French Bulldogs

  I decided that I really want one. They are so cute! I mean seriously, this one looks like a chubbin.  I'm pretty sure that if I ever got a French bulldog, I'd want one that looks some what like this.



  Aside from that, I'm going to dinner with Brent and his family tonight. Although Brent suggested that I go running today, I stayed in and watched HBO love-comedies all day (and by all day I mean, after I woke up at around 1pm...wow, I am lazy). Perhaps I will go running...

Superfudge Truffle

  I haven't really done much in the past few days so I feel sorta guilty about posting anything, really. Salena got a new jump rope and Brent got the first part of a ginormous tattoo on his arm (a sleeve) but unfortunately, he doesn't want anyone to see it (yet) so I'm unable to post pictures or talk about it in too much detail for the time being. Don't worry, when it's done, I'll show you pictures. Turns out, Ken got a new tattoo that day as well; Makke decided to draw a heart around Ken's nipple and took a fantastic picture of him so naturally, I stole it and decided to exploit it on my blog. Again, a topic that is neither here nor there.

  Anyway, after his tattoo session, Brent and I went to dinner at Inaba (a Japanese soba shop) with my mom, Salena and MakKen.  I was feeling better so I got a tororo soba (see picture) and even got an ice cream from the Baskin Robins next door. I discovered a new favorite--the Superfudge Truffle. It was like heaven in a bite, every time. Even Brent, who's not a chocolate ice cream fan, LIKED it. Yeah, you've gotta go and try it, please. I am definitely going back for more. I'm still in dreamland, can you tell?

  Today was as eventful as the day before...I slept. And then babysat while my mom went surfing.  I got to talk to Jace and Matt on Skype for a bit. Poor Matt broke him arm (he plays professional basketball for Finland) so he was in a lot of pain. Matt, I hope you get better soon! I also napped and woke up hungry. It was an exciting day.

  I'm going to try to get some sleep but since that's basically what I did all day, I don't know how successful I'm going to be doing it now.

  Wait a minute, it was an exciting day, or at least I had an exciting moment--I got my first blog-fan gift from "Bear"-san today. My stepdad is an Ukulele musician and just came back from a tour in Japan. Bear-san is apparently a fan of his music and visited him and also gave him a package for me. When I finally came downstairs at around noon today, my mom handed me a package and said it was from Bear-san. It turned out to be a cellphone strap in the shape of a heart and on the back of the package was a card...it Queen of Hearts! How very awesome. どうもありがとうございました, Bear-san.

Daydream Believer

  I came to the conclusion that I've become a bore. So much so that even Harada's ashamed. Who does that? Just because I've turned 24, doesn't mean that I have to act like a grandma, right? Let me rewind just a bit. Today I was looking up Valentine's-y event on Maui (no, not because I'll be there, unfortunately...it was for an assignment. By the way, side note: I'm almost convinced that they don't believe in V-day on Maui. It took me about 4 different websites to find remotely romantic events and even those were looking sorta iffy to me). Anyway, I came across a "pre-Vday" celebration--Aloha Ballroom Valentine's Dance 2009.  Although it was from last year, I was still impressed by the concept; it's basically a ballroom dancing shindig where they play live big-band style music and everyone brings something for a potluck and then Waltz the night away. Doesn't that sound phenomenal? I was impressed. I mean, why didn't I think of that? No one really has a ballroom gathering unless they're getting married or are senior-citizens (hey, nothing against it). I would love to take classes and then find an excuse to get together and have a party where you just tango or waltz or dance with the stars...sigh, ballroom dancing is so magical...

  As you can see, this discovery was life-changing and gave me an epiphany: I shall make a list of things to do this year..sorta like a New Year's Resolution but if I call it that, I won't stick to it so...yeah. Here's what I thought of so far. I'm naming it my Agenda 2010 Regime:

-Ballroom Dancing (*I hope you're reading this, Brent*)-Get back into dance
-Stick to my diet (*ahem*)

-Finish a marathon in under 5 hours...(**ahem**)
-Take a cooking class not on Food Network.
-Trying something new and random every month.
  By something **new** I don't mean food (since I like to eat just about any cuisine anyway). What  I mean is more like:
-Go to the Opera
-Watch the Tokyo String Quartet
-Go hiking
-Go ice skating (yes, we have a skating rink in Hawaii)
-etc... (I'm running out of ideas here)

  Ther's so much that I want to do and feel like I never make time to do it so this year, I'm going to do it.  If you come up with a fun idea, let me know.

