Tricia is Awesome!

Tricia your are the most exciting and sweet person i have ever met. When i think about you i smile and think to myself, she is so crazy and cool, i love this girl. I keep remembering our crazy yogurt outings in San Diego…miss you girl 

(I am landing from Ireland to NYC tonight on your special day.  I wish I could be sitting with you having a drink and dancing the celebration of YOU! But instead I can only send this letter as a replacement of me next to you on your special day.)

On April 25th 1980: Tricia Wang,  Emilia Wiles’ sister and kindred spirit was born. 

I remember when I first met you in 2005(or 04?). I hated you. Then I turned out to absolutely love you.  I think I first hated you because I saw myself in you and I was threatened by such strength, beauty, brains, humor and fun all in one package. But then I realized I finally found my match!  It was too good to be true!! We were unstoppable from that point on.

Memories that made me love you more and more:

• Driving through Chinatown on Canal Street and  dumb teenage ghetto girls hit my car with their hands.  Tricia was on the phone with Kenyatta’s mom, “Um, I’m going to give you a call in 5 minutes.  Something came up…”  Tricia runs to back of car for a bat proceeding to chase girls around chinatown to teach them a lesson)

July 26, 2006

7pm  SoyluckClub in West Village: showed off new pants, bootcamp barf

8pm dinner at the beautiful outdoor garden at La Lanterna Caffe, 129 MacDougal St (At 3rd St): graduate school, heterosexuality, gabe tolliver, bling, geeks, wil’s block party, parsons, academia, legs down of chair

10pm breathing break in the middle of West 4th’s empty basketball courts, beggers who wear new nike sneakers, IFC, drummer, B&T girls coming to the city to party

10:30pm Subway Ride Home: Emilia’s loving the train now!

11pm Visit to BKNY club at 887 Fulton to see Jon Oliver DJ

11:30 beer on Emilia’s stoop: starlight vacation, uruguay

• Our NYC subway train birthday party with May babies: you, me and Gabe…May 2005

Monkey in NYC adventures!

2007: Tricia teaches Emilia about red toenail polish- Strong and passionate women wear red.  We wear our pussies on our toes.  Emilia hasn’t changed her toe color ever since….
.

Tricia found out that she was going to graduate school. We were all having dinner and Emilia’s Mom to Tricia: “Whatever you do, DO NOT go to grad school for SOCIOLOGY!  I did it and it was a WASTE OF MY TIME!!”

Tricia: “oops.”

• T: “I will TOTALLY get you a Gucci fannypack!  Come to Chinatown with me!”
• E: “How am I sitting in an underground Gucci fannypack export room with illegal Gucci’s smuggled out of some random Gucci factory that end up on my hip for $20.  I love Tricia!”

• 2009: Tricia and Emilia go on their first official vacation to Mexico.  They dance on abandoned beaches- completely free from humanity and stress.  They eat Elote in Mexico’s pueblo parks on benches in summer breezy nights.  They go to the local popsicle stand and eat their ritualistic Mexican popsicles, smiling and laughing through the streets of the Mexican town.  They sit in their hammocks and on the porches of their bed and breakfast overlooking the Mexican sea, smelling fresh air with a beautiful breeze, laundry hanging to dry and reading and sipping wine- pure relaxation for them both- for the first time…..more photos

April 25th, 2010 : Tricia turns 30, and embarks on a new period in her life.  Emilia reflects and celebrates Tricia in her life and is so thankful she met her.

Tricia you are an amazing soul and extremely special and unique. I am proud of you and inspired by you in so many ways I can’t even list!  You changed and continue to rock my world. I am so thankful I have you!

I love you!!! xoxoxo

Now go get those dancing shoes on and cut a rug (even if it’s your bedroom rug)! MUAH!

Here’s a t-shirt that I silk-screened for you!

  

from Emilia Wiles

To Tricia my green twin sister:

I can’t remember the first time we met. WHY? Because Normita and Leah had been assuming for months that I knew you, so, they would always tell all this stories about you and your fabulousness and your craziness.

Every time I am with you I think I am able to say one or two sentences because I am just laughing uncontrollably all the time. Your craziness always made me look NORMAL and I appreciate that!

I think my favorite memory of you is actually one that you are not even physically in the room. You had asked my little sister Karen to help you transcribe some of your audio recording from Mexico. And I just remember her sitting in front of a computer and every other 5 minutes she will just start laughing. I, of course, had little faith that she was doing the work that she was suppose to do so I scolded her. It turns out that she was transcribing your recordings and that every other tape ended with “TENGO HAMBRE” “DONDE HAY COMIDA” and I guess that when you thought that someone could share some sympathy you would ask them “¿QUIERES COMER?”.

Well, and how could we forget the time that you were almost mistaken for a child molester in Mexico. La BRUJA de los… (story below).  Well, I guess that story we will leave it for some other time. But in all seriousness, I LOVE YOU!!! You have guided me through relationships and career paths, and you will always be in my heart. Thank you for being in my life!

