Poshdeluxe

big mountain: baby i love yr way <– sarah & winston’s greatest hits, summer 2000

today, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to kindest boy i have ever met: winston liaw.

those of you who already know him are probably smiling right now, because you can’t help but smile when you think about winston. he’s just that wonderful.

i’m sorry to say that i don’t remember the exact day when i met winston, but i’m sure it was during freshmen orientation (o-week) at rice in august of 1997. little did i know that, four years later, he and i would be working together to prepare o-week for another generation of freshmen!

winston lived on the first floor of wiess with steve, and no one could ever figure out why the fellows (student advisors) had put them together. steve is large and loud (in a v. charming way, of course), while winston tends to be quiet and sweetly unassuming. of course, given these differences, they became the best of friends, and when steve started hanging out with amber and me, i got to know winston as well (a fantastic package deal, if you ask me).

even though winston was pre-med (like every other person at rice), he was refreshingly active at wiess and always ready to lend a friendly hand (or ear). he became, as steve put it, a “rice superstar,” meaning he was kind of a celebrity on campus. winston was so compassionate, so thoughtful, so easy going, it was impossible not to want to be best friends with him.

winston and eden, looking gorgeous on their wedding day

i love winston’s kind heart, but i think my favorite thing about him is his easy laugh. not only does it make me feel like i’m hilarious (cos i am, obvs), it also makes people feel comfortable… it spreads warmth and good cheer, like drinking mulled cider at xmas.

i spent the most time with winston the summer before our senior year while we worked on orientation for the fall. basically, every week night, you could find us either at a coordinator meeting or sitting in the computer lab, cursing pagemaker and religiously reading the freshmen info sheets. by the end of the summer, most of the coordinators were engaged in some sort of conflict, a natural consequence of spending so much time together. but the opposite happened for me. i LOVED winston. i loved playing rolling chair basketball with him, i loved discussing the freshmen like they were our own children (seriously. we memorized EVERYTHING about them, we were so excited), i even loved when we encountered some kind of problem, because it was so fun to put our heads together and come up with a solution.

when the freshmen finally arrived, it was the best feeling IN THE WORLD to see all of our hard work come to fruition. by the end of the week, winston and i got to see ourselves in skit form (the freshman girl playing me had a mug of coffee glued to her hand and wore crayzee socks), and watching “us” allowed me to step back and appreciate the experience, and our friendship, even more. all in all, that job was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and much of that stems from working with such an incredible person… a wonderful friend.

now that i’ve launched the winston fan club, let’s begin the interview!

[note, i didn’t have time to scan any wiess pictures. it’s a shame, but rest assured that winston looks the same, except now he has a better haircut– thanks to me and my hair stylist, erica! but anyway]

so winston, you’re a real, bona fide doctor now. tell me exactly what kind of doctor you are.

i’m a family doctor - which means that i can see everyone.

when did you realize you wanted to be a doctor?

i probably realized sometime during freshman physics class when i started sucking at the physics for engineers. but it was solidified after doing some domestic and international volunteer stuff.

how did yr ambitions change over time? did you ever have doubts about this career path?

i have doubts all the time. we all probably do to a certain extent. but most days, there will be one or two moments that help me endure the other crap. i took care of an older guy for a year who passed away recently, and his son asked me to attend his funeral at arlington national. that was touching, and helped me get through my not so rewarding patients for the next couple of weeks.

i’m still impressed that you and many, many of my rice friends survived medical school. not cos you’re not brilliant, but because it sounds HEINOUS. how did you do it? what were the best and worst parts?

meth. and lots of it. just kidding mom. no, eden helped me a ton. one of the worst months was surgery - surgery itself was pretty interesting. the hours were just killer. i woke up at 4 AM in order to get to the hospital by 4:30 AM where i would stay until 6 or 7 PM. eden drove me to the hospital every morning and made me breakfast. i would have been late and very hungry without her that month.

ok, i don’t want to break any patient-doctor confidentiality laws here, but tell me about something really cray cray that you’ve encountered while working in the medical field. I LOVE THESE KINDS OF STORIES.

i’m going to be lame and steal a mark lewis med school story. he was in one of our obstetrics clinics in the community where most of the patients are spanish speakers. unfortunately, not all of our doctors are spanish speakers, but most of them try their best to get information from the patients using what meager spanish skills they have. standing outside a room, mark overheard this from one of the doctors asking in spanish whether or not a patient has had herpes or gonorrhea (while butchering the suddenly important conjugation): “TENGO HERPES?” “TENGO GONORRHEA?” (”i have herpes” “i have gonorrhea”).

