Seattle

Someone found my xanga and it reminded me of the embarrassing posts that I made about being angry and depressed through my angsty years. However, it also reminded me that I had a Livejournal. I spent quite a bit of time going through my old entries. Although they are embarrassing to read, I also enjoyed seeing my thought process throughout the years as I was growing up. It's not a bad thing to keep a journal of my thoughts after all. At this point, I think I'll use this blog as a more grown up version of my teenager/young journal for my future self to read.

With that said, I just want to write a note about my trip to Seattle to see my good friend Jenny with Brendan in September of this year. As seen in the photo above, the view from Jenny's rooftop is pretty swag. I had a lot of fun just lazing around with Jenny and Brendan.

The awesome thing was that I got to play with Jenny's dog, Gambit, and Gambit's friend, Forbin.


That's Gambit. He's a really handsome dog. Not only that, he's a super fun dog. He knows his tricks and wanted to play all the time which was super cute!

Cat in a Hat!

Guess what was found in my parents' mailbox? Another surprise postcard! Madness! I wonder who would send me this silliness...



I was warned to prepared myself, but I didn't! Aack!


BAM! Totally got hit by surprise.



Ridiculous! A tabby cat in a cat! You know, this cat looks very much like Suppy!



What do you think?

Even though it wasn't signed, can you guess who it was?
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Give up?
It's...


...THE CAT EATING MONSTER!!!

Surprise Postcard!

I opened my mailbox and saw this!

London! I wonder who was in London...hmmmm....


It was addressed to "Lady LeTran of San Francisco." Teeheehee...*fit of giggles*



...sent via Royal Mail, I feel like royalty already.



A true British talked about round-abouts and wrote things like "blimey."



A true CE talked about earthquakes and natural mass source of lumber.



A true construction manager talked about renovation cost of moving partition walls. I love it!



...and a well rounded man would also be up to date with pop culture, so he discussed the royal wedding. Being such a wonderful man, how could the queen not invite him to the wedding nor seek his counsels? I couldn't understand either. However, I'm looking forward to a postcard from The Palace covered in biscuit crumbs and tea stains.



Of course it has to be from Sir Hitén! Only Sir Hitén can write such an entertaining postcard message. No wonder he was able to steal Hidayah's heart.



Personally, I think Hidayah (aka Nur) must have trained him really well with this block type face because a couple of years ago, his handwriting was pretty elementary compare to this neatness.



Postcard collection so far! I love you guys!

Dorks!

I was searching some of my old stuff for blank cards. I didn't find any blank cards, but I found these.



These were from the opening party for the Westin hotel back in 2008 (I think). Alyson and I had a lot of fun eating fancy free food and taking silly pictures.



Despite our badass appearances, we actually got locked inside one of the ballroom. I forgot how we managed to get out. I think we were lucky enough to found someone to unlock the doors for us.



Photobooths are always so fun!



Aly was really good at scolding me.



Then we pretended that we were models. Classic.



Aly was really good with the growling faces.



Hee! Good times.

An Engagement Adventure Part II

Part I had all of the serious ceremonial business and this one will be all about the fun stuff we did!


While the serious ceremony was going on inside, we were goofing off outside and not paying attention to how to get married. "You'll never get married this way, LeTran", Helen would say. Anyhow, I decided that since I was already in traditional garbs, I might as well do an old person pose.

An Engagement Adventure Part I

I have never been savvy with anything marriage related. Especially when it comes to all of the steps of a Vietnamese marriage. There's the "presenting" event, then the engagement ceremony, the "farewell" ceremony for the bride's family, and then the actual wedding! Phew.

1. Presenting event: this is a name I made up for this event, of course. Back in the olden days, when marriages are arranged, this would be the day that the whole groom-to-be's family saunters over to the bride-to-be's family house to take a peek at her. Since there are very few arranged marriages these days, people no longer go through this step.

2. Engagement ceremony: this is when the groom-to-be and his family parade over to the bride-to-be's house and present everyone with gifts such as betel nut and areca leaves (very important because they symbolize marriage and stuff), roasted pork, sticky rice, wine, and some other stuff that I don't remember. Basically, it's an event to request the bride-to-be's family for her hand in marriage. I imagine back in the day, it would be pretty funny to parade over and then the female's family would go "NO CAN HAZ MAH DAUGHTER! GO AWAY!"

3. Farewell ceremony: if the marriage proposal is accepted, this would be the night before the wedding when the bride-to-be say good bye to her family. There would be crying and giving of jewelries, and educating the bride on how to have sex, etc. I'm kidding about the last one, but it could very well be true!

4. Actual wedding: too complicated with so many steps that I don't know so I'm not even going to bother explaining this one.

Anyhow, my friend, whom I knew since 6th grade, decided to marry her long time boyfriend. So, I was invited to attend her engagement ceremony to be one of the females accepting gifts from the groom-to-be's family. Yup. I had an actual job at this thing!


Started with a decorated house to let the groom-to-be's family know where to go or else they would be asking for the wrong girl to marry their son. Hah!