Doan Chung-Hernandez

This is Otto and he’s the newest addition to our extended family. My sister and her hubby adopted him from the shelter.

Boy did Otto luck out. He doesn’t know it but he totally hit the doggy dog lottery.

Can’t wait to meet you Otto. Hope you and Kola get along.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Good morning Christmas. I don’t know if it’s because we’re in California or because it’s Jesus’s birthday but it is a gorgeous morning. I woke up early and finished my book. I’ve been obsessed with reading lately.

We started our Christmas morning off with a family hike.

How pretty is it here!

It was a perfect 3 mile hike around the lake.

My dad was explaining to me that he loves mountains and lakes.

And then my mom chimes in and says she loves cars and money. She’s such a comedian.

We had to stop at least once for a group photo.

And of course I had to get one with my baby.

After our hike we were all so ready for some dim sum.

And tea.

After dim sum we made our way to Ranch 99. Oh how I wish Austin had a Ranch 99.

And then back home we go. I love this photo of my dad that I took.

I also love this photo of my mom checking out my dad be a photo-whore.

Selena and my dad goofing off after dinner.

Lana and Kevin are such a cute couple and this photo describes their relationship perfectly.

So the next morning Ray and I felt guilty for not working out the whole time while we’ve been here so we went out for a morning ride. It was ca-ca-ca-cold.

And when we got back we all went to Star Bucks.

I love my dad.

Afterwords we went out in search of some Uggs for my mom because tonight we are throwing my mom a surprise birthday party. Her American birthday is December 29 and since they are driving back tomorrow we decided to celebrate it tonight. We also got her a couple of Star Bucks gift cards and made the boys make a secret stop by The Cheesecake Factory to get her a cake.

All that shopping built us up an appetite. Pizza is the next stop and Lana knows the perfect place.

Hi dad.

So since we are celebrating my mom’s birthday tonight we decided to do up a special dinner for her, hot pot style. I miss hot pot meals. We use to do them all the time but I don’t ever remember having this grill in the middle of the hot pot. How cool is this.

A total Asian meal. I love love love it.

A special dinner for my beautiful mother.

Ray is tweeting about his first hot pot experience.

Hot pot dinners are fun, interactive, and healthy.

My favorite part of this photo is Kevin’s chopsticks skills in the background.

After dinner we sang happy birthday to my mom.

I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time.

Make a wish.

Look at that, she got Star Bucks gift cards.

And Uggs. Even though she knew we got her Uggs I still wrapped them up because there’s just something magical about unwrapping a gift.

Her hard working hands are filled with blood, sweat and too many tears. I wish I could give my mom more happy days like today.

My mom and dad are leaving today. Boo.

I’m not going to lie, I got my photo-whore gene from my dad.

One more meal before they leave.

My dad stuffed a bunch of quail eggs in his mouth and got scolded my Lana. She’s like, “dad, you better not put those back in the bowl. Now you have to eat them all.”

After lunch my parents and Selena packed up the car and headed south back home and since it was our last night we headed for the city. Ray was determined to get a burger from In and Out but never got a chance since we were so busy all week. Lana heard he wanted a burger so she drove us to Mels Diner for a “real” burger. Ray being too nice didn’t want to say anything and I just thought it was funny.

After Mels we got some drinks.

And after drinks we got some donuts.

And the next day Ray and I packed our bags and headed to the airport. Wow, what a fun and busy week. I miss my family already.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This year for Christmas we are heading west to my state California. I have a T-shirt that reads, “I left my heart in California and that couldn’t be more truel. The rest of my family resides in California and they are definitely a part of my heart. Ray and I flew out on the 21st and we’re coming home on the 28th. That’s a full week with my family. I’m so excited!

We’re staying with my older sister and her husband in Walnut Creek, about 20 minutes from San Francisco. I love Walnut Creek. Did a lot of partying there in my younger days and every time I come back it seems like the town just gets better and better. The first night we went out for some Vietnamese and then headed to a dive for for drinks.