i know yr family is from taiwan. tell me about how this background and culture affected your childhood.

there’s typical stuff like having to go to chinese school on the weekends (sadly, this was lost on me and now john (a westerner) can speak mandarin better than i can), singing karaoke during family gatherings (my uncles sing in karaoke competitions), and going to vegas way too much. for the most part, though, because i lived in the very homogenous suburbs of dallas, my parents tried to get us to fit in. they sent us to jewish community center and bible camps when i was a kid because that’s where my friends were going.

do you see yrself as having a mix of american and taiwanese values?

definitely

when you and eden have a family, how will you pass on this heritage to yr kids?

i would love it if they learned mandarin - which probably means that eden and i would have to learn mandarin too so that we would know when they were talking shit about us.

can i just say how jealous i am that you grew up with asian food? as like, yr regular family meals?!! GAH!!! tell me about yr favorite (and least favorite) dishes so i can drool on my keyboard.

i generally celebrate everything in the dumpling family. my least favorite is easy: sea cucumber (google sea cucumber images and you’ll see why). it’s served at every chinese banquet, and i perform a silent protest every time.

you and eden now live in fairfax, which i believe is kinda close to DC. what’s that like? what do you do for fun in fairfax?

i always tell people i live in dc because it sounds much much cooler. fairfax is about 30 minutes west of dc, and it’s extremely close to where eden and i work. we’ve met a bunch of cool people out here - mostly through work and sports (don’t fuck with eden when she’s playing on the defensive line). but in general, fairfax is pretty suburban and is unfortunately the home of the NRA museum. it is in desperate need of a kick ass brunch place. so eden and i have been plotting our second careers as owners of a brunch place / cupcake bakery. hopefully, this will fund my retirement, which will consist of hours and hours of doing absolutely nothing.

one of my fondest rice memories is the summer you and i spent working on orientation for wiess college. what sorts of things stick out in yr mind from that experience? tell me about one of yr favorite memories from that summer (and/or o-week).

ditto. i remember almost pulling an all-nighter to finish the best wiess oweek book ever - specifically, i remember singing along to the reality bites soundtrack (once again, not proud of this) - specifically, big mountain’s timeless piece “baby i love your way”. unfortunately, steve ruined this song for me because he would always sing “oooh [insert two syllable name here] masterbates…everyday”.

ok i’m a sucker for rice stories. tell me one of yr favorites! bonus points if it includes anyone else who reads this blog.

this story requires some background. every 13th, 26th, and 31st of the month, people streaked across campus. strange, i know. the halloween streak was definitely the largest, and my roommate at the time - to protect his identity, we’ll call him btephen senham - was quite drunk and decided that participating in this run would be a good idea. that evening, i was on a semi-date (a semi-date because she probably did not think it was a date) with a very very very religious girl. after dinner, we were hanging out in my dorm room when the door flung open. outside my room, there appeared fifty naked, and drunk rice students. my roommate was too tired to finish the entire run and decided to run back to our room. unfortunately, everyone else decided to follow him. the other runners moved on while my roommate remained sprawled on the floor, and being the considerate person he was, he proceeded to ask us details about our evening. needless to say, we never went on another semi-date - which was definitely for the best because we would have been an awful match. thanks btephen!

i included this photo from the wedding so you could see bthepen, kneeling on the left. also, you can see half (yes, that’s half) of the rice people who attended.. like bthepen says, winston & eden are superstars.

what is yr secret power?

i am surprisingly good at small talk (it’s surprising because i’m an extreme introvert). part of my job involves making small talk, so i’ve become fairly proficient, mostly because i’ve traveled a bunch. when i was growing up my parents never spent a lot of money on stuff like cable or matching clothes; instead, they spent their money on travel. so we spent a lot of time in small texas towns, national parks, and other countries. whenever i’m examining a patient, i’ll break the silence with “where did you grow up?” and most of the time, we’ll spend the next five minutes talking about a shared experience, blah, blah, blah. occasionally, they’ll say they’re from cleveland - which is followed by more silence - because when it comes to cleveland, i got nothing.

do you sleep in jimjams? what kind?

