Being in LA

In LA this Sat for anes exam for western regional boards. I'm so tired from running around all day sterilizing instruments and finalizing arrangements, getting questions answered, etc.

I learned that Ralph's is a great place for shopping in Los Angeles. Its very similar to QFC and Fred Meyer in Seattle area. The Bay Area is really deprived that it does not have one of these great markets in their area. Really the markets in the Bay Area aren't that great. They dont have that warm fuzzy feeling to them, but then again, SF doesn't really give a warm fuzzy feeling.

If I had a business in LA regardless of what .that business was, be it a paint studio, grocery store, auto shop, beauty salon, whatever, I would put it on a street corner and leave it open 24 hrs per day. There are so many people living in LA and there is so much money in this region it's not even funny. The cars are zooming down the street non-stop. Doesn't matter what time of day. If the sun is out the streets are packed. If it's 3am in the morning, they are only less packed.

The weather is incredible. I dont know what the official weather was. I just know that I sat outside at 10 in the morning with my shirt off in the pool area and I was comfortable. It felt like 72. During mid-day it felt like 76. Definitely t-shirt and shorts weather. Makes me dread the gloom in Seattle and want to stay over here.

Unfortunately CA life is not all it's cracked up to be anymore. I went to a shopping center with a Ross/Marshalls sitting literally right next to each other. Went into Ross and it was bare. I couldnt believe it. Marshalls was much better, at least they had merchandise to sell, but it didn't look all that appealing to me.

Went to Ralph's and waited in line for some green bean casserole for 30 minutes. There were only 3 people in front of me, but one lady was monopolizing all the time and the other one was late to help out. I have had lots of experiences like this in LA during my short stay here.

LA is a great place to live. It's so great that everybody wants to be here, and everybody is here. Every business you go into is busy. I won't bother to go into Macy's because I already know that they won't have my size. It's too crazy, too competitive over here. It's the same with the Bay Area.

LA has great weather, and nice people, nicer than SF. It has a Vegas-like feel to it, without all the casinos and smokers. I don't understand why businesses like Ross don't understand that people in LA have different business cycles. They sell stuff way faster than in other parts of the country and they need to order stuff at least twice as fast as other stores.

One thing I don't like is the wild west feel to driving on the streets. It's much more comforting driving around in Seattle where people drive at slightly slower speeds and aren't quite as aggressive.

Ok thats enough ranting for one night.

This was supposed to be posted on Oct 20

Today is my birthday, happy bday to me! Not doing much, just staying home, I have to work tomorrow. =P

The thing that astounds me about living in Federal Way is that it's a small city compared with Seattle. Yet every single business/restaurant chain you could possibly think of is here! Well, except Hooters, but that's not far off. There is not 1 but 2 Walmarts and they are only about 1 mile from each other, ridiculous! I guess all those people living in apartments make for lots of business.

I get only 7 or 8 TV stations here from my rabbit ear antenna. Those HD stations don't broadcast nearly as well as the old broadcast spectrum. One of the stations I get is the weather channel. I don't remember seeing a weather channel in the SF Bay Area. I think it's because the weather isn't that big a deal in SF. The weather is basically the same all year round, cold, windy, foggy, sometimes warm, etc. Here we get the whole gamut from rain, to snow, all the way to 90 degree heat.

People seem to pay a little more attention here. If it's raining lots of people will postpone doing things. In SF you don't worry about it because it doesn't rain. It's been cloudy and raining the past 4 days. The threat of flooding is very real here. The Green River Valley, which is not far from me, flooded last year. When it gets too wet the army corp of engineers releases water from the dam. When that happens you can get floods.

There's lots more water here than in SF. There are little lakes everywhere. Some of them are recreation areas, many are private lakes off limit to those who don't live around the lake.

People here are much more conscientious of hitting other people's parked cars which can be extremely annoying. I was getting out of my car today and I had to open my car door close to the car next to me. I didn't hit her car, but the owner of the car was walking by and she literally stopped and looked right down at me as if I had dented her car door. As I walked by her she walked straight down and scrutinized her door as if I had hit it. Stupid woman. When you hit someone else's door you can tell, it's really obvious. Even if I did hit her car, if it's that subtle it never results in any damage anyways, car doors aren't that fragile. Most have little side bumpers anyways, it's not like those doors are made of eggshells. Very annoying. Oh well, I guess it's a good thing that people are so conscious of it. People in SF didn't car about my car and they trashed the sides pretty good, many of them were VERY blatant without any care or respect for me or my car at all.