Ray and I have this favorite sushi restaurant called Nara. Every time were back in the bay area we always meet up with a bunch of our friends for sushi there. It’s nothing fancy, just really good and affordable. Also, I have fond memories of that place because when Ray and I first started dating we use to go there often. Tonight Lana and Kevin came out with us and the funniest thing happened. Lana was talking to me in Chinese, thinking that no one could understand her but hello, we’re in San Fransisco, where the Chinese dominate.  and Soo Hoo is sitting right across from her who happens to speak fluent Chinese. It was awesome. After sushi we headed to a nearby bar.

Ray and his best friend Chris. I know Ray misses him. Oh, and tonight we got the news that Marci, Chris’s wife is preggo. I couldn’t be more excited and jealous.

These are the guys that Ray use to work with when we lived here. I totally wishes I would have called my friends to come out to play tonight too but I figured there would be plenty of time, us being here a whole week and all, and let Ray have tonight for his buds, but there wasn’t enough time and now I’m regretting it.

One last photo before we say good-bye.

My parents will be in town later tonight so in order to mentally and physically prepare for them we went out and got massages. I already made it tradition to get massages with my parents every time we visit them in Southern California but I think after today I’m going to extend this traditions to all the Chung’s.

After massages we got pedis.

And then we stopped by the building. I wonder how Mel is doing?

We retired back home where we awaited for my parents and Selena’s arrival. Kola can’t wait to see them too.

My mom and her daughters minus my oldest sister Lien, she was in Vegas with her family.

Dinner time.

My dad brought us back these sexy pj’s from China.

My dad literally flew in from China yesterday and the next day they drove up to Walnut Creek to see us. Talk about jet lag. I was so so excited to see him.

This is my mother. My heart misses her everyday.

We definitely drank a lot of wine on this trip.

Well that concludes the first half of our trip. It was an amazing Christmas Eve. Hope you all are having as much fun as I am.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ray was going over some old photos the other day and came across this photo. Awhile back I took my dad and little sister, Selena, on a camping/rafting trip with me and my friends. It was an all day rafting trip and at night we camped and partied. My dad doesn’t speak much English so I didn’t do much partying on that trip, but nonetheless it was still good times.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In March of 2006 Ray and I moved to Oakland California from Vacaville. We had only lived in Vacaville for 3 months before we realized the commute was killing us. I would drop him off at work, drive back home and then drive back to the bay area and pick him up, a total of a 4 hour commute, without traffic each day. Anyhow, while looking for a place to live in the bay area we stumbled upon this building. It was an old warehouse that use to be a French Fry Factory. I would of never, ever, ever, even considered living in here, but Ray, well, lets just say he has more vision than I most do. At first I thought it was asinine, I mean have you guys seen the photo above? But I have always been one to just go with the flow, and Ray is what I like to call a hopeless visionary.

But you got to admit, it totally has potential. Even I could admit that. But again, did you see the photo above? It was taken through a hole in the front door. The building was 8000 sq ft. Uh, no that’s not a misprint, there was not an extra 0 put in by accident. Yes, we lived, worked, renovated, bled, sweat, cried and even threw a few parties in an 8000 sq ft building for an entire year. Crazy kids, I’m sure that’s what everyone was thinking.

The pile of trash we had hauled away almost reached the second floor.

It even had two walk in refrigerators, one of which I was planning on turning into my walk in closet.

We flew dad down because there was no way we could of done all this work without him.

We put a lot of work into this building. In the beginning it was scary, but I got over it and soon it was as though the Universe had answered our dreams, but with a little sacrifice and hard work on our part. Ray had always dreamed of renting out a huge warehouse that had a urinal from a rich old man that gave him a super cheap deal and turning it into his modern urban living dream. Yes, our warehouse even had a urinal. And I had always wanted to have my own massage business, with 4 rooms, one for myself and the other 3 I would hire or rent out to other massage therapist. The front of the building on the second floor had 4 rooms. The more we thought about it the more uncanny and perfect it seemed.

But soon, life just took a toll. Ray detested work and the more he saw his boss the more he loathed him. I was getting burnt out on massage. What once was filled with passion and energy fizzled and soon I felt like a well paid slave. Ray and I decided to call it quits and tackle yet another dream of mine, to live in Hawaii. Somehow, this dream seemed so much less painful and stressful. We had a 3 year lease so we took on the role as property managers and sublet the building for the remainder 2 years of our lease and for over twice what we paid, split the rent with Mel, the nice old man Ray dreamt to life, every month and started a new chapter of our lives in Oahu Hawaii.

