Doan Chung-Hernandez

I got a call from my oldest sister Lien one night that made my heart drop to the floor. I can’t really go too in depth about the issue; just personal family bull shit. Ray booked a ticket for me to get on the earliest morning flight back to the sunshine state.

So glad I got to see my aunt and uncle, even if it was for a bit.  Love them to pieces.

Oh, and you know it wouldn’t be a complete California trip without dim sum.

I also got kidnapped by my sister Lien and with that came a long overdue one on one time with my favorite niece, Sianna. Every time I see her she looks so much older and too beautiful for her own good. Just looking at these photos gives me anxiety.

Even though it was an emergency trip I did try to make the most of it by spending every minute I could with my family. Living in Texas makes me realize how much they mean to me.  Lien bought 4 tickets to the musical, Young Frankenstein. It was awesome. I love musicals, well, almost all musicals. I hated Rent.

Had lunch the next day. What a beautiful day. I love southern California.

Sianna had golf lessons so Lien and hit the driving range to kill some time.

One of my favorite things to do is go to a comedy club. Seriously, who doesn’t love a good laugh? I know a more of us could use one.  As soon as Lien saw that we were seated right in front she instantly wanted to move for fear of getting picked on. She says shes prone to it at comedy clubs and sure enough she got picked on. The guy was hilarious though. I laughed my ass off tonight.

The next day we went to a dumpling house for lunch. I took full advantage of the amazingly retarded good food in Cali. Chinese food’s just not the same in Texas. Oh California, why did I leave you again?

Got to see a lot of Mahjong. I think my mom’s happiest when she’s playing.

Ate damn good on this trip.

Well, it started off bad but ended well. Don’t think I’m coming back for the holidays because my mom will be leaving for Asia soon to meet up with my dad so I’m so glad I got to come down and see everyone, well except for Lana and my dad. I didn’t get to see them but I had a blast anyhow. Love my family, love California, and love to eat.

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% [?]

Now that 2009 is here I want to take some time to reflect on 2008. I always knew 2008 was going to be a good year. I remember looking forward to it because it was 08 and 8 is just a good fucking number. It was only a year ago Ray and I were living the good o life in the rainbow state, Honolulu Hawaii.

It was almost a year ago that I started my first post on this blog, January 9th 2008. Since then I’ve written 121 post. I don’t really know who’s all reading it, but it sure has made my hand written journaling take back seat.

I cut my hair super short for the first time ever. It was kinda cute wasn’t it?

Ray got a new iPhone.

Ray and I ran in The Annual Great Aloha Run, just a little over 8 miles, and we all know eight is a good number to start with.

We voted for our first time for the Democratic Party. But just for the record, once Hillary was out of the election Ray and I voted again for our first time for President for Obama of course.

Ray bought me my first brand new computer. Mac 4 life baby!

MyBabyOurBaby Launched.

We finally found the dock where Lost, our favorite television series, was filmed at. We searched the island for it forever.

We went camping at Melekahana, our first time camping in Hawaii and Ray’s first time ever. He’s not a fan.

Rocked out at the Kokua Festival, a festival Jack Johnson puts on every year in Hawaii.

CheapPlacesToEatInOahuHawaii.com, my blog had become a major hit and one of Hawaii’s most popular food blog websites.

I called some lady a cunt on my last day of work, because she was.

We got to swim with dolphins.

We moved back to the main land, California first.

Ray got to meet some of my extended family.

Tried wake boarding for the first time.

Got to ride dirk bikes again.

Moved to Austin

Where we met the Semmlers, Shane’s older brother and his family and now mine.

Kidnapped Kuya Ben’s dogs.

Found the Agave Homes and fell in love.

Ray introduced me to Marcos. He works for NASA.

Went to our first roller derby.

Spent Bachelorette week in Florida with my best bud Jack Mother Fucking Dogg with a double G.

Got married, 080808.

Got my first tattoo with my old crew from V-Town.

Traveled to New York, but just for a couple of months.

I stopped eating meat.

Met Guav Mom and the Roses and I have to tell you I’m a fan. Hope we get to see them again soon.

I got to freelanced at Jimmy Z’s, thanks to Bea.

We got to be extras in Friday Night Lights.

I almost died from pneumonia.

I met the Semmler’s, the rest of Shane’s family, and now mine as well and went to my first professional basketball game. Go Mavericks!

