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body — 3 Comments
09
Sep 10

Princess Mosquito Hater

I had two more nights of insomnia earlier this week.

Monday night partly because I didn’t get up till 11 that morning, and partly maybe it was hormonal (there’s always a night or two before my period that I can’t sleep). I fell asleep around 5 AM and dragged myself out of bed around 8:30 to go to work.

I wouldn’t have been too late, but I didn’t realize the trains run only once an hour after 10. So I just missed the 10:07 and had to wait around for the 11:07. The only upside was that I had time to go to the Creamery and get a delicious Americano (my coffee of choice from now on, I think).

I thought for sure I’d have no trouble sleeping Tuesday night since I was so wiped. No such luck. That day I had discovered a couple of new mosquito bites, and so by that evening had become completely paranoid. Every tickle and itch was a bloodsucker, whether it really was or not. Didn’t sleep till after 4.

Since I was so late on Tuesday, I couldn’t be late on Wednesday too so I got up at 7:30, skipped my at home breakfast and coffee, and jumped in the shower. Missed my usual 8:44 train but caught the 9:07. Again the upside: strong black coffee and a yummy blueberry scone from the coffee kiosk at the station. It’s been about two months since I’ve had a fatty pastries so that scone was extra good.

In the meantime, MB had had it up to HERE with my mosquito craziness. So after work yesterday we headed out to this camping goods store. The original plan was just to get some good non-DEET repellant and possibly an in-room mosquito zapper (the one we ordered won’t get here for a while since apparently it’s coming in from Zimbabwe). We didn’t find any bug zappers but we did see this:

And we went for it: mosquito netting in the house.

“Where you guys off to?” the cashier asked us.

“Uhhh, nowhere,” I said, and explained our predicament.

“I hate that!” the guy said. Apparently it’s not a unique experience.

Well, I have to say the indoor mosquito netting experiment has been a success so far. Even if it doesn’t actually keep pests out, mentally I feel secure.

And a little bit like a princess, which was my real motivation all along.

Evil espresso, eviler wine, evilest fake running

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost three weeks since I last blogged. I have a lot to catch up on.

I’m finally at a point in my work project that I don’t have to work too much this weekend. While I’m glad to have time to work on my own stuff, I’m a little nervous too. The work project is a no-brainer. There’s a set process and I just follow it. With my own stuff, it’s a lot more loosey goosey.

My low cholesterol life is still going strong, though I did splurge twice this week on fatty pesto pasta with fatty sausage, the first time after I had drinks with my co-workers and the second time last night because I didn’t feel like fish. (Last night was chicken sausage but the pasta was still pretty oily.)

It’s been almost a year since I’ve had a drink. MB doesn’t touch the stuff and I’m allergic to alcohol so drinking is never that much fun. Wednesday night I had a glass of red wine – no, half a glass of red wine – and I was DRUNK. Very warm, very red, light-headed, and chatty. By the time I got home, I was craving bad food. Hence, the fatty pesto pasta.

I was also a slacker about working out this week. Last Sunday I just didn’t feel like it, and was so blah in the afternoon, I made the mistake of having a double espresso. As with alcohol, I’m sensitive to caffeine. I mean, I can have as much as I want before noon, but after that, I’m in trouble.

I thought I’d be up till one or two. I was up till 5:30 AM. The worst was when I’d drift off, only to be jerked awake by something random – the door creaking, the girl downstairs talking at the top of her lungs, my brain skittering off to some random memory.

Luckily I work part-time so I just switched my days, working from home on Monday and going in on Tuesday, which meant missing yoga. Boo hoo. Then I went in on Thursday instead of Friday because we had a meeting I didn’t want to miss, which meant missing yoga again. Must go twice next week!

Speaking of the gym, lately I’ve noticed this chick who simultaneously cracks me up and annoys me. She’s Asian, very thin, and has a lot of dyed hair – you know, that weird brownish, reddish, yellowish color that some Asian women seem to favor. She runs on the treadmill, but she runs 1) with all that hair down 2) fully make-up’d, and 3) holding onto the side rails for dear life.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to run next to her. Being that close, I could see that in addition to big hair, she had big, fake boobs. I mean, not ginormous but solid and perfectly round. For a moment I wondered if she was actually post-op (ie, formerly a guy), but looking at her hands, I didn’t think she was.

To motivate myself, I got into a pretend competition with her. I *have* to run more than this chick, I told myself, with all her hair and her tribal tattoo and silicon lady lumps. But she ran a lot, and pretty fast. Glancing at her machine, I saw that she ran six or seven miles an hour.