i’m assuming jimjams are pajamas here. i usually wear boxers and a t-shirt (apologies to eden because the t-shirt i’m currently sporting has missed the boat on several wash cycles). occasionally, i’ll break up the routine with some scrubs (once again, apologies to eden because the scrubs have unpleasant odors; pretty much the last thing you want to wear to set the mood).

what is yr #1 favorite food?

i have a physical addiction to spaghetti with meat sauce. maybe it’s because that punk marco polo stole it from my people, and it’s written in my dna that i must consume noodle products. i’m just waiting for researchers to discover that eating large amounts of spaghetti causes cancer - then, i’m totally screwed. on a side note, i’m neither a spaghetti snob nor a spaghetti connoisseur. i grew up on chef boyardee and probably eat an unhealthy amount of beefaroni.

what is yr top restaurant recommendation in fairfax? what’s the best thing on the menu?

A&J. the best chinese restaurant in the dc area. by a mile. pros: 1) it’s extremely cheap; 2) the dumplings are incredible; 3) the dim sum is tasty. cons: the dumplings are so good that you’ll eat way too many and feel like throwing up afterwards. eden and i go there at least every other week.

tell me about yr top area of expertise.

i have an embarrassingly well-rounded fund of knowledge when it comes to the real world. it all started harmlessly one spring afternoon during freshman year. steve and i had finished all of our tests and were waiting around until our move out date when we started watching a real world: boston marathon. big mistake. 8 hours and hundreds of montana / sean / syrus-based plot lines later, i was hooked. i tell everyone else that i continue to watch it so that i can relate to my teenage patients, but in my heart of hearts, i know i have a problem. part of me watches it to see whether or not they will have cast an asian male. over the past twenty seasons, the producers have cast people from every permutation of ethnicity, sexuality, and class, but they have yet to cast an asian male. while other parents will be grooming their children to be nobel prize winners, i will be grooming my son to be the first asian male on the real world.

what was yr favorite item of clothing as a child?

i am proud of nothing i wore when i was a child. i’m sure my favorite item was a jean short of some kind (which apparently is making a comeback because i saw a ton of them at sxsw).

i love it when my favorite worlds collide. henri, winston & john at sxsw 2008.

what do you plan on doing when you’re 80?

to quote peter gibbons, “i would do absolutely nothing.” this is seriously my dream - to watch tv and surf the internet all day.

if you could assemble yr own ocean’s 11, who would you pick and why?

dbortz (doug) is on the team for sure. that man was born to play cranium (and any other board game for that matter). he’s definitely top 10 in the world. i want him to be on all my teams eden is also in because she’ll work hard and bake us stuff. steve is in because he’ll be the muscle. josh is in because we’ll probably need a lawyer. other than that, i’d probably just email my friends and the rest of the group would be filled by whoever responded first.

what is yr best karaoke song?

cruising - the song from the movie duets. i’m not proud of this answer either by the way. eden does the gwyneth paltrow part and i do the huey lewis part. every once in a while, i’ll try to harmonize, but apparently, i had a stroke that involved the portion of my brain that is responsible for harmonizing because i’m really bad at it.

do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? who?

yes. the chinese guy from harold and kumar. and when i’m in central america, everyone thinks i look like jackie chan.

tell me something scandalous!

jessica simpson went to my high school, and she was obsessed with me. that second part is obviously a complete lie (i played the tuba in the band. enough said.). seriously, though, i was the pianist in a jazz band in high school, and we beat her in the talent show my senior year.

i cannot believe you beat jessica simpson!! well, i mean, i can but THAT IS THE BEST STORY EVER!

winston, you truly ARE a superstar. thanks so much for letting me interview you… and thanks for being my friend! yay!

as usually, folks, free free to ask winston questions in the comments section.

winston and me at sxsw. squee!

LINKS

the poster for the new x-files movie is out! and while i’m still not a fan of the movie title (ehh), i can’t help but feel TOTALLY EXCITED OMGGG MULDER AND SCULLY!!!

john sent me this super neat graffiti, excuse me, “wall painting” animation video.

matt wrote a blurb today about lucy and bart, an artist couple who create amazing, bizarre and even whimsical photographs using their bodies and a range of materials. check ‘em out!

erin sent me the website of the most delightful cake-maker in all the world! i want to be her! and then i want to eat all of those lovely cakes!!

today, i’m happy to present to you an interview with my oldest friend: talena smith.

isn’t she cute?!!!

