Life Stories

Stories and rants in the past, present and everything in between.

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Summerfling

Listening to "Summerfling" by k.d. lang, taken from her fifth solo album INVINCIBLE SUMMER. Released on June 20th, 2000, this is the 20th anniversary edition (2020 re-issue) on yellow-orange vinyl press.

The album’s title derives from a quote by Albert Camus: “In the depths of water, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

This record is very apropos with this week’s Southern California excessive heat wave of 105°, an invincible summer indeed!

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One final hurrah!

On my last day here in Houston, we decided to have dinner at New Chinatown in Downtown Houston.

Enjoyed some sushi platter on a boat at Café 101 over some sake, basking in the ambience of all things Asian in Houston.

This trip has been quite an experience. I have been thinking about moving out of California for quite some time and maybe move to Washington. But with everything being so expensive on the West Coast, the cost of living here in Texas is definitely something worth considering.

Until next time.

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Last day of June

Woke up around 8:30am and checked out of our hotel to get breakfast. Went over to Walmart to buy some other items for the new home like bathroom rugs, shower curtain rods, window blinds and groceries. By the time we were done it's time for lunch. Luckily, the pods will arrive later in the afternoon so we had an hour to grab a bite to eat.

My mom had visited Houston earlier this year and highly recommended this place, Rudy's BBQ. I've never had brisket moist and it is AMAZING.

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Houston, we've arrived

Made two stops during the day at The Texan and experienced some fast food lunch at Whataburger in San Antonio. The beef patty is not greasy as the other fast food burger joints back in California (so it doesn't give me that yucky grease after-taste) and it is bigger portioned.

Then six hours later we finally arrived in Downtown Houston. About to check in to a hotel for the night and get our day started the next day to my brother and his wife's new house to unload all the small items they've packed in the car as we wait for the pods to arrive for the rest of the bigger stuff (i.e. furniture, mattresses, electronics, etc.)

Day two is finally done! The drive is long and exhausting. I need a drink.

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Summer road-trip

This concludes day one of our road trip from California to El Paso, Texas. My brother and his wife had asked me to tag along and assist them move and start a new life. I was happy to help as well as take the opportunity to see Texas for the first time. Just having a quick bite to eat before we continue day two, as we head over to our final destination in Houston (which is an 11-hour drive). So far we're right on schedule.

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The Body Remembers 2022

I’ve been a fan of Debbie Gibson for 33 years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her in concert. I was lucky enough to get good seats and experience a great live performance from my favorite 80′s pop idol. 

The Body Remembers Tour at the City National Grove of Anaheim was a great night and an entertaining experience. Being able to watch and hear new music performed live as well as some of her 80′s and 90′s classics, it was such an enjoyable moment to be able to sing along with other loyal fans (the DebHeads). 

It’s definitely one of the highlights of my summer of 2022. The video posted is a stripped down, acoustic rendition of her 80′s hit, “Shake Your Love”.

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Black boys, White boys

This is one of my favorite scenes from HAIR (1979), it's an American musical anti-war comedy-drama film based on the 1968 Broadway musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.

It's about a Vietnam war draftee who meets/befriends a "tribe" of hippies who introduces him to marijuana, LSD and their environment of unorthodox relationships focusing on the lives of 2 young men against the backdrop of the hippie counterculture of the Vietnam era.

This particular scene/clip touches on the taboo of interracial and sexual desires as well as the undertone of closeted gays serving in the military. It is well executed in this musical number, with a tongue-and-cheek sort of humor.

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Pretend it’s 1995

Ever since smartphones came to prominence in 2007, people in social gatherings like restaurants, the mall and other places where you are interacting with people in public, you see almost everyone with their faces glued on their phones.

The last time I went to a restaurant I saw a family having dinner and everyone was spoon feeding themselves with one hand while the other is scrolling through their phones.

I had lunch with my niece and nephew today and saw this sign upon entering before we got seated and I thought, “we should have more signs like this, and WiFi should only be password protected and accessed by employees.”

I’ll pretend to be 1995 anytime!

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It’s raining men (sort of)

I spent my birthday today catching up with friends over brunch with mimosas. Got a good buzz going but all that good feeling must come to an end. Decided to run some errands and then had a late lunch/early dinner with mom. As she was driving us back home, I can see from a distance a group of shirtless young men running. So I told my mom to “step on it!”

As we got closer, I was able to take a quick snap shot from behind and I hope my mom slowed down so I could get a snapshot of the front. But she was trying to drive through a green light that just turned yellow. 

While my buzz is gone, this public display of young specimen running and sweating for their college cross-country team brought me back to life. And is certainly the sweet icing to a well deserved birthday cake later that night. At my age, I’ll take whatever type of satisfaction I can get and that includes this nearly perfect visual.

