First full day in Hong Kong...

Started early! Never fell asleep after 3:30AM but managed to "rest my eyes" until around 6:30 when I just could not stand it anymore. I got up and fixed myself some "breakfast", just crackers and milk really.

Around 8AM or so, my mom woke up. I also took advantage of the time to give Ricky a call. Although we have to talk everyday when we are apart, we are really so up to date on each other's lives that there isn't so much to talk about! I caught Ricky at DSW shoes....so I go away for a day and he goes shoe shopping by himself, the irony...

Then mom, dad and I went to Cafe de Coral for our usual Hong Kong breakfast. Mine is always eggs with "sausage", actually hot dog, and toast, plus coffee. Very fulfilling and cheeeap!

The bigges news in Hong Kong is the WTO ongoings and of course, the protests. Too bad I didn't bring a camera today on my way out. As I walked past Victoria Park, I saw the people gathered, getting ready to protest. Most were from South Korea, protesting the US cotton export subsidies. The park was filled with banners decrying the WTO ("Down down WTO"), they were also singing and dancing Korean songs and dances. For a while it was quite interesting to watch.

After picking up Mom's Canon printer from the service center and buying a toilet seat (I know, not very glamorous) we walked from Wanchai back to Causeway Bay. As we neard the center of Causeway Bay, by Sogo Department store, we saw the bulk of the protestors marching towards Wanchai, where the convention center is located, and where the WTO Conference was taking place. Later we saw on the news that violence erupted between the protestors and the police back in Wanchai, where my mom and I were walking this morning. The protestors clashed against the barriers of the predefined "protest zones" and police used pepper spray and such to try to stop them. It was pretty nuts. They had to shut down all the traffic going in and out of Wanchai...a real inconvenience.

After dinner at grandma's we went home. I'm tired...time to sleep....zzzzz....still jet lagged. :p

Jet lagged in Hong Kong, once again...

The joys of flying buisness class...

Having flown across the Pacific several times in the past year dealing with preparations for my wedding, I had won the membership into the esteemed Marco Polo club with Cathay Pacific airlines. Although I am of course on the lowest tier possible, even the basic membership gives you great rewards.

First and foremost, use of the lounge...free food, drinks, internet access, nice bathrooms away from the hustle and bustle of the regular waiting area.

Then I was so lucky to be able to upgrade to business class. I had called Cathay Pacific earlier to see if it was possible to upgrade and they had told me that unfortunately, all upgrades on my flight was full. Oh well...

But if I had learned nothing from business school, one thing I did learn is that it doesn't hurt to ask again. Everything to gain, nothing to lose. So at the boarding gate, I did just that, I asked again. Lo and behold! They had a seat available. The angels were singing... :)

With a 16 hour direct flight, sitting in business class instead of coach makes a world of difference. They've also improved business class since the last time I traveled business. Best of course, is that you have your own little personal space, and plenty of legroom. My legs were not long enough for the legroom they provided. The seats reclined back until you are lying straight, albeit a bit tilted towards the front, but still a world of difference compared to the limited movement in economy.

Entertainment was on demand. You don't need to catch a moving at the beginning and wait till the end to go to the bathroom. It started when you requested it, and you could also pause, fast forward and rewind as desired. I watched the Wedding Crashers and the Island. The first was good, the latter, was ...eh....ok. I think Ewan McGregor is hot. Oh, the noise reduction headphones really do reduce noise. I couldn't hear the plane at all!

The food, of course is always good on a Cathay flight. But in business class, they serve you with real plates and silverware, in courses. One after the other, salad first, then main course....it was awesome! I tried a drink called the Cathay Delight, a little non-alcoholic cocktail with kiwi, lime and a hint of coconut. Delicious!

The 16 hours passed by really fast. A little sleep, two movies, some reading. I didn't even take out my laptop. It's amazing how traveling half way around the world is really not such and ordeal anymore.

As is my usual drill, I met with my parents at the air train Hong Kong station. I call them once I land and then they get there in time for my train to arrive. We went straight to a restaurant for dinner but I wasn't really hungry. It was too weird a time for me to have an appetit, besides I just had "breakfast" on the plane. I was so sleepy, I moved through the night in a total fog. I believe it was drug induced. I didn't sleep it off on the plane...unfortunately. Collapsed in bed the moment I got home, and of course, now at 4AM, I'm wide awake. *sigh* going to try to catch some more sleep before "normal" waking hours!

Ok...that was the second last entry before taking off...

I'm now sitting at the Terraces lounge at JFK, ah the benefits of being a Marco Polo member! Although the lounge is not as luxurious as the Cathay Pacific lounge at HK's CLK airport I am impressed to see that it is quite classy. There's a fountain in the middle of the lounge with lounge chairs all around the fountain, as if the fountain is a swimming pool! The chairs also look comfy, and oh the cappucino machine! Very impressive. They also have apples and snacks for us, little mini sandwiches, bags of chips and maruchan instant noodles. Of course, the lounge is well stocked with soft drinks and water.

Of course, most important to me is that they have a laptop connection center with power and internet connection. Since I'm flying off all alone, it's almost like having someone to talk to (AIM you know). Anyways, I felt it was too good an opportunity to pass up entering this experience into my blog. I love frequent flyer programs!!

Last entry before taking off...

I've spent the morning packing for my flight to Hong Kong. There really isn't much to pack. My policy for packing is to pack only the minimal necessary to get by because I purchase everything else when I get there. I've learned from experience. Whenever I pack more than the bare minimum, I regret it because thenI don't have enough space to pack all the stuff that I buy! Nuts.

So I brought two dresses for Cathy's wedding (I couldn't decide between the two), a pair of jeans and one long sleeved t-shirt. Plus, of course, a change of underwear. Then I brought all the necessary chargers, phone, camera, etc. I brought the Taiwan book that Usa lent me and the vitamins and stuff that my mom asked me to buy.

I think I have more in my carry on bag thatn my suitcase. There are all my on-flight necessities, of crucial importance is the eye cover, ear plugs and sleeping pills. Then I brought my Sudoku puzzle book, the Devil in the White City, and the Rule of Four for entertainment. I know, too many books, but I'm almost done with the Rule of Four, and I don't want to be stuck with nothing to read! I'm an expert when it comes to long flights, I've done them so many times. Bringing more is always better than less, most of the time you're not carrying the stuff anyway. The final piece will of course be the laptop that I am typing on now. I can't wait for the day when planes all have plugs for laptops. The entertainment will be endless, who needs inflight movies anymore??

The first semester of my second year is officially over. I've completed all my projects and papers and have organized the first ever Marketing Conference at Columbia. Overall, I feel pretty good. I suppose the only regret I have is not doing even more! But there are only so many hours in day.

I also have a job, so, no recruiting next semester either. Wow...it's going to be so much fun! :)

Sent in my deposit for going to Peru today. Usa and I decided to hike the Inca Trail for Spring Break. I can't wait!

I can't believe New York didn't make this list!!

"Least affordable rental markets"

You know you're not a little girl anymore when...

...your mom sends you dirty cartoons via email, for example:

Oh there were more, some more explicit than this! I'm glad I have such an open relationship with my mom. We made a very smooth transition from her being an authority figure to her being more my friend. I supposed especially now that I'm married, she doesn't even need to pretend that I'm an innocent little child. My mom and I never had that rigid tension so often depicted by Hollywood romatic comedies. She hardly ever criticizes me on anything besides my weight. In fact, she is often the one to overinflate my ego, telling me how great I am and how proud she is to have me as a daughter all the time.

On the other hand, my dad, not so much a transition at all. I suppose I will always be daddy's little girl. I accpet and respect that. I don't mind playing my part. After all, he really is a great dad.