by “oldest,” i mean out of all of the people i still keep in touch with, i’ve known talena the longest. when i moved to houston in the summer before sixth grade, i was *really* nervous about making friends, esp. cos i would be attending public school for the first time EVER, and i had no idea what was cool. when you’ve spent the last year at an all girls catholic school, where the entire fifth grade class totals fifteen girls, you start to feel a little out of touch, mainly in the “OMG? BOYS?! HOW DO I TALK TO THEM?!!” department.

talena’s neighbor phil happened to know my dad through work, and so he set up a little pool party with me, talena and his daughter, holly, who was in high school. in spite of my notoriously poor memory, i will never forget that day… the sun glinting off the chlorinated blue water, talena’s chipper attitude and extraordinary friendliness (which i gladly soaked in), the slowly growing feeling that houston wasn’t going to be so bad.

there is no greater relief in junior high then knowing that you will not have to face the cafeteria alone. and i will forever be in talena’s debt for the confidence that knowledge gave me.

soon, she had become like a second daughter in the family. she was constantly going to the movies with my parents and me or coming over for dinner. she even earned a reputation for not bringing a coat when it was cold outside, so my parents got in the habit of bringing an extra coat, just in case. to this day, if it’s winter, my dad will ask, “does talena need a coat?”

my parents and their second daughter at our friend jennifer’s wedding. sorry, mom, i couldn’t find a better picture!

as i’ve mentioned previously on this blog, we started a club in the seventh grade with some other girls and called ourselves “the pigbutts” (yeah, it’s not even a long story. just remember that we were in junior high, ok?). maybe it was the notebook we passed around, or the endless parade of slumber parties, or the newsletter we wrote, but that group, which such a ridiculous name, truly bonded me to those girls. in fact, i’m still in touch with almost all of them, which is a huge blessing.

my friendship with talena endured the trials and tribulations of junior high and grew even more in high school. she was boy crazy, and i learned a lot about dealing with boy’s from talena’s experiences (seriously, thank you for those lessons, talena!). she was always optimistic, energetic and yeah, a bit of a drama queen, and i loved her the more for it.

talena went to UT, lived in dallas, and now lives in houston. i’ve always known she was strong, but i had no idea what a survivor she is until i watched her go through a difficult divorce AND come to terms with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. she is amazing, and i’m proud to present her to you today, just as i’m proud to call her my oldest friend.

first, let’s talk about yr job. you’re a teacher. how did this happen?

Yeah I didn’t intend to become a teacher when I went to college. I majored in Finance and worked for an investments company for five years. But I really hated what I was doing and felt no love or enjoyment in analyzing the market, plus my best friend, my now ex-husband and my now ex-mother-in-law, plus several friends, were teachers and all, with the exception of the ex-husband, loved it. I felt they were making a difference and I wanted to do something as a career that gave me intrinsic fulfillment, instead of just financial security. But it was still a process to become a teacher. When I first started Alternative Certification (ACP) I was half way through the program when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I decided that now wasn’t the time to quit my career and become a teacher since I had a ‘good’ job (read: paid well for what I did and had excellent benefits) so I quit mid program. A year later when I was let go from the ‘good job’ I saw this as a sign to pursue the teaching thing after all. Fortunately I was able to pick up where I’d left off and finished in the summer of 2006, finding my job in Cy Fair within just a few weeks.

A funny side note: My parents are both financial advisors, although my mother retired from the business five years ago. I majored in finance. The day I graduated my dad said, “Hmmm… I always thought that you would’ve been a teacher”. Now you tell me?!

looking radiant at our friend (and fellow pigbutt) becky’s wedding

what do you like about teaching? it seems pretty hard to me… what is the most difficult aspect for you?

Well, asking me this question in May is just begging for a loaded response. But in all honesty, what I like about teaching is that every day is different, there is no pattern or monotony. There are also children that you build relationships with that just brighten you as a person. I love when my students from last year stop by to say hi and visit, although a lot of them are having a hard time with the name change. Plus… Gotta be honest here… The hours are great. I’m not a morning person but getting off at 3:30 most days (this is a spring post TAKS phenomenon since in the fall and pre TAKS we work much later due to planning and grading) is very nice and the fact that in just 12 more school days I’ll be off for the summer is a strong motivator for me.

