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May Fiesta Continues...
This entry was posted on 5/15/2007 6:27 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
This past weekend, we took
our "China Dolls/Asian Heritage Month tour"
out West. Our main event planned was the Asian Pacific Heritage Book
Festival at the Japanese museum in downtown LA. However, two more
events were added to the list. The Pasadena Chinese Language Meetup
Group was kind enough to have us do a book signing at one of their
meetings in San Gabriel. I was solo for the San Gabriel shindig.
Blossom was
still back in New York working away at her daytime job and I was, as
they would say in the Boogie down (where I'm proudly from),
"representin". Luckily, I met so many
great people that I immediately felt welcomed. Hugo, the president of
the group, had us all meet at the Hilton lounge. The wonderful thing
about this group was that they got together every now and then just to
sharpen each other's Mandarin skills. After watching all the exchange
between the members, I was jealous and wish I had time to do such a
thing and be part of such a fun group! 
My new friends Nina, Mark, and Yuri pose for a quick photo!
Carson says he looks forward to meeting the China Dolls!
Who says China Dolls was for only female readers?!
Saturday, May 12
I've been to LA now a handful of times in the past six months
and I must say the more I go, the more the appeal dies. I won't retract
that statement either. Growing up, going to LA was like visiting the
set of one of my favorite childhood shows "Beverly Hills 90210".
However, each time I go, that fantasy dies a little more. My biggest
reason for bashing Tinseltown: I am just not a fan of the traffic. Can
someone tell me why there are massive traffic jams all the time when
there's NO accident or NO construction? Why?!
It's 8 AM and I wake up early to pick Blossom up at the airport. I
drive over to Manhattan Beach to have my morning cup of juice and take
a romantic stroll on the beach on my own and figure that I could hang
out by the water for a bit before I drive over to LAX to pick up
Blossom. But wait, as I am scrolling through my blackberry, I realize
Blossom is not arriving at LAX. She's arriving in Burbank! It's 9 AM.
She lands at 10. Will I make it on time?
I quickly sip my Jamba Juice and get in my rental car and try to find a
freeway. I'm not sure where I am going so I call the airport and they
tell me I am an hour and a half from getting there. Blossom is not
going to be happy! Fret not though, I'm zooming at a record speed
(thank goodness the LAPD wasn't around) and make it there in time.
Phew!! There is always drama in my life isn't there?!
It's 10:38 and we're starving. Blossom and I are trying to find
directions to the LA famous NBC Seafood to have some dim sum. Traffic
or no traffic, we were determined to go there. And boy, was it worth
the wait?! From fresh watercress pork dumplings to unique seawood
shrimp rolls, all my worries from the morning were erased.
We're now off to Little Tokyo for our panel!
2:20 PM- We're scheduled to do a panel titled "New Trends in
Publishing". Denise Hamilton, a fellow author, Sandra Kane, a literary
agent and Quang Bao of the Asian American Writers Workshop are all part
of the panel. The crowd starts to file in. Denise, the moderator, asks
very interesting questions to all of us including one that stuck out to
me. She asked Quang if it's possible for someone to go to a
workshop/group (he's the executive director of AAWW) and "learn" how to
write a novel. He answers by saying it's hard to guide someone to do so
and that if they don't have it in them, no one can help them. Listening
to him say this was well...disheartening. My immediate reaction was "Of
course, someone can help you! Are you kidding me?" Not having an
interest or a true passion for writing might not enable you to ever
become a novelist BUT if someone really had a wonderful idea and had
great motivation to do it, it's possible. They could "learn" in many
ways. They could take writing classes, they could hire an editor, they
could read more books...the possibilities are endless! I was somewhat
dissapointed to hear a representative from an organization say that.
But hey...that's just my opinion.
3:30 PM - Blossom and I do a booksigning at the Borders booth and meet all great kinds of cool people!
5:07 PM - Naomi Hirahara,
our friend and one of the organizer's of the event, throws a little
gathering for all the participants. Congrats to Naomi by the way!!
She's an Edgar award winner! YAY! We grab some delicious skewers and
dumplings to go as we have to head off to our next event in Torrance
with the Taiwanese American Professionals. What a day! Sleep anyone?
8:30 PM - We arrive at the RA Sushi Restaurant in Torrance and are
surprised to find about 30 or so people from TAP. What a great turnout!
Being from New York, it's just hard to grasp how dedicated group events
should be. For group members to make an effort to be somewhere at a
certain time in New York is like asking a single gal in their 20's in
the big city to get married right away after a first date. I'm one of
those guilty people that can't make commitments to events and am always
being made fun of for it. I sincerely give kudos to everyone there. We
run into Carson and Dennis, new friends who were at the San Gabriel
event. They joke and say, "We're new groupies!".
Ben Ling, the president of TAP, takes some time to snap one with us!
The event is quite successful and we've now made over 50 friends in a weekend. I can handle that!
Time to go back to New York....
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