BUT. She was holding onto the machine the whole time, the sides or the handles at the top. And she wasn’t sweating at all, as far as I could tell. Meanwhile I was running between 5.7 and 6.3 MPH for four miles, and I was drenched.

Then someone she knew took the treadmill on her other side, and they had a whole long conversation. I mean, she was hardly out of breath. I kept thinking, It’s because she’s holding onto the handrails right? She’s basically bracing herself or lifting herself up. (The real question is of course, Why do I care? but I do and that’s that.)

This morning I found that it *is* fake running to hold the treadmill the whole time. Yes, vindicated! I mean, I already knew that, but I just needed the internet to assure me again.

Now that I’m done being catty, it’s back to the gym again. I’ll say hello to Miss Big-Hair-Fake-Boobs-Fake-Runner if I see her.

body / work / writing — 2 Comments
05
Aug 10

Work work work

This week I started on this project at work. We sort of waited till the last minute to get started so I basically have the month of August to write four short books.

It’s not a lot of writing. It’s mostly gathering information, editing it, and putting it all together, which does take time. I was supposed to get the first 30 entries of the four books done by tomorrow, but I only got two done, with working at home on the days I wasn’t in the office. I’ll have to take the weekend to do the other two.

I love getting paid to write! And it’s actually nice to work on something that’s not about me.

Speaking of which, here’s another article about me! Specifically about the time I got into it with an obnoxious hipster douchette when I still lived in New York.

In cholesterol land, I’m finishing up week three. This week I really craved bad food but resisted. The worst are all the bad salty snacks available for free in the kitchen at work.

I decided I’m going to try to work in an hour of carido once a week. For the four times I do hard cadio, I usually do about forty minutes, whether running or on the elliptical. For one of those four times, I’ll try to run five or six miles, or 40 minutes running plus 20 minutes elliptical, or vice versa.

This past Tuesday I felt like I was at the gym forever. I ran five miles, walked for five minutes, then did an hour of yoga. I was soooo hungry afterward.

In vertigo land, I’ve decided that my allergy meds haven’t been working. In fact, I think they make me more light-headed (which is indeed a side effect) as well as incredibly parched in the morning. I read that ginkgo biloba might help with vertigo so I took some earlier this week.

That shit kept me up for two days. Well, not literally, but that night I didn’t sleep well, and last night I didn’t sleep well either! I didn’t feel jittery, but my brain felt energetic. Last night I did eventually fall asleep and for a good amount of time, but it took me a while.

I haven’t read anything online that says ginkgo biloba will keep you up, but I guess if it improves blood flow to the brain, that goes without saying.

I haven’t taken it again. Maybe I’ll take it tomorrow morning.

By the way, since I stopped taking my allergy meds, I’ve felt much less light-headed. Plus I’ve been more careful about not bending my head forward when I’m on the computer, and taking more breaks.

On that note, off the computer for the night!

body / random / what i'm reading now / writing — 2 Comments
31
Jul 10

Random catching up

Mission: Lower Cholesterol

I’ve finished up week two of Mission: Lower Cholesterol, aka Fuck My Doctor and His Threats of Lipitor. This week was both a bit easier and a bit harder. Healthy choices have already become a habit, but I’m still tempted by bad snacks and desserts. Well of course: I always will be. For instance, yesterday at work, I saw an empty Frito bag in my garbage can, and thought, Fuck, I could really go for some Fritos.

I was sort of lax about my green tea habit, opting instead for another cup of coffee one day and just skipping a second round of caffeine altogether another day. I’m also getting sick of almonds as a snack. Need to get some mixed nuts.

I’m one day short of hitting my workout goal, unless I go to the gym later today. This morning I opted for an at-home workout of weight training and Pilates. My post-yoga recovery this week was much quicker. I wasn’t nearly as sore the next day, and by the following day was all better.

I also finally brought my yoga mat instead of just using the mats the gym provides. While the yoga mat is definitely better in that it’s not slippery and much longer, it doesn’t provide as much cushion and so the base of my hands started to get sore. However, they didn’t hurt afterward so maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to it.

Writing News

I had another piece published in The Frisky last week, I’m Sick of Hearing About Motherhood. I felt like I had written several “nice” pieces and wanted to write something more controversial. The comments range from, “Amen, sister!” to “Oh my God, how can you say such things? We mothers have to put up with SOOO much, and now we have to put up with bitchy attitudes like yours, Miss Angela Tung! We’re MOTHERS! Cut us a break!!!”

