Birthday Parties and Pirates

Today is my last day in the Bay Area before I head back to Hong Kong. Originally I was only planning on flying back to HK immediately after my Vegas trip but Jae invited me to her son’s birthday party so I extended my trip out until today so I could go (yes, Jae, I really did extend just it for you).

I pimped my sister-in-law, Lien, and her amazing baking abilities out to Jae and volunteered to drive the cake over to the party. I picked up the cake on Thursday night and was just blown away by it. The birthday party was pirate themed and this is the cake that Jae and Lien came up with:

That is a three-layer strawberry shortcake. And yes, the lid on that cake does indeed open. My brother is an engineer so Lien enlisted his help creating the structure of the chest and the moving parts. Good to know he’s finally putting that engineering degree to good use. I was a nervous wreck driving that cake the 60 miles to my house that night and then 80 additional miles to the party the next day. I don’t remember ever driving so slowly in my life — I was half-sure I was going to make a bad turn and end up having to buy a sheet cake from Safeway instead. After dropping the cake off with Jae, I immediately got back into my car and drove to the nearest Starbucks to calm my nerves with a grande latte.

As I’ve said before, I do not do well with strangers. Manda was also supposed to be there but she couldn’t make it because she got sick (whatever!) so I was a little apprehensive at the thought that I wouldn’t know anyone there. However, I got out of my car and was greeted at once not only by Jae, but also by MonkeysMama. MonkeysMama is so awesome!!! As I walked up she threw her arms wide open, yelled out, “Wondercat!” and gave me a big hug. It was one of the warmest welcomes I’ve ever had.

MonkeysMama is one of those people who, while I don’t have direct contact with her on a regular basis, I’ve always really admired from afar (and just a little bit feared). But meeting her was just like meeting my other MM friends that I talk to on a regular basis. She was so nice and friendly I pretty much forgot that I’d never actually met her before. And holy crap, is she funny! She has a big old potty mouth for someone so cute and perky. It was totally cute. Plus she had on some really awesome shoes.

Here is Pirate MonkeysMama:

And here are MonkeysMama and Jae talking about the sad state of post-breastfeeding boobs:

Jae’s family and friends are so cool. In a lot of ways, being there reminded me of being at one my family gatherings. Only with more white people. At one point I grabbed a baby Corona and Jae called me a camera dork for taking a picture of it. Yeah, so what. I am. But at least I wasn’t the one who insisted on making the mommy and baby bottles hug each other (that’s my little Coronita on the left and Jae making them hug it out):

Arrrrr matey. It’s Pirate Jae…who bears a striking resemblance to her son when she makes a pouty face like this:

I had to leave early so I could make it back to my side of the Bay Area in time for dinner and to do my laundry (woo hoo!), but not before getting this picture:

My Day With Julesy Pants

Julia wasn’t able to go to Vegas and was really bummed out about it, and being as I love the girl to death I changed my return flight from Vegas to stop off in Tucson for a day.

I arrived on Sunday afternoon and after checking into my hotel and dropping off my massive luggage, I headed straight to Julia’s house. I was so excited/nervous to meet her in person. I think she’s one of the funniest people ever and we get along really well on MM and on YIM, but I was afraid we wouldn’t have the same chemistry in real life than online. I warned her that I was really shy in person but luckily for me Homey & Company® had already “broken me in” in Vegas.

Julia is awesome. Contrary to my fears, we got along just as well in real life. Better, actually, since she didn’t have to put up with my crazy typos. We talked, made fun of each other and laughed. A lot. Somewhere in between I got to play Jumping with her daughter Abby (which involves a lot of jumping up and down for a 30-year-old), Ring Around the Rosie, Swimming, and Where’s the Baby? (which refers to her doll, not her baby brother). I also hit Abby repeatedly on the head with a big rubber ball, but Julia was doing something with Zach so she didn’t see me abusing her child. When it came time to make dinner, Julia dragged me into the kitchen to chop stuff for Homey’s Chilaquiles. We also put in a call to Homey and Manda to complain about all the chopping since it turned out we were blending the whole thing anyway:

Amanda raves about these chilaquiles. Even though she says it looks like “vomit on a plate. But delicious vomit.” Judge for yourself:

It was so good (props to Homey!) and I almost single-handedly polished off the whole thing. I stayed at her house until 11 pm just talking to her. It was so cool to just sit there at her dining table, eating brownies and hanging out. I told her about Vegas, we shared stories about our hubbies and kiddos, she showed me some family pictures, I showed her some videos from the weekend, we talked about MM and made fun of Manda (I’m just kidding!…or am I?…).