I know I am really lucky to be so close to my parents. This is why a part of me really longs to move back to Hong Kong so I can be closer to them. Another part of me is afraid of the unknown. Ricky and I have never worked in the far East and that part of me is worried that we won't be able to adapt. Ricky especially had left Asia so long ago and has assimilated to life in the U.S. so well that I really don't know how things will turn out.

No matter what, I know that I will spend the next few years in the U.S. because of the job offer that I just accepted. The benefit, however, of being at a multinational is that I can eventually ask for a transfer back to Asia should I feel the urge or need to move home. Things will work out, I'm sure...they always do. :)

Snow Day!

Today witnessed the first real snow storm of the year! The snow started sometime last night while we were sleeping and is still going on right now, at 9:11AM. The flakes are coming down big, fat and fluffy. It's really quite pretty.

The good news is, I don't have any classes, have no reason to walk outside except to play in the snow. Ricky, unfortunately, is not so lucky. He had to trudge out, all bundled up, to work! This is New York City, work never stops because the city is so incredibly efficient about keeping the roads clear and the public transportation running.

While I have not ventured out (and probably will not venture out) today, Brownie did get a tromp around in the the snow on the deck. I think he really enjoyed himself! It didn't seem like he wanted to come back in. He looks so cute with snow up to his tummy and when it gets really cold, he starts standing on three legs in turn, picking one leg after the other up in turn, I suppose to let one warm up.

I have a paper to work on, so this is the perfect weather to just hole up and type, and type, and type! :) At least I don't feel like I'm missing out!

Grill Warming Party - December 3

Ricky's deck is finally finished! Over time and overbudget, to be expected of course. But at least, it's done.

To celebrate, we hosted a Grill-Warming party this weekend and had the usual group come over for some grilling. Of course, it was freezing outside, because it is the beginning of December. While Ricky grilled, most of us stayed in the warmth of the kitchen, watching him.

We had a meat lovers bash. Steaks, pork loins, ribs, wings, hot dogs, one after the other, non-stop. For those of us carnivores, we bought portabello mushrooms and multi-colored peppers. The food was really really good. But Ricky and Ray had to spend a lot of time cleaning up in the end. I suppose the most painful part of hosting a party is always the cleaning up.

After filling up with too much meat, the group played Cranium for another two hours. Girls against guys, and unfortunately, after three matches, the guys won two to one. Of course, we got the short end of the stick, we got harder questions! After we got really bored with Cranium, we moved on to two rounds of Scattergorie. The game is fun, but I think Cranium is better still.
We played until around mid-night before we called it quits. Overall, it was a great day!!!!

On Sunday, I spent all day sitting at my desk working on all the projects that are due for the end of the school year. Sadly, that is was procrastination gets you!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I loved the movie! I think Dan Radcliff, aka Harry Potter, is pretty damn cute! No, I am not a pedophile, I just appreciate a good looking guy when I see one! I think Matthew McConaughey is hot too, and he'l plenty adult.

Back to the Goblet of Fire. The biggest drawback is the movies are only allowed to be so long, and there is just too much plot in the book to fit into a 2 hour plus time slot. The plot was rushed and many details were passed over. For example, Hermione's SPEW obsession was entirely taken out of the story line, in fact there were no house elves at all in the movie. It was also a pity that most of the new characters lacked depth because there was time to develop them, Cedric came across as a handsome, grinning idiot with about three lines the entire movie.

However, despite these restrictions I think the director did a great job. The special effects were manificent, and although the action was just....ok....knowing the young stars meant my expectations were not so high in that department.

Ricky and I went to the movie with Usa and Ray. We had to buy the ticket online before going because we were afraid that the tickets would sell out, and sell out it did! We had fun. :)

Eat and Sweat Log

I've abandoned my Eat and Sweat log because I eat too much and don't sweat enough. I have shamed myself into stopping.

But most recently, I have started exercising again. My birthday was a month ago, and I could basically ask my parents for whatever I want. I originally asked for a DV, then decided against that, and asked instead for personal training sessions. Now I just have to remember to ask for my money back....

So I signed up with a trainer at the Dodge Fitness Center, on campus. I think it was the smartest option. Not only is the personal training at Dodge cheaper, because students can't really afford to pay too much. Plus, I spend most of my time on campus anyway. This works out perfectly for next semester since I have such long breaks between my classes. I'm really looking forward to it!

Working out with a trainer not only motivates me to work when she is around, but also when she is not. Since I'm exercising one-two days a week with her anyway, I figure, why not exercise when I am not with her!

Brownie snores...

Haha, here is a very unflattering picture of Brownie. This is not a recent discovery but yes, dogs do snore. Not only do they snore, they also dream. I've caught Brownie yelping in his sleep many times. It's even woken me up a couple of times! He's trying to bark, but not quite getting it out, because he's asleep!! So he ends up making these squeaky sounds. Very funny!

Thanksgiving 2005

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving day:

Thanks for the wonderful turkey that Chris cooked.
Thanks for the stuffing, gravy, lasanga, etc. that Ann's cousins and friends cooked.
Thanks for the wine that Andrej (and us) brought.
Thanks for Tennie for providing kitty entertainment.
Thanks for the makers of Cranium for hours of drunken fun.
Thanks to Comcast for cable TV channels at James Monroe.

Thanks for the leftover lasanga...in our refrigerator still.

Thanks to Ricky for driving me there, and home, and carrying the big box of veggies and utensils in the freezing cold.

I am such a lucky girl... :)

Boring day to day pictures...

Yummy Coffee: Ricky's Brew














I love Ricky's coffee. He's so good at making it! It also helps that he uses the French Vanilla Coffeemate, that we buy by the gallon from BJ's. The coffee is also from BJ's, dark french roast...mmmm....my favorite!

Chicken Noodle Soup from the Uris Deli.














There is nothing good to eat at the Uris Deli, the soup is one of their only saving graces. Love the soup! My favorites:
- Chicken Noodle
- Three Bean Chili
- Split Pea with Ham
- Hungarian Mushroom
- Carrot Ginger

mmmm.....

Green Tea Ice Cream from Tomoe.














Went to dinner at Tomoe with David and his friend from Singapore. David stayed with us, as a house guest, for a week of so and this was his thank you dinner to us! Yummy!

I love the fish there, it is so fresh. Favorites at Tomoe:
- Swordfish sashimi
- Unagi sushi
- California roll (with real crab!)
- Spicy tuna roll....mmm...
- Fried salmon skin in vinegar (sounds weird, but is yummy!

Thought I would post some boring day to day pictures that I take with my phone. :)

Things are a little less frantic and a little more boring after the marketing conference. I'm waiting for outcfomes from some interviews, and otherwise trying to get a head start on my projects.

Still much to do before the end of the year!!

Wonderful wonderful weekend!

I had an awesome birthday weekend, so much fun.

On Saturday, we woke up early to go to the Mazda driving event, Zoom Zoom Live. There, we got to test drive the Mazda 3, Miata MX 5, Mazda 8, etc. There were 4 courses, The School or Zoom, Perfomance Challenge, Match Time and Jinba-something something (horse man as one). The School of Zoom was great, we got to drive the Mazda 8 with an instructor who kept telling me to "step on it!" I guess I am just not an aggressive (or sucky) driver. :)

The performance challenge was a pure speed challenge. We were supposed to drive the Miata as fast as we can around a curvy course. Of course I sucked, the target time was 30 seconds and I got 44! The Miata is a damn powerful baby car! The brakes were so extremely sensitive that everytime I stepped on them the car jerked...yeah, I just suck. But! I still did better than Usa who got 83 seconds!! Poor girl, the people in the stands were cheering and applauding her for setting the record breaking slowest time. Makes for a funny story though. The other two courses were less fun, for Match Time, you basically had to match the target time of 29 seconds. Then the the horse-man thing, the target time was 20 seconds, but the catch was that there were these golf balls sitting in a bowl on the hood of the Miata, and you had to make sure they don't fall out as you drive. So it was a test of precision driving. Besides needing to wait forever in the lines, the driving was fun, and it was cool to hang out with Ray and Usa.

