Tag Archives: Life

Getting Ready for Chinese New Year

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Chinese New Year is probably one of my favorite times of the year. Along with New Year’s Day and Christmas. Maybe I really like winter holidays? (Valentine’s Day is only exciting if someone gives me nice chocolates, though.)

Tomorrow begins year 4711 on the Chinese Calendar, the Year of the Snake. As always, Hong Kong will have extravagant parades, and I’ll dream of the day I’m in Hong Kong, watching as a large, colorful dragon passes by me, the day I’m cheering along with the other millions who come out to see the parade.

Today isn’t that day though. Today, I am here. I have to make the most of what I have, since after all, I have to stay present. And I have to prepare for Chinese New Year!

I found this article on About.com’s Chinese Culture site, detailing the four things to do to prepare for Chinese New Year.

  1. Go to the fortune teller.
  2. Get a haircut.
  3. Clean the house.
  4. Go shopping.

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Here’s to 2013: My 10 New Year’s Resolutions

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The clocks have turned and the calendars have changed as everyone around the world celebrates the arrival of January 1, 2013. A new year signals many things: a new chapter, a new story, a new adventure, a new self.

Like many people, I have my list of New Year’s resolutions prepared:

  1. Eat vegetarian… most of the time.
  2. Write every day.
  3. Read more often.
  4. Spend less, save more.
  5. Be confident.
  6. Get enough sleep and go to bed by 10 pm. Continue reading

Cancer, Hope, and Miracles: One Moment Changed Everything

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This is my brother Jude, and it’s a miracle he’s here today.

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My brother, Jude, was a sickly child, constantly being taken out of school for medical reasons — what we believed was asthma. Jude going to kindergarten was such a huge moment — the two of us would be at the same school, he’d actually be going to school, and I’d be able to see him there every day.

Seventh grade was the first year I tried to stay extremely optimistic for the future. I started writing in a journal I bought, making sure to include even the mundane details of the first days of school. As I was rereading it, something caught my eye — Jude had a stomachache one morning, and we were almost late to school.

It was August 19, 2010, Jude’s fourth day of kindergarten and my fourth day of seventh grade. He cried for so long that day about losing a game in his gym class. He screamed about how they cheated him and how unfair the game was, as we told him that “it was just a game” and that it wasn’t worth crying over.

His cheeks were bright red, which I thought was my mom’s lipstick. Later that night, we found out he had a 105 degree fever, and we brought him to the emergency room. I’ll never forget the flashing lights of the ambulance that whisked my only brother away from the emergency room to the large hospital, Children’s Medical Center, in downtown Dallas.

The next morning, my friend A-’s dad brought me to the hospital to see Jude. I kept my sunglasses on for the ride home, trying to hide the tears.

When I made it home, I started packing up my things to take with me back to my friend’s house. My journal was exactly where I left it. I opened it, turned it to the next blank page, and wrote three words.

“Jude has leukemia.” Continue reading

Mesa Grill

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Note: Mesa Grill’s New York location is closed. As of posting, the only open locations are in Las Vegas and the Bahamas

On Day Two in New York, the lunch destination was Mesa Grill, one of Bobby Flay’s restaurants.

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I’m from Texas, land of beef and all things meat. I was actually quite surprised that a restaurant owned by a man well-known for grilling (and Mexican food, which is something else I’m used to) excited me.

There are a few things that made my time at Mesa Grill very significant in my New York journey — first, Mesa Grill was the only restaurant where we, rather my mom, actually ordered from the Restaurant Week menu (which took place between July 16 through August 10, 2012). Second, Mesa Grill had the best service out of any restaurant I went to in New York. I’ll never forget the wonderful waiter we had — he was so personal and friendly, it was great!

On the restaurant week menu was a spicy salmon tartare as an appetizer, wild striped bass as the entrée, and a vanilla bean custard for dessert. I ordered the Mesa Burger — which had the usual lettuce, tomato, and cheese, but also included grilled Vidalia onion, horseradish mustard, and Southwestern fries.

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Click here and read more! (^_^)

The iPhone 5 and My Love Affair with Apple

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Everyone has that thing that they really like — that “thing” could be anything: video games, notebooks, vintage clothes, cars, Starbucks mugs, music, television, and so forth. For me, that “thing” would be Apple products. From my first iPod touch four years ago to the iPhone 4 that I got two years ago, Apple has always been “that thing” in my life.

As you may know, the iPhone 5 was released yesterday in the United States, as well as countries such as Canada, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. For weeks, I’ve been ready to just go out and ditch my old iPhone 4 for the new iPhone 5. Since I didn’t have school yesterday, I thought “why not?” and convinced my mom that we should get the iPhone 5 on the release date.

IMG_1650Fine, I wasn’t really thinking “let’s wait in a line on my day off!” I’ll admit that I really just wanted to walk into school on Monday and be the coolest person with the shiny new iPhone 5. (If it means anything, my old phone’s home button wasn’t working, and it was deteriorating rather quickly.)

My morning started off at 5:20 AM with an alarm I forgot I set. Like most days, I turned off the alarm and rolled over to the other side of the bed. Did I really want to get up? Is it really worth it? Most of the time, I’d just answer my inner dialogue with “No, I’m going back to sleep” but today was different.

I trudged out of my bed, got dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt (I assumed it would be cold), and dragged myself downstairs. I filled my Manila travel mug with green tea before my mom and I left the house.

We made it to the mall at about 6 o’clock in the morning. My mom called the Apple Store on Thursday afternoon and she was told that the lines form outside the mall at around 9 PM the day before the release. They open the mall up at 6 AM and the Apple Store itself opens at 8 AM. Personally, I think it’s crazy to be waiting all night outside of a mall, but I guess there are people who want that iPhone 5 a lot more than I do.

IMG_1654After attempting to through a locked door, my mom and I found the correct entrance on the floor below us. I’m not sure how many people were in front of us, but it really seemed like a lot. You couldn’t even see the Apple Store from where we were standing.

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Harney & Sons SoHo

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I’ve never really been a big fan of coffee. My dad says it’s an “acquired taste,” but I think I like tea more. My first day in New York was definitely a crazy day, filled with walking, eating, and jaywalking. The weirdest part was that it started raining. I’ve always been a fan of the rain, but I really did not want it to show up in my incredibly short trip to New York. My mom and I decided to go to Harney & Sons SoHo for tea, even though that meant running down the streets of SoHo in the rain.

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Harney & Sons is a tea company based in Connecticut with tasting rooms in New York City and Millerton (a small town in New York on the border of Connecticut). The New York City location is placed in the trendy SoHo area, surrounded by cast-ironarchitecture, artists’ lofts, and art galleries.

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Jaywalking Across New York City

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You know what I don’t do in Dallas very much? Cross the street.

Dallas and its suburbs are deprived of one very important thing: people who walk. The city itself isn’t very friendly to walkers, and nearly everyone has a car and uses it. Personally, I don’t know anyone who uses the train here… yet.

New York, on the other hand, is a walker’s paradise. The first day of my three-day, mini-foodie adventure involved a lot of walking. And I mean a lot. I think I walked about thirty blocks just hours after arriving into the city.

There’s one really easy way to tell if someone is a tourist or a local — all you have to do is watch them walk.

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