what a difference

feeling very good this morning.

went to bed around 11pm last night and got up at 7am and went for a run. warmed up sufficiently by the 2nd mile so i didn't notice the chill and my fingers were no longer numb. had a healthy breakfast, showered up, and was only a few minutes late to work.

it's amazing what a good nights rest and a little exercise can do for the spirits.

fat tuesday! will hang out with debs and q2 for a bit before heading home. don't want to stay out too late so i have time to plan the weekend with my family.

in celebration of mardi gras:

Meet Katrina Levy
Drunk girl #1: I have so many beads.
Drunk girl #2: Stop showing your tits!
Drunk girl #1: I can't!
--Mars 2112 ladies' room, 51st & Broadway
Overheard by: Lauren Lerner

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/004619.html

made it to gawker stalker

http://www.gawker.com/news/stalker/gawker-stalker-colin-farrells-holy-triumviratela-esquina-scores-unidentified-east-village-apartment-157196.php

long weekend

felt like a very long weekend. reluctantly went out with the girls friday night in the LES. went to china one and people. made friends with the bar owner at china one- seemed like a cool cat. unfortunately we had to leave on the early side as the bar/restaurant was raided by cops. . ok, slight exaggeration.. more like an "inspection" that ended with them telling the owner that they did not have certification for basement occupancy and made everyone clear out. it was all kind of surreal. the lights came on and the cops were posing for photos with skimpily clad women.

people didn't really strike my fancy. surprising number of asians there. the male:female was kind of overwhelming and i felt bombarded by drunk, asian american men with thick brooklyn accidents. . .like i said, surreal night. happy to leave around 2AM.

saturday consisted of cleaning and a trip to IKEA with nels and george. nels moved the last of his things out and k-flo stopped by with her pops to install a door. i was pretty exhausted, so after grabbing dinner with the boys at Panera and helping to move the cats, i went home and crashed.

spent sunday morning cleaning, organizing, & rearranging my room. too cold to go out, so i mostly chilled at home. did manage to go to tops and buy food to make dinner for the week. i cooked dinner for the new roomie and i- after trying to meet up for the past couple weeks, it was nice to finally sit down and talk.

all in all, an eventful weekend with a lot of changes. . .

a little laugh to take away your monday blues

a lil short called "yellow fever". . .

http://www.youtube.com/v/5HITeEV8y10

don't know if i agree about everything- i myself prefer less hair on men. . and the majority of my male relatives (including my brother) are asian men that have successfully landed caucasian partners. . . nevertheless. . .an amusing watch.

exploring willie-b

feeling a bit tired/hung-over from last night and obviously struggling to focus on work!

last night was lots of fun. VK and i met up at bozu for dinner.

http://www.nymetro.com/nymag/columns/barbuzz/16003/

have been meaning to try it for some time and was glad i finally had- and it met if not surpassed expectations. it's a japanese restaurant known for their small plates and "sushi bombs" (essentially like sashimi but it's a round ball of rice) and shochu. thumbs up for the decor and ambience: dim (just enough to be flattering and not so much that you can't see your food), romantic, and cozy. all the waitresses and sushi chef were japanese which were good signs.

i ordered the chef's recommended appetizer- salmon sushi topped with sea urchin. . .( sea urchin is hard to get right, it must be very fresh to be good), raw scallop dish marinated in a zesty citrus sauce, and a unagi sushi bomb. paired with some excellent sake and VK's lovely company, i was a very happy woman.

after dinner, we walked over to black betty to have a drink. some joe-shmoe tried to pick up my girl. . .he seemed harmless and wasn't overbearing. . .george and nels eventually showed up just as VK was preparing to head back home. the boys and i stayed for a round and then went to spike and divel across the way. . .interesting place. . great beer selection if you are into beer. . after i could drink no more, we headed out.

tonight am having a late dinner with Q2 at sushi seki. supposed to have phenomenal sushi. . ahh, i can never get enough of the stuff. don't know if i'll have the energy to go out afterwards. . . wouldn't mind just going home and crashing. will be a busy weekend with k-flo moving in.

