B and I decided to take a trip to Washington, D.C. over the long President’s Day weekend. Check out the pictures:
One of these days, I may actually add more detail to the pictures.
I have this fascination with the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. All of the celebrities are either addicted to alcohol, drugs and/or some other thing. The “celebrities” on this show are the following:
* Jaimee Foxworth - She played Judy Winslow on “Family Matters.” I used to watch this show all the time. I sort of forgot about her since the show.
* Seth “Shifty” Binzer - Lead singer of the band Crazytown. I have only heard the song “Butterfly.”
* Ricco Rodriguez - Martial arts fighter. I’ve never heard of him.
* Daniel Baldwin - One of the Baldwin brothers. He seems the most put together of all of these celebrities. He was the only one who arrived at the rehab sober.
* Brigitte Nielson - Actress, model, presenter, and singer. I’ve never heard of her either. I think if she wasn’t addicted to so much junk, she would be a very beautiful woman. She’s become the mother figure of the group.
* Chyna (Joan Marie Laurer) - Former professional bodybuilder and wrestler. I don’t have much of an impression of her yet.
* Mary Carey - Porn star. She’s trying to get off drugs and get out of the adult industry. She’s pretty funny.
* Jeff Conaway - Best known for his role as Kenickie in the 1978 film version of “Grease.” He’s the worst off of all of them. After only one day at the rehab, he had to be taken to the ER for severe withdrawal symptoms.
Christmas at night
Originally uploaded by mikazuko.
One of my favorite Christmas gifts
Originally uploaded by mikazuko.
Quite awhile ago, Mr. Yam and Jonathan both tagged me for this meme. I’ve been slowly working on it every since. I finally finished. For your reading pleasure…
1. I have this mini obsession with the Eiffel Tower. I have several different representations of it: a metal one about two feet tall, a glass oil container, a little clip that holds paper upright and probably more. I took four years of French in high school. My French teacher was one of my favorites. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to go to France. And of course, the Eiffel Tower is the quintessential symbol of Paris.
2. I’m always drawn to books and movies that have something to do with the WWII Japanese American internment camps. I always like visiting the Kinokuniya bookstore when I’m in Little Tokyo or San Francisco J-Town. They always have a section on Japanese American books. I wish I could buy them all!
3. I love forensics shows, especially Cold Case, CSI, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, etc. I’m not sure why I like these shows, but they somehow fascinate me.
4. My favorite store to shop at is Eddie Bauer. I worked there for about 2 years and the majority of my wardrobe is Eddie Bauer stuff. I just wish the clothes weren’t so expensive. It was so much easier to buy clothes when I got a 30%-50% discount as an employee. Sometimes I’m tempted to work there part-time just to get the discount.
5. I have a love/hate relationship with shoe shopping. I wear a size 11 and don’t like high heels, i.e. 2+ inches. All summer long I looked through zappos.com, nordstrom.com and a couple other places for sandals and never found any that I liked. I’m not good at wearing high heeled shoes. I think my ankles are too weak or something. That and the balls of my feet are sensitive. The other problem I have with shoes is that my heels are kinda narrow. So I’ve taken to wearing mules. However, the mules that I wear everyday have worn out in less than a year and I’ve found that the foam lining doesn’t give my feet much support. I just need my own personal shoe maker. Cobbler, anyone?
6. I have visited the following states: California, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Missouri, Louisiana, Florida, Maryland and Washington D.C. I have visited the following countries: USA, France, England, Switzerland and Canada.
7. I am half-Japanese (dad) and half-Chinese (mom) American. But I identify more with the Japanese side. I believe it’s because the Japanese side is more American than the Chinese side. This is mostly because my dad’s family has been in the US for more generations than my mom’s family. I’m also closer to my dad’s family. I think this is partially why I enjoy volunteering for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). I could go on and on. Maybe I’ll blog about it in some other post.
Work burned all my brain cells today. I don’t have enough energy to come up some not-so-brilliant words for the two people who read this blog.
I wish I knew what my dream job is. Everyday, when I get home, B says, “how was your day?” I usually respond, “it was ok.” I wish I could say, “it was awesome!” but right now I’d be lying. I strongly envy anyone who can say that they love their job. My job is ok. I have great benefits and a nice physical working environment. It’s just the work itself. I could take it or leave it.
Maybe I should start pursuing more creative ventures. My current job keeps my left brain trucking along. I think my right brain is starting to atrophy. I need to starting doing things that keep the right brain in shape. Not quite sure what I want to do yet, but I’ll start looking into it.
One of my friends from high school, K, got married over the summer in Washington state. Her parents still live here in Arizona, so they threw a little party at their house for K and her new husband. We graduated from high school in 1998 and I think I have only seen her one or two times since then. I caught up with her recently through one of those networking sites.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit of a social moth. I’m not very good at mingling in a group of people that I don’t know. At the party today, it was mostly neighbors and former neighbors of K’s parents. The only people I knew were K and her parents. My comfort zone is just sitting in a small group of people that I can really talk to. Most of the people at this particular party were at least 20 years older than me. It’s usually not too much of a big deal for me to talk to people of this age group, but I can’t really relate when they start talking about their kids and other parenting issues. I did chat for a little while with some of these folks who were quite friendly and inclusive. Finally, I got a chance to talk to K and catch up from the past 8 years. Her hubby, P seems a lot like me in terms of chattiness. Unfortunately, K lives up in Washington, so I probably won’t see her again for awhile. We’ll have to try to have lunch or something next time they’re in town.
Today we watched all the appendices in the extended version of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Now we’re watching the full version of the movie. Of course, I watched the movie in the theatre, but it’s been quite a long time. As we started watching the movie, I don’t remember seeing portions of the beginning. I was absolutely fascinated by all the inside information revealed in the appendices. My favorite part is learning more about the composition of the music. I so miss being part of an orchestra. It’s been almost 10 years. But I digress. You learn so much more about the story by watching the appendices and the extra scenes in the extended version. So much detail was put into all the sets and costumes. So much of that detail would probably be missed by the casual viewer. Man, I sure am using a lot of passive voice in this entry. But again, I digress. Rohan and Minas Tirith are my favorite sets. Rohan especially awes me with its various design references to horses. I would love to visit a place like Minas Tirith. Too bad such a place doesn’t exist.
I would love to meet Viggo Mortensen. He seems like a really classy guy by some of his actions
and just his manner. In one of the appendices, they mentioned that one of the horse handlers
really loved one of the white stallions that Gandalf rode in the movie. After the movie, the horse was to be sold at some auction, but the horse handler did not have the means to buy it
for herself. Viggo found out that she was interested and he ended up buying the horse for her as a gift. He wouldn’t accept repayment.
How classy is that.
