when just nothing goes right

the day started off beautifully. . .until i got to work.

reasons why yesterday was just a bad bad day!

1. condescending email from a client that seemed to question my competency

2. i was very excited about ordering from a new restaurant called tossed that has whole-wheat crepes, low carb high protein per my new diet. placed my order around 3pm. and waited and waited and waited for it to arrive. . .it was 4pm and i called to check on the order status. apparently it hadn't gone out for delivery yet. . .so i cancelled the order and still had no food! had to run down to guy and gulliard for a wrap. have i mentioned i become ms. cranky pants when i'm hungry?

3. there is a problem with the 30 rooms that i had gotten blocked for my company's event in a couple weeks. people have been trying to reserve rooms but have been running into problems with the hotel. now it seems like the woman that helped me block the rooms might not have set them aside. . which means i have to get all nasty and bitchy to hotel management until i get my way. . and come up with a backup plan.

4. annoying conference call with client from #1

5. left work at 7:30 hoping to get home by 8 so i could eat a quick dinner and have time to digest before working out. . had to wait for 30 minutes before the 6 came. . . so i got home around 8:30, again hungry, tired, and stressed out.

working out helped relieve some of my tension, a good post workout snack, and reading US helped me zone out to bed by midnight.

the difference of the

riding on the L today when a funny thing struck me.

the significance of the word "the".

it's the difference between feeling like "the shit" or "feeling shitty". . two polar opposite ideas.

amazing.

a great moment

i finally figured out the exact spots to stand on the platform of the L - Manhattan bound to minimize walking to the 6 train headed uptown. . and on the platform for the 6 so that when i get out of the train and walk up stairs i am standing directly in front of my office building.

what a great feeling!

matchmaker matty

called home on sunday to chat with the fam. big sis answered the phone and i hear my brother in law pick up briefly and whisper excitedly, don't forget to tell her about chris.

turns out my brother-in-law is getting into the family spirit and joining my mom's efforts to set me up! chris is a 24 year old, midwestern boy doing an opthomology internship at the same hospital as my brother in law. . my sister chimes in that he's smart, attractive, and very metrosexual. the only downside she claims is that he's moving to michigan in a year and she knows i wouldn't move there.

i gently told her i'm not interested in dating anyone younger than me or starting a long-distance thing.

the sad thing is i can see where the next few years are heading. . right now i'm 26 and still "have my looks" (but not for long, my mom reminds me) and they are already trying to set me up with incompatible guys. . .i can only imagine what type of guy they'll set me up with in 3 or 4 years!

slumber party

jpan arrived around 4:30 saturday afternoon making our foursome was complete. we immediately went into girly mode- watching music vidoes of wang li hom and jay chou and fawning over their musical talents and cuteness. we chatted for a bit then started getting ready for dinner.

i'd forgotten how fun it can be to get dressed up with girlfriends- helping each other pick out what to wear, how to wear our hair or makeup. it felt like we were in college getting ready for a formal.

Q2 and i made dinner reservations at hearth for 7pm. i was pretty excited about dinner because i've been meaning to check out the restaurant for some time having walked by it a million times before and reading so many good reviews.

it was one of my best dining experiences in new york to date. the restaurant was intimate and rustic feeling. the service was impeccable and our server was extremely accomodating of our request to order two appetizers and four entrees to share among the three of us. we ordered the roasted quail and softshell crab to start and our entrees were grilled halibut, steamed skate, duck breast, and a rabbit papardelle dish.

every dish was excellent. the quail was unbelievably moist and flavorful, served with a medley of barley and vegetables. the softshell crab was meaty, lightly battered, and balanced with a salsa dressing. the grilled halibut was fleshy and served on top of a bed of lentils. Q2 and i marvelled over the skate that was served with an incredible pea puree. the two flavors, simple and delicate, were improved when paired together. compared to the seafood dishes, the duck, cooked medium rare, was unabashedly bold and hearty. the rabbit parpadelle was the most flavorful pasta dishes i've had.

the meal ended with two decadent desserts- a chocolate torte served with a peanut icecream and a zucchini mini bundt cake served with a zesty lemon icecream. all in all, an orgasmic dining experience. . . and my foodie friends can all relate.

of course being asian, there is always the inevitable fighting over the bill. . ."you're still a student" or "you're not working yet" or "your my guest" or "it's for hosting me". . blah blah blah. . . but Q2 and i were prepared, we gave the waitress our credit cards at the beginning of the meal to avoid the whole scene. . .

