Suburbanette

This morning, my youngest sister Kristina graduated from George Mason University’s nursing program with honors! This kid is amazing, for her internships she actually CHOSE to work at a prison and a mental institution. She is the only person I know who can talk about enlarged scrotums with fascination and intrigue. She is going to be a fantastic nurse!

Three kids down…two more to go. I am pretty sure my parents are relieved that they won’t have to pay college tuition for another five years.

Because I have to make everything about me: I got kind of emo when taking photos by Mason pond with my family afterwards. Seven years ago, Rob and I graduated from Mason together. We were dating at the time but I honestly did not think anything of our relationship. I assumed that after that summer I would never see him again. I can’t believe we are getting married in three months.

I could never have a style blog because I am uncomfortable in any piece of clothing that is not a jersey shift dress or yoga pants (and since I only own two of them there would be an extreme lack of quality posts). However, I finally think I have found another piece of clothing that is worthy of joining my wardrobe full time.

May I present to you the sari: worn in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore, the sari signified the grace of Indian women adequately displaying the curves at the right places. [Thanks Wikipedia]

Suffering from a lack of self-confidence my entire life, I unlike Maria never feel pretty, witty or gay. But in a sari, I felt like a princess! Saris are modern, worldly and full of bright, pretty colors that flatter yellow or brown skin tones. Forget my wedding dress, I want to get married in a sari.

I was able to don this pretty gown at the DC Jazz Festival Young Artists Series launch at the Residence of the Ambassador of India. And yes, it was as fancy as it sounds! I totally did not belong but I had a wonderful time listening to a fabulous jazz songstress named Marianne Solivan (Do yourself a favor and check her out on Spotify as well as check out the BILLIONS of free and ticketed concerts they are hosting around town June 5 – 16th).

So I thought that I was really good at handling stress. I got things done like a boss and my friends and family  are able to depend on me to fix things when they are broken, I could work two jobs and make it appear effortless (I hope!). But a few months ago I realized that while I was fine on the outside, I was a mess on the inside! Anxiety and stress about handling my personal life, health, work, and my upcoming nuptials were starting to take a toll in my body mostly in the form of mini panic attacks, mouth sores, and extreme exhaustion.

As I mentioned a while ago, I was raised in a house where stress and anxiety was a laughable first world problem so the fact that it started happening to me was a little bit scary.

I had always been interested in acupuncture but I never had time or money to actually partake in the treatment. When I finally found myself with some free time on my hands and my health insurance started adding acupuncture as one of its benefits, it was a no-brainer to sign myself up for a few sessions at East West Medicine in Falls Church.

My first meeting with Dr. Nguyen was two hours and included a whole body health assessment. She asked me questions about my health, checked the coating on my tongue and checked my pulse. In fact she was able to tell a whole lot about my body based on last two items. She noticed right away that I had a scalloped tongue which is due to something they call “dampness” in my body.

I was so relieved that she noticed this because my scalloped tongue had been a major source of pain for several years and it always led to huge canker sores which always came at the most inopportune times. It also took approximately THREE WEEKS to heal. Can you imagine not being able to talk properly for three weeks? If you thought I was quiet before, now you know why.

I had my treatment and within a day my sore started to go away. I had a major work event a few weeks later and I could feel a sore start to pop up so I started getting worried again but it also healed very quickly.

I have been seeing Dr. Nguyen every week for the past two months and she basically put the reset button on my body. She is teaching me how to relax which helps with the anxiety and teaching my body to heal itself. It is AMAZING what the human body can do. I have since then graduated to bi-monthly sessions.

