2009 Recap Thinh-Tawn Style

Well folks 2009 was definitely an interesting year economically, worldly, nationally, locally, politically, celebrity gossiplly, personally, etc.  Yes, I did make up a new word, this is my blog duh, I can say whatever I want...haha, kinda.

I was inspired by Linda Nguyen to write a blog without dissing 2009 because in the end, it was just another year of learning, growing, and loving. Right? Right.  So here is my personal take on 2009, not Skillz's Wrap Up style though because I'm not that dope. Word.

• I learned that Social Media is now changing the way we interact with people.  It is the source that could potentially help or hurt others - use it wisely.  Don't send cryptic messages! It always gets misconstrued.
  
• I learned that in moments when things are dark, that folks who love you the most will come out. 
  
• I learned that there is nothing wrong with going to a shrink.  If anything, it helps.  And through that, I've connected with many other women by sharing my experiences.
• I learned how to feel and connect with others...and now more than ever, I can empathize rather than sympathize. Yes, I have feelings now!!
  
• I read more books this year. Expanded my vocabulary and placed a few more wrinkles in my brain.
  
• I re-connected with a lot old friends. Hello? Here I am!!
  
• I learned how to get back on my own two feet after being kicked when I was already down. Ouch! Let me tell you, it didn't feel too good.
• I shared more. 
• I spoke at the Theta Nu Xi national convention for brunch and managed to cry and have others cry with me.  Again, starting to connect more. It was a moment that defined what I needed to do for myself.
• I realized how strong my female friends are; they provided me the guiding light and the inspiration.
  
• I became more spiritual. I changed some of my music selection at times and India Arie always lifted me up in the morning. And YES, I STILL want India Arie at my wedding whenever the time comes.
  
• I lost a whopping 15 lbs, and am now cooking for myself more. I know, Tawn, cook? YES. Simple cooking for a simple girl.
• I jumped off an 8 story building. Literally.
  
• I started working on my Makeup Artistry hobby and found a photographer partner.
  
• I made some really great friends from work and glad they are part of my life.
• Although cynical about people's intentions for the most part this year, I know that there are wonderful folks who exist. Word.
  
• I learned improv, somewhat got over my fears of the unknown, and met really great people. Performed on stage for the first time in a few years.
  
• Discovered how badass Avant Garden is.
• I lost my smile for a minute, but now my smile is even bigger than it has ever been, and my deep laugh is back and roaring.
  
• I traveled again, and will continue to do so.
• I learned more about my parents' past, and continue to appreciate everything they've done for me.
• I bought myself a gold necklace of a Lioness, my totem. A gift to myself.
• I've come to reallly love Borders Book.
• I got myself a public library card at the Houston Public Library.
• I got to go to a lot of concerts, basketball games, hockey games, and football games this year in Houston.  Most of which I had badass seats. I also met the owner of the New Orleans Saints he sat next to us (technically it's his daughter's now).  This is the most games I've been to in my life.
  
• I started dancing each morning when I got ready for work, Camerin Diaz style. Yes, Pandora on your phone is GREAT!
• I barely shopped this year. I got financially wiser.
  
• I follow different newspapers now.
• Short hair was this year's theme.  I loved the short cuts I got. I think 2010 I will be growing it out.
• I've gotten back into non-profit work and volunteerism with many of my nights spent doing that.
• My roommate and I held a lot of Game Nights at our apartment.  Love it.
• Saw more movie rentals this year.
• Saw more movies in general.
• I implemented the 1 touch rule at work and somewhat at home (ok, the home part not so much) for organizational purposes. You touch it, you better throw it away or file it.  Kinda hard, but it's better than trying to search for it later.
• I had a plain cubicle for awhile and so I decided to start decorating it. Then I watched my coworkers get to know me more.
  
• I had a badass Halloween costume: Douchebag Tawm.  Classic.
• My brother proposed to Diana Tran. 
• My little sister started dating someone. Weird.
• My Mother healed well after her fall in the summer.
• My Dad is doing better and is more happy since his last kid graduated from college.  We fulfilled his hopes and desires as children.