after dinner, we walked around the neighborhood hoping to ease our full bellies then headed back to Q2's place and watched "perhaps love". we got ready for bed and spent the rest of the evening chatting, reminiscing, and speculating about what the future holds for us all.

i heart s-genius

ended up working 9-5 friday. decided to take my boss's ipod and mine to the apple store in soho to get repaired.

this is the third time i've taken my ipod to the genius bar to be fixed. the first time it was corrupted. after that, it's never been the same. the last time, i struck up friendly conversation about economics and politics with my designated genius, s. . . i asked him about the likelihood of getting a new ipod and he made sure to make notes on my record so that there would be a documented history of problems with my ipod.

so this time, he actually replaced it!! i'm so excited about my new ipod. . .unfortunately i left my charger at work and will have to wait until monday to download music. . .sigh, i heart s-genius for giving me a new ipod before my warranty runs out!

after the stop at the apple store, i met up with Q2 and tang at casablanca tea room for dinner. . it's a tiny restaurant tucked amid high end shops, and a beautiful place. i felt transported. we shared a medley of mediterranean small plates, a salad, and slow roasted lamb served with cous cous. delicious meal, simple but satisfying.

then we decided to head to comedy cellar and walk off our dinner. there were five or six comedians of varying ranges of funniness. . sitting in the audience, i thought about how difficult it is to make people laugh. some of the comedians unsuccessfully tried to use crudeness and insults to be funny and it just didn't do anything for me. . . i guess the difficulty is that you have to be general enough to appeal to a wide audience but still have a flair that distinguishes you. by the end, the jokes began to sound the same and i was just ready to go home. . but all in all, i laughed a fair bit, got to try something different, and had a good time.

a blur

ever have one of those days where you are non-stop busy but don't feel like you got anything done? that's been my life at work for the past few weeks. . . it's been crazy busy and it's becoming increasingly difficult staying on top of all the tiny minutiae of this project along with my normal work duties. . . good thing for tab energy drinks and dunkin donuts coffee!!!

theng arrives tonight so Q2 and i will meet up with her and head to willie-B for din din. then i will crash and try to put in an ultra productive friday so i can relax this weekend . . . jpan gets in saturday afternoon. we'll have a nice dinner together saturday night and see where the night takes us. sunday will be brunch, feist in central park, and dinner at a japanese bbq place.

it's been awhile since the four of us have all been in new york. so much has happened in the interim: cross-country/international moves, a marriage, an engagement, job changes, etc. . .it's a beautiful thing to be able to come back together, to old friends, to reminisce and act like girls again.

running on empty

the past couple weeks and next few weeks have been/are going to kick my little yellow ass. work has been extremely busy preparing for our big event july 14th-15th. i've been working massive overtime, still waking up around 6AM (because i managed to inherit my dad's internal alarm clock) despite staying up late, and have resorted to drinking tab energy drinks and a couple cups of coffee every day. not to mention that every weekend from now til the end of july is booked solid.

this coming up weekend, tang and jpan will be visiting for our reunion and to celebrate tang's wedding and jpan's b-day. following weekend, big bro is getting hitched. the next couple weekends i'll be traveling for work. then the weekend after i have a bridal shower to go to. i think i should take a long weekend at the end of july to decompress from all the traveling. . go be a beach bum.

alas, it's a lot of exciting stuff and i can hardly complain. . . i'll just have to be extremely good with my time to balance work, keeping up with my friends, maintaining my new health routine, managing to enjoy all the fabulous free events going on in NY in the summertime, and finding time to take those salsa classes i've been talking about for ages. . .

coney island

finally go to check out coney island.it definately has. . . character. there is a game called shoot the freak and essentially there is a row of 5 or 6 paint gun machines and there is a poor guy in "armor" running around trying not to get shot. it's odd what "civilized" humans do for entertainment. . .the whole thing was quite primal. (photos to follow)got to ride the cyclone- a rickety old roller coaster, beat collins (formerly waterboy) in skee ball, and people watch. after getting our fill of coney island, we headed back to the city and grabbed dinner at union square, sat in the park and gabbed until i was too eaten up by bug bites, then got dessert at big daddy's diner. 

the beach boys

sometimes i think i want to just give up on event planning. . . by saturday morning, my big group of beach goers somehow whittled down to three boys- R, Collins (formerly known as waterboy), & LI native- and me. let me tell you, group dynamics are starkly different when the majority of a group is male. that is, conversation centers around bodily functions and sex.

the best snippets of the day.

Topic: Pick up lines

LI native: Excuse me, would you like to have some casual conversation?

Topic: What is your favorite female body part?

LI native: Midriff. . when a woman wears jeans and a t-shirt and you see just a hint, just a hint, of the midriff. Yea, man.