 I came up with this A10 Regime (it sounds more official) because I can't stick to a routine. I also feel like since graduating college, my spontaneity has undoubted fallen into a humdrum death-trap. I don't like to relive the glory days but when I was in school, everyday was different. I learned something new at dance, our workouts were never really the same, my weekends were unpredictable...you know, different. So now that I go to work, come home and bum around everyday, I feel like I'm wasting away but I also don't feel motivated to run because deep down I know that I would much, much, much rather be taking a dance lesson. Or even hot yoga...maybe. I just feel like during my 2 week sabbatical from marathon-training, I've realized something very important: I like to run but I love to dance. So, if given the choice, I'd go for dance any day. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to train for the marathon but I also think it's about time I started dancing again. And running...

  By the way, I'm feeling better for the most part. My stomach is still sensitive but not to the point where I can't eat at all. Today I ate Wasa crackers (they looked and tasted like cardboard until I added a bit of flavor to it). These bad boys were my cure so I really shouldn't call them names but I think I've had my fill of Wasa crackers...at least for the day.

These are all my moms, aren't they cute? The one to the far left is my real momma but they've all had a hand in raising me.

Beware the vampire.

  If you thought that I died and that you were never going to hear from me again, you're sorta right (see picture...yes, that was taken at the epitome of my anguish). I had a bad case of food poisoning on Monday night and to make things worse, my eyes were inflamed from getting dried out (I wear contacts).  Nocturnal activities (running to the bathroom) + gaunt-look (extreme weight-loss) + red eyes (crying from the pain + previously blood-shot eyes) = vampire (this is what I looked like).

  And then I woke up and looked like a zombie (surrounded by other zombies, obviously) and there was no way I was going to make it to work. It's  a good thing that Brent loves me and had a day-off on Tuesday, because not only did he wake up early to check on me, we ended up at the hospital all day (a place he's not very fond of). I visited the eye-doctor's, only to be told that I had missed my appointment (the nurse told me the wrong time) so I had to re-schedule for a later time in the day. In the meantime, I dragged Brent to the urgent care clinic because I was still feeling nauseated.  After taking my blood-pressure and asking if I was pregnant (I hate when they do that), they ended up giving me an I.V. shot that cooled my body-temperature so much that I was shivering under the warm blanket.

  By the time we got out of the hospital, it was time for Brent to go to his rehearsal so he took me home on his way to practice. The I.V. helped with the nausea for a while and I was able to eat the udon (noodles) my mom made for dinner but by the time Brent came back, the medicine had worn off and I was starting to feel sick again.  The ginger ale that he bought for me worked for a while but I noticed that hot warmer felt better for my stomach and throat.

 I wasn't feeling that much better when I woke up today and I had seriously considered not going to work again but since I wasn't contagious, I figured that I might as well go back. Although the first few hours of work was a challenge for me, drinking a noodle soup and some pretzels seemed to do the trick. My mom suggested Nordstrom Cafe for dinner and, feeling my appetite coming back (slightly) I was all for it. However, the only thing I was able to stomach was the inside of the grilled potatoes and a few bites of grilled zuchini. I also ate a little of the angel haired pasta but the tomato sauce was definitely too soon and it made my stomach do a flip (not in a pleasant way).

  Although I'd rather not recall what I had ate or done on Monday pre-poisoning, I would like to point out the a fun discovery that my mother and I made that morning. The place is called Cream Pot at the Monarch Hotel (pictured) and it looks like the inside of a hobbit's home or even the White Rabbit's home. Seriously, the cutest little cafe ever.  I think what me over was the doorway to their kitchen--it was a wooden door where all things magical happened! I loved the owner's attention to detail and I was definitely a fan. Perhaps I'll go back in a few months when the thought of Monday night has long since passed.

Anyway, don't expect food pictures for a while. I'll just stick to pictures of people and scenery instead...Tah!