And I think those are the main points... a great 2009, and now I'm ready for 2010, a new decade!

Flat Feet Woes

I can't sleep, so I'm staring at my ugly feet. YUCK.

This post is about my flat feet woes.  Last year, I was at Lyanca and Roy's house for dinner and Lyanca and I both had our shoes off.  As I am eating and chilling, I noticed something...her arches looked different from mine...

Needless to say, I was super sad - all signs (ok, there were only 2 signs) lead me to my discovery that night. It was as if my spirits were telling me..."you idiot, the reason why your feet always hurts is because you are flat footed."   With  Lyanca sitting next to me with her perfectly arched feet and the Barefoot wine that was sitting in front of me during this discovery...it was all setting me up.  Esme and the gang witnessed it then and there as I came to this horrible realization.

From that moment, EVERYTHING made sense to me:

- All the times when I would get shin splints
- Why my feet is so ugly
- Why my Mother has bunions
- Why it hurt so much when I ran (and how it didn't hurt as much when I wore boy's running shoes since boys tend to not have high arches like women/girls).
- Why my heels always got messed up at a certain angle


Over-pronation is a biatch.  My Mother told me that it was a good sign, and I replied back...PSHHHH.  Perhaps, if I was a dude, I'd be lucky from not being drafted into the army.

So as you can see in this picture, I am NOT completely flat footed, there is somewhat of an arch...like at a 178 degree angle. Ugh. 

Barefoot Wine.  When I walk on the sandy beaches, my foot print does NOT look like this! GRRR.

Holiday Season with a non-Christian

Hello folks, so the holiday season is here yet again, and of course I feel conflicted.  So as I sit here typing away about my feelings and thoughts on the holiday season while drinking my glass...or should I say glasses of wine (Pinot Grigio called Twisted, which is not that great, but I am drinking all of it because I put my hard earned money into it) I think to myself...."Self, why do I participate during the holiday season? I'm not a  Christian, I have barely opened up the Bible with the exception of a few occasions when I attended church with friends, Plus, I barely know 2 things about this special time of the year."

Well, here are some reasons as to why I do like the holiday season despite not being a Christian:


1. People are so much damn nicer!
I don't know why people bring themselves to only be giving and caring during this time of the year, but hey, if you're nicer, I'm going to take advantage of it!  Who cares if you suck for the entire 11 months out of the year, the fact that you're nice to me NOW, I'll take what I can get. So for the other months out of the year, I have the right to call you an asshole.  Thank you.

And as for you big businesses (and a few wealthy folks) out there, thanks for taking advantage of your tax write-offs before the year is over to give back.  We ALL know it's for tax purposes, you're not fooling anyone, but again, if you're going to give, we sure in hell are going to take it. Thanks!


2. I get gifts.
I've been trained like "John and Kate Plus 8" to take gifts in December without having to say..."oh no...you shouldn't have."  Hey, blame it on the school system and advertising.  When you give a non-Christian kid 2 whole entire weeks off to do nothing, we sure will be expecting SOMETHING.  I mean, what do you want us to do? Light up candles for fun, go shovel the non-existent snow in Irving from my driveway, go make some Eggnog when I don't have a clue what that is?  No, I watch TV, and TV tells me that I should be participating because I'm a GD American! And as an American, I come to expect the latest and greatest gifts from parents.   Too bad they didn't tell you that they were only going to get you a Super Nintendo console...with no games.  So all we had was the 1 wack free game that came with it.

Once I figured I got a few conditional badass presents only during Christmas and the Lunar New Year, I cracked the code to a blissful childhood.




3. I use this holiday to re-connect with those I haven't spoken to in a while
This didn't come up until college and beyond.  I know I suck as a person, and sometimes I forget to really call people throughout the year to see how they're doing.  So I use this time of the year to re-connect with those that I haven't spoken to and personally sit at home for days writing thoughtful Christmas cards.  And folks, Facebooking doesn't count, and neither does sending out a mass text out to everyone saying happy holidays! We all know it was a mass text.  But thank you for including me in your list - it does count for something.