Collins: Hips!

and the best answer. . .

R: I look at a woman's face. If she's got a pretty face, I look further down. And if that looks good, I look even farther down.

reviving ladies night

so it feels like forever since we've done ladies night. . .and despite being home by 11pm, it was a blast!!!

VK, debs, Q2 and i met up at the east side company bar in the LES around 7:30pm. completely unmarked bar on grand and essex that is so exclusive we were the only patrons there. . managed/owned by the guys behind milk and honey. . the east side company bar is more my scene. . i.e. less pretentious, friendlier, and cheaper!!!!

i had a modern take on a gimlet, qq some cucumer drink, and vonnet i believe had the russian mule- rum molasses and ginger beer. . peter, our drink maker took good care of us. by the time we left, all the girls were feeling pretty good. . .

next stop was little giant for some comfort food. it was close to 9 and all the tables were taken, so we opted to dine at the bar. mike, our bartender/server, suggested a mild, but complex red wine that paired well with our chicken liver pate, sampler plate (meat and cheeses), roasted pork, and spinach. the food was quite good, i was especially impressed with the pate and pork! it was a very homey type environment and great for a low key night.

as girls- we dished from the mundane (i.e. how my language gets dirtier when i've been drinking) to the serious (family issues) to the scandalous. . ahhh. . i love girls nights. . .after polishing our plates, we walked to fat baby- alas, i had left my wallet at work and could get in. instead, Q2, VK, and i all grabbed cabs to our respective apartments leaving debs to hang out with jer and his crew.

early riser

crashed around 10 PM last night hoping to get a solid 8 hours of sleep and still wake up early enough to finish up my work. . . sigh, was not meant to be. . i woke up around 3:45 AM and tossed and turned for half an hour before deciding to just get up.

took a shower and did some work on the LA event, surfed the internet. in a way, it was nice to get such an early start. i was out the door by 7:30 AM and dropped off clothes at the dry cleaners. then went to whole foods to check out the selection of cut flowers. . i was shocked to see a group of people crowded at the entrance waiting for the store to open at 8 AM.

unfortunately, whole foods didn't have a great selection and the flowers were looking pretty sad. i headed off to work and decided to stop by the gourmet market that sells flowers on park & 34th. the selection and prices were much better and i bought a couple bunches of orchids. .unfortunately the cymbidiums were too old.

in any case, i spent 10 minutes this morning making a couple arrangements and put them in our waiting area at work. i'd forgotten how much i enjoy arranging flowers. . will definately have to start getting fresh flowers for the apt.

Hot Ninja Lovin

ha ha ha. . thanks for the laughs AH!!

hanging with the homey's

after hitting the gym and doing some housecleaning, i met up with Q2, R, and our new friend ronnyboy for a late lunch at the creperie on st.marks. delicious crepe with goat cheese and smoked chicken and a side of greens in a vinagrette dressing. so simple yet so satisfying.

afterwards, we went to splendor in a kettle to do some work (Q2 and i had work and R had to study for his biz class). Q2 entertained ronnyboy for awhile and showed this hilarious comedy routine on her laptop:

http://letsget.bz/fun/Russell%20Peters.wmv

russell peters is liharious!

we worked for a couple hours then went to a little japanese restaurant to buy snacks before going to watch the da vinci code (squid balls and okonomiyaki). we were all pleasantly suprised by how much we liked the movie given the poor ratings. it followed the book pretty closely though i was annoyed that sophie's character was dumbed down. afterwards, we grabbed a late dinner at a japanese bbq joint on e.9th. the food was quite tasty and surprisingly reasonably priced- $14 for the short rib sirloin set. i might start going there as an alternative to korean bbq.

sunday morning i'll wrap up my work then go meet mikey for a walk in the park and maybe go to a bbq at 1462 in the LES with ronnyboy and Q2.

the crowning of a drama queen

went into work for a few hours on friday to take care of some projects and for a meeting in the afternoon. after wrapping up a few odds and ends, i snuck out early with waterboy to grab a drink at inoteca and meet up later at verlaine with a few others from work, Q2, and VK. initially, there was supposed to be a large group from work but by the time friday hit, most of the crew had dropped out.

around 6, ms.dq arrived. she started pounding one drink after another and very quickly pretty sloshes. . . then the whirlwind began. she started by complaining that the guys she liked never liked her back (waterboy being one of them) and soon she was having outbursts of tears and rants. waterboy and i took turns trying to comfort her and she would start to get better only to start crying again. ms.dq was just a mess. . . she almost fell walking to the bathroom and at that point we thought she probably should just go home. . so waterboy tried to get her in a cab but 15 minutes later they both returned and she was ranting to me about how she was 32 years old and knew how to get home and acting outraged that he had told her she should go home.