Surprise Ending

  Well, what can I say? My 24th birthday was definitely full of surprises. On the fly, I decided that I was going to cut my hair on a Saturday without any appointments whatsoever. I thought it would be impossible and I was about to settle for just buying a box of dye but Makke saved the day and told me that she got me a consultation with her friend Kim at W Salon at Ala Moana. After talking to Kim about my hair, she gave me a treatment and a cut and a style. I walked out feeling sassy and brand new and best of all, I got to spend the day at the mall with MakKen (Makke + Ken = MakKen). With a new cut, I dragged the young couple all over the mall (literally) as I went on a mission to find something to wear for the night. I decided that my theme was going to be "A Mad Tea Party" so I told everyone to dress up for the night. Ken was going to be the Mat Hatter and Makke was waiting on my decision because although I had wanted to be the White Rabbit, I was also thinking of being the Red Queen (I don't like Alice). After going through many, many stores, finally got helped by another one of Makke's friends who worked at Spiral Girl helped me think of a cute outfit for the night. I also stopped by the Shu Uemura counter at Neiman Marcus and got made-up for the night. Hey, I figured if I was going to do this, I might as well do it all the way, right?

  By the time my make-up was done, it was time to rush over to dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo. There, I was greeted by my parents, sister, grandma, aunty and uncle.  Ken and Makke quickly joined us and we had a great dinner. On my rush home however, I got a phone call from Makke who said,"...Yeah, so weird...Um, Ken just threw up everywhere while driving home..." My poor brother had gotten mysteriously sick and so they were unable to make it out for the night. Later, Makke updated me and let me know that she and Ken were going to spend the night at our place. I was afraid that my night was going to end up a disaster when Brent called me earlier and announced that he was feeling sick, but luckily, he made it.

  As for my outfit, my final decision was to dress as the Quen of Hearts without wearing red, instead I went with a black and gold look. I won't lie, my outfit was pretty awesome, mainly because of an oversized gold necklace that was once my mother's. My friends didn't let me down either; Trina came as Alice, Jen came as the Caterpillar and Ashley came as the Chestshire Cat. The guys were all in bright and colorful shirts (which was definitely good enought for me) and I stuck a mini bouquet in Brent's shirt pocket. I had decided on going to Paparazzi over a handful of choices but it wasn't until midnight that I made it into the club. Needless to say, my girl friends wasted no time in making up for lost time and I was soon wobbling all over the place and in drunken bliss.

  When we got home, my mom asked Brent, "Is she drunk?"
  "Yes, very," was his reply. Sigh, overall, it was an eventful night.

  I woke up early today and discovered that my hangover was surprisingly bearable. Unfortunately, the Curious Case of Ken-kun was still an unsolved mystery. I found out that Ken had a horrible night running back and forth to the bathroom while his girlfriend sat there worrying all night. He ended up at the hospital today and found out that he had viral food poisoning (although we're not sure what the source is since the effect of food poisoning can vary). He wound up having to get an I.V. and was ordered to take 3 days off of work in case the symptoms got worse. I'm just glad that it wasn't anything more sinister, though food poisoning is definitely no laughing matter.

  I don't have any pictures from my night out because I was too drunk to think about taking pictures. However, my friends were smart enought to bring their cameras so I promise to upload those pictures as soon as I get them.

Perfect Start

  Yesterday was a great day. I got to work and got leis and a surprise birthday lunch from my co-workers. My  cake was cute (and delicious) and Brent joined us since we had originally planned on a lunch date together.  I had requested a half-day at work so after lunch,  Brent whisked me away to go shopping.  He ended up buying me 2 super cute dresses from Fighting Eel (one of which I wore later on last night).  After hanging out (and by hanging out I mean Brent was waiting for me as I took forever to get ready), we headed out for the grand opening of this store called Acid Dolls at the Royal Hawaiian Center. The event was cool--they had set-up that area to have a look and feel of an outdoor-nightclub complete with a "bar area" and DJ. We ran into a few of our friends there including Brent's artist friend, Jay Luckey, who painted a design in the store.

  After a while, we left the event and walked down to Wolfgang's Steakhouse for dinner.  The menu was surprisingly simple (and pricey) but the food was delicious. We ordered the Prime NY Steak, Wild Salmon, a side of sauteed spinach and rice. I was so full that I didn't even think about dessert (I know, I was a little surprised too).

  Fortunately, our day seemed to be timed perfectly so that we could fit everything we had planned to do in to our schedule without feeling rushed. Our last stop was Bonsai at the Waterfront Plaza, because our friends who promote there wanted us to visit their last Friday night promotion. It was fun and relaxing but we left after a while and went home since I needed to save my partying-energy for tonight.