4. I like lights.
OOOO...I just think it looks pretty.




5. I get a legit reason to stay at home and do nothing.
As a non-Christian, I can really just use this holiday to really...do nothing. I go home to Dallas and hang out with the fam, catch up with friends, indulge in wacky traditions with friends, and literally I do not have to worry about work anymore.  I guess this holiday season really just let's you relax.  For a non-Christian person, the holiday season has turned into...well a holiday.  It's the time of the year when I can unwind, and just soak in the season of bliss.



And the moral of the story is this:
Ok, fine, I'm sorry to you folks that I have offended by not knowing the true reason of Christmas (actually, I really do have a good working concept of what it is) - I'm not a Christian. BUT, what I do know of and have created in my own bubble is the concept of what a holiday season is and what it means to me.

So with that being said...Happy Holiday!!! (To see picture, please tilt your head to the left, I didn't have time to rotate it =P)

Goodbye my beloved Teddy Bear

Warning, not so funny post, but hopefully there are some moments =). 

So I make a lot of things into jokes especially in my blogs or tweets or whatever, and I have a separate blog for serious posts (Tawn's Stories), but this blog really doesn't fall into that serious social type of post, so I'll just place it here.  Again, this is just me sharing shit, and is my way of letting it all out.

Ok, so I know this sounds really cheesy, and even to some extent child-ish, but if any of you have ever had something tangible that you once loved and adored, you know how hard it is to let go for a lot of reasons and the top 2 of mine are as follows:

1. It's sentimental.  You can't beat that.  It holds some of the most precious memories that defined whatever time frame it is that you locked and casted them into.

2.  It makes something intangible, tangible. 

So as I'm sitting here staring at my teddy bear, the one thing that I haven't let go of yet, I asked myself why to this day was I still holding onto it. And of course the top reason for it, was that this was one of my favorite presents of all time.  Ask anyone who have been to my place within the last few years and it was always proudly displayed in my room like it was an Oscar Award or something.  Obviously, it's not, but the worth of it was so much more.  I used to sleep with it at night because it was love: I could see it, feel it, hug it, and be next to it. 

It was made with love and it was emotionally valuable to me.  Those are the things that mattered most to me, and that's why I kept it.


But what do you do when things take a different course of action, and the once-upon-a-time bear could no longer serve its purpose as a reminder of love?  I guess it goes to say that its duties were served and over. Do you keep it for memories, or do you give it away to a child who can love it as much as you did?

And the best thing for me to do is to give it to a child who will love it as much as I did.

So with that being said...tomorrow is the day where my beloved bear will go to a child.  Goodbye my beloved Teddy Bear - I'm ok to part with you now.

Thanks for all the time you listened to me pray.

Update & Thanksgiving.

Obviously, I haven't touched this blog since June...so I'm going to try to restart it again.  Why? I don't know, it was always therapeutic for me and perhaps can be of laughs for you (whoever ends up reading this.)

So my goal was to start blogging again, but really, I have a boring life that revolves around work, my hobby of the month before I get bored and move on, my weekend trips to see my parents and/or sister, bridesmaid stuff, and of course whatever social media obsession is going on.

Here we go...

Exercise :Since my last blog in June, I've lost about 12 lbs., yay me.  I know I need to bulk up and start gaining in muscle mass (and no, that is not my real abs in my Facebook picture - I made a youtube on how I faked my abs with makeup), but that hasn't been so successful.  I've gone to 1 cycling class with my roommate which ended up in failure as I broke my bike in the middle of class, and now my membership to 24 Hr Fitness has expired, and I don't really want to renew it.  Why? Because I never use it! What's the point.

I would go running with my roommate, but she's super fast and I cannot keep up with her! So...I've been doing my walk-jogs.  Walking more than jogging, but at least I'm keeping my heart rate up.  My last episode with jogging was funny as I was locked out of my apartment complex because the stupid code wouldn't open up the stupid door. So for the first time since college, I contemplated jumping over the fence. Not so wise thinking on my part, and being the oh-so responsible person that I am now (hah), I sat in front of the entrance gate waiting for someone to enter so I can walk in.  Mind you, this is Thanksgiving Day, and NO ONE is coming in.  So I wait a few more minutes, and then plop... my favorite Nike watch I've had since 2003 that I bought in NYC fell off my wrist. Bummer.

