the view has already changed! We ended the night overlooking the city, sharing a slice of new york cheesecake and coffee - mine was spiked with whiskey and creme, hehe. :P |
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| Caught Red-Handed |
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Wednesday, June 29th, 2005
@ 6:36pm |
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Yesterday morning went climbing with the sis-in-law, piaopiaoniao, at Rockreation in West LA. Hit a couple of bouldering problems and then spent the rest of the morning on the rope. I haven't climbed anything since last year. I've taken such a long break, I can't believe I actually no longer have my calluses! My hands are still red and raw. My arms and shoulders ache too. But it feels so good. No pain, no gain. |
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| Please keep all hands and arms inside the tram. |
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Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
@ 3:17pm |
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This weekend nikkisreview (our designated driver and guide) took us on a grand tour of a few bars (some new) in the San Fernando Valley. mightydays, Vin, monkeymisschief, Gosh, and I adhered to a couple of rules. Firstly, only one drink per bar. Otherwise, we'd never get out of there! Secondly, each drink had to be a different one each time.
clockwise from the upper left: Lucky Tiki Bar, No Bar, Match Bar, Fox & Hound ( They had pretty lamps in the bars, so I took pictures of them. ^^; )
In one night we hit 5 bars, which isn't bad considering we covered ground from Mission Hills, to North Hollywood, to Studo City. In one night I had a peach vodka tonic, mandarin vodka tonic, an Irish Car Bomb, and um.... I can't seem to remember the rest!
It could've been the Irish Car Bomb's fault - it's a glass of Guiness that's half full into which you drop a shot glass full of Irish potato whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream. The proper way to drink this is in one quick gulp; with the Guiness hitting your palate first, followed by the whiskey, and with the cream bringing up the rear to reward you with it's sweetness. Remarkably, this concoction tastes somewhat like German chocolate cake.
Lucky Tiki, a tiki themed bar (doh!), was really tiny. Their bathroom was as small as an Andy Gump. In any case, it's got the trappings: thatched or bamboo decorations, tiki statues, even a couple of inflated puffer fish doubling as lamps. It was a good place to get the night started.
No Bar (as in NoHo's North Hollywood) was a really comfy and happening spot. It was crowded and loud, but large enough for a group like ours to still find a comfortable seating area in a lounge next to a pool table room. The walls were covered in a textured wall paper with raised velvet. I preoccupied myself with rubbing the wall every now and then. What? I like to touch soft things, so sue me.
Match Bar had no sign or address visible on the outside. I managed to sneak in a picture before the bartender admonished us. No picture taking allowed at this establishment because they want to keep it on the 'DL'. *pauses to roll eyes* There's a pan-Asian theme to the place, with banana trees and snack bowls offering Japanese rice crackers and wasabi peas. I advise against reaching into public snack bowls, especially at bars. Guaranteed someone didn't wash their hands after taking a comfort room break. Snack food flavored with pee anyone? No thanks!
We made a pit stop at Oil Can Harry. The gals and I only managed to get in a bathroom break before the fellas pulled us out of there. The boys weren't feeling the topless men pirouetting to Dancing Queen. Sheesh, straight men and their homophobia! *pauses to roll eyes*
We finished the night at the Fox & Hound, a British pub. This is where I had the aforementioned Irish Car Bomb. Is it ironic to order such a drink at a British pub? *shrug* |
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| Touch Me |
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Monday, June 27th, 2005
@ 2:08pm |
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This weekend I went to the NewSpace art gallery for the Positive Contact opening. No goatse statue in this gallery, but there was a beautiful drawing of a couple embracing. One piece had me mesmerized; it was a replica of the very gallery room we were standing in, but empty and inverted.
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Walking side-by-side with my classmates in the Philippines, I had to get used to a frequent sense of touch. I had to get used to Dorothy's hand in the crook of my arm or Malou's fingers clasped around mine. Beyond the salutatory and farewell hugs, here in the US, we don't touch each other as much - a sort of culturally imposed sensory deprivation.
Most of my classmates are First-Generation Filipinos, so my women classmates happily returned to their old hand holding habits. "Don't worry we're not lesbians!", they protested. Frequent hand holding with friends isn't something I was accustomed to since I grew up in the US, but I was readily initiated. I thought there was a palpable sense of relief, in that they could fall into familiar gestures of female companionship. It's normal to see many women walking hand-in-hand in the streets and in the malls.
Once I remember reading a study where someone watched American and European teenagers hanging out in their peer groups, and counted how many times they touched each other. They found that the European teens touched each other at least 9 times more often. Which I guess is kind of sad for us here, this lack of social touch and contact comfort. We live in a nontactile society. Another worldwide study by psychologist Sidney Jourard found the rate of casual touch in couples to be 180 times per hour in Puerto Rico (the highest) and 2 times per hour in Florida (one of the lowest). I remember hearing about babies in a Romanian orphanage who were wasting away, and it wasn't due to the lack of nutrition, but the lack of touch.