My cousin told me of a story how he hit the lady's car in front of him while he was parallel parking. She tried to sue him for hit and run after he touched her license plate while he was parking. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I parallel park. People here have a different mentality than in SF. You have to baby them a bit more here which is actually a good thing because I'd rather be conscientious. That's always a good thing.

Weather

It's getting real cold. The fall is here and unlike the SF Bay Area the leaves on the trees turn yellow and red. It's beautiful. 1st time in my life I seen a real fall. The leaves on the trees all fell off one day. Within 3 day period about 80% of the leaves fell off the big tree in the back of my apartment. It fell in a big whump! There were so many leaves on the grass you couldn't see the grass underneath. It looked like someone dumped a pile of leaves in the back.

Tomorrow my work is celebrating Halloween. They are having costume contest, but I won't be dressing up. Too cheap for costume. I'll just go over maybe and give some energy and say hello.

Went to Tiger Mountain today for small hike. Only went about 2 miles, nothing much. I went for 6 miles the previous week. Supposed to rain today, not a drop fell. For some reason the rash on my hand felt much better on the top of Tiger Mountain. Can't wait to get to the top on Sat (tomorrow is supposed to rain) and spend a couple hours there. Should be interesting, hope I can make it up. I felt tired today.

My flight to Bangkok got cancelled. Can't believe it. I had a free flight, some 80,000 frequent flyer miles. Enough for a free international flight and they tell me that the flight changed and to call United back to rearrange a new flight. Of course when I called back there were no more flights (it was actually on China Airlines- a Star Allliance member). I think they wanted to give my seat to a paying customer. Looks like my trip back to San Fran in December may have gotten dashed.

I like to always think these things happen for the better. Now I can make a new trip to a different place since they extended the expiration date from this Dec to Dec of 2010. That was nice. Part of me didn't want to go back to Bangkok anyways. Same ole thing.

Looks like I'm going to Southern California for my Dec anesthesia exam. I'm studying this time around, unlike last time. Hopefully I can pass.

Next week clocks turn back. Can't believe it's so soon. It's going to be dark so soon, but mornings will be nice and bright. :)

First BBQ

My first attempt at BBQ. Please send any hints or tips cause I could sure use them! The salmon and beef came out real well. I only used 12 piece of charcoal. 1 piece did not burn. Next time I will use 13 piece. Not sure the best way to burn them, they are like little pieces of wood, they need a little bit of persistence, good heat, and firestarter (gasoline-like stuff) before they will start to burn.

Baseball Game

Saw a couple of baseball games over the weekend. It was the last 2 games of the year. It was good, the local team won both games. They looked pretty good too. Picked up some cheap souvenirs .99 cent pennant and wrist bands. Griffey Jr hit homerun today so it was good everyone happy. I really like baseball games. Should goto more next year if I can stay here in Seattle. :)

ATM Gripe

ATM machines around here definitely do not service the people as well as San Francisco Bay area. Every time I goto Wells Fargo ATM here in Seattle or Federal Way there's only 1 machine. That's right! 1 machine! Back in SF at the bare minimum there would always be 2 atm machines, if not 3 or 4. Granted the pace of life here is slower, but I have had to wait in line about half the time. Usually it's only 1 or 2 people, but there have been as long as 4 or 5 people before.

Living here has definitely been good. I feel like I'm healing and I'm healthier than I was in SF. I picked up some firewood from a toothless old man selling firewood from the back of his pickup. The wood was unseasoned, but at least he warned me ahead of time. I'll let it sit for a couple months before using it. Well, I was tempted to burn on small log, but had a hard time. I'll have to consult one of my uncles one of these days to find out how to light these big logs because it's definitely not easy.

I didn't pass my restorative exam unfortunately. That makes 2 exams I have to pass before I'm good. A lot of work. I'm not looking forward to the preparation. Work is going ok, patients still like me and I like working for Geriatric very much. I have to learn to be nice and bring cookies like the other employees do.

Meh :(

Well, I failed my restorative exam unfortunately. Looks like I'll have to look forward to taking it again early next year ASAP. Pray for me to pass this thing, it's not easy.

We celebrated my cousin Taylor's bday last week. My Mom's bday was 3 days ago, I was too busy to send a card (plus I forgot) but I'll make it up.

I worked 5 days this week, but that was only because the hygienist called in sick a couple days. I'll get more time to study for my Dec exam eventually.

Seahawks!!!

