My grey hairs are telling me how old I am...or at least how stressed I am.

:::sigh::::

For years I've caught a grey hair here and there, but now it's more frequent....a lot more frequent. Pulled about 5 or 6 today. =(

I dont want to dye my hair again. Too much upkeep. Too much money.

At least I still look 16

7 years later I still remember it as if it happened last night.

I remember what I did that day.

I remember the last time I saw her with her eyes open looking at me.

I remember who was with me when I said goodbye to her.

I still get choked up thinking about it

Try to find me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjeCmHwqVpU&feature=channel_page

This past weekend, Sean, my dad, and I drove down to LA. It was my Lola's (grandmother) 85th birthday. She's on my mom's side of the family and had no idea we were coming down to visit or that she would be getting a birthday party.

The trip itself was crappy. Even though we have new cars, my dad insisted we get a rental car so that we don't add miles to our car. whatever. The car was crap. It was an '09 corolla that smelled of cigarettes. It was so disgusting, yet it reminded me of the days when my Lolo (grandfather) would babysit me and I'd be in his car which smelled of cigarettes. When we got to LA we stayed in ghetto Alhambra in a crappy hotel room. I have no idea what my dad was thinking. The hotel was across the street from a night club. I barely got any sleep last weekend because the music kept blasting until 2am. Luckily for Sean, he sleeps like a rock and probably got more sleep than I did.

The party was awesome. I've got pics up on my facebook page. It was so good to see family again. My sister and bro-in-law came too! There were cousins, aunts, and uncles that I haven't seen since my mom's funeral! We ate lots of food, but no one ate the 4 cakes that were there! There were other desserts like my cousin's red velvet cupcakes, and turon (banana wrapped in an egg roll wrapper and fried) which is what I ate. All the grand kids gave Lola a rose and said some birthday wishes. There was also a slide show with pictures of Lola. Whoever made the slide show decided to also show pictures of her grand kids. Unfortunately the only pictures they had of me were when I was a kid with bad fashion sense. After that some karaoke commenced. My cousin, Bryan, sang, "Barbie girl" while cousin, Michael, sang Britney Spears' "Lucky". Haha! It was so funny!

Lola was so happy to see us all! I wish we could spend more time with her. I'm glad Sean came with us. He met my family once at my sister's wedding but that was a long ass time ago. My family likes him. Tita (Aunt) Tess told him he's part of our family now. That meant a lot to me.

I hope I can see my family again. I miss them.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2009%2F05%2F18%2FBAHH17MMH8.DTL&tsp=1


Todd was a former co-worker of mine. He was a funny guy. Didn't know him too well, but whenever I was at Google, he'd joke around and be funny.

He will be missed

Sorry this is so long. It was one whole week!

Pictures will soon be up (if not already) on my Facebook page and on my flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kerotab/

My sister already has some video and pics up on her flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eileenrose/

Maui Day 1 - Travel Day

I'll admit, I was a bit nervous. I haven't flown in over 7 years! Once up in the air I was fine. Hawaiian Airlines is pretty good. They've got a damn good chocolate brownie. One thing I did notice while on the plane was how technology dependent i've become. I didn't know that 10 minutes after takeoff you can use your electronic devices. After an hour I was waiting for someone to announce it was okay to use but no one said anything. I was so bored. When I'm bored I go online or use my iPhone. Since I couldn't do any of that, I got really bored and a little ADD. The split second I was told (by my dad) that I could use electronics, I immediately whipped out my DS.
5 hours after leaving SJ, I arrived in Honolulu. My first impression: Philippines. It's so similar in terms of weather, hot and humid. There, we met up with my sister (E) and bro-in-law (T). There were also Hawaiian dancers to greet the passengers, but we did not get leis. Only the people traveling in very large groups did . =( We had 2 hours to kill before our next flight so we grabbed some very expensive lunch at the airport. Holy crap! $76 for 4 people?! sheesh! I had a burger, my dad had a sandwich, and E&T both got nachos! This must be how the airport makes money. ugh.
After lunch we all got on the same plane to Maui. It only took 30 minutes to get there, but it felt much faster than that. It felt like this: takeoff -> pass out juice - > 5 minutes later flight attendants pick up trash - > land in Maui. After we got our luggage and car rental, we were off to the resort villa in Ka'anapali (In case you didn't know, E&T got a time share villa here). It took almost an hour to get there, but the scenic view was so amazing. All you could see is the bright blue water on one side and the beautiful mountains on the other. The resort itself, is also amazing (http://www.starwoodvacationownership.com/westin_kaanapali_ocean_resort_villas_north/welcome.jsp) We got the ocean view. Once we got settled in, we drove down to the town of Lahaina (about 5 - 10 minute drive) to grab some toiletries at Longs and food at the local Safeway. Longs in Hawaii is not the same as here in Cali. They had a small section fresh produce and more Hawaiian foods like Poi (more on that later).