It's easy to forget the power of touch, how comforting it can feel to strengthen our social bonds by simply leaning your head on your friend's shoulder or squeezing their hand. So reach out and touch someone! |
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| Home Again |
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Monday, June 20th, 2005
@ 3:43pm |
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Everybody at some point in blogging has to put up a picture of their pets, right? So here's my 'hamster' Takui. I also have a leopard gecko named Buzzz. I guess I'm not one for conventional pets necessarily. Through the years I've had a dog, cat, parakeets, a red tailed boa, and a couple of hand-raised love birds.
There had been a fugitive fighting rooster living on our property for a few weeks, but a friend has adopted him and he's now living comfortably as 'one of the family', as she describes it. They even give him access to a part of their house and he enjoys sleeping indoors.
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I'm home again, and I've enjoyed reconnecting with everyone I've missed and revisiting my hold haunts.
When I got back, I felt sort of a reverse cultural shock. I went to a club with my sister and her friends not two days after coming back. In one month I had gotten used to a monocultural world, where pretty much everywhere you look it's black hair. She took me to Saddle Ranch at Universal City Walk, and all of a sudden everyone was multicolored.... and tall! I don't remember everybody being so tall! I remember years ago, my little cousin, who was about 6 years old, was in the US for the first time. A friend of mine came over, and he couldn't stop unabasahedly staring at her. He'd never seen blonde hair like hers before.
Went to Miss Margot's graduation party weekend before last. While she and the Professor are always fun to be around, there were a big portion of people at the party whom I'd never met. I'd forgotten how uncomfortable it can be at big parties sometimes, when you're not familiar with everyone. I guess I'd gotten used to the same small intimate groups. I'd forgotten that disconcerting feeling, that feeling you get when introduced to new people; when you can feel them scanning you up and down, categorizing you in an instant. I felt dismembered.
Also saw Hayao Miyzaki's anime Howl's Moving Castle at the El Capitan in Hollywood. I highly recommend it. It's beautiful, it's funny, it's sweet. A particularly enthusiastic audience member kept clapping everytime a pretty pastoral scene would come on the screen.
I've managed to catch a few live shows too. Rolled with neighborly Chris to see his brother and vexvim's band Pussycow play their first Kiss or Kill. It was a hilarious and fun set to watch. Somehow Joe sucessfully delivers lines about being an asshole colossus and doing your sister in the arse or kicking her in the shins with such a huge charming smile.
Caught Amel Larrieux at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. I was reading The Mandarins at the coffee shop Anastasia's Asylum next door, waiting for monkeymisschief and banteringbam who had the tickets; when who should walk in lugging his drums but Miles from Ill Again. Small world, despite LA being a big city you never know when you're going to run into someone. So lucky me, I got to catch two live bands in one night! The girls and I only got to listen to Miles play a short jazz session, before we had to skip over next door to see Amel Larrieux. Amel's amazing. All I can say is that she left me with such a grateful feeling after her show. I was grateful for the music that made me move and feel moved, grateful for her gift of song and lyrics that touched me. |
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| Obligatory Pictures |
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Saturday, June 4th, 2005
@ 4:44pm |
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My posting from the Philippines isn't complete without jeepneys!
They're not only colorful in the daytime, at night the jeepneys and their cabs are lit up with colorful lights: blue, purple, yellow, red, green, blue, orange... It's like the streets of the Philippines are full of 'art cars'. They even have theme names or family names emblazoned on their fronts in addition to all the decorations: Yahweh, Gift of God, Las Vegas, Japan, Jonathan, Good Luck, Cecile, Texas...
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And of course a picture of halo halo from Max's.
I've been kind of overdosing on Filipino desserts lately. And I've been drinking buko juice (young coconut juice with shredded bits of coconut meat)practically everyday. Which is so bad! Since it's been raining so much here, the track has been flooded and I haven't been able to keep up with the regular jogging as much as I'd like to! I'm going to have to work it all off when I get back to LA. |
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| Be forewarned... |
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Thursday, June 2nd, 2005
@ 8:26pm |
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Be forewarned, if you ask for catsup here, it's made from bananas and not tomatoes:
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I smelled like blood today. The delivery room was very busy and I spent so much time in there I felt like the smell of birth permeated my clothes. It's a pretty messy affair; blood and fluids splash and squirt. Even after I changed out of my scrubs, I felt like it was on my skin. My bath never felt so good. Well, maybe I was just being self-conscious. I don't know.
I've come to the decision that when the time comes for me to give birth, I don't want any video or picture evidence of what happened to me 'down there'. But honestly the vagina right after delivery isn't very pretty, and I don't want that image to be burned in anyone's mind. Ok, so maybe I'm just being way too self-conscious. I don't know! |
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| I've been feeling like a spoiled brat lately... |
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Wednesday, June 1st, 2005
@ 5:09pm |
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We visited a depressed barangay today for community health. One family we visited packed their six members into a one-bedroom corrugated steel shanty home. And since we've been in the government hospitals, we've been doing a lot of our work with the indigent there too. It gets so sad, when so many of their illnesses are due to malnutrition or poor sanitation. Things that seem so easy to fix with food or simply with antibiotics. I can't help but feel so privileged, spoiled even with my life... bourgeois guilt.