As you can see I love recording my life and 2008 was a year worth recording. There was a lot of cherry popping going on and I got to meet a lot of people that will be in my life for the long haul. We also moved around a lot, Hawaii, California, Austin, New York, Dallas. Things are just never boring with us. I’m looking forward to a healthy, happy and prosperous year for 2009. I know great things are to come.

Popularity: 1% [?]

My mother’s birthday past, December 29 and although I called and wished her happy birthday on her birthday I wanted to document it because she’s the bravest, strongest, most beautiful women I know. Not all my good qualities are from her, some of that is all me, but a lot of the good ones are. I am fearless, witty, funny, and cheap all because of you mom. I would be nothing without you, obviously. I love you so so so freaking much and I thought about you all day on December 29th, especially every time I ate. I wish I could of been with you. Your the best mom ever. Happy Birthday!

I love you.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In case your wondering, I’m not in the photo it’s because I was taking the photo. Story of my life. For Thanksgiving this year Ray and I flew to California to be with the Chungs. Flying was an absolute disaster going both ways. Do yourself a favor and don’t ever fly United. Our flight was canceled without any notice. However we were able to catch flight 88 which actually got us there 15 minutes earlier. Kinda weird because 88 is our number and for some reason it always finds it’s way into our lives.

My mother lives in the kitchen.

My dad got Ray some T-shirts from China. All of which are too small.

Lana and Kevin couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving because they were flying to Arizona so we celebrated Thanksgiving with them a few days before.

Chilling on the couch with full bellies.

In his spare time my dad likes to pretend like he’s 14 years old and listen to music on his on his headphone while watching the video on his little television alone in his room.

My mornings are spent with my dad. One morning him and I went jogging. I didn’t bring any jogging shoes so I went in my boots. True story. On this particular morning my dad and I went on a very long bike ride. It had to be something like 45 miles. All I know is we were far, far from home.

My dad led the way. He took me down dangerous roads that most dads would think twice about taking their child, like the freeway. But the danger was well worth it because soon we came upon a small hidden bike path that went for miles and miles and miles along a canal.

My dad is adorable.

Like I said, my dad led the way so taking a photo of his backside was my only option.

We took a couple of breaks along the way.

Alright, so after like 20 miles or so we reach the end of the path and all that is in front of us is a tall dam across the street. So this is the end of the road, that is until my dad spots people hiking up the dam, and then he takes a closer look and yes, there’s people up there, walking and jogging. My dad being the curious monkey that he is wants to check it out but he needs the green light from me. “I really want to go up there, but we’re already so far from home, no we shouldn’t go up there huh?” he says to me. Honestly, I didn’t really want to go up there. I was tired, hungry, far from home, I knew my mom and Selena was probably at home thinking we’d be home any minute now, and we still had at least 20 miles to ride back home. But my dad has never been this close to the dam so if my dad wants to go up that freaking dam then we’re gonna go up that freaking dam. I grab my bike and say, “come on lets go,” and ride across the street toward the dam. “Huh, we’re gonna go,” my dad was so excited. We took a photo when we reached the top of the dam.

I know it doesn’t look like it but we were pretty high up.

We road for miles and miles on that freaking dam.

And then my dad notices a lake and a park to the left and of course he wants to go check it out. “Wow, it looks really pretty over there. I want to go see it. Do you want to go see it?” No I don’t want to go see it, but I say, “yeah, dad lets go check it out.”

My dad is the biggest photo whore ever. He wants me to take photos of him every time we reach a new destination so he can remember all the places that he’s been. My dad’s been to a lot of places. I think he’s on his 3rd or 4th passport. His last trip to China got prolong because he had to order more pages for his passport.

He’s a poser too.

We take more photos.

My dad is the swan whisperer.

We take our bikes down further and come upon a beach, man made obviously, but there was sand and everything.

We stop to take photos and then to sit on the beach and talk about life.

My dad tells me that today he’s really happy and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have came this far. I’m sure he would of eventually found it but it was nice to hear.

And then we head back home.

We stop for one drink break and this is where I make the mistake of telling my dad that I like to ride fast. I told him that because I wanted to get home as soon as possible. He rides fast the whole way down the bike path, so fast that he’s literally like 500 yards in front of me. Hello, my dad is 64 years old. What the fuck!

Later that day we head to my oldest sister’s home so we can spend time with her and my niece, Sianna. Sianna made a turkey out of food. She’s a creative kid.

