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Name: Whei
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: San Francisco
Gender: Female
Interests: Looking for my Batman. Protecting endangered species.
Expertise: drawing with my eyes closed. (you WANT me on your team for cranium.) falling asleep and staying asleep.
Occupation: Engineering
Industry: Engineering
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
7/14/2002
 Lifetime
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| Try something new everyday |
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| Test your self confidence by chopping all your hair off. Do it. I dare you. |
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| Nicaragua!
I think part of the reason why I love to travel to foreign countries is that it forces me out of my comfort zone and I appreciate what I have even more. This and of course, the excitement of seeing and experiencing a different culture, being on vacation, and feeling like a free spirit  ... a free spirit who works a corporate job, owns a house, has two cats, and many other financial and emotional obligations that make it nothing more than a dream to be a nomad around the world. Honestly I don't even know being a nomad like that would make me happy.... I think what I do right now is pretty darn close to perfect for me.
A beautiful country - even from the airplane window!
Flying never ceases to invoke self-evaluation and soul-searching in me; I don't know what it is... maybe the possibility that I may die in a plane crash? The reminder that the world is so huge and beautiful, towering over me and my meaningless problems? 
A country full of color in their advertisements, political propaganda, houses, buildings....
... clothing, language, and attitude! Even in this guy! 
The hills made me miss my gorgeous bay area... the Mission Peaks in Fremont, Calaveras, the hills on the Peninsula... I  the bay area. I will never see myself settling down anywhere else.
Where seasonal workers in Selva Negra stay... made me appreciate all my modest living in NYC to Alameda to Pleasanton to Oakland to SF! It even made my ghetto-est hostel experiences in my backpacking trips seem quite above-average.
I saw tons of stray and street dogs, which made me miss and appreciate Kuma. The humid heat and beautiful beaches made me miss Bali. Eating the delicious fresh fish made me miss my Dad. Getting into my bathing suit made me miss the athletic body I had in 9th grade... haha or I guess more recently, post-Florence-marathon. Swimming in the warm ocean made me miss my Hawaii trip with my Mom, probably the last time we had one-on-one time and actually enjoyed each other's company. Partying and drinking in a world where I don't speak the language made me miss my friends back home and the people I truly care about and want to be with. A lot of people have crossed my path in my life so far, some of made an impression, some have not, and it's not always determined by how long I've known them. But my time is precious and limited, and I only have time for the really important people who bring something more to my life. Life is too short to be wasted on shallow people, bad friends, and losers. I missed my true friends and glad I made new ones! ( you, M) Hearing spanish made me miss middle school... when I made the conscious decision to take french instead of spanish to be different from my sister... so stupid, we could've spoken to each other in spanish and not have our parents understand!
Nicaragua made me miss what I have and as a result, love what I have even more.
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| Moving On.
Finally! Being the sentimental person that I am, I have a hard time parting with things and places that I associate with certain people or memories. This might raise a red flag with therapists, but my solution is to go through all my stuff, pack up some crap, throw some other shit away, and uproot myself to somewhere else to start "new." Only that way do I feel that I've left my past behind and can move on.
I'm moving to San Francisco, finally, after nearly 5 years. Even though I never lived in SF, I feel like this is more of a full-circle return back to it, b/c I had my first SF experiences w/ the Beast back in 2004, in the Inner Richmond of all places. I was never too attached to Pleasanton, except when I think about Kuma. Thinking of her still makes me cry. She really was my dog-soulmate. And SF is just SF. Oakland was definitely special for me, b/c it wasn't a place that I had always wanted to live (like SF) but it was a place that I had come to love. And unexpectedly, it reminded me of when I was in NYC again. Not comparing the cities themselves (there's no comparison to NYC), but comparing how I felt - independent, content, true to myself, and constantly growing/learning about myself. Oakland also reminded me that I could fall in love again, and that I still can get butterflies in my stomach - something I hadn't felt since I was in New York City. I kid you not. Yes, I've fallen in love after NYC, but never with the butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling until Oakland. Albeit short, it was a reminder to me that I could still feel "it."
