My adventures with Morita

  It wasn't something that could just be ignored and wished away, the pathetic mewing of a stray kitten. No, instead, the first night he came (she? I'll keep it simple and call it a him since my cat's a boy too) and everyone on the block could hear his cries all night. The next night, it rained and I could still hear his cries so, suckered in, I ran out in the rain with a flashlight and tried to coo him out of hiding. I spotted him under a car and flashed my light on him and before I could make a move, he dashed out for under the car. That was my first encounter with the black and gray stripped kitten with a black button-nose and white muzzle. Very cute. In love? Sorta. I felt my heart melt when I saw him and would have tried to follow him except he was long gone. That night his yowling kept me up and guilty for not having had secured him in a warm house but my mom pointed out that if he was quick enough to run away, he's able to fend for himself. Unfortunately, a few others didn't feel that way and the next day, I learned from my mom that a few people came out to look for the kitten and actually left a bowl of cat food in our backyard. My mom wasn't amused in the slightest given the fact that we have a plethora of strays in this neighborhood. At this point, I think we were all starting to get annoyed with our little friend outside. He cried none stop that night. Today, my mom and I came home to find yet another set of people staring at out house, looking for the ellusive young feline. As we were trying to discourage our friendly nieghbors from getting overly friendly with the cat on and around our property, my mother and I both looked at these women with expressions of skepticism. However, that all cleared when one of them announced that she really wanted to take the youngster home with her. To make a long story short, I ended up camping outside using as much of my cat-whisperer skills as I could muster. It worked. Oliver and I were beginning to bond. Yes, I even gave him a name although, incidentally, his name has since been changed to Morita...my mom likes to give animals a Japanese lastname as its name. For example: Harada, my cat and Ito-san, Ken's former Beta fish.

Anyway, my point is that Morita came to love me over the span of two hours as I was constantly given him attention and experimenting with various methods of luring him out. My methods include: mimicing his cries (he seemed to respond more to my mom though), placing harada's senior cat-diet food out on by the porch, milk-bribery and finally, cat-in-a-box trap (a shopper with food hidden inside. Cats are curious ceatures, especially when they're young). Just as I had thought that I exhausted my options, my mom brought out the secret weapon: Harada's favorite toy--a stick with a stuffed carrot balanced at the top). By the time she thought of this, it was about 1130 and we were both getting tired. I think that if I were to try again tomorrow, Morita will come to us. As far as he's concerned, we're his only family (apparently, since he bugs me in the middle of the night by crying outside of my window). I feel obligated to help a kitty out.

  Morita was super sneaky and I couldn't get a good picture of him but I did have other pictures to post so....enjoy!

My mom and I went to Peace Cafe for lunch today.

Super cute place!

I ordered the "Peace Box," their signature bento....the contents are hard to properly describe but it was super delicious and super vegetarian.

Delinquent status: Graduation season.

  I'll admit it. I went through a delinquent phase. Not that it could be helped--I was sort of forced in to being a delinquent, seriously.  Saturday morning, I successfully recruited my entire family plus Vicki to do a six-mile Charity Walk at 7am. It was fun; MakKen (Makke + Ken) showed up late and brought along a seven-month old chihuahua named Louie.

At the end of the walk, we all got a free lunch so Vicki and I enjoyed ours on the beach. Then I came home, slept for 5 hours and got ready to go to dinner with Trina and her family. Trina and I decided (sorta spontaneously) that we were going to go out. But before that, we spontaneously decided to check out the new Trump Tower. We valeted the car and went exploring. They had an infiniti pool and a cool looking bar where we ordered $14 cocktails. They were worth it. But one drink was all we could afford so we left and parked at Trina's hotel that was conveniently located across the street from the nightclub we went to. We met up with our friend, Ashley and danced the night away.
  Sunday night, MakKen's band, the Sexpuppets, had an album release party. It was a collaborative effort with a few other bands so featured artists were doing live performances. It was pretty cool and I was doing the "embarrassingly proud parent" act by taking pictures every 9.6 seconds. They were well received and overall, it was a good night.