The next day Jeff, my sister’s husband comes over with their daughter Sianna for Thanksgiving.

Lots of Chinese food this year.

I love my family and miss them everyday.

I love tofu too.

I made vegan lettuce wraps. Thanks for the recipe Bea. It was the only dish that was completely demolished.

My dad was happy Jeff came, even though Lien didn’t.

The girls after dinner.

Saying good-bye to Jeff.

And the next day we flew home. What a great trip. We have so much to be thankful for. Hope ya’ll had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Thalia, the Memory Lane chick, surprised me at 11:00 the next morning and said I had to be out of there by noon. I guess it’s a good thing I woke up early to clean. Thank God for my mom and sisters; they were amazing with all the help. We packed up the car and everyone parted ways. Later a bunch of us met back up in our itty bitty apartment. I’m certain that was the most people our apartment will ever hold at one time. My family soon took off to catch their flights back home and my friends and I just decided to play it by ear, considering the long weekend we just endured. We all walked over to Kona Grill, just down the street from where we live, to grab some food and drinks.

Although my family had already taken off I still didn’t know how the hell I would manage the sleeping arrangements. Finding a place for everyone to sleep in our tiny ass apartment was like watching 30 clowns step out of a smart car. Seriously, there was me, Ray, Jackie, Bea, Guav, Val, Becky, Monica, Heather, and Jen and our apartment is maybe 750 square foot. I’m the type to just say fuck it, we’ll make it happen because there’s no way Ray or myself would ever ask our friends to go get a place.

But luckily my friends decided to rent a hotel close to the airport so they could hop on the shuttle to catch their flight in the morning. After drinks and food, what else is there to do but to get tattoos.

We’re a couple of bad ass chicks, so we decided to get a tattoo to show how bad ass we really were.

Actually, we’re not really that bad ass. All of us but Jen, decided to get a tattoo, an eternity sign, to symbolize our friendship.  I think I was the only tattoo virgin and that is why I volunteered to go first. Seriously, who wants to be a virgin? Let me cleanse myself of that purity.

My new tattoo. I love it. Now normally I would be a little more weary of who tattoos me and what the tattoo is going to be, which is why this is my first tattoo. But I have always loved the eternity sign because it looks like a sideways 8 and the number 8 is my all time favorite number, hence 08.08.08. This tattoo has meaning to me because it represents the friendship between my friends and I and that bond that can never broken. Also, it’s pretty retard and fuck up free so it makes a perfect first tattoo to get on the spur of the moment.

Jen didn’t get anything because she’s in the process of finding salvation and Val got retarded stars. No joke, they were retarded stars.

The next day I picked Becky up and dropped her off at her friend, Autumn’s house since she wasn’t leaving for another week. Bea’s a crawdad freak, well not really but she certainly likes to eat em. So where else to go but the Boiling Pot.

Poor Guav is only able to eat corn and potatoes and then works diligently for Bea pealing the shell off each crawdad, like a kid in a sweat shop, only white, and grownup and working for an Asian, the way all sweat shops should be ran.

The next day we all drove up to Dallas to Ben’s humble abode. He has the cutest twins ever, a boy and a girl and they’re both hyper as fuck.

But, I guess so are the grown ups.

We also went shopping because Bea has the coolest job ever; she gets to shop for a living and no she’s not hiring.

Then we all went out to eat with Kuya Ben.

And of course his twins, Lyric . . .

And Cloe.

Val at our house.

Val Is Funny from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Well, not right after but eventually. We had to mingle first and get everyone liquored up enough.

Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez. I’m a Hernandez now, I have a hard core Mexican name. If my grandmother knew about this she would roll over in her grave, both of them; I’m sure.

Don’t let our innocent faces fool you. We have been known to be completely insane and reckless. Hahahah. I love these girls and I couldn’t tell you how rad it was to have all four of them here. It’s been a while ladies since we’ve all been in the same room at the same time, ages actually. And now were all here together at my wedding!!! Jen, Heather, Me, Monica, and Becky.

Taking some time out with my little niece.

Me and my big sis, Lana, aka Lulu.

The happy married couples. Tell me guys, is it true that after marriage you guys get no more blow jobs? Because I’m really looking forward to that.

That Toph is a weird one. I’m sure he was dropped on the head one too many times as a child.

Everyone should have a friend like Jack. But with that being said, it’s just not possible, she’s one of those souls that just can’t be duplicated. Which is why she’s my angle and I love her like a fat kid loves cake, but a lot more.