Anyways, I was late to Thanksgiving at my brother's fiance's family's home because I had to wait for a car to pull up and let me in.

Black Friday: I'm on a freaking budget, but I would still like to go window shopping.  So my big sis, Dimple, kindly invited me out to the First Colony Mall in Sugar Land to go shopping with her and of course, me not having anything to do nor nothing on my list to buy, I accepted.

Oh, my freaking gosh, we were there for a record breaking 6 hrs. I think I have shin splints for standing and walking around so long.  All the clothes blurred together - talk about getting dizzy.  I watched a lady sell the hair straightener to Dimple, and they totally negotiated the straightener down!  If you want to know how much, email me and I'll give you the price. Did I buy anything you might ask? Actually, I didn't buy a single thing except a McFlurry.

Anyways, didn't do much afterwards except buy a bottle of wine, killed it, ate gouda cheese, and then I went to bed. Wow, what a life.

The Public Library: I'm going to support the Houston Public Library I've decided! As nerdy as this sounds, I grew up in the Public Library when I was a kid. We couldn't afford books, and my Father was an advocate for borrowing and returning books and I spent nearly every Summer in the Irving Public Library since I was 6, and as I got older, I spent more time there doing my homework and it eventually became the hangout spot for kids like me who had overprotected parents and could only socialize at the library. Sad, I know.

Plus, the public library has a BADASS A/C.  When I was in high school, the apartment that we lived at SUCKED and the central A/C unit always failed in the summer...so where did I go..yes, the public library.

The public library has a special place in my heart.  And now ladies and gentlemen, I am a proud holder of the Houston Public Library Card. I checked out 2 books!

Twitter: Why am I so obsessed? It's probably because I have no life and I think it's fun to broadcast how lame my life is and have the whole entire world know what I'm doing at all time.  But wait, there's a catch to it all!

"Why Thinh-Tawn, what's the point?" you might ask.  Well there is a POINT.  The point is that my life is now a game, and I get to EARN POINTS for my lame life.  Remember SimCity? Yea, it's kind of like that.  I blame my friends Brenda and Ferrell for getting Esme and I hooked on it. So you get to become Mayor of a place (and it some cases you get free stuff for Mayorship from certain establishments for being a consistent Patron), but then you have the opportunity to be ousted.  It's all fun and games.  There are tons of place I don't broadcast for the sake of my safety, but for the most part it's fun.

Foursquare.com.

Again, lame, I know!  But I do use it for other purpose too, I'm trying to build my followers so that I can make a difference in spreading the word.  Not gospel folks, but of social change and community partnerships...we'll get there when we get there.  But in the meantime, follow me! And yes, there is a purpose to my madness.

Ok, so this is a super long post, especially for me, so I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks.

Change, Volleyball, and Yogurts

So today, I'm wondering about the following:

Change - what is it? Ok, let me be a bit more narrow, what is social change? What does it look like, what does it consist of. If I had to paint a picture (and I can't paint for the life of me), what would I paint?

Also, I'm actually tired of the "diversity" thing being thrown around like it's the latest trend. I get it, at least it's top-of-mind now, and I think that's pretty badass. But I'm just so frustrated about thinking that it only means to stick a bunch of different people in one room and then call it that. Do you know what I mean? I think "diversity" is learning from one another, discussing openly and honestly about one another...and more. I think it eventually gets there at some point, but c'mon, someone's gotta do some pushing and inquiring.

Volleyball - yay. I found a group of people who play volleyball and I can join them. Although I haven't played in a while, I think I'll be a bit rusty. And what's also a curveball is that it's on sand...which I've rarely played on. So to good times and making a fool of myself.

Yogurt - starting at this ad is now making me hungry for yogort. Plus, I've been hearing my little sister's voice raving about all this yogurt bidness. We shall see...I don't want to fall victim to it!!! That's more money!!!

The end.

Denied.

And like everything in life - denied.

Black Card

So I saw an ad in the magazine about applying for a Black Card.

And I just think I might. It's going to be fun.