  Speaking of tonight, I still haven't made a decision on where I want to do my party but I know that I'll figure it out soon. I'll let you know how the rest of my day goes...probably tomorrow afternoon.

Sipping on Nuvo at the Acid Dolls event

Just call me Princess

  I literally walked in to heaven today. At least, that's what the ladies at the Moana Lani Spa told us at a media event that I attended after work. It was fun getting pampered and treated like a king (for free). First, I wandered around the glamorous spa and took a tour at ocean-view room after ocean-view room of wonders. I felt like I could live there and be perfectly content. The best part was that in every room, there was something different to enjoy. They had a make-up consultant talking about their special organic cosmetics, True Minerals; Made-in-Hawaii luxury skin-care brand, Malie, with the creator herself explaining why her goods were a must have (and now I really want this anti-aging cream made of coffee fruit), and massages. I got the lomilomi-style massage but they also had shiatsu available. I felt guilty about standing in line right after I got one massage done so I didn't get around to the shiatsu, that is, until I saw my mom going from one massage table to the next without any look of guilt whatsoever. After that, I just regretted not taking full advantage of the free massage services, but I can't say that I was mad. After all, I was too relaxed and pampered to be too worried about not getting a second free massage.

  Aside from that, I also got to wine and dine on spa-exclusive super-food refreshments such dark chocolate-covered strawberries (yum), turkey-salad crostini topped with Fuji apples, cucumber-cups filled with mozzarella-cheese balls and topped with all sorts of fancy stuff, and a seared ahi-tuna salad. There were more bu if I start listing them all, I'll start to salivate again.  We had a chef explain what we were eating and why it was good "spa-cuisine." I felt as though I had my own private chef  cooking for me and my guests at a party. I'm telling you, I feel like I should practically be royalty because of this event. I think all that pampering and special treatment got to my head a little, like duh, I should be living like this every day.

 Oh, and of course, I ditched running for this. I was this close to going today but my mom said that it would be good for me to go to this event. It didn't take much arm-twisting for me to be persuaded either and quiet frankly, I am grateful for having been able to go. Aside from the ultra-special treatment, I got to mingle and network with my mother's friends and I found an incentive to being rich and successful. Oh, and I got an Eco-friendly "swag bag" filled with product samples and green-tea flavored dark chocolates. I told you, heaven.

Oh, just a little something my chef cooked up.

I also have a brother

  I have very little to update you on since I haven't ran once so far this week. Yesterday, I went to Ken, my younger brother's, debut performance in Chinatown. Actually, that's a lie; he's performed there before but never with this band...I think they call themselves Amour, though I could be completely wrong. Ken had asked Jermaine to film them so Jermaine, Seychelle and her sister, Jen, came out to watch.

  Allow me a moment to brag--Ken is a fabulous musician.  He's in a bazillion different bands (I'm not kidding), each has its own genre of music. He goes on tour with a couple of them and has also won a few musical awards.  Ken's also very popular with the ladies, apparently, especially in Japan although he's currently living with his bandmate and girlfriend, Makke, a pretty Irish-Japanese-Filipino-and-a list-of-other-stuff-girl with some major pipes.  He grew up playing piano and self-taught himself to play the guitar (acoustic and electric, thank you), bass, ukulele and I think he can also play drums. He grew up a shy, dumpling of a child and now he's all grown up and skinny and singing Jimmy Hendrix covers at bars in Downtown....sigh, they grow so fast.

  Anyway, Ken plays the electric guitar in this rock/jazz band. I was pleasantly surprised to see a good crowd of people at the bar because I never really know what to expect at shows like this and besides, it was a Tuesday. Inspite of this, they performed at a bar called thitynine hotel and got a lot of good reviews after the show. I'm a big fan of their jazz music but their rock was catchy as well.

  After seeing their show last night, I sort of decided that I want them to perform at my birthday party but I don't even have a location yet and it's less than 3 days away dun, dun, dunnn... Brent said that he was going to take care of it but because I'm usually the one to plan events and things, I'm getting nervous not knowing exact details of my party.  I don't even know where I want my family dinner on Friday. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I should have planned the family dinner to be on Saturday, since I will no longer be having a dinner with my friends that night. I wanted to do a potluck and meet up at a park somewhere but I'm not really sure if anyone can make it to that either. Perhaps I'm ok with just an outting with everyone on Saturday night.

