May 5th, 10 days before the kids come to the Hilltribe in the City house, I am leaving and heading to the states for 2 months. I had mixed emotions, I was so excited to see my friends and family but sad that I was going to miss the first few months of the kids being in the house. It was definitely weirded out when I got in to LA, culture shock. It had been close to 2 years since I was in the states. Jenna picked me up, it was so great to see her then we headed right to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, Herb special #2 please, extra hot sauce, AMAZING! The next day, Joanna picked me up, so great to see her too, gotta get a phone then on to Venice Beach…….
When I got to my old hood it was amazing to see everyone and all of the changes there. Wade and Erin left my old place (sad to give that place up) and moved all of my things to their place, thank you guys, I know it was a ton of work. 4 days of seeing people, WARREN and ROSA HAD A BABY and SUSY is PREGNANT! preparing for the East coast and planning all kinds of sales and yard sales since I needed to get rid of everything.
The East coast was amazing, my folks look great. I got to see so many people, met tons of new people and reconnected with family. My buddy Jim from Blue Plate in Jersey let me plan a fundraiser at his place. We had a blast finding all of the ingredients and cooking all kinds of Thai food for the event. We had 47 people, food, raffles slide shows, and stories about all the kids here, it was a great night, I even had a friend from college drive all the was from Connecticut for it. Thanks Mikey and thanks to Jim and Michelle for the use of Blue Plate and all ou always do for me. Then I was back to Delaware to speed more time with my folks and more planning for the Philly fundraiser.
That was another great event, it was at the White Elephant. They gave us an amazing deal and 68 people came. A big thanks to my folks for calling a bunch of friends too. It was like being on This is Your Life, everyone was there. My third grade teach, friends that I have not seen in as many as 25 years and several new people were there to support the cause too. Also other friends from college, Anna, Joe and Leslie. Some friends even helped by getting me a projector and raffle prizes. It was just the best, we got to catch up but sad we did not have more time together, they were so great to show up and support, www.hilltribeinthecity.org.
One more day to see people and it’s back to LA to sell the rest of my things and have a fundraiser at the new Bodega, in Hollywood. The yards sale were great, friends came by and also sold things and donated the money to our cause. I also got to go cook for Larry Hahn again, I was his chef for 9 years. Larry and a friend of his each us a huge donation, thank you, thank you, thank you, we are so grateful. Fun, fun, fun everyday and planning for Bodega. For this one we had 90 people and everything was donated from Susina Bakery, Bodega Hollywood, Adam, Wade, the Bodega crew as well as all that gave raffle prizes. The Farm, DNA Studio, Greenhouse Smoke Shop, Aunt Jackie, Casey, Westside Tavern, Jar, Susina Bakery, thank you so much. I raised much more money then I thought I would. THANK YOU SO MUCH everyone that came out to support us.
I got to eat well and see so many amazing people, I even got to go to the Conan show. That was sweet, my buddy Mark-Paul was promoting his new TV show and asked me to go watch it live. We got picked up in a really nice car, did the show (backstage and all) then had a great dinner and a bunch of wine, thanks to TNT for that, LOL. Now in between all of the fun, I would talk with Greig and hear how crazy it was at the house. 6 kids starting school, living in a new house, not even speaking Thai that well (they speak Karen, they are Karen children from Northern Thailand). I was excited and nervous to be going back. One last party for the 4th of July at Clubhouse on Venice Beach, the 6th is when I left to go back to Chiang Mai…….
