Yee Haw. I’m in Texas. Again.

* Note * I’ll come back and edit this post with correct links in a bit.
But for right now, I’m amok and gotsta getsta writing outsta before I forgetsta*

As per the usual chaos that is SXSW, the last 72 hours have been a blur.

In quick rundown before I lose more brain cells, allow me to share the following.

Thursday:
Flight out of Oakland => DFW => Austin.
Picked up by Ms. Hacker and then off to pick up Little Ms. Hacker and then off to a Target store where I am thereby convinced by the two that I must purchase something referred to as the “Perfect Panty”.

Oh-Em-Ef-Gee
They are perfect panties.

Velvet Spade with Jackson & then meeting up with Buzz, Eris, and Jason at the Shakespeare pub.

Giggling & much smack talk was shared.

Friday.
Migas for Breakfast

Guns for the afternoon.
(Yes. I shot guns)

And then the mixer with long time old friends at 219 West and then followed by the awesomeness that is Break Bread With Brad. Many pitchers of beer were shared.

I had a full house in a game of poker and I lost.
My shoes.
And hoody.
And uh…
My pants.
(Perfect panties were luckily hidden by the length of my shirt)

Damn it. I had a full fricking house.

Note to self: don’t play strip poker outside at night in a public bar.

Doubleyoo-tee-eff was I thinking.

Gracious gentleman Jeremy allowed me to have my garments back. What a sport.
=D
Buzznet shindig.
Yeeehaw.

Saturday:
This morning:
Briefly meet fellow speakers for my panel.
Then off to my panel.Cowbell in tow.
Somehow manage to maintain modicum of dignity while using the words Masturbation. Exfoliate. Asian Fetish. Blowjob. While on my panel. Not necessarily in that order nor in that context directly. Still as all silliness, I hope it was amusing.

Mid afternoon:
Mini-Nap. Lunching on fresh oranges & carrots and placing sliced zucchini that’s been chilled on my eyelids. Me likesy.

This evening.
Oh-em-gee.

More to come.

Donate Now for the Asian American Theater Company

Current Location: Casa Bro, Brooklyn NYC
Current Mood: Relaxed, Exhausted, Sated, Silly

Consumption Update:
Battle Angel Alita anime volumes #8 & rebirth #1. Date Movie. New York Style Pizza. .

Weekend Update:
My Thursday evening was pretty crazy in terms of the fact that it involves the following: Eating dinner with Annie, heading into Manhatten to the Merc bar, going to a restaurant opening, stealing two cards from the deck of a cute boy named Jack playing magic tricks with a deck of cards, talking scotch with some fella named John and telling some fellow named Mark that he really needed a haircut. Then off to a club where I lost my amigos Rara and some other folks. I of course wound up losing my friends and picking up a conversation with a gorgeous french 22 year old party promoter and then hanging with a team of fellow’s on their way to the bahamas the next morning. Those gentlemen wound up taking me out for breakfast and who am I to say no to a tasty english muffin?

I got home about a half hour after my brother left for work that morning. Yeah. Fairly intense.

Friday: Sleeping in and hanging with Heath. Sadly sadly sadly, our attempts at making it to the Point Break Live show were again thwarted by being sold out. Shakes fist at the skies!

Saturday: Lunch and delicious shopping with the fantabulous Ms. Uberchick, and lengthy discussions over lipstick and boots then followed up with going to see a ridiculous show with Fran & Pei. The show is presented by Slant and titled Big D*cks, Asian Men. While I *was* expecting the night to be funny, I was not expecting as many musical numbers. This is not a bad thing. It was overall totally hilarious! And as if that didn’t make my Saturday complete, I was able to meet up with Mr. Fabulous aka. Brian Grosz.. Brian’s band The Dogs of Winter were playing at this funktastic little gallery in the basement of a bar on Bowery. The show fricking rawked and I can only refer to the sound of Brian performing as… a vicious monster made of dirty ice that you throw up on stage and give an electric guitar. It’s hotness. And then off to crash with a friend over giggles and cheer.

Sunday: Spending quality time with two of my favorite ladies and two more favorite little ladies. Rara and I became good friends while being bridesmaids our mutual friend SJ. Rara and I made a point of running upstate to go see ms SJ and her two little daughters Anna and Calla. Total cuteness overload and girly catchup talk over green tea latte’s (they taste like green tea icecream but warm and slightly less sweet). Any need for sweetness was satisfied by seeing the two little girls frolic and play.

And now?
Relaxed and chilled on my brother’s couch before I head back to Michigan for a day tomorrow and then back to SF by mid week.

I sometimes wonder if it’s a little unfair that I should feel so much joy in such a compressed amount of time. Maybe it’s karma making up for what I had to go through earlier in my life. Who am I to question?