 Monday night was Trina's "grad party: Hawaii edition." Her family and a couple of girls from the dance team had dinner at Shokudo. Unfortunately for Trina. her phone was stolen the day before graduation and so she was unable to call all of her friends in invite them over for dinner. Well, unfortunate for them since dinner was awesome. We ordered tons of stuff and I turned her family on to Iichiko with soda on ice. It was Trina's last night in Hawaii so after dinner was done, we hung out and reminisced about our years in college (yes, people do that in real life). It was really fun and then we got really sad because we realized she wasn't coming back after the summer, she was coming back in October. It was still a ligitimate reason to cry so we did and we hugged and promised to keep in touch. Lucky for us, my grad presents to Trina were thing that would force her to KIT because part one was a "Travelling Pants" status journal and the other present was the first book to read in our book club. I know, I'm pretty much brilliant when it comes to gift-giving. It's a skill.

  Yesterday was Ashley's grad party. She had it at Kai Market at the Sheraton Waikiki. The dinner was buffet and oh em gee, don't even get me started on how ridiculously delicious it all was.

  The good news is that I got to enjoy great food and company, the negative was that I ended up staying up past 2am (on average) every night, only to have to wake up (on average) at around 645am. Yay for beauty sleep! Ok seriously though, I think it's time to catch up on some sleep.

More from this weekend:

Proud Parent Mode...

But seriously, look at the crowd.

Last one, I promise. 

Ok, ok..so, this is the CD. I bought one, obviously.

Trina and Me. Mirror-photo whores4lyfe.

This is what $14 drinks at Trump Tower look like. Something out of Iron Chef.

Lunch on th beach with Vicki. Minus Vicki (in the photo)

 

Oh yeah, and I cut my bangs. On Monday.

My feet have every reason to hurt

...Because I've been walking around non-stop in unsupported sandals for the past two days and I get to do more tomorow. Not that I'm complaining, it comes with the job, but as I said, my feet have every reason to hurt.

  I should also mention, while I'm at it, that after walking around the mall for eight hours and lugging around huge shopping bags of stuff (that I have to give back!...boo...), Brent came to pick me up and we went to our ballroom class, during which time my swollen, pulsating feet were forced in to 2 inches of death and agony for about two hours. Not to mention, the instructors of our class have taken special interest in our ability to pick up and adapt to ballroom fairly quickly. At first they kept saying, "it's good to be young," but yesterday, I think they realized that Brent and I never practice during the week and yet we seem to keep up with everyone else. We finally started getting the "have you danced before?" and "you must be a dancer." Although I would have been very happy to hear that any other day, yesterday it meant that my feet had not rest and since we've been getting technical corrections (body placement, foot position, etc.) I've been having a workout in my retiree community ballroom class. Brent just rolled his eyes and tried to stay patient with me while I complained and whined when our instructor wasn't looking. It was mostly about my feet and how they were in pain. I guess I should have been more sensitive since his arm was hurting from his tattoo session yesterday. We may have been the youngest, be we were probably the stiffest couple in that class. No wonder we were getting special attention. It wasn't because of our dancing ability, it was probably because we were so pathetic looking. Ah, well.

  Today, I decided that I was going to go for a run because a whole day for walking around at the mall again would have been too easy. I picked up my sister from school, helped her with her homework and went for a walk to the park with her while I listened to music and tried to exercise. I said try because it's impossible to do with a six-year old who just wanted to go to the park and play...and not walk all the way there. By the time we got back home, she was in such a bad mood (from having to walk) that I dropped her off with Junior and then took off to get serious. I'm not sure how long I actually ran for but I am proud to say that my body (and stamina) has been adjusting to my 2010 workout marathon plan. I was surprisingly untired although I ran up the hill and down and then back up again. I'm sure my shins will rebel tonight or tomorrow. Maybe I'll go for a pedi and ask for a massage tomorrow night if the photoshoot doesn't go past 5pm.

  Oh, and how could I forget to mention? I got to eat at Wolfgang's Steakhouse for lunch today! It was delicious. They were doing a $10 burger combo deal and we got a choice of regular buger or cheeseburger and it came with steak fries, onion rings and a drink. And since it was Wolfgang's, they had bombtastic burgers and manfries. They make McDonald's and all the other fast food fries look like wimps. They even made other gourmet fries look like fast food. It was almost embarrassing to look at these fries because they were just that handsome. And don't even get me started on the onion rings...mmhmm! Yeah, I highly suggest going to Wolfgang's for lunch if you don't happen to be a vegetarian. If you are, go for the fries, or at least go stare at them through the windows. Actually, don't, that's pretty creepy. Go Wolfgang's.