Hey Below is the story that Grecia is referring to me being a child molester. This is a section out of my fieldnotes - tricia. 

“I was giving Chinese translated names to the kids. For example, I call Martin Mamatini as a nickname. The sound “Ma” in Chinese can mean horse or mother or yelling, depending on the tone. So I told him that his Chinese Spanish name is “Mama-Caballo-tini” which means “Horse-Mother-tini.”  Well this was a great source of entertainment for the children. For example - Miguel’s name was Arroz de Perro (Dog Rice), Leah’s name was Floja (Lazy), Sagraria name’s was Arena de Pato (Duck Sand) and Gauvain’s name was Alto Fuerte (Tall and Strong).

When it came to my turn, I translated my name to “”Bruja de Huevos” (Witch of Eggs). When I heard the kids laugh I was encouraged by this translation and thought that I came up with a funny one!  So I went with it and said,

“Soy la bruja de huevos, y vengo en la noche y voy a sacar los huevos de los ninos y comerlos!”  That just almost killed the kids and that is when Leah, who was sitting across the street in front of the agenica overheard what I said and screamed out in English, “Stop Tricia – Huevos also means balls – the boys are laughing that you are saying that you are a Witch of Male Testicles!”

I almost died! Because here I was, sitting in front of the freaking agencia and screaming in Spanish,

“I am the witch of male testicles, I come in the night and I will take out the balls of children and eat them!”  I didn’t just say TAKE using the verb “tomar” – I said TAKE OUT with the verb “sacar” which made it even worse – because it sounded more like I was going to extract the testicles out of male children. HOW HORRIBLE OF ME! Ohhh the stories that I could tell of learning a language.”

Tricia,

I first met you the night of January 30th, 2006. I was meeting up Kenyatta for the very first time (in real life!) for coffee in Santa Monica. I remember feeling very intimidated by his super-pretty and stylish girlfriend, because that is the kind of person you have always been. Beautiful inside and out, you exude this brilliant self-confidence that I admire so much.

Fast forward several years and tons of IM conversations later… I was accepted to UCSD’s undergraduate Communication department and you were working on graduate coursework there. You graciously offered your home as a place to stay so I could visit the campus. You gave me all the inside dirt on the program and you introduced me to great people (hi Adriene!). You even showed me where to find the best breakfast burrito (Dos Brasas, yeahhhh!).

That night gave rise to my greatest memory with you, and the one I immediately thought of for this project: our PhotoBooth marathon! We took so many pictures and all the while we couldn’t stop laughing… so much so that it caught the attention of your roommate and it turned into an all-out WAR!


I feel like I’ve learned so much from you already in our short time as friends, Tricia. When we hang out, I’m reminded of how to be a strong, self-confident, intelligent woman. You inspire me! Thank you Tricia for being a wonderful friend and like another older sister in my life to look up to. I love you!

Some other fun memories we’ve shared!

• Getting waffles with you, KC, and the Metcalfs at Roscoe’s and horrifying the other patrons with FOOD DEMOLITION DERBY 2007 WRAGHHH!!

• Harassing Eric in Mandarin late, late, late after KC’s birthday in New York.

Marveling at your amazing folding bicycle and ROFL-ing at your effort to break your own speed-folding record. “Tricia bought a skater’s helmet instead of a walnut-y bicyclist helmet because she equates square inches with safety.” -KC  More links to Tricia’s folding bike.

from annieisms:

Tricia,

We’ve experience so much together that it’s difficult for me to pick one story.

But my heart is melted whenever I think about how you treated my mom and my grandma. Many people find it boring to spend time with older people, but you somehow have the patience to talk with them, do fun things with them and make them happy.

You make me want to be a better son, a better grandson, and a better friend of course.

I’m so happy you are coming to China soon, I need your passion, wisdom and love to change my life one more time!

Jin Ge

our times together in beijing, shanghai clubs, traveling in china, karoke in shanghai, karoke in san diego, and wuhan w/ lao liu, w/ tony in wuhan, and san diego porch soirees

Only one memory? Impossible!

My memory for your birthday is titled: Some Adventures of Two Old Chinese Ladies

Traveling: Tricia packs SO MUCH LUGGAGE! Me with my backpack and Tricia with huge suitcases running and screaming through Indian train stations.

Eating: “I have deep gums”, Tricia yells as I remove food from her teeth over and over again

At the grocery store: Arguing over where the produce section is and bumping into things with the shopping cart while we fight over which way to go.

Finagling discounts: While getting a relaxing facial in a dark room with soft music playing, I hear someone ‘shoutwhispering’ my name. Of course, it it Tricia who is infuriated over her service and tells me how she got us a 15% discount by threatening the owner of the salon with a bad review in Vogue on Indian day spas.

At the movies: Tricia screams during the trailers if they are for an action movie startling everyone around her.

Dancing: In our hotel dancing to Bollywood music blaring from our TV after drinking Indian whiskey and driving the autorickshaw back ourselves.

Cooking: Tricia doesn’t but is great fun trying to teach her! We only had one cooking lesson, mussels and wine sauce, after which she nearly burned down Kenyatta’s kitchen trying to make it…

Working: We seem to use lots of curse words when talking about technology, development, and all the bad work that gets lots of attention. Aside from this, Tricia’s amazing wealth of sources, willingness to share them, and assurance that it is not me…but always them ;) is what helps get through these awful dark dark days of research.

When there is a Tricia around there is surely sunshine and wonderful adventures. Not just any Tricia but the laughing, jumping, screaming, dancing Tricia with food in her teeth ;) who is never far away no matter what the distance.

Happy Birthday my dear, I hold very dear the opportunity to have such adventures with you and know that you will have many more exciting and wonderful developments this year because YOU ARE AWESOME and that is what happens to awesome people!

Love you…Big hug and happy happy birthday!!

Love,

Shannon

Photos and Videos of our time through India in 2008 - Bangalore -Chennai
learning how to eat rice with fingers, getting mahindi, getting photographed for the Chennai Times, hanging out with Ravi, meeting strangers, at the chaotic train station, and driving a rickshaw

you are indeed awesome. you’ve been a breath of fresh air blowing through the —world of nokia. your energy has been infectious, inspirational, and apparently… intimidating.

in the short time i’ve known you, you’ve introduced me to so many wonderful things:

rupaul’s drag race!
terra plana shoes!
mendeley!
the perfect man!

you’re a woman with taste who lacks pretension. i exaggerate only slightly when i say, i’d trust you to pick out my mate AND name my firstborn.

you get shit done.

you’re one of those rare people who try to truly understand the perspective of those who are unlike yourself.

i love that you question the conventional, the powers that be, and our own responsibility for the world we help to create.

that’s all off the top of my head, and i’m sure i’ll have even more appreciation of you in another week :)

From Janet

hey tricia,

hmm, i reckon you will always be in my life.  i just heard from antwuan that you two are are rooming together in cali.  you hung out with my friend kavitha in china.  i was talking about you to mitty owens the other nite at an event in nyc.  you’re global girl!

i hesitate to liken you to a car part, but you are a sparkplug.  own it:)  thanks for all your help with freeDimensional and all you encouragement on the PhD.

Mitty and I agreed the other nite that it is hard to reach you sometimes b/c just when we are learning what we think is the latest technology, you are already on to the next new thing … and then if we don’t think that we can telekinetically-beam-chat-on-the-triplex-interface-using-calspan-gigawatt-virtual-immaterial-cranial-plugs, you convince us that we can!

Tricia, happy birthday.  Here’s some pix from the eyebeam project we did w/ Bedford Academy when the students re-branded Bed-Stuy.  WORK!

From Todd Lester

  

Hey Girl

I realize that our friendship is sparsely documented in photos - something i hope we can change once we are in the same place for more time. But from the moment we started working together at the very beginning of my time at the Queens Museum, where you brought so much energy and love (and patience!) to the youth at Leadership Through the Arts program’s video production class, I knew we were destined to be good friends, comrades, sounding boards, and allies in this life.

  

Not many folks can match me in my overworkedness, peripateticness, and general life craziness, but you definitely can - and go one further!  I’ve always known that you’d be someone I’d go back to over and over again to check-in with on how to manage self-care, love, work, travel, and growth. I sometimes think of you as a sister from a different mister…

Whether over afterwork “snacky bits” and wine in my roof garden, girl’s nights outs of brownbagging on stoops and dancing with abandon at bembe, or just a impromptu but intense power-lunches in your apartment, I’ve come to cherish the quality over quantity- nature of our time together.  And in that time, I’ve been proud to witness your personal development, immense strength, boundless enthusiasm, and dead-on analyses of just about everything from how to deal with family issues to fashion titicacas to limited luggage space!

I also love your mischievous side, from getting me to partipate in your wolf hat escapades or scheming with my partner to provide the perfect ruse for my surprise 30th birthday party - you’ve shown me that fun is an essential part of a life well lived.

It’s also been important to see how you’ve touched so many young peoples lives across the world and introduced them to me - from Mr. Mims to Jesus en Mexico. The importance of networking, skills-sharing, and just being present as forms of nurturing and building have not been lost on me and how I approach my community development work.


Most importantly, you’ve always given me optimism that not only can we survive all the hardships that life inevitably throws our way, we can turn them into real learning opportunities that make us even more fierce and generous people. And more recently, I really can’t thank you enough for trusting in me and helping me take the leaps of faith that will set me off on my next adventures in the middle of the pacific.  You’ve shown me how to live fully in heart and mind.  Regardless of whether we see or talk to each other in one month or five, I can think of no one else I’m more fortunate to have as a guide and protector than you, and you should feel the same about what you can expect from me.  I hope that you can sense all the love and respect I’m sending you from the other side of the country. You’re a class act in every regard, my dear.

Happy, happy birthday Tricia!

Un abazo fuerte,

Prerana

From Prerana Reddy