I know that’s more of a synopsis than an analysis or thoughtful digestion of what my life and conversations have been over the last few days but I’m pooped.
When I get some downtime to go through things I’ll have many more things to share. Hold tight.

Donate Now for the Asian American Theater Company

Location: Casa Huff & Cooper
Chicago,IL

I’m leaving Chicago tomorrow morning.
Tragic. But I’ve had just way much more fun than a single person should have in the course of a week.

Most recent highlights include:
Couching it with the cats. I think they finally admit that they like me.
Nearly finishing yet another book (An Unquiet Mind), eating even more Chicago style stuffed pizza (shaped like a heart) and hanging with the hilariously warm and cheerful Chihookah team (Steve, Brad & Boston) while knocking back some Goose Island brews and Brad’s own pale ale! Check out the podcast to hear how silly I make a fool of myself when buzzed and smoking a hookah for the first time!

Additionally, today I spent the whole afternoon with my friend ES who took me all over Chicago to make sure that I got the whole taste of the city down. This included eating a bit of Chicago Hotdog (neon relish w/ mustard. no ketchup) some Italian Beef (sandwhich dipped and wet with juice and spicy with peppers) from Big Al’s not to mention finishing off the evening at Fat Willy’s for BBQ.

Years and years ago (nearly a dozen) was the last time I was in chicago. I was interning at the time for a fledgling (and now defunct) Korean American publication (also in English) titled We-Woori. Tonight I was able to catch up and chat with that magazine’s founder, Mr. Jo and his lovely wife Mrs. Jo. Were it not for Mr. Jo, I never would have built up more confidence as a writer and would likely not be as comfortable with writing as I am today. I owe Mr. Jo a lot for having confidence and comfort in giving me a chance that summer.

My stomach is so full.
And my heart is totally overflowing. It’ll be sad leaving Chicago again but I promise it won’t be a dozen years before I’m back.

Location:
Casa Huff & Cooper, Chicago IL

Current joy:
Isabella is purring next to my lap. Still ignoring me. But purring, And nearbye. And Tiberius is lookign at me with his pretty eyes as if I’ve done somethign mischievous and if he stares at me long enough, I’ll confess.

I must say that waking up to sunlight and reflexology treatment by a cat is one of the nicer ways to wake up:

Recap on Friday night:
Things that I forgot I did:
- Giggling so hard at Cinnamon’s snorting that I fell into the snow, and then tried to cover up for my dorkness by attempting a snow angel. In about 1/4″ of snow. Slick aren’t I?
- Kicking Andrew & Cinnamon
- Apologizing shortly afterwards
- Sitting on the bed and hug attacking them

Yup. That about sounds like me.

Satuday:
A slow start as I had both hangover and body soreness from excess walking. I mean, my knee pits hurt. Hurt! Who knew that knee pits could hurt?

Hung out with my friend Steve & muddled around town, got some chicago style stuffed pizza, through some book stores, stopped by quimby’s and then off to see Andrew perform at Subterranean for the Around the Coyote arts festival thingie. Eric Labrat was the host and it was a sporadic but varied performance night of self published writers. Yay indie DIY.

After that we were off to Grafton Pub to sip on scotch (slowly) and catch up with Phineas and Brenda. I’d read Phineas ages ago and Brenda I met at SXSW a few years back. I kissed her. I (almost always) remember people that I kiss.

Chillax, chillow, chillup.
Chicago.

Location:
Casa Huff & Cooper
Chicago,IL

There’s nothing quite like waking up slightly hung over and being slightly smug with oneself that one was able to manage to remember to charge one’s ipod and pluck out one’s contacts and wind up on a bed without having somehow managed to sprawl puddle-like on the floor, completely immobile, and heavy in body and soul from just too much gawddamn joy.

Morning folks!

Yesterday, left to my own devices I walked from Casa Huff & Cooper in the north end of town down to Lincoln Square where I rendezvoused with a long time friend/cousin via marriage at his workplace in ze Book Cellar. From there, learning that for whatever reason, my ATM card was deactivated when I tried to take some cash out to buy myself breakfast.

