love the wang

the other day i was asking someone about their knowledge of widget when they asked me “do you have a blog?” i said “yes!’ and someone in the background snickered. that’s when you know it’s time to leave your environment. it has come to my attention that there are people reading this who know me in person and are reading this to hate. i say “in person” because to say they know me personally is a stretch.

if you are someone that listens, just so you can get information to judge other people, if you are someone that cannot deal with their insecurities and must manifest it in passive-aggressive behavior, if you are someone that does not have the guts to put your own thoughts out there and live with the consequences AND if you are someone that SEEKS out things to hate: LEAVE. go to some other blog, find some other sucker. this is a public domain, but you are not welcomed here. this is a place for friends who i don’t get to see everyday to keep in touch with me. it’s not for my vanity. and it’s not for your negativity.

go spend your time doing something worthwhile. accomplish something for yourself and care less about what i have to say. believe me, my opinion only matters to the people i love anyhow and if you’re someone i mentioned above, you are not one of them.

i had the privilege of attending the nuptials of  of Mr. & Mrs. David Wilde this weekend. i’ve known giang (& the rest of the ladies) for over a decade… (that sounds really really ridiculous, but true.) as i’ve move out of my hometown since i was 18, i find that these celebrations of milestones in the lives of friends i don’t always get to see become a rare treat for me. sure, SOME of us couldn’t last until the end of the party, but a few of us outlasted the DJ and woke up the next morning without feelings in 2 of their toes– but it was well worth it to see giang smile SO big. Giang, i love you (as well as the rest of the ladies.) and David, you just married into the “misfitz”: welcome.

the couple did an amazing job merging Vietnamese & western traditions in their ceremony.

 the ladies watching Giang get into her second dress for the receptions…that and enjoying the free booze.

gorgeous bride..but still with a lot of sass

proving that we’ll always be dorks..

enjoying each other’s company…

….escaping from their adorable kids

requirements of being a good +1? being the plate holder while your date eats.

swooning at the first dance. (…just like high school, except we were watching rom-coms and had less attractive clothes/hair..)

everyone get down.

no really…you have to outlast the DJ…it’s like a gameshow with no prize.

it’s been 15 (+?) years, but 1. there’s still a latta love between all of us and 2. we still look damn good

it’s been a long week…

last wednesday, i took photographs of my co-worker sara at the previously mentioned location in Back Bay in Newport Beach. (i’d like to think i’m a good photographer, but the reality is she’s just really pretty…)

Sara found a gigantic spider while we were shooting by the bank of the water…we named it charlotte because it was suspended in this crazy web i assume it made itself…either way, charlotte was a BIG spidy….

The fuzzy green grass evokes a “where the wild things are” feeling for me…

Than came halloween…which i spent working-working-and-working. i dresses as my true self, a ninja…and my dogs barked at me. the guy behind me on the left? he’s dressed as me for halloween…yes, very funny, yuk it up!

I did more photo stuff on Sunday, but nothing really turned out the way i wanted…so we’ll just keep those unposted.

Than today, Monday, as i came home i got inspired by the way everything looked in the fog…so i picked up the camera once more…

the colors are a bit odd on ALL the pics cause i’m having some issue with in-depth photoshop functions. i’m probably going to need to take a class…so just don’t judge.

before i hastily run off to class, i want to share this post on self talk from Shutter Sisters: http://shuttersisters.com/home/2009/10/27/self-talk.html

it’s one of my new favorite blogs in terms of finding inspiration from other’s people work.

my mantra? “today is a battle i will win”

i spent sunday afternoon scouting a location to shoot an upcoming project for my adv. photo class. i finally found it in back bay. it’s kind of amazing that i’ve lived here for so long but never really explored back bay. i have driven by it like a million times, but never stopped to explore on foot. it’s gorgeous…and it will be made even more beautiful with my friend BJ in all his beer-gut, tattooedness frolicking in the shots.

i’m old. i know this because i’ve been going to weddings, engagement parties, bachelorette parties, bridal showers, baby showers, toddler’s birthdays…etc. (apparently, i’m also broke.) i have a specific catagory in my mail sort reserved for invitations and i’m adding “professional party attendee” to my list of hobbies on facebook.

this weekend, i went to the nuptuals of Jessica & Derek. i went to college with Jess and she was pretty much the life of the party everywhere we went. we all took a minute to mourn the fact that it would no longer be appropriate to send Jess to the front of the line to flirt with the bouncer when we needed to get into a hotspot.

the wedding wasn’t huge or extravegant, but it was fill with this genuine feel of love. it was intimate in a way that everyone felt free to just dance and sing and completely be themselves because we were all amongst friends. plus, you know when asian grandma’s on the dancefloor cutting a rug, it’s a party. of all the weddings i’ve gone to, it was, the most fun.  

from left, it’s natasha, michelle, alice, desiree and me (i’m the one farting the flower.) they’re the reason for all the fun, i think. i never had any siblings, but if i did, i would want them to be just like these girls: uninhibited, funny, supportive and always always inappropiate. they are in this life, part of who i consider family. they are better versions of me, people whose qualities i aim to acquire. and when the storm clouds roll in, they are the ones with umbrellas that not only shield themselves, but me. and i love them.

so to answer michelle:

Acne one shouldered dress : september vogue showed it in a colbolt blue, which in my opinion was more interesting than the black. but the sculptural element of the one shoulder kinda screamed at me. so i’m pretty in love with it…good thing there are three weddings coming up this fall

just for kicks, the rest of the tweets are as follows:

Prada cut out pumps (can’t find them in my size..this is going to be a problem..)