After Zoom Zooming, we drove home and hung out for a few hours. Ray, Usa, David and I played a couple of hands of Texas Hold 'em, and David, who "claimed" to not know how to play, ended up as the big winner! Sure he didn't know how to play.....

It was then time for dinner, we went to a restaurant called Orsay up on 75th and Lexington. A little far from home but not too hard to get to. Unexpectedly, we were able to take advantage of the restaurnat's prix fixe menu, three courses for only $25! Nice! Of course, people still just ordred the food they preferred not just the prix fix menu. The salmon with risotto I ordered was yummy, especially the risotto. Ricky was nice enough to order escargots as appetizer and let me eat it instead! I'm such a lucky girl. But the highlight of dinner was the desser. Black and white chocolate souffle, fresh fruit sorbet...drool....

After dinner, we went home for a Cranium party! Nine of us stayed to pay Cranium. The game is so fun, with a few glasses of red wine it was even more fun! The hardest question I got was to act out "sugar buzz"...just couldn't do it. Usa, Jay and I won the game! YAY! By the time we finished with the game, it was 1AM. I was tired, drunk...but happy. Slept very well!

On Sunday, Ricky had to work on his deck again. Usa and Ray called and we decided to go hiking down near the Delaware Water Gap. It was beautiful! We hike the trails for two and a half hours, all the time worrying that we would get lost. Well, it wasn't that bad, but we were worried that it would get dark and rainy. In the end, we didn't get lost and it didn't even rain! We had an awesome hike, very refreshing to go breathe the mountain air, free of smog.

After hiking, we were all really tired. Went home respectively to rest for a while. Then we met up again, with Ricky this time, for korean food for dinner. Tofu soup! Yummy!

My Birthday!!!

It was my birthday yesterday! I am now officially 27 years old. Still not having any aging issues but soon enough, my time will come, I'm sure.

As for my birthday:
I started off with an interview at 9:30, which was moved to 10:00 because the interviewer was late. Although I had class at 10:00, the girl interviewing before me was also in my class and she volunteered to tell the professor the reason for my lateness. Missing class itself is not that big an issue, usually, not much is learned. In the end I was glad I missed it, because it seemed a really boring first 30 minutes anyway.

The interview went well. But as with all interviews, it is impossible to tell if everyone feels the same or not. So...time will tell.

Then I had class... blah.

Then I met Stephanie in the club room to clean out the Club Room closet. Apparently, BBSA is soon having their conference and needed space for their crap. So we had to give away our crap. Which incidentally, included about 200 condoms. Oh yes, we have a great condom maker as a sponsor, and we had many indeed. So we donated them to the class committee, who then, in addition to selling tickets to the Fall Ball, also ended up promoting safe sex! It's a win-win situation.

After a meeting with Lauren to discuss various "issues" surrounding the conference invoices...(will get into that later), Stephanie, Leslie, Robyn and I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday! We went to Nacho's Kitchen, close to school and had yummy mexican food. The food was just OK, to be honest, but the company was great! It's so nice to talk to the girls outside of a school environemnt. About weddings, planning events, life, love, getting older...etc. Was fun.

Then we went back to Uris for the lamest HH ever!! There was hardly anyone there! But oh well...I left at around 9:30, got home around 10:30 and was in bed by 11:30. Tired..

Plus, I have another interview today! Wish me good luck!

Ricky's Deck

Ricky's most recent obsession is his new deck. He's not only building a deck, he's also knocking out all the concrete underneath it to build a nicer mini-back yard. He's doing the same to the bricks in our mini-front yard.
So unlike most people who would hire a contractor to design the deck, buy the materials, make sure everything is under budget, etc. Ricky buys a few deck books and starts reading and "designing his own" deck. He bought graph paper and drew out the diagram complete with calculations of the best distances and thicknesses of the wood to create this super mega-deck that he has in mind. That alone took him three weeks or so to do.

Then he went and picked out all the lumber himself, bought all the concrete himself, ordered all the bricks and sand, and whatnot. See this is what people pay for, to not have to deal with this crap. But Ricky, no..he loves it. I wants to deal with this crap. And it's fine, since his is truly anal and his motto is, like my old favorite X-files character, Fox Mulder... "TRUST NO ONE".

Oh and after over a month of sunny days and clear skies when he wwas holed up "designing", one week after he actually started building the deck the sky broke and the rain came pouring down. *sigh* so... now we had to wait a week before he can start work again...*sigh* I hope they finish soon!

Oh well.. I say, just leave me out of it, and we'll do fine! :) So while they're out there hammering and drilling away, I get a good excuse to hang out at home and get some work done!!! The only consultation I am needed for is colors and designs, which is just fine to me.

Cheese....

I was looking through Usa's blog and found a quiz for "What type of cheese are you?" Who the hell does quizzes like that? But if figured...I need a diversion. :) So here's what I got. Don't know about the accuracy, but I must admit, it is my favorite cheese!

You, love, are the ever-so-elegant Brie cheese.
You're mellow, calm, and..well..ELEGANT. You
look elegant, you act elegant, yet you're
strangely earthy and natural. You can be
content in a palace ballroom, or even just in a
middle class family's dining room.


What Kind of Cheese Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's raining, it's pouring...

It rained so hard today the corner of Grove and Grand was entirely flooded! I had to walk on the steps of someone else's house to prevent from getting the entire bottom of my jeans wet.

It rained all day, not stop, and is still raining now. This is the most depressing weather, I so wanted to just crawl back into bed as soon as I got up! But oh well, I got through the day...sigh...when you are as busy as I am, there is always too little time, and days always fly by.

Ricky bought Thai food from Bennie's home for dinner... Yum Yum!

What's the deal!

With these weird-ass "comments" which are basically ads. You "commentors" actually think we don't know these are ads? Well, I don't know how you make money, but advertising as such is unlikely to make money since it is uninvited and unwanted...I worked in advertising, I ought to know!

Especially the person who gave me the website to "datematch.com", ok, I did spend all of June and July talking about my wedding! No dates needed, thank you very much.

Time...

Ok...so there was more to Maine, but I never got time to complete that entry. I'll try to make up for it, after October 28th.

I have absolutely not doubt that school is busier than work, just count the number of entries I had over the summer versus now. Now I have no life outside of school...I have no life.

Second year is supposed to be "better", and I think it will be...soon. I keep telling myself to just HOLD ON! It will get better!

I am just SO TIRED.....SO SO TIRED......zzzzzzz.......

Maine...

Since school started, I haven't really had time to write...or do anything else for that matter. But we did got to Maine just before school started, and had an awesome time. So here was our itinerary:

Day 1 - Drive from NYC to Portland, Maine

The drive up was looooonnnnnnggggg, to say the least. The highlight of the drive was stopping at Cracker Barrel for some good food from down south. I had Campfire Chicken, which was like a half chicken wrapped in tinfoil and cooked with veggies and spices. The chicken fat and the sweetness of the veggies mixed into a sweet broth that collected in the tin foil. Yummy! The meet was so tender it just fell right off the bones. Ricky had fish and chips or something like that... it was good too. The fish was still moist after the frying... so good!

