California- Part 1

The last two weeks have flown by so fast. Now it's time to catch up. Jess, Dave and I had a great trip to California. The first night of our road trip was spent in Mesquite at the Virgin River. Dave started of the trip on a great note. While my sister was checking in, he decided to pop a couple dollars into a slot machine. Boy did it pay off. within two minutes he had made $154!! So he decided to treat us to a game of bowling that night. Jess has those pictures. Imagine the scene in "Across the Universe" where they are dancing through the bowling alley :D


After 9 hours of driving the next morning we were in San Luis Obispo, a beautiful central California town nestled in some great coastal hills. Here's a picture that Mikey, my brother, has taken overlooking SLO from Bishops peak.

When we arrived he took us to the college craft center to play on the pottery wheels. He has made some amazing pieces... maybe I'm a little bias though. You can check out some of his stuff here.


Jess, Dave and I had never worked on a potter's wheel. Here's a little video showing Jess, Mikey and Dave at work. Mine was a skinny lopsided thing before I ruined it. You can see it in the clip after viewing Dave's hard work.

That evening we ate a tasty meal at Shin's Sushi. Half priced sushi and a tasty special that was fresh cooked salmon over a bowl of rice smothered in sauce then baked. MMMM. After that we searched for pieces of gum. A nice cashier at one of the local shops was able to provide. The reason why we would want gum for dessert, you ask? For the most disgusting, yet interesting, alley I've ever been down... Gum Alley.

You place your gum on the wall, as shown by Jess. choosing just the right place.

Here's a close up of the wall.

Mikey pretended to throw Dave into the grossness.

The next day we geared up for a day on the course. Two 90 ball baskets kept us busy at the driving range.

Here's Jess taking a swing at things

That's my club and Mikey getting ready for his shot.

There's much more..... I'll post in the next entry.

Flirtatious Dragons?

This one tried bitting my leg and winked at me. They do say people in the year of the Monkey "work well" with Dragons.

This weekend was full of JA community events. (JA- Japanese American) The first was a nice dinner with the Heart Mountain Foundation.

Their purpose is to memorialize and educate the public about the significance of the historical events surrounding the tragic and illegal internment of Japanese Americans at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Powell, Wyoming, between 1942 and 1945.

Learn more here

I wish I had taken my camera. The people, view, and food were amazing. One of the people I spoke with was Shig Yabu, author of a children's book called "Hello Maggie". It's a story, similar to his own, about a boy living in the internment camps who finds a friend magpie.




Metra and I had a nice conversation with Rocky Anderson and his girlfriend, Traci. Guess we're all reading the same book, "Three Cups of Tea".

Saturday night was the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce Annual Gala. That's where the dragon attacked me, you can ask Metra if you don't believe me.

Judge Raymond Uno, one of the SL JACL board members, was honored a lifetime achievement award. He definitely deserves the award. He has done so much for the minority community here in Salt Lake, plus he's just an all-round good person.

Both Kunie and Metra donated items to the silent auction. So I had to get a picture of them with their names up in lights (okay... up on a board!).

That night was Jake's birthday, but because things didn't go as planned I don't have crazy pictures of us dancing at the Trapp. Instead it was a crazy evening at the Casa where my camera didn't come out. Maybe KereAna will have some interesting moment caught on "film".

Sunday, Trent dragged me out of the house. I'm glad he did. We went for a great hike up Mt. Olympus.

Here's the trail we took

We hiked up for over an hour, then ran back down.

You can see more pictures of our hike here

Last night, we celebrated Brad's belated birthday. Yummy crab legs and steaks for all! Here's a picture of everyone after being stuffed with dinner and ice-cream cake.

(FR-Chase, Brandi, Sam, Loretta BR-Me, Trent, John, and Brad)

Brad is leaving for Peru today. If all goes as planned Trent and I will be seeing him in July. The rest of you have to wait 9 months.




Tomorrow, I'm heading to California with Jess and Dave! Judging from one of the most recent pictures of my mom, I think she might be really excited. I know I am. We'll be out of town until Sunday.

We are ALL equal

Thanks to Jake for sending out the following clips.

This is so sad.


My friend Candice, some of you know her as Shannon, has been writing to the local papers about the issue of deaths and homelessness in the GLBT community. Unfortunately she hasn't been getting the response one would hope for, of compassion. Instead she has been getting a cold shoulder, a message of indifference which is sad to see. Why can't people just get along. It's not like allowing the GLBT population to live their lives is going to harm you or your kids. You aren't popping into peoples bedrooms, are you? They aren't harassing you or making your life less enjoyable. Are they? If so, why?