Here is my favorite picture of Julia that I took. Although the picture doesn’t do her justice, you can still see just how beautiful she is when she’s laughing:

She was laughing at Abby who was being goofy like her mom:

The next morning, Julia brought Abby and Zach over to my hotel and we hit the pool. Holy crap was it cold! So much for Tucson being crazy hot. Apparently it’s only hot when you’re nowhere near water. I tried to convince Julia that we should hang out at the hot tub instead but she has a “thing” about not cooking her kids. Whatever.

She dropped Zach off at her mom’s while I checked out of my room and then she treated me to lunch at Takamatsu — a teppanyaki restaurant nearby. Abby came with us and I am still blown away at the thought of a toddler willingly eating whatever was offered to her. It was amazing. She was a huge fan of the brothy mushroomy soup. Which worked out because Julia doesn’t like mushrooms (what is it with all the ‘shroom haters?!) so Abby was more than happy to eat them for her:

BTW, that’s the way Julia normally feeds her kids.

Poor Abby was scared by the teppan chef. Probably because he set himself on fire:

Ok, no he didn’t really:

After witnessing a couple instances of flaming shrimp, Abby started grabbing the back of her chair and yelling “No more fire Mom! No more fire!” any time she saw the chef reach for a sauce bottle.

Later we said our goodbyes at the restaurant parking lot since I had to catch my flight back to CA.

In hindsight, I wish I had stayed longer but at the time I booked my flight I still had reason to doubt her sanity so one day was as much time as I was willing to risk with a crazy girl. She is crazy, by the way. But in a totally good way. I secretly like to laugh at the two of us because I’m amazed that we’re even friends to begin with. She being a hilarious, Tuscon-loving, uber-religious, sober, tall girl and me, a shy, California-loving, agnostic, drunk shorty. I find so much in her that I admire, she makes me laugh like no one’s business and she just gets me. I love so much that we’re friends and I’m really going to miss her when I go back.

Thanks for letting me invade your space Julia!!! Miss you!! Weirdo.

My Vegas Update

I had such a blast at Vegas. We did a lot less gambling and drinking than I had originally imagined, but what surprised me the most was how great we all got along. I was nervous to meet everyone before I got there. On my flight from SFO to Las Vegas, I actually got pretty nauseous anytime I thought about meeting them. Not because they’re nausea-inducing people or anything, but because I realized that I was meeting a bunch of strangers and just remembered that I’m really shy in person and very awkward in social situations. Eeek!

It turned out there was absolutely nothing for me to worry about. Meeting them was like meeting up with a bunch of old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. Everyone was warm and friendly and if I wasn’t completely comfortable in the very beginning, it wasn’t because I felt awkward but more because I was jet-lagged and feeling just a bit star-struck. So my update is about them. Because the best part for me wasn’t about being in Las Vegas, but about finally getting to meet some incredible people in real life.

Amanda

Amanda was the first person I met (but only by like 5 seconds). To sum up how I feel about her, at one point during the weekend I told Amanda, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I didn’t expect to like you so much.” Amanda is one of those people who completely intimidate me online. She is super smart, outspoken, brutally honest, beautiful…you know, intimidating. I’ve always liked her and admired her on MM but I was prepared to be nervous around her all weekend and I was really surprised by how well we got along. In person, she is still intimidating, but she is also really funny, sweet, slightly neurotic (ca-caw! ca-caw!), sensitive and is just a total goofball. Even if we don’t have a bajillion things in common, I still like to think we are a lot alike…only she’s younger, blonder and with better boobs (but I’m taller).