celeb spotting and more

goin to break the usual routine to describe my first celeb spotting since movin to nyc.

was standing in line to return some jeans at the levi's store on broadway and spring when i noticed a beautiful, petite young woman talking with the salespeople. she looked a bit timid and shy meanwhile exuding the whole "is anyone looking at me" vibe which made me think it was a celeb. after a couple seconds of staring i realized it was winona ryder - yes- there was even eye contact! sans make up, she is even more gorgeous in person than in the movies. no diva either- the salespeople were raving about how nice and sweet she was. she's one of my favorite actresses so it was a very cool spotting.

in any case, i returned to my mission of finding a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of black jeans. the ones i had ordered online were not the right size. i loaded up on different styles and sizes to figure out what size fits best. i asked a salesperson for help and she directed me to the back of the store where the fitting rooms were. they had a huge contraption- the intellifit- that scans your body and tells you what sizes fit you at their store.

http://www.intellifit.com/Intellifit/Home.aspx

don't know if i find the results credible though. . according to the machine, i was a zero in all the different styles. my first reaction was- wow, that's nice. . . until i realized it is probably vanity sizing and i was sad that levi's has resorted to using that tactic. . i mean, gap/BR/j crew- sure. . but levi's??

finding the silver lining

tuesday morning started off well. went for a nice long run to venice beach and back. spent a little time dishing with eul before getting ready.

but then, started getting annoying texts from D asking me why i wasn't at work. . hell-o! i asked off two weeks ago!! obviously K didn't remember that and was pissed. . wanting to savour the rest of my vacation, i put it out of my mind and finished cleaning up and packing.

AH picked me up and we went to a cute cafe for brunch. as usual the conversation was stimulating. sigh- too little time to really catch up with everyone. . .

in any case, i made my flight on the nick of time and was even able to buy some magazines before boarding. the flight was fine- slept a little, read a little, etc and before i knew it i was back in NY. nels picked me up and after dropping some things off at his new digs and hanging out with his new roommate, we went to the grocery store and he cooked dinner. D had been texting me throughout the day, telling me how upset K was and his accusation that i had made it all up.

that really got me worked up and i was basically ready to quit. tired of the commute, less than great pay, lack of breaks, and K's moods. unfortunately, he beat me to it. as i was checking emails, i saw a short note from him saying he didn't think i was a good match with his business and my last check would be mailed to me. no explanation. no phone call.

it's like a break up. even though you were going to break up with the other person, it sucks to be he one that was dumped. so i've been coolin off for the past day and a half and think i am now sufficiently calm to write him an email back.

on the bright side, i've been meaning to look for a new job after valentines day at a florist closer to home. . . K's email just gave me the little push i needed to keep moving forward in my goals. so today i plan to get myself organized and tonight i'll get some downtime with my girl VK.

chill day

los balcones del peru was incredible!!! the food was amazing and the price was perfect ($15 per head including alcohol and we couldn't even finish everything). started with ceviche and calamari. main dishes included a lightly battered and fried white fish accompanied with mashed rice and beans, beef in a soy sauce/lime marinade, and a mix of seafood in a wonderful sauce.

afterwards, we went temple bar which is normally great for live music. there was a very good R&B group, the lead singer had an amazing voice. unfortunately, i had hoped for something more upbeat to help me fight tiredness (not enough sleep and too much good food). i guess the others felt the same because one by one, everyone but eul and i hung around until after 1pm. finally e picked up up and we met up with conroy and the rest of the latins at a house party. was much better vibe and music.

by 2 something i was exhausted and eul and i headed home. we chatted for awhile and fell asleep. next morning woke up late and went for a run. showered then met up with e for lunch.

drove out to san gabriel to my favorite vietnamese restaurant- my ngoc- and chowed down on delicious & cheap food. hit the spot and reminded me how much the west coast rocks in terms of asian food. after that drove back to venice and went to a cute store i'd run by a couple times "anonymous" for some retail therapy. then we went back to e's and chilled until it was time to meet up with conroy for dinner.

