memory lane

saturday q2, tchan, and i took a stroll down memory lane. after parking across the street from my old apartment, we made our way to the cheese shop on dog street. i ordered my usual veggie sandwich (lentils, diced tomatoes, onions, capers on foccacia with aspen mustard). q2 got the combo (turkey and VA ham) and her boy got the smoked salmon. . .in all my travels and hoods, i've never found a place that serves better sandwiches. . .hmmm. good thing it's only 30 minutes away from my folks home and i can still visit a few times a year:)

next stop was the bookstore where q2 and i bought w&m gear for ourselves, jpan, and theng. (i'm obsesses with college logo shorts!) after loading up on various gifts from the wine cellar and the peanut shop, we stopped at the university center. sitting down in the lobby, we reminisced over the many hours spent there preparing for taste of asia performances, wmap meetings, late night studying, etc. next we walked through the sunken gardens where q2 recounted her experiences streaking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_William_and_Mary).

after a quick visit to her old dorm it was time to head up to richmond for the bbq to celebrate the marriage of one group's member, tang, and the newlyweds return to the u.s. *q2, jpan, tang, and i had all been close friends in college- brought close by starting and executing a study-abroad program in china.* their marriage is truly a beautiful thing- rarely does one find two people more in love, compatible, and passionate about one another. . q2 hit in on the mark when she said their story gives one hope and a relationship to aspire to.

the bbq was essentially a cso reunion. it was a wonderful evening, catching up with peeps i hadn't seen in 5 years, looking at wedding photos, and playing taboo. sunday morning, tang met up with us at our hotel to have some girl talk time. there was both happy and heavy conversation. good stuff. we vowed to meet up at least once a year- no matter how busy and crazy our lives get. i'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and thanking my lucky stars for being blessed with friends and family that love me so much. . .

back in the nn

am beat. just rolled back to my folks house in nn with Q2 and her boy. my parents picked us up at RIC and we went to mekong restaurant- their current favorite restaurant.

excellent vietnamese food.

to start- we each had bi cuon- shredded pork wrapped with rice paper, goi cuon- shrimp & pork wrapped with rice paper, banh xeo - vietnamese crepe, and an incredible vietnamese salad with lotus root, shrimp, pork, and other delicious things that i couldn't place. as main dishes, my mom ordered canh chua- a tamarind based sour soup with lots of veggies and seafood, stewed fish in a clay pot, and beef stir fried with lemon grass.

after disappointing ventures to ny vietnamese restaurants, it was nice to have an authentic vietnamese meal. the bi cuon and stewed fish tasted just like my mom's.

despite drinking a very strong vietnamese ice coffee, sleep deficiency and my full belly are lulling me to bed. must rest up for tomorrow- a trek through w&m, visiting old college hangouts, and a bbq/college reunion/wedding celebration in richmond.

moving on up

so we brought in a temp this afternoon to help me with some mass mailings. kind of weird cuz i was in that position only a few months ago. . . i remember the mindless printing, stuffing, & internet research.

she seems like a nice girl and she worked pretty steadily. . couldn't really assess any of her skills given that she was only stuffing envelopes and putting labels on them. bb said that if there is a need then we can start having her come in on fridays to help put together kits, filing, etc. which would be great, allow me to focus on the new project we landed and get my first real taste of large-scale event planning.

better than tea leaves

http://www.xanga.com/supanova1000/477211544/so-true.html

thanks again maekre for a l'harious link!

muy bien

met up with blondie last night at mercadito in the LES (Ave B b/n E 11th and 12th). the restaurant was very cozy and seemed to be just a tiny hole in the wall type place with only six or so tables and a bar area. but then the host led us back past the bar and for a second i thought we were going to go through the kitchen, but lo and behold we were steered down a small set of stairs to a more open and lovely dining area.

the waitress was friendly- offered her suggestions and listed the specials. of note- the restaurant had a serious collection of fine tequilas (something my friend conroy would appreciate) and she pointed out that they served "mexican tapas" and that dishes were to be shared. after a few minutes of deliberation, we ordered the mango guacamole, red snapper ceviche and mahi mahi ceviche, skirt steak tacos, and the battered/deep fried fish.

perhaps the festive atmosphere of the restaurant, our laid back mood, or the quality of the food allowed us to overlook the few mishaps from the wait staff with bringing out our orders. the guacamole was excellent. although i generally like guacamole, i'm not an enthusiast so i was surprised at how much i enjoyed it. very flavorful, hints of sweetness, smoothness, and smokiness. the ceviche was only so-so, although i appreciated the presentation. it was served on chilled on ice with a side of flat clay colored crackers. the tacos were the best part of the meal. blondie and i debated which was better and finally settled on the fish. it was lightly fried and balanced well with diced vegetables.

