April | Week 16 + 17

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Pauline

During this time, I found pockets of inspirational moments that gently led me back to my creativity — writing and cooking in the kitchen. The insightful webinar on Comics and Composition led by G.B. Tran, graphic artist for Vietnamerica. Shopping at my local downtown Farmer’s Market. Chopping up roma tomatoes for a fresh spaghetti sauce. Creating a new dish using sauteed green apples and shallots –honey-glazed pork chops with apples. Getting locked out of my condo for an hour and spending that time propped on a red beach chair in my garage with my J.Crew Style Guide as my companion. Checked out a friend’s event for Fashion Art Music Exhibit (FAME). Attending a Vietnamese-American artists and authors symposium at Stanford and ending the afternoon with Fraiche yogurt. And back to the beginning –the written word.

Week 16 | April 16 – 22

Week 17 | April 23 – 29

Posted in Inspiration, Writings | Tagged photography, project365 | Leave a comment

Families and Roots

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Pauline

Thoughts of family weighed on my mind this past Mother’s Day weekend. In the span of days, familial crossroads, celebrations, and milestones all intersected simultaneously –a grand 50th wedding anniversary celebration for my uncle and aunt, a reunion with an estranged cousin 20 years later, a happy gathering with my in-law family, and a dinner to honor my mother, grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins –four families and multiple generations filling up one room.

I grew up hungry to understand the meaning and depth of my family. There are the families that you are born into, the families you learn to adopt and love, the families you wish you had and are disappointed by, the non-traditional families you create for yourself among friends, peers, and groups, and the families you envision creating someday with your partner.

My family is complex. Structurally, emotionally, and historically complex. Like the supposed happy families, complex families are different and alike all at once. Some characteristics that I share with today’s modern family: divorced and re-married parents, step and half-siblings, and extended aunts, uncles, and cousins from multiple sides of the family tree. Add in the cultural component of being born to Vietnamese, immigrant parents clouded by memories of a recent war, and I have a family that produces rich, deep, and full-bodied roots. Roots that I am still trying to decipher and untangle. All of the elements are inter-connected, essential to the larger picture of understanding myself and those around me.

In the daily pulse of our lives, how often do we really connect with the people who we call our family? Are we always connected through the very fact that we share the same blood, history, and roots? How much effort and time are required to maintain and build the family relationship? My perspective of family, and the answers to these questions, shifted as I grew older. What was once a source of comfort and security changed into something more hazy and deconstructed. I realized that my parents are not always right, that there is a widening rift of understanding — a language barrier– between my grandparents and I, that the cousins I grew up with as childhood friends have turned into polite acquaintances, and that labels such as mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin can evolve in weight and significance over time.

As with most holidays and milestones, it gives me the space to pause and consider what role my family and other loved ones play in my life. I also have to ask what role I want them to play in my life and my role in theirs. There are the complex roots to uncover, many of which I am still discovering and making peace with. Then, there is also the foundation to continue building upon –the soil, sun, and rain used to nurture those relationships and watch blossom and transform. Being that sunshine, that beacon of hope, is the role I want to play.

Posted in Writings | Tagged family | 2 Comments

April | Week 14 + 15

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Pauline

April has been full of surprises and new beginnings. J started his new job, which is now on the same campus where I work. Ever since we have been in graduate school and up to the day he started working in retail pharmacy, our relationship has never seen a “regular” schedule. Evenings were haphazard since he would often work late and then sleep in late. Holiday vacations, while expected for me in the field of education, were rare in the corporate setting. At best, I could get either Thanksgiving or Christmas with him. Weekends were usually hit or miss. For the past four years, we only spent every other Saturday together. It’s a wonder how we survived planning for our wedding with our extremely contrasting schedules.

Now that we work in the same area, we carpool on most days and sometimes meet for a quick 30 minute lunch. Dinners at home are now starting to become regular and our schedules are finally getting in sync. People sometimes ask, “Don’t you get sick of seeing each other everyday?”