Ok, went with Ken, Ted, and a friend to the Seattle Seahawks game last Thursday. They were playing the hated Raiders! It was funny because before the game I saw an SUV with a Raiders logo on it driving through Federal Way and my thoughts went immediately to the game that night. Ah! I said to myself, the crazies are in town!

In Christmas of 2007 I was in Seattle visiting. The Raiders were playing the Seahawks that weekend. The Raiders fans took over a downtown bar and were yelling "RAIIIIDERS! RAIIIIIDERS!!!...." They kept chanting "Raiders!" over and over and over. They said it for a good half an hour and they could be heard for blocks. Oh well, they get kudos for loyalty. Too bad their team is horrible and will be for years to come.

Someone tried to hack into my Paypal account, but I called Paypal and got it stopped. I also closed my Wells Fargo account for good measure, just to make sure none of the charges could go through. Well, now I have new checks coming my way which is just as well, since my old checks all had my Foster City address on it.

Life in Seattle is still golden. Working 3 days per week at Geriatric Dental Clinic here in Federal Way, just 5 min drive.
Still looking for a good spot to exercise. I love the swimming pool in my apartment complex and use it regularly.

I'm looking forward to the huge Puyallup fair which starts tomorrow at 10am!

I just finished taking a huge exam for Restorative Western Regionals. It is a test for your ability to do fillings. I had to do a composite (tooth colored filling) and an amalgam on a randomly chosen molar. I hope and pray I pass this test because I don't want to take it over again.

I still have to take anesthesia Western regionals perhaps in Dec?

Funny Random Pictures

Thus begins my foray into the "Funny Random Pictures". I thought these were rather amusing.

Mariners Game

My cousin got married last weekened. It was fun and exciting and I got to meet the new extended family which was great. They are really great people, very nice. We had lunch at my uncle's in Renton which was crazy because there were so many people. We took a group portrait in the backyard. Mike and June are in the center.



We went to Mariners game the 3rd or 4th week I was here. Here is a picture of me after the game posing in front of a display.

Got car finally registered today. That's me in my apartment behind me. There is a working fireplace. I just need a reason to use it and some firewood which people seem to have plenty of in these parts (since there are so many trees). Now I just gotta find out what to do with my CA reg since they want me to register as "non functional" or "not in use" or something like that. Lines weren't bad at all. I'm used to the slow pathetic way smog operators in CA work. It usually took at least 20-25 minutes to do the smog check and do the paperworks afterwards. Also, I rarely was the only one in line (it happened maybe once), and there was always someone in front of me which made the wait even longer. I just drove up to the smog station in Tacoma (there was nobody in line) and it took no longer than a meal order at a drive thru would take to get my smog (maybe 3 minutes)! I paid my $15 (as opposed to $50-$60 in CA) and I was off on my merry way!

After that, I drove down to the vehicle licensing. There was only 1 person in line before me. Took the lady a couple minutes but I was in and out with plates in hand in less than 5 minutes. In CA they send you the plates in the mail which takes I dunno how long, at least for a new vehicle that is. Sure it's cloudy today, but I'll take the improvement in service and quality of life anyday of the week.

Ok, sorry it's been so long since I made a post. I've been busy settling into my new diggs. I live in 1BR apartment now in Federal Way called Glen Park. It's 5 min from work which is very nice. It has 3 swimming pools, at least one of them is heated (good for winter time). There are also saunas located at each pool facility so you can sit in a nice warm place after taking a cool dip.

Getting ready for Nitrous class this coming Mon. It's a one day course allowing me to get certified for my hygiene license. I have to take a lot of tests to get my full hygiene license because WA does not reciprocity with CA. I have already taken the Hygiene exam and passed. Now I have to take Nitrous, Restorative, and Anesthesia exams to get my full license. Of course it will take time and money to do these things but eventually, hopefully, I'll get it all ironed out. If not, I'll be in trouble and may have to do the unthinkable, like move back to CA.

I've learned that the quality of life in SF Bay Area really isn't that great. I was looking at a 18" sandwich at Winco the other day for $5. It came on a roll with lots of meat, cheese, and lettuce. I said to myself, you can't buy something like this in the SF Bay Area, not a chance. Actually it's not just Winco that has good deals. Even QFC has $2.99 sandwiches with roll, meat, lettuce, mayo and mustard which has been my choice for lunch selection the past week. It would cost almost $3 if I were to purchase the meat and cheese and those items by themselves.

