Lola Kuida-Osumi turned me into a dog lover. We met Lola in June 2018 when we dogsat for her. My friends Ernie Yoshikawa and Nayon Kang were her foster familia who trusted and encouraged us to take her into our family. I was allergic to dogs and not fond of them at all but Maiya always wanted a dog. We watched her - couple more times before adopting her as a senior dog in September 2018. She was sweet, quirky, stubborn, and silly. She didn’t ever bark or complain and was always happy and content. We have so many funny stories of how she ripped up our curtains while a guest in our house and we adopted her anyways. A few days after we got her, she tore into Maiya’s lunch box on the floor and ate half a burrito and not knowing any better, I took the day off from work and sat with her outside all day working on the porch waiting for her to barf it up (she didn’t). Or the time she pulled a new bag of $17 Dashi off the shelf and I thought she would die of sodium intake. She graciously and patiently accepted Max into our lives in 2021 as he ran circles around her.
KuidaOsumi's Alternative Blog
Jenni, Tony & Maiya's Alternative Blog for Peace and Justice, Friends, Family & Community.
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Loving Lola
Lola Kuida-Osumi turned me into a dog lover. We met Lola in June 2018 when we dogsat for her. My friends Ernie Yoshikawa and Nayon Kang were her foster familia who trusted and encouraged us to take her into our family. I was allergic to dogs and not fond of them at all but Maiya always wanted a dog. We watched her - couple more times before adopting her as a senior dog in September 2018. She was sweet, quirky, stubborn, and silly. She didn’t ever bark or complain and was always happy and content. We have so many funny stories of how she ripped up our curtains while a guest in our house and we adopted her anyways. A few days after we got her, she tore into Maiya’s lunch box on the floor and ate half a burrito and not knowing any better, I took the day off from work and sat with her outside all day working on the porch waiting for her to barf it up (she didn’t). Or the time she pulled a new bag of $17 Dashi off the shelf and I thought she would die of sodium intake. She graciously and patiently accepted Max into our lives in 2021 as he ran circles around her.
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Happy (Lunar) New Year 2022!
Happy (Lunar) New Year! 11 more months of 2022! Maiya is now 17 years old, not quite sure how that happened so fast.
Clockwise from top right: Lola ❤️ Max (adopted in April). Jenni’s contribution to Auntie Sewing Squad book. Xmas 2021. Jenni/Tony’s 26th 1st date Anniversary. Maiya & Jenni @ BTS concert. K-O Fam on Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Farewell to the Auntie Sewing Squad
Thursday, April 01, 2021
Memories with Auntie
Auntie Keiko Kuida passed away at the age of 82. She has been present my whole life. From middle school when I was the only person in the family to fit her shoes, I became the happy recipient of her love of shopping, and her generosity, especially shoes, clothes, purses and jewelry.
When I started working in Inglewood in the 1980s, we would meet for pizza on Fridays. She was an avid bowler, golfer and gambler, who loved the race tracks and Vegas, lover of cats, and was an enthusiastic Tweety Bird, Peanuts, and Beanie Babies collector. When we started carpooling to family gatherings and driving her to doctors appts, at night or long distances, she would show up at our house an hour or two early, sometimes we’d still be sleeping.
She was a breast cancer survivor, and a fighter. A Nisei, she was born on a canteloupe farm in Canoga Park, incarcerated as a child in Gila River, Arizona during WW2, before moving with her family to the Seinan/Crenshaw area in LA. She attended 6th Avenue School, Foshay Jr High and Dorsey High School. After she retired from the Gas Company where she worked over 30 years, she worked at Eddie Bauer folding clothes and spending way more money than she earned, and also worked for her dear friend Mary at Tak’s Coffee Shop in Crenshaw Square.
Until the pandemic, she would play cards with her friends Katsu and Fujio every Friday night, and have breakfast with other friends in The Breakfast Club on Saturdays and Sundays, and regular lunches with her friend (over 50 years) Kayko from the Lunch Bunch. Maiya has grown up with her in our lives, with Auntie picking her up from school and afterschool programs, attending her basketball games, Nihon Buyo, karate, taiko and flute performances, and for that I am really happy and grateful.
During the pandemic, I became her shopper both online and in person, and in January she started needing help more and more. On February 3rd, she had another eye surgery, but her troubles breathing quickly took over as she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I moved my remote work space from my living room to her kitchen, helping her to adapt to make her home safe for walker and wheelchair, dealing with a host of home maintenance issues, and started staying at her home daily for longer and longer hours. We brought in her friend Linda in the afternoons to help with meals and housekeeping as it became too much for me working full time plus.