I rest my case.

Funny too are comments that say, “Wait till she has a kid!” while in the piece I basically say who knows, I may act the same way when I have kids. Shows that people didn’t take the time to read to the very end.

On the Nervous Breakdown last week, I published I Hate Reading About Music, which has been my most popular piece so far. There has been a lot of music posts lately so I think the subject is on people’s minds. I don’t know if those who don’t read the TNB regularly would be as into it.

This morning I had fun giving a video interview to one of my Nervous Breakdown friends. I’m always self-conscious about how I look on Skype. My hair was all wet so I kind of look like a seal in a pink shirt. Oh well.

At work I’ve been given a big month-long project. It will involve lots of writing, including on days that I’m not in the office. Yay! Getting paid to write!

What I’m Reading Now

I just finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly. It was a very interesting book, an interesting style. On the surface it seems to be a book for children or Young Adults because of the fairy tale aspect, but it’s quite gruesome at times and very sad overall. Now I’ve started Corelli’s Mandolin.

I wanted to pick up a copy of Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, which I’ve never read before, but it was checked out at the library. I’ve always wanted to read it but just never got around to it. Then I started watching a documentary on Mark Twain last week and became interested again.

I didn’t realize Mark Twain could be kind of a jerk to his family, and had a lot of darkness about him, blaming himself for his brother’s and son’s deaths. I think a lot of “comedians” are like that, not a laugh a minute but actually quite depressed.

I also didn’t know that his first lecture was given here in San Francisco at the Maguire’s Academy of Music. I wonder if that theater is still around. I’m curious to go see.

body / what i'm reading now / writing — 3 Comments
24
Jul 10

Write, eat, read

First up, my Frisky piece from last month, “I’m Competitive,” is now on CNN Living. Thanks to my pals for telling me!

The range of comments is interesting. I can’t help but wonder how people would feel if I were a man.

In other news, I’ve just closed in on week one of Vanquishing My High LDL. All I have to say is thank God for dark chocolate and its cholesterol-lowering abilities. It saved me twice when I was craving something sweet. Also, I’ve been drinking tons of tea – green, chai, ginger, rooibus. No milk or sugar of course, which isn’t hard for me since I’ve always had plain tea.

If I go to the gym today, then I’ve met my workout goals for the week – hard cardio four times a week, at least a 20 minute walk the balance of the days, and some kind of weight training twice a week. I did yoga for the first time in a month earlier this week, and it KILLED me. My shoulders and upper back so sore I could barely dress myself. By yesterday though, I was fine.

I finally finished Gone with the Wind. Wow, that took me almost a month to read. While I’m not sure it was a great book – some parts are great, but the last third is sort of all over the place – I will say it was fascinating.

I knew that it was racist, but I didn’t know how racist. It’s one thing to portray the perceptions of the time in a knowing way, but it’s another for the author to believe those perceptions. For instance, that blacks were actually happy to be slaves, and that those who liked their freedom were “uppity” and “trashy.” That blacks were like animals and children, and needed white people to take care of them. I kept waiting for the other side of it, the human description to balance out all the descriptions comparing blacks to dogs, horses, apes, and elephants. But it never came.

Margaret Mitchell’s portrayal of women, on the other hand, is very well-rounded and fair. There are all types of women in the book, and not one is better than the other. There’s fierce and independent Scarlett, who pays a price for her independence. There’s seemingly timid and quiet Melanie, who shows surprising strength. No one is perfect (except maybe Melanie) and no one is a pure villain, not even the Yankees.

The book is also surprisingly anti-war. “A rich man’s war fought by poor men.” Sounds familiar.

Needing a break from romance, I’m now reading John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things. Eerie and sad so far.

body — 4 Comments
20
Jul 10

Day 5 of the Lower Cholesterol Challenge

In case you didn’t know, I just found out I have borderline high cholesterol. This means different things to different doctors. For instance, my doc in New York wasn’t worried since my good-to-bad cholesterol ratio was still good, and I don’t have any risk factors. However, my SF doctor thinks my bad cholesterol level should be much lower, and even mentioned meds if it’s worse by the time I get it checked again in October.

So now I’m obsessed. In my last post, you can see that I went as far as to create a table showing how my numbers increased since 2007. I won’t go that far this time.