By the time we got to Maine it was already around sunset. So we took a brief walk around the Portland downtown area, and noticed that a lot of the stores and bars/restaurants were already closed. Bummer! But we did get solicited to board the Bay View Lady for a sunset cruise around in the Bay outside the city of Portland. Since our walk did not yield anything more interesting, we figured, why not! The cruise was lovely, the sun was setting, we got some amazing pictures. We drove by a rock with tons of birds sitting on it. Then past the Maine "headlight", meaning, the head lighthouse... so beautiful!

After dinner we went to J's Oysters for a seafood feast! Raw oysters, boiled lobsters, lobster stew, escargots, all delicious!

Day 2 - LOBSTER!!!!

Breakfast: Lobster benedict (not me, but many others)
Lunch/dinner: Boiled Lobster

So we didn't always eat lobster, but we spent all our time looking for lobster, cheap lobster. Well, there was apparently no such thing! We went to Eggspectation for brunch, Usa and Ray had been there before and recommended it. Turned out to be an awesome choice. The decor was adorable and the menu very creative uses of eggs, eggs everywhere!

After breakfast, we drove out to the Headlight. After seeing the headlight from after we were eager to see the most photographed and drawn light house of all time up close and personal. As expected the views were breathtaking!

After the Headlight, we drove south to Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. The place was cute! But too expesnive for us, full of upscale beachy houses, but more importantly, expensive restaurants we were not ready to pay for. We did buy a really cute lobster t-shirt!

For dinner, we ended up at "The Captain's" which looked like a nice local joint. The food was good but the lobster waws a little less fresh than we had hoped. The lobster stew was milky, like lobster meat in milk, a little weird, but definitely a lot of lobster!

Day 3 - Ogunquit

Ogunquit is a beautiful beach town. Very quiant, touristy, beachy, the Northeastern version of Key West. We headed over to Perkin's Cove, which appeared to be the tourist trap of the area, ah..whatever, it was beautiful. From there we took a lobster cruise where we learned all about how lobsters are caught, the regulations and stories surrounding lobster trapping. An interesting story...in Maine, lobster was once considered poor people's food. In fact, they used to feed lobsters to inmates at prisons. They fed them so much lobster to the point that the inmates revolted. In the end, they passed a law in Maine State that mey are not allowed to feed lobsters to prison inmates for more than once a week...umm yeah...they never get lobsters no more!

The highlight of our little lobster catching trip...they caught sea urchin, chopped it open, cleaned it and gave me some uni, yummy! How much more fresh can you get?

After the cruise, we had lunch at Barncle Billy's, super fresh lobster! They were actually still live until we placed our order....sorry little lobster, you have to end up in my tummy

A Series of Unfortunate Maladies...

Wednesday: Toe accident
Thursday: First hives outbreak
Friday: Second, more severe hives outbreak
Saturday: Third, milder hives outbreak
Sunday: Phew!

It seems like the hives have taken a break today. I don't know if its because I circumvented their appearance with an early does of allegra or if they have finally begun to subside, but today passed without much fanfare.

Friday was a pretty crazy day. After lunch, the hives started popping up below my chin and started moving up my face, then my legs started itching as well so I knew that it was bad. I decided to ditch my last meeting of my summer internship and run out to a doctor's appointment that I managed to scramble to get at the last minute. The receptionist at the doctor's office said that she felt itchy just looking at me, I don't blame her, it was really that bad.

The doctor gave me a shot, took some blood to test for allergies, gave me some free samples of allegra and wrote me a prescription for some topical cream. The directions said, apply to affected area. On Friday night, I slathered the cream on like it was moisturizing lotion, since that was pretty much "the affected area". The angry red welts started disappearing around 4PM and was pretty much all clear by 6PM. Phew! At least I could still enjoy my Friday night.

Then on Saturday after lunch, the hives started coming back again. Although Rick and I were planning to go to Staples and run some errands, he took me home right away so I could take my medication. It really worked! This time, the hives were limited to my lower body, my lower back took the worst hit, but besides that they faded without too much to do.

It's been a rough few days. My throat has beenconstantly parched, I think as a side effect of taking allegra. The good thing is that I ended up really just picking at my food most of the weekend because I was worried that eating anything triggered a flare up. Tonight, I broked the rule for the first time and ate, actually, too much! No hives yet, keeping my fingers crossed for now. I plan to adapt "food picking" as a new habit as I move into this "lifestyle change" of healthier eating and exercise.

Traditional Chinese Remedies

I am just fascinated by traditional Chinese remedies, I am an absolute believer. My mom and her mom are both versed in the benefits of certain herbs to use in soups, food, on skin, etc. Like last night as I lay in a drug induced stupor, my mom called to see how I was doing. I told her I have these disgusting hives blossoming all over my body. I was not exaggerating, by mid-night, I had big areas of lumpy redness on my knees, behind me knees and down my calves, on my upper thigh area, on my sides, hips, back, armpit area...and it was super itchy. She said...take some suger, run boiling water into it, let it cool and then drink it. It will help stop the hives. Basically she told me to drink sugar water...but no! I had to be made in that specific way, sugar first then add boiling water and make sure you let it cool before drinking it... okaaaayyyy.

Who knows? 2000 years of "science" at lesat won't hurt you!

How depressing...

So this morning, I was obsessed with my ripped up toe. I even started a new posting about it. Now the toe is a secondary concern. I have a new concern...hives.

Just before lunch today, I started getting really really itchy around the ears. I didn't really think anything of it, you know, sometimes you just suddenly feel itchy. Then at lunch, my neck started feeling really hot and itchy. I was actually out at Dos Caminos with my "ambassador" and a friend of his. Couldn't do much about it and I thought it was my hair just making it feel itchy. Then I went back to the office and checked it out in a mirror. My neck as all flared up red and lumpy. Yikes.

So I decided this was bad, I gotta get home. I bought a box of Benedryl, took 2 right away and hoped for the best. Didn't really work...

I got home and noticed that now the hives were clumped around the back of my knees, extending up to my thighs. Then it went through my arms, not is around my waist and hip area. This is not happening quickly it's over a couple of hours...slowly, slowly...sucks. It's itchy and worse, ugly!!!! All red and lumpy all over...so sad!!!!!!! I don't know what to do! I took another 2 Benedryl...hoping it would help.

Now I have a ripped toe, red lumpy, itchy stuff all over me, and feeling fat cuz now I can't exercise! %&##*(@!

OUCH!

I was walking into Chase to deposit two checks after work. As I walked in, a guy walked out and opened the door for me. It was a nice thing for him to do, but the bottom of the door scraped the skin off the top of my toe which immediate started bleeding. Boy did it hurt, I was breathless and dizzy just from the shock of the pain. But after the first wave passed I decided hey, might was well deposit the checks first, I'll be ok. So I filled out the deposit form, and deposited my envelop into the ATM. Meanwhile, my toe kept bleeding and bleeding to the point where I was slipping the blood pooled on my shoe (sorry this is kinda gross).

Finally I decided this was it, I had to go to the Duane Reade next door to get myself a band-aid. Thank god it was next door and I knew exactly where it is. Still I had to limp downstairs to where the band-aids are kept before I could finally get somewhat cleaned up and but the band-aid on, so I could limp home without bleeding all over the place. OUCH! Once I got home, I pulled out the first aid kit, cleaned out my toe and wrapped it up with a band-aid. Phew! What an ordeal!

I feel much better now, but am going to sulk the rest of the night, meaning I really am not in the mood for exercise! :p Might take Brownie later....

Under the Banner or Heaven and other reading...

I bought a new book yesterday called Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. I've been wanting to get it for a while now and was hesitating because I still had another book to read and I was too cheap, so I was considering buying it on amazon.com instead. In the end, I relented and just bought the book from Barnes and Noble. Ahhh, what's a couple of bucks...I'll try to sell it when I'm done.