After almost a week in the hospital for procedures, I moved in with her March 1st as her primary caregiver and started staying with her weekdays and weeknights about 20 hours a day, with Tony and my siblings Darin and Gayle rotating 24 hour shifts on weekends. A few weeks ago we also brought in our young friend Joanna to help in the mornings as well. UCLA Home Health came in and became our lifeline of support sending nurses Pam, Hannah, Addie, Rebecca, Dr. C, Lillian and Claudia, social worker Luis, and physical therapists Audra and Alecsee who came, called or texted almost daily, who trained me on draining her chest catheter, and taught us about patient care as things progressed and her needs changed.
Last week I went camping for a couple days of r&r with help from my whole family. The night I came back I called 911 for the 4th and last time since January. Hospice came on Wednesday morning and she passed later that night, at home as she wanted, having talked to and had visits from several close friends and family in her last few weeks. Grateful to her and my friends, coworkers, family, her doctors, and her neighbors Argentina and Kent for so much support over these last few months.
Love ❤️ to Auntie. She will be missed.
Friday, January 01, 2021
Happy New Year - Masking Up for 2021
Mask Up 4 the 2021 New Year.
Jenni (56), Tony (53), Maiya (almost 16), Lola (~11)
Left Center: Tony & Maiya co-emcees for LA Day of Remembrance in Little Tokyo, Feb 2020; Bottom Left at Culver City 4 Black Lives March, June 2020; Top Right at Protect the Results March with Nikkei Progressives in DTLA on Nov 7th. Bottom: Artwork by Tony, 1000 Facemasks by Jenni.
Saturday, November 28, 2020
First Time Baking Pumpkin Pies | Episode 3
Episode 3 of “Building Immunity and Community” with me and Maiya attempting pumpkin pie and bad puns with guest food critic Tony, edited by Maiya on Tony’s iPad Pro.
Wednesday, January 01, 2020
Happy New Year 2020
UTLA Teachers Strike
Kuida-Osumi Anniversary dinner at Roy’s
Never Again is Now: Protesting Fort Sill (former and proposed concentration camp)
Manzanar Pilgrimage 2019
Lola camping
Maiya 8th grade graduation, one of 17 valedictorians
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
Happy New Year 2019
Photos from 2018:
Top left: Jenni and Tony’s 20th anniversary picnic (August)
Top right: Adopted Lola Kuida-Osumi (September)
Bottom right: Women’s March starting from Little Tokyo (January)
Bottom center: LA Teachers March and Rally DTLA (Nov/Dec?)
Bottom left: Picking up Maiya from Tech Trek girls Science camp at UCSD, Mecha Mural)
Monday, January 01, 2018
Sunday, January 01, 2017
Friday, January 01, 2016
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Memories of Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015)
Tuesday Night Café, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Goodbye to Nancy
The two girls holding this sign, Olivia and Maiya were born during the making of this mural in 2004 and 2005. Maiya helped by placing her finger on the flame of a candle lit.. Olivia's actual image is in the mural, the baby sitting next to the Little Tokyo sign, under Nancy's image as a Bombu taiko player. Nancy loved babies and children, and this picture was taken for her last month in August 2014.
Everyone loved Nancy... and Jtown just won't be the same without her spark and enthusiasm.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Grandpa Don’s Dogs
Grandpa Don passed away on April 11th. We were fortunate that we got to travel with him twice last year, a week in Kalamazoo Michigan, and camping up at Lake Tahoe last summer. He found out he was sick in October 2013. We were able to visit with him at home in Idaho last Thanksgiving and in March/April, less than two weeks before he passed away. He was a good man, and one thing for sure, he loved Tony's mom Fran, more than anything.
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Friday, August 30, 2013
First time camping
Maiya's first time camping. We went up to Fallen Lake Campground near Lake Tahoe in August in the Prius. That was pretty cool. We drove up in a thunderstorm all up the 395 and through the mountains to Tahoe. When we got there, a flood had gone through our Campsite. We met Tony's Mom and Don, along with their friends Gretchen and Bill, who fed us and took care of us, and made Maiya's first camping trip an easy one. After 2 nights camping, Tony flew up and met us in Tahoe and we spent 2 nights in Tahoe relaxing and hanging out before driving back home.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Kalamazoo Trip
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Children's Day @ School 2012
1st and 2nd grade girls |