so many things… (continued!!)

Just wanted to add two more things to the list of disastrous events that occurred in the past month and a half.  Like they say… when it rains, it pours.

I went to Houston with a lab mate to go and observe some animal studies in the clean room facilities there… on the way back, we got in a car accident with a big industrial van.  The rental car was supposedly totaled.  But I got to drive a big red truck back to Austin, and I really felt like a Texan, then.

I got a mosquito bite – not unusual, since I get so many… but this somehow had a crazy allergic reaction, which caused an infection.  I guess it was bound to happen, since I’m always covered with mosquito bites.  Anyway, it was on the back of my hand, and my entire hand swelled up so fat that I could barely move my fingers!  Then I noticed that I had red streaks running towards my lymph nodes (in your arm, that is in your inner elbow and in your armpit)… and from the time I spent working in the ER, I knew it was time to go to the doctor.  My diagnosis?  Lymphangitis.  Lucky for me, it had not reached my lymph nodes, yet.  But I had to keep my arm in a sling for a few days, and I’ve been on these antibiotics that make me want to YAK if I don’t have my stomach full of food all day long.  Result… I’ve been eating a lot, but can’t work out because it will overheat my arm and irritate the area.  Ohh yeah, and I ended up with a heat rash from sun exposure on my newly-sensitized skin.  Awesome.

The swelling had started on a Saturday night, and I had to wait until Monday morning to finally see a doctor at the Student Health Center… thanks to my stupid and crappy health insurance plan.  I’d like to rant about my outrage for the horrible health coverage provided to Fellowship students at UT versus the regular TA and GRA’s awesome healthcare… but I won’t waste my breath effort on typing it out.  Just wanted to get the point across that I’m still mad about it!

So… hopefully things will be better now.  Haha.  Dad says I need to go to the temple and tam boon soon.  I guess I am long overdue.

fobulous?

I was reading this entry about different types of asians over at the “Stuff Asian People Like” blog, and it got me thinking about what type of asian I am. Some of you may want to browse that post to understand the language that is coming now…

So although I was born in Texas, we moved back to Thailand within months, and stayed there for a few years… which upon returning to the US, could have given me fob status. I recently came to the strange realization that my 3 best friends (from pre-school, kindergarten, and 1st grade) were all asian. And growing up, I remember wearing a lot of clothes from Thailand, like these bright colored stretchy pants with a matching flowered t-shirt that Mom or my cousins had bought me from Central Lad Prao or Mah Boon Krong. Yahhh… so fobby.

I think it was when I moved to Florida just after 6th grade that I started becoming a twinkie. There were hardly any asians, and our family didn’t hang out with other asian families anymore. I had virtually no asian friends… I was totally out of touch…

Sometime towards the end of high school, I started to realize the cultural deficit in my life, and sort of crashed back into the asian scene. I was hanging out with more asians, and still never felt accepted. This was the asian-american point in my life.

When I got to college, I definitely started getting really serious about learning more about my culture… thus I was promoted to fobabee status.

One year, I think I could even have been qualified as a Tab, but within a few months, I realized I had blown my savings on A|X clothes, and wasn’t making nearly enough scholarship money to keep up with it. Sad story.

I think my junior/senior year in college was when I became fobulous. I had everything on that list checked…

But now I’ve moved to a new place, and have few asians in my company again. Most of the asians I know are twinkies, and I’m afraid I’m starting to revert. For now, let’s just say I’m half yap, half fobulous.

You know, I think it’s much more difficult for Thai-Americans to be fobulous than other asians, like Chinese or Vietnamese… mostly as a result of a lack of community. It’s true that I’m half Chinese, but the majority of my cultural up-bringing is Thai with some Chinese elements mixed in. There’s hardly any Thai people around (mostly because there has never been any wars or civil unrest that forced emigration, so Thai people come here for education), and if you do hang out with them, they are mostly fobs. Haha… but maybe that’s what I need right about now to get back to fobulous…

so many things…

…to say. is it worth it to try to get it all in?  just quick blurbs:

finished survived first year of PhD — lost my 4.0 already (so sad) — kuru (my new car) took some bad hits from a REALLY BAD hailstorm (worse than the ones i posted previously about) and got a broken mirror –moved to my aunt’s house in WAY south austin temporarily, and hate the commute already — went to england, scotland, and ireland with my sister and had a blast (picture link will be posted sometime soon, hopefully) — turned 23 — kuru got hit by a big black truck while parked outside my aunt’s house (need to replace a whole door) — a class i was really looking forward to this summer got cancelled — been working in the lab like crazy –> it’s after 2am on a Sunday night, and i’m in the lab.

more on that stuff later.  but what i really wanted to say (and what i really want to know) is…

when did i become the type of girl who sits around waiting for a guy?  

must’ve been sometime in between all that stuff above.  grrr.  it’s frustrating…

(there’s a few things i should clarify about that statement, but i’m tired and its time to leave this place)