Hawaii was a totally awesome experience. Every month we used the money we made from the building to pay off the debt we put into it. I’d like to say it was easy but it wasn’t. I can say it was a huge learning experience. This last trip to California was to find a way to come to an agreement with Kevin, the man we rented the building out to. He ended up subletting the building to Raphael, a total pathetic douche bag that couldn’t pay rent on time to save his life and couldn’t move out when asked to leave. But our main concern for coming out to Cali was to make sure we uphold our contract with Mel and leave on good terms with him. When we got to the building it was in shambles. All the hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and money we put into it seemed wasted. Did I mentioned that Raphael had secretly turned the building into an illegal club/bar he called the Radiance Factory. Just a word of advice for Raphael, it’s not smart to advertise an illegal club. Fucking retard.

Here’s a before us and after us photo.

And after then after we did more work and started to settled in. In the very back behind the glass windows is where where the 4 massage rooms laid.

From the opposite direction. Ray loved his pool table.

A closer look further back. To the left was our bed room, middle was Ray’s desk and to the far right was our closet.

A better view of our closet. I had a lot more shoes back then.

Our living room in it’s earlier stage.

The kitchen area and dining area. Ray and I built that wobbly table one night when we had nothing better to do. He swears one day he’ll redeem himself.

Here’s what the building looked like on our last visit.

Looks like they built a kitchen room.

We turned this room into my workout/yoga room.

This is what it looks like by the time we were done with it.

And this is how it looks now.

This was suppose to eventually be a massage room #4, but in the mean time we just made it a guest room and it was also Chris Miller’s room when he stayed with us.

And this is how it looks now.

A before and after of Massage Room #3.

Same room, present day.

Before and after of Massage Room #2.

Massage Room #2 today.

My Massage Room before.

My beautiful massage room after. I actually worked countless hours in this room. It was the perfect massage room.

And this is how it looks like now.

A few before and afters of the lobby we fixed up. We were planning on getting more furniture to fill it up but I think we did a pretty spectacular job.

And here it is today. Animals.

We took back our blinds.

A before and after of the mens restroom. Behind the wall next to the sink was where the men’s urinal was. I forgot to take an aftermath photo but it’s probably for the best because it was bad.

They badly built what looks like lounge rooms downstairs. But the whole are downstairs area was pretty muck a junk yard.

Oh, our mistletoe was still hanging up. I bet it launched a lot of kisses.

I’ll never forget the day we lifted the super industrial air condition unit up on the rooftop. It was insanely crazy and scary. We had to set it on top of a shit ton of pallets in order for Ray and his dad to reach it. Ray had originally wanted to tie the heavy unit to a rope and pull it up. That made no fucking sense to me so I walked over to the Chinese produce factory and asked if they would help us out with their fork lift. It took some per swaying but my charm won in the end.

There were more pallets than what you see here. Trust me, people came out of their buildings to watch. It was totally wobbly and insanely scary.

Oh course it wasn’t only us that sweat for this building,

we put our loved ones to work too.

Kola did a lot of supervising.

Of course it wasn’t all hard work. I miss our parties

Drinking wine on the rooftop.

Having friends over to play pool. Hell, I miss having friends.

I even miss the skaters.

It was definitely an experience. But I gotta tell ya, I’m so glad it’s over.

The End.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Ahhh, I hate it when my eyes are closed? That always seems to happen to me. During our trip to California we stayed with my sister Lana and her husband Kevin. Luckily for us they just moved to Walnut Creek about a month ago. Lucky for them we extended our trip so they got to see us a lot longer than expected. I was telling Ray the other day that if his work ever brings us back to the bay area then we would be looking for a place in Walnut Creek. No more renovations in Oakland or freezing my ass off in San Francisco, or long commutes from Vacaville. Nope we would be going straight to the East Bay. Walnut Creek is a great place, only 20 minutes from the city and it’s always clean, not as cold, and the home town where my boobs magically appeared for $6000 . I’m really happy for Lana and Kevin because they seem to love it too.

Popularity: 1% [?]

