Doan Chung-Hernandez

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ray and I had originally planned on getting marry at night. I mean we wanted to kiss under the moon light because, well it’s romantic and no one does that. But the more I planned the more I realize it wasn’t practical which is why no one does it. Everyone would starve because dinner wouldn’t be till like midnight and the staff and caterers would be working super late. So we pushed the wedding as late as we could, around 8 or so, and just decided to play on the 080808 theme and have me walk down the isle at 8:08. Anyhow, I know it’s almost a month later, but here’s a compilation of the photos that were taken during the ceremony.

Ray and our Reverend Jack

The flower girl was my niece Sianna. Hey, Amet just got here, glad you could make it.

Walking down the isle with my mother, it was so hard not to cry.

I think it was Ray’s dad that started the stream of tears, then Ray, then my sisters, then my mother then Jackie and then me. I didn’t look at the audience but I’m sure everyone was crying by now.

I knew I wasn’t going to be the only one crying so I had some tissue tucked between my titties ready for him

Selena and Kola, Lana’s always ready to take a picture.

My sisters look so tan.

It looks like we planned to get married at sunset.

I look so in love.

Our audience.

I Ray Hernandez of Mesquite Texas . . .

I was wearing some bright ass nail polish

You may now kiss the bride

We are the Champions

And that was our ceremony. Stay tuned for more photos to come.

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One of the best things that I love about my wedding is that it was very small and very personal. Because of that almost everyone contributed a little of their love, a nice personal touch, and we all know a lot of a little adds up to a lot and in the end when I look back, my wedding was definitely one of the best days of my life. Right now I just want to take the time to thank everyone for coming and especially everyone who contributed. Jackie was a one army party at my bachelorette party in Florida. I was there for over a week so she seriously help me plan almost everything and helped me write out the whole ceremony. She also married us, was the videotographer, made her infamous jungle juice that fucked everyone up later that night and let me borrow her necklace the day of. Bea made our wedding bands by hand, I mean seriously slave over them by hand for weeks on end, sang us a song and also let me borrow her necklace the day of.

My sisters, Lana and Selena, and my mother did a fantastic job cooking the day of at the BBQ. Ray’s dad and Chris Semmler were in charge of the grill. Jackie and Bea, though not my brides maids, took on the role and was there by my side the whole time. My girls from Vacaville, Monica, Becky, Heather and Jen, went back into town to pick up the vegan cake I forgot about. Yes, I forgot about cake, something that never happens. Ben, Steven Ray and Guav were our photographers, being the amazing photographers that they are, it was a very suiting role.

Val was my helpful little runner while I was getting ready, at my beck and call, getting whatever I needed every time I called. My sisters, Lien, Lana, and Selena were my brides maid. Kola, our dog, even put on a tux and walked down the isle next to Selena. My niece was the last minute flower girl. Bea and Toph were the grooms people. Toph was also the best man, at Ray’s side the whole time. My new brother in law, Kevin, was the informer by being guided and informed on the proper usage of the facilities. Bea’s sister, Bernh, also did some video work and assisted me with my makeup.

Kaila, Ben’s daughter and Val also helped take some photos. Toph, Bea, Jackie, Lana, Becky and Beau gave a wonderful speech. Steven Ray’s girl, Nycole, whom I just met that day and absolutely love, took full charge and came up with the beautiful flower arrangements around the pagoda. Gauv along with the help of a few others draped the pagoda; he was deserted for a while so he gets most of the credit. Bea along with help from the rest of the girls did the boutiques, flower and candle arrangements.

I’m sure I’m leaving a few people out, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to everyone, even those that just showed up to witness our day. Because of all of you my wedding turned out better than I had envisioned. Kudos and much love.

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Ray and I arrived on the 29th of April and stayed in Southern California for about 3 weeks. A lot has happened in these three long weeks and I feel like I need to give everyone an update. We’ve been Chung house hoping a lot. First it was Momma Chung’s house, then Lien Chung’s house, to Lana Chung’s house, back Lien Chung’s house and back to Lana Chung’s house. Did ya’ll get all that? Try saying that 10 times in a row. It took a while for our vehicle to arrive so for the first two weeks and we were either stranded or relying on someone to pick us up and drop us off. We went to a bunch of malls, Target, and got home cooked meals from Mama Chung. Lien had a house leaving party and invited all the Chungs to come, and when I say all the Chungs, I mean, my aunts uncles, and cousins so Ray got a chance to meet a lot of them for the first time.

We even got to see Sianna, my favorite and only niece, in action at her gymnastic class.

Sianna In Gymnastics II from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Sianna At Gymnastics from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

On the first day at Lana’s the whole family had a really nice stroll down the beach and later we all had dinner out on the patio.

During the next few days at Lana’s we rode bikes, had margaritias and lots of wine, went to their friend, Dave’s lake house and rode dirt bikes and wake board.

My sad attempted at wake boarding.

Doan’s Failed Attempted at Wake Boarding from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

If at first you don’t succeed try try try again.

Another Sad Attempted at Wake Boarding from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

A view of the bike killer bike track.

A Look At The Dirt Bike Track Behind The Lake House from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Ray road on the track this time.

Ray’s First Time On the Dirt Track from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

On Mother’s Day we all ordered way too much food and went back to Mama’s house. Ray and I went home with Lien that night.

The night before my parents and little sister’s vacation we all went out to a really nice Korean restaurant and I had the best beef I’ve ever had. Oh my God it was so good, like orgasmic good. The whole time I was like, “baby, this is so good, you gotta try this, oh, wait you don’t eat beef. Oh, my God baby, this is sooo good.”

Anyhow, the next day we finally picked up our car, which was a total bitch to get to because we got lost and were on foot. We seriously had to jump fences, cross several freeways, walk down railroad tracks and get pulled over by two cops only to find out when we got there that we should of just taken the Passport Bus because it takes us right to them for free.

The next day my parents and Selena went on vacation. Sianna had a school musical that we went to.

Sianna at Her School Musical from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Sianna’s School Musical from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

and later Bea and Guav fly in. After we pick them we’re heading back to Lana’s house. Anyhow, there you have it. I really tried to wrap it up in a nutshell but as you can see a lot has happened since we’ve been here. Oh, our crazy life. Oh, I forgot to add, Ray started eating beef again.

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