So now that I’m done with my bit I am sure you have a few questions:- Does it hurt?: You will feel a little pinch but not really. The whole treatment is very relaxing.
-How long does it take? The first session is two hours and follow up sessions are about thirty minutes each.
-How many sessions should I have?: One session is not enough! You will need several maintenance sessions to keep up the progress in your body. Older people need more frequent sessions but if you are young and relatively healthy you should need less, but it is definitely an investment in time and money.
-What can acupuncture do for me? Treatment options include organ and blood strengthening, relaxation, smoking cessation, headaches and migraines, stomach problems, skin issues, chronic pain, etc.
-How much does it cost? Visit the East West Medicine website for more information.

Happy healthy living to you! And I hope you enjoy the treatment selfies I took when I should have been relaxing.

Since I started working from home a few months ago I started watching a lot of daytime television: Kathie Lee and Hoda, Michael and Kelly, The View, The Chew, Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, etc.

I am currently watching the Today Show and they are commenting on an article that was recently written about Mean Girls After High School in the Huffington Post.

I have been an adult for over five years now and find myself whole heartedly agreeing with this article. I have so many people who try to excuse their mean girl behavior by exclaiming that they are “keeping it real” or “just telling the truth.” There are ways to be tactful and truthful without being rude. You don’t have to agree with people and you can think people are idiots but using intimidation techniques and making people feel bad about themselves is not cool at all.

I am not a saint. I definitely get mean girl tendencies (although I usually keep it to myself or share the thoughts with close friends). But talking shit never makes me feel better, in fact it makes me feel more hateful and more resentful. Once you get in a shit talking cycle it is hard to stop. I noticed this happens when I am feeling insecure with myself or unhappy with my life. So instead of obsessing over other people, I am trying to focus on myself. Meditation, yoga, cooking, spending quality time with my boo. It really helps! When you are content with your life, happy thoughts will follow.

And thats my two cents.

So over seven years ago (time has passed by so fast, it feels like it was yesterday), I was diagnosed with cancer. I was a junior in college. Since I was a townie, I was able to go to school part-time as long as I avoided large crowds and kept mostly to myself to avoid picking up germs (a big fail by the way). I really didn’t want to wear a wig but my mom wanted me to be able to look normal so she insisted I get one. It ended up being a great idea because for the first time in my life, I had great, voluminous hair! Also, even though I was kept indoors for most of the time I was really tan for some reason. And because of the chemo, I was the skinniest I had ever been my whole life. I looked great, and that is something that I don’t say often. Seriously check it out:

Can you believe the skinny tan girl with great hair on the right had cancer? Is it wrong for me to want to sign up for this again?

Anyways, a few days ago I was reminiscing over my wig with an old friend and thought I’d share with you a few short memories about my old skein of hair.

#1) Only one person ever called me out on having fake hair. I was at Panera Bread grabbing some soup when the cashier looked at me and said “Nice Weave!” I was so surprised and caught off guard that I instantly lied and was like “I don’t know what you are talking about!” But he knew, and I knew the truth.

#2) In order to secure a wig to your head, you had to affix a super strong double stick tape to your scalp. Honestly, it didn’t work all the time. Once, I went to a one dollar store to pick up a bouquet of graduation balloons for my cousin. I was walking out the narrow door when the static from the balloons attracted my wig and it slid down my head like a baby on a water slide. I picked it up and kept on walking.

An example of bad wig placement

#3) A little bit of a confession, after I was finished from chemotherapy I became a little bit of a club rat / alcoholic. I’ll chalk it up to emotional issues that I never dealt with while I was sick. Anyways, once I met this guy at Modern and and after meeting a few times he started making fun of people with fake hair and took a lock of my hair and tugged on it. LUCKILY, the double stick tape gods were being good to me that night but I still can’t help but think that I was being set up for some cruel joke. I’ve seen this person several more times over the past few years and I’m even friends with him on Instagram now but I still wonder what was going on exactly in his mind during this time….

#4) Another club rat story. So once my good friend Casey and I went to a bar with my roommate Bryan. This was the night I thought it would be fun to drink half a bottle of Everclear and order double vodka tonics all night long (again, don’t judge me…I had unresolved issues and I just turned 21). Well my tiny, chemotherapy ridden body could not handle it so I ended up falling down the stairs and my wig fell off. Casey being the great friend she is picked up the wig and tucked it under her arm like it was a tiny furry purse and Bryan walked me the rest of the way home.

