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What is your favorite genre of music?
This quote I found on Pinterest completely describes my musical interests. Also, yes. People still use Pinterest.
I am willing to listen to just about any type of music, even music in languages I don’t understand. I like songs in almost every genre or category, except Gregorian Chanting. That’s where I permanently draw the line. (I do not consider that music in the least.) My dad once bought a Gregorian Chanting CD from a CD subscription catalog (yes, that’s how looong ago it was), & he played it the entire time our family drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was torture, but he wouldn’t allow us to change it. My mom was so irritated after that 7 hour car ride that she forbade my dad from listening to it on the drive home.
I don’t listen to a lot of songs from all genres, but there are a few songs I like from each category. For example, I don’t frequently listen to Country Western music; I listen to it very rarely, but there are a few Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, & Patsy Cline songs I like. I also don’t frequently listen to Reggae music, but I have been known to bop along to Bob Marley’s greatest hits.
Another genre that I do not listen to is Chinese pop, like C-pop or Canto-pop. It’s not that I think the music is bad. The one thing that turns me off from listening to this genre is the fact that all of the songs & their topics/themes sound the same. Every song is a love song, either about unrequited love, lost love, heartache, cute love, or sad love. There is no variety in the song subjects, & most of the songs are ballads. It just feels repetitive to listen to C-pop or Canto-pop music a lot of the time, so I avoid that genre most of the time.
Three of the biggest music genres I listen to the most these days are J-pop, Alternative Rock, & Jazz. I also love listening to other genres relating to these main categories, like: J-rap, Brit-Rock, & Bossa Nova. I used to be a super huge fan of Japanese male idol groups from the talent agency Johnny’s Entertainment, but since most of my favorite groups have either retired, broke up due to public controversy, or have disbanded, I haven’t really payed much attention to the new idol bands.
If you were to ask me which bands are on my repeat playlist, it would be:
I would definitely say that my preferences in music lean towards catchier songs, you know, songs with a catchy melody or chorus to sing along to. I also enjoy songs I can sing & bop along to. I wouldn’t say I have a great singing voice, but it’s at least adequate enough to carry a tune when I sing karaoke with my friends. Also, I have sung karaoke in public more than once & have not yet been booed off stage, so I’d say that counts as me being an okay singer.
I also like electronic music with no lyrics, LoFi ones that I can put on all day while I’m writing or doing house chores. Sometimes I will find a low key LoFi music stream on YouTube & run it in the background on the TV while I am playing with my little bean. She enjoys it as well. At least I think she does. It keeps her focused on playing in one spot & not running around the house like a child strung out on a sugar rush.
That pretty much sums up my taste in music. I could go in depth about every single specific type of music I listen to & which bands from each category I like, but that would take FOREVER! I’d like to end this post with my usual song of the day, but I will insert a playlist instead. Cheers!
Today’s PLAYLIST of the day:
Describe your most memorable vacation.
I have two absolute most memorable vacations in the books. The first most memorable vacation I want to mention is the family reunion trip my dad planned back in 2006 to Japan. I believe this was the last group vacation I ever went on with my dad before his passing. It had always been his lifelong dream to host one giant family reunion with our entire family in Yokohama, Japan, including my eldest brother, who hadn’t been back to Japan since his early teenage years. I, myself, hadn’t been back there since I was 3 years old. This was something my dad was adamant about doing, regardless of cost, before he became the last surviving sibling of his generation, which was quickly becoming more of a reality than we would know.
Initially that year, my brother had already planned a group vacation with another set of his friends (another couple) & all of their children (all girls). My dad urged my brother to cancel his vacation plans & go with us to Japan. He even invited my brother’s friends to come along, all expenses paid. That was one of my most fondest memories about that trip. It wasn’t just the fact that we’d be having a full-on family reunion with my dad’s entire family, including myself & my brother for the first time ever. It was the fact that my dad paid for a whole other family (2 parents, 2 children) to tag along with us to our family event. Of course, we all became lifelong family friends after that.
Another core memory I treasure from that trip was going back to visit my dad’s family home one more time before it got torn down to become a 9-floor multi-use building complex. I have been to my dad’s family home once before, but I was so young I could hardly remember any of that time. It was such a memorable experience visiting my grandfather’s tailor shop (which is now run by my cousin & his wife) & having a home-cooked family meal at the family house. It was hotter than hell that day, especially in an old building with no central air conditioning, but we all had the time of our lives catching up & eating together. My dad’s family home is now a 9-floor mixed-use building, but I can proudly say that my cousin’s tailoring business is still operating there, & the eldest aunt from my dad’s generation still lives there on the top floor.
All of us had such a great time catching up with family, & it was especially meaningful for my brother’s two daughters to get to know cousins & other relatives they have only heard about but had never met before. My dad was living his best life, drinking all the beer, & chatting non-stop with his two last surviving brothers. My brother’s close friends fit seamlessly into our family reunion. They were included in all of our family activities, & we had a fun time bonding with them over the course of our vacation. I even got to meet up with my childhood best friend after many years apart, & we had such a fun time catching up with each other.