One good thing that came out of my marrying Brandon was all the wonderful friends that I met because of where we were stationed, being in the military and all. I didn’t actually meet anyone of any importance through him because we’ll he was gone all the time. We lived in Fairfield and I worked in the next town over, Vacaville.  I have made a lot of great great friends there and so many wonderful memories to go along. Since we were so close now, just under an hour drive, I decided to give everyone whose anyone a call to meet up for dinner. At first I was slightly disappointed because it seemed as though everyone was too busy but what could I expect with my late notice and all. However, the night ended up being a huge success and what I thought was going to be a small event ended up growing to be an all night extravaganza.

Monica came late, but the important thing is that she showed up. I don’t even care that she was drunk when she appeared, that actually put a smile on my face.

These are my Burning Man friends, Victor and Luu, and Victor’s new girlfriend, Jennifer, who is a huge upgrade from his last bogus ex-girlfriend may I add. If he doesn’t keep her I might have to take her back to Texas with me and make her my new BFF. “Once a burner always a burner,” this is true. Although I’ve only been there once in my life I was there every year after in spirit. I think Burning Man creates a tight bond between you and those you go with because your out in the desert for a whole week sharing and this amazing experience with them. It was seriously one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Becks came to see me for a little bit and my night would have pretty much sucked if I didn’t get to see her at all. So that short 20 minutes made all the difference in the world Becks!

Originally Christina, Sammy and Monica were the only ones who could manage to come on such late notice. It’s a funny thing because I haven’t talked to Christina and Sammy in years. We were the closest of friends a few years back but we had a falling out and just basically deceased our friendship. Just recently we started messaging via MySpace and being the new year and all I decided to give them a call and start the year off with a positive attitude and energy by reconnecting with old friends. I was kinda glad it was going to be just them at first because it would give us a chance to make amends in person and catch up but then everyone started calling back, one thing led to another and the next thing I know I’m popular again.

This is Cammie’s husband Eric and his friend Josh. Cammie couldn’t make it because she was in busy in Texas doing time in the Reserves. I’m so glad that Eric and Josh decided to come though because they came early and put our name on the long ass waiting list. It was really nice to see Eric, even without Cammie.

This is me and my husband, Ray Hernandez. I love him very much.

After dinner we all headed to Star’s. Star’s is a large bar/pool hall/bowling alley/wild milf dance floor.

This is Justin and his girl Tiffany. I went to Burning Man with Justin and we’ve been the best of buds since. He met Tiffany the following year at Burning Man, about the same time I met Ray.

I think me and Tiff would be the best of buds if we lived a lot closer.

But it seems as though me and Christina are again. Yay!

Sammy heard that I was in town so he drove all the way from San Francisco to see me.

This is my friend Amy, cutie in the hat, who was also a really good friend of mine back in the days.

Another funny thing is that Lou called me up very recently the other day. I hadn’t talked to him in years and most of my memories of him are from Burning Man and a few random crazy events after. He’s an awesome guy, definitely a character and now he’s my friend on FaceBook.

Star’s was awesome. I felt bad because I left Ray alone to fend for himself several times throughout the night. I just kept running into people I knew that I haven’t seen in a while. After Star’s Monica took us to a random house party, you know the kind where there’s at least two beer pong tournament going on in the garage. It was cool because I saw more old friends there too, most of them I couldn’t remember their names though. I hate it when that happens.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A lot of people don’t know that I grew up in the bay area. Actually I’ve been in the bay area pretty much most my life. My childhood years were spent in a very quaint town called Pleasanton California. Pleasanton isn’t so quaint anymore, it’s actually matured into a bright, shinning, thriving city of the east bay. I left P-Town in the 5th grade and with it I left behind a few dear friends, two of them being Erica and LaReen. In the beginning we wrote letters but as time past the letters just dwindled and so did the calls until we just lost touch. While living in Hawaii Ray gets this e-mail from Erica. Her and LaReen had did a Google search on me and a bunch of Ray’s internet sites came up. I wrote them back and we’ve been in touch ever since. I told them that when I make it back to the bay area I’ll be sure to give them a call. I met Erica and LaReen at Peet’s Coffee in Pleasanton and I can’t tell you how nice it was to see them and catch up. They both look exactly the same only older and prettier. I’m hoping that next time we meet will be longer but in the mean time I’m gonna do a better job at staying in touch.

Popularity: 1% [?]