definately a wonderful dining experience and i'll certainly go back when i want to splurge on gourmet mexican.

best part of the afternoon

around 4:30 PM when BB wants me to go for a coffee run and pays for my tall vanilla soy latte. yumm. otherwise i'm too cheap for starbuckus. double bonus when the weather is gorgeous and i haven't had a break all day. . .

joining the gym

i finally broke down and joined the local gym on sunday. in efforts to save money, i've been trying to run outside instead with the end result being inconsistent workouts, deteriorating knees, and a developing farmer's tan.

i can't tell you what a difference it has made. the gym is 3 blocks from my apartment, the facilities are all pretty new, good range of cardio (some with tv/dvd players) and weight machines, early hours (opens at 5am m-f), sauna in the ladies' locker room, etc. . the big plus, seeing hipsters work out!!!

i worked out sunday afternoon and watched the tail end of "sleepless in seattle" and the beginning of "fools rush in" (gotta love tbs on a sunday). the past two mornings i've gotten to the gym by 6:30 AM, been out by 7:30, and to work by 9AM. i'd forgotten how much i love morning workouts and catching the today show.

transitioning to a new office culture

i like my company's officue culture. very low-key. we do our work, keep late hours, and tend to keep to ourselves. all of us have ipods and crank it up when it's time to get down to serious work. dress requirements are pretty lax as long as you look presentable and fashionable. and we all have occasional days of rolling in looking like slobs.

moreover, we take care of ourselves- especially because we are a start-up with only four employees (in the NY branch). for example. . .the president makes her own travel plans, gets her own lunch, etc. our vp makes an occasional coffee run. etc.

moving into a new office space, i'm discovering some interesting habits and rules of the company we are subletting from.

1. people like to sing and play music in their office
i love jazz, but if i have to hear smooth jazz 4 days a week for years, i'm going to lose it.


2. there is serious lock down and security (i'm talking oceans 11 style with infrared motion detectors and stuff).
the first full week of being here, the pres and vp somehow contributed to setting of the alarm which alerted NYC police and key people from our subletter company. now we have to

3. they love committees!
they have a kitchen committee!! that decides when to clean out the fridge, what coffee to order, and everyone votes on it. and after we set off the alarm (see 2), some committee decided we will have a sign in sheet/sign out sheet to make sure no one has been locked in.

4. they love to talk and gossip
after we ordered our own water cooler, i had two people come ask me about it. .

Office Worker: ooo, i heard you guys got your own water!!! how nice!!

V: um, yea.

translation: how did you hear that? are you spying on us?

seriously though, everyone is super duper friendly and going out of their way to make us feel at home. . it's just that we sometimes prefer to not talk to anyone and hole up behind our office doors. . . in any case, it's a million steps up from maddyM at the last office. . tales of her to follow!!!

switching things up

ever since i ran a marathon last year, i've been plagued by knee problems. runner's knee where my leg would buckle in the middle of running. . and not sore knees which i recently found was from too much track running. so i've been experimenting with my routine (alternating directions every 2-4 laps which gets kind of annoying b/c i lose my pace), taking ibuprofen before my run, stretching a little afterwards, and icing down myknees.

this morning i got up on the early side and decided to run across the williamsburg bridge. oy vey! it was a good 40 minute run from my apt to the LES and back so i ran to mcarren park and did another lap to tack on a few minutes. it was a fun run, got some variation in elevation, views of the NY skyline, and change of routine albeit annoying catcalls from construction workers.

quickly showered and got ready for work and even managed to stop by whole foods and chat with biggie-S in the flower section. picked up a bunch of sunflowers for the office and was done with the arrangement and answering the phone by 9AM. sweetness.

u know u are looking ruff when. . .

had the following delightful conversation with my boss today.

boss: is something the matter?

v: nope, everything is cool.

boss: you look tired and you aren't wearing any make-up.

translation: you look like shit. damn, you musta had a rough night.

v: um, actually, i'm wearing everything.

only consolation is that my boss is a woman and acts chinese and noticing (and pointing out) that kind of stuff is normal. . . sigh. . must get sleep.

dining disappointment

saturday morning had plans to meet up with VK and Q2 for a tea tasting at sympathy in a kettle on astor place. . .VK got a little sidetracked and so i sat outside waiting. sitting there in the sun and gradually feeling more and more dehydrated and hungover, i was feeling pretty miserable. by the time VK actually met up with me, i was dying to get some food and h20 in my system to balance out all the alchohol. a yummy ham and cheese crepe and a couple glasses of water helped a bit.