  Bleh, I apologize that my "marathon" blog is no longer about me running. I spoke with Jermaine today and I felt bad that I couldn't go running, yet again, because I had to babysit my sister after work. He said, "We've got less than 30 days till the Great Aloha Run, I'm getting nervous about our progress here." I don't like to dissapoint coach so I'll have to really force myself into running tomorrow after work.  I think Im also long overdue for measurements update...eww...I won't think about that right now. Think happy thoughts...

My fellow chubbins, Harada the cat

Smeared gecko

  In case you were wondering if I smeared a gecko, no I did not. On my way to the company party, I noticed a huge gecko chillin' on the passenger's side of my windshield. I was so impressed by its staying power that I took a picture of it once, and the again when I saw that I was still there. He was still there when I got out of my car. I admit, I was a bit freaked out (I hate geckos) but I didn't want to move my windshield wipers out of fear that I might smear it and then really freak out about it. When I told my story to everyone at the party, they laughed at me and said that smeared gecko sounded like a drink and that there was no way a gecko that huge was going to get smeared (still, you never know).

 I had a lot of fun with my friends at the company party at the Chart House last night. Seychelle's sisters are in town so they came out with us.  They served us tons of food; it was to the point where I was positive that I've regained any weight that I might have hoped to have lost by now. I was late (of course), but I wasn't the last one; there were quite a few people who trickled in after me. We had a co-worker who was playing paparazzi for the night and he came around to take pictures of everyone. I was surprised that he had sent out a slide show to everyone this morning (it was a nice gesture, but I guess I wasn't expecting them to come out so soon). I'll bet he's also the type that likes to post pictures to his Facebook right away.  I can't really talk since I got Seychelle to teach me how to take a screen shot of the slide show pictures, which I then emailed to the relevant people and so got a copy on my personal laptop as well. Anyway, that is definitely neither here nor there. 

  Our party included an open bar, so I ordered a--err, two cran-vodkas. The drink was so strong that I ended up ordering cranberry juice to even it out.  The appetizers were set out in the middle of our semi-private dining area and they had 4 kinds: the ahi wonton chips, oysters rockafeller, stuffed mushrooms and shrimp cocktail. I loved them all and couldn't say that I had a favorite.  After we had our fill of the appetizers, they gave us menus. I ended up ordering the Spiny Lobster Tail with garlic mashed potatoes. I must say, I did not regret my choices in any way, although I was very full and we still had dessert waiting for us. I had their signature Chocolate Lava Cake ala mode with a Kahlua and milk to top it off (that was where the mistake happened).  I ended up going home with somewhat of a stomachache because I mixed acidic drinks with creamy ones (and probably ended up with a yogurt ball in my stomach). In retrospect, I think that if every there was a drink called smeared gecko, then my cran-vodka + Kahlua-milk mixture was it.

  Today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and unfortuantely, our company did not commemorate this eventful and historic day and so I found myself at work (while my mom went surfing. Sigh...). Although our boss let us get in a little later, the majority of us ran late because we were all stuck in horrible traffic (ironcially, they had a parade for MLK). After work, I came home and thought about how hungry I was, so now here I am, still lying down and not running and training like I should be. I thought that perhaps posting a blog would subside my hunger but talking about all the food that I ate last night made it ten times worse. I think I'm going to go eat now. Bye.

View from the harbor by Chart House

Cine-geek

  I didn't take class yesterday. Instead, I went to get a pedicure and it made me happy. I wasn't expecting to go get a pedi after work so I wore boots all day and ended up buying a pair of disposable slippers to walk to Brent's car (he picked me up and then I dropped him off). After Brent's class, we went to see The Book of Eli. It was a good film and had all of the elements that meet my "good movie" criteria: cinematography, interesting plot, good action and impressive CG. I was making a comparison later with Avatar and had a few cine-geek remarks but I won't spoil the film for you (in case you haven't seen either of them).   By the by, did you know that there's a new movie coming out called Valentine's Day? I haven't even seen the previews and it already reminds me of a generic American, overly star-studded cast of Love Actually (which I loved). So...I don't really know what to think of this movie.  I guess, I'll just wait to see it on HBO unless I hear reviews that make me think otherwise.

