February 2012
1 post
I Moved!
I’ve been MIA from the blogging world for a while. Sorry to all my faithful readers (if any of you still exist). I decided to move over to Blogspot. Here’s my new blog:
www.breadlily.blogspot.com
See you on there, and thanks for following me!
December 2011
2 posts
Count Your Blessings, Pt. 2
It is warfare in my womb and the baby lost. More like we lost the baby. Two miscarriages in less than a 4-month period means it’s time to let my body heal. Let go, move on. D and I have too much to look forward to, to be dwelling on the loss.
We finally set a wedding date, or maybe calling it a wedding plan is more appropriate. More announcements to come in the following months!
D and I...
Reactions to Pregnancy
The cat’s out of the bag: D and I are pregnant!
Most reactions have been very positive, as expected. It helps that everyone is happy and excited for us, because honestly, D and I are terrified. Every call, text, FB message we’ve received is so greatly appreciated. Saying we are thankful for everyone’s love and support is the biggest understatement ever.
Not everyone has been...
November 2011
1 post
It's been a while...
Big changes have happened in the past two months.
I’m no longer traveling every week for work, which took some getting used to. I hadn’t stayed home for more than a weekend without getting called into work in a different state for months, so not having a suitcase packed and ready for me to roll out the door at any given moment made me very, VERY anxious.
The reason why I stopped...
September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Drunk Old Bastard
By the end of each work week I am usually tired and incredibly homesick. Yeah, living in a full-service hotel and expensing all my meals is nice, but nothing beats coming home to family and friends. That is why by Thursday I’m in high spirits because I know I get to fly back to the Bay. Nothing in the world can keep my excitement down from blowing through the roof with guns smoke and lots...
August 2011
7 posts
3 tags
Count Your Blessings
Resting my head on my mom’s shoulders and hands on my once-pregnant belly during a slow song at a rock concert held between two huge boulders.
Sour cream and poppy seed ice cream at an old-fashioned candy shoppe in a quaint little historic mining town.
The rare genuineness of an ER doctor who isn’t jaded by however many miscarriages she’s seen.
FaceTime with my sister and...
Pseudo-Foodie
The other day a friend of mine called me out of the blue.
C: Hey, I’m at the grocery store and I wanted to get your opinion on what kind of olives would go with my pasta dish? Me: Well, hello to you, too! C: Haha, sorry! I’ve just never cooked with olives before and I want to know which goes best with a red sauce. Me: What type of olives do you usually eat? C: Umm… black olives...
6 tags
Positivity
Lately my blog posts have been very criticism-heavy (read: full of complaints). While I like to think myself a very discerning person, I am very capable to use it toward calling out the good as well as the not-so-good. So let me take the time to ensure you, my faithful readers, that my life is not driven by misery and disgust.
Even though I am homesick, living in the Denver for the next...
Sunday Sadness
In my previous post I said that waiting in line at airport security is the worst part of my week. I take that back. The worst part of the week is Sunday night when I have to excuse myself from dinner early so I can pack up and get to bed early so I can catch my 6am flight to work.
This Sunday is no exception, and it’s worse because I’ll be gone for 3 weeks so I’ll miss...
2 tags
10 Tips for Going Through the Airport Security...
The worst part of every week for me is the day I have to fly out to work and go through security. Here are some dos and don’ts for getting through security:
1) Don’t wear lots of jewelry. We’re going for efficiency here, not a fashion statement. Even if you do look nice with your drop earrings and half a dozen necklaces and bangles all the way up to your elbow, holding up...
4 tags
Eating Animals
Tonight I am finally putting down Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I usually read every book I pick up cover-to-cover even if it isn’t any good. I can deal with a sucky plot, annoying characters, bad storytelling or even the overuse of different fonts and font sizes. I like finishing what I start. But after 3 weeks of forcing my way through a 250-page book that would usually only take...
July 2011
10 posts
6 tags
Faith-Based Orgs
The company I consult for is considered a large faith-based health care organization, which is really just a euphemism to express that they are some form of Christian (Come on, do you really think large Muslim, Hindu or even Santaria-based hospital organizations in America would be as profitable?) In this case, they are Catholic.
Last time I was part of a Catholic organization was in middle...
I Lost My Stylist to my BF, Pt. 2
Okay, maybe not my stylist, but a particular skin consultant at Kiehl’s.