Cristina

Oh Homey. She likes to threaten me with hugs because she thinks it makes me uncomfortable but secretly I like them. Especially from her.   Cristina was another person that I felt very comfortable with from the very beginning. I knew that she and Amanda were already close but neither of them ever made me feel left out of anything. Cristina just radiates warmth and laughter. She’s insanely funny — partly because of her super-smart brain and partly because she’s so clumsy — kind, open, honest and friendly. She has an annoying complex about having her picture taken which is weird because I think she’s beautiful and she has such gorgeous eyes. She also kept telling me I was mean all weekend long. Which was ok because I knew she meant it in a good way.

Lisa

Lisa is surprisingly shy. She isn’t reclusive-shy, but online I always assumed she was brimming with confidence and sass. Online she is larger than life — she almost always has an answer or a smartass comment for any question, she too is brutally honest and very assertive. Not that she isn’t like that in real life, but what a surprise to find out that she can be just as insecure as the rest of us. It was actually kind of endearing and a bit of a relief to know she was just a normal person. But with some weird OCD issues.

Kristin

Kristin in person is almost exactly the way I had imagined she was going to be. Not that she didn’t have any surprises in store, but I knew I was going to like her and get along with her and we did. I love her little midwestern accent — when she said, “You’re dead to me” in her little accent, it was just so cute it made me want to pinch her cheeks. She is incredibly sweet and down-to-earth but she’s also sarcastic, snarky and insanely funny at the same time. 50 years from now, I will think back to this time and one of the things that will stand out in my foggy memory will be her beautiful smile and laughter. The force of her character is so huge that when she left very early Saturday morning, her absence was definitely palpable.

Jess

Jess is another person that I knew I was going to get along with — partly because we IM each other almost every day and partly because she’s just really easygoing (although she has probably the worst travel luck of anyone I know). She was my roomie in Vegas which was good because I was instantly comfortable with her. We are a lot alike in a lot of ways. You know how there are some people you can just hang out with and not say anything to and yet still feel comfortable and relaxed? She’s one of those people. Laid-back and easy to talk to (but she’s also a fiery redhead so you don’t want to mess with her even though she seems super nice).

Linda

I didn’t get a chance to hang out with Linda that much. I wish I did because she was just so cute and perky. If there was anything that surprised me about Linda, it was how short she was. Like, tiny short. It just added her overall cuteness factor though. She is so sweet, funny, open and welcoming — I felt like I’d known her for years. Plus she’s also lucky at slots.

Sara

I never knew Sara that well on MM. Aside from being the tallest one there, she was funny and just really easygoing. If there’s one thing that I admire about her it’s how she just seems to roll with everything. Although people might be going nuts around her trying to figure out what’s going on, nothing seems to faze her and she just takes everything in stride. Except for the asthma attack from all the cigarette smoke. That was definitely panicky, but otherwise she is all calm, humor and sanity in a sea of madness.

Joss

Joss was one of the people I had been looking forward to meeting. I was surprised by how short she is because online her personality is HUGE. She is very much like how she is online — bold, funny, talkative, honest. For someone with so much going on in her life, she has a crazy sense of humor and just has such a gorgeous smile and laugh. She also goes around carrying her own set of chopsticks. Awesome.

Jae

The first thing that struck me about Jae was just how gorgeous she is in person. Like, unfairly beautiful (especially for someone who had just flown in from Australia that same day). And then it was how cute she was because she was being so shy. And then it was how shy she was while still being a huge potty mouth with a dirty mind. I knew I was going to be intimidated by her and I totally was. But mostly because I wanted desperately to be her — she is ridiculously perfect. It’s unfair I tell ya. This description of her is also unfair because she is way more than just the way she looks — she is super smart (although she has trouble with counting), funny, sarcastic, mischievous, she has the weirdest stories and she’s a total badass, but really sweet at the same time with a hint of insecurity and shyness.

I am so glad that I got to spend the weekend with them, but in a way it’s also slightly bittersweet for me. I love that I finally got to meet them and there are people that I just love to pieces, but I know it’ll be hard for me to come back and see them all again and that just makes me miss them that much more.