drove out to silverlake area and had a drink at an irish pub then headed to "the kitchen" for dinner. it was great to sit and catch up with conroy. hadn't seen him in a year since he was doing field work and when he got back to LA i had already moved to NYC. after dinner, met up with eul at saints and sinners where i got my 2nd wind and made friends with tenessee & n-fil.

woke up this morning and realized that i had left my long sleeve black shirt at the bar. . . it's getting to be a bad habit.

the pleasures of LA

landed around 11:15PM and e was there to pick me up. hadn't eaten much besides a small fruit & cheese snack box on the plane ride so e and i headed to father's office to grab a late bite. unfortunately, by the time we got there the kitchen had closed. so we headed to swingers instead where i had a yummy tuna melt and part of e's nachos.

around 2AM got back to e's place and promptly crashed. this morning, woke up to rainy skies (rain in LA!!! the one weekend VK and i visit LA and there's rain!). called eul and she picked me up. . .we sat and talked for 2 hours and the suddenly the clouds parted and it had become a beautiful, warm sunny day. i decided to go for a run and had a great run to venice beach and back aided by a sweet new playlist(thanks nels). while the run on venice blvd was less than inspiring, it was a beautiful thing to walk around the beach a little and see the ocean again.

got back and showered up quickly. called maekre and decided to go to my old digs on sawtelle. i was astounded by the changes. a couple standbys (the sushi restaurant with no name and the red neon "sushi" sign) had closed and some new places had opened. went to hide for a small bite to eat and then did a little browsing at the boutiques there.

now, about to head out to a peruvian restaurant with a big group and go out drinking/dancing after. should be a blast. . .

much needed respite

last night i was at work until close to 8pm. not that late all things considering- it was just a more stressful day than it needed to be. ended up having to cancel my plans with kflo and rescheduling for next week. stopped by the grocery store and went to move my car for street cleaning only to find a parking ticket and no good parking spots.

turns out i had parked next to a fire hydrant but didn't realize it because of the huge mounds of snow on the sidewalks. pretty f-ed up. . but guess that's life. not that i'm bitter or anything but i just have to say that there are far too many fire hydrants in williamsburg!!

got home and had a glass of malbeck trapiche and cooked a simple dinner of pasta with shrimp, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach in a garlicy wine sauce. halfway through packing i took a break to watch the diversity episode of the office (love love that show!) with nels. then resumed packing.

left early to get to work to finish thing up before my trip to hel-lay!! i couldn't sleep that much because of the anticipation. . should be fabulous!

valentines day- a success

in total we had over 140 valentines day orders. it was pure madness- the three of us were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. . and as soon as you start getting into a groove with making arrangements, it's time to answer the phone or help a customer. . can i tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than last minute orders, customers that expect you to drop everything and have their order done within - oh let's say, 5 minutes (and had they had some foresight maybe they could have ordered it a couple days ago, hello!), the drivers getting an attitude with you, and people getting mad that their deliveries weren't made by a certain time even though we do not guarantee delivery times.

but somehow we managed to make it through and i was out the door by 7:15pm. not too shabby. best of all- i was able to do some cool arrangements- respite from the standard dozen red roses in a vase.

by the time we were done, i was just ready to go home and have a few drinks. . instead, i was pleasantly surprised to come back to a nice home cooked meal followed by a good laugh from "wedding crashers" (thank you netflix). all in all, a very nice valentines day! 

valentines day

left for work extra early in case of bad traffic conditions. got to long island around 8:45 a.m. and didn't leave until 10:15p.m. no time for breaks. that's over 13 hours of standing on my feet making flower arrangements, running back and forth to take orders, etc.

most of the orders were generic- dozen red roses in a vase. i lost track of how many i put together. at some point, i went into auto-pilot and was just churning them out. . .but all i can say is if i don't see another red rose for another year, i will be a happy woman!