People are also much nicer here in Federal Way than in SF. I'm not worried about traffic as much because if I need to change lanes I'm confident someone won't go out of their way to make sure I can't change over which was a daily occurence in San Bruno. I can't stand it when people sense you are about to change lanes and then they speed up to make sure you can't change over. I do not do this and I hope others don't either. It's really annoying.

I feel like I've lived here my whole life which is nice. I think it's a good fit for me personally and for my career. So far I'm very comfortable and happy living here. It's like living in Yosemite. There are so many pine trees everywhere. It's like outdoor living but you're in a big city.

Some how I lucked out and got in a really good location. There's big stores everywhere very closeby. Within 2 miles there is Fred Meyer, Winco, Costco, Walmart, Big Lots, Home Depot, Lowe's Target, Best Buy, H Mart (sort of like 99 Ranch but bigger, better, and Korean). There are also countless, charming, cute little deli's and eateries all around in the little strip malls. I live in an area that I call apartment row because there's tons of apartments in the general area I live.

Within Glen Park Apartments there are 464 units. Some of those units are 1BR, some are 2BR and some are townhouses. Many families live here so there are kids everywhere. One of the neighbors above me smokes a lot, she's middle eastern or something and annoying. She leaves her cigarette butts in the front each day and I have to kick them to the side other wise I'd be tracking in cigarette matter into my apartment daily.

So far so good as far as noise. The sound proofing is really good and the only time I hear anyone is when they flush toilet. I can hear music sometimes but it's usually someone from outside the apartment complex with their low riders and tinted windows and they are usually friends of the people who live in the apartment.

I met my neighbor who works in the high tech industry. He's a nice man with wife and kid. He told me that the previous tenants were Mexican couple and they just disappeared after a short time moving in. They broke their lease. The previous tenant before them also broke their lease because of job situation or something. And the previous tenant before them also broke the lease. So now I wonder why they all did this?

I think the Feng Shui for this apartment is good and solid. It's definitely older but they have tried to upgrade some of the faucets, knobs, and other items and it does look nicer, but I can tell that they just basically painted over the old and tried to make it look nice, which it does.

I feel like I live in a hotel every day only I don't get room service. The room doesn't feel like a house, it feels like a hotel room. The carpet is a little cheap and I heard my neighbor next to my bedroom for the first time the other day. It wasn't loud, I just have sensitive hearing and he was talking real loud so the sound came through.

The sun comes up early here and sets later than in SF. The sun just came up at 5:30am and twilight will still be here around 8:45pm or so although the sun will set around 7:30 or maybe earlier. The temps at the moment are pretty nice, not too hot or cold. Yesterday had some clouds but it was nice as it shielded the sun. The wind is a gentle breeze which I love. Not harsh like in SF. Also, during summer time the temp is pretty constant and doesn't usually get super hot or cold. I'm sure I could have gone walking late last night and not even worn a jacket because it was so comfortable.

Last night I got food poison. I ate teriyaki chicken bowl and I think I didn't cook the chicken long enough. I should have microwaved it, but don't have a microwave yet. I started getting sick around midnight. I threw up but knew that more would be coming so I drank some Listerine, hoping it might kill the bacteria. Worked like a charm! My stomach calmed down right away and I didn't have to heave anymore. How wonderful! I didn't realize this trick could work so well. Now I can resume my reading duties today because I have to prepare for my Nitrous and Restorative courses coming up in the next week or two. Normally after food poison I feel weak, tired, and dehydrated, but now I feel like I'm just ok, little bit weak, but not too bad.

My cousin is getting married Aug 15 and I'm helping him with the slideshow. It's a lot of work, but I'm happy to help out. I spent all night the other day working on it and I'm pretty happy with the results. That's it for now.

my room

Folk Festival

Update

Ok, I passed the hygiene portion of the Western Regional Boards for those of you who haven't heard. Hooray!!! Now I just have to pass 3 more tests and spend about $6,000 more dollars before I can get my permanent license, Hooray!!!

Life in Seattle thus far has been good. I'm really impressed with the quality of life here. Definitely a notch higher than San Francisco. The people are nicer and it's a little more laid back. The standards and requirements for everything are a notch higher as well. For example, if you want to be a substitute teacher, you have to enroll in a teacher's prep program in the University. In CA, to be a substitute, all you need is a pulse.