VK and i had some success with shopping. . .i got two pencil skirts for work. VK got a nice top and dress for work.

afterwards, nels and i met up at pearl river mart to buy fabric and miscellaneous stuff. after agonizing for an hour of what fabrics to pick, looking at knives and woks, and picking up a few vases for work, we headed out to chinatown for dinner.

i have been hearing good things about doyer, a vietnamese restaurant on doyer street. i was immediately thrown off when all i heard was cantonese coming from the wait staff and manager and the fact that most of the diners were non-vietnamese. we ordered goi cuon, canh chua- sweet and sour soup with fish, and squid stirfried with lemongrass. all in all, the food was decent but not spectacular. . . but i might have to give the restaurant a second chance and try ordering some of their other dishes. . sigh, i do miss san gabriel. . .

sunday i enjoyed the nice weather and did a 7 mile run. in the afternoon i fought my way through trader joes. damn that place is a zoo. . i had to channel my inner buddha to not get angry with the other customers. . they really need to do something about the lines. it's impossible to shop there because the check out line wraps around half the store.

my dinner plans with Q2 got postponed for sunday night so i called up george to see what he was up to. we decided to grab dinner at the lodge on grand and havemeyer then go to zebulon, a jazz/live music venue in willie-b that i've been meaning to check out for ages. lodge, designed like an alpine ski loft, seemed promising. george ordered the fried chicken and i ordered the hanger steak. we chatted and waited for what seemed like ages. one by one, the tables around us were served their food before us. after forty five minutes of waiting, george called a waiter over and asked what was taking so long. the waiter explained that the fried chicken normally takes half an hour as they make it from scratch. they bring us some bread with olive oil. our waitress finally comes over and offers to give us an appetizer on the house. another fifteen minutes go by and george calls another server over and asks when our order was placed in the kitchen. the server says that it was places ten minutes ago. . . by now, both george and i are pretty upset and decide to walk out. the waitress offers to comp our meal but we leave any way to make our point. this was the first time in my life that i've ever walked out of a restaurant. the situation could have been handled a lot better by the wait staff. i normally try to be laid back when it comes to eating out in a restaurant, i've worked in a restaurant before and i know it is a tough job. . . but our waitress made two mistakes, she did not check on us and our order to make sure everything was okay. and once she did, she avoided dealing with us rather than stepping in and apologizing early on.

needless to say, i will never go back to the lodge again.

taking out the trash

Damn passive aggressive men. My company has a great IT guy, pmonkey. We were rescheduled to move on Tuesday, April 11th. Unfortunately, pmonkey would be out of town and insisted that we should wait a day so that he could do the move for us. B didn’t want to postpone the move any later than we’d have to. Unwillingly, pmonkey offered to have his partner come in and do the move for us as an alternative. B decided to go with that option and pmonkey did not look happy.

Everything was set to go. I triple confirmed all the vendors and tech peeps assisting with the move. Tuesday morning, pmonkey’s stand in called to cancel, saying that he was tied up with something else and wouldn’t be able to make it. Needless to say, we were not happy and B had some choice words for the guy. Fortunately for us, our phone guy was able to help us out and spent the entire day getting our phones and DSL up and running. Catastrophe averted.

This morning I got a call from pmonkey and what followed was a highly frustrating conversation:

Pmonkey: I heard about what happened.

Translation: I told you so

V: We need you to help us get our printers and the other computers connected to the network.

Pmonkey: The earliest I can come in is on Friday.

Translation: If you aren’t going to have me do your work in the first place, then I’m not going to go out of my way to accommodate you.

V: Well, it was your partner that bailed on us so one of you should be doing something to help us get out of this mess.

Pmonkey: Well if I cancel on one of my other clients, that is no different from what my partner did to you.

Translation: I told you so.

V: There is absolutely no way you can come earlier?

Pmonkey: I gave B many many opportunities to wait one day and have me do it.

Translaltion: I told you so. That’s what you bitches get.

V: We were paying double rent and couldn’t delay moving.

Pmonkey: I understand that. But I can’t help you.

Now, I really hate how he’s being so passive aggressive. He doesn’t have the balls to say this shit to B but keeps on throwing it at me. I don’t want to deal with this so we start looking for a new tech guy that can help ASAP. I get another call.

Pmonkey: So I found some friends that can come and fix things up tonight.

V: That’s okay, we got it covered.

Pmonkey: So does that mean you don’t need anyone.

