Leina's Life (by Tony)

A What?

2008-07-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Leina was sitting on a fourth floor rooftop terrace leisurely eating her breakfast with Tony, in the fascinating city of Istanbul, Turkey. Conversation had died down, as Leina was between thoughts. The sound of a car starting floated up from below, among the many sounds that one would expect in the center of a thriving megalopolis.

"That's a Subaru," said Leina. "That sounds just like my car."

Istanbul has a lot of many things, but Subarus is not one of them. "What?" said Tony, quite skeptical. "I haven't seen a single Suburu since we've gotten here. No way."

"Let's have a look, then," said Leina, and they both peered over the edge onto the street below." Tony strained to identify the logo on the grill badge of the vehicle in question.

"Yup, that's a Forester," said Leina, and they returned to their tomatoes.

Big time traveling!

2008-06-27T10:08:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, Leina leaves for Turkey! This is her first time in Europe, and she is very excited. She has had numerous conversations with Erica regarding what to bring, especially how much cash, and where she will be able to get Turkish lira once she is there. Leina expects to spend several days in Istanbul, then go off to the interior to an area called Cappadocia, and then hit Istanbul again on the way out. She will be traveling with Erica and Tony, and will also meet up with Yayoi and Miwa in Istanbul for the last few days of her trip, where they coincidentally will be in the same exotic city at the same time!

in her own words

2008-05-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

so let's see, i stepped foot into forever 21 this afternoon, on my lunch break, and was paged. i was OD (officer of the day) today, which means i go on emergencies, kinda like an emergency worker.

tonight my sister and her family and i went to foster city to ihop. my sister had been craving ihop for several months now, and i found a coupon in the sunday newspaper, so we decided to go eat ihop tonight for dinner, charles met us.

my co-wkr, mary, gave me tickets to the opera. the ticket is valued at $220, each. crazy, huh. one of my other co-wkrs sent an e-mail giving these tickets away, and he said whoever calls or e-mails me first, and mary was the first, and then he gave her two pairs. mary is giving a pair to her sister, and one to me. mary was going to go, but she is now going to the philippines in june for several weeks.

in june, i'll be doing this REI fix the hiking trail day event with co-wkrs. so far there is only 4 people wanting to go, but it should be a trip, since how the heck am i supposed to walk a mile to the trail, and then start making the trail, with a shovel. i'm so weak, and i have allergies, but whatever.

another sat in june, i'll be going on a walk from pac bell park to candlestick, 5 miles. i did this the first year with mr. turner and sanders, but this year, i'm going to do this with work people. it's sponsored by the city.

dominic is trying to be potty trained. jack is standing, but not walking.

a [REDACTED] is looking for an executive director. nicole dare's mother-in-law had given them my name and contact info to them, i told them no, but they still want to talk to me. oh boy.

alice, do you think i should visit bathe and or stonehedge while i'm out there? i need a map.

my friend who studied with me in japan, kenji, is expecting his first child.

another friend who studied with me in japan filed for divorce.

will graduated law school last friday, and is now studying for his bar.

got to lowell alumni newsletter today. too bad, no andy green comment.

did i tell you guys that LaTreisha, my friend from long beach is expecting too.

don't know what else...hmm...my highlighted hair is turning orange.

Walgreens?

2008-02-17T11:11:00.001-08:00

Leina is an astute shopper. She knows that Walgreen's offers hella coupons and discounts in their circular and often don't even put the sale prices up in the store; it just rings up cheaper when you check out.

So Leina flipped through this week's circular and noted that many of her staples were on super sale there--kleenex, canned mandarin oranges, and Pringles. She clipped a few of the coupons and made a list of the things she wanted that were cheap.

So Leina went to the pharmacy and filled her basket with the abovementioned items, feeling savvy. However, after getting almost all the way through her list she realized that she was not in a Walgreen's--it was a Rite-Aid! Super frustrated, Leina sheepishly put down her basket and left. She had forgotten that several months ago, what used to be a Walgreens had turned into a Rite-Aid.

Valentine's

2008-02-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

Charles wanted to go out to a nice dinner for Valentine's Day. Leina had a better idea. They would both eat dinner at their respective homes and then Leina would drive down to Foster City and they could go out afterwards. The plan was a success. They drank bubble tea.

Not staying at Ricca's

2008-02-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

Leina is in L.A. with Charles right now visiting friends. Ricca had invited them to stay with her. But Leina didn't want to impose. She wouldn't stay at Ricca's even though Charles said he'd be comfortable there, because he knew Ricca best of Leina's L.A. friends. But Leina didn't want to impose so, despite her cheapness, they booked a hotel room.

Backup birthday date

2008-01-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

Today is Leina's birthday. Yes, another year has gone by, but this one was only partly blogged. So what did Leina do on her 31st? Something crazy? Was there an almost-surprise party for her that Auntie only partly ruined by coming at the wrong time? Or a half-baked idea to bicycle to LA? No, this year was much calmer.

Charles was busy, and Leina was nothing more than a backup date for Mary, who was going to a Chinese dance concert this evening. Mary was maybe going to go with her maybe ex-boyfriend, but didn't know how things stood in the relationship, and Leina was trying to stay out of it, but she wound up as the backup date in case Mary didn't want to go with her maybe ex-boyfriend, which she didn't, so Leina was available and is at the show right now. She heard it was going to be pretty good.

Other news in Leina's world is that she is getting new roommates! Four of them! Her sister and her brother-in-law and her two nephews are moving in for a year, starting next month. Leina is anticipating lots of babysitting in her future.

A wedding and a funeral

2007-10-20T18:49:00.001-07:00

So this morning Leina got up at 5:00 a.m. and drove Erica to the airport. She was wearing sweatpants and Franco Sarto leather dress flats in her hastily put together predawn outfit. Erica at least had done her the favor of staying over, so Leina didn't need to pick her up to drop her off.

She came home and went to bed for a few hours because she had a big day ahead! She was going to a wedding and a funeral. So she reawoke earlier than she wanted to and got packed for the wedding this evening, the rehearsal dinner of which had kept her up late last night (Charles is a groomsman). But before the wedding, she had to go to the funeral of the husband of the woman who played the organ at her parents' funerals. Leina doesn't own an all purpose cute black dress that could have served double duty, so she wore a black v-neck sweater, black pants, and the same Franco Sarto shoes that she wore earlier. The funeral was in Marin County, so she crossed that big red bridge and saw Auntie.

Then it was back to San Francisco for a quick stop at Nicole Dare's parents' house in San Francisco to pick up Nicole to drive her to the wedding. Leina changed there into a more festive outfit. She is now at the wedding. In the wedding planning, Leina was almost pushed into duty as the MC of the wedding, because it is well known that Leina is very comfortable being a participant in a wedding. She is contemplating spending the night at Charles's parents' house, because she intends to help them go to San Francisco to watch Charles's brother run in the Race for the Cure marathon that is going on tomorrow. His family does not know the city well, so she has volunteered to be their guide.

Oh, and Noriko just had a baby boy. His name is Kaito.

An old classmate

2007-09-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Leina was at work today, where she had to visit a client who was a pedophile. He was living at a gay-friendly SRO that she thought might be a brothel. She didn't know. The consult went fine, and this was definitely a place she wasn't used to hanging around. Then she saw a guy living there who she thought she knew. Was it him? She decided that maybe this wasn't her old high school classmate because, well, it had been 10 years and she didn't know he was gay (not that he was necessarily gay because he chose to live in a gay-friendly SRO). But then someone else came in and said, "Hey, Will!" and Leina knew it was him. She didn't say hi.

Addendum (10/9/07): the guy's name was changed in this blog to protect his identity. He was not called Will.

The End?

2007-08-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

So after 202 posts, hours of entertainment for a select few, and many, many, rides to the airport, Leina's Life may have gone on permanent hiatus. Not that Leina's life has gone on hiatus--she's still driving to Pinole for some coworker's birthday party or down to Foster City to hang out with Charles or the Oakland airport at 1:30 in the morning to pick up Auntie and drop her off in Marin (to Auntie's credit, she did thank Leina profusely and made a comment along the lines of "I'm your slave this week" upon being picked up).

Perhaps Leina has gotten more boring as, since this blog began, she has gotten a job and her diploma and a boyfriend, and can no longer devote so much time towards doing favors for her freinds and family.

Leina is still obsessing about how and when to get new windows in her house, whether to hire an archictect and it she does to get a deck installed in her backyard, and how to knock out a wall between her kitchen and dining room. But she is not obsessing about her thesis, about finding a job, about looking for love, or about providing an unreasonable amount of free babysitting.

But things have not changed that much. She still works a few hours a month for Mr. Turner and still gives up her free time now and then to do free babysitting, and, yes, she is teaching obon again this year.

Tomorrow, Tony is moving away to Wisconsin, and though he will still be able to keep tabs on Leina more or less as well as he does now, Tony will also not have as much free time to keep up the painstaking research necessary to maintain the high standards of this blog, for he's going back to school himself.

If anyone would like to take the helm of this ship, he is accepting requests. Many thanks to those who have read, and those who have commented. And one never knows, perhaps Leina's Life will make a comeback.

the 4th

2007-07-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

The 4th was Erica's birthday, so Leina went up to celebrate with Erica and Erica's family and family friends at Auntie Diana's house near Occidental way up in the hills of Sonoma County. She volunteered to bring corn because she had read some recipe that she wanted to make in Sunset Magazine with corn and Espazote Sauce or something. But then she started feeling stressed and didn't really feel like cooking so she decided to bring some corn that they could grill.

She had to look all over town for corn, but finally found it at Molly Stone's. She then drove up and got to the party at 1:00. She began by employing her typical party behavior: find the person who doesn't seem to have anyone to talk to or doesn't fit in so well and make conversation with that person. In this case it was Uncle Jack, who actually was fitting in fine and Leina had just caught him in between conversations. So that conversation faded away.

But it was hot and she quickly stripped down to her bikini and sunbathed by the pool next to Erica for awhile. Then they ate, and though the party was expected to last another few hours, Leina left immediately afterwards in order to beat traffic back in San Francisco. She succeeded, and got home around 6:00 and laid in bed, watching the fireworks on TV and then sleeping.

Got a Computer

2007-07-03T11:33:00.001-07:00

Leina got a new computer. It's an Apple MacBook. She's excited. It has a DVD burner so one day Leina will figure out how to turn all those home videos into DVDs.

Tagged

2007-06-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Seven random facts about Leina, because it was requested that they be shared:

1) She has a shaker in her kitchen with white crystals in it labeled MSG. When Angie was living with Leina, she began to use said white crystals and determined that MSG can be a tasty flavor enhancer to food. Everyone in China does it, so why shouldn't she check it out? Angie began bragging about how she had been using MSG. Turns out, she hadn't. Leina uses that jar as he salt shaker.

2) She has two full sized dressers in her bedroom but they are so full she keeps her jeans in a large blue tupperware thing on top on one.

3) She talks on the phone for at least one hour a day.

4) She drives a Subaru station wagon, and within the past year, both of her next-door neighbors have bought Subaru wagons themselves.