The most difficult aspect, especially this year, has been the children. It’s easy to say that it’s all of them but it isn’t. The ones that are horrid just stand out more. There is a complete lack of accountability or responsibility in the children. They justify everything, are never prepared (pencils or paper, much less homework and assignments) and just expect everything to be handed to them, including answers. They don’t expect to be held accountable for their actions and see no problem with talking back to a teacher or adult. I see this as a problem across the country. It really is epidemic. It starts at home. Kids need to be told no once in a while. They need to face consequences for their actions. Until that changes, it’ll only get worse.

you’re the student council advisor, yes? i always thought student council was full of popular kids, well, except for randy, who was well-liked but not in the “popular” crowd if you know what i mean. what are the kids like? do you have any randys?

I actually have mostly Randys. My school is a Title 1 school which means that we’re low socio-economic, so it’s not like the typical suburban school with a definite popular crowd. My student council kids (tempting to say girls since out of the 25 members only two were boys) are the typical high achieving do-gooders. Which I love. It was mostly 6th and 7th graders this year too so I’m thrilled because it means that I’ll get to be with them next year. They’re the students who you can trust to take charge of a project and run with it. They have great ideas and are committed to the school. They love being involved. Next year I’m hoping to do bigger and better things since this year I wasn’t able to do as much as I’d planned. Losing my cosponsor mid year without any word was a blow. My first priority will be finding someone to help me next year. I did love that we worked the concession stands at the Boys Basketball games this season. I have some real entrepreneurs on my hands.

since we’re talking about junior high, i want to say that i realize more and more just how weird and crazy we were. compare yrself now to yr bleyl junior high self.

Thank god my fashion sense has improved! I realize now how much of a complete nerd we were. I laugh at that picture that someone has of me holding up a Star Trek book in front of my face at the lunch table. I miss how innocent we were in junior high. These kids don’t seem to have that kind of innocence, which again I think comes from a variety of reasons but prominently from too much time without parental supervision. Last year I had two students, a boy and a girl, that you could just tell had such crushes on each other but were still so young and sweet. It really reminded me of Robert Booth and myself in the 6th grade. I’d like to say that these girls have more drama but as I recall Amanda Noark and I created a lot of drama ourselves so… Yeah. That’s embarrassing. Looking back I love that we were crazy and weird because we had fun with each other and made such good friends. Look at how many Pigbutts are around after so many years, not to mention other junior high friends that we still have. I wouldn’t want to go back to being in junior high but I can definitely appreciate our version of it.

the days of innocence… and drama.

ok now tell me a story about us in junior high because my memory needs to be supplemented.

You stealing Danny Hanchey from me as your date for the 8th grade dance doesn’t count?! Just kidding!

BITTER MUCH? hey, he asked ME!! AND i’m not the one who dated him later… hello, jennifer.

Wow. So many memories. I think 8th grade was probably our best year in junior high because that was the year that Pigbutts was solidified as a unit. One of my favorite memories is of our Halloween party at Christine’s house where we were all part of the Titanic (pre- Kate and Leo version days). Christine was the captain, I was the Captain’s wife, you were some old person (awesome make up!), Rachel was the iceberg and Keriann was a stowaway. I love that we were so creative and theatrical. We also had the best nicknames that we used in our Pigbutt Notebook. ***- - - *** the Amazing, Ensign, Hopeless (later Hopeful), etc.

btw, i was a totally sassy flapper, not an old person. but the only reason i remember that is cos i have a picture.

I also savor the memory of Mrs Marek throwing us a Pigbutt party at her apartment with her wedding china. Being a teacher now, and also knowing now that she was a first year teacher, I can’t imagine inviting 12 teenage girls to my apartment. She was so amazing and encouraged us to be who we were. We were very blessed to have her as a teacher. I love how she also set us up with the AP. “Girls, do you know what the definition of a gang is?”

ok now tell me one from high school cos i’m really enjoying the fact that yr memory is way better than mine.

As I’m thinking of what would be best to share, the song “Memories” is literally strumming in my head. I think one of the funniest memories came from either Freshman or Sophomore year. You used to host a homecoming sleepover. After the Cy Creek homecoming football game, we’d all head back to the Pitre’s house, sleeping bags and pjs in hand to veg out to pizza and scary movies. One year we watched “Carrie”. The whole time we’re scaring ourselves silly with the music and drama, but the best was the very, very end of the movie where Amy Irving’s character goes to visit the grave and the hand shoots up. Windows ought to have shattered with the strength of our screams of terror, which was followed very quickly with gales of laughter and pounding hearts. I think it was a while before anyone ever slept again.