V: Yup. We found someone that can come tonight.

Pmonkey: Is that just for this job? Or are you replacing me.

V: You’ll have to speak to B about that.

Pmonkey: okay.

Click.

B calls me later and asks if I spoke with Paul. She says that he can get someone to cover for him tonight. I told her about our conversation. She was surprised that he hadn’t mentioned being replaced to her. Say it with me: passive aggressive. Boys better watch out. I may be nice and polite but that doesn't mean I am a pushover.

in all fairness

male or female- i guess there's just a lot of psychos, weirdos, cheaters, and liars out there.

http://www.rudegirlfriend.com/

thanks maekre for the link!

cheaters beware

gotta love the internet.

www.dontdatehimgirl.com

econ speak: lowering the cost of information sharing

friday highlights

dinner with george was long overdue. having missed his big birthday party last month, i wanted to treat him to a nice meal out. so we settled on dokebi on grand in willie-b. i had been so excited not to have to trek all the way out to k-town for good korean food.

we met up around 7pm and there were only a couple groups sitting down- no wait. the decor was a bit off. the floor tiles and the small square tables were reminscint of a cafeteria. there were cutesy cartoon prints on the walls. but this was all offset by the nice wooden tables with grills in the center. the music ranged from hip hop to soulful korean pop. we ordered a kim chi sampler and a single order of bulgolgi and a single order of steak cubes (marinated ribeye dipped in olive oil). the waitress mixed our order up and brought two orders of the bulgogi. the meat was pretty good. however, i felt the food was watered down korean- despite having lettuce leaves to wrap the rice, veggies, and meat in, the rice was mixed with red bean and the kim chi and side dishes were subpar.

over dinner, i was telling george about my conversation with my mom earlier in the afternoon.

momma V: so what are you doing tonight?

translation: do you have a date?

V: oh, just going to hang out with george. i'm taking him out for his birthday dinner.

momma V: that sounds nice. which friend is that again?

translation: hmm, are you interested in him. is he a potential boyfriend?

V: you remember. we had dinner with him back in october. he's one of nels' best friends.

momma V: (blurting out in desperation/confusion) Does anyone like you?

translation: what's wrong with you? why doesn't anyone like you? why aren't you looking for a husband? you aren't getting younger. . .

V: um, no mom, i guess not.

trial by water

last night, VK and i went to the culture project to see trial by water a play about two vietnamese brothers who are fleeing to america by boat. what was supposed to be a one-two week trip becomes a tragedy as the boat gets stranded at sea, passengers begin to fall ill and die, and people resort to cannibalism. while the script itself was well written and the story was certainly compelling, haunting, and at times gory (i won't be eating sushi for at least a week), i felt some of the actors were overacting/reaching and a little more restraint would have created a deeper impact.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930037?categoryid=33&cs=1&nid=2562

after the play, VK i went to taisho on astor place and feasted on various skewers, japanese pancake, and grilled rice mound. delicious and simple food. i felt like i could have been in some tiny bar/restaurant in tokyo.

adjustments

i started working full time this week- 4, 10 hour days. it's a sweet arrangement as i get fridays off and can use that time to work on the whole event planning thing. but i'm not used to working 10 hour days and am exhausted. it's also been getting busy with earnings season beginning. i imagine i'll get used to it after a couple of weeks.

hopefully our office move will go through smoothly next tuesday and we'll be in a much bigger space and i won't have to share an office with my boss. it's been working out fine, but can be kind of stressful at times.

debs leaves for spain on saturday. . .i think it'll be a tame couple weeks while she's gone. but, i'm looking forward to some down time and getting back into a routine. would like to fit more reading, exercise, and exploring the city into my schedule.

trying to look at the bright side

last night i went with k-flo to a sports bar called still to watch the UCLA-Florida basketball game. her company was sponsoring free diet mt. dew drinks, $1 draft beer, and free wings. i was excited, there were nice flat screen t.v.'s and they actually turn the volume of the game and play music only during the commercial breaks. moreover, we got prime seats despite a crowded bar.

oh so quickly were my hopes dashed. florida pulled ahead of ucla by over ten points fairly early on and ucla simply couldn't catch up. florida was just outplaying ucla.

i know i should just be happy that ucla has made it as far as they had considering the bad shape they were during the lavin era. . .but i believe that howland has worked some miracles considering its only been a couple years since he's taken over. . and the same boys are playing much more consistently then they used to and are stronger overall. i imagine a championship win is in the near future. . .

hmm. . . i don't think k-flo will invite me to another office party again. . i was so entrenched in the game that i barely made small talk.