Props to my SIL

My brother’s wife kicks so much ass. She loves making cakes and this year decided to take her hobby one step further and start up her own cake company. It’s not technically up and running yet and a lot of her business so far is mostly referral based, but I try to use her as much as I can because she rocks so hard and is creative enough to make up for my shortcomings (especially in the details department).

Case in point…Mark’s mom’s birthday is March 19th and after getting such a great response from the cookies I asked her send to some of my friends a few weeks ago, I mentioned to Mark that we should send his mom cookies for her birthday. He agreed and added this wise-ass comment, “Yeah, maybe Lien can make little Mexican themed cookies and make little mariachi shaped cookies with our names on it.” Naturally I rolled my eyes at him, but he insisted that I ask Lien. I typed out an email to her and, completely embarrassed, added “Oh yeah, and Mark wants mariachi cookies with his and his brothers’ names on it, but he’s kinda crazy so you don’t have to do it. I promised him I would ask though.” And from that vague direction, she came up with these:

She also made cookies shaped like a pinata, a sombrero, guitar and maracas. She free-handed all of these too since I put in the order too late for her to order cookie cutters. I was just blown away when I saw what she had done.

I Need a Back-up Plan!

For about a year now, Mark and I have talked about enrolling Noah in a Lycee school when he’s old enough to go to real school. A Lycee school is a French international school run by the French government in different countries. Although neither Mark nor I have any ties to France, the reasons we’re strongly considering going this route are:

1) We have heard amazing things about their pre-K program — the way it’s run, its focus on social skills and the curriculum. In fact, a friend of ours recommended if nothing else, to send Noah to the pre-K program and a regular school afterwards. Because it’s just that good.

2) It’s bilingual! Which, as a sadly monolingual family (with bits and pieces of swearing and knowing how to ask “Do you speak English” in about 4 other languages) is important to both of us. Even their pre-K program is bilingual — half the day is taught in English, the other half French.

3) The teaching style is pretty cool. Rather than designating a particular hour for subjects, they try to fully integrate all their subjects. So you learn math concepts through singing or science through art and all sorts of good stuff like that.

4) They are everywhere. Hong Kong, San Francisco, Tokyo…all the places Mark and I could possibly live in the next 10 years or so. And because they follow the French curriculum, if we were ever in a position where we had to move from one location to another, we could plop Noah into another Lycee with very minimal disruption to his curriculum.

5) They’re cheaper than a lot of other private schools. Yay!!

Their pre-K classes begin at 3 years old, and since Noah is already at the ripe old age of 2 1/2, I thought it was time to start making inquiries, start the application process, and take a tour of the school. I knew there was going to be a waiting list — Hong Kong is notorious for its overcrowded international schools — but I figured we’d be ok as long as we could get Noah in within the next year or two. I just received a reply from the admissions director and she was kind enough to inform that they currently have a 3 year waiting period for their pre-K class.

Let me repeat that so you can get the full effect…They have a 3 YEAR WAITING PERIOD. I could almost sense her snickering in her email to me. And that’s just for kids of French nationality — non-French kiddos have a longer wait. That means, best case scenario, that in order to get Noah into their program when he turns three this year, I need to go back in time and sign him up for it roughly around the time I was pushing him out. Anyone got a time machine handy?

We’re still going to send in an application, get him on the list and hope for the best (who knows? Maybe HK will experience a mass exodus of really homesick French people). But in the meantime, we’re exploring whatever our other options are. The hardest part for us is that we really have no idea where we’ll be living in the next few years so we don’t even know if we’ll be around should Noah finally get in. On top of that, if he isn’t accepted until primary school, he’ll be really screwed on the language part since it’s unlikely he’ll have picked up enough French (from his non-French speaking parents) by then.

Like I said, we’re exploring other options, but it’s still sad to have to let go of the original plan that we had put so much stock in. We are also considering picking a gender-neutral name and getting future baby #2 on the waiting list now. Maybe by the time we’re ready to pop him/her out, he/she will be on better footing with the damn school.