I was attracted to the book because I read a segment of the Into Thin Air book also written by Krakauer, he's a master storyteller so I figured it would be cool to read some entertaining non-fiction. It's still a depressing story, about fundamentalist Mormon lives centered around a murder that was committed. The murderers claimed to have been ordered by God to commit the crimes, and therefore feel no guilt at all for what they had done... it's a sad but at the same time somewhat of a thriller. Plus, it's a true story, which makes it that much more impactful.

Other favorite books of mine (in no particular order):
-Da Vinci Code - Always enjoy a good murder mystery
-All the Harry Potters - well... everyone knows Harry!
-Little Earthquakes (Jennifer Weiner) - just read this one recently. Good story, but totally turned me off to the idea of having children.
-Liar's Poker - Had to read this for class, and it was surprisingly good!
-Bringing Down the House - MIT geeks take on Vegas, it was a fun, quick read
-Alienist - wanted to read this one forever, was pretty creepy but had a good twist at the end
- Tipping Point and Blink (by Malcom Gladwell) - amazing writer, love the application of psychological theories to real life.

Books I want to read, but haven't got around to yet:
-Life of Pi - have heard so much about this!
-Lovely Bones - another long time bestseller that I haven't gotten around to
-Into Thin Air - ironically, I haven't read the whole book yet!

Reading is one of my biggest hobbies. Ricky always makes fun of me for reading all the time, in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, drying my hair, drying Brownie's hair, eating dinner, in front of the TV, in bed, everywhere! If I have a hand to hold a book, I am likely reading something.

I still remember my first full-length novels (not picture books) were Snugglepot and Cuddle Pie and Blinky Bill. I don't know which one came first, but I remember they were given to me by a friend of my mom's in Australia. I think I was around 6, the books were really cute. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie were 2 gum nuts (from a gum tree) who fell from their tree and were roaming the world, including underwater, having all types of adventures. Blinky Bill was an adventurous koala exploring the outback. Good stuff... :) Since then, I've been hooked on books! :)

For Usa's Hong Kong trip...

Usa is going to Hong Kong on April 12, I am so excited for her! Ray and I have been giving her pointers as to where to go and what to do in HK as well as how to properly pronounce Cantonese... here I will post any additional things that I think Usa can not miss while she is there... hopefully she might have time to go online...?

Many guides will tell you to go to Yung Kee (new Lan Guai Fong)...I dunno, normal HK people rarely go there, it's more for tourists. I've also heard it's quite expensive and not worth it... just don't go. Haha..

A good place that you could try and is kinda cool is the Jumbo Seafood Palace. You take little ferry out from Aberdeen to a floating restaurant in the middle of the Harbor. It's not the best Chinese food, but I've heard it's quite good. But it's definitely uniqe to HK...so I would say worth a trip. http://www.jumbo.com.hk/

In Central there are 2 streets, Li Yuen East Street and Li Yuen W. St. There are a lot of sample export stores there. Don't go to Central just for that, but if you're there anyway, it's worth strolling through to see if you find any bargains.

Close to the Wing On in Shueng Wan (actually opposite it), there is a street that specializes in selling cheap (fake - meaning not precious metals) jewelry. Wholesalers pick up from there for distribution and export so there's a ton of variety and it's not expensive.

Here's the link to Cafe de Coral with the good pork chop rice, the coffee is also excellent but remember it's more worth it to get it with a meal (only HKD5) whereas if you get it by itself, its HKD10. Haha.. http://www.cafedecoralfastfood.com/, http://www.cafedecoral.com (I don't know why there were 2 websites...)

Here is Fairwood: http://www.fairwood.com.hk/

Also stroll around Causeway Bay, go to Times Square for some concentrated shopping. There's also Sogo and the street behind Sogo that has some cool clothing stores. CSB is my area, so I know it best... :)

Ok, I'll add more when I think of stuff...

Sushi Lounge

*sigh* I will never lose weight if I keep eating the way I do on weekends! After the gluttony on Saturday at the amazing pancake place and the amazing Thai place, we decided to go out for dinner at Sushi Lounge. A great little place in Hoboken that had the most amazingly creative sushi rolls.

This morning, I woke up at around 8:30, and read my very depressing novel for a while, since I could not go back to sleep. The novel, by the way, is called Evening News, and I would not recommend it! It's about a woman who's son shot his baby sister by mistake and slowly but surely the family falls apart. The son tries to kill himself, the dad runs out on her and she goes nuts. Sure it may be realistic but it is depressing as H*ll. The only reason I'm still reading it is because I've already gotten through half of it and don't feel like quitting. Also I haven't bought anything else to read in it's place just yet, so I figure I might as well keep going...

For lunch, Rick and I had Masaman curry that we bought from Sri Pra Phai yesterday, yummy! Not much, but definitely enough to be full! Then I drove out to Jersey Garden Mall to meet Usa and Ray and them. I picked up Jay from Newport as well!

My main mission at the Mall was to get a gift card for Ricky's sister for her birthday. Then I bough myself 2 t-shirts as well. Usa and I had loads of fun shopping at DSW, we bought matching pairs of snowboots! So it is the middle of summer now, but buying off-season was what gets you the greatest bargains! I was a bad influence, I was the one who was like... hey we should get snowboots now while they're on sale! But Usa was so happy about her purchase, I think I did the right thing. Haha....

After shopping (which was tiring!) we decided to go to Hoboken Sushi Lounge for dinner. The place is truely excellent! My new favorite sushi place in the tri-state area! The rolls are super inventive, the Hoboken roll had fried tuna, salmon and yellow tail with eel sauce. The Lady is a Tramp roll had spicy tuna and regular tuna, the Lounge roll has eel and tempura shrimp. Excellent! But as I watch my tummy get bigger with each passing day, I often regret eating too much...:( But well now that the treadmill is upstairs, I am certain I will use it more, at least 5 times a day. So....it'll be ok. Look to the future not to the past. It's too late to regret, but never too late to improve! During the week, I'll be back to my juices or salads. It will be ok... :)

For the weekend, I'll enjoy! Bon Apetit! hee hee...:p

I took this picture of Liberty State Park last year in May, you can see how the grass is still green, now it's totally fried yellow. But how beautiful is the view! 

Brownstone Pancakes

Today was the worst dieting day in the history of the world! Ray, Euhan, Andrej and Usa came over to hlep us move the treadmill from the first floor to the second floor but of course we've all gotta be fed! So Usa, stoke of genius, had the idea to go to Brownstone Pancakes, a diner/pancakes joint on the corner of Grand and Jersey. Ricky drove to Hoboken to pick the peeps up and we walked 2 blocks over to the newly renovated brownstone.

The place was excellent! Very quaint and diner like. The menu was a big binder full of pages of food food and more food. There were chocolate chip peanut butter pancakes, banana cream belgian waffles, colossal omelets (which were truly colossal), fried chicken baskets, salads, on and on and on. Just the menu was a lot to get though, making a choice was that much harder! In the end, I had an "Aspen Omelete", egg whites with ham, peppers and onions. They weren't kinding when they said colossal, the omeletes were huge. Usa got a Jack combo with flap jacks, eggs and a turky sausage. The plate of pancakes had at least 10 pancakes on it, we were so surprised! Andrej ordered a blueberry pancake that looked more like a layered cake because the pancakes were so big. Ricky had fish and chips which were quite good as well. Ray got "Disco Fries" fries with cheese and gravy...yum!