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On a lighter note, if you think that I have to dress in an old-fashioned way as a nursing student, this is how the midwifery students were dressed in the provincial hospital:
Bonnets, pleated skirts, and smocks! |
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| Drag Show at a Comedy Club |
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Monday, May 30th, 2005
@ 2:06pm |
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Ended up drinking my good old Jack and Coke and catching a drag show in Santa Rosa last night. We went to the comedy bar but had no idea the show was coming on. It was a neat surprise.
I couldn't understand too much of the show, since I really don't understand Tagalog all that much. But I could get the physical comedy, the American cover songs they sang, and besides I do know the 'bad' words. There were the requisite phallic microphone jokes and bitch slappings that I could appreciate.
The two shortest guys could really sing, boy! The shorty with the long hair and blonde highlights on the far right could sing like Taylor Dayne. The other shorty with the pink dress and hair in a bun sang like Madonna or a girl from SWV. They seemed the most feminine.
The other two, the tallest ones, really played up their masculinity however. The one in blue had really HAIRY armpits. The big one in the foreground of the first picture dressed in pink, took the cake with the strangest juxtaposition ever: He had a costume change where he dressed all in black; a tight tank, tight daisy dukes, and black stilettos all under a very sheer black skirt. But what made it most surreal was that dressed thusly, he began to serenade us in Louis Armstrong's very deep gravelly voice with a rendition of "What a Wonderful World"! |
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| Stalls in the Mall |
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Saturday, May 28th, 2005
@ 6:36pm |
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A CHICHARON stand.
A BALUT stand.
You won't find these snack stalls in any mall in the US, that's for sure.
I'm really a fan of the chicharon stall though. Those salty snacks of fried pork intestine and skin, or fried chicken skin, are terrific coupled with beer or liquor. Get a bag full and grab a six pack and you're good to go.
This is what I got at the balut stall:
It's crispy fried day-old chick. I've got an adventurous palate. What can I say? I just couldn't resist. I only ate half of one of my chicks because I had just eaten lunch. But it tasted alright, kind of like eating a super fried chicken wing, but with more um, 'meat' to it?
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Can I complain about one thing? Please indulge me for just a sec. The Philippines is so WET! There was such heavy rain yesterday that I came home from Manila last night to find my dorm apartlet flooded. My room was a smelly wet mess. Luckily none of my belongings were ruined. The only things on the floor were my slippers and an empty back pack. I was already exhausted from the day in Manila and I had to spend a good portion of last night moving out to another dorm. *sigh* *rant over* |
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| Big Guns |
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Friday, May 27th, 2005
@ 10:00am |
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You get used to seeing security around here walking around with BIG guns. Gated communities, the university compound... all private property here is guarded with men and guns. I even go to the mall and the security guards have bullets for belts. The other night we went to see Star Wars at the movie theatre. It was a 3-screen cinema, and all three ticket takers were security guards who were packing pistols as they took my ticket.
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All week we've been commuting to Manila for an affiliation with a hospital for infectious diseases. It's been a pretty busy week. I've seen patients with typhoid fever, viral hepatitis, pneumonia... today is tuberculosis. I'll have to admit, I've been somewhat of a paranoid hypochondriac because of all the exposure I've been having. |
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| Florence Nightingale Fantasy |
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Monday, May 23rd, 2005
@ 9:02pm |
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As a nursing student, from head to toe, this is the uniform I have to wear here:
And when we're on duty, the full uniform includes the nifty white cap:
A friend of mine laughed and called it 1960's nursing style uniforms. What do you expect in a patriarchal Catholic society? The gender roles do seem to be more defined, definitely more traditional. I feel like an ultra femmed version of myself over here. I can feel the Filipina version of me over here chipping away at my American casual version at home.
In the US, I work tucked away in a research laboratory, so my daily wear not only has to be practical but it's pretty casual as well. I'm covered up by a lab coat all the time. If you caught me on a typical day, underneath the coat I'd be wearing cargo pants, a t-shirt, and comfy shoes. I'm used to wearing pants everyday, the girly wear is for special occasions.
Cut to the Philippines and now every single day I'm in a dress, everyday I wear stockings and a slip. My hair is pulled back in a severe bun. This new ultra femmed version of myself is complete with the female accoutrements of a lacy fan and flowery handkerchief. I even sway my hips more as I walk. Start carrying around a fan and handkerchief and see if you can't help but feel more like a lady too! |
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| At Hidden Valley Springs Yesterday... |
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Monday, May 23rd, 2005
@ 8:36pm |
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Pools at the resort.
Doesn't she look relaxed?
The natural spring water was so warm and nice.... aaaah. It was a well deserved rest yesterday. With breaks for lunch and merienda, I think the time spent soaking in the water totalled maybe 4 to 5 hours. I'd float in the pools while gazing at the jungle canopy above; or just sit under the water falls, letting the water beat down on my back. I was soooooo relaxed. |
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