My Wonderful, Crazy Boy

When Mark and I first moved to Hong Kong in January last year, Noah was a 15-month-old chubby baby. Agreeable, funny, curious, with the attention span of a flea (**I don’t actually know what the attention span of a flea is, but I’m assuming it’s small…because I know someone will ask me. JULES.) And now? Now he’s a crazy, contentious, independent, bossy, hilarious 29-month-old ball of energy. He constantly amazes me. When he’s not making me want to rip my hair out, he’s got me on the floor rolling with laughter. I just don’t know where THIS little person came from! Here is a random sampling of who he is today:

*****
He loves Led Zeppelin. In fact, it’s the only music he’ll listen to. I was trying to introduce him to my repetoire of bad 80s music — ranging from Erasure to Guns N’ Roses to Journey to Poison — and he was having NONE of it. He kept waving his hand and saying “No. I don’t like this song.” He was practically in tears until I finally switched it back to Zepp.

*****
He is a total attention whore. He likes to spice up his little antics at the end by throwing his arms out and yelling “Ta-DA!” and then taking a bow. It’s so narcissistic, but he’s 2 1/2 so it’s still cute for now.

*****
He is manipulative. Man, this little dude knows how to work those tears — he’s got Mark wrapped around his little finger. But he knows that crying isn’t as effective on me so when he senses he’s about to get in trouble, he immediately stops what he’s doing, gives me a big hug and kiss and says, “I love you Mommy!” That booger. It works every time.

*****
He is REALLY talkative! When we first moved here, I used to keep a list of words that he knew. I think there were about 20 words on it. Well now I actually hold conversations with him. Of course, half the time he’s reliving his glory days (“Big cat scare Noah and Noah fall and Noah cry.”) But the rest of the time, I don’t know where he picks up the stuff he says.

Like, if we’re at the dinner table and I can’t finish everything on my plate, he’ll bust out with “Go Mommy! Go! Go! Go! You can DO it!” Honestly, I have never cheered him on quite like THAT. Or if he notices Mark being short with me, he will occasionally chastise Mark with, “Be patient with Mommy, ok? Just be patient. Promise.” hehe.

*****
He hates being asked to talk on the phone but he loves answering it when it rings. The other day the home phone rang and when Noah ran for it I let him pick it up since we were expecting a call from Mark anyway. This is how THAT phone call went:

Noah: “Hi…uh-huh…uh-huh…umm…yes…Wait. Who’s talking?”

I don’t know who it was, but it definitely wasn’t Mark.

*****
He is unbelievably kind and compassionate. If I stub my toe or bang my hand against anything, he always asks me “Mommy, you ok?” then kisses me and says “All better.” And then there are the spontaneous hugs and kisses (interspersed between spontaneous licking and head butting). But my favorite instance happened earlier this week. During the ride home from school, I asked him the usual questions — How was school? Did you have fun? Who did you play with? etc. In the middle of my questioning, he busted out with “Mommy you happy?” This is a question I used to ask Mark all the time and eventually gave up asking partly because it was never reciprocated and partly because the answer was usually so depressing. No one has asked me if I was happy in years. And at that moment, I really and truly was. So I told him the truth, “Yes Noah. You make me very happy.”

Outing Jae

First off, a history.

When I first joined MM back in April 2007, I was a sad, morose, lonely girl who was trying to adjust to having just moved to another country, raising a baby with no family (and a lot of times no hubby) around, and having zero friends. I was a grumpy person to say the least. Shortly after joining I “met” Jae, who was also from CA and living abroad in Sydney. I like to think that we hit it off immediately, but I could’ve just been blinded by love. We traded stories, and while we had a lot in common — traveling hubbies, crazy boys, anti-social tendencies, shoe sizes — I always knew she was waaaaay much cooler than me. She helped me A LOT those first few lonely months — I don’t think she actually knows this — and not so much in terms of advice, but it was good to feel somewhat normal again and like I had actually made a friend.

If you’ve noticed her around (and really, how could you NOT notice her), you probably know her as honest, sarcastic, hilariously funny, snarky, intimidatingly gorgeous (with perfect eyebrows), uber-smart with a twisted sense of humor. I’ve probably missed something, but that’s the general impression I have of her.

So now I’m outing another side of her — she’s a total softie, super thoughtful and incredibly sweet.