  Speaking of Valentine's Day, I feel like it's so close and yet so far. I guess it's because there's a number of events (mostly birthdays) that happen before that. So, I haven't really put much thought into it but I guess if they're making movies that put blatant emphasis on it, I should start brainstorming at least, huh? Oh, and how could I forget? The Great Aloha Run is back on!!! Turns out, we had to push back our project from mid-February to the first week of March.  I was pretty estatic about it but now I reallly can't be slacking off (even if I did so today...oops).

  Today, I successfully spent the entire day in bed. I felt bad when I woke up and realized that I had been an incompetent friend. I meant to call Trina because we had planned to do something but I slept instead. I also slept through Jace's "hallo!" online.  I felt like I redeemed mysellf a little when I had the chance to talk to Vicki today until I realized that I wasn't going to be at Vicki's bday dinner tomorrow night because I have a company party to attend.  Sigh...bad Sascha, bad!

  I heard a heartbreaking story: it was about an engaged 30-something year-old woman who was training to take the next step in her career. She didn't show up for work a few days ago (which was uncharacteristic) so her co-workers called throughout the day, looking for her. When no one had heard back from her, they filed a missing person report. The next day, her body was found with a stab wound in her neck. As of now, the situation is unresolved but it made me think about life in general and how you should never take anything for granted. I mean, this sort of situation is the type that you only really see in CSI and yet it's very real andvery tragic. It also made me feel ten times worse about my deadbeat friend-syndrome today. So, to all of my friends, I'm very sorry that I was not a good friend to you today. I vow to be there for you more and if I'm not, feel free to slap me. Thanks, boo.

Pathetic.

  I have a confession to make--I haven't been very good with this whole losing weight thing. What I mean to say is that....I ate ice cream today. And that's not all, I also shared a brownie with Seychelle. It's like I'm on this chocolate fix and the worst part is I can't even use my "female shortcomings" as an excuse since I'm no where near getting it. As I happily munched on my Rocky Road ice cream in a waffle cone, Brent chuckled and called me "mocha chubbins." Sigh, why must it come to this? I'm being reckless because it's a break day and that is definitely not a good thing. Perhaps it's because Brent told me that he ate 7 malasadas (they're like donuts, but not really) today. Yes, 7. I really think he's trying to stop his heart on purpose. I figured if Brent can eat 7 malasadas then I'm entitled to a damn ice cream cone, thanks.

  In case you haven't realized, I didn't go to the auditions tonight. Instead, I went to eat pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) with Brent and my sister. Yes, my mom decided to ruin date night by calling me at the last minute, asking if I could pick up Salena and take her home. My sister wasn't very happy about this arrangement either until she found out that we were going to see Brent later on. My 5 year old sister absolutely adores him and my mom and I joke that she is under the impression that perhaps Brent is her boyfriend, not mine.  So, when he came over, Brent took Salena out on a date and I tagged along. Meanwhile, Brent was busy encouraging his nervous friends who were auditioning and I felt sort of left out. I almost wished that I went to audition anyway. I will be taking Brent's class tomorrow so at least I'll know how rusty I am. I guess that's a better way to find out how out of shape I've been, the alternative being that I embarass myself at the audition somehow (which is very possible).  Sigh, oh well. How committed can Chubbins be anyway if she can't even commit to her short term goal of losing 5lb before her bday? I'm pathetic.

  On a lighter note, I saw this on a sign in the window of an Asian fusion restaurant. I thought that it was so awesome, that I decided to share it with you. By the way, thank you, whoever you are. I'm glad you find my posts even remotely amusing. Please feel free to leave comments, questions or concerns. Just don't be vulgar or obnoxious because that's definitely an uh-uh, not cool moment.  Well, I screen my comments anyway, but it would be kinda cool to hear from whoever you are. TTYL, k, thanks.

Soondooboo is magical and fun to say.

Current weight: I promise I'll check this tomorrow...promise.