I’m a huge fan of Kiehl’s. I trust their brand, and I trust the people who work there. D and I are regulars at the San Jose store, so whenever we come in to stock up they always recognize us. Unless, of course, they’re new.
Earlier today, while we were getting our haul rung up by a new Kiehl’s...
6 tags
Chinese Man Dentist
My dentist for most of my life is a bright, bubbly woman who goes the extra mile to make her patients feel at ease. Her staff is equally amazing with excellent teamwork. When I first started seeing her, I couldn’t tell who was the dentist and who was the dental assistant. She’s my family dentist. I don’t just mean that my parents and sibs go to her; my aunts, uncles and all my...
4 tags
3 tags
An Interesting Week So Far... And It's Only...
Yesterday I was supposed to fly to Denver for my first day at the new client site. I arrived at the airport very early, but missed my flight due to having to wait in line for 2 hours just to be told that my flight was canceled and there were no more available spots to Denver unless you want to pay over $1k. F that. To make matters worse, the entire terminal was one huge clusterfuck of frazzled...
2 tags
Hello Corporate World. We Meet Again. In Denver.
This past Wednesday I was notified by one of my managers that I’ve been assigned to a different project with a new client. It’s a similarly-sized healthcare company as the one I consulted for in Dallas. The major difference is the environment there “is like heaven compared to [old company name]”. The people I will be working with love to say that, and I can understand why....
I Lost My Stylist to My BF
For the past however long I’ve known him (we met in 2007) D has been bald. To be honest, tanned bald guys usually aren’t my thing so I was pretty surprised at myself when I chose to overlook those things when we started dating. It must have been his buff body, 6’ stature and über handsome face that got to me. He never looks bad. Even when he doesn’t shower or shave for 2...
3 tags
Maybe I Should've Stuck with Blogger
Most people use Tumblr accounts to post jpg or gif images to express their thoughts and feelings. For example, if I felt bullied by someone I’d post a picture of a man knocking a little girl’s ice cream cone out of her hands and onto the pavement. Where do you find these gifs anyway?
Anyway, I’ve mainly been using it for a more traditional blog with actual paragraphs made up of...
3 tags
Think Like A Doctor
Each month, Dr. Lisa Sanders, posts a new medical case on NYTimes where readers can play doctor and attempt to diagnose a patient. Readers are given all the information provided to the original doctor (e.g. pictures, medical reports) who was asked to solve the diagnostic riddle.
It’s pretty much like watching an episode of House, only better, because these patients are real and you’re...
1 tag
I Hate Goodbyes
Right now I am at the DFW Airport waiting for my flight to SFO. This is the last time I will be in Dallas until… I don’t know when. I don’t want to say that I don’t ever want to come back because that would be a lie. Dallas has been pretty good to me.
Being a not-so-sentimental person, I am no good with goodbyes. When I leave, I leave quietly, without much notice. Some...
Goodbye Corporate World!
Today was my last official day at the health care company I consult for in Dallas. I’m leaving with mixed emotions. I’m both ecstatic to never have to return to the 21st floor of the building ever again, as well as sad to leave some of the best and most inspiring individuals I have ever met. To avoid being mushy and sentimental I will say only this: I will miss (some of them)...
June 2011
11 posts
Caw! Nevermore!
My fiance is a curious, curious man. D is very well-read, keeps up with his current events and can pretty much school anyone on the most random topics. For example, he once explained to me, in painstakingly great detail, the intricacies of elevator safety features and who invented the first hydraulic elevator. I don’t know what sparked his sudden interest in it. My guess is that he read...
2 tags
Double Booking
Lately I have been really horrible at scheduling two events at the same time. This weekend is no exception. After an entire day of unpacking my entire TX apartment, sans bed of course, and running all around the tri-city area doing errands I am completely pooped. Now that I am home and about to get ready, I realize, “SHIT! I TRIPLE booked this time!” This evening I planned for 1) a...
6 tags
American Wedding
The difference between Texan girls versus California girls can pretty much be summed up by comparing how each reacts to my telling them I am engaged.
TMD: I got engaged! Dallas Girl: (Whole face lights up and speaks in a high-pitched voice) Oh Em Geeee! I am so excited for you! (Significantly lower and serious voice while grabbing my hand and shoving it in their face) NOW WHERE’S THE RING....
4 tags
Crisis Averted
For my move to CA, I found it cheapest to use a bus freighter company to move my small apartment in boxes. So I sold off the furniture I didn’t want to keep and boxed up my bed within a week’s time frame. All by myself.