One of my least favorite memories that Randy and Katie love to bring up ALWAYS is the infamous Mocha Frappeccino Incident. Yes, yes, yes I left an almost, but not quite, empty Mocha Frap in Sarah’s trash bin (hello, it was for trash!) that apparently never was emptied. Several weeks later for either Randy or Katie’s birthday, they were headed somewhere and I get this phone call from Randy. He yells, rather loudly, when I answered “Listen, sister!”. Yeah. Good times.

My halloween party sophomore year was pretty dang awesome too. How many people did we fit on that couch?! 18?

me, becky and talena at our high school graduation. we thought we were soooo old.

i want to get a little serious for a minute now, if you don’t mind. can you talk a little bit about your MS? what has your journey been like so far? has it become “normal” or does it still freak you out?

It still freaks me out to be diagnosed with MS because I don’t feel bad. My symptom is minor. I have what they call nystagmus, which means my eyes flutter or oscilate mildly. It’s hard for anyone looking at me to see but I notice it because the images I see move subtly. It’s more of an annoyance than anything. So other than that I don’t have any issues. Fatigue and numbness aren’t problems for me. I don’t get dizzy that often. I do stumble a bit, so my balance is quirky. I joke when I’ve had too much to drink that I need a bracelet that says “I’m not drunk; I have MS” but no, it’s usually not the MS making me stumble.

It’s not normal for me yet though. Mainly this is because I’m terrible about taking my medication. Right now the only drugs on the market that are used to help treat MS are injections. You have your choice of daily, every other day, three times a week or once a week shots. All but the daily shots are interferons. Interferons are drugs that mess with your immune system by weakening it which cause aches and pains and flu like symptoms. The reason for this is because MS is an auto-immune deficiency disorder. My immune system is overactive, causing it to attack the myelin that surrounds my nerves, which is why people with MS have symptoms related to pain, weakness, falling and their eyes. The daily shot, which I was on, is not an interferon so you don’t have those achy symptoms. But the horrible downside is daily shots that sting like really big freaking bees. Which I hate. That leads me to the next phase. My dad found an article about an oral treatment that is going into its third phase of testing, which I believe is the phase right before FDA approval. I went online to see if they needed test subjects willing to take the medication and found a similar trial that is going on in San Antonio. I called up about it last week and scheduled a consultation May 21st. Hopefully, they’ll approve me and I’ll be able to take the test oral medication. Because I have to be off my shots for 30 days prior to starting the trial, I stopped taking my shots. Hopefully I’ll never have to take them again.

in what kind of ways has MS changed your life?

It’s hard to say. Other than having to take a shot every day and possibly a pill everyday with the trial, MS hasn’t affected me. Unless I tell people, no one can tell anything is wrong with me. I’m not ashamed of it and in fact I tell people about it often so that the stigma of being an invalid just because you have MS isn’t out there anymore.

It has, however, affected my parents worse. I think that mainly because for their generation, people weren’t diagnosed with MS until they were basically wheelchair bound, they see MS as this horrible, debilitating disease. Which it is for a lot of people. But it isn’t for me. Not now and possibly not ever. I’ve always been an optimistic person, choosing to now live as if my life is over, but they do worry. It’s understandable and what parents do best. My mom worries about me having children someday because with pregnancy, your body undergoes so much stress that most women have some sort of relapse postpartum. I don’t let that worry me. I do what I need to do and trust that God has a plan for me.

have you encountered a lot of misconceptions about MS from the general public?

Most people think that having MS means you’re going to eventually end up in a wheelchair. I also get a lot of shocked responses because “you look so good, how can you have MS?” There have been so many advances in the last ten years that people are being diagnosed earlier and getting on medication earlier.

I haven’t had too many negative reactions, especially in the work place. Fortunately there doesn’t see to be as much of a stigma as in the late 80s and early 90s. I thank the MS 150 for bringing a lot of popularity and awareness to MS.

now, i don’t want to get tooo personal here, but you’ve also been through a divorce recently, which i know was v. difficult but ultimately beneficial for you. what lessons did you learn from that situation? do you have any wisdom to share from this experience?

I learned that it’s important to me to honor my word. It would’ve been so easy to just let him go without fighting it, just giving up like I sometimes feel that he did, but I realized personal strength by giving it my all to save the marriage. Now when I look back I can say I did everything I could do. Sure I made mistakes as did he, but I tried to correct them. I learned that even as strong willed and independent as I am, I’m willing to compromise and give myself selflessly when it’s needed. Now I’m so much happier and hopefully wiser.