in any case, this went on for the whole night. . .we went to suba to get a small bite to eat. by then, ms.dq was shooting nasty looks at Q2 and i and we were all getting exacerbated. waterboy tried to convince her again to go home to no avail. . .at this point, it was obvious she was just looking for attention and to ruin everyone's time. so we tried to ignore her. waterboy and i walked around the block to get some air, figure out how to deal with her. Q2 came up with an elaborate scheme to get ms.dq to leave. once no one was paying attention to her, she finally decided to leave.

we were able to enjoy the rest of the night. . and despite all the drama, it was a lot of fun. we made some new friends, ronnyboy and navidad, at verlaine. both are former FIT students and work in fashion now. we all exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up later.

hmm. . will be interesting to see what work will be like on monday!

satellites

went to go see satellites at public theater with VK. basically about a biracial couple that move to brooklyn to raise their child. a lot of timely and interesting issues were raised- identity issues, power balance between a man and woman, and the difficulties women have balancing work, raising a child, etc. sandra oh played the female lead and was excellent. the entire cast was strong and the set design was pretty cool.

after the show, we went to st. marks for japanese. over sake, grilled mackerel and quail, we talked about the show, relationships, life changes, etc. . . i told her how my sister sent me an email earlier in the day confessing how she envied my life. with few responsibilities, i am able to come and go as i please and don't have to answer to anyone. i have a fulfilling and active social life, am trying new things, etc.

i feel as though i am only beginning to embrace this wonderful place that i'm in and truly appreciate it.

office drama

on a typical day, i would say that i like my job. i get along with my boss and co-workers. we all do our work, keep to ourselves, and occasionally stop by each others desks to chat, joke around, or gossip about waterboy. one of the things i like most about the job is that the environment is pleasant. there is little bureucracy, no one really cares about titles, and we work as a team.

lately, the balance has been off. on top of the normal workload, we've been busy with a new project. . . a blessing for me, an opportunity to work and build up my event planning skills. we've hired some additional help as consultants to make the project happen. tensions and stress level are high, we are on a tight budget and even tighter schedule. . . needless to say, tempers are on the rise.

my general policy is to stay out of conflict and drama as much as possible. nevertheless, . i've found myself in the odd position of having to set the record straight on a he said she said dispute that is getting uglier and uglier. . . it's really affecting productivity and all this melodrama is just sucking up precious time. . .but the show must go on. . .

to believe or not to believe

question- if someone told you that if you get married on a certain day, then someone in your family will die, would you still do it?

this is the dilema facing my brother.

a well-respected (and yes, there is such a thing) fortune teller in the vietnamese community in NOVA was consulted to find the auspiciousness of the wedding date my brother chose. unfortunately, the fortune teller said it was a very bad day to get married. now even if you don't believe in such things, wouldn't it still bother you and ruin your ability to relax and enjoy yourself?

this is the umpteenth time the wedding date has been changed and the wedding plans have been changed. i think everyone, including the bride and groom, are frustrated and are just ready to get hitched. . . the sad thing is all the changes are taking away from the joyful nature of their wedding. . . sigh, so we sit and wait for a more auspicious date.

caught in the rain

after my morning workout, i met up with VK for lunch at aquagrill. feeling downright decadent dining on cauliflower and crabmeat soup, a half dozen oysters, and salad. over lunch, we made plans to see satellites next week, commiserated about dealing with meddling asian parents, etc.

i decided to go to the office to take care of some loose odds and ends. i ended up cancelling my salon appointment at 5:30 because the rain was slowing down the train and there was no way i could walk there in time. . . instead, i grabbed the 6 downtown to SOHO to go fix my iPod. chatted with my designated apple genius about economics and politics before making my way back home.

it was pouring by then. . .i had left my umbrella home so did what any sensible girl did, enjoyed walking in the rain and getting absolutely soaked. . so refreshing. luckily i was wearing flats and didn't have the additional stress of navigating my around the streets and subways in heels. i love nothing more than a thunderstorm and rain to bring cooler weather. . .ahhh. . the perks of living on the east coast again.

walking shoes

cassanova, megs, and i are talking about doing a Lupus walk in the fall. i've become much more aware of lupus because of the history of it in my dear friend's family. . .lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system turns against the body's own cells and tissues. women, especially asian women, are more susceptible to developing lupus and little is known about the disease.

anyone want to sponsor me?