After the crazy heavy meal, we went home and the guys quickly moved the treadmill to the second floor. The guys lounged around and watched movies on TV while Usa and I took Brownie out to Liberty State Park. It was so beautiful! The weather was perfect there was a light breeze, the view across the harbor of lower Manhattan was breathtaking and Usa was impressed. The place is great, there was even a view of the Statue of Liberty! Of course I've taken Brownie there before, but thought it'd be a nice place for a good walk! Brownie of course had an amazing time as usual, running around. He as exhausted by the time he got home and was considerably less wired. Haha... he's so cute when he's tired...

Sri Pra Phai - The Best Thai Food in New York

Sri Pra Phai used to be an unknown little hole in the wall where it was crowded, but never too crowded. You could always since in the ugly basement when things got really crazy up on the mainf floor! But the boss had good business sense and decided to renovate the place and expand into the next storefront, plus build a gorgeous back courtyard complete with a small fountain. To our disappointment, the great renovation made the place just that much more popular, and tables are now even harder to come by. It is also hard to get parking space in the area!

Ray, Euhan, Usa, Rick and I decided to drive out to Queens for some real Thai food on Saturday night. I really wanted to go when Usa is around to order for us in Thai and recommend some authentic Thai food. She did not disappoint us! We ordered some new dishes that I had never tried before but was incredibly yummy. For example, the chili basil duck. Of course we also had our old favorite, the BBQ pork tenders. So good! It was Euhan's first time there and he was definitely impressed. You know when he says, "we have to bring Elaine here..." Haha!

Manhole Explosion in JC!

Ricky was walking home when he called and said, woah, two manholes just blew up and flames are coming out of one of them! Even the buildings shook! Me, happily sitting around watching TV at home (just 2 blocks away), didn't feel or hear anything. Apparently the electricity was knocked out for the whole block, considerable inconvenience for our tenants. But it was pretty frightening that Ricky was right there and saw everything as it happened.

The next day, we got this email from the management company of our building, "...last night two manholes exploded and caught fire. We thought it was an underground transformer. Fortunately it was just one of the main wires feeding downtown JC to our east. However the fire burned up some of the wires that feed 222, 273 and 275. PSEG just shut down these buildings and will be spending the day rewiring the damaged wires."

I got a picture of them repairing the manhole the next day when I was walking Brownie...

Celebrity Sighting

I just saw Ethan Hawke at Jamba Juice!!!! He actually stood in line behind me and ordered his juice right after mine. Of course being the idiot that I am, I didn't even notice until he went up and ordered. He was wearing a full (stylish) pinstrip suit and shades, very Euro-chic. If I didn't know it was Ethan Hawke, I would have thought, very Euro-trash. Celebrities can pull all sorts of things that normal people just should not try. Everyone was half-staring at him (like out of the corner of their eyes so it would not be too obvious) and I was thinking, woah, is that Ethan Hawke? Then the lady behind the register had to give him his change for the juice (he wasn't paying attention) so she was like "Ethan!" That just confirmed it! How very exciting!!!

Anyways, I wish I had brought my phone, then I would have either sneaked a picture or actually asked him to take a picture with me. But, don't know if I would have the guts to! One guy actually did go talk to him, probably something like, hey I really liked you in xxxx. He was like, "thanks man!" and that was the end of that, so awkward!

This is my first celebrity sighting after 5 years in NYC. I've heard so many people say they've seen Dave Letterman or Nicole Kidman (on 28th St.) but I never notice these things, half the time I don't even recognize them so this was pretty cool. :) All in all a very exciting lunch run. Haha!

My Dating Profile

So I'm married, which means it's really a bit late for me to have a dating profile...but hey, I was bored a friend sent it to me. So I figure, what the hey... :)

Here's what I got:

Your dating personality profile:
You matched the following traits:
Funny - You laugh often. People never accuse you of lacking a sense of humor. You don't take yourself too seriously.
Stylish - You do not lack for fashion sense. Style matters. You wouldn't want to be seen with someone who doesn't care about his appearance.
Practical - You are a down-to-earth individual who is not impressed with material excess. You care about the stuff of like that really matters.

Your date match profile:
You match with men who have following traits:
Funny - You consider a good sense of humor a major necessity in a date. If his jokes make you laugh, he has won your heart.
Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things.
Outgoing - Shy and timid people are not who you are after. You need someone with a vibrant personality to breathe life into a relationship.

Your Top Ten Traits, Ranked
1. Funny 2. Stylish 3. Practical 4. Liberal 5. Adventurous 6. Wealthy/Ambitious 7. Intellectual 8. Sensual 9. Romantic 10. Big-Hearted

Your Top Ten Match Traits, Ranked
1. Funny 2. Adventurous 3. Outgoing 4. Stylish 5. Wealthy/Ambitious 6. Practical 7. Conservative 8. Romantic 9. Sensual 10. Big-Hearted

Hmm...actually sounds about right. If you want to take the Dating Quiz, go here: http://www.datingdiversions.com/

7.30.05 - Kayaking and Bubby's!

Saturday broke bright and breezy. I had an appointment to meet Usa at 9:45 at the World Trade Center so we could go kayaking with Lori. I was pretty excited since I've never been kayaking in my life and also because Ricky kept telling me that I was going to fall into the water. I had packed an extra outfit and underwear just in case I do end up drenched in the muck that is the Hudson River.

I was only slightly late to my meeting with Usa (an improvement!) and we walked along the riverside from the World Financial Towers to Pier 26. The day was warm and slightly cloudly, the weather was perfect for being outdoors. We met Lori at Pier 26, signed our waivers and waited in line for our life vests. I ended up in a white kayak and was first to get in. So it turned out we were in kiddie kayaks, not the very challenging types that Ricky used to teach people to paddle. So there was absolutely no risk of flipping over. However, the entire inside of the boat was wet, so thank god for my extra underwear! The twenty minutes passed quickly, a little too quickly since we were having fun...that is until we saw the trash floating in the water. Not that it became less fun, but it took a bit of the romance out of the activity. When orange peels and empty bottle float past, it's hard not to be just a little disturbed that my behind was sitting in a wet puddle of...that water.

After changing out of our wet clothes, and hosing down with fresh water, we head over to Bubby's, a rather famous New York brunch location. We had to wait for at least 3o minutes for a table but the breakfast we had was well worth it. I had the Bubby's Breakfast with 2 eggs sunnyside up, toast, home fries, sausage and a slice of melon. The breakfast also came with bottomless cups of coffee and buttermilk biscuits. They provided homemade strawberry jam and butter, yummy! Usa had very interesting smoked tuna scrambled eggs, I had a bite and it was really excellent. Another successful CUBS event, I just love trying new restaurants!!

The rest of the day was spent back in Jersey City with more mundane things in life. We met with Usa, Ray, Euhan and Chris and Ann for dinner. Again tried a new chinese restaurant that Euhan recommended, homestyle cooking with many small dishes and most of them were great. We did order a little to much (15 dishes for 7 people), but Ray and Euhan managed to polish most of it off. All in all a very fulfilling Saturday.

7.29.05 - Manhattan Street Fair

There was a street fair right outside the CSFB building on Friday. This contributed to my lack of motivation at work. Plus, there really wasn't much to do, the weather was beautiful and there was Jamaican music coming though my window. Anyways, I had a Jamba Juice for lunch, took a leisurly stroll through the street fair and this is what it looked like from the window behind my little cube. The rest of the day, I smelled like kabobs, but that was a small price to pay to have been part of the festivities. I just love the atmostphere, both relaxed and busy, of a street fair in the middle of a work day!