i feel that long stemmed roses are overrated. . .there are so many more beautiful and exotic flowers. . .

in any case, the most annoying things about working at a florist on valentine's day:

- men that place orders the day of valentine's day

-tacky/boring generic arrangements or overly specific ones (give the floral designer some freedom to work and we will surprise you with a unique arrangement)

-cheesy messages

-walk-in customers that expect you to finish an arrangement in 10 minutes

-customers that are suprised when the cost of roses have doubled (don't blame us, demand is high and supply is limited- wholesale prices have doubled)

ok. enough ranting. i need my rest for valentine's day.

going out in a blizzard

ladies night out was fun. pinxtos for hands down best tapas where the three of us split two bottles of wine. stopped at sapphire lounge but it was still empty so we went to b.o.b. - still my favorite dance spot. all the girls had a good time. didn't hurt that we got two rounds of drinks on the house.

sat went to work. working hung over is no fun. in any case, with the blizzard and being tired, i wasn't so pumped about going out again. but having already committed to going to see project jenny project jane - i went out anyway. had a surprisingly delicious dinner at the diner with the roommie. tiny place- cozy is a good word to describe it. simple menu but they had a number of specials. we shared an appetizer of crostini topped with olives, garlic, and onions. i had the flank steak with creamy mashed potatoes and the roommie had incredibly tender short ribs.

it was hard to leave the diner and head back into the cold. . but we somehow managed. we arrived at sin-e just in time to catch the show. unfortunately, the crowd was not super receptive and there were some technical difficulties. . .overall, not their best showing, but still fun. afterwards, we met up with ka-ting2 at the lotus for some drinks. by 1:30 i was ready to call it a night. . . fate would not have it.

the roommie and i tried to hail a cab, then catching the train, then hailing a cab, and finally gave up and just started walking to the essex JMZ station. . as luck would have it, we just missed the train to brooklyn and had to wait a good 20 minutes before the next one came. . didn't get home until 3:30, was thoroughly wet, tired, and plum worn out.

needless to say, i will not be going out in a blizzard again any time soon!

headn out

ka-ting2 is in town for the weekend!! going to pintxos and out dancing with the girls. . . i love ladies night out!

am going to bust my butt to get home, change, and meet up with the gals by 8pm.

i am not looking forward to the impending snow storm, will make commuting to my florist job a b**ch. will make visiting my west coast peeps even more delightful!

in any case, i am in good spirits having finally found a new roommate. seems like a great gal.

overall- things are looking on the up and up.

a heavy morning

Working at the florist this morning when I heard some very sad news that weighed me down. An ex from back in the day emailed me- his brother, only 30 years old, had died. It just puts things in perspective- how life can be so short. I feel sad for him, his family, for a life ended much too early. And I feel helpless that I cannot ease his pain and grief. So this is just a reminder, to myself, and to us all, to cherish those that we love and to express that often. 

a good day of arranging flowers

Some days I feel like I haven't made any progress in learning to arrange flowers. Today was a slow day- the calm before the storm of Valentine's day!! It took me forever to choose a container and which flowers I wanted to use. . .didn't help that we have not been keeping as fully stocked in efforts to make room for roses and other cheesy V-day arrangements.
In any case, once I got started with the moss, all the other pieces feel into place. I was actually satisfied with the arrangements I made. . .it's a good feeling. 

for the love of dim sum

had made plans to meet up with friends for dim sum this morning and go watch part of the new years parade in chinatown. the roommie and i decided on to drive my car- i needed to move my car, get gas, and we decided to pick up "the wang". on a whim we decided to take the manhattan bridge into chinatown.

big mistake. BIG.

the bridge was seriously backed up and chinatown was a zoo of people and cars. matters weren't helped by the blocked off roads, chinese people doin the chinese thing and walking out randomly on the street, and having to wait for the parade to go by. it took us an hour and a half to get to the restaurant. by 1:45PM the roommie told the wang and i to go ahead to the restaurant and he would park the car and meet up with us later.