Maui Day 2
We ate our breakfast out in the lanai (balcony). You have to if you got a gorgeous view like we did. After breakfast we all got in our swimsuits and headed out to the beach. The beach was right out front so it only took us less than 5 minutes to walk there. E gave me the basics of snorkeling. It's pretty easy as long as the waters are calm. I can't swim, but I can float so this was perfect for me. I was surprised to see many fish out near the shore. E & T snorkeled our further.
When we were done with the beach, we went back to our rooms, cleaned up, then headed back to Lahaina for some authentic Hawaiian food. E&T have been here before so they knew were to go. We ate lunch at Aloha mixed plate which serves the best Hawaiian food out there. I had the Kalua pork with rice and macaroni salad. I also tried poi and lomi lomi salmon for the first time. Poi is taro root smashed into a creamy paste. You put it over the Kalua pork or whatever the main dish is. lomi lomi salmon looks like salsa, but it's got raw salmon in it. Very tasty.
That night we went to Whalers Village, an outdoor shopping area. That day happened to be the day of the Maui Onion Festival. We missed most of it, but got a chance to check out the Hawaiian dancing. They had young adults dancing as welll as the little kids. So cute! We ate dinner at a restaurant called, Leilani's where I had a really good piece of steak. Very good food, yet very expensive. They weren't kidding when they said Hawaii is expensive.

Maui Day 3
E & T heard from a friend that up north there's a beach where you can find turtles in the ocean. We drove up to a beach in Napili where I got to snorkel again. This time I went farther into the ocean. With T's help, I held on to his hand, cutting his circulation, while we floated and looked at the coral and fish. It was so fun! I was so close I could almost touch the fish. The worst part was when I accidentally swallowed sea water. Bleh! We got back to land and dried off. I had so much sand in my ass it was not even funny. E&T wanted to go back out to find the turtles so they went on and I stayed on the beach to darken up. When they got back, they told me how they saw a turtle as big as a dining room table.
For lunch we ate at the gazebo. It's a small outdoor restaurant that has really good food. E & T had huge pancakes while I had a huge Maui burger (burger, cheese, ham, and pineapple)
When we got back to the resort, we passed by the concierge (sp?). My sister asked a question about the nearby pools and as the lady was talking to us about the nearby pools and resorts, she somehow thought I was E's daughter! Ugh! She first asks me if I've gone to the kiddie pool. I swear right then I was about to smack her in the face! Then she asked my sister if I was her daughter. When we told her no, she then talked about how her dead grandmother was my height and shrunk a few inches shortly before she died. WTF?!?! Hasn't this lady lived in Hawaii long enough to know there are many people like me who are short and look very young for their age?!?!?! ARRGGGG!
Later that day we took the shuttle bus (courtesy of the resort) to the lahaina center. The main shopping center reminded me of Valco: dead. There weren't many stores, but I did get a few things. I think if we walked further, we would have seen more stuff.
For dinner we ate in an made spaghetti. So far the cheapest meal we've had!