Seeing my entire family from my dad’s side all coming together (despite some family members not getting along) really made my heart soar. It was a truly magical moment that I will never forget for as long as I live. It is one memory I share with my dad that I cherish so deeply within my heart. Even to this day, I will reference back to this amazing experience.
For a detailed account of this memorable vacation please refer to this post.
The next memory I want to talk about is my birthday vacation in London, England. This is another memorable trip, for one, because it was my very first time traveling to the U.K. (or even the European side of the globe). For as long as I could remember, I have always wanted to visit London. My dream came true back in 2017 when I finally convinced Jian to travel to the U.K. instead of Asia. I am still trying to convince him to visit London again, or any other part of Europe for that matter, but he is extremely adamant about traveling overseas to Asia again.
From the moment we started talking about this trip, I was absolutely certain that this was going to be an extraordinary experience. I was not wrong. The incredibleness began before we even boarded the airplane. Somehow, we were able to book a stay at my now all-time favorite hotel at a jaw-dropping discounted rate. This hotel (Edition Hotel London) is supposed to be the crème de la crème of the luxury boutique hotels within the Marriott Hotels group. We somehow were able to book a room around my birthday, & as soon as we checked in to the hotel, the amazingness continued. Each day, everyone greeted us by name & sent me birthday greetings. I even got a personal handwritten birthday note (which I kept) by the hotel manager, along with a special dessert sent to our room. Then, on the last day of our stay, we were sent 2 complimentary custom cocktails to our room. Let me just say that I could not have been more impressed with this hotel & its entire staff.
Our little tour of London was also extremely memorable. Some of our highlights include: going to an Anderson.Paak concert, doing a proper pub AND bar crawl nearly every day (not just at night), randomly spotting 2 celebrity actors (who were very popular at the time), taking a tour of Westminster Abbey & Big Ben (while it was closed for repairs), riding a proper red double-decker public bus, riding the Underground subway for the first time, & getting McNugget grease on our hotel bed from eating McDonald’s at midnight after the Anderson.Paak concert.
There are two interesting stories that really stand out from this trip. The first story is about that time when Jian & I were sitting at the counter of a bar we had looked up on TripAdvisor. We were just sitting by ourselves as the bar was slowly starting to fill up for the evening, & were casually watching the bartender restock all of her pre-batched cocktails. Eventually a group of already drunk, rowdy guys saddle up to the bar to greet the bartender who was a friend of theirs. Jian somehow got a spam call on his phone, & one of the drunk guys asks if he could answer the phone for him (in a very thick accent, probably because he was drunk & already slurring his words). Jian of course said yes, & let the guy talk bullshit with the spam caller. We built up a friendly rapport with this drunk guy after that little incident, & had a great time drinking & talking. On our way back to our hotel, Jian complained that I was constantly trying to get him drunk every night. I said, “Who cares? Just have fun!”
The second story is about that time when we effectively shut down the lobby bar at our hotel. The hotel policy states that the lobby bar is supposed to stop serving drinks at 11pm & close for the evening at 12 midnight. We met an older couple at the bar, who were visiting their daughter at university in London. The wife was already three sheets to the wind as she had been mixing vodka drinks, tequila drinks, & champagne all night. Then she proceeded to argue with Jian about how to say certain words & phrases in Cantonese, proclaiming that she was an Italian-born woman who went to school in Hong Kong. She tried to assert that she was more Cantonese than Jian, who was actually born in Canton, China. It was hilarious how the two of them were going back & forth with each other in Cantonese & English.
The husband, however, was interested in talking to us about the drinks we were ordering, & grilling us (happily) about how the two of us knew so much about alcohol & their brands. It turns out that this man worked in the field of alcohol distribution or some sort, or import-export of alcohol for international restaurants & hotels. We talked to him about his job, & he was very eager to chat with us to gain our perspective from a younger generation. Meanwhile, the wife kept chatting with us on the side, exclaiming that we seemed like the kind of couple who have amazing intimate relations (to put it very lightly).
We kept having a very lively & spirited conversation with this couple all the way past the bar’s closing time, & didn’t end up back in our room until 3am. It was incredible. We tried getting this couple’s contact information, but they explained to us that they were leaving the next day, & they wanted to meet us at the hotel lobby before they left. We never got a chance to meet up with this very interesting couple, but we have a cool story to tell everyone. I believe that was only the second time in Jian’s life where he had a true hangover. The first time was when he turned 21. We ate mediocre Vietnamese pho the next day, & as Jian was staring at his bowl, he was contemplating the meaning of life.
I truly hope we are able to visit London again, sometime in the near future perhaps. I would like to have more adventures like the two I described above, maybe with my little bean in tow, maybe not (she can’t get into bars yet). All in all, I have been on quite a few fun vacations in my lifetime, but these two were the ones that stood out the most in my mind. I hope I can have more fun vacation adventures, & document them here to share with everyone. Until the next trip, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Have you ever had surgery? What for?
Yes. I have had 3 surgeries, both done in my teenage years. I guess you could technically say these surgeries were to improve my health. However, one of the surgeries could be viewed as cosmetic even though I did not seek treatment from a cosmetic doctor, but a pediatric surgeon.