Why hello there. Don't worry, I have not forsaken you, nor have I stopped running. Actually, I've been running like I'm on a mission these days (I wonder why...). But before I get into how accomplished I feel about my progress...BAD NEWS!!!! I can't do the Great Aloha Run that was supposed to take place on February 15 (President's Day). The reason: I have to be in at work that day because, well, I have to. There's really no if ands or buts around that situation (unless I quit and that's just being reckless) so...sad, I have to wait for some other running event to come up. If, for some miraculous reason, I do get to take time-off on that day (we don't get President's Day off), I'll register and do the run. Bummed. Bummed, bummed, bummed.
  In related news, I ran yesterday and today and I'm proud to say that I've been able to do longer distances. I started working on hills because Ken-san mentioned that running hills are always a big challenge, especially if you get used to running on flat surfaces. So I ran all the way down and all the way up my hill in 10 minutes. I'd like to say it was like a 3 mile run but I'm pretty sure it was a mile (the GPS on my laptop told me so). It's been pretty chilly at night lately, so I've been hard core with the missed-matched Rambo outfits.  Today, however, I totally forgot to pack my sweater and had to run in a shirt (not as cool). We ran around Ala Moana Beach park again; we made our way down to Borders on Ward but Seychelle and Jermaine were so far ahead of me that I ended up taking my own route back. We ran for about 50 minutes and noticed that I wasn't out of breathe even after running for such a long period of time. Granted, I do run at turtle-speed while the other two are faster than lightning in comparison, but my ultra-slow pace has enabled me to handle long-distances for a longer period of time. I like to think that I'm a little bit of a genius, really.

  After my mini-marathon, I met up with Trina and we went to eat at So Gong Dong, one of my favorite Korean restaurants, ever. We shared a spicy tofu, kimchee and pork soup called soondooboo (it's that messy looking thing in that  miniature black caldron) and meat jun. The best this about Korean food are the sides. I love that they're a surprise everytime and that everything is always wonderfully delicious (we finished everything, thanks). As we sat there eating and talking, I thought about just how awesome we are in general. I mean, there we were, two decidedly very non-Asian looking girls, in all our crusty, dried-sweat-workout-clothes glory (Trina came from dance team practice) and we were playing catch-up in the middle of this Korean restaurant where everyone else was Korean or Japanese. It was fun and we missed Jace, again.

  We got in to a discussion of my birthday party arrangements; the full plans may or may not be reveal in a later episode (I'm going to keep you in suspense). I will tell you this much: I haven't figured everything out but I really want to do a BBQ/ picnic during the day somewhere.  I think it would be fun and inexpensive to have everyone bring stuff instead of going out to eat at a restaurant, which I will be doing with my family the night before. It's now t-minus 10 days so you should be excited for it since I am, too.

  Anyway, tomorrow is the dance auditions and Brent's decided to tell me that I don't really have to audition because he could just ask to put me in to the dance numbers later on. But just because he says that doesn't mean he'd do it. There's never really a time when I'm the first person that comes to mind when Brent's putting together any sort of dance routine, which is fine since I'd rather earn my place in the dance company and not get special priviledges. So, I'm seriously debating right now. I don't even know if I'm in shape for it. Afterall, I didn't go to ballet last night. Bleh, we'll see what happens, I guess. I have a strong feeling that I won't be going to the auditions but maybe I'll make up for it by taking Brent's class on Friday. Maybe.

Yikes, girl.

Current weight: Idk, I'll check later.

  Saturday night was fun and refreshing. Although we had one missing (Jace is in Finland right now..arggh), I hadn't been out with the girls in for.e.ver. so it was nice to see them again. We ended up going to this place called Paparazzi which was once a restaurant/nightclub called Brew Moon. When it was Brew Moon, the place definitely had a masculine brewery feel to it whereas Paparazzi decided to get as far away as humanly possible from the original theme. It was as though a Couture-worshiping, Audrey Hepburn-loving drunken tranny got let loose in the nightclub and she was screaming, "Liveeee!!!!" the whole way through (yes, that's a naked lady coming out of the wall and yes, the mirror was animal print). I wouldn't have been so confused as to the over-all theme if it somehow tied-in with the name. Perhaps I was missing something.   I sorta felt like I had fallen into the wrong side of the rabbit hole and that the whole world was topsy-turvy. Of course, that very sensation could also have been the cause of having had knocked back tequila and vodka shots (yeah, I was pretty hard core). After all, the more shots I took, the more up-scale and magical the night club started to look.