Maui Day 4
This was the big day. It was zipline day. We got up sorta early and headed to the this small shopping center where the zipline store was. It was there where we signed in, got weighed, filled up our water bottles, got in a van with 9 other people, and headed up the hill. The van ride was horrible. I think the driver intentionally made the ride super bumpy. Luckily I didn't feel sick or get a headache. We were taken to a small station where we were greeted by our 2 guides and put on our safety gear. We then went back in the van that took us up to our first zipline (we went on 8 courses). It was so fun! I tried to scream, but I was too busy at looking at the view every time. I did scream on one course (my sister has video of it http://www.flickr.com/photos/eileenrose/) We did 4 courses, ate lunch with a beautiful view up high, then did 4 more courses. There was one course where I thought I was slowing down at the end and wasn't gonna make it to the other side. This one girl with us nearly went back after she couldn't quite reach the landing. Thank god our guide was able to grab her by her foot. After the last course, we got back in the van back to the station to return our gear, get back in the bumpy van ride, and back to the store. We got to keep our water bottles and I bought a sweatshirt for the winter time.
When we got back we hung around the pool, got a tour of the spa, ate dinner in and watched Dancing with the Stars.

Maui Day 5
As I said before, I can't swim, so my dad wanted to teach me. There was a small pool near our building that not many people go in because there's not much of a view. We used that for my practice. For the most part, I can kick my legs, hold my breath underwater for a long time and swim to the other side, but for some reason I can't grasp the idea of moving my arms and moving my head to the side to breathe. It's the one time where multitasking doesn't work for me. My dad said I started doing it right, but about half way I start to give up. I dunno.
After that failed lesson, we went back to the beach to play and relax. After lunch, E and I wanted to do some shopping in Lahaina. I bought a top and a dress at this cute boutique called Mahina. The cashier told me she's originally from San Jose and how a lot of people from the Blossom Hill area come to Maui. Couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or just being friendly. Next door was a marketplace where they had very good gelato. We got Ferrero Rocher flavored gelato. So good!
In celebration of Cinco De Mayo, resort offered a beer tasting and pairing. It was fairly lame and super expensive ($40 per person). 5 beers, 4 courses. The food and beer were good, but they were small meals paired with small samples of cheap beer. The only beer I didn't like was the dark beer (don't remember the name) paired with the flan (I don't like flan). The host didn't even explain much about the beers and the food.

Maui Day 6
On this day, T was asked by the Maui chamber of commerce to give a speech about Social Networking at the mall in downtown Kahalui. We all went with him, and while he gave his speech. The rest of us...well...shopped =) After that we ate at a place called Da Kitchen. It's a local eatery with large portions of food. E and dad had to take theirs home because it was so much food. Not much else happened this day, we were all lazy once we got back to the villa and couldn't wait to watch this week's episode of LOST =)

Maui Day 7
This was our last full day in Maui and it was starting to sink in that i'll be going home soon. We didn't do much. The only main thing I did was go back to Whalers Village to finish up my shopping.

Maui Day 8 - Travel Day
Got up really early to head to the airport. The flights back home weren't bad at all. This time we got chocolate cake as our desert. =) the only thing that sucked was once we arrived in SJ. It was almost 9pm California time, and i've been up since 5am Hawaii time. It took forever for our baggage to show up and getting the shuttle to take us to our car in the long term parking lot took forever. We still needed to eat! I got home around 10:30pm. Ugh

During the take offs (from Maui to Honolulu and Honolulu to SJ) I was frowning and saying goodbye to Hawaii in my head. I really like it there. The weather, the food, the style, fits me well. I want to go back. My only regret on this trip was that I didn't borrow Joy's large suitcase. All I have is two small ones. I couldn't buy everything I wanted to get because I knew there wouldn't be enough room in the suitcases for them (I wanted 2 really nice purses and some other items). I shoved as much of my clothing in my carry-on as possible so I had room for the souvenirs and gifts I bought in my checked bag.
I think everyone could learn something from the people of Hawaii. Their so nice and they truly believe in keeping things green. Some stores only have paper bags, while others don't even have bags. The zipline place was really green. The water bottles they gave us were BPA free which was good for the environment or something like that. I also had to hold on to the sweat shirt I bought because they don't use bags. Everywhere you go they use things made from recycled materials. There's hardly any trash on the ground. It's just so different. Going to Hawaii we had to fill out a claims form where we had to check yes or no to bringing in animals and plants to Hawaii. On the way back, our bags were checked to make sure we weren't taking home any plants or animals to the mainland U.S. Everything is just beautiful and clean. It's easy to forget that Hawaii is a U.S state and not another country. At least for me it was.