5) She really doesn't like dogs, even if they are Erica's dog who she's known for 6 years and only tries to lick her.

6) She talks to her sister on the phone every day.

7) A few times a year she has to buy some fancy chocolates or something and mail them to her host mother in Japan from when she studied abroad 10 years ago. And a few times a year she receives fancy chocolates in the mail from her host mother in Japan. On Saturday, she received some kind of cookie that cost $50 plus $50 more for shipping.

Perhaps Ricca or Ernesto or Angie can also contribute to the meme. They are now tagged.

San Tong

2007-06-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Leina has been celebrating her new permanent job hard lately. First, she bought two $100 pairs of jeans at Nordstroms, one pair of skinny jeans and one pair with butterflies on the back pockets, before she got buyer's remorse and returned them. But she also bought a few shirts and is on the lookout for new shoes. She bought a shirt at H & M and had to wait a long time to checkout because some woman was trying to return about six shopping bags of stuff and they wouldn't let her and then she started yelling and it was uncomfortable for everyone. She spent the next few minutes discussing with Erica whether or not the woman was a scammer.

On Friday, she took Erica and Tony out to San Tung, which is famous for its chicken wings and dumplings. They ordered some of each of the above, plus green beans and mu shu pork. It was very tasty.

The next day Noriko and Yuto came over with plastic bottles and they sat around watching TV and talking.

Recycling

2007-06-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Leina, in her cluttered basement, keeps all her recycling which she saves up so she can redeem them and receive a few cents a bottle. On Saturday, Leina and Erica and Tony went on her first redemption run in around 6 months. The bottles, including the 30-year-old bottles of white zinfandel, fully filled the well in her Surbaru wagon.

They went off for a combined breakfast/redemption trip. Leina wanted to go to the Safeway on Monterey Avenue at the bottom of her hill. To her dismay, the redemtion trailer was closed. No bother, they would go over to Tartine for breakfast and stop at that Safeway in Japantown. Tartine was open, but there was a huge line, with at least 20 people in it who could not yet fit through the door. There were no chocolate crossiants anywhere in the world that could induce Leina to wait in that sort of a line. And the redemption place was closed, too, with a long line of slightly sketchier canners waiting in line for it to open at 10:00. She wasn't going to wait in that line, either. So they went to a third Safeway, which was also not yet redeeming, before they decided to eat granola and muffins for breakfast in a cafe. Finally, they drove back to the first Safeway, where the trailer was open, but they wouldn't take her glass bottles. She earned $8.35 for her troubles, but still had half-a-trunk full of glass. Tony offered her $2 for them, so he could bring them home and put them on his curb. Leina declined payment, but was kind enough to let him take the bottles off her hands.

That afternoon, Noriko came over and brought over a big garbage bag of her empty plastic bottles because she knew that Leina liked to redeem them. The cycle starts anew. Leina has not decided if she will save them or put them on the curb.

Friends' blogs

2007-06-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Leina's LA friends Ricca and Ernesto, apparently jealous that Leina gets to have an internety presence and they do not, agreed jointly a few weeks ago to start their own blogs. Leina has enjoyed reading how Ernesto broke up with his boyfriend and Ricca has moved out to the OC. Even Sanders, who has been scarce in this blog, made a fleeting appearance. Neither mentioned that just three days before her Japanese test last week, Leina irresponsibly flew down there to hang out for a day and a night.

Passed!!

2007-06-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

It was a hard test. Leina was scared. She had to do all this talking in Japanese, and they even wanted to know if she could say STDs in Japanese (she could). She was scared that she didn't pass. She was regretting not having studied more, but when the test ended she was congratulated by her tester--she'd done it! She'd passed the test! Now she is a full-fledged social worker, a civil servant, and she will probably be working for the City for the next 30 years.

Leina went out to celebrate with Charles to a restaurant across the street from Bacar. She might buy new windows for her house and a new computer now that she knows she has a job.

the Test

2007-06-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Leina was informed on Friday that her important Japanese test is today. She spent the weekend practicing with Noriko and with Charles' grandmother. She is feeling anxious. And it is after work, which means that she gets to stress about it all day and then go in and take the test. She is not very confident, despite the fact that she can ask, "Do you have any bedsores?" as well as "When was the last time you saw a social worker?" fluently, along with dozens of other relavant phrases.

Appreciating Andy

2007-06-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Andy was coming to town from Hong Kong this past weekend, and Erica and Leina thought they should do something exciting to celebrate his gracing the States with his presence. Leina agreed to host if Erica agreed to cook, so she and Tony made elaborate plans to construct a paella in Leina's kitchen, despite their minimal knowledge of cooking genuine paella in a 16-inch paella pan. Will and Amy and Joe and Angie and Stephen Dodson all said they'd come.

So preparations were slowly being made when Andy revealed to the group that he wasn't going to make after all. But since everyone said they'd come, Leina and Erica decided to keep their date and celebrate Andy anyways. Steven Dodson then bailed early in the day because he had just run a triathlon. Leina thought that was lame.

The paella was made and was pretty good but some of the shrimp were undercooked and maybe that was responsible for Joe complaining of a stomach ache later in the evening and it definitely needed salt.

Andy called and talked to Leina for awhile, and then the phone was passed around the room and he had to talk to everyone. No one thought to ask him about how things are going with his newly adopted sport of dragon boat racing.

There was some show on TV that had something to do with trying to help severely obese people lose some weight and return back to society. A commercial for Norbit played during one of the breaks.

The gang played a game "Oodles of Doodles" and Leina was pissed that Tony kept guessing her drawings on the 'doodle duel' portion. The girls beat the boys, and a good time was had by all. Tony is still upset that he had to draw "firetrap," which he failed to do.

Charles left early because he had to work early. They watched A-Rod hit a home run in the 9th inning of the Yankees-Red Sox on the TV and then everyone else left.

A fake Stanford student

2007-06-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

The other day Will was eagerly reading the news on the fake Stanford student when he came across a ROTC picture. At first, he thought that he had discovered that Leina was in the ROTC and served with the imposter, but then he read the caption and learned that Leina just had an uncanny resemblence to the infamous 'student.' He immediately forwarded the image to Leina, who shook her head in with that "Oh please" half smile she constantly flashes, but forwarded it on to her cousin anyways.

misunderstanding

2007-05-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Leina is still feeling sick. She did, however, make a brief appearance at the Turners' this evening. Mrs. Turner was hosting Tony and Angie's parents (in from Wisconsin!) for dinner, along with their children, and as she tends to do, she made way more food than was needed. Leina stopped by. Tony was setting the table, and pleased to see her, anticipating witty banter and loads of fascinating social-work-related anecdotes.

"You eatin'?" he asked. Leina answered affirmatively, with such a casual ease that Tony was confused. How likely was it that Leina would have accepted an invitation to dinner with such a lack of apprehension? Something must be wrong, he thought, as he froze in his tracks while retrieving another plate.

She had misheard, thinking he had asked, "You eaten'?" Of course she'd eaten. It was almost 8:00.

Basketball Assistant

2007-05-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Leina is not an official coach of Charles' Asian league basketball team, but she might start demanding some compensation. She spent this past weekend in Sacramento with the team for a tournament. They played lots of games and she helped out with everything: scorekeeping, water-getting, towel-gathering, small-talk-with-the-parents-making.

Sacramento was very cold. Except that it was very hot. It was scorching outside so everyone had their air conditioning cranked up to the max and she was freezing inside--in the stadium, in the restaurants, in the hotel. That is likely why she got sick, she thinks.

Home Alone

2007-05-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Angie has officially moved out, to some studio in Pacific Heights. Leina has found it okay to be home alone now. She's got some plans for getting a laptop and turning that room into an office, but those plans will likely be slow to be realized.

She has a cold, too.

Brain Lessons

2007-05-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Leina had to do training in Palo Alto yesterday. It was about Alzheimer's and dementia and soforth. It was okay. Leina had to learn about amyloid things interfering with mitochondrial function in the brain or something like that. It was pretty confusing.

Uncle's eye

2007-05-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

Auntie called Leina on Saturday morning and told her that Uncle had to go to the hospital and Leina had to go and visit him and stay with him because she had to go to work. "But I have to go to work, too!" protested Leina, but since she was the little niece and Auntie was the wizened Auntie, guess who had to miss work (with Mr. Turner) and go to stay with Uncle. So Leina crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and drove to Marin General and stayed with Uncle while he found out that he had a scratched cornea and then drive him back home.

Yumi lives only about a mile from the hospital, and today Leina was still trying to figure out how she got talked into driving up when Yumi was so nearby.

A day in Pleasanton

2007-05-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Though it has been good for Leina's pocketbook to have a full-time job it has been hard on it in some ways. Her department is very tightly knit, and even though Leina hasn't been there for even one year, she has been embraced with open arms. The problem is that with all these new friends come new obligations to celebrate. Every few weeks someone is getting married, or engaged, or pregnant, or newly unpregnant, or moving, or something which is deemed worthy of a celebration. So Leina finds herself constantly ponying up her $15 contribution towards a sheetcake and a banner for the breakroom as well as some sort of a 'gift from the office.'

Which she doesn't mind all that much, but when it comes to driving to Pleasanton, makes it much more of a hassle.

So when someone was having a baby shower, Leina decided to go. It was being hosted by a coworker of Leina's who decorates her cubicle with a great deal of Tigger (from Winnie the Pooh) apparel and knicknacks. Leina would have been more hesitant to go but she couldn't resist learning whether this workmate's house was as Tigger-laden as her office was.

So Leina drove from Marin (see next post), across the Richmond San Rafael bridge and out 680, and went to the party. There was not so much Tigger as she had thought there would be, which was disappointing but somewhat reassuring to her. And somehow she stayed really late and then realized that she spent the whole afternoon there, which saddened her. But it was an okay party and probably worth her time.

Early lunch

2007-05-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Leina had a very light breakfast, which was on top of a light dinner the night before. So she got to work and then got hungry right away and then ate her chili which she had brought for lunch at 9:30 in the morning! Which wasn't so bad, but of course she ate it so early that her body thought it was breakfast so when noontime came around she was hungry again and had to go out with Mary and get herself a sandwich, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of packing her lunch in the first place since she spent $5 on a tuna sandwich.

Bomb ass

2007-05-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

Sporadic attempts to color this blog with the idiosyncratic language that Leina tends to use have been only moderately successful. Leina has been known to use innovative adjectives. Leina's use of 'hella' is limited, for the most part, to 'hella good.'

Leina has, on more than one occasion, described shrimp as 'bomb ass.' Perhaps other items have been called 'bomb ass,' but, for the record, Leina maintains that Good Luck Dim Sum makes some 'bomb ass shrimp,' though the ladies working there are really mean.

Go Warriors!

2007-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Leina is no fair weather fan. She has been a fan of the Warriors for quite some time, even going to a game every now and then (and recinding invitations to her back up dates, too), usually thanks to Will.