  I woke up the next day stinking of alcohol, dehydrated and lazy. Needless to say, I did not go to the free trapeze or tissu class that I had been looking forward to all week. But, I did end up going to Kailua for dinner with Brent, his parents and grandpa. We went to this cute little Japanese restaurant named Tokoname and I ordered the unagi kabayaki teishoku (a meal that includes eel). It was good but I got full very quickly so once again, I had a little bento to take home with me. After going back to Brent's grandparent's house, his dad decided to make cranberry scones for dessert (it's one of his specialties).  I figured if I'm going to have a cheat day (remember how I wasn't supposed to have carbs for dinner?), I might as well go all the way.

  Today, I got to work and realized that I forgot to bring my workout clothes with me. After getting an especially intimidating stare down from coach, I decided that I had better not slack off for the 4th day in a row. Once I got home, I immediately changed, did a quick stretch and ran down my hill and all the way back up. It wasn't a very long run but it was my first uphill workout and I was proud of myself for not stopping. I also iced my calves after I showered so I was doubly proud that I did the right thing.

  Tomorrow, I'm planning on taking ballet for the first time in half a year. Half a year ago, I hadn't taken any sort of ballet class for at least a year before that as well so as you can guess, I'll be completely out of shape. The only thing I have going for me is that I've sorta built stamina since I've been running but I'm not very optimistic. The reason for suddenly wanting to take a ballet class is because I was thinking of joining this dance company called Dancers Unlimited. Brent's a choreographer associated to this company and they have auditions coming up this Thursday. I'm a but nervous since I haven't danced in a few months and I don't know if I'll be able to catch on but I figured it's a free class, if anything else. Plus, I miss dancing on a regular basis and if they are going to meet up in town, at night and for free (I think...or at least not very expensive), then I'm willing to throw myself to the wolves and see what comes of this. Welp, dance, here we go again.

break

Current weight: 59.5 kg (wait how?)

  So my date night was fun! Brent picked me up from work and then we went to Ichiriki to get some nabe (hot pot). We like the food there so we'll go every so often. We ordered their ahi poke (it was spicy and had a kimchee flavor to it) and the Ginger Nabe (it was yum!). I also ordered my favorite Umeshu and soda (in the picture). Although Brent's not an Umeshu (plum wine) fan, he actually liked what I ordered and almost got one of his own. He ordered Asahi beer instead, haha. The amount of food we ordered was perfect since I wasn't that hungry and he said that it was his first real meal of the day.  We had debated on going out (to a club) but decided that we'd rather do a movie night and ended up going to watch Daybreakers.  Yeah...don't see it. Not even on DVD. It was a cross between I am Legend, Blade, and the Hills Have Eyes. I admit the concept was good (what if everyone in the world was a vampire) and they were pretty detailed in carrying out the "what-if" factor like human hunting, switching "day-time activities" to "night-time," etc., but the movie went in a direction that I wasn't expecting and it was disappointing. Like they felt the need to show excessive amounts of blood and guts to get the point across. Anyway, we went home and watched Shrek III to try to get those images out of our heads.

  I woke up at 1p today.  Granted, I went to bed around 230a -3ish the night before but still, I wasn't expected to sleep till 1p. Worse still, I went back to sleep around 230p and woke up at 530p when my parents came home and announced that we were going to CPK for dinner. Groggily, I dragged my butt out of bed and got ready to leave in 5 minutes. When we got to the restaurant, the wait was about 35 minutes long so we walked around and shopped in the mall for a bit. I couldn't find anything that I had to have in particular (oh well, it's probably for the best that I don't go shopping right now anyway).  When we got seated, we ordered the Artichoke dip and I got the Tricoloré pizza with chicken. It was super yum but for some reason, I couldn't eat a whole lot of it and ended up with take-out.

  I know that I should have gone out to run today but I wasn't expecting to be asleep for most of the day. Tomorrow,  there's a free trapeze and tissu class in town. I think that the classes start around noon and go for a few hours. I'm definitely not going to miss out on this so I have to wake up (at least before 11a).  If for some reason I don't wake up or talk myself out of going, I will force myself to go running since I can't fall behind on the game plan (coach would kill me).

  Tonight is girl's night and I'm super excited! Trina, Ashley, Jenn and I were all on the dance team together but we haven't had the chance to hang out in a while so it should be fun.  Speaking of which, I should probably start getting ready. I'll let you know how my night goes tomorrow!