Exhaling Life

My heart sank. There it was on my iPhone: New York Times headline- Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in the Killing of Breonna Taylor . It took me back to 2020. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd made headlines and triggered Black Lives Matter protests across the nation. Thousands of us marched, raised our fists, shouted Black Lives Matter, kneeled, shouted I can't breathe, and continued to march as we shouted no justice, no peace.  It was the year that made many of us realize that we hadn't changed much since the brutal torture and murder of Emmett Till in 1955. He was only fourteen years old when two white men brutally beat and killed him. There was no justice for Emmett Till 70 years ago. The judge rejected the Justice Department's sentence recommendation of one day and sentenced Brett Hankison to 33 months in prison for violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights. Was it justice?  Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash I...

The word, culling, has been on my mind for several years now. Culling typically refers to how wildlife controls the population. In the broader definition, it is to select from a group, to reduce or control the size of (something, such as a herd) by removal (as by hunting or slaughter) of especially weak or sick individuals. The second definition by Merriam-Webster, to reduce or control the size of by removal of especially weak individuals, reminds me of MAGA's agenda and President Trump's Executive Orders on unlawful entry and unlawful residency, more commonly referred to as illegal immigrants. To pay for the culling, Congress is considering making cuts in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Is that to cull the poor and sick? There is a very clear option of taxing employers who sponsor H1B visas. Thousands of companies sponsor foreign employees because they claim that the knowledge and skills required for the jobs cannot be found among American citizens and Permanent Residents (gre...

I have lived in Los Angeles for more than four decades now. I slept in a van the night following the 1994  Northridge earthquake, which killed 57, injured more than 9,000, and caused over $13 billion in property damages. Some have published economic losses as high as $50 billion. I was no different than many Angelenos. Wildfires and mudslides in our coastal and hillside neighborhoods were inconvenient with indifference. We saw it as a consequence of living with gorgeous views. Wildfires and mudslides must've not been much of a concern for those who bought and resided in high-risk communities. To claim that it was would be obtuse, especially for those who owned properties without homeowner's insurance. That is like driving a car without insurance, even if the state lawfully allowed drivers to drive without insurance.  View of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon  before the fires. I live among Progressives, you know people who claim to care about the environment, inclusiveness, ...

It is my word, civility. Merriam-Webster defines it as courtesy, politeness, a polite act or expression, and training in the humanities. Civility for me means exercising humanity with mindfulness towards others and our sphere. It is such a beautiful word, and I miss it. Not the word, but civility among us. I've been thinking about it quite often, even before former President Trump won the election and his return to the White House became inevitable. It was heartbreaking to watch such a hateful man win this nation's presidential election.  Photo by Logan DeBorde on Unsplash I am not concerned about his plan to deport unlawful residents of this nation. I am concerned that I will be targeted in a massive sweep as a Korean so I will be carrying my United States Passport Card, a federal government issued identification, as proof of my U.S. citizenship. Is it inconvenient? Not at all. It is the size of my California Identification card.  Unlawful residents. I rarely use undocumente...

I get that a lot... Aren't you lonely? Should I be lonely? I live alone. I travel alone. I eat alone, even at the finest restaurants. I go to bars alone although it's rare. I go to the opera alone. I see plays alone. I go to concerts alone. Not always alone, but I am comfortable with being alone... Go, seek, and do it alone. When something I want to do pops up, my instinct is to do it. I rarely have that moment when I am like... I need to find someone to do it with. When I invite others to join me, their presence isn't often required unless you know... It requires a minimum of two people. Rare, but it happens. Lunch for a party of one at Kinkan That word, alone, is misleading. Isn't it? Perhaps, it is how we've been taught to understand that alone means lonely and thus unhappy. Is it unhealthy that I prefer a company of none, often a book at restaurants, rather than a human?  I advocate that it is healthier than developing intimate relationships with an AI. Perhaps,...

It was back in January. I wanted a proper afternoon tea with a book, so I made a reservation for one at The Living Room in The Peninsula Beverly Hills. I sat with Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life and indulged in a lovely afternoon tea until I was surprised by a parade of cakes. I realized that every table was celebrating a birthday, and not another table was being occupied simply to enjoy the afternoon tea. I pondered and smiled at the reminder that I don't save good china for special occasions. Afternoon Tea at The Living Room Special occasions... Those words lingered in my mind. The only thing guaranteed in life from the first breath to the very last breath we take is death. Birth and all the days we lived seem almost infinitesimal compared to today, our present. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." I like that saying, the best present is the present. There are days ...

It is no secret that I am active on Instagram. @foodieExhalingLife on IG is the only social media account I have. I am not on Facebook, X, Thread as much as IG tries to coerce me onto it, and TikTok. I don't have multiple accounts, like private and public. @foodieExhalingLife is a public account. Am I a Digital Creator? No. It is just my iPhone and thumbs doing the work to share life, not something made up for content, but sharing snippets of me and life.  I spend about an hour or so every week, reporting, deleting, and blocking supposedly men on Instagram. I've become quite efficient at it. It is a small, yet annoying, price to pay for having a public account. Despite minimizing its impact, I have wondered about young girls on social media. Are we expecting girls as young as 13 years old to handle sexually aggressive messages, photographs of genitalia (aka dick pics), and links to porn sites? How about those who try to lure you with nauseating sweet talks? Oh and my favorite...