The thing's I saw and the people I met at the mall:

Meet Running guru #3. His name is Ken and he over heard our (Sey and me) convo about running. Turns out he used to be a runner and he had ran the Honolulu Marathon when he was in high school. He said "it changes your life and the way you think about things. Once you've finished the marathon you feel like if you put your mind to it, you really can do anything...All you need is three months to train: the first month is getting used to it, the second month is to get used to distance and the last month you ease out of it. You shouldn't over exert yourself in the last two weeks. Don't worry, I know you'll be able to do it. Nothing is impossible. Anything is possible if you train for it."
And with his words of wisdom, I realized, this was a sign...I have to do the marathon. I met 2 gurus named Ken and they both said the same thing, they both looked like gurus (long hippie hair) and they both have a positive mellow energy. I don't know what the last part has to do with it, but it seemed to make complete sense to me. So, thank you Ken-san and Dreadlock Ken. I will do the marathon.

  This is my pretty friend, Erica. She's a model and she's bad-ass. She currently works at the mall but she also works as a make-up artist, stylist, a mother and well, model. Her hair looks like this one way,

 ...and like that when she parts it different. So bold, so daring! She's so cool. Erica, I could never be that cool, but props to you.

 

I'm not sure why, but I think they're being serious. I saw this on the counter at the ABC store. How disgusting. Why? Why? why...?

  Archetectural ingeniuty and a clear blue sky makes for a cool photograph.

I'm pretty awesome as a daughter

On Sunday, Mother's day, I woke up at 730am, as my alarm went off and then decided I was going to go back to sleep. I did wake up an hour later as Ken called asking me where I was, so I quickly jumped in the shower, got dressed, and drove out to pick up Ken, Makke (his gf) and Hannie (her daughter). Oh, and Salena tagged along because she's under the impression that any given holiday (or Hallmark holiday) is like Christmas and should therefore start early and end with tons of presents.

But that's all besides the point. Once I picked up the gang, the house was much too crowded and I needed to cook our fantastic brunch so I kicked everyone out and I got to listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Lady Gaga, Adele, Lisa Ono and Erykah Badu. About an hour and a half later (I made a big feast) the dining room table (that I made Ken clean and set) was covered with Macadamian nut and chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and smashed sweet potatoes. Oh and my somewhat signature sangria I just named "strawberries delight" because I make it out of fresh strawberries, wine and champagne....yum. Don't worry, we started eating after 12p, so technically, we weren't being wine-os and alchies. And everyone was stuffed. Ken and Makke got my mom a bodywash-type kit thing while I got her a Paul Frank towel, new sunvisor (she uses when she surfs) and a new pair of slippers. Junior got her an iPad. I think he wins, but don't worry, her bday is coming up in less than a month so I'll have some time to one up him somehow.

Anyway, after cleaning up, sitting around and watching Ken take my car (again), my mom, Junior and Salena went to go visit the grandparents. And I went upstairs to take a nap. I finally woke up around 6ish to get ready to go to dinner with Brent's grandparents and parents at Buzz's steakhouse. It was my first time there and the food was pretty good. Brent ordered a steak the size of his face and washed it down with Stella Artois beer. I ordered a steak (6oz) and scallop combo with a merlot to match. The merlot was pretty sweet and delicious but I forgot the name.

  Yesterday, I had meant to go workout and then I decided that I'll buy a wii fit (finally) to do some yoga at home....but then I fell asleep around 8ish. And didn't wake up until 7am. Yep, slept like a baby and it felt nice.

Today, Brent picked me up and I took him to his tattoo session and then met up with Trina to hang out with her. We ended up going to the Himilayan Kitchen, which I always seem to recommend to everyone. We had fun ordering naan and tandoori mixes and stuff I can't pretend to pronounce. It was very good and we overate. Then we went to Coldstone to wash everything down.By the time I got to Brent, I was full and practically rolling up the steps to the tattoo place.

Man...and it's only Tuesday. Tomorrow is ballroom day and I'm super excited for it again. Well...it's getting late and apparently, I can sleep longer than my six-year old sister so...g'night.