We both have this recurring problem — overly traveled hubbies — and frankly, it sucks and it gets pretty lonely and depressing sometimes. In fact, we’re both single parenting this week (as she so eloquently put it, the men are work-menstruating together). A little after lunch, I got a call from a delivery guy saying he had some chocolates and he’d be here in 10 minutes. I knew it couldn’t have been from Mark because he just doesn’t think that way so obviously I thought he called the wrong number. Then I had a good laugh at the thought of me eating someone else’s chocolates. Well lo and behold if I didn’t get a box of chocolates from Jae delivered to my door.

I was just really overwhelmed by how selfless and sweet this was (the gesture, not the chocolates, although they are EXCELLENT). Never mind the fact that she has it harder than I do at the moment — me at least having a helper while she is alone and works full time. She still sent me chocolates to cheer me up. So I just wanted to send a big old THANK YOU her way and let her know that she rocks my socks off.

And on a serious note…Jae — you know how much this pains me to say, but seriously, I love you man. (Don’t freak out! I will never say this again. Relish it.) I feel so lucky to have met you and I can’t wait to meet you in April. Thank you!

Bad Acting

I know, I know…I’m completely abusing YouTube right now and sharing too many videos, but I had to post this one as well. As usual, it’s of Noah. Showing off his bad acting this time around.

Photo Challenge: The Indian Edition

I managed to miss every single photo challenge journal this week — partly because I was traveling and partly because I’m a spaz. So now here’s one week’s worth of challenges in one convenient journal entry.

Photo Challenge: Sky

Mumbai’s skyline as seen along Chowpatty Beach.

Photo Challenge: Hearts

Not a heart, per se, but where you need lots of it. The building is the Haji Ali Dargah, Mumbai’s most important Muslim shrine and the stone causeway leading up to it is lined with beggars. It is truly a heartbreaking sight to pass the dozens of desperately poor families — made up of women, children, babies, the old and the lame — sitting on this causeway and to know that there is very little that you can do about it.

Photo Challenge: My Moment Wednesday

A quote by Mahatma Gandhi hanging at the Mani Bhavan — a small museum dedicated to Gandhi, housed in the building where he stayed whenever he visited Mumbai. In case you can’t read it, it says,

“To call women the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman… If by strength is meant moral power then woman is immeasurably man’s superior… If non-violence is the law of our being the future is with women.”

Photo Challenge: Love Thursday — Valentine

Me and Mark at dinner. Some things of note…my arm is red because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. And the photo was taken by Mark’s colleague, Catherine, who joined us on our romantic Valentine’s dinner. Mark felt bad that she was spending Valentine’s Day on a business trip in India so he asked her to join us.

Photo Challenge: Weekend Fun

I couldn’t decide so I’m using two pictures. This first picture is of Mark and Noah at the SpiceKing — a stall at Crawford Market devoted solely to spices. Mark is smelling the different curry blends while Noah looks on. We ended up buying 3 different curry blends, 3 masalas spice blends and a buttload of masala chai.

This next one is Noah playing on some very expensive persian rugs. I don’t like persian rugs — they remind me of my parent’s fussy decorating and they’re just not my thing. So naturally we ended up buying two because we couldn’t decide which one we loved more. Noah was our quality control guy. Thank goodness they love kiddos in India.

For Jess, Who Hates Laundry

It could be worse. Seriously. Like, you could be in India and have to do laundry for a living. Kinda like these guys:

These are Mumbai’s traditional washerfolk — or dhobis — at the Dhobi Ghat, the world’s largest outdoor laundry, next to Mahalaxmi train station. There are some 5,000 dhobis here who spend their days collecting the city’s dirty laundry, washing it, and returning it neatly pressed.

According to my Lonely Planet guide:
“Laundry is an art form in India and dhobi-wallahs employ a secret system of ‘dhobi marks’ to identify the washing from individual addresses…Dhobi marks continue to play an important role in Indian forensics — many crimes are said to have been solved solely from the dhobi marks on victims’ clothing.”

And if the sight of the washing pens (each with its own flogging stone) isn’t enough to make you hug your washing machine, then maybe these will do it: