Tomiko's Blog

I am ready to write to you the day by day adventures of the weekend as well as some added little things leading up to it.

I just HAD to post this picture again, because this really sums up my birthday extravaganza.  This is by far the best birthday ever even with the sad news. I turned it into a positive and it added to the whole celebration.  You will see where I am going with that when you read all of this.  It is hard to believe that I have turned 42 and look at me!  I am still a goofball.  This picture above really sums up my personality. I hope it makes you all smile.

I started celebrating my birthday the week before my trip.  I was spoiled by friends and fans sending bday cards and gifts.  I have so many cards it looks like Christmas time!  It really made me feel special.

I had a friend and fan of mine (Jeffrey) take me out to dinner and he showered me with a ton of sweaters which I so desperately needed.  You can see the pink one in the picture there, and I think I packed three of the sweaters for my trip to Tahoe.  They were very much appreciated since I don’t have any sweaters.  He also gave me a ton more stuff…a very nice leapord print jacket, a calendar…his sister gave me a bunch of jewelry and beautifully wrapped the presents.  She should go into business.  She is very talented.  Jeffrey even surprised me with a big bday cake!!!!  It was way too much for me, so I cut pieces up and gave them to all of my family.  I froze a piece for Jeffrey since I will see him in Feb.

The next day, I went to Bingo with my mom and we won!  How cool is that.  We also had some dinner together.  I really cherish the time I get to spend with my mom.  When I was living in Los Angeles, I was lucky to get back to Las Vegas 2 times a month, so it is a real treat getting to see her so much.  When I am out of town, I miss out but we try for once a week when I am  here.

Thurs night, I found out that my friend Monchai was terminally ill in the hospital.  I was leaving early Fri AM and had planned on seeing him immediately from the airport on Monday.  He didn’t make it, and I found out that he passed away Friday night.  He had been suffering.  His tongue was removed (cancer) and then he was hit with a terrible infection in his chest and was hooked to machines.  Part of me wanted to see him but he wasn’t coherent…then there was the other part of me that didn’t want that to be the last memory of a friend who was so full of life.  I feel bad that I never got to say “Goodbye” but I think he knows I was thinking about him.

It was raining on Friday in the mountains to my dismay.  Went to South Tahoe and gambled 20 bucks on the poker slots then had a really nice dinner at the top of Harrahs.  Got a little bday cake from them.  The food was really good and the view was spectacular.  I wasn’t prepared for a nice dinner so as you can see, I was rather…”Casual” looking.

I was exhausted and went right to sleep.  The next day, it was still raining.   I didn’t want to ski in that and there was snow expected in the later part of the day, so I opted to go shopping and have some drinks.  I wanted to go ice skating, and found out it was an outside rink so they closed it.

Instead I bought this little furry collar thing that goes around your neck.  I am sure you will see it in a future photo shoot.  All my clothes end up in pictures for something. 

I then bought some candles that smelled great and improved the funky smell of the motel I was in.

I also have a fan who has a map on the wall and puts postcards up from places that I go so I had to pick up a bunch of postcards from different places for his collection. That is always fun to do.  Recently I have been picking up magnets from my different adventures, so that was another thing that I picked up.

That night I went to a fondue place.  All I have to say is that it was decadent.  The serving was easily for 4 people.  Please call cheese-1-1  lol  Not 911…cheese-1-1  hahaha  I had to roll out of the restaurant and did the worse thing you can do when I got back to the motel.  I went to sleep!  I couldn’t even finish the nice bottle of wine I had….I was so stuffed!

The next day, I woke up to snow!!!!  I went to Squaw Valley and got on the lifts by 9:30 AM.  There was scattered snow showers and then a full on snow downpour!  It was awesome.  There was all this powder everywhere.  I was in heaven and Monchai was with me that day.

The night before, I asked him if he could make it snow that night, and I think he was listening.

That night after skiing until 4:30 PM, I went out to sushi and toasted Monchai.  The owner was super nice and ended up comping a lot of stuff and I even got a t-shirt!

I met a group of people who were also celebrating a birthday and hit a casino with them.  yes, I hopped into a strangers car!  Played some craps got really trashed that night.  I did a toast for Monchai and somehow I was able to get a cab back to the motel!

Had a wonderful breakfast in truckee on the way back to Reno and oh yes..celerating with my Aunt and Uncle at a really nice restaurant before this trip and they gave me some really awesome wall decorations.

I also got a karaoke machine, leapord print pajamas, and killer rabbit slippes (Like the ones from monty python!)

Crazy huh?

Had a birthday dinner with my immediate family Monday night and surprised them all by paying for dinner.  You should have seen the look on their faces!  Priceless!

Going out to dinner with my girlfriend toight for my bday and then will be hanging out with a friend in town for 4 days and going to super bowl party and dinners as well as a comedy show.  I think I can use that.

My friend’s memorial is this Friday and the celebration of life party is that evening.

I am then going to the funeral on Monday.

Those might be the two days that I am not on here, but I guess I wanted to share the good stuff going on as well as the sad stuff.  I know this is a giant blog, but I thought you would like to know what was going on.

I have always lived my life at its fullest, but I think I am going to be making  more efforts in keeping in touch with older friends.  It was a real wakeup call.  We had been talking about getting together for some time and then this happens.  It really makes you think.

Thanks so much for reading and from the bottom of my heart, thanks for being my fans and even more my friends.

xo

Tomiko

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