Is that the real R2D2?

Nope, it's a cake! Crazy, huh? Those Ace of Cakes guys (Foodnetwork anyone?) are ridiculous. I'd want them to make me something creative and awesome.

Like I said, I'm an awesome daughter. I get the family together. Yay, me. And my momma :)

the fat kid chronicles

I don't even know where to start. It was like, one day I was fine not eating anything but soup and crackers and then one day I decided that I was going to binge on fast food for the next week. The bad part was the my stomach is protesting because it's still weak from when I was sick but I just don't care. That's when I realized...OMG, I'm a fat kid!

  Although I'm not quite sure if was I state is true but I'll start at what can only be described as the beginning. We were all gathered somewhere (the exact location is not fuzzy to me) and someone asked me if I was still going to run the Marathon to which I confidently replied, "Nope, I gave that up a while ago."
There was a general intake of breathe and the sound of crashing forks, glass cups and other dramatic things that happen when someone hears shocking news. So then why is your blog called Saschathon? Shouldn't you change it?

I shrugged. I guess I should except I haven't fully committed to the idea of giving up the Marathon. I mean I still have 200-something days for training. If anything, I'll just start going to the gym again. I'm really not that concerned, I told myself.
  Whither it was to prove a point or simply out of rebellion, I began eating junk food again. And not just any sort of junk--the All-American, obesity-inducing, cellulite-producing stuff such as peanut butter stuffed Oreo, Twisted Frosties from Wendy's, and Popeye's. Imagine all of that in a matter of a few days. I feel like writing it all down is making my cholesterol count go up.  I guess the best way to describe it is to compare myself to Harada. He gets very excited when he sees a can of tuna and won't stop meowing until it's infront of him. He'll lap it up in seconds and then for the next few days, he'll come running into the kitchen when even he hears the some of the cupboards opening becuase he's a tuna juice junky.
  But the story doesn't end there. Yesterday was the climax of my bad food binge. Brent announced that he was craving "something deep fried" and the first thing that popped in to my head was "Popeye's!" so to Popeye's we went. See, I had a dream Popeye's chicken a few weeks ago and it was probably because they had subliminal messages that brainwashed me into craving it in the first place. Anyway, Brent seemed to have been brainwashed as well. I ordered a combo with chicken tenders, Cajun fries and a biscuit. Brent ordered something similar and then went back to ordered a side of onion rings. When he came back in the car, we opened the fresh batch of onion rings and bit into them with fat kid satisfaction. You had better believe we finished the entire box in minutes. And then I opened my combo box and started in on the fries. The problem was, the fries would have been better if I had the before the onion rings--yes, they were that addicting. Anyway, we ended up eating our food at the Pet Co. parking lot because we were both so hungry....and then ended up buying Twisted Frosties for dessert not too long afterward. I decided to be adventurous and try a different flavor (I usually get Oreo and vanilla). That day, I went with cookie dough and chocolate. After my first bite,  I looked at Brent with a pout and said, "this needs more crunch to it, I wish I could add Oreo cookies or peanuts or something."
Brent laughed and said, " You're fat!"
We both could stop laughing after that. It was true, with a statement like that, I was a bonafide fat kid. I thought about going for a run today. I even charged my ipod but then decided against it. I did however, go on a cleaning spree and did four loads of laundry, kept Salena in a box while I cleaned up her mess (hey it kept her out of the way when I convinced her that she should surprise our mom. The only problem wasa she got sweaty because she kept the lid on and waited forever for my mom to come downstairs), put together a shopping list and went out shopping for house stuff (as opposed to my own stuff which I have a bad habit of doing), and got food for tomorrow.

Anyway, I have a grand feast in need of preparation for tomorrow mid-morning (Momma's day, derrr). So....bye!

I was so efficient today, that I even printed pictures for my picture frame at home. I know, my pictures are pretty awesome.

there's a wocket in my pocket

  I have a confession to make: I am a big bookworm. Oh, you're not surprised? Well, you should be because, obviously, I -I....yeah, I can't really make an argument.  So, let's start over.

