Life – Page 18 – Tracy Tran

Life

Favorite Fotos from A Fortnight

I finally uploaded a ton of photos onto my computer. Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks:

Weekend #1: Kentucky Derby Party

Ryan’s friend Doug threw a wonderful party for the famous horse race. Who can turn down the chance to gamble, drink mint juleps, eat kentucky fried chicken, and wear a big hat?

This being Noe Valley, Doug had a backyard-and it was so green and beautiful (for about an hour).

Astor was so happy.

Then my hat blew off! But Ryan got it…

And now a game of horseshoes…

I played a round. It was actually really tricky.

A trip to Berkeley to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Berkeley Science Review...

There was free beer, but that isn’t normally enough to get me to go anywhere. It was just nice to get out of the city and support our friends, who are all “famous scientists.”

Look at this here science!

After all that science excitement you might say I got a little “Pepe LePew.”

Weekend #2: Of Montreal at the Fillmore, Man Man at Bimbo’s, Bay to Breakers

Really a blowout weekend… Unfortunately my Of Montreal/Man Man pics were miserable. Trust me that they were wonderful shows. Go and see them sometime!

Here’s a few pics from the ING “Bay to Breakers” race. It’ s a race that starts downtown in SF, cuts across the city, and then finishes at the ocean. There are actual runners in the race, but the event is more famous for being an excuse to wear a costume and drink heavily while walking/watching the race. It’s very “San Francisco.”

The scene from Alamo Square. 8:30 am (There is intense dance music playing in the background)

There were so many naked people running it wasn’t even funny. Also a lot of Marios. And Osamas.

Gnomes.

Ground level debauchery.

While I ate breakfast and watched the crowds go by, I was torn between regret that I wasn’t running the race in costume, and a desire to get the hell out of there. It was a HOT MESS. Who knows, maybe next year? It’s only 7 miles-ish.

Life

5 Memories for 5 Years

Today was the fifth anniversary of my dad’s death. I don’t put much stock in anniversaries, but this year made me especially sad. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 years- it’s just really surprising how time doesn’t stop passing.

Anybody that spends five minutes with me knows that I’m fascinated with morbid stuff. Taxidermy, mortality rates, death portraits… I could dwell on the significance of the death, and talk about how beautiful and crazy life/death is, but I thought that I would finish today (it’s had its ups and downs) on an optimistic note- by sharing five wonderful memories that I have of my father. These are not meant to be big, or particularly meaningful, but they made me smile when I thought of them.

Everyday my dad made a GALLON of coffee in a makeshift pitcher crafted out of an old cooking oil container (just cut the top off). He would mix it up with loads of cream and sugar. Basically that’s how I like my coffee today. I know, sickly sweet and disgusting (and I do this to my $$$ coffee too).
He was a total taoist and was always telling me while I was growing up that in life I just needed to follow “the way.” He practiced what he preached. Several weeks before he died, we sat on the couch talking. He said “I hate chemo. I don’t want to do it anymore. You can’t fight things like this, you just have to let it happen. I’m not afraid to die, but I am tired of the pain.” I think about this conversation quite often.
I was a spoiled brat. I always got the latest stupidly expensive technology (scanners, digital cameras, computers, ipods). I was very touched that he was so supportive of my gadget love, and wanted me to have the best tools available to post boring photos of myself online with. I still have the camera I received as a present during Christmas 2005, and have no plans of donating or recycling it.
He made up a song for me that went like this: “Ka-man-da-la-woo, Tracy eats poo poo.” I thought he was nuts, but whatever. About a year ago I heard the song “Comment Allez Vous” by Blossom Dearie, and I realized that he had been singing “Comment allez vous” the entire time. Really wild. The um… poop part… I think that was definitely in English.
Dad drove me to school in downtown Little Rock every day during junior and senior high school (I could walk to elementary). He would watch the morning news and have his morning tea, and by 8:00 or so we were off in his rickety blue Jeep for the 20 minute drive. Oftentimes we didn’t talk at all, we just listened to my mix tapes or NPR while I finished up any leftover homework. He told my mom that he really cherished this time with me. I agree.

Five years! So wild. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family that you love them.

Life

The Day We Dug Up The Monster Fennel

Last week we went to Berkeley for a garden birthday party. The wood burning pizza oven was going, and we were looking for toppings. Berkeley Bowl is great, but how about the fennel growing outside? Free is free!

Jill started going at it with the shovel, but the ground was really dry.

Ryan offered to help. Jill supervises.