So it's time to leave Oakland and a piece of my heart behind here (or in this case, Japan, and wherever else in the world life takes Mr. Nomad) and return to SF. Despite the memories I already have here, I honestly don't associate SF with any one person like I do w/ Oakland and NYC. So San Francisco, here I come - I'm ready. I wonder if I'll ever be ready to go back to NYC. Some things have crossed the point of no return.
Oaktown, I'll miss you. Ghetto-fabulous, you are!
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| Happy Birthday, Mark!
2009 has already started off with losing some old friends, some very close, some not so much, but either way, it all balances out in the end... I've lost some old friends, gained some new ones, and even old friends have become new! It's unbelievable to me that Mark and I have been friends since 1999 - that's NINE years. We haven't been in the same state for FIVE years. We haven't seen each other in THREE years. We haven't talked on the phone or exchanged emails in probably at least a YEAR. Until NOW, he's moved to SF!
Too bad we can't relive our indie and foreign film-seeing days like we did back in NYC - oh, the Angelika - but we can relive some of our college years. With money.
We celebrated Mark's 28th (holy shit, I'm turning 28 this year. Fuck.) bday at Beretta in the Mission. It was delicious, the pizza crisp, the wine flowing, the conversation entertaining.... especially w/ Mark's boisterous boss and coworkers. (Mark himself is quite quiet, which makes it funnier.)
Johnny, Mark's boss. Dennis, Mark's college friend, who I didn't know in college. Maybe Mark never introduced us b/c he was embarrassed to be my friend. Damn. Sliver of Mark's HS friend, Jimmy.
Jimmy, with his "Recycling is SEXY" t-shirt, and the bday boy in his shiny fancy schmancy shirt. I did say we were reliving college years but WITH MONEY. Is that shiny shirt bling bling or what?
Mark, waitress who needs a pushup bra (or ANY bra), Jennifer (also Mark's college friend who I didn't know in college - shiet...), and his coworker, Aaron, who is from Houston and is 22. These are the things I remember when I meet people.
Then we went off to imbibe lots of alcohol in some Mission dive joint, and we chose Amnesia. How fitting.
I assume Johnny was telling a story, but you know what, I forgot. Amnesia.
Jennifer + Dennis. Maybe I did meet them in college, but I forgot. Amnesia.
Happy Birthday, Takahiro Mark! I'll never forget that you were my first friend in college. Welcome to SF!! <3
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| The Grass is Greener on the Other Side.
Well, no duh b/c you f*cked up all the grass that's on your side!!!
Humans are such strange creatures - we want what we can't have, don't maintain and appreciate what you DO have, and then we blame everyone and their mother (as long as it's not yourself) for all your problems. With all the recent propaganda on being sustainable... having sustainable housing, sustainable farming, sustainable businesses... what about sustainable relationships? Relationships with other people, our jobs, our planet.... I've always learned to treat people the way you want to be treated. It's a very simple concept. It's kind of like one of the basic physics laws but for social skills - every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
You treat someone like sh*t, chances are they will want to throw that sh*t right back at you. You hate your job and slack off, chances are they will want to axe you next time there are layoffs. You make time to spend with your friends, chances are those friends will make time to spend it with you. Your company tries hard to keep its employees happy, chances are the employees WILL be happy and be motivated to work harder for their company. It's fairly simple.
If only people were simple creatures. People who are successful are typically the ones who don't get complacent and are constantly striving for more, evaluating themselves, and actively trying to improve their lives. And with all the options and opportunities these days in terms of careers and relationships, it can be difficult for someone to settle on one job, career, location, or person. Does this necessarily mean moving from green pasture to green pasture destroying the current pasture you're on? Personally I think that leads to nowhere, jumping from job to job, or person to person, moving from location to location with the motivation that there is something wrong with what you have now. It might just be that YOU might be the problem. It could be a pretty big hint to you if everything you touch turns to crap. Now if your motivation to moving around was that YOU think you could do MORE and be BETTER on the other side... then by all means, make this world a better place. But somehow I don't think that's how most people are, unfortunately. Either they have their finger pointed at someone else or straight up in defiance.
Remember, the old grass was probably pretty awesome before you came and trampled on it, so take care of it.
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