btw we got to the restaurant, everyone else was already seated and eating. although it was a serious pain getting there- the food was incredible (i don't think most people realize that dim sum is great hangover food) and we did get to see the parade.

looking for a roommie

i've been looking for a new roommate for the past month. after my openhouse in january, i thought i would be done. . alas, it didn't work out with the two women that i liked.

seeing as i live in a RR style apartment, it is important to find someone i'm really comfortable and compatible with. . . i've restricted my search to women given that things got a little too comfortable and compatible with my current/last roommie. . .in any case, despite posting an ad for a female roommate i got an email from a male model in his mid-20s. . .kinda fun to imagine the possibilities. . .ha ha.

guess i'll have to keep on keepin on.

TGIF kids!

character building

ended up going to the wholesaler with my boss today. car rides with him kind of remind me of childhood car rides with my mom where she would use the time -where we had nothing to do but listen to her talk- to lecture us and teach us life lessons.

today's lesson from K was that young women need to build character and find ways to offer something besides their youth and attractiveness. for this reason, he had been encouraging D to do volunteer work in some remote area in asia. we talked about how easy it is for women to get sidetracked from their own personal growth, career path, etc by relationships.

i don't really know if i agree entirely with K. . but there is some truth somewhere in it. i think it is common for young women to romantacize marriage and hope that it will fulfill them in some way. i think that's why couples that marry too young generally have unsuccessful marriages. these individuals have not focused on making themselves a better person and finding what makes them happy. i guess K's point was that we should all try to become a "worthy" mate that can contribute something meaningful to a relationship.

anyways, somehow all this talk reminded me of my dreams of going to vietnam- teaching english or doing some work and living there for a year. . . i've been pushing it away in my mind- but the idea keeps on resurfacing. . . and i never want to look back at my life and regret not having done something. . .so we'll see- keep your fingers crossed for me- and we'll see if i can make it happen.

when a bad date just gets worse

went out with D on saturday night in brooklyn. met this guy on sat night- let's just call him numero 5. vietnamese american with a bit of an edge. thought he was interesting and seemed nice. exchanged numbers and talked about getting together for dim sum for chinese new years.

next day i just felt like vegging. . .blame it on going out two nights in a row, being hung over, getting too little sleep, and the winter weather. all i wanted to do was stay under my warm covers, knit, look at the internet, and watch dvd's. numero 5 called in the PM hoping to grab dinner but i wasn't up to it and suggested later in the week. i suppose it should have been a warning sign that he was calling the next day and wanted to hang out so soon after meeting. i mean on one hand it's nice to know that a guy is interested, but somehow it just sort of reeked of desperation. in any case, i was trying to keep an open mind and figured one date couldn't hurt, right?

so we meet up after work on monday in the LES. the bar he recommended was closed so we walked to st. marks and ended up at a thai restaurant i've been meanin to try. date started of nice and normal. talked about our families, life experiences, religion, etc. . .but things definately moved into the weird zone once we went to a nearby sake bar for an after dinner drink. numero 5 went from being laid back and cool to super intense and borderline psycho. after i turned down his suggestion to go to his place (or mine), he started drilling me on whether i was dating someone else, why i wouldn't go home with him, and going on an on about how great he thought i was and how he didn't want to spend anytime apart from me. oh yes, and let's throw in major bouts of jealousy and guilt tripping. for a guy that claims to be happy being alone, he was sure hankering for something serious!

by now, there were major warning bells ringing and i was trying to figure out how to gracefully extricate myself from this awkward predicament. eventually i made it home (ALONE- thank heaven) with the understanding that we wouldn't be seeing one another again. since monday i've gotten three calls and one text from numero five. . .and i just can't seem to understand how any sane person would act that way on a first date!!! i mean, would anyone think this type of behavior is attractive?? ugh.

so- lessons learned:

1. if a guy calls you the day after you first met- just might be a sign of needy/possessive/stalker qualities

2. there are A LOT of freaks out there, especially in new york, so be careful of who you give your number out to

3. go for more neutral ground on a first date and have a backup plan