Or was he put to work? I suppose it was only a matter of time before he started taking up gardening…

We took turns…When it was my turn I hacked at the roots and broke the end in half. Oops! So much for the roots.

It was a monster!!

We strung it up for fun, and no, we didn’t end up putting it on our pizza.

Animals, Life

Introducing Astor!

Something strange happened to me over the last week. There’s no other way to put it: I got “puppy fever.” It comes and goes over the years, but last week I had it so bad- I’m not sure why. Hormones? The media’s coverage of Royal Corgis? I found myself daydreaming about them, obsessing over Petfinder, and saying to myself “Why the hell not?”

Or rather… “Why the hell not (for Ryan)?”

Ryan’s wanted a dog pretty much ever since I’ve met him, and I remember one of the first things we did when we got together was start frequenting animal shelters (yes we torment ourselves for fun). Over the last year or so we’ve met a number of memorable dogs in New York and San Francisco, and he’s come close to adoption several times. Usually I am the one smacking sense into him and getting him to be level headed about such a big step, but then… I got puppy fever.

I started bringing up adoption again, saying that I would support his decision if he wanted to get a dog. I would be a strong co-parent (step-parent?) to his future pup-I was willing to spend more nights over at his place, and to watch the dog when he had events. You know, basically give up my rock-and-roll lifestyle.

And so, we started looking again, but not in a serious way. We started the usual rounds of stalking Corgi Rescues, Petfinder, and Adopt-a-Pet. I called a few local shelters about some Corgi mixes that I was interested in, but nothing came through. Around Friday after several online disappointments I decided to chill out and stop stalking internet puppies. It’s worse than internet dating!

On Saturday we were due to head to Berkeley for a birthday party. We decided to kill time by heading over to the SF ASPCA. While normally heading to a shelter would be a bit of a downer (see Animal Care and Control), the SF ASPCA is one of the cleanest, cheeriest, most well run animal shelters I’ve ever seen. This place is posh- no animals are in cages. The cats all have their own rooms with tvs, and the dogs are in large clean rooms with a roommate or two. All of the staff are knowledgeable and patient. We headed straight to the small dog section.

Amid a sea of yapping Chihuahuas, we saw this calm beauty, just hanging out and looking lovelorn.

Her bio said that she had been transferred to San Francisco from Salinas, where she was found wandering stray more than a month ago! Could you imagine seeing a tiny cutie like that scuttling around the dumpsters? So sad!

Ryan looked very touched, and I encouraged him to fill out a form to meet her. Once we met “Brandy” and were petting her, I knew it was all over. After some discussion about logistics and gut feeling, we decided to move forward with the adoption! Since we couldn’t take her home right then and there, Ryan wanted to come back the next day and adopt her then. I said No! If you want her you should act now! It turns out that the ASPCA will let you “hold” a dog for $25 a day. It was well worth it.

We came back the next day excited and prepared. The staff were incredibly helpful throughout the adoption process, and I felt like they really wanted the best for all of the animals. All in all the whole adoption process over the course of 2 days took several hours of paperwork and consultation, which is really how it should be, I think. No rash decisions people- even though it seemed like this all happened over the course of a week, Ryan had been looking for a dog since April 2010.

We brought her home, and after much squabbling, we decided to name her Astor. I wanted to name her Astor after the dog from the Thin Man movies, but it turned out that I had the name wrong (the dog’s name is Asta in the book/movies). Who cares, Astor is a better name 🙂

She seems to be taking to us pretty well. She just wants to cuddle all the time, and is very chill until you take her out on a walk. Then she lights up and has all the energy in the world.

Cross eyed in this one, hahaha.

Down time.

Learning to play with Mr. Monkey.

The moral of the story: Ask, and sometimes the universe delivers, big time. It all happened so fast, but it feels right. I’m looking forward to sharing more of our adventures as time goes by!

Life

Dengue Fever at the Fillmore

On Wednesday morning I woke up to an email from my friend Alyssa offering free tickets (via Habitat for Humanity) to Dengue Fever. It was really the best surprise you could ask for on a Wednesday.

The weather last night was horrible, really soggy and cold. Inside, however, everything was st-eeeeeeamy. I felt like I was back on the party boat in Saigon drinking cheap beers with my relatives and pondering the meaning of life. That’s really what I love about Dengue Fever. Even though the lyrics are in Cambodian, it reminds me of hanging out with my family in Asia, during the great “My Father is Dead Let’s Go Back to the Homeland” Tour of 2006. Music is funny like that.