Aloha

I'm home

:::sigh:::

I miss Hawaii

Will post pics and make another blog post about my travels soon

For now I rest and catch up on what I missed

Tomorrow morning I'll be on a plane headed for Maui =)

I wont be bringing my laptop ::::gasp::::: but I'll still have my iphone with me (do'h!). Like I could stay away from Facebook and twitter =P

Finally, I'll get a chance to experience what people call, "vacation"

Bye!

(=^_^=)

Ok, so the past month I've been buy and playing around with make-up. Obviously this phase hasn't faded away yet. I took some picture of some looks I tried to achieve. I think it's a fail, but my friend, Kelly, was really impressed with it. Sorry if you don't like seeing a huge picture of an eye. Not to mention I have a weird bump on my left eye. Not sure how to get rid of it. I've probably scared you already.

( eye looks )

I still need to learn how to properly wear eyeliner on my waterline. It scares me because I have contacts.

Would I ever wear these in public? If I was going to a funky party or Halloween. I think my eyes are shaped weird for these looks. It was fun to experiment tho...

Caught on tape! =)

http://tiny12.tv/2SCXQ

The day has finally arrived. My first bite was a Dars dark chocolate piece. It was so good. I then had some mushroom shaped chocolate followed by Men's Pocky (just because it's dark chocolate doesn't mean you have to call it Men's!)

Would I ever give up chocolate for lent again? Probably not. It really wasn't has hard as I thought it was going to be. I basically replaced chocolate with something vanilla or strawberry. I actually got used to not having chocolate. When I woke up this morning, I wasn't so eager to have it. I had this, "I can wait a lil longer" attitude. But man oh man once I had it....yum!! I think I need a harder challenge. My twitter/plurk buddy, LoveMeDeux, and I are thinking of giving up shopping next year. Not sure how that would work, but it would be interesting to try that out.

I went back for the cleaning. I was fine when I left, but now my teeth hurt. Dinner was hard to eat =(

I forgot to get the info for that oral surgeon. Ah well. I'll call later.

Dentist says wisdom teeth should be pulled out =(

:::sigh:::

I feel like I should blog more. To share things. To get things out of my system. Most of the time I find myself just too lazy to do it. I'll try but no guarantees.

This weekend is going to be so boring. Everyone's out of town! I'm stuck here. I guess I can use this time to clean out my room and give Bluebear and car wash. I've got some netflix movies to watch and Animal Crossing to play, but still. It's not so fun when you do those alone. =(

Ugh I think this no-chocolate thing has increased my spending habit. Instead of bringing lunch to work, i've been going out to eat. I've bought some clothes at Marshalls duing my lunch break and I've also been spending way too much money on makeup.....Sean says it's a phase and that it will go away. Last night I placed my order at http://www.cherryculture.com/ . I ordered almost all (except for maybe 5 colors) of the NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Loose Shadows and 10 of the NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil. Oh yeah, I also bought some eyeliners at a local beauty store near work. Ahhh I need to stop!!!!

I checked my credit card and it's not pretty. Luckily a majority of what I owe comes from the plane tickets I bought for Dad and I to go to Maui and Dad has paid me back for it. But still. I need to stop. I'm considering giving up shopping for next year's lent season. Giving up chocolate has been fairly easy. I need something more challenging.

I've experimented with eye makeup and tried some looks. I took some pictures, but I don't know if I should post them. It's pretty bad considering I'm a begninner. Either my eye shape sucks or my technique sucks. I tried doing a look with teal and yellow colors and I did a purple/pink look. I also tried a red and orange look but the pic looks like I used pink and orange.

What else...oh yeah I finally got my E.L.F. order nearly two weeks after I placed my order! I swear their shipping sucks. All their cosmetics are $1! In some cases you can see why. I ordered an eye shadow brush, Liquid liner, a white eye pencil, and concealer. The eye pencil sucks! You have to put a lot of presure on your lid for the color to show. The liner is ok. It kinda flakes when you remove it, and putting too much when it's still wet, will slide. Almost went in my eye! ewww. The concealer was a shock. I got the medium shade and first thought it was too dark for me. When I put in on my skin, it disappeared. Blended in with my skin, thus fairly covered my blemishes. The container is really small. Looked like a sample to me. The brush....Awesome!! I love it!. It's huge and super soft. Unfortunately it's the only thing I liked in this order. I don't know if I'll order from them again.