That night, I persuaded Ricky to take me to a new restaurant. I had a craving for Japanese food and raided the internet for new sushi recommendations. In the end I decided to go to this new place called "Sui" asking Chinese for "water." It was close enough to Chinatown that if we went and decided not to go in (depending on the menu) we would still have the choice. After studying the really cool new rolls that they offered, we decided to go for it. It turned out to be quite good. The restaurant itself is funky, with big colorful fishtanks lining the walls. The most spectacular although less funky, dish was the sushi and sashimi combination. It sat in a big bowl of ice with a small bamboo wall as decoration. We also ordered a spider roll and an "under sea volcano" which consists of spicy tuna inside a roll with spicy salmon on top. Yummy!

7.28.05 - Lite Delights

I suppose it's a little bit funny when I am supposed to be on a diet (always am) but keep posting reviews of fine restaurants in the area, meaning, I eat too much. That must be why I keep being "on a diet" because it never really works.

So today, I re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-resolved to be serious about my diet. This always happens when I have so free time on hands and unfortunately the resolve often gets abandoned when I get busy. Oh, but this time is different...of course...

In any case, I discovered this health food joint near my office called Lite Delights. Great place, packed full of healthy, whole grain, low fat treats, which are suprisingly inexpensive. I tried the Nutriment the first time I went there and it was the most interesting sandwich I've ever had. Bananas, peanut butter and jelly, sunflower seeds, coconut strips all in between 2 slices of 7-grain bread. How could I complain? It was quite creative and yummy. Yesterday, I tried the Veggie Burger, a patty accompanied by lettuce, tomatoes and (of all things) alflafa sprouts! Again, it was quite good! But still...it was too much food, and I knew it.

So today, with my re-re-re-re-re-re-re-resolution, I have decided to go all juice for lunch. I had a blueberry shake, rich in antioxidants and other great vitamins as provided by fruit. All natural and made fresh. Next I wandered to Walgreens and bought some healthy snacks knowing that I would be hungry again later. I have resolved to go all juice all the way for lunch from now until school starts, who knows, there might be some hottie first years right?

My goal, fit into all my old skinny clothes by the time school starts (4 weeks or so). So there, it's official, wish me good luck!

I didn't take this picture, a good friend Anton did. This was the sunset in Bali as taken from the Ritz Carlton where we had our wedding. It's so beautiful I figured I'd share. 

7.25.05 - Black Fin Chophouse & 33 - Boston

My summer internship invited me to Boston to tour the headquarter, wining and dining the MBA's as they call it. We went to an excellent place for dinner called Black Fin. There I had the most amazing tuna steak I have ever had. The Director of the program had recommended the tuna as a famous dish at the restaurant and since I love tuna in the first place, I decided to go for it. I was not disappointed, seared rare, the tuna steak was sashimi grade, extremely fresh, generous and so yummy! The conversation was also interesting of course, but a networking dinner is a networking dinner right? :)

After dinner I met up with an old friend from DDB who also happened to go to Penn. Her husband goes to HBS and therefore she's working in Providence in a brand managment position. It sounds like she's having a great time! Here's a picture of 33, the bar that we went to for drinks. It's nice to see people I haven't met in so long!



I stayed at The Lenox Hotel, a historical hotel a block from the Prudential Tower. The hotel was just OK, its actually quite luxurious, but small so not the same as the big chains that I'm used to. I have no compaints though, it was comfortable and clean.

Overall the Boston trip was great. Relaxing and a lot of fun. A long needed break indeed!

7.24.05 - South City Grill

Ricky and I went to South City Grill for brunch on Sunday. We've been there several times, so strictly speaking, it should not be considered a CUBS event (especially since Usa was too busy sleeping to come!). BUT, they actually had a new brunch menu, so in a way, everything was new. I ordered the Poached Eggs Rosita, a very interesting dish. Lumps of crab were placed on top of 2 poached eggs with spicy (and it really was spicy) salsa, all in a crunchy taco shell. Hash browns on the side. It was actually really good and they did not scrimp on the lumped crab meat. Ricky had Eggs X3, which was delicious but he said he had stomach problems afterwards... eeck...

For the rest of Sunday, we went to Staples to buy some boxes for organizing knick-knacks. Ricky went to buy multi-plugs for our new study. Then we spent the rest of the day moving furniture around, the desk into the new study so we have 2 desks in one room. The closet into the master bedroom and we plan to move the book shelves downstairs into the dining area. It was a productive day!

7.22.05 - Congee City

We went to Congee City for dinner tonight, one of our favorites in Chinatown. The congee there is of course excellent, but besides that the other food is delish! One f our favorite dishes there is the garlic chicken( is always cooked perfectly, very moist. Yummy!

After dinner we came home and wanted to go out to move a movie. Unfortunately, on the way there our car tire got busted. We think it was because the tires were changed badly when we changed it last weekend. So tomorrow we have to go and try to negotiate with them and have them change the tires free of charge. Hopefully!

CUBS

Cece & Usa's Breakfast (Brunch) Series

So things are getting back to normal, slowly but surely the mundane will set in right? NO!!! Things are nuts! My internship is taking up a ton of my time. Today is the first day since I've started that I actually think I might go home on time. =)

To combat the boredom (that doesn't exist) Usa and I decided to start CUBS. In an effort to make the most of the New York metro area and the numerous restaurants that are offered, we made an unwritten agreement to meet for brunch every Saturday or Sunday at a new place every time. No rules to this Series besides that the restaurant has to be one that we had not been to in the past. I think it's going to be fun, and am quite excited!

The first weekend, last Sunday, we went to a quaint little place in Jersey City call Melt. It was suggested by Anne and Chris who had seen the restaurant featured on the Food Network. The specialty of the house is grilled cheese sandwiches. Everytype of cheese you can think of in combination with ham, turkey, bacon, hot dog or nothing (pure cheese). The food was great! I had what they called the Happy Jack with Monterey Jack cheese (among other things), de-licious!

Can't wait for the weekend to begin!!

Photographer's rendition of a picture that of course, they took. I love this angle of my dress and the train. They did a great job. 

Looking back...

I think the wedding in Bali was great. We all had fun and the food was amazing. Besides I got to design my own jewelry and be the center of attention all night, how bad could that have been? Looking at the pictures again, I feel like I smiled and laughed so much, it must have been fun! HAHA

The Jakarta wedding was (on the other hand) not so good. Ricky's sister took us to this place to get out make up done (oh first of all, she had to have a hissy fit about Ricky not wanting to pay for making), but the make up guy was doing this horrible job, so my mom and I starting telling him what we would prefer he do. The guy threw a fit and said that he couldn't concentrate with us commenting! He was a make up guy who worked in a hair salon, in the mall! He was acting like he did make up for the stars! In any case, in the end, my mom and I went to buy make up and we did the make up ourselves at home. I got so many compliments on my own make-up, it was awesome. As for the dinner itself, it was just that, dinner. Ricky and I went to sing two songs, it was simple, short, which is a good thing. I couldn't wait to leave Jakarta, felt so much better when I got back to HK!

As for the wedding in Hong Kong, it was the busiest by far, but also good, since my mom planned it all. I changed about 6 times, into 4 different dresses. My make up was also changed each time I changed, it was pretty cool. I felt like a movie star. As soon as I walked into the bride's room, three people pounced on me to help me change clothes and then make up. A girl followed me around all night holding my train, haha, it was so cool. I sang one chinese song and Ricky and I sang a duet in English. He was pretty...eh..! Haha... but whatever. We had close to 400 guests at the wedding in Hong Kong and Ricky got introduced to a lot of my dad's executive friends. A great way to network!

Phew! In the end, I'm glad it's over. It was fun while it lasted but I'm glad to just get back to my old life of eh.. working! Haha... there is not such thing as an "old life" it seems. Everything is constantly in flux at this time. New internship, school starting, school activities to plan, full-time job to look for...there is no end!! But I guess that's what makes life interesting!