  Today, I went to Barnes & Nobles and bought four books and yes, they were all from the children & teen's section. Don't judge me, I felt that I should expand my repertoire and fairy tales happen to be one of my favorite genres. They also just so happen to be found in the 12 and under section, ok.  Anyway, I ended buying Alice's Adventures in Wonderland + Through the Looking Glass (in the same book), books 2 and 3 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (because if you've seen that movie, obviously, they're thinking about making sequels) and I also bought a hardcover copy of Eclipse (yes, from the Twilight series). Don't get me wrong, I did buy the paperback, but I think I lost it and the movie comes out in June and I've reread all of the other books and I can't remember every detail in this one so....I rest my case. Clearly, it was a necessary investment.

  Before I geek out any further on Twilight and Percy Jackson, allow me to geek out about my recent hobby--ballroom dancing. Our dance gurus increased yesterday and we got to enjoy private lesson-type attention from the instructors. I have a few theories as to why: Maybe it was because Brent and I just looked so lost and they took pity on us. Or maybe it was because I busted out my brand new character shoes (side note: my character shoes are so not cool compared to some of the others I've seen. I don't care if I'm comparing my shoes to those of retirees, they had Dancing with the Stars status shoes and I want to be cool enough to wear some like those, too. End of rant). Brent thinks that they were surprised to see us back this week and felt that they needed to give us some love before we give up and don't return. For whatever reason, Brent and I learned a whole lot more this week. It was a workout, too. Imagine dancing around for and hour and a half in heels while concentrating on your steps, posture, stomach and arms all at the same time.  It's really hard. And to top it off, I have to follow Brent's lead. I don't get to lead myself and take whatever steps I want. It's so different from dancing on your own but I do enjoy the challenge. In ballroom dancing, you have to square your hips like in ballet and keep yourself centered so you end up working your core. While chacha requires a lot of arm and legs, the quickstep seems to demand posture and body angles. In the quickstep, your placement is everything and you have to dance very, very close to your partner or everything gets messed up. It's very tricky. That being said, if you ever get a chance, I suggest taking ballroom. It beats going to the gym, anyway.

 I don't really feel like explaining them in full detail so here are some pictures from the past couple of days:

Half and half fries at the Counter....so addictive. We ordered sweet potato fries and regular fries. It comes with a garlic aioli sauce. Drool...

Salena's kid's meal.

She's starting to look like a little adult.

Junior's debut in my blog....I think. Have you met Junior? That's my step-dad (Salena's papa. Don't think look alike?). He saves me from geckos and roaches all the time. Yay! (I know I keep telling side stories, but I promise this one is funny: today, a gecko was positioning itself to attack me in the shower so I ran out with shampoo in my hair, grabbed a towel and whined at the top of the stairs until Junior came to my rescue. The gecko would have killed me. I would have died! Junior saved my life, people).  He's also nice enough to constantly remind me to take my cups to the sink and to bring my laundry downstairs beacuse I have a bad habit of forgetting. He's super awesome. He's also a professional musician and like, goes on tours and stuff and has a fan club. Pretty neat, huh?

My Market select burger--Furikake Mahi Mahi (fish) on taro bun with onion strings, lettuce (local), sweet chili aioli sauce and magic.

Be proud of me. I finished it and had a stomach ache later. Somehow, worth it.

"There's a wocket in my pocket." Yep, she's reading out loud now.

I'll finish with this thing I found online. It has nothing to do with anything and so therefore that much more awesome:

Trolley rides, ballroom, facials, Neil, Melanie & dance battles

I caught the trolley for the first time the other day. Why? Because I didn't have my car and my mom just happened to have a trolley VIP pass. I've never caught the trolley just to catch a trolley here in Hawaii because normally, it would be Brent, mom or my own car (or the bus if I was extremely, extremely, desperately in need. But actually I don't think I could bring myself to do it even then...I had bus traumas, ok).Anyway, it was my first time catching a trolley and I decided that I was going to make it an adventure so I did and it was fun. I got to sit on a crowded trolley next to tourists from Japan and a random couple from Australia. Unfortunately for everyone around me, I was yammering away (as usual) and catching up with Jace.  I ended up shopping for an hour in one store (American Apparel) before Brent finally came to get me.
 Where were we going? Oh, didn't I tell you? We took ballroom classes on Wednesday! Classes included chacha and the quickstep. It was so fun, though Brent looked like he wanted to kill me when we were doing the chacha. Actually, I think he did tell me, "I'm so mad at you right now..." but he was lying because he said he had a lot of fun. I was surprised though--I didn't expect to learn the quickstep so fast. I think what worked was that Brent was a better lead in that. Not that he was bad at the chacha at all, it was just that we learned the steps separately, memorized them and then had to re-memorize when we got together because well, it was completely different. But when I was on the women's side, I made a new friend--the ballroom diva guru, Danny (pictured). Danny was so amazing that he decided to challenge himself and probably scout for newbies like me to take under his wing. Once spotted, he glided over to give me advice and tips during the lesson. I felt special because he even praised me and said I'd be a really good dancer and that I should take additional ballroom lessons. Apparently he was giving Brent advice and tips on the men's side of the room as well which makes me wonder how he soundlessly glided over to that side in such a short amount of time since I felt like Danny was watching and guiding me the entire time. He even came up to me and Brent after the lessons and gave us his number to call if we ever had questions about dancing. Like I said...awesome. I can't wait for the next class!

Thursday, I went to dinner with Vicki and Chiri at a Taiwanese nabe (hot pot) restaurant called Sweet Home Cafe. It was delicious and cheap and I'm going to recommend that everyone try it, seriously.  The wait was long but the food was worth it. And you get free dessert. It was our last night together (at least for a while) so we were catching up and hanging out. It was nice. Vicki and I decided that we'd hang out more often (I said we should try for weekends since we don't seem to get together on weekdays). 

On Friday, I had a facial appointment at Spa Hawaii. And it was great. It really was. I fell asleep to a roaring noise and woke with a start when I realized that sound was my snoring. I swear I don't snore, normally. I couldn't see what was going on though because my cosmetician had my eyes covered. I hope she wasn't there, how embarrassing. Or maybe everyone snores when they get a facial so I'm not alone. I'll go with theory number two and fell slightly better.
After my facial, I picked up Brent (in his car) and we ended up going out to SoHo in downtown for a dance event. Apparently, last week was National Dance Week (I really should know these things) and Brent's friend, Linda had flown out  few of her dancer friends to teach in Hawaii. I met Melanie, a beautiful Puerto Rican who also happens to be a great dancer and was visiting from New York. the other New Yorker I met was Neil (pictured), my new queen teddy bear. He had an accent and he was fabulous and he loved me. We became Facebook friends and I wish he'd come back soon.

Saturday, we went to a potluck at my aunty's house, except it really wasn't a potluck because my other aunt, Hiroyo, made everything. Brent came over after work and we left the party early to get ready to go out again (I know, we were party animals this weekend). This time, we went out to Paparazzi and saw Neil and Melanie there again. Jermaine came out with us as well and we all hung out on the balcony, listening to House music (I don't know how to explain it, I'm not cool enough). But it was chill. Everyone was dancing again.

 We saw this mystery guy (pictured below). His signature look seemed to be a fedora hat (I only say this because we saw him at SoHo the night before with the same hat on). His bboy name turned out to be Lucid and he was in fact visiting from San Francisco. How do I know this? Because he showed up at the dance battle that Brent judged at today. He was very noticeable during the other two nights because he was clearly talented as a dancer. Sure enough, at the dance battle today, he won in every dance category there was to enter. It was almost unfair for him to even enter in the first place. Anyway, he was someone to look for and the craziest thing was that he was only here on vacation. Imagine going on vacation and saying, hmm, I think I'll go win a few dance battles today...ridiculous. Fortunately for our local boys, they had someone inspirational to look up to. I hope we get to see more of him in the future.

On that note, I'm really itching to dance now. After watching other people up on stage, being fearless in front of the crowd, I wished I could join them too. I wonder since when I became so shy? I guess I'm self conscious about the fact that I haven't been dancing much lately. I'm scared that somehow, I won't be able to keep up with anyone and prove that I just shouldn't be dancing anymore or something stupid like that. Bleh, how depressing. I had a great weekend, I made new friends, I wanna get back in to dancing and now I'm going to sleep. Good night.

 Vicki's sparkly version of the dessert that we got from Sweet Home Cafe. It was shaved ice with tapioca, pudding and sweet goodness.