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Line by Line

I have been a fan of Amy Grant since the early 90′s. She started her career as a contemporary Christian singer, and she made her pop mainstream cross over with her 1991 album “Heart in Motion”. While I discovered her earlier contemporary Christian albums from the 80′s, her music and message never focused on self-righteousness. The words to her music have always been stories from a human experience which centers about love, friendship, acceptance, understanding, keeping an open mind and seeing things differently from another person’s perspective.

So I was really excited to find out that Amy was going to be doing a concert at a venue very close to where I live (8 miles away to be exact). I bought the tickets to see her on March 2020. But unfortunately, COVID happened around that time and it was one of the venues that had to cancel and reschedule. At first it was rescheduled later in October of that same year but as the rise of the pandemic became prominent, it was canceled again and rescheduled for October 2021.

I had such a great time seeing her live in concert at the City National Grove of Anaheim with one of my dear friend and co-worker. It is quite an experience to listen to her music live and have her share stories behind these songs she’s written and recorded. Thank you, Amy for the music and inspiration. You are worth waiting for! 

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The One

I just realized that I have not posted on here for quite a while. To be honest, I completely forgot that I still have a tumblr account. While I can’t make any promises, I’ll try to make an effort to post here from time to time. 

Here’s a throwback clip I took during the Backstreet Boys’ DNA World Tour in 2019 at the Anaheim Honda Center. It was my friend’s birthday and I decided to take him with me since we were both big fans of the boy-band back in 1997. It was also a perfect opportunity for the both of us to catch up. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life as we reminisce about the songs they performed taking us back to when we were only 16-17 years old. Just two young queer boys crushing on the Backstreet Boys. We were too young to have someone take us or get us tickets to see the group back in the 90′s, so as adults, it was worth the wait to finally see them after 26 years!

The reason why I posted this is to remind me of a time before COVID. And I sure hope that those good times will come back soon.

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The MixTape Tour 2019

I was never a fan of New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) even back in the 80′s and early 90′s. Sure, I’ve heard some of their songs and I like only a few that I find really catchy and danced along to them. My friend and I decided to go see them at The Honda Center in Anaheim mainly because they have a line-up of featured guests, including Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Naughty by Nature and Salt ‘n Pepa.

I was pretty much there to see Debbie Gibson and Tiffany since they were the pop idols I listened to more. But after that night, I think I have joined the NKOTB bandwagon and became a fan. At their age, they can still sing and dance with such high energy and get the crowd going.

While the die-hard fans are there to relive their teenage dreams and crushes as they sing along and reminisce to their greatest hits; I enjoyed more of their new material which is not at all bad. To think a boyband that went quiet after 1994 came back to prominence and sold out tickets of their massive tour. I will never forget that night.

If I have to choose which band member I had a crush on it would still be Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre, although Donnie Wahlberg is looking mighty fine with that hot bod he has.

Lastly, before the show started my friend and I bought some drinks and we brought them to our seats. There were these girls that sat in front of us and let’s just say they partied really early before the show started. You can tell they’ve had too much to drink especially one girl in particular. So, 5 minutes before they announced the group they were already hooting and hollering “New Kids! New Kids! New Kids!” Finally, the music starts and curtains open and the band comes out dancing and singing; the crowd goes wild. All the screaming and shrieking and the “I love you’s!” I look at the group of girls in front of us, the one girl who had way too much to drink than the rest was getting into the music. Suddenly, she lost her balance and toppled over to the empty seats in front of her. Her friends were too busy to notice but my friend and I quickly got their attention and notified them what just happened.

Some of the girls quickly came to her rescue, we provided some napkins since her nose started to bleed. The other girls called security and within seconds one of the security came and dispatched paramedics. While they waited, the girl who fell was seated as her friends comforted her. From what I heard, she said something about blacking out which caused her to lose balance and she doesn’t remember a thing. When the paramedics arrived, they were talking to her and taking her vitals to make sure she was okay.

Meanwhile, the show kept going. My friend was enjoying the show and I was singing along while looking at what is happening in front of us. Then I overheard the girl saying to the paramedics that she wants to stay and watch the show but somehow they convinced her that she has to be taken away; I guess the venue does not want to be held liable if something happens to her if she doesn’t get treated in case she may have caused some serious damage (she fell over face first). Unfortunately, she was taken away and the rest of her friends went with her having to miss the concert altogether. Hopefully they get refunded for a concert they have to miss.

After 6 songs, my friend and I looked at each other and thought since these girls aren’t coming back, let’s move and take their spot. No one gave a fuss and no one cared; we enjoyed the rest of the show.

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40th

Celebrated my 40th birthday with my friend as he took me to the Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles. 

The colored windows exhibit I took was the last display I saw; the first thing that came to mind reminded me of that scene in “Bye Bye Birdie”, during the ‘Telephone Hour’ number where teenagers call each other from their bedrooms catching up on the latest gossip. This is very 1950′s contemporary art. As I look at each window, I could picture each teenager popping their head out of the window with the telephone chanting the song verses, “What’s the story, morning glory? What’s the word, hummingbird?”