Since Friday, I’ve had oatmeal with skim milk and raisins for breakfast every morning. I need it a little sweet so I add half a teaspoon of brown sugar and a teaspoon of, yes, maple syrup. I should use honey but maple syrup is so much tastier, and I figure I don’t add that much.

When we’ve gone out to eat, I’ve opted mostly for fish (not fried). For instance, from our favorite Thai restaurant, I got salmon steamed in a bamboo leaf, which was DELICIOUS, mostly because of this amazing (non-creamy) chili garlic sauce. When we went to Mel’s, I got the Yuppie Scramble, two eggs scrambled with ground turkey and various veggies.

I’m not sure what the verdict is on eggs. I keep reading that the yolk is high in cholesterol but nutritious at the same time. I guess it’s safest to limit yolk intake to a few times a week.

MB got donuts the other night and I resisted. Yay!

Last night we had Mexican and avoided anything cheesy. Instead I had their clear chicken soup, which is packed with vegetables, and a chicken mole dish with no cheese on the beans.

I’ve been trying to have green tea every day, along with more tea in general. I usually have ginger tea after meals, but have started incorporating rooibus tea again, mostly just to change things up. Plus tea makes me feel full after a meal and less likely to grab a cookie.

Yesterday some of my co-workers were going out for lunch, but I got mine first. One, because I was starving and couldn’t wait, and two, I didn’t want to be stuck with a lot of high fat options. I really wanted my pasta with tuna – and no mayo – random veggies, and pretzels.

I noticed that the two Indian guys at work never snack. They have their lunch, and then coffee or tea for the rest of the afternoon, but no chips or cookies or anything. They’re not necessarily thinner than my co-workers who *do* snack, but I think it’s an interesting cultural dynamic.

My snack yesterday? Plain yogurt with a cut-up nectarine and honey. Usually I have just a nonfat yogurt that already has fruit, but I realize that if I don’t have this kind of snack, I can go for weeks without having any fresh fruit. I don’t know why. I need veggies every day, but I can live without fruit.

This obsessiveness should die down in a week or two. I find I need to be obsessed in the beginning in order to make changes into habits that I no longer need to think about.

body / weekends / writing — 1 Comment
06
Jul 10

Done with bloodwork!

Finally stopped at the lab and gave the blood needed for the testing my doctor wants to do (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.). The lab is walk-in so I was dreading a long-ass wait, during which I’d get hungrier and crankier by the moment. But I was the first one there and they got me done lickety-split. The nurse was so great, I barely felt a thing.

“Ready?” she said. “Onetwothree!”

Some nurses take forever finding a vein, but she was awesome.

Had a very nice super-long weekend. Monday was a holiday, and I could have worked today but decided the blood work was more pressing. MB and I mostly worked on our stuff, but I still feel like I have a ton of work to do on this essay. It doesn’t help when I think it’s about one thing, and as I’m writing, I realize it’s about something else. Now I’m rewriting the intro and trying to cut the word count way down.

I got in a couple of workouts. Now that I’m working, I’ve been terrible about going to the gym. I went on Tuesday, then not again till Sunday (ran two miles, 20 minutes on the elliptical). I ran four miles yesterday, yay! Probably won’t do anything today because I gave blood, just in case.

In between working and work outs – and way too many games of Epic Mahjong Solitaire – we took walks: to Union Square, where he played guitar and I tried to write; and out to Haight-Ashbury, where we had crepes and browsed around Amoeba Records. On our way back, we stopped in Japantown and had shabu shabu, a perfect meal for a chilly, gray day.

I guess it’s quite hot out on the east coast. Not to rub anyone’s face in it, but I’m so glad not be in that weather right now. I HATE hot and humid, the worst thing about New York. Here it’s cloudy, windy, and a bit chilly. I’m wearing sweat pants, a T-shirt, and another shirt on top of that. We sleep at night with two blankets. I LOVE IT.

Now if only some NYC restaurants (Le French Diner! Pala! LES Noodle Bar!) would come out here. We’ll be glad to send several hobos and crackheads in exchange.

Today, aside from finishing that damned essay, I have to drop off stuff at the cleaners’, return a library book, and possibly get some bedding from Macy’s.

Some bad news I almost forgot: my favorite working cafe, Bittersweet, closed down, at least the one on Fillmore Street. My SF pal said she heard it was because the landlord wanted to double their rent. I’m so bummed about it. I really loved that place. The drinks were delicious, and the atmosphere so inviting to work in. I loved the big comfy tables where you could spread all your crap out, the free wifi, and how the barristas didn’t mind if you stayed there all afternoon, nursing a cup of tea.