GRRR... this issue has always gotten to me. Back in high school there was a club, the Gay/Straight Alliance, which received a lot of press. The club just wanted to meet together on school like any other club would do. It was a club that allowed people who felt ridiculed, out of place, and alone to express their feelings in a safe place with others who could relate. A place for compassion, understanding and help. Well, as you may know, the club was denied that right. There were protests, school board meetings, and heated debates on the issue. I remember sitting in my English class during a big walkout. The teacher decided to give a pop quiz that day. I took it and finished early thinking I would walk out soon after. Well, that wasn't to be. Keeping me glued to the window and not out on the street was the statement she made. It was something like this,"If you leave you will fail the class". She felt so strongly against equal rights for students and against free speech that she threatened failing those who believed in something else. Ever since then I have made it a point to take action, thanks Mrs. Smith. Ironically, her close mindedness has opened up my eyes to what I can do to help others facing injustice.

Speaking of close minded individuals, the following clip exemplifies one. It is an audio clip of Sally Kern, a representative of Oklahoma.



A friend posted a bulletin that said that Mrs. Kern's son is gay. If that is true, my heart goes out to him.

Write her and let her know what you think.

Ms. Kern's contact information:

Capitol Address:
2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 332
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
(405) 557-7348.

District Address:
2713 Sterling Ave.,
Oklahoma City, OK 73127.

Email: sallykern@okhouse.gov or srkern@cox.net

What a weekend...

it started off dreaming of the river of the river with Barbara, Nyles and Trent. Ahhhhh the river...

Saturday was exciting. Trent and I took his nephews out swimming at the Dimple Dell rec center.







Sam hasn't learned to swim yet, so he was really nervous about even getting in the water. I told him that he could play on the playground instead of going swimming, but that he had to put on his swimsuit to do that. That got him in the car and on our way. Funny, because once we walked into the pool area he was ready to jump in... with a lifevest.
By the end he was going down the big slide without the lifevest. Maybe we'll have him swimming by the end of the summer. Chase was excited. He recognized a bunch of friends from school the second we arrived. It was hard to keep my eye on him, let alone take pictures.

Now it's Monday and I'm sore because of what I did yesterday. Jess, my sister, and I decided to go for a nice little walk instead of going to the gym. Well that "little" walk turned into something quite different. The map below shows where we ended up walking.

Top Ten

There are many things on my life's to-do list.

Here are the top 10, not in order:

- Live in New Zealand before I'm 30.

- Join the Peace Corps.

- Live in a cabin in the mountains with a horse so I can ride around and paint.

- Have a family

- Learn to surf

- Provide for my parents when/if they get old

- Travel to: Japan, Thailand, Alaska, Turkey, Hawaii, Africa, Eastern Europe.

- Give back to the community that has given so much to me.

- Get and stay in shape while having fun

- Live life to it's fullest

Curious, what's on your top ten?

On the Move

The last two weeks have been full of fun surprises.

The first being that www.orbitz.com and Spirit Airlines SUCK! Trent and I have been planning a trip to Peru this summer. When we went to purchase the tickets to go we had a horrible time. You'd think airline companies and travel agencies would want your money...nope. This one just pretended to. The short of it is that false advertising and bad communication are bad for business. Just an FYI, if you are looking for cheap airfare don't trust either of those companies. As for our trip, it's still a go as long as we can find flights.

The next fun surprise was much more exciting. Our river friend, Jim (featured in the lovely picture below),

offered us his house to live in downtown. A house...downtown... it doesn't get much better than that, right? Wrong, not only is it downtown but it's super close to some of my favorite people in the world.
Nikki, Monica, Raina
Stephanee
and Won (I don't have a picture of him, so here's one in recognition of him).

The last surprise was that my whole family is meeting here in good old SLC for Christmas! I hear one of my cousins already has his ticket. I can't wait!

(The last time we all got together was in 2005)

What a great two weeks (minus the airfare debaucle). Wiih spring around the corner, I'm excited for what else is going to pop up this year.

What is a Baobab?

Well there's this amazingly quirky, yes quirky, tree in Madajascar that stores all it's water in it's trunk. It looks like something out of a Dr. Suess book. Someday I wish to be sitting under one. Until that day, I'll pretend.

Here's the Wiki-definition of the tree: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobab)

Baobab is the common name of a genus (Adansonia) containing eight species of trees, native to Madagascar (the centre of diversity, with six species), mainland Africa and Australia (one species in each). The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that country. Other common names include boab, boaboa, bottle tree and monkey bread tree. The species reach heights of between 5–25 m, 10-80ft (exceptionally 30 m, 100ft) tall, and up to 7 m, 23ft (exceptionally 11 m, 36ft) in trunk diameter. They are noted for storing water inside the swollen trunk, with the capacity to store up to 120,000 litres, 32,000 US gallons, of water to endure the harsh drought conditions particular to each region.^[1] All occur in seasonally arid areas, and are deciduous, shedding their leaves during the dry season. Some are reputed to be many thousands of years old, though as the wood does not produce annual growth rings, this is impossible to verify; few botanists give any credence to these claims of extreme age, with current evidence suggesting they rarely exceed 400 years old.^[2]

The Malagasy species are important components of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests. Within that biome, A. madagascariensis and A. rubrostipa occur specifically in the Anjajavy Forest, sometimes growing out of the tsingy limestone itself.