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Customers

When I was putting myself through school in pharmacy, I used to work for Chevron gas station. I took this photo in 2014 when I was working the 2nd shift while I was on my break. As you can see, all the gas pumps have been red-taped that says “out of order” on them. From time to time, we would need to perform a hard reset on these pumps from the back when more than 3 pump dispensers have stopped working due to a possible leak which can result in spillage or fire. So protocol is to shut the pumps down in order to assess and find out the problem before fixing it. 

You would think when customers drive through and notice the red tape wrapped around these dispensers and clearly, seeing that there aren’t any cars around doesn’t make it their lucky day that it’s not busy. Unfortunately, there have been a few cars that would park in front of the store and come in and demand for us to “turn on” the gas because they are running low. While we apologize for any inconvenience, and who knows how long it will take to resolve the issue, somehow it’s still our fault for not giving them gas. 

“Um...do you want to try and have gas spill all over you and catch fire? That way maybe you can sue us?” I mean, seriously. Do you think we like to get up and go to work and have this problem everyday so we can drive customers away? I’m surprised they’d want to keep us open if that’s how things are being run. Some people, I swear!

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For life!

I’m on my lunch break and I decided to use this time to run some errands. I saw this sign at a dental practice and thought to myself, “I know it’s meant for teeth but if this sign was posted on a random store without a specific name, I would assume that this includes anal bleaching.” I mean, not that I would get anal bleaching but it’s nice to be inclusive. I was tempted to call the number posted on the other side of the window and anonymously ask if they do anal bleaching. 

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The day after

My friend, Sara and I got up as early as 6:30am and checked out of the hotel by 7:15am. We stopped by to get coffee and left Vegas shortly after. I’m still reliving last night’s concert seeing Mariah Carey at Caesars Palace as we talked about the performances and laughed at some of the audience members around us. 

So, after a few hours of driving and by this time we are done with our coffee and feeling hungry. Since we have not had breakfast, we decided to make a stop at Peggy Sue’s 50′s Diner in Yermo, CA (just 1 hour away, approximately 145 miles from Nevada) in the San Bernardino County. This place has everything I could imagine and picture in a 1950′s diner. A vintage jukebox, the wallpaper and color schemes of the booths, the ambiance and the music, but what surprised me was these adult enhancement placebos in the men’s restroom placed in dispensers. 

I was so tempted to get one of each that I went back out and found a machine where you can get coin change (you know, like back in the 50′s). Luckily, I had some singles and got $3 change in quarters. I went back to the restroom and got one of each. As we left the diner and hopped back in the car, I showed it to my friend and she laughed hysterically. 

Now I’ve just got to find someone to try this with. The names of these item itself just makes me laugh, especially the tingler ring. If this place was in Vegas then I would have followed the “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” motto.

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#1 to Infinity

When Mariah Carey burst into the music scene with her self-titled debut album in 1990, I did not discover her until early 1991 when her 4th single, “I Don’t Wanna Cry” was playing heavily on the radio. I’ve heard her 1st single “Vision of Love” and “Love Takes Time” (her 2nd) the year before but I didn’t put two-and-two together that it was from the same singer until a classmate revealed this to me over recess. Also back then, just having arrived in America in 1989, I was still tuning in and listening to music from the 80′s while adapting to this American culture, so music in 1990 was a bit of a blur.

Technically, “I Don’t Wanna Cry” is the song that I associate Mariah with the most but eventually I grew to like her previous singles. Being a fan since then, I have only seen her live in concert back in 2006 during her THE ADVENTURES OF MIMI tour at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

This video clip I took was from her #1 TO INFINITY residency in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace; it was a limited time engagement while Celine went on a hiatus. Seeing her live for the 2nd time where she sang her greatest hits and #1′s was such a treat. It took me and everyone in the audience back to memory lane. Hearing her perform this song live, brought me back during my time at day-camp going on field trips, hearing this song over the radio and singing along with my friends I made over the summer. Now as an adult, this song has so many layered meanings and I can finally relate to it.

During the show, there were these two blonde white girls who sat behind us, and you can tell they were a bit tipsy. After the show as we were leaving the venue, they happen to be walking behind us and one of them kept saying, (in her Valley girl-tipsy slurred voice) “omg...I...literally, like...LIVED and died...that...was...AMAZING! Like...wow!” We couldn’t contain our laughter and we didn’t want to be obvious, so I grabbed my friend’s Sara’s hand and I muttered under my breath just loud enough for her to hear, “walk faster, pick up the pace.” She followed as she giggled at the same time. By the time we were far away enough from the girls, I then imitated the way they talked by saying, “I...am...so...PRETTY?!” Sara just burst out laughing. Because she got the joke. She is a white girl herself (but a redhead), she could relate because she knows these type of girls.

I wish that Mariah would release another live EP album since she only released one in 1992 for MTV Unplugged. What a great night this was!