This hair style gave people the false impression that I was a hipster for years to come.

#5) So senior year of college, I was starting to feel comfortable with my hair growth. By March, I was starting to look like a hipster (I think back then we called it emo) girl or young boy. So I decided to get rid of the wig and rock my hair au naturale. A boy from class (you may remember him as my fiance Rob) invited me to hang out with a few of his friends at Bridges that night so I said sure and showed up. Rob had already knew about my whole cancer ordeal so he did not say anything but one of his friend’s girlfriends went up to me with the meanest, snarkiest face and said “I don’t know why you cut off your hair because you looked WAY better with long hair.” Geez, what ever happened to talking behind someone’s back like they did in the good ole’ days? I had to set her straight and basically told her it was my first time not wearing a wig since I had chemo a few months ago and I was really nervous about what other people thought. Boy that knocked that smug look off her face. Even to this day, whenever I run into her she still tells me how great my hair looks. I hope she thinks twice now about whenever she decides to be mean to random strangers.

All Cancer Kids go to Disney World

PS: If you are reading this, I will save you the time of coming to a conclusion about me. Yes I have a MAJOR chip on my shoulder about being diagnosed with cancer at age 20.

According to the Target Wedding Registry I just created a few minutes ago, I have less than 150 days till my wedding.

Yikes! Where did the time go?

Based on the Mindy Weiss Wedding Planning Planner that I purchased months ago and only opened today, I am way, way behind on wedding planning. I don’t even have a bridal party yet! But the big things have been booked so that makes me happy. The rest can all come later.

The Ceremony:

Last year, Rob and I made St. Matthew’s our new spiritual home. I was very hesitant about getting married in a Catholic church (mainly I was concerned that we would be rejected since we live together) but we were very lucky to find a wonderful, accepting (and beautiful) parish! We will get married here, get our children baptized here, and hold our funeral services here. This was the biggest decision we made in the whole wedding process so far and I could not be happier.

On a side note, I get extremely nervous whenever I attend a service here. The aisle looks really, really long.

The Reception:

With the church in place, it made finding a reception site a lot easier! Carnegie Institute is home to an organization dedicated to scientific discovery. What really sold me was the upstairs library which is full of lots of books and smells of rich mahogany.

The Caterer:
I don’t even want to talk about this because wedding food is notoriously bad. Please wish us luck, at least our tasting was good! This was my favorite part of the whole wedding planning process!

The Rings:
Rob and I purchased our wedding bands in December at Quest. I can’t be happier with my purchase, which just happens to be my very first large scale purchase ever (besides my car). Sometimes when we are bored, Rob and I try on our rings and pretend we are married.

The Dress:
Honestly I don’t even remember how it looks like and have to google it every once in a while to refresh my memory. This was my least favorite part of wedding planning. I will say the following things though –  try something that you would not normally try on and you will know when you have found “the one” immediately!

When I was younger, all I wanted to be a blue-eyed, blonde haired American girl like one of the Wakefield twins from Sweet Valley High. They were young, tan, and lived by the beach. Their mom was an interior decorator and their dad’s name was Ned! Instead, I was more like Claudia Kishi’s dorky older sister Jeanine. Lame-o!

Growing up, celebrating “Tet” or Vietnamese/Chinese New Year was not of much importance to me. I hated the smell of incense and the sound of a gong ringing in my ears. I did not care for sticky rice cakes or coconut candy, although those red envelopes were always a plus for me! I didn’t really pay attention to any of the customs because I was too busy playing in the basement with my cousins.

Since my twin brothers are WAY younger than me, I have been re-living my childhood through them. My parents put together family celebrations and takes extra time to explain the meaning behind everything so they will understand. I don’t think they realize how much I am benefit from it as well!