I was recently in Portugal. I stayed in Lisbon, a gorgeous city with winding cobblestone streets, the Tagus River, and a rich history. I fell in love with Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, MAC/CCB Museu de Arte Contemporânea, having raw oysters and Aperol Spritz while taking in the views from Castero De S. Jorge, and devouring Carabineiros from Cervejaria Ramiro featured in Season 8, Episode 4 of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. It was a fabulous trip, including a day trip via train to Porto despite being unbearably packed with tourists. A wine tasting at Taylor's Port Winery in their beautiful garden was a fabulous reprieve after the jammed-packed Livraria Lello, considered one of the most beautiful bookstores. It is a gorgeous bookstore, but you must tolerate an obscene amount of tourists. Lisbon, Portugal And, I realized how crazy the world we live in is. I can't recall the exact date, but I was unwinding from the day, planning for the next, and had CNN on TV in my hotel ro...

This November, millions of Americans will be voting for the next President of the United States. It is no secret that I am neither on Team Biden nor Trump. If you follow my blog and IG stories, you already know that my perspectives align not with a single political party; however, I fluidly align based on what I believe is fair, lawful, and mindful of civility and humanity on topics and issues. I tend to lean towards the traditional Republicans when it comes to fiscal responsibilities of our government while leaning towards the traditional Democrats when it comes to social issues. One thing I will not shed in my perspective on governing and political philosophies is that law and order are required for civility. Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash Just to make it clear, I don't identify today's Republicans and Democrats to be traditional. Both parties are polarized and damaging to this nation.  When Targets and Vons stores of our society have to lock up razors, detergents, sh...

I was coming out of a lovely restaurant in Downtown L.A., Le Petit Paris. My Uber ride was waiting for me across the street... Annoyed that he had parked on the wrong side of a one-way street. And then, there was a homeless man shouting at the car. The driver didn't budge, the car remained in its spot. Did the driver not realize that I would have to be right next to the screaming and clearly emotionally unstable person to get in the car?  As soon as I closed the door, the driver apologized. He wasn't sure if he should even be driving. Right after he had finished his last ride in Old Town Pasadena, a homeless person threw an object at the car and damaged it. He was upset and emotionally shaken. A couple of weeks before, someone threw a brick or something like that at his parked car and broke a window. For a person who drives full-time for ride-share, you can imagine the financial hardship they face when their cars get damaged.  Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash As an Angeleno...

It was the highest-grossing film in 2023. The movie, Barbie, grossed $1.44 Billion and is the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. And, I had skipped it. I had zero interest in seeing the movie and that is tremendous since I collected Barbie dolls in my twenties. I am the generation that played with Barbie dolls and thought our bodies, boyfriends and homes should be like the doll, Ken and its dream house.  Photo by Rubén Bagüés on Unsplash I am not referring to Barbie as she. I outgrew it. Barbie is a doll and thus its dream house, and not her dream house. I read great things about the movie and moments of lessons in the fantasy comedy plot. To this day, even amid allegations of snub and even sexism by the Academy that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were not nominated for the Oscar, I still don't have an interest in seeing the movie. Typically, I would wonder what it is all about and watch the movie. Not with Barbie. A movie and its artistic value, are subjective. Nominations a...

I love that word... et. It means and in French. I'm using it to title this essay, to dress up a dreadful topic. If you follow me on Instagram and are one of my regular viewers of the Stories, then you may have noticed that I stopped reading news for a while. It took me some time to return to my morning routine after headlines of former President Trump and former President Gay had quieted down. Yes, the former President Trump is still making the headlines... I vomited a little in my mouth after he won the Iowa primary. The man has been charged with 91 felonies in four criminal cases. Enough said! Photo by ÉMILE SÉGUIN ✳️✳️✳️ on Unsplash It was simply too much... Two of them at once. Of course, being accused of plagiarism in Academia is serious, especially when you are the president of Harvard University, but Claudine Gay's plagiarism is pale compared to what Donald Trump is accused of.  I won't leave out that former President Gay was also accused of antisemitism remarks du...

On February 24, 2022, the world rose in uproar when Russia invaded Ukraine. The international community came together to provide support and aid... Efforts to raise funds and supplies for Ukraine on Social Media were prominent for weeks and months. While such efforts seem to have faded with time, the war hasn't. By early this year, the war displaced about 16 million Ukrainians, 8 million internally and 8 million having fled the country. Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash United Nations reports that about 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed from the day Russia invaded the country to September 2023. And that number is growing every day. My intention was not to write about Ukraine, but the question that has occupied me since Israel began what seems to be merciless attacks on Gaza. Is there such a thing as humanity in war?  As days became weeks, months and now over a year, the world somehow lost interest in Ukraine and its suffering... Humanity seems to have a short attention sp...

1998! It was many lifetimes ago when Sex and the City entered my life. I've learned, changed, discovered, evolved, and hit the reset button many times since Sex and the City debuted on HBO back in 1998. The person I was then wouldn't recognize today's me, but Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte have remained with me through its six seasons, two movies and... And Just Like That.  Sex and the City fabulously flourished for a quarter of a century as Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte learned, changed, discovered and evolved as all of us did. We empathized with their heartbreaks and celebrated their wins. We saw ourselves in all four women. I saw myself in each of them, at times uncomfortable with the reflection. I haven't always agreed with the stories they told... I couldn't understand how Carrie, who had romanticized Paris, didn't go to Paris until Aleksandr invited her. She was in Paris, but she settled herself to be lonely and bored. I always wondered ...