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01
Jul 10

Writing, the Valley, allergies

In case you missed them, here are the pieces I published this month:

I’m Competitive

The Frisky

Ghosts

The Nervous Breakdown

I Want to Be Like My Dad

The Frisky

Right now I’m working on a long essay for a contest that’s due today. Hopefully I can turn it in before my SF pal picks me up for our monthly Thursday Museum Excursion. Today’s it’s the Legion of Honor. Apparently they have an Impressionist exhibit that’s companion to the de Young’s.

Earlier this week I went to my first Silicon Valley dinner. It was out in Palo Alto – or maybe Menlo Park? – and was pretty relaxed. Downtown Palo Alto seems very nice, at least from what I saw, but in a weird way. Like everything is a bit too nice, everyone is a bit too pretty and fit, but not LA-pretty where it’s obvious. It’s hard to explain. I’ll have to spend more time there to know.

Near the restaurant was a giant mall headed by Neiman-Marcus. I was really curious to go in and see what it was like.

In vertigo news, yesterday and the day before I was starting to feel light-headed again. Last night I took an allergy med, and I felt much better quickly. I wonder if that’s the key, treating my allergies, which are the culprit for my sinus/throat problem, which lead to my inner ear imbalance. I know that for those Meniere’s disease patients with food allergies, sometimes treating those allergies helps alleviate their vertigo.

I never even realized I had allergies. I don’t do much sneezing, but my throat gets easily irritated. I always thought I was just almost coming down with a cold.

I can’t believe it’s nearly Fourth of July. It feels like early spring here. I don’t even know if I have a day off.

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25
Jun 10

Doctor’s appointment done

It was far less painful than I was expecting. My doctor is an older guy who looks a little bit like Henry Kissinger and has a Russian accent. Unlike my physician in New York, he was totally focused on me and took a lot of time asking me questions. My old doc would take phone calls from other patients at the same time as my appointment. She was very nice and thorough, but always distracted and disorganized.

While my new doc didn’t do the Epley maneuver to diagnose my vertigo (which is basically gone now anyway), he was able to conclude from what I told him that it was probably due to a sinus infection or even allergies. He looked at my throat and said it was a bit irritated.

To be safe, he’ll do a bunch of a blood tests to rule out anything more serious, and also prescribed some meclizine, basically prescription strength motion sickness medication. He could tell I wasn’t too happy about that, and said just to take half a tab if my wooziness was really bad. He also gave me a scrip for Allegra, in case my allergies act up.

He’s right that I don’t want to take meds, that they only mask the symptoms, but actually it might be good to have them just in case my dizziness gets really bad. He also said he’d write me a referral if I wanted to go to a vertigo clinic or whatever.

Now I just have to schedule an appointment to do a fasting blood test, get my scrips filled, and go to the follow-up appointment a few weeks from now. It’s all good because I’m due for a physical anyway, and I got assurance that the vertigo is probably due to a sinus problem, which is what I thought anyway.

It’s kind of nice not working on a Friday. MB, who decided to work from home, and I had lunch at the Little Skillet – delicious fried chicken, french fries, and biscuit! Now we’re at the Creamery near the Cal Train station. I’m having the best mocha. Strong and not too sweet. I probably won’t sleep till three AM.

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23
Jun 10

Feeling much better

I don’t want to speak too soon, but the vertigo seems to be going away.

Yesterday I felt pretty crummy: light-headed, groggy (though that may have been the motion sickness meds), and a little nauseous. But then I did my therapy, which usually brings on several bouts of vertigo (necessary in order to be rid of it) but I didn’t experience any. Maybe just the tiniest bit of nystagmus. I slept semi-inclined, just in case, and this morning, while still groggier than usual, I felt much better.

My plan is to keep doing my therapy for at least a week, sleep semi-inclined for one or two more nights, and see the doctor on Friday. He may or may not know anything about BPPV, but at least I should just get myself checked out. I’m not taking any meds though, that’s for sure.

I was surprisingly productive yesterday, despite not feeling well.

I wrote a draft for my next Frisky article. It’s too long and meanders, but at least I have something on paper.
I bought groceries and much-needed TP.
I did a load of laundry.
I wrote a draft for my next Nervous Breakdown post. Suddenly inspired while I was, of all things, folding laundry, I jammed out the piece in under a couple of hours. When you’re inspired, you’re inspired.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.