As far as advice, that’s harder. Everyone’s story is different. If you’ve made the decision that your relationship is over and you have to walk away, give yourself time to mourn. Unless you have children, chances are you’re never going to have to see that person again so it’s almost like they’ve died to you. Mourn that loss. But don’t let it overwhelm you. I’m blessed with amazing friends who kept me company, talked to me, listened to me, sang break up songs with me, drank with me, cried with me, laughed with me and were ultimately just with me.

talena and william, her fabulous, sweet as pie boyfriend.

ok, no more seriousness! i know you LOVE romance novels. tell me about one of yr favorites, since i don’t often have a romance novel expert here on this blog.

Anything by Nora Roberts. I love her tone of voice and the fact that she has such strong women characters and men strong enough to handle them. Plus, being a bit of a fantasy/sci fi nut I love that every so often she’ll have a twist on the reality. Hers are books that I can read over and over. There is also a series by Diana Gabaldon that I love because it’s so historically in depth. Seriously, it’s like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series for women. I think any history buff would love them, because they aren’t “romance” novel. They’re just good, fun fiction.

what is yr secret power?

Sudoku puzzles. This year, especially the last few weeks, I’ve honed this skill. I have a black belt in it. Seriously, I bought the book that said I was a black belt in sudoku.

do you sleep in jimjams? what kind?

I do sleep in jammies usually. The majority of the time it’s a t-shirt and flannel pants, but when I want to feel special I’ll wear something classier.

what is yr #1 favorite food?

Sushi! I love this stuff and would eat it every day if I could afford it! My favorite is suzuki (sea bass) and sake (fresh salmon). But my ultimate comfort food is Grandma’s cheese enchiladas. One day she’ll teach her “gringita” how to make the special sauce. Anyone who is my friend on facebook can see a photo of her enchiladas to salviate over.

what is yr top restaurant recommendation in austin? what’s the best thing on the menu?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve lived in Austin to make a valid recommendation. When I was there though my favorite restaurant was Origami in Round Rock. It was a toss up if I loved it so much because of the excellent sushi and Japanese food there or because I was madly crushing on Tim, the head sushi chef (*sigh*). My recommendation for ordering would be their Origami roll (fresh tuna and salmon on the outside with spicy crab and shrimp on the inside) for sushi and the Spicy Shrimp (or Beef or Chicken) Yakiniku- stir fried veggies and meat with rice. (Gah! I’m starving as I type this and the Lean Cuisine I’m about to eat is a poor, poor substitute!).

tell me about yr top area of expertise.

Separating quality romance novels from the trashy ones. My many months working part time at Barnes and Nobles helped contribute to my experience as did the times Becky and I would stay for hours in Bookstop reading the latest Julie Garwood hardback because we couldn’t afford to buy it and didn’t want to wait until it came out in paperback.

what was yr favorite item of clothing as a child?

what do you plan on doing when you’re 80?

I imagine my life to be similar to what I have now with the exception of spoiling my grandchildren shamelessly as did my Mam-ma. I want to take them on bus rides into the city, play skip bo with them for a penny a card and pretty much let them get away with murder.

if you could assemble yr own ocean’s 11, who would you pick and why?

Hmm… everytime I’ve read this in past post’s I’ve always thought that I would say the original Pigbutts but then I started thinking about it and there were some girls that I wouldn’t trust (ahem, boyfriend stealer!) to be in my elite group of casino heisters. My group would include my father because he’s one of the most brilliant people I know and also b/c he’s a financial advisor and could probably help us hide our ‘earnings’. Definitely Becky to help guide in which art would be worth the most and which art just belongs in Bob Ross’s garage sale. William because he’s also very handy with the engineering aspects and I need a love interest. My dad’s neighbor Phil because he really is an explosives expert and has many patents to prove it, plus he has to carry a card that says that so TSA doesn’t take him down at the airports. Then just for comic relief I would bring along Se and Matt because the three of us together have conversations that absolutely hilarious… to us since we talk in the code of inside jokes and long time friends.

what is yr best karaoke song?

This year I was seriously rocking it to “Since U Been Gone”. It was extremely cathartic.

talena, tolerating henri’s karaoke serenade.

do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? who?

Hardly ever but I was told once that I looked like Mary Lou Retton. yay.

tell me something scandalous!