The first surgery I had done was to improve my breathing. For as long as I could remember, I had always been a mouth-breather; a loud, very heavy breather. I couldn’t properly breathe through my nose. It was a struggle, & I never understood why until my family doctor, who was also my allergist, took my x-rays and suggested I repair the hard palate in my mouth.
The hard palate is the cartilage that separates the breathing passage between the nose and the mouth. There was a small section of the hard palate in the back of my mouth, near the throat, that had a gap which was the cause of my breathing issues. I would inhale through the nose, but the air would exhale out the mouth. This caused me to not be able to properly breathe easily. So, I had a small piece of cartilage surgically placed in my mouth to cover the gap (i,.e. “plug the hole”).
Now I can breathe so much better. I can definitely inhale & exhale through my nose without sounding like a wheezing bagpipe. Sometimes, when I am deeply concentrating on something, others will point out to me that they can still hear me breathing heavily, but not as frequently as when I was a child. I also don’t sound as nasally as I used to when I speak.
The surgery only took a couple of hours, & I was home by the end of the day. I spent the next 3 weeks eating Jell-o & soft foods, throwing up all of my pain medication, & not being able to talk without feeling like I swallowed a grapefruit that got stuck in my throat. My sister expressed her envy that I would lose weight due to my inability to eat for 3 weeks, but I didn’t see it that way. I only thought of being able to breathe like a normal person & not always sound like a deflated accordion every time I breathed.
The second surgery I had was a few years after the first. I was still a teenager, & was going through the last stages of having braces, the old fashioned metal kind. My orthodontist explained to my mom that no amount of braces would ever fully straighten out my teeth. So, that bummed her out. It kind of bummed me out too. No amount of braces-wearing would make my teeth straight.
The orthodontist also explained that I had a severe underbite; my jaw stuck out quite a bit, causing my upper & lower teeth to not be aligned, which always caused food to get stuck in-between my teeth all the time. The orthodontist also said that my jaw would continue to grow until adulthood, which would push my jawline out even further. He suggested that I get surgery to push my jaw back, unless I wanted to look like a horse & never be able to fully close my mouth.
So that was that. I opted to have surgery to correct my underbite. Because I was only 17 at the time, I had to see a pediatric surgeon. I was in & out of the hospital within 3 days, & was instructed to only eat soft foods & ice cream for the next 3 months. Lucky me! I spent the entire summer eating my mom’s signature Chinese chicken soup rice porridge & chocolate ice cream.
I looked like a funny little chipmunk with my swollen face, & the only thing holding my jaw in place were rubber bands used for braces. I had a whole mouth full of braces rubber bands crisscrossing across my mouth, & I was scared that one day they would snap & my jaw would fall off. Lucky for me they didn’t snap, & I spent the summer learning how to talk with my teeth clenched & not moving my jaw. I tried learning ventriloquism, but I couldn’t get my lips to stay still.
The day I had my final post-operation check-up was the best day of my teen years. The nurses came in & one-by-one snipped off all the rubber bands with scissors. I could finally move my jaw freely. Then, & this is the best part, they took off my braces. One-by-one, each metal bracket glued to my teeth was removed, & at first, it felt very strange. I would run my tongue across the fronts of my teeth, & feel nothing there. When I closed my mouth, nothing was rubbing against my gums or poking the insides of my cheeks. I was finally free of anything obstructing my mouth & felt good. I could also go back to eating popcorn & chewing gum.
The third surgery, as you may already know, was a cesarian (a.k.a. C-section) surgery when I gave birth to my little bean. This little offspring of mine was no longer able to successfully grow inside of me, so the doctors & midwives suggested that she be delivered 2 weeks early. I was hoping that I could be induced into labor early, & push that little nugget out of my V, but alas, she was lying sideways, so that was not an option.
No, she was not in a breech position, she was in full lounging-on-the-couch position, which the doctors found very funny. We tried a cephalic inversion procedure, but my little offspring was not having any of it. She would not budge even a little bit. So, she had to be surgically removed from my body. I was freaking out like crazy, but once the C-section procedure was done, I was elated.
Jian really helped alleviate the whole situation with his humor. He was in the operating room with all of the nurses & doctors running around. After the little bean was extracted from my open flesh, the nurses cleaned her up & let Jian hold her for the first time. He immediately held her up over his head & started singing the first part of “The Circle of Life” from the Lion King movie. Everybody had a great laugh, & all the nurses gushed about what an awesome dad he was. I told Jian not to make me laugh until the gaping wound in my mid-section was fully stitched shut, & I wasn’t massively bleeding. Well, I still laughed anyway, so there.
I guess this sums up my story time about the times I had surgery. I didn’t have anything medically major happen to me throughout my life health-wise, & I feel extremely lucky & grateful for that. I am so glad that the first wo procedures I had done were mostly minor, & some would say, cosmetic. They did, however, drastically improve my quality of life & modestly improved my self-esteem. The third surgery brought my little nugget into the world, & that has also drastically changed my life for the better. Knocking on wood, I am not planning on having any more surgeries…& that’s all I have to say about that. Cheers, all.
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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