Proenza Schouler Bag  this bag is a pipe dream as it is vastly over-priced for my everyday use, but alas it’s a beautifully sculped, gorgeous italian leather pipe dream… (couldn’t find a usable picture so just click the link lazy!)

i’ve negelected this blog.

i’ve been busy at work. more days, more money but always tired and 15 minutes late to everything else.

i’ve also come to some revelations about my personal relationships and i’ve made long term goals for my future..and some short turn ones. plans that make sense and plans that for once in my life, i don’t cringe at and actually look forward to.

i want to share this karl lagerfeld quote because i love him, and because it’s NYC fashion week: “fashion is, like cinema, a business of injustice. it’s not because you want to work in fashion that it will work out. you succeed for other mysterious reasons. it’s not about fairness, it’s just a horrible fact of life. my business plan has always been about working more than the others to prove their uselessness.”

that’s it for now. eat, love, smile

Sometimes it takes other people’s pain to remind you that yours isn’t as malignant as you imagined.

I worked for four hours this morning counting every single bottle in the bar, and than I had nothing to do. Nothing. No laundry, no dishes, no cleaning, no errands, absolutely nothing. So I did what I did best: over-think, freak out and have a mid-life crisis all in my own head.

I started to feel pity about how hard I thought life was; how I’m growing apart from my friends, how I’m misunderstood, how my career is going nowhere, how my romantic life sucks ass, how nobody REALLY knows the hardships I’ve been through. I thought myself into a depression, and instead of taking hold of the beautiful sunny day and going out to enjoy life, I thought myself into an afternoon of self-diagnosed depression bed rest.

Thing is, through michelle, twitter and mooshinindy (one of my favorite blogs, and one that inspires me to pick up the camera once more,) I found websites that reminded me that human life is greater than the small hurdles I’m fumbling over. (especially since my hurdles are emotional and not a result of actual incidents.)

Reading these websites served as a reminder that the variation of grief and sadness in life can encompass the everyday, but sadness brings beauty in the things it contrasts. More importantly, to look around at what good fortunes already exists in life that I am overlooking. I am not a mother or a wife or a sister, but I am a friend and a daughter and I observe and learn from their grief in the way I can relate. Phillip Toledan reminded me that we can embrace the sadness, but I must remember to celebrate the infuriating but silly things that make me laugh; to cherish my parents, because they are the only real family I have. MooshinIndy reminded me that life is precious; that friendships run thick, and if my world should crumble, I must have faith that my friends will be there with bricks to help me rebuild. David Foster Wallace reminded me that, well, I have to quote him because his words are as important as the message: “learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”

All three of those reminders dealt with death in one way or another: Toledan’s parents passed, MooshinIndy’s BFF lost her toddler daughter and David Foster Wallace took his own life last fall. My father used to always say, “the minute you are born, you start dying.” I’m sure it wasn’t his quote, but he’s just always the one I attribute it to. I am who I am: stubborn, tough-loving and an over-thinker, but I’m reminded today that wallowing in the things that I cannot change does not give my life more meaning, but on the contrary, wastes precious time. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop having self-induced crisis’ but it does mean today, I remembered not to let it consume me.   

Life is a marathon that I sometimes wonder why I’m running, until I realize I’m lucky enough to have a chance to get to the finish line.

if you MUST know, i love LITTLE dogs. teeny, tiny, pocket-sized, fuzzy canines. preferable, the odder looking the better. so it was to no surprise to my friends that i got suckered into being a foster parent for adoptable dogs for a local rescue group called “sparky and the gang” 

first there was Ava, a chihuahua, dachsaund mix

don’t let her doe-eyes fool you, she was an alpha, keep Kiraa hiding under the couch for a week. But she was very sweet and was adopted at her first adoption event but a very peppy blonde girl.

then came Gypsy:

she was abandoned at the shelter pregnant with kennel cough, ended up with pneumonia and labeled “aggressive.” the lady from the group rescued her and helped her recover from her pneumonia. she ended up giving birth to three teeny, tiny adorable chihuahua puppies. she loves to snuggle and sometimes sleeps with her ears up. quirky? yes. aggressive? nope.

next comes Chloe, aka Squeaks

Chloe got the nickname Squeaks because every time she made a sound, it just sounded like squeaking. she was TINY. (the second picture has my thumb in it for scale…) and she was rambuncsious. Kiraa was probably once that small, but i really forgot how much work it too. she couldn’t be left alone because she got into EVERYTHING; she snuck behind my entertainment center and tried to chew up my tv cables, she pooped on my nightstand because she couldn’t get down from the bed. she was so so so cute and tiny and sweet, but man, was she work. Squeaks eventually got adopted by a friend of the rescue group’s organizer, a dog-trainer! so as much as i was really in love with the pup, i’m happy she found an awesome home.

the current resident in the “halfway house for dogs” is Tinker, aka Yoda:

Tinker is pretty much what Yoda would look like if Yoda was a dog. she’s a pug, chihuahua mix and she’s got the dome head with the protruding eyeballs but a tiny, wrinkled snout. (…yoda.) she’s a couple months old, and it’s her first week without her brother Stinker. (he got adopted!) she’s adjusting to life without him by constantly trying to snuggle up against Kiraa. she’s is probably the most bizarre looking dog i’ve ever seen, but in a cute and charming way. she also likes to hoard things in her bed….dog toys, charger, potpourri satchel, everything a dog could ever want or need. she’s looking for a forever home, so if anyone’s looking for Yoda incarnate, drop me a comment!

in conclusion, i love dogs. i love their quirkiness, their story and their companionship! they’re each unique, like people, with distinct personalities that people sometimes fail to explore. and if you don’t already have one, you should really consider making the commitment because they will change your life!