*calling the 1800#
Me: Hello, my atm card’s been deactivated. I wanna know why.
Bofa: Account # please…
Me: ***** – *****
Bofa: Mother’s maiden name please..
Me: ******
Bofa: And last four of your social security number
Me: ****
Bofa: Ok…
Me:Um yeah… so can you re-activate my card?
Bofa: Oh…
Me: what? you deactivated my atm card last time when i did my roadtrip. apparently too many gas fill-ups during a short period of time laid up a suspicious flag
Bofa: well actually, your atm information has been compromised
Me: say what?
Bofa: yes. it’s been compromised. we’ve sent you a letter last week with a new atm card that should have been put int he mail yesterday.
Me: But …. I’m traveling out of town for a month. I’m not going to get that.
Bofa: I’m sorry.
Me: So you can’t reactivate my card?
Bofa: No. It’s been compromised due to skimming.
Me: Say what?
Bofa: Your information has been compromised.
Me: So.. the only way I can get money is how?
Bofa: Well if you make it down to one of our branch locations
Me: Um… lady, I’m in fricking chicago. I have no cash on me. My atm isn’t kicking in, and I can’t even go get busfair or a cab. wtf. (to note. I actually did say doubleyoooteeeff)
Bofa: I can try & help yo locate our nearest branch
Me: Mother.Of.Gawd.
Bofa: Where are you right now?
Me: I’m at a fricking starbucks becase I have a gift card for them.
Bofa: You’ll have to be a little more specific.

****
After being transferred from the 1800 number to a local branch in chicago who could provide more specific directions (for which i’m actually pretty impressed that they did that) i wound up walking another 2 miles through cold chicago to belmont & racine where I finally deposited a check and got an ungodly amount of money out. Ok, it’s not that ungodly but yo, i just don’t carry around that much cash with me ever. I mean, do I look like I’m turning tricks?

Anyway:
Yes: Lengthy walk through the north side of chicago and around and back,

Followed up by hanging out at some huttenbar/huttenbrau or whatnot with my cousin and drinking spiced wine.

Then! Omg (ohemgee)
I was taken out to delightful dinner by my long lost friend ES who I haven’t seen in literally 10+ years. We were involved in an intercollegiate organization way back in the day so it was nice to catch up and see what’s up with MAASU folks at the end of the day. Cuban food at Cafe 28 is fantastically Dope! (Mojitos too!)

And then!
Off to the HopLeaf. Where I drank a few crazy beers called Kwak. I think I ordered it because I thought it was sorta Asian. Yes, I’m that weird. I’m all full of AzN PrIdE sometimes. Ordering it, you must sound like a cross between madeline khan & a duck.

Darlink. I vood like ze kvak. Yes. Ze Kvak.

It comes in a peculiar glass with a round bottom that does not stand up on the table well without your hand to hold it or a mini wooden stand with a concave divit in it to hold it. So either you have be sober enough to hold it while drinking, or it must rest carefully in it’s wooden stand. Regardless, confusing azn german duck beer. Good shit.

Gigglypuffs.
And.. um…
Yeah.

That was the end of my first full crazy marvelous day in Chicago.

So here I am, slightly hung over, in the pull out bed, drinking water, and blogging. My legs are a bit sore from yesterday’s walk, my head’s a little fuzzy around the edges, but my spirits are on redbull or something cuz them mother fuckers got wings.

Location: Casa Arguello
San Francisco, CA

Miles Logged: 17433
Hours Driven: 29.5 (includes meals/nap&gassup times)
Hours listening to the Comedy radio stations on XM: 27+ (I *heart* Mitch Fatel)
States Driven Through: Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas (that damn state just goes on for fricking *ever*) New Mexico, Arizona, California
Weather Conditions: Dark=>Overcast=>Sunny=>Desert Sunny Dry=>Snow. Yes, Snow=>Chilly SFish weather minus the drizzel.
Memories: Too many to count
Rolls of film (yes film) to be developed: 5
SMS photos sent: 28
Phone calls made: 8
Number of times I referenced the exact same set of directions off of TellMe: 31

Kisses Blown to the wind: Innumerable

Prayers said: 252 Hail Mary’s within a 20 minute period of time when my car was running on fumes as I pleaded with God to make the next gas stop immediately migrate to be at the next available exit.

Bunnies inadvertantly run over: 2. Maybe 3. I cannot be held responsible for involuntary bunnyslaughter if the bunnies felt a compulsive need to fling themselves in blood sacrifice before my caffiene charged might driven car.

Dogs passed by the side of the road.. on a Benjie’esque journey to go home: 2 (So cute. A tiny grey terrier peaking out along railroad tracks to peer in at the cars of people stopped at an intersection. Hope he makes his way home. The other poor hound that I spotted an hour later, looked like he had been abandoned and needed new friends)

Overall distress on my car:
– More than effectively doubling the # of miles on my car since I left SF on January 6th.
– Totally needs a carwash, inside & out
– Some errant dallas neighbor scratches on the car that should be able to get bugged out
– The moonroof got more excercise this weekend thatn ever and is behaving a little snippety when driving & trying to close it.

Sweet Dreams: I think 1 solid very deep dream of pillows, besos, hugs, and giggles.

I am renewed.

Fricking exhausted.

But definitely renewed.