Absolutely not.

Week 14 | April 2 – 8

Week 15 | April 9 – 15

Posted in Inspiration, Writings | Tagged J, photography, project365 | 5 Comments

A Castle Escape in Napa Valley

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Pauline

During the last Friday of March, J & I defied the rain and drove up to Napa Valley for a mini-daytrip. Ever since my wine tasting weekend in Sonoma, I was thirsting for another winery outing — rain or shine.

“Why are you so determined to make this wine trip happen now? We can wait another month for the weather to get better” J asked, while channel surfing on our living room couch. Outside, we could both hear the rain slapping down against our balcony. Every loud drip was taunting me and my desperate need for a weekend getaway. The past several months have been one stressful situation after another and with this being the last weekend before J started his new job, I thought we deserved a breather. The idea of whisking away and starting over on a clean slate, preferably somewhere lush, green, and grape-y seemed like the right thing to do.

Lucky for me, the weather channel showed a slight break in the downpour in Napa for that Friday. Even though it was cloudy, it was still a pleasant drive up. J, who isn’t much of a wine drinker, was looking forward to checking out the Castello Di Amorosa –the Castle of Love.

The castle, a looming medieval fortress made of brick and stone, stood among the vineyard hills near Calistoga. The owner, who also owns the popular V. Sattui winery and deli, apparently loved medieval architecture as much as he did wine. Why not combine the two together? J and I walked through dark, chilly tunnels, many lined with large wine oak barrels. As we passed chambers dedicated to banquet halls, a knights’ armor collection, and even the torture room replica, I forgot for a moment that we were deep in the heart of wine country.

Even though there was certainly wine-tasting involved in the tour (the Castello does produce a very nice dessert Rose called the La Fantasia), the experience was so random and gimmicky that we couldn’t help but enjoy it. J actually drank a few significant sips of his Muscato, Riesling, and Rose pours. In my head, I calculated that fun day trips involving castles and torture chambers might be the best way to lure my husband into taking future wine-tasting trips with me. So be it.

We emerged from the Castello armed with a bottle of Fantasia and bars of the sea salt dark chocolate (J’s weakness). Plump chickens and a couple of scattered peacocks nonchalantly roamed around the front entrance. Probably the owner’s medieval pets.

It drizzled every now and then, but the scene was still beautiful in a slightly gloomy way.

We took advantage of minimal crowds and drove to Thomas Keller’s Addendum, a lunchtime only side station to the more expensive and popular Ad Hoc restaurant. There are only two options for the $16.50 pre-fixe menu: barbeque brisket or fried chicken. Both orders come with a side of potato salad and sauteed collared greens with chunky bacon. We ordered one of each to sample and prefered the seasoned and juicy fried chicken.

I wish I could say we drank more wine, but we didn’t. Instead, we stopped by Bouchon Bakery (another Keller establishment) and grab coffee and the popular macaroons. We bit into rich, sugary flavors of espresso, raspberry, and chocolate ganache. It was the perfect finish to our day.

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Castello di Amorosa: 4045 N. St. Helena Highway Calistoga, CA 94515

Addendum Restaurant: 6476 Washington Street Yountville, CA 94599

Bouchon Bakery: 6528 Washington Street Yountville, CA 94599

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Posted in Food, Travel | Tagged Napa Valley, restaurant, wine | 6 Comments

Project 365 | Week 12 + 13

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Pauline

Good-bye March.

You taught me many lessons. Like how valuable it is to spend time catching up with friends over happy hour, to have family visit and bond over homemade pizza, to take a few weeks off from being productive and stay in bed reading the Hunger Games Trilogy, to find joy in food discoveries like Humphry Slocombe‘s Butter Beer ice cream, to put up framed photos on the wall because it perks up my mood when I come home, and that –rain or shine– a spontaneous drive to Napa Valley with my husband is just what I need to move forward towards a new chapter.

Week 12 (March 19 – 25)