It took me roughly 10 hours to drive from Boise, ID to get to Seattle on May 8. On my first day in Seattle, I stayed with Uncle for one night. Then the next day, I moved into my new digs on Sat May 9. It's actually my Uncle's other house and I'm staying on the bottom level for a monthly rent. See the quick video above to see what my room actually looks like.

The video above is of me and my auntie at Folk Festival in downtown Seattle. There were all kinds of street performers along the sides of the event. I think most if not all of these street performers were not endorsed by the event planners but just kind of showed up on their own. It was a wacky wild wild west type of environment. Security was rarely present. Many of the young people present were dressed as hippies. The selection of street food was outstanding, from whole meals, to delicious tasty desserts like elephant ears, crepes, apple turnovers, etc. I tried some African food Sambusa which was a triangular shaped pastry with lentils inside, really good.



Above is a picture from Greenlake. It is a largish lake in the middle of Seattle and it takes about an hour to walk/jog around the entire perimeter which is perfect for most hikers and bikers. I love the fresh sweet smells of the trees as I walk around the lake. I also enjoy watching the little ducks and people fishing. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout. I have tried fishing twice but haven't caught anything. Trout are hard to catch. Oddly enough, there is a Theater on the side of the Lake from which plays are performed regularly. Surrounding the lake area there are many bars and pubs, and small restaurants, cafes, and bakeries. This is considered an expensive area to live in so if you can buy a house here, you'll be very happy.



Here is a picture of 3 trout that a German man caught. He couldn't speak english unfortunately so I couldn't ask him questions like what bait he used.



My cousin took us to a Mariner's baseball game during my second week in town. It was a Wed and they were playing the Anaheim Angels. The Angels won the game because the Mariners weren't very good. The fans here are very passionate about their sports, just like in San Francisco.



Here is a picture and profile of one of the Mariner's players. It says his favorite High School class was P.E. Safeco field is where the Mariner's play their games. They have all the popular ballpark foods like hotdog, hamburger, beer, popcorn, garlic fries, coffee/espresso, and drinks. The experience here is quite good. They have a retractable roof for when it rains, which is almost every day, and the stadium is wired to work with Nintendo DS.

Mike's parents had season tickets and brought their DS with them. From the little gaming device, we could order food and have it delivered to our seat. We could also stream the game live, and see the pitch locations after each pitch. Really neat stuff. Of course, it took a few seconds to stream so it wasn't exactly seeing things live as they happened, but it was still very neat for a little portable device. Nintendo is part owners of the Mariners so that's why they have such a connection with the team.



This pic was from Folk Festival. This was an annual festival held in downtown Seattle near the Space Needle. There were lots of people in attendance. This was done on my second week here. The first weekend I was here, I attended a street fair near University of Washington. At the street fair there was a lot of artwork on display as well as crafts and street food. I love streetfood and had to get a helping of some Chinese food before I left. The prices weren't kind, but I didn't care.

The Folk Festival was much larger than the UW Street Fair. The Folk Festival was host to literally well over 100 different musical and theatrical acts. It seemed half of Seattle was in attendance for the 3 day event. I saw some Arabic dance with my auntie who went with me on Monday (Memorial Day). I love getting to know a culture I'm not familiar with better which made Arabic dance very interesting to watch. The previous day I went by myself and saw the Seattle Chinese Orchestra play traditional Chinese music along with several different acts which included beating of the drums as well as the Guzheng.

I'm excited because I've found a new place to stay. It's only a little over a mile from where I'm currently staying. It's a large 8 person house. Every person has their own little room and toilet with kitchenette. There is also a regular full size kitchen in a common area with a regular cooktop and oven. It is so new it hasn't even been built yet but I'm waiting until the 7th of June when I can move in.

The following pic was taken by me about 2 days ago. It is a picture of the side of the house as you are looking at it from the street. Note there is a bus stop right in front, the number 41. There is still much construction going on and the parking lots still have not been created yet. When I stepped inside the house, none of the doors had been installed, nor the carpet, cabinets, window treatments, curtain/closet rods, etc. In fact, they had just laid down the sewer line about a week before and I was informed that they won't have hot water until the 11th because that's when the gas will come on. Guess I might have to take a cold shower until then.



Here is what it looked like before they cleared all the trees out. I got this shot from Google Maps (street view) who took their picture approximately a year or more before I took my shot. Use the bus stop in front of the building as a reference as to what it looks like now and what it used to look like. The bus stops literally right in front of the building which is sort of good I guess. It means that there will be noise from traffic because the buses and cars will be constantly driving to and fro. Good thing I got one of the rooms towards the rear.