Breakfast in Beverly Hills

What happens when a frugality fiend decides to splurge on breakfast in Beverly Hills? Find out at Open Mouth, Insert Fork.

Hapa Happenings

It's been a Hapa-intensive week for me.

I joined "Team Krissy" at a bone marrow drive at Cal State Long Beach on Wednesday afternoon. It was exciting to see how the volunteer team works tirelessly to sign up minorities and mixes (and even European whites) for A3M and the National Bone Marrow Registry. We're hoping that one of our new recruits will be the match for Krissy Kobata, a 26-year-old Hapa who needs a bone marrow transplant.

This is the way we swab our cheeks. One Long Beach student works four swabs at the same time. The girls take a more traditional, one-swab-at-a-time approach.

I drove from Long Beach to the Landmark Theatres in West LA to see the screening of Half Kenneth, a beautiful film about two Hapa brothers who become orphans while they're interned at Manzanar during World War II.

Tonight, I'm going to the Mixed and Matched Concert and Bone Marrow Drive at USC and will, once again, join Team Krissy and A3M in recruiting potential donors for the Registry. Hapa Athena Misa's PSA about the need for multi-racial donors will be shown at tonight's event. You can view it here. (Krissy and I are interviewed in the clip. Just don't make fun of my bad-hair day.)

Finally, my new friend Bill and I are co-captains for the Pasadena Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society on May 30-31. Our theme is "Mutts for Marrow," and, once again, our goal is to draw attention to the need to sign up minorities and mixes for the Registry. You don't have to be a mutt or a minority to join us for an hour or for 24 hours during the Relay. And, if you sign up, I may even let you borrow my dog bone tiara.

Shedding Some Light on EOS

Since eosinophilic blood disorders are extremely rare, only a handful of doctors in the country specialize in them. One of them, Dr. Gotlib, is a hematologist with the Stanford Cancer Center. Since I've been itching to take a trip to SF anyway, I decided to combine the getaway with a visit with Dr. Gotlib on April 27.

He'll review a year's worth of my blood charts and my doctor's notes before our appointment next Monday. I'm eager to find out his conclusions and recommendations for a course of action.

I want to get away from the watch, wait, react mode.

In the mantime, I'm still enjoying the extra boost of Prednisone-fueled energy, I'm eating like a horse and I'm not gaining or losing weight. All good things.

It's Cupcake Time

Wouldn't ya' know that the shop that sells the cupcake voted best in Southern California is practically in my back yard.

I'm back on the infamous "booty or bust" tour and, on a quest for calories, I decided to check out Polkatots Cupcakes. Go ahead. Take a sample at Open Mouth, Insert Fork.

Writing While 'Roiding

Last night I slept like a baby for 6.5 blissful, uninterrupted hours.

Darn.

After my near-sleepless but productive Sunday night, I had looked forward to continuing my writing streak. The marketing plan for a non-fiction book. A scene from my much-talked-about (by me) one-woman show. The grocery list. (Hey, with the way I have to eat these days, that's like writing a novella.)

It's probably just as well that I slept through the night. Trish had cautioned me about the possible perils of writing while on a jittery, steroid-induced high. Who knows what edgy, raw drivel I was churning out. But then the jerky wheels began to turn and I thought, "What if I create a flash fiction anthology blog for 'roid writers?"

I'd get submissions from eosinophil sufferers, asthmatics and arthritics, not to mention post-transplant patients. (No ball players; that's a different kind of steroid.) Was I on to something?

No, that just seemed a little too narrow. What if I opened up submissions to all insomniacs? I could call the blog the Night Writers instead of the 'Roid Writers.

Who isn't sleeping these days? The grieving. The lonely hearts. Parents of infants. Parents of teens. Any woman over 50.

And, of course, the crummy economy has been responsible for keeping countless eyes wide open in the middle of the night. A recent story in the LA Times about the growing use of sleeping pills ended with this line from a sleepless college student, "I'm stressed out about the rest of my life."

So, I guess the better question would be, "Who IS sleeping these days?"

Um, that would be me. Even with the 'roids.

Mixed and Matched - Bone Marrow Drive and Hapa Concert on April 24

I love being a hapa (an Asian mutt). It doesn't take long for me to reveal to a new friend that I'm 50% Japanese, 50% Scottish and 100% hillbilly.

So, naturally, I'm excited about attending this FREE concert with all-hapa performers, especially since it's co-sponsored by A3M and will be promoting my pet cause - getting minorities and multi-racials signed up for the National Bone Marrow Registry.

I'd love to have you join me.

Grand Zero Performance Cafe
USC Campus

615 Childs Way

Los Angeles

Positive Side Effects

What do you call those people who fake pain in order to get their doctors to prescribe narcotics?

It would be hard to fake a major spike in eosinophils in order to get a Prednisone prescription, but I can see how it would be tempting to try. This time, I'm riding the wave of the positive side effects of the 'roids.

First of all there's that whole metabolic rate increase. I've lost 3/4 pound while typing this blog post. Not that I need to lose any weight, mind you. In spite of overzealous overeating, I've lost eight pounds in six weeks (five from the EOS and three from three days of 'roids). I obviously need to step up my pig-out pace, and the timing couldn't be better. My refrigerator has become a shrine to all things pork: ham, sausage and bacon are shoulder-to-shoulder. Low fat and no fat products are banned. Sweets are in abundance. (If only I could find the three-pound bag of Jelly Bellies I hid.) Lucky me, and I mean it this time without a trace of irony.

And then there's the insomnia. (Don't be surprised to find me leaving blog or Facebook comments at 2:30 am and then again at 4 am after a 2-hour nap.) I'm not fighting it this time; I'm simply getting things done. Just last night I finished writing the great American novel. Well, at least a flash fiction version of it. I was inspired by pal Paula Johnson's new Rose City Sisters flash fiction anthology blog that launches on May 1.

I started out reading good examples of flash fiction, but those weren't the least bit inspiring. The brilliant stuff made me want to throw in the power cord before my fingers even hit the keys. The bad stuff was an entirely different matter. "This stuff is crap," I thought. "I can do better."

I've completed my 1,000-word submission. It's definitely not brilliant, but I don't think it's crap either. (Alas, it likely fits in that vast wasteland of mediocrity.) But not to worry. Paula points out that the goal is to try something different and to have fun in the process. By that measure, I succeeded.

Now excuse me while I slip downstairs and work on gaining back that 3/4 pound I just lost.