A few things I learned about Tet and my family in general include:
* Lucky money should be given in multiples of two.* An alter of five different fruits should be set out to honor the deceased.
* My father’s dad came from a rich Chinese Buddhist family. He converted to Catholicism to marry my grandmother.
* When my dad left Vietnam to escape the war, his father was so heartbroken he stopped speaking to most people.

It was really interesting to learn about my family and even more fun to share the traditions with Kassie and Rob! Both of them learned how to say “Chúc mừng năm mới” to greet elders and Rob killed it in the crab, squid, and gourd gambling game. In fact he made so much money, I don’t have to pay for my next three laundry loads! Woop, woop!

And since my American New Year’s resolution did not work out (not even sure what it was) I decided to make a new resolution and that is to surround myself with people who truly love me and accept me for who I am (which is not perfect).

Happy New Year!

I can now add the title “Event Planner” to my resume! I am thrilled, I always dreamed about throwing fun parties for a living but I didn’t actually think it would pan out. I did a bit of trade show marketing at my last few jobs but somehow Interactive Voice Response and Wind Turbine related events just doesn’t sound as sexy to the parties I throw now.

My last event was held at Trademark Drink + Eat, an eatery dedicated to handcrafted cocktails and adding innovative new spins to classic American comfort food. Because of the restaurant’s proximity to the US Patent & Trade Office and it’s science geek chic decor, I decided to theme the party “Yelp’s Grand Experiment.”

Guests noshed on nibbles such as a shrimp bouquet topped with beet mousse and cantaloupe caviar (served in petri dishes!), pretzel bites served with cheese melted on a Bunsen burner, beakers filled with apple cider floats, and candy bacon. We also hosted a cocktail lab where Yelpers learned a few tricks of the trade and were then invited to take a hand in creating their own cocktail mixes.

Enough talking…I’ll let the photos talk for themselves!

Hopefully, my wedding will be just as fun!

The past two weeks I have been complaining to Rob about how much I hate Valentine’s Day. With all the girls on Facebook posting the Louis Vuitton purses they got from their honeys, it’s easy to feel super inadequate. I also was the girl who got no carnations delivered to her in high school so I have been super bitter ever since.

This morning I was reminded that Rob and I’s first date was on Valentine’s Day seven years ago. I didn’t consider it a date but Rob certainly did. He even cut his samurai bun for the occasion which if you know him was a big deal (his hair was longer than mine!) and wore a suit (again a big deal since he usually bummed around in work out clothes). Pretty much after that Valentine’s Day, we’ve been together ever since.

I guess I do like Valentine’s Day after all!

The only two things I like about football are:

End Zone Dances (I like to pick up all my new dance moves from here)
and
Super Bowl Food

On the menu for this year? Chicken Adobo wings. I was inspired by a Yelp review I read on Virtue, Feed & Grain in Alexandria. The owner’s wife is half-Filipino so his dish was a nod to her heritage. Since I am half-Filipino, and the party I was attending would also be frequented by other half-Filipinos (okay…four, three of them being from my family) I figured this was the perfect dish to knock everybody’s socks off!

For the non-Filipinos out there, Chicken Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines. To adobo something means that you are basically immersing the meat in a mixture of vinegar, black peppercorns, soy sauce and garlic.

I pretty much used this recipe on Busog! Sarap! only I:
- Didn’t measure any of the ingredients because I’m gangsta like that.
- Marinated the chicken beforehand for two hours WITH the soy sauce and then cooked everything down in a pot
- I actually used tamari instead of soy sauce since Rob is on a gluten-free kick. I could not tell the difference except in my wallet – - tamari is like twice the cost of soy sauce!
- Once the chicken was fully cooked and the sauce was reduced I crisped up the wings in a separate pot.

I served the dish with the sauce on the side. It tastes amazing over white rice!

To see what I cooked up last year click here!