Smile Jen. No salvation for you tonight. Tonight we party.

Oh no, what is Kuya Ben doing.

Sure is a lot of big Mexicans in this photo. I’m feeling out numbered and a little borderline midget.

Broom and his lovely girlfriend Penny Kim.

My sister just recently got married to Kevin and I couldn’t tell you how happy I am to have him as a brother inlaw. They’re perfect for each other. Just look at his serious face.

Jackie I don’t know what Dirk’s been putting in your head but he’s got it all wrong. Golden Dragon for life! Fuck Wachoiva.

Kevin and my mom. Whatcha writing there mom, it better be good; it’s going in my scrap-book.

Oh Marci, if only we had stayed in San Francisco we would totally be BFF’s by now, having sleep overs, contemplating on ways to torture the boys, baking, cooking, having long, deep talks about money . . .

Val and Guav, Um, Lo Ciento, no habla Espanol. Perdon.

BFF’s. If you guys were here so I would hug you so hard it would turn your butt-hole inside out.

The Semmlers, Issac, Tiffany and Chris. These are our game night friends and apparently our only friends here in Austin so be extra nice to them people; we’d like to keep em around, at least long enough to find their replacements.

Kayla and Kimmy’s daughter, sorry, I forgot her name. Peace be with you too.

Beau and Jackie, here’s the keys to the back of my truck. I kid, I kid. But seriously, the car’s parked over there.

I love my sister’s, no matter how dysfunctional you guys turned out. I don’t know why I turned out normal any you two have slight down syndrome maybe God loves me more than you.

A few of my favorite people, yes that includes Kola.

After much mingling we had our first dance as husband and wife. The reason why we’re laughing here is because Jackie rushed up from her table to go find the camcorder and fell flat on her ass.

Ray had problems taking off my garter. Bite it like a little money baby.

Selena caught the bouquet and Beau caught the garter.

Chris gave a surprisingly nice speech. Awe thanks Chris. Honey, listen to your best friend, save the money and I’m always right.

Bea and Jack also gave a really nice speech/skit.

Lana gave a kung fu panda, I’ll kill your family speech.

Beau and Becky also gave a speech, but for some reason I’m not able to find any photos of that. After all the speeches it was cake time. Yes, that is a ninja and a Mexican wrestler, and yes those are our wedding cakes.

The ninja represents me and the Mexican wrestler is Ray. Oh, and this is our vegan cake. Not the prettiest but I definitely think it tasted the best.

We’re feeding each other with a knife, yeah, that’s real smart.

Just look at our anxious little audience. I feel like a celebrity.

We had originally wanted to smash cake in each others faces but I guess when it came time to do it, it just didn’t happen.

We even manage to get a little dancing in.

Here’s my sweet air guitar move

I don’t know how it all started but somehow we all manage to got almost everyone at the wedding to take not one shot but several shots.  Here we’re passing out shots.

A toast!

And soon after that it seemed as though we were all liquored up enough to go pool jumping.  I’m pretty sure it was me who screamed, “Lets go pool jumping!”  And like sheep they all followed me.

We even convinced Amet and Anthony to jump.

Sexy Ass

And played chicken.  I play for keeps.

And then we all just hung out in the hot tub.

Tell me this wasn’t the best wedding ever.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Alright, I’m just going to apologize now because I know by now ya’ll are totally over the wedding and thinking that maybe I should be too, since it’s been almost a month now and I’m still blogging about it. Here’s the thing, and I hate to admit it but I will just this one time so that everyone understands . . . I’m a bit O.C.D. as in obsessive, compulsive, disorder, when it comes to recording my life and photos. Guav, I know you’ll understand. I really thought that I would be done by now too and to tell you the truth, I want to be. I’m tired of blogging about my wedding. I want to move on to current events but I can’t, at least not until I finish blogging about the titanic events in my life in the order it happened. I’m sorry, but It’s a disorder.

After the wedding, family, brides maids and grooms people stayed behind for fun photo time.

The thing is, there were so many photographers that no body knew what camera to look at.

Ray and his boy

Selena and Sianna.

BFF’s

I’m loved

Me and Lulu

The Hernandez’s

Goofing around

Me and my moms

Me and my sisters.

Me with Lana and Kevin

I really like this photo because it looks eerie, like some weird telepathic shit is going on between the photographers.

He loves me.

We did it babe.

Popularity: 3% [?]