Ricky and I walking back after the flower shower. 

I'M MARRIED!!!

It took almost a year of preparation and a lot of sweat and yes, even tears, but the wedding was a big success. Although there were many last minute things that were not ironed out when I got there, and the wedding day itself was just a haze, the pictures look great. Those are the memories I'll really keep. What I remember, was just that I was still giving a lot of orders that day. Ricky's family was late, and I was supremely pissed about that.

But as soon as the ceremony got under way, things went well. The event was sweet, although not too well attended, and the cocktails and photo sessions went well. We caught the sunset just in time despite the groom's late family. So the backdrop was still beautiful. Again, I still had to manage a lot during the dinner reception, but towards the end, I just gave up and said, ah what the heck. What will be will be right? It turned out fine, and I'm sure no one but me (and maybe my mom) knew that we didn't do everything that was on the program.

All in all, it went quite well, I think! I really don't remember! Being in the center of the storm really does not give you a very good perspective. I suppose that's why people hire competent wedding planners (unlike the one I had). :)

tuesday, may 17 2005 - woke up at 11AM!!!

So maybe I am jet-lagged no more, or maybe I am just so tired from being jet lagged so many days in a row that finally my body gave up. Or maybe....I just watched 大長今 until 3:30AM. I think the last reason is the most valid.

I finally had some time off last night when my mom decided to go to Shenzhen to get acupuncture from Dr. Yu. He is a very miraculous acupuncturist, I must say. After getting treatment from him for a year, my mom is virtually pain free, she stays away for 2 weeks because of vacation and such and her problems came right back. My old beautician told me that acupuncture is addictive since it relieves so many symptoms, apparently, she had a point.

As for me, it's be busy every day. Meeting with relatives to figure out the program for the wedding, giving them invitations. We also have a jeweler I had known since I a kid out at the Peninsula Hotel making us new rings, earrings and necklaces. A part of me knows we have much more than we actually need, I mean, how much jewelry can I wear at once? But my mom really enjoys making this stuff and buying evening gowns, shoes, etc. It is fun, but I'm getting a little tired of it. I've also spent hours putting together a guest list for the 400 guests in Hong Kong, coming up with a program for Hong Kong and refining the one for Bali. Time is running short! I am just a bit bit worried....

Oh well, at this point, it's a little bit like, whatever will be will be...

saturday, may 14 2005 - sleepless in Hong Kong

It's be a busy few days. I tried on my wedding dress for the first time. I think it looked good! Not "perfect" really, but it's very pretty. We also had to try on the dress in the "factory" of the dressmaker since her little studio was being renovated, so we really did not have much space to move around which made it hard to see the full effect of the dress. I think once it's ironed and steam cleaned it will be much more impressive. :)

I also went to ShenZhen and ordered 2 more dresses to be made, a white one for the dinner reception and a red one, because Chinese weddings require a red dress. I think the red dress will turn out to be really special and unique. We took a dress I liked from a magazine, added a small train and will embroider a phoenix and dragon on it, very interesting, we'll see how it turns out. So we were running around, ordering dresses, looking for the right cloth, etc. It was pretty hectic.

We also had to the get the dresses I already have altered, since I had wanted to lose weight for the wedding. Well, that didn't happen so there wasn't much to alter... haha. I'll try to lose weight from now until June 3, but I don't think that's going to make much difference in the end. I'm just so sick of this whole lose weight and meeting everybody else's expectations. Of course, I want to look better too, but I couldn't lose any weight, and I feel like...well, I've accepted that...what the hell is your problem?

I feel like I need to sleep more...always very tired...jet lag is so bad!

I took this picture of the view outside my window in Hong Kong in the winter of 2003. I just bought my camera at that time and was eager to experiment. The view I am looking at now is pretty much exactly the same. But since it's a foggy and rather gross day out, I figure this older picture works better.

tuesday, may 10 2005 - Jet lagged in HK

After 16 hours in a plane jammed into an economy seat on an Asian airline no less, I am finally back in Hong Kong, again. I must say, once you get used to these rides, they are not nearly so bad. After watching the Phantom of the Opera, I read my book, The Last Juror then flipped to the wedding magazines that I bought and decided to go to sleep around 11PM, New York time. I woke up occasionally, but overall slept through until the lights were turned back on for breakfast and the landing. As usual, I bring all my necessities with me on board, out of experience I am very prepared for long-haul flights. The basics include an eye-mask, ear-plugs, and the blow up travel pillow. I also always bring some sort of sleep aid, whether it be Simply Sleep or Tylenol PM. The meds really make the flight much easier to bear, whether I'm out like a light or drowsy and half awake, time passes much faster than being entirely awake.

I started off with an empty seat next to me, in the worst row on the plane. Row 64 the one row where you cannot lift up the arms of the seat and expand slightly into the seat next to you, talk about bad luck. Then some stupid woman came and sat next to me, in a middle seat, because she did not want to sit close to a baby. Well, when I got off, it turns out the baby slept quite peacefully throughout the ride, but beacause of the stupid lady, I did not. She was sick, sniffling, moaning all night. I guess it was good for the baby, I think I have better defenses than an infant.

Got home and of course had to try on all my dresses for my mom again. OK, so I think I even gained a little weight. Most people diet themselves to death and lose weight beforet the wedding, me the opposite. I don't know what would motivate me to really get "somewhat skinnier" if not my own wedding. So I have a month to starve myself and get as skinny as possible. Might even enroll in one of those infamous weight loss programs in Hong Kong. I'll have enough pressure to lose weight just hanging out in Skinnytown anyways.

Finally I was able to go to sleep after mom showed me everything that she had bought and think would be good for the wedding. As always after long haul flights, even with the sleeping, I felt a bit out of body. Not sleepy exactly but also not quite awake. My brain just seems to process everything through a fog. Of course I woke up at 4AM. Probably since I slept quite well on the plane so my body is like...long enough afternoon nap for you! Stupid internal clock. I finished reading The Last Juror in bed, which killed another hour and a half and figured I'd plug in a see what's online. :) It's going to be a loooooonnnnngggg day.

This is the dress my wedding dress is based off of. Hope it turns out!!! 

monday, may 9 2005 - I'm leeeaaaving, on a jet plane....

Off to Hong Kong today! This is it, the final stretch towards the wedding day. I already have an appointment to try on my wedding dress for the very very first time on May 11. Such a big risk to take to have a dress made scratch! Cross my fingers and hope that it will turn out ok! I'll be working on my detailed program on the plane, reading the Last Juror, reading the new Bride's magazine...so much to do!!

I think I'm very close to deciding on a first dance and last dance song. I think it will be From this Moment with Shania Twain and Bryan White, it's a bit overused, which was the opposite of what I wanted, but I got all choked up when I heard it, I thought it was perfect. Well, I'm keeping some other songs in my back pocket, I'll listen to them on the plane before I decide. For the last song, I'm thinking Time to Say Goodbye with Sarah Brightman and Andre Borcelli. Such beautiful singing voices! It's in Italian, but I think it would be cool to put the translation of the lyrics on the back of the program. It's about two people leaving together, something like, I'll go with you wherever you go type thing. It's so sweet! So I'm more certain about that song.

OK, gotta run, have some packing to do still...

saturday, may 7 2005 - The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Went to lunch today at Bertucci with Yuli and David (our tenant) at Bertucci. We originally wanted to go to South City Grill. But it was already closed after their weekend lunch hour. Not that Bertucci is not good, it's just not as good as SCG. So I was a bit disappointed, I think so was Yuli, it sounded like she wanted to go. Then Ricky came home and helped David install some vanity mirror cabinet in his bathroom while Yuli and I just hung out and looked at pictures on my computer. We then decided to