I think that's all I have to say for now about makeup. It is a sad addiction. Hopefully Sean is right and that it's just a phase.

On Wednesday I've got my dentist appointment. It's the first time in years. Yeah I know. Bad Kero! The only thing I'm nervous about is what they are going to say about my teeth. I still have my wisdom teeth and my bottom teeth are crooked. If they say I need braces, I'm only gonna do the invisalign. If they say I need my wisdom teeth out...Gulp! I heard you need a week to rest etc. ahhh!! My teeth could use a bit of whitening too =(

Okay I'll stop for now. =)

I'm starting to be a make-up fanatic. I think it started at work. Sometimes I get asked to put some powder on talent who comes in to our studio for a live news interview. A few days ago, Karin came by and gave Heather and I some full make-up training (male and female makeup). Now i'm on the roster to do makeup for shoots as Karin's backup.

I've also started watching youtube videos from Fafinettex3. I think she's an awesome artist. Especially the eye makeup. Now I want to learn how to do it myself. So far no good. I'm gonna need lots of practice.

So far I've bought a few things from target with my gift card that I got for my birthday. I've also discovered http://www.coastalscents.com/. I ordered some brushes which are hella cheap (less than $3 on many of them!). I also purchased from them this 88 matte eyeshadow palette. A lot of colors for only $20+. I think it's a good deal. At some point I want to go to MAC and get a good powder. We have MAC powders at work and work really great on the talent. Just today I got my order from NYX Cosmetics. They had a sale that I couldn't refuse, however I think I should have. I'm not that impressed with what I got. Still need to test it. If I don't like it, I might sell them. We'll see. Finally, I ordered some items from http://www.eyeslipsface.com/. Everything is $1!!!!! Gonna test the quality of their products. So far their shipping sucks. I tracked my package and it's still on the east coast! It's been almost a week.

Sean's doesn't like it, but at the same time doesn't care that i'm doing this. He hates makeup and calls it goop. I think it's fun. I never really got into makeup growing up. Now it's coming to me. It's probably a phase that will fade in a few weeks or months. Or it can get worse and I could end up with a huge collection. I hope it doesn't come to that.

So far it makes me happy and that's all that matters.

I've been obsessing with cupcakes that past few weeks. Before the "I gave up chocolate for lent" season started, I bought the mini cupcakes from lucky's. Cake part was good, but the pink frosting was too much. Then I found whole food's two bite mini cupcakes. All I can say is wow! Sean and I finished them in one day. I miss chocolate so much!

Now that i'm not having any chocolate, I still wanted cupcakes. I wanted to learn how to make them. Sean found a recipe online for triple strawberry cupcakes. The end result:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kerotab/3337217612/

Since Sean doesn't like frosting, right before we eat them (or one) we'll put whipped cream on top. =) it was good. I think since the recipe called for strawberry gelatin (in addition to fresh strawberries), the cake part was very moist. Could easily fall apart. I still like it. =)

After lent I'm gonna ask Kitty for her famous red velvet cupcake recipe. I'm hooked!

Somehow cupcake making brought out the topic of wedding cakes and what Sean and I would want for our wedding. REMINDER: WE ARE NOT ENGAGED! Yet somehow we were talking as if we were planning our own wedding. We even looked at pricing before JJ came over! I think we got a bit carried away. =)

I'm going to Hawaii =)

I'm giving up chocolate for lent


:::gulp:::

I hope I make it, but I think I wont.

too many things went wrong

don't wanna talk about it

glad it's over

i'm not planning any more bithdays

whoa

=)

I pulled myself into a flickr photo challenge thanks to one of my friends on plurk and twitter. The challenge is to post a picture you took everyday for all of 2009 on your flickr page. It seems easy, but it's not really. The hardest part is to remember to take a picture everyday of something worth taking a picture of.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kerotab/

The first 4 pics in 2009 were actually taken sometime in 2008 since I didn't know about the challenge until then (which is fine). I hope I take some interesting photos this year. I've got my iphone and my digital camera in my purse at all times =)