When the guy came to pick up my boxes for shipment he took a look at my bed and said he couldn’t move it, and to call the shipping company to schedule another...
4 tags
It's Official!
I am now registered for the Fall 2011 quarter. My schedule is pretty packed. I’m taking Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I could just skip all three and go straight into OChem and Genetics. I have a competitive science GPA from my first two years in college but that was 6-7 years ago (holy shit, I’m old!). I need a refresher, especially after seeing all of D’s MCAT prep books.
...
9 tags
Blue Valentine
Last month I watched Blue Valentine, a film by Derek Cianfrance. I waited so, so, so long to see this movie and would have seen it in theaters if they showed anywhere other than LA or NY. The two leading actors are Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams who are pretty famous, so I wondered why this was considered an independent film and why wasn’t it publicized as much as other romantic dramas...
2 tags
Rats with Tails
Evil squirrels are terrorizing my neighborhood. In Dallas, that is. Today after work I made a stop at my apartment to finish up my packing and to throw out everything that didn’t make the cut to CA. As I stepped out of my apartment with an armful of trash a squirrel was standing 3 feet from my front door, staring straight at me as if he were expecting me. I tried to shoo him away but...
6 tags
Chinay Tiger Mom
Even though I was happy to spend time with my family, my highlight of the week was reading Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. It’s an easy read, which is why I was able to finish it so fast amongst all of last week’s craziness. Back in January I read Chua’s controversial article on Chinese parenting and it had been sitting on my “To Read” list ever since.
Within the first chapter I was...
4 tags
My first week back in California
…has been full of craziness compared to the quiet and solitude I grew so accustomed to when I lived in Dallas. I’m not complaining. I’ll take crazy over quiet in a heartbeat! Here is what my week was like: I woke up every morning at the crack of dawn to drop D off at his MCAT prep class. Then I set up shop at my mom’s to remotely manage my 40 year-old counterpart who is a big fat...
May 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Updates
I know it’s been a while, and I don’t mean to drop the ball on this blog. The past week has been crazy hectic with my big move back to Californ-I-A. My mom flew in Wednesday after her Tissue Preservation and Banking conference at the University of Minneapolis and helped me with my packing. We also got to do a little eating, shopping and site seeing in Dallas, which served as a good...
2 tags
The New MCAT
I know a lot of (former) pre-med students who have excellent GPAs, research experience, related work experience and outstanding ECs (extracurriculars). However, mention “the M-word” to them and either their blood will drain from their faces or they go into a diabolic rage. Some of them lock themselves in a room to study for an entire summer. Some of them shy away from medical school...
5 tags
"Is it true what they say about Asian girls?"
Me: What about Asian girls? Person 1: You know…
No, I don’t know. I look around at everyone at the table and realize all their curious blue/green eyes are fixed on me, clenching their beers and waiting for an answer. Okay, other than the obvious black hair and Asian features, what about me would be different from any other race? Is it that we all look the same? No, that can’t be it… Do ...
1 tag
The Interns Are Here!
On my daily walk from the parking garage to my building I noticed two very young adults (they might have still been teenagers) awkwardly dressed in business suits. The boy was a short somewhat athletic ginger with pimples all over his face and his counterpart was a tall stick-figured girl with neatly combed hair and thighs the size of my forearm. Had it not been for the 30-pack of Diet Coke the...
4 tags
Sambali Mama Medicine
In a sort of continuation from my previous post I decided to look a little bit more into my own ancestry—mostly from my mother’s side. She’s from a small town called Santa Cruz, Zambales on the northwestern coast of the Philippines. Zambales, the name of the province (similar to a U.S. state), comes from the Malaysian world sambal which means “to worship”. The...
4 tags
The Human Race
The other day I watched a really interesting documentary on human genetic mapping, called “The Human Family Tree”, narrated by Kevin Bacon. A group of geneticists went to Queens, NY—the most diverse place ethnicity-wise on the planet, or so they claim. They took samples of people’s DNA via a cheek swab, claiming that they were able to track their ancestry by identifying...
2 tags
Pilot Post
All right, here we go. I have put off medical school for about 2 years now. All of the “discovering who I am” phase of my life is coming to a close. After having worked in a corporate setting among people twice my age, I have come to realize that I’ve “found” myself just as well as anybody else. It’s about time I admit to myself that I’ll never be...