Leina also generally has them on the telly while talking on the phone or eating dinner or talking on the phone while eating dinner. So it was extra exciting for her to watch the game last night and see those Warriors pull off such a big series upset after such a long drought.

Driving

2007-05-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Leina drove to Pleasanton, during rush hour, from Foster Cityto visit Miki. It took a long time. And then she filled up her gas tank, even though it cost more a gallon ($3.45) than she had ever paid and her tank was only half empty, but she really didn't want to get back from Detroit and find out the price had risen ten more cents a gallon.

Leina then drove through that part of The Maze where the tanker blew up a mere four hours before the event itself. She never really realized it, though.

A new nephew

2007-05-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

Leina got a new nephew on May Day, little Jack. She is flying out to Detroit to visit him tomorrow. She is excited.

An almost ex-roommate

2007-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Angie informed Leina two weeks ago that she was moving out.

As loyal readers know, Leina has been renting a room to Roommate Angie, Tony's sister, for a year now. There was an understanding when Angie moved in that she would be living there for just a few months. But as tends to happen when one gets comfortable and then sees how expensive San Francisco rents can be, those few months stretched out into a few couple of months. But deep down, Angie knew that she should move somewhere else.

She had looked at several other places during random spurts of inspiration, but nothing matched Leina's place. Finally, she came across a real roommate, a friend of Stephen Dodson's. And they really looked for a place and then found one!

So she told Leina, who was very surprised and sad. She had grown accustomed to Angie's lack of presence. See Angie always stays out late and Leina goes to bed early. Angie was suprised that Leina was sad. But Angie had already signed a lease, and so both began preparing emotionally for her departure. Leina started getting a little excited about having the room free, and didn't protest too much when Tony began planning her house to do list. She thought how her Auntie and cousin could come and visit all the time without disturbing Angie.

Then, Angie's signed lease was unexpectedly voided due to the current tenant who refused to vacate the premeses. Suddenly, Angie had no new apartment. She thought it was perhaps a sign. Maybe Leina would take her back. She asked Leina if she could stay longer. Leina thought about it. She decided it would be okay, for a little while. She has given Angie notice that she needs to be out by the end of the year. It seems both parties are comfortable with the arrangement.

Chair plastic

2007-04-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Leina still has plastic covering the fabric on the seats of her dining room chairs. The fabric is white, but most people would think that the plastic was intended to keep the chairs clean until they were safely in a customer's living room, where it could then be removed to expose the nice upholstery below. Not Leina.

Last night, Leina hosted Alice and David one last time. Serena and Erica and Tony also came. The original plan was to go out for drinks, then to go out for dessert, but in the end, all stayed at Leina's for drinks and shortbread cookies that Erica had made. Leina had a taco at Farolito Taqueria for dinner. It was big and cheap. She intends to go back some day soon.

During the evening, a list was made of things Leina would like to do to her house. It included, in no particular order, paint the kitchen, paint the kitchen cabinets, paint the bathroom, paint the hallway, buy a MacBook, knock out half the wall between the kitchen and living room, get new windows, give Serena her piano, take the plastic off the seats of the dining room chairs, clean the basement, and tear out the living room carpet to expose the hardwood floors.

They were then ranked in terms of cost (new windows at the top, tearing the plastic off the chairs tied with several other things at the bottom) and effort (again, finding a contractor and settling on a style put new windows near the top, possibly tied with cleaning the basement and tearing the plastic off the seats of the chairs again near the bottom).

A decision was made to cross one thing off the list then and there. David, being unknowing and English, inspired the tearing of the plastic off the chairs when he asked if Leina had gotten new chairs. Leina sheepishly admitted that she had gotten new chairs, about three years ago. David was then nominated to remove the plastic from the chairs, but he was too scared to follow through with it because he doesn't know Leina so well. After a few glasses of wine, Alice was more than happy to tear off the plastic. David helped.

Now Leina has to worry about the white fabric on the bottom of her chairs getting sullied by someone's dirty jeans. But she no longer has to put up with comments about how she still had the plastic on her chairs.

Still kickin' it.

2007-04-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes there are things that Leina doesn't get around to for quite some time. And then, as she procrastinates longer and longer, what could have been a minor task (like writing a blog update) becomes major, and she just keeps waiting. Until she just does it.

Charles finally met Alice last weekend. There was no huge scene with shrieks and "Leina, you're so cute!" remarks that she had been fearing. Charles is thinner and has longer hair because he works all the time. Leina doesn't get to see him so often.

Leina went to Burma Superstar with Alice and David and Serena and Erica and Tony the night before. It was good, and they barely had to wait in line. They got to sit at the big round table in the corner which was neat, because there were six of them, but also meant that they were far away from each other and it was a bit hard to carry a conversation including everyone.

The week before she was the candy/t-shirt/program seller at a tournament that Charles' team was playng in.

Leina saw some motorcyclist get hit by a car which then left the scene of the accident on Market last week while she leaving work with Mary and her old supervisor Carrie. She quickly remembered the license plate number and model of the car (it was one of those big white SUVs) until the police showed up. The cyclist was okay himself.

Leina has been offered the position at work full time, with benefits, with the condition that some day she may have to pass a Japanese fluency test.

Tony has been rooting around in Leina's basement and has unearthed half a dozen bottles of 30 year old Gallo white zinfandel or Portuguese cheap wine. They were subsequently dumped down the drain.

Leina went to bed at 7:30 on Saturday night because her allergies were acting up.

job description changed

2007-04-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Leina is stil social working for the City, still doing adult protective services, but she volunteered to be transfered out of her department, the department she wants to get a full time position in, for another department. They said they needed people in a different department, so in order to show her dedication, Leina has switched. She doesn't like the new job as much, but at least she wasn't responsible for this story that came out today. Unsurprisingly, it was a somber day at work.

She's still studying for the Japanese test, yet still has no idea when it will be.

Painting the living room

2007-03-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

For Xmas, Erica and Tony gave Leina a bucket of paint and a day's labor toward painting a room of her choice. This past Saturday, the gift was finally redeemed. Leina has been going back and forth between colors for several weeks. It was down between Brown Bread and Haze. She wanted it to be dark. Finally, with minimum cajoling from her accomplices, she chose Haze, the lighter of the two colors. She didn't take as long to decide which room to paint: her big dining/living room area.

They got up early on Saturday and did all the taping and washing and painted the ceiling, then painted part of the hall and then it was onto the big room. Leina spent most of the time on her knees painting the trim in her room, while Angie did the same in her room, leaving Erica and Tony with the rollers. Leina bought them lunch at Sub Station in West Portal, splitting a pastrami sub and drinking it in the backyard, where Leina looked jealously at her neighbor's deck and wished she had one herself.

Tony didn't do a great job painting, and they almost ran out of paint, but they finished in time for Leina to go and attend Auntie's Buddhist Church conference dinner in Oakland. Auntie wouldn't save her a seat, so Leina had to hurry.

She is pretty sure she wishes she had a darker shade, despite what everyone else said. But she was too nice to ask anyone to help her repaint.

Dinner Double Date

2007-03-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

Charles was busy this weekend working so Leina didn't see a bunch of him. She decided to alleviate her loneliness by inviting over Erica and Tony for dinner. She served them leftover Japanese curry and leftover Vietnamese fried little eggroll type things and rice. Tony brought salad greens and some Chinese noodles he had been gifted that afternoon.

Unbeknownst to Leina, Angie had been making dinner plans of her own, inviting over a boy who she has been seeing a bit of lately. The roommates finally communicated that afternoon, and Angie was none too pleased to know that she would be sharing the kitchen and dinner table not only with this boy, but with her roommate and her brother! Angie pretended not to be too concerned, but Leina felt a little bad, as did Tony, for messing up Angie's game.

Didn't see Ricca

2007-03-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

Leina came really close to flying down to L.A. last weekend to surprise Ricca on her birthday. Ricca had done the same for her, right?

Leina was initially going to drive, but she had a problem--she had promised Mr. Turner she would work for him on Saturday, so didn't feel right leaving town before 3:00 or so in the afternoon. Which meant that she would have to go in the late afternoon and not have a lot of time down there.

But Charles really didn't want her to drive down and back alone. He figured he could come along. But he had to work until 5:00. Which meant they wouldn't arrive in L.A. until after 10:00 on Saturday, have just a few hours of partying, and then a short day in L.A. before having to drive back north so they could get back to work on Monday.

She was hemming and hawing about whether to go so she decided to check plane ticket prices. She found tickets for less than $130 round trip, which plus a car made it only around $150 each. Though she is infamous for being cheap, this seemed reasonable. Until Charles pointed out that, if Leina wasn't driving, she didn't really need him to go down with her. Which brought the price of the car up, with a total price of something like $175. Which she still didn't mind paying, except for the fact that she was doing her research late on Friday night and realizing that if she bought this ticket then she would have to pack immediately and got to bed and then wake up and go to work and then leave straight from work and stay over Saturday and Sunday and then get up at 4:00 on Monday and return her rental car and then fly back to San Francisco and go straight to work, and it so exhausted her just thinking of it that she bagged the idea.

Organic Soul Food

2007-03-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

Before the Indian restaurant was decided upon, Tony tossed around the idea of a meal at Farmer Brown's, a hip, new restaurant in the Tenderloin that serves 'organic soul food' (He was a bit mistaken; it is more accurately 'locally sourced soul food'). Hearing those three words made Leina blanch. She looked grossed out, and did not seem at all inspired to check out this restaurant, which has good reviews and half her dinner party was interestd in.

Leina has nothing at all against soul food. It is organic organic that she has a problem with. She has confused the terms 'organic' with 'whole-grain fat-free vegan,' or something along those lines. Or so is the speculation. Or at least the hope. Attempts to disabuse her of this were met with mixed results.

Taking out the Trash

2007-03-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

On Friday evening, Tony called Leina to see if she wanted to have Indian food with him and Erica and Angie and their cousin, Marc, who was visiting, at some random Indian restaurant in SoMa that definitely caters mainly to the lunch crowd. She was game. He went and picked her up, and Leina got in the back of the car carrying a few plastic bags full of stuff. Tony, driving, made no comment, and Marc, the guest, certainly wasn't going to say anything.

Only later, when Erica got into the car, was Leina questioned about the contents of her bags. The bags were full of trash from her home. She was unwilling to explain why, with her only defense/explanation being, "I am notorious for this." She did not want to put them in her own trash container, which she keeps in her garage/basement.

Taking the liberty of speculation, Friday is her trash day, and perhaps this trash was generated on Friday, and was stinky and she didn't want it in her basement. Or she has OCD. She threw it into the dumpster behind Angie's office.

Down in Mid-South Bay

2007-02-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

Leina went to Charles's birthday dinner this evening at Round Table in Foster City. There were several people there, including one friend who Charles hadn't seen in awhile. Leina intuited that Charles wanted to spend some time with his friend, so without confirming this, she slipped away immediately after the last slice of the pepperoni pizza was spoken for, bidding adieu to all at the early hour of 7:30.

This gave her the opportunity to drive across the peninsula a bit to Burlinghame to visit Noriko and Jun and little Yuto for the first time in awhile (or it would have been, if she hadn't driven down there on Saturday because she had realized that she hadn't seen them in awhile). So she drove over there and played with Yuto, and tried to get Noriko to help her review some Japanese for her Japanese proficiency test which is imminent.

Tacos

2007-02-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Leina, for many months now, has been scheming to purchase her very own carne asada. It is her favorite taqueria filling, and she has yearned to sear one up in her own kitchen, despite her kitchen's lack of a vent for the delicious smoky fumes which would inevitably emerge from the hot beef. She has enquired on numerous occasions to her friends where one could come across a piece of carne asada ("pre-marinated, because I don't want to mess with that part of it") that she could sear up herself. She was averse to actually going to a carneceria in the Mission. At some point last year, Erica pointed her in the direction of Trader Joe's, who had that exact item for sale in their refrigerated section.

Leina, perhaps as a half-hearted way to pay back Charles for the surprise party that he and Erica threw her last month, decided to throw him a semi-surprise party, to be held last night. And she had a great theme: taco night! She bought cheese, salsa, onions, taco seasoning mix, lettuce, tortillas, and ground beef for fillings.

Despite her lack of carne asada, Leina was quite excited about the event. On Thursday, she was trying to figure out if it was too early to shred her cheese. Erica said it was. Could she chop the onions? If she really wanted to.... Brown the ground beef? Maybe not. Leina managed to wait until Saturday afternoon to begin her prep, and by that time Charles was hanging around, so he helped her.

Ten or so of his friends came around, including Nicole Dare and her husband, who were responsible for getting Leina and Charles together in the first place. The tacos were created and then consumed and enjoyed. Mexican beer was drunken as well. Someone brought a Wii, and it was a hit, with partygoers swatting at the air while grasping a white remote/wand. Those who were not playing semi-virtual sports partook in another semi-sport, Texas Hold 'Em. Leina participated in the former, and was pretty good at the tennis thing but not so good at the bowling. But at some point, around 11:00 she became a spectator in both, and a cleaner of the dishes.

Stuck on the Tracks!!!

2007-02-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

It has been a tough week for Leina. She is currently cramming Japanese because he boss told her that she'd need to pass the Japanese language proficiency test in order to get hired because of that test score. And then she got stuck on the tracks.

One perk/problem with her current job is that she is often driving around town, making house calls. She usually drives a hot minivan type vehicle with a gold City of San Francisco emblem on the door, but Friday she was in an older Ford Taurus. When she was crossing Market Street, the car just died, exactly on the F-Market line. She panicked. This was right out of the movies! And then the F-Market streetcar started coming. She looked rapidly left, and right! Was she going to have to abandon the vehicle and watch it smashed to smithereens? It was getting closer and closer as she weighed what to do. And she didn't have her driver's license because of some long story (short version: Leina lost her ID on Thursday. Leina is hesitant to carry a purse or a satchel around, and instead prefers a bulging wallet which doesn't fit in her pocket. She often just pulls out her license and sticks it in her back pocket, which usually works, but this particular day, when she got home it was gone!).

Should she just grab her wallet and flee? She watched, paralyzed with fear, as the driver signaled for her to get off the tracks. She couldn't, the car was dead! Fortunately for Leina, the F-Market has a much shorter a braking distance than a fully loaded locomotive. The streetcar came to a stop a safe distance from Leina, ambled over to her vehicle, patiently listened as a near-hysterical Leina babbled on about how her car was making a noise and she was just trying to get it back to the lot and she can't believe it stopped here in the worst possible place in the world, and oh she's so sorry that she's inconveniencing all those riders... And this kindhearted driver, once she had calmed down, helped her push her car off the tracks, so he could continue on his route. Yay for Muni!

Leina then did the normal calling of the boss who called the tow truck and then she just walked the rest of the way back to the office.

Orchids

2007-02-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Leina went to the Orchid Festival at Fort Mason yesterday. She and Charles paid their entry fee and checked the scene out. There were exhibits and demonstrations and, of course, lots and lots of orchids (phalaenopsis). They saw Alice's mom and sister Amber (the one who tried to go to Leina's birthday but then waited and waited at Medjool and no one ever showed up), and Leina apologized for the abovementioned action.

They decided to buy an orchid, but hadn't found that best suited them when they made their decision. So they marched up and down the aisles, looking for that perfect orchid. Several that they liked were too expensive, some looked past their peak, some were too pink, some weren't pink enough, some lookePublishd too much like a pansy, some were too small, and some were only one blossom and she wanted a lot of blossoms. After three and a half hours at the show, they had successfully seen many beautiful orchids, but none felt just right for them. They left without buying anything.

Sad

2007-02-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

Leina did not want to go out last night. Charles wanted to take her to a party that a co-worker was throwing, and then she expected to come to the Chinese New Year's party at Erica and Tony's. But she sat around, feeling sorry for herself. Charles did all he could to try to make her feel better, but she just wanted to stay at home.

Many of Leina's close friends from high school arrived at Tony and Erica's last night before 9:30, ready for revelery, including Will (with Primo), Stephen Dodson (with port), Angie, Katrina, Byron, and even Serena. But no Leina! All are aware that Leina's presence kicks a party up another notch, and despite the presence of a pig pinata, foreign nationals, infused vodkas, and dumpling making something was missing: Leina. Tony and Will called Leina to harass her around 10:30, and a mopey sounding Leina promised that she was about to leave.

She was not lying, and arrived at the party with Charles shortly afterwards. A cheer was heard from the Lowell gang in the hallway. But Leina was not animated, not inspiring, not really even talking. She was the saddest many had ever seen her. Leina said that her score on that test was really really important and she doesn't think she'll get a job offer from San Francisco based on her ranking. She was inconsolable. Leina made a bit of polite small talk but shortly after arriving she made a beeline for the fireplace in the backyard and just sat there. For almost two hours. She knows that she'll find a great job soon and that she still is working and that she wanted to work in San Mateo anyways, but it was still a sad night for Leina.

Test Anxiety

2007-02-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

Leina got back her results from that social work test she had to take the other day. She was number 18. She is very sad about it. She doesn't know exactly what that means, aside from the fact that 17 people scored higher than she did. So she's not sure if she'll get hired full time. One would hope that those who do the hiring will look beyond a simple number and see how dedicated she would be, but it's the bureaucracy, and she will have to play by their rules.

In other news, Leina enjoyed her Valentine's Day meal well enough. Will also reminded her that she had eaten food once when she went to LuLu with him and Andy and others to celebrate Erica and Tony's engagement five years ago, which was French. Tonight, she is going to a Chinese New Year party that Tony and Erica are throwing. She hopes to bring Qingdao, but it she can't find it, she'll bring those hawthorne wafers that she loves.

French Food?

2007-02-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

Noriko gave Charles a gift certificate to some restaurant as a birthday gift to Leina. She said it was the best deal in the city for French food. It might have been Le Charm but it might not have been. So Charles made a reservation for it and they are currently enjoying a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Leina was excited. She claimed she had never eaten French food before. "What's French food?" she asked Erica. As is her tendency, Erica was skeptical that Leina had never had French food, but she didn't push the issue when Leina mentioned this. She is currently waiting for a report back from a disappointed Leina about how "It was just normal food."

Still single, to some

2007-02-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Leina has been dating Charles for almost 10 months. She has been rather slow spreading the word that she's been dating to some of her friends. For instance, this older Detroit friend from last weekend invited her son up from L.A. when she came to visit. He is 31. It was quite apparent that she thought that maybe she could set up her son and Leina, who was single, as far as she knew. It was only a little awkward when she learned about Charles, but they wasted little time dwelling on the failure. Naturally, they then tried to set him up with Angie, but it was not to be.

And just two weeks ago, Leina was emailing with a friend from Oakland. "You should come to our single people anti-Valentine's Day party!" her friend prodded. Perhaps Leina should have told her earlier about the existence of Charles. However, this was not the time. "I can't..." she mumbled, "I've got to go and do something with my family."

Fiddler on the Roof?

2007-02-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Leina, showing her friend from out of town the San Francisco that she knows and loves, took her to a play at the Jewish Community Center last night. She thought it was going to be a play, but it turned out to be a modern dance troupe. She had a pretty good time nonetheless.

An Old Friend

2007-02-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

While the rest of us breathlessly await photographic evidence from her birthday shindig, Leina is pushing forward with life. She only missed a few items of the clothing that she was brutally forced to throw out last weekend, but she had little time to do so as she anticipated the arrival of another guest, a friend from NASW. This woman is from Detroit. Leina befriended her during their weekends in DC, and probably out of courtesy Leina called this woman once when she was in Detroit visiting her sister. Possibly out of courtesy this woman offered to take Leina out, and likely out of courtesy Leina accepted, accidentally creating a new friend.

This woman is in her 60s. Little more is known about this relationship aside from the fact that the woman is visiting for the weekend and staying with Leina, and Leina has been gearing up for full on host mode. Leina will definitely be at the airport at least once, and she even called Tony to see how easy it would be to scam tickets at the student price for a show at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. It is not easy.

Blanket Chair, 2001-2007. R.I.P.

2007-02-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

They were out late for Leina's birthday, but Leina and Charles and Erica and Tony and Angie didn't sleep in too late. They got up and were going to go out to brunch with Kristi and Ricca, but they decided against it because at 11:30 on a Sunday you always have to wait in line if you want to eat an omelet that a stranger made for you.

So they went to the new Glen Park Marketplace, a fancy grocery store right nearby, and bought eggs, avocados, salsa, tortillas, and cheese and came home and made breakfast burritos. Ricca and Kristi brought Beard Papa's, to the delight of all.

Plans to do anything else fizzled when Tony started complaining about the blanket chair, and Kristi and Ricca suggested the logical idea of putting the blankets into a closet, and suddenly, under all this peer pressure, Leina found herself going through her closet and throwing out all the pants that she bought for herself 10 years ago in Japan but hasn't worn since. She wound up with four garbage bags of clothes that she is giving away, all the blankets in her closets, all her clothes in her bedroom closet, and she even had room left over to put jackets in one closet!

She did, however, absolutely refuse to throw out an incredibly dirty, falling apart, 40 year old radio that she had never ever ever used, because 'it still works!' Tony plugged it in, and indeed, all were treated to that awesome Moulin Rouge song with Christina Aguliera, Pink, Lil' Kim, etc. singing Lady Marmelade.

The Birthday!

2007-02-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

We last left off with Leina opening the door to her surprise party. There were around 30 of her nearest and dearest, and they had lined up in a way that Leina was kind of forced to walk a hug gauntlet towards the back of the room.

Ricca, Kristi, and Ernesto flew up from LA just for the night. Noriko and Yuto were there with the rest of the family. Little Yuto was running around, a full 25 years younger than the second youngest person there, and enjoying himself immensely. Erica had printed out little buttons with Leina's face on them and everyone was wearing them. Tony and Erica had mixed two cocktails for the evening, the greyhound (grapefruit juice and vodka) and the cucumber gimlet (cucumber juice, lime, and gin). The latter was not particularly popular, and it made Tony wonder if maybe he should not have spent so much time that afternoon juicing cucumbers.

Charles had ordered big trays of sashimi and sushi rolls and potato croqettes and fried chicken, which were mostly devoured over the course of the evening. Erica and Tony also provided some homemade dips, a tahini miso one which tasted pretty good and one of those spinach dip made with the package of instant soup that pretends it's healthy because it has spinach in it, but it isn't even when Erica puts in double the recommended spinach. There was also beer; some fancy stuff Tony bought and Budweiser that Stephen had around even though he apparently prefers Miller.

Mary was the only soul from work willing to dive into Leina's private life by showing up. But the Aptos Posse was there with significant others. Serena brought a cake that a friend made that was good and really chocolatey, with insane ganache roses. Tony finally met Nicole Dare and got to talk to Miki, if only for a few seconds. Claire was there and so was Katrina and several of Leina's more obscure Japan friends from when she spent a year there back in '98, like Justin and Kenta were also there. As mentioned in the last post, Auntie came. Shirley & Nicole Ylagan said they would come but didn't, to the consternation of several other guests. Alice sent a card. Sanders didn't come because he said he didn't know anyone. And maybe because Ernesto was there.

So Leina flitted around, Ricca and Nicole Dare ran around taking pictures and then instantly printed them on this cute photo printer Kristi brought from work, drinks were drunken, food was eaten, and old school rap/hip hop was played.

Around 10:00, the goal was to get people moving towards Medjool, a bar/restaurant that Leina has been dying to go to forever. It took until around 11:00 until people actually got moving to the door. Erica and Charles decided against paying for the bottle service, so there was no reserved space. So they drove over, drove by, and saw a huge line out front consisting of the Marina/bridge-and-Caldecot tunnel crowd, or so it was speculated. So they kept on driving. Instead, they went to another Mission bar called Blondies, at Serena's executive decision. They closed it down. It dawned upon Erica, to Tony's horror, that they had just forced Leina into a Stephen Dodson birthday move! The irony was not lost on them. And indeed, later Leina learned that Alice's cousin Amber went to Medjool went and waited and waited but Leina never showed up!

A Green Shirt for the Party

2007-02-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

Around the time of Leina's actual birthday, Angie gave her a fancy green, low cut shirt. Leina really liked it. She wanted to wear it to a special occasion. And she knew that one was upcoming... "I'm going to wear it to my party... I mean dinner with Charles, tonight!" she exclaimed to Angie that Friday. And she did. And she had dinner with Charles again, but there was no party for her.

Erica and Tony had gone to New York the weekend before Leina's birthday, and Leina secretly wondered if Erica was just pretending to be going to New York and was going to jump out and surprise her that weekend. She wasn't.

On Leina's actual birthday, she took a long long time getting ready before going out to dinner with Charles. Much longer than he'd ever see her take. And it was a tough birthday for her not only because she discovered that her future mojitos would be few and far between, but because she was sure there would be a lot of people yelling suprise to her somewhere. But no one emerged.

She put the shirt on again Saturday, Charles was actually taking her to some youth basketball thing, just like he said he was going to do. By this time she had stopped putting quite so much effort into her makeup. There was a surprise that evening when Liane and Dominic came, but where were Tony and Erica and Stephen and Mary and the rest? She was getting very tired of waiting for this surprise.

It must be the following weekend.

Still no party on Friday. There were no confirmed reports of her wearing the green shirt. Finally, Saturday. Erica made a fake effort to invite Leina to dinner and threw her off her game for a moment, but Leina quickly recovered. Leina wore the green shirt. Charles took her to Stephen Dodson's apartment building, where she noticed Angie and Noriko's cars. Then she saw Auntie, who failed to obey the "Please do not arrive between 8:15 and 8:45" request. But she pretended she didn't. Plus Mrs. Turner had asked her all about the party that afternoon, knowing full well that her daughter was doing her best to keep it as much of a surprise as possible.

But Charles took her upstairs, and everyone was there, and "Surprise!" She acted a little surprised, but there were no tears, no open mouthed gasps, and no bugged eyes. Still, she had a great time at her party, which will be documented shortly.

A Semi-Wrecked Surprise

2007-02-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

A month ago, an Evite arrived in the inboxes of dozens of Leina's friends and relatives. The Evite described a surprise birthday party for Leina that Erica had masterminded and that Tony, Angie, Charles, and Stephen were co-conspirators. One Evite arrived on the screen of Mary, a co-worker of Leina's. Hours after it appeared, Leina was inexplicably reading the titles of Mary's emails, and made the comment, "That's funny, I have friends Tony and Erica, and a roommate Angie, and a boyfriend Charles, and a friend Stephen..." before trailing off and running away giggling.

It was at this time Leina stopped planning her own birthday party.

However, she did not know when or where it was happening nor the fact that Erica was killing herself trying to figure out how to make this a more special party since the surprise was no longer.

Surprise visit!

2007-01-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Leina anticipated being busy on Saturday, and it delivered, more strongly than expected. Leina took her test, which she thought went pretty well. Then she went over to CDC to do some work for Mr. Turner. Then she had to stop by the bank to do some tax stuff. Then she needed to do some other stuff. Then, she had to go to Charles basketball thing. She seemed rather disappointed to be just going to the basketball thing, as though she were expecting more. But later, out of nowhere, Liane showed up with Dominic! That was quite a surprise to Leina. It was a little late birthday surprise.

She had a calm Sunday with Liane and Auntie (who's feeling much better). They ate a low fat diet dinner including sicilian stew, green beans, brown rice, salmon, tofu/chinese greens dish. Angie joined them. Then Liane had to fly back home.

Taking a test

2007-01-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Leina had a test this morning for some sort of social work certification so she could become a full time civil servant, complete with health insurance and paid time off. She was studying last night until she came over to Erica and Tony's for a Japanese dinner. Charles and she cooked with them a cornicopia of Japanese homestyle dishes from a cookbook called Washoku and another called the Ethnomusicologist's Cookbook, with the recipes in the latter supplied by Tony and Erica's friend, Marie. They made chawan mushi, bass with white cloud (they forgot half the white cloud, the daikon, but it was still tasty), miso soup, and rice with young ginger. It was all good. Leina mistook a dab of wasabi for half an edamame, though, and lit her mouth on fire.

Leina kept singing the refrain from some song that sounded like "Herbalicious" but apparently was not that word. She later tried to sing a karaoke version of Do Me! by Bell Biv DeVoe off the computer, but without the bouncing ball leading her through the lyrics, it fizzled.

Then they went to Fenton's for ice cream, where Leina got a petit scoop with lots of cookies and chocolate and caramel, and it was huge. She was a trooper and ate the whole thing, though. Charles got a 1-scoop, and it was about the size of half a pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Also on her dresser

2007-01-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

Leina has a roll of quarters on her dresser. She claims they are there because Auntie gave them to her. She would not divulge any other information regarding said roll of quarters.

A Tough Birthday

2007-01-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Leina's birthday was yesterday! Leina had been talking for months about how to ring in the important 3-0, but it was apparently idle talk. Charles took her out to dinner at Chenery Park, right in her neighborhood. Erica and Tony were slightly miffed that she didn't invite them. Leina seemed to be under the impression that there was a surprise party awaiting her last night, so she got all made-up and wore something cute and prepared herself for a big thrill. There was none. Apparently, "Everyone has been acting weird."

The night got worse. Depressed when she arrived and there was no one else to greet her, Leina had a celebratory mojito. Minutes later, Leina was praying to the porcelain god. She was either super duper faded or allergic to rum. There is ample evidence on both sides, with the fact that she gay-gayed four more times that evening on just the one drink support for an allergy. She also remembered being in Hawaii the previous month and having a similar reaction after one rum drink.

Tony and Erica came over and brought her cupcakes with candles that spelled out "Happy Birthday," but of course Leina was too sick to eat one.

In September, Tony gave Leina a coupon for a free carwash. She had practically begged him for one. Yesterday it was still sitting on her dresser. When confronted about it, Leina made up some lie about how she was waiting for there not to be rain in the forecast. She may have been sick, but that was a lame excuse even for her.

Auntie

2007-01-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

One reason Leina has not been her typical ebullient self was a near-tragedy with Auntie. Auntie had a heart attack a day or two after Christmas. She was rushed to the hospital where she had to spend several days. Leina kept vigil and did all that she could to help. It involved numerous trips to Marin County General. Auntie has been released, but she is still recovering. Liane even came in from Michigan for a day to help out. Needless to say, Leina has been thinking about Auntie a lot, and visiting as much as possible.

Leina was going to...

2007-01-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

Leina (and Tony) have been moderately busy of late. Her life has been going on. She was going to come over to Tony and Erica's for Chrismas eve but then she bailed. Then she was going to have to drive to Merced and back to pick up her cousin on Christmas day but that was postponed. On New Year's Eve, she was going to go to Stephen Dodson's party where she would have seen Jessica Goldberg, Xochi, and even Christina! But shen she didn't because she was out at a party with Charles' friends. But she did get a chance to go to Merced early in the new year to drop off her cousin and she's actively scheming about how to spend her birthday, which she feels should be a big blowout. She thought about getting a party bus but that was too expensive. Dancing may be involved. Leina's New Years resolutions have not been released to the public, but the general consensus is that she is going to resolve to be nicer to people.

One year anniversary

2006-12-21T23:03:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, Leina forgot to celebrate. Celebrate what? Some anniversary with Charles? somebody else's birthday? The holiday season? No, it was one year ago today that Leina's Life began. Its beginnings were humble, but there have been some good times over the year. The few loyal readers have even, at times, been entertained. One even has been lobbying for a best-of contest. So as a reader suggestion, I am hereby happy to hear nominations of the best-of 2006 in Leina's life.

But Leina did celebrate Tuesday. Just the wrong thing! It was Jun's birthday, and an ice cream cake was in order. Surprising no one, Leina was nominated to bring the cake. Burlingame is not super close to Leina's house, and she was concerned that the cake might melt in car on the way there. So she planned ahead, phoned ahead to some ice cream cake purveyor in Burlingame, and picked it up less than a mile from Noriko's house. She was roundly applauded for her ingenuity.

Photo concerns

2006-12-20T23:38:00.000-08:00

Today Leina decided to send out some photos from Carlito's birthday. They were not particularly interesting, just four photos, two of the cake and two of the birthday boy. She sent the photos out to Tony, Erica, and Erica's dad's work email. Moments later, she panicked. Perhaps she had sent them not only the four intended photos, but also those other photos! Those photos she didn't want anyone else to see! Maybe they were photos of her in her bikini in a compromising position with Charles in Hawaii, but it is unknown exactly what they were of. Oh, the embarrassment! A few close friends almost accidentally saw this! She quickly called Tony and Erica, who were at the moment hosting Mandara for dinner and drinks, and made them run to check their email. No compromising photos were viewed, Leina's integrity was not compromised.

Party Time

2006-12-17T10:05:00.000-08:00

Last night Leina found herself at Element, again. Element had not been a factor in Leina's life for almost a whole year. Last November, Leina had bailed on Stephen Dodson's birthday, which Stephen Dodson was also guilty of. In February, Leina had celebrated her birthday there. But she had not been back since. A casual observer perhaps would have decided that Leina had gotten tired of the joint on Geary Street, that she had moved on.

Maybe Leina had moved on, but Aptos Posse had not. It was Jennifer Garcia's birthday, and she and her posse were determined to party hard. It was decided that this hard partying would occur at Element, and Leina, not being an actual member of the Aptos Posse, had no voice in the decision.

Before the club was dinner, at Amici's. Leina had a stiff margarita and some enchaladas. Or she would have had this been a Mexican Restaurant. Instead she had some pizza or pasta and shared some wine with her tablemates. No grappa was consumed. She made Charles come with, and they ate well, and danced some at Element. There was no Boyz II men nor ABC or BBD to dance to, so she was sad. She did manage to Get her Freak On to Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot, so the night was not lost. After Element, there were some plans to have a sundae, but Leina and Charles bailed and went to sleep.

The next morning, for some reason they drove over to Noe Valley and waited in line to go to Chloe's for brunch. It was fine. She didn't even consider the corned beef hash, deciding upon eggs Benedict, after the Revolutionary War traitor.

Mandarins

2006-12-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

Leina doesn't like clementines (shown below). She likes satsumas (shown above). She says that clementines are hard to peel, which leads one to wonder if she had ever eaten a clementine.
She might be in trouble, though, as it seems the former are surpassing the latter in popularity.

Out of Contact

2006-12-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

Hawaii is a part of the United States, and is even covered in Cingular's network without roaming fees added. Yet Leina, while there, believes that she should not call back her friends until almost a week has passed. Then she calls Erica in the middle of a Raconteurs' concert, and they chat. Erica learned that Leina subsisted on frozen pizza for her last few days in the Lower 48. And that Leina'll be back on the continent on Monday. No word on how the dried shrimp went over, though.

Omiyagi

2006-12-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today Leina is delivering omiyagi to all the aunties and uncles. Every time she visits, of course she needs to bring gifts. And not just to those who host her or take her out; she need to give gifts to everyone. These are apparently called omiyagi in Japanese. Unfortunately, it is not so simple deciding what gift to bring everyone.

She fretted about what to bring this year. She wanted to bring food, but all these aunties and uncles are old and have all these dietary restrictions. Can't be too sweet, can't be too salty, can't be too fatty. Someone even said, "No nuts."

Leina was initially excited to bring persimmons for everyone, but Hawaii has imported vegetable restrictions, or so she claims (half-hearted attempts to confirm this were unsuccessful). She says that if a fruit has a stem or leaf, then they won't let it in without special permits. So she contemplated removing the stems and leafs from the persimmons and hoping Ag Control would be okay with that.

Last time, she was mildly successful with shitake mushrooms, but she can't bring them again. Another time, she brought Chinese beef jerky. The Chinese jerky, for those who are not familiar with it, is not only salty like typical jerky, but also cloyingly sweet. So that will never make an encore appearance.

Then she thought of dried fruit, but that didn't pass the dietary restrictions--too sugary. She was really at a loss for what to bring them. So she called up a few of the aunties looking for advice. One said she'd like some of those tiny dried shrimp, which can be a tasty to a fish or seaweed broth. Another one said, "Anything you bring me is just fine," but Leina knew she was lying. So she brought the dried shrimp.

The 50th State

2006-12-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Leina has been out of the news for the past few days because she is in the middle of the Pacific in our most exotic state, Hawaii. Before getting all worked up about the extravagant vacation Leina has taken so early into her social working career, please be informed that the purpose of this trip is business, not pleasure.

Leina does a better job of explaining it, but her father passed away two years ago, and there is a Buddhist ceremony one year after a death and then another one two years after the death. And a few more after that. And they all have to be in close proximity to good surfing. Maybe not that last part; Leina has lots of relatives in Hawaii, and maybe even little nephews who she can drive to sleep. But when she's not doing that, she will likely be participating in the highly organized Japanese Buddhist rituals that go with one's death.

Birthday Biking?!?!

2006-11-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

Leina will be turning the big 3-0 this coming January. And like past years, she has big plans for her big day. She has decided to bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation! There was much excitement regarding these ambitious plans. Then, a certain close friend of hers, who she had railroaded into accompanying her, gave this a bit more thought.

She'd never seen Leina on a bike. She wasn't sure if Leina even had ever ridden a bike. Leina did own a bike; a classic, blue Schwinn which had hung from her ceiling as long as Erica had know her, but that bike may have been Liane's. She became more skeptical. "Leina, as soon as you get on a bike and ride it up Portola, then we can talk" about making this trip, Erica said to her.

There is some suspicion that Leina assumes it will be downhill all the way from San Francisco to L.A., because that's how it seems on the globe. But she is ambitious. It will be interesting to see whether she is still interested when she learns how much money she will need to spend on a decent road bike.

Driving Nephews to Sleep

2006-11-30T21:22:00.000-08:00

Leina has a bad sore throat and can barely talk, though she still called Tony last night and had him tell her stories about how he went to the Cal basketball game against Kansas State and there was a guy on the Kansas State bench with a mohawk who everyone in the stadium was cheering to get into the game, and when he finally did with two minutes left, he didn't give them the pleasure of heaving even on off-balance three point attempt.

It is a well-known fact that many young children don't fall sleep when their parents want them to. Babies and toddlers don't seem to understand that just because you've sung them a song and tucked them in to bed, that means they should sleep. And what does one do when a child won't fall asleep? There are many theories on how to react, whether or not to respond to an insomniac child.

Leina has no children of her own, but has, on numerous occasions, found herself responsible for a nephew who just won't fall asleep. Now many people would just let the kid stay up, because who cares, he's not her kid anyways. But not Leina. She feels a moral obligation to make sure that any young male nephew or hers get his rest, one way or another.

Liane, or perhaps Noriko, explained to her that Dominic, or maybe Yuto, falls asleep best when he is being driven around. So on numerous occasions, Leina has taken to the streets with a youngster strapped into the backseat. This happens so often that she mentions it to her friends as though half the cars on the road were just taking leisurely drives in order to coerce a young passenger into nodding off. She recently explained a route that she took where she drove Dominic out to the zoo, past Pacific Heights, and essentially all over town, past many places that this author couldn't find with a GPS system in his car, and Dominic still wouldn't sleep.

What's more, she even passes this burden on to Charles. On Thanksgiving, while they were waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven, it was decided that Yuto should be asleep, and he wasn't in agreement with the decision. So somehow Charles found himself trying to get lost in Marin County with Yuto in the backseat, and the treatment much more effective on Leina, who passed out riding shotgun.

Mighty Warriors

2006-11-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

Will has been very generous to Leina in the past, offering her tickets to see the Warriors on numerous occasions. He has season tickets, and Leina is usually happy to take him up on the offer. Sometimes, though, she can't find a date and then provisionally offers the tickets to a friend only to renege later on that offer. But only sometimes.

This time, Leina was taking Charles. She paid Will for the tickets which was the least she could do. She came down with a sore throat in the afternoon and then took a nap. Then Charles came over and he took a nap, while she agreed to stop by Erica and Tony's for fondue on the way. They brought baguettes of bread and some chicken apple sausage. When Leina asked what she should bring and rattled off a list of potential grocery items, Tony ridiculed Leina when she offered to bring apples. So she subversively brought apples, brought in sausage casing and mixed with ground chicken. There were also green beans, potatoes, cauliflower, and mushrooms for dipping.

The fondue was good and cheesy. Erica offered Charles a beer which Tony then unoffered because he was 'saving it.' But then he offered him a different beer, which Charles then was too scared to drink. They drove to the Ashby BART and then took BART to the game.

It was a good game. The Warriors upset the Jazz, giving them only their second loss of the season. Leina did a lot of cheering, which did not help her sore throat.

Leina woke up this morning feeling sick. She didn't call Auntie, who has been know to give medical advice in the past (and mis-spell vomiting), because she didn't want to bother her. And since she didn't have to go to work, she decided to waste her time and go to the doctor, who, predictably, told her to rest, gargle with salt water for comfort, and come back in if her symptoms didn't improve in three days.

Celebrating a Happy 21st

2006-11-24T22:41:00.000-08:00

Leina today spent the day with Charles until about 5:00, when she gave him a ride home to Foster City. Erica and Tony and Erica's brother Carlito happened to also be going from San Francisco to Foster City at that exact time to hang out with Erica and Carlito's cousins and second cousins. So, naturally, she gave them a ride. Leina had offered to both drop off and pick them up an hour later, but she failed to mention that she wasn't going to do anything besides drop off Charles while in Foster City.

So while the three of them were cooing over new little second-cousins-once-removed, Leina was parked a block away, making phone calls to her friends and aquaintances. She talked to Alice's mom and Nicole Dare among others, until Erica called her and Leina said that they could go whenever, because she was parked a block away.

This day happened to be Carlito's 21st birthday, which was to be celebrated later that night with a dungeness crab dinner. Carlito was hoping Leina would come for he values the witty conversation she brings to the dinner table, but Leina really didn't want to go. She thought she could get out of it by offering to buy Carlito a drink beforehand. So he took her up on that offer.

Leina had the idea to get off 101 in Millbrae and find a real divey bar on El Camino Real. She was scared to go into the first divey bar that Tony and Erica noticed, but she got excited when she saw an Irish Pub, Finn McCool's. So they went inside, and she bought Carlito and Tony Guinnesses, Erica a heffeweisen. The bartender was very nice. He noticed from Carlito's ID that it was indeed birthday number 21, bought him a shot, a fancy shot of 18-year-old Bushmill's. For her drink, she asked the bartender what swee drinks he had. He asked, "How sweet?" That threw her off, and she started blubbering about not too sweet, but kind of sweet, and finally Erica interrupted and asked him if he had any recommendations. He did, and she ordered herself a melontini.

Leina tipped the bartender $5 on a $17 tab, but then they left after one drink and she felt bad that perhaps they should have stayed for a second drink or tipped him more.

Carlito, however, did not let her off the hook for dinner, and Leina's excuse about how she couldn't come over because she had to return Angie's DVDs to the library was widely ridiculed. She succumbed to the peer pressure and came over, where she managed to have a decent time.

Turkey of a Day

2006-11-24T22:28:00.000-08:00

Some people who come from split families wind up celebrating two Thanksgivings. Yesterday, Leina somehow found herself eating turkey almost nonstop from 2:00 until midnight, at three different parties. And her parents stayed together their entire lives.

But before she could eat any turkey, she had to make some of the coconut creme pudding mentioned the other day in this space. Leina, however, had some difficulty with the recipe, but astutely woke up at 6:45 on Thanksgiving to start making it, with a soothsayer's sixth sense that something would go wrong. She fulfilled her prophecy and managed to screw up the recipe twice, starting over each time, until the third time was the charm. Then she had to drive someone somewhere before going home and taking a nap.

Then she went to Charles' parents' house for a meal, which was nice, and then drove somewhere else on the peninsula to have a Thanksgiving with The Poker Friends. It is surprising that The Poker Friends have not been mentioned here before, but the short is that they, for many years, played poker with her father, and became family friends. And Leina visits them every few months. What is confusing is that there are two unrelated sets of Poker Friends. Perhaps Leina's father played in two different poker games, and forged lifelong friendships in each. Poker can be a very bonding activity.

Anyways, she drove out to visit The Poker Friends and spend some time with them, and only ate a little bit of turkey because Auntie was making a big feast up in Marin for the family. So Charles (who had been by her side since noon) and she made the familiar drive from the southbay to the northbay, and arrived at Auntie's ready to eat one last time. The turkey, alas, did not go into the oven until 6:00, and one will find that when the turkey goes in the oven late, it comes out late: 11:30, the latest Leina had ever eaten a Thanksgiving turkey.

On the bright side, all turkeys were tasty, she didn't have to work the next day, and she managed to make her appearances at each location on time and see everyone she wanted to.

Way Beyond

2006-11-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

Leina had a big problem today. She was baking a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. She had, in preparation for her busy day in the kitchen, splurged on a fancy set of metal spoons from Bed Bath and Beyond (probably these spoons). It was an angst-ridden decision, for Leina really didn't want to spend the $9.99, which after the 20% coupon which came in the mail earlier this month (which she has been known to use, even when expired) still cost over $8, after tax.

But she decided to reward herself for working hard and got the fancy set. She paid and brought them home so she could make this pie, which had somehow turned into a coconut pudding cake or something. No worries, now she would be able to accurately measure out the vanilla and cinnamon instead of using the cap or guessing. So the time comes to get one teaspoon of vanilla, and she reaches for her shiny new measuring spoons only to find: no teaspoon!!! Leina was furious! She could have simply measured two 1/2 teaspoons, but still! She then counted her spoons and noticed she was also short an 1/8 teaspoon, which she knew deep down was a useless measurement because when a recipe calls for that, it really just means a pinch of that ingredient. But out of principle, she jumped back in the car and drove to a different Bed Bath and Beyond to exchange it.

She wound up exchanging them for some cheaper, plastic spoons that had all the measurements.

Missed Stephen's party

2006-11-12T00:20:00.000-08:00

This evening. Charles came over to hang out. Angie was hanging out with a bottle of wine, and Nicole was in her room. It became an even fuller house when Erica and Tony came over with burgers they had just bought from Tower Burgers, which they were going to eat before coming over but Tower closed at 9:00 and they had to get their burgers to go and eat them at Leina's dining room table. Leina traded a generous squirt of ketsup for a few fries, but not as many as she was hoping to, because Tony ate fast.

Angie, Tony and Erica left to go to Stephen Dodson's party, a birthday party of some sort with a lot of people that Leina didn't know (with the exception of the aforementioned guests, the host, and Serena, Bryon, Gavin and Will and Stephen's sister Katrina, all of whom asked about her). She missed a happening party, with Dom Perignon, Ketel One, and Batman Begins on the TV without the sound. A phone call was made to her, but she skipped it.

Why did she skip it? Liane and Dom are back in town! She had to pick them up at the airport but pick up Noriko first and then go back to her place and goo goo over how big Dom had gotten and then go to bed early.

Breakfast out

2006-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Apparently, last night did not involve enough heavy food for Leina and Charles. They decided to go out for brunch this morning at Mama's on Washington Square, in North Beach. As promised online, there was a line outside. During the wait, Leina called Erica and consult on the difference between eggs Florentine and eggs Benedict. For the record, Florentine has hollandaise and a bed of spinach, while Benedict has a slice of ham in place of the spinach.

Dinner out

2006-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Leina had not talked to Tony for a few weeks. She claimed that she had not returned a phone call of his on Thursday because "I fell asleep at 9:50." When pressed, she admitted it could have been 9:45 or even as late as 10:00. However, she did phone him last night around 6:30.

"You eaten yet?" she inquired. Tony had not, in fact, eaten. "Do you and Erica want to come over and eat something?" It turned out that Tony was in the midst of cooking a family recipe he had been meaning to make for several years--Marcella Hazan's Pork Loin Braised in Milk. So there was no reason for Leina and Charles not to come over, and they did.

It has been noted before in this space that Charles does not admit to liking pork, and along the way he and Leina had this discussion, which turned into an argument, which resulted in Leina calling to see if there were going to be non-pork alternatives, against Charles' wishes. But Charles hung up her phone mid-call, though not before she got the message across. So Erica and Tony made a quick pasta dish. Improbably, Leina brought green beans again.

They also brought a Just Desserts cake and some sort of dip for the beans. Tony also made squash with apple cider glaze and brussel sprouts with walnut oil. As they ate, Tony informed Leina that besides salt and pepper, there were only three ingredients in the meal (which was wrong, unless you count butter and oil as the same ingredient). He had Leina guess them. She got the pork right, but then guessed vinegar before being shocked that milk was an ingredient.

Charles had seconds of the pork.

Afterwards, Erica made tea and Leina had to listen to Tony narrate his entire four days in Japan with photos. She feigned interest.

At 11:00, Tony essentially kicked them out, so that he could go to bed. Erica thought it was rude and it probably was.

She like?

2006-11-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

Leina, like many hip people of a certain age, was excited to go see Borat on opening day. Charles, too, was eager. So they went to Leina's favorite theater (because of the location, of course), Kabuki in Japantown, to see it. But alas, it was not to be. There was a hella long line and the movie sold out before they reached the front of it! Next time, she's buying her tickets online first. So instead, they saw A Good Year, a movie directed by the guy who did Alien and Blade Runner, about some boring English Russell Crowe who goes to France and restores a house and then restores his personality (a bit) and then falls in love. It was okay.

Is Leina so Japanese or is Japan so Leina?

2006-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is, honest to God, the first thing Tony saw after walking through customs at Tokyo Airport.

Leina's Japaneseness

2006-11-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Have no fear, Leina's life has not ceased to be interesting or recorded, it is just that her blogographer was busy doing some research by visiting Japan for a few days.

Noted: In the Tokyo home were Tony was a guest (not a friend or relative of Leina's, gasp!) there was both a) a shelf full of Christmas Cacti, apparently lovingly tended, and b) two glass-doored hutch-things full of a wide variety of teacups and saucers, enough to serve roasted green tea on a different pattern every day for at least three weeks.

Until he sadly passed away, her father maintained a nice collection of a), though Leina's brown thumb has managed to kill off almost the entire collection since (though she wisely gave one to Tony and Erica to nurture before doing so).

Those who have been to Leina's house are perhaps are familiar with the presence of b), though for the record, Tony's host did not serve him using the least expensive or nice teacups, which is generally the case at Leina's.

Basketball

2006-10-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

Leina played some b-ball on Sunday. They were at a park in Foster City for a picnic, and there were three boys playing around on the court. Somehow, Charles got her to play some pick-up ball while waiting for more people to show up. It was Leina and Charles against the three little boys. She was happy with herself because she made her layups.

Miki's wedding pic

2006-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here is the best photo available from Miki's wedding. Leina is the one with the black hair (pre-haircut) and a black dress.

(since she's the maid of honor, she's the one to the left of the flower)

More visitors

2006-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Liane and Dom are coming to visit Leina and the family. Leina will have the opportunity to ooh and aah over the rapidly growing little one. But not as much as she'd like, since she has a full time job. Leina is also on call on Friday, meaning that she has to stay within the limits of San Francisco, or so she believes. At least she needs to be able to get to a site "ASAP." Whether it is easier to get to Candlestick from Burlinghame or from Inner Sunset is up for grabs, though.

And Ricca will be back! There is a wedding or something. Plus, it was Ernesto's birthday yesterday, so of course the two of them will be coming up here. Last weekend, it was for work, but this weekend, it is for play. But due to wedding festivities (that she is shockingly not a bridesmaid at, nor even invited), Leina might not see much of them. Liane is taking a redeye home on Saturday night, so perhaps Leina will get out to see them after she leaves. And she is leaving open the possibility of brunch.

Ricca

2006-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Ricca was in town this weekend from LA. Leina and she hung out. Ricca left on Saturday night, though, so her flight would be cheaper. After dropping off Rica at the airport, Leina immediately drove down to Foster City to go to the birthday party of a friend of Charles. They went to a Korean restaurant. She promised Tony she'd call because she was pretending that she'd be able to meet him and Erica at Joe's party in Alamo Square later that night, but then she didn't call because who knew that you could spend four hours in a Korean restaurant celebrating someone's birthday?

Haircut

2006-10-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Leina's look has changed! She got a new, short haircut, from her usual Chinese barber who is cheap. Her hair is also dyed! She says her new 'do makes her look like a middle-aged Asian woman... or a Russian. Perhaps she will be photographically captured and this new, bold look will be visible for all readers.

Miki's Wedding

2006-10-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

The other day Leina realized that she's been to nine weddings in her life, and of those nine, she participated in seven: She has been a maid of honor thrice, hulaed in one, and baked a wedding cake for one.

The day that Leina had been eagerly but nervously anticipating came and went on Saturday, and after all the preparations and excitement and cookie baking, it was somewhat anticlimactic. Leina organized it so that she and the rest of the bridesmaids would stay with Miki in a hotel the night before, except for the one bridesmaid who volunteered to be the one who didn't. The next day, they got all fancily dressed and went to the wedding. It goes without saying that Leina drove. When the ceremony started, she looked great in her curled hair and long, tight, scrunched velvet dress (only $10 at Jessica McClintock outlet in South San Francisco!). The dress is similar to one Nicole Dare wore to a dance once in high school. She didn't spend hours preparing her speech, and quoted extensively from Khalil Gibran on marriage. Okay, she didn't, but she might have had she thought of it. Perhaps some photos of the event will emerge at a later date.

She has today off, it being Indigeneous Persons' Day, or Italian-American Rememberance of Accidental Genocide or something like that. This morning she was paying bills, and buying X-mas gifts. She also found the time to write Khalil a note about how excited she is about his engagement, and how she is looking forward to attending his wedding and not be in it. He responded that he hoped she would be their flower girl.

Angel Island bidding

2006-10-02T16:39:00.001-07:00

Leina, due to the generosity of Mrs. Turner, attended a fancy Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation charity dinner on Friday. She had to wear her glasses because her eyes are irritated and her optometrist said to. She felt like she should give a donation because it was a $175 a plate Chinese banquet feast. Mrs. Turner gave her a wonderful opportunity to donate and gamble at the same time! Leina purchased $60 of raffle tickets, with the potential of winning two Southwest round trip tickets or half price on an Alaska cruise. She didn't.

There was also a silent auction, and Tony made the minimum bid of $100, in Leina's name, on a pair of pretty framed paper kimonos for her bedroom. Expectations were that this bid would be quickly trumped, but ten minutes passed and Leina was still on the hook. She started getting anxious, then ran over scratched out her name, to Tony's dismay, which of course was unnecessary because moments later someone else bid $150.

She enjoyed listening to Leon Panetta, as well as this old Chinese woman Li Keng Wong who wrote a book about passing through the station 70 years ago, and the food, which was served over a looong time, and even didn't mind the sea cucumber which came as the second to last course.

Two Tonys

2006-09-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Leina only knows two Tonys. The author of this blog and a certain Tony who was also at Will's birthday.

Not so long ago, perhaps even the last time that photos were published in this space, Leina attempted to send the former Tony some photos. She went to her email address book, and saw Tony, and quickly sent off the photos and a quick note.

To her dismay, she then realized that she'd accidentally sent it to the other Tony, who at this point she had not spoken to in about three years. Most people, if that occurred, would send a quick follow up note apologizing, explaining that it was an accident, and inquiring about that person's goings-on, health, etc. Leina took a different approach, quickly composing a follow up note maintaining that she meant to send these random photos of her trying to waterski to the other Tony, because they'd been out of touch for so long, and she just wanted to say hi and that this was the best way to do it.

Working Socially

2006-09-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

It was a long and storied two years, but Leina's term at the National Association of Social Workers expired earlier this year. She thought she was done debating the place of social work in society. She thought she would no longer be taking those quarterly trips to Washington DC to meet. She thought she was out, but they pulled her back in.

Leina recieved notice that she was nominated to be a member of NASW's National Committee on Women's Issues. It is a three-year term, and Leina hopes it does not involve quite as many flights to DC. Who was she to decline? On a related note, she is suffering from exhaustion, but declined Erica's suggestion to take it easy on herself and get away from everyone--relax in Calistoga or Yosemite. She has already promised the San Francisco Asian Pacific Islander Social Working Group that she would give them a 15-minute speech on Saturday morning.

Weekend Update

2006-09-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

As usual, Leina had a very busy weekend. She kicked it off by picking up Miki and driving her to the Flower Mart, where they went shopping for wedding flowers. Then she spent a few hours working for Mr. Turner, because she doesn't have the heart to tell him that she now has a full time job and doesn't really need or want to continue working on Saturdays. Plus, she feels like she's helping him out, which she is.

That afternoon she and Charles picked up Miki and drove her out to Pittsburgh, where Miki made them some sort of dinner. But Leina started feeling sick. She has decided that it was stress-related. So she went home and went to bed and only had one more thing this morning, a brunch with Jennifer, who was up from L.A. She ate some scones which were good, and then went home and didn't do anything for the rest of the day, which she was really excited about.

Birthdays Report

2006-09-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we learned that Leina was torn between her roommate's and her cousin's birthday. Leina made a semi-rational decision and called Erica yesterday evening to let her know she was bailing on Angie's birthday. Leina had to work late so she was downtown but she didn't have her car so she needed to go home, get her car, and buy a cake before anyone else arrived (because the host is supposed to have a cake).

(As suspected) Noriko's birthday was scheduled at Leina's place with little consultation with Leina herself. When asked why she didn't at least insist on it starting an hour later, she answered that she knew Noriko would be late and she didn't want the party starting at 9:00. One can speculate why she didn't insist on someone else getting a cake.

Erica offered to pick up a cake for her on her way into San Francisco if Leina would stop by, and astutely noted that since Noriko would be late, there was little reason for her to rush home, and Noriko could pick her up and give her a ride home as she came in from Burlinghame, her true home (not Millbrae or Foster City or San Mateo, as erroneously reported earlier).

So Leina went to Angie's party for a few minutes and noticed that there was an old friend of her and Erica's from high school. She told Erica and Erica went over to talk to her, but Leina hid outside for some reason. She managed to avoid this old friend for the 10 minutes that Erica chatted with her, but then Noriko came and Leina had the decision--should she leave without saying goodbye to Erica or should she blow her cover and quickly say hi to the old friend? she chose the latter, then slinked out.

Noriko's birthday was pretty good, except that Yuto had some sort of allergic reaction to the carrot cake and had to be taken home early, which Leina was secretly relieved about, since it let her get to be earlier.

Two birthdays

2006-09-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

It's not that Leina didn't see it coming, but roommate Angie and Noriko have the same birthday today. Leina had promised Angie that she would make it for her birthday party at some bar in SoMa, but somehow it took until today for her to learn that she would be hosting an extended family get together to have some cake in celebration of Noriko. Noriko is exactly 10 years older than Angie, though occasionally one might guess it is the other way around.

Angie's shindig begins at 7:00, and Leina is expected to host everyone at 7:30. So instead of telling her family to come over an hour later and deal with it or sending her regrets to Angie, Leina will be appearing at some bar named after a probably fictional guy from 7:00-7:20, then hauling herself back to Miraloma to let in her Auntie, cousin, cousin's cousin, cousin's son and husband, and perhaps even the mysterious Uncle Norihiko.

Yuto's finger

2006-09-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Leina's nephew, or actually her cousin Noriko's boy Yuto, is very quiet. One of the quieter 2-year-olds around. The other day he got his finger smashed in the door. This hurt a lot, and he was not quiet for some time aftewards. Noriko took him to the hospital, where there were varying diagnoses, at least by the time they were reported back to Leina. First, she heard that his finger was broken. Or maybe there was some tendon damage. Then, it seemed that his tendon was badly bruised. The last thing Leina knew was that the bone was chipped. Whether broken or not, the treatment is generally the same: Ice and immobilization and patience while it heals.

So one day after work last week she drove down to visit Yuto and see how he was doing. He was very effusive with his thanks, letting her know how much he appreciated her taking the time out of her busy schedule to drive down to San Mateo or Millbrae or wherever he lives (a little help from the peanut gallery?) and check up on him. Or, more likely, he just looked at her quietly and happily, making no connection whatsoever between his squished finger and her presence.

Will's Birthday

2006-09-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Leina went to Will's birthday party. They went out to dinner somewhere. There were about 15 people there including Amy's brother, who didn't really know anyone so Leina tried to talk to him and afterwards regretted not trying to talk to him more. Many of the usual suspects were there, though Leina left Charles at home. Gavin, Byron, Stephen Dodson, some guy who's name is also Tony, and various partners as well as other post-high school friends were in attendance. She said it was fun. This blog was discussed at length, as it usually is when Stephen and Leina are in the same room.

Putnam County

2006-09-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

The other day Leina finally talked Charles into taking her to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which has been playing in town for a little while. She generally doesn't go to many broadway shows, but she did see Rent back in the 1990s and probably has seen one or two more since. Her inspiration for wanting to see this particular show is unclear. It is alleged that Leina really liked Spellbound, and therefore decided that she would also like this, fictionalized version of a spelling bee. Plus, if she had to pick a genre of Broadway show, she would choose musical comedy.

She said the show was good. Leina didn't get the cheapest tickets, but she got more expensive tickets that were half price or so. She paid about $40 each (or more likely made Charles pay it). At one point there is audience interaction where they pick up a few spectators to participate in the bee, and they chose this one guy who was a really good speller and he correctly spelled the word that they meant for him to misspell, which made some of the cast members giggle and Leina caught that and thought it was funny, too.

Room 41, where are you?

2006-09-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

Leina's job often has her running all over the city to unfamiliar neighborhoods. Sometimes, however, she finds herself checking in on a client at a place she knows quite well. Or so she thinks. Last week Leina needed to check in on a 21-year-old man who was attending her alma mater, Lowell. He was waiting in room 41. Schools can be complicated places, especially when the campus has at least 13 separate buildings and bungalows, and there are over 2500 students. It even has a long Wikipedia entry.

To make a long story short, it took Leina 45 minutes to find room 41 and her client.

Gassing up

2006-09-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Something different between California and, say, the upper Midwest, is the vast difference in gas prices. At the moment, in the city of San Francisco, gas can run from $3.34 (at the Shell on Divisidero) to $2.79 (cash only at the Arco on Market and Castro). One can look it up current prices here.

Why such a wide range of gas prices? This has something to do with location, location, location, but it is also related to the concept of brand-name gas. Shell, Exxon, or Chevron cost more than, say, Express Gas or Speedie Gas because they spend a lot of money on advertising and put in fancy detergents. Though many people swear by one brand or another, there is gasoline itself is all virtually the same.

Leina, being a thrifty and canny motorist, never fell for the hype that various expensive gas stations make. She fills up at ARCO whenever possible (there's one on the way to Auntie's house) and is always on the lookout for cheap gas.

However, her Subaru is making some funny noises. So she's decided she's going to switch to brand-name gas to see if that makes it better.

"Just Say..."

2006-09-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Leina went to the doctor again yesterday because of her poor belly. And though Leina has been avoiding spicy foods, alcohol, fried food, sugar, and almost every food that tastes good, she's still achy. So her doctor finally said to her that she thought there was a stress component to her discomfort. Prescribed treatment: Leina needs to say "No" more frequently. Perhaps faithful readers can write some potential questions to which Leina (if she reads this) can answer "No," in order to warm herself up for the rest of her life.

For example,

"Leina, could you pick me up in Walnut Creek and drive me to San Jose for my flight at 6:00 a.m. next Saturday?"

"Leina, do you think the earth is flat?"

NAPSA

2006-09-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Work this week has been okay so far. Today, there was a meeting in the Hyatt, some sort of conference that involved NAPSA, which is not the North Australian Pharmacy Students' Assocation, National Association of Prospective Student Advisors, the National Appliance Parts Suppliers Association, or the North American Power Sweepers Assocation. It was the National Adult Protective Services Association. It just so happens that their national conference is in San Francisco this week, so Leina attended today.

They showed a video that was put together by the Boston chapter. It seemed informative, but their heavy Boston accents were super distracting to Leina and she didn't get what she could have out of it.

Going Public

2006-09-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Longtime readers might have noticed that a certain man who is not Tony gets mentioned quite frequently in this space. However, the author has judiciously avoided calling him anything other than Charles. Smart readers have likely put two and two together and realized that Charles is Leina's boyfriend. So why no mentions of this fact?

Leina didn't want everyone to know about her relationship before she had a chance to tell them. And in some instances, she took her sweet time in telling them. Leina and Charles started dating in February. She finally told one of her best freinds from high school, Alice, about him after lying to her, point blank, when Alice asked her in May if she was seeing anyone. Leina finally emailed Alice last week to tell her. It helps that Alice lives in England, or else she would have figured out something fishy was going on.

There is still one friend in So. Cal who doesn't know about Charles' existance, but Leina intends to tell her. Eventually.

Playing

2006-09-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Leina and Charles picked up Yuto yesterday from Noriko's and babysat him for a few hours. She took him to Berkeley, where he watched as she made grilled salami and cheese sandwiches and ate a lot of fruit salad at Tony and Erica's. Yuto didn't say a word the entire afternoon. But he smiled a lot and fortunately didn't cry when Tony had him on his shoulders and knocked his head against an overhanging eave.

Leina took him to a playground where she and Charles ran around on the jungle gym and encouraged him to do the same, but Yuto seemed more interested in playing with the gate and watching the other kids play. Then she made him watch her eat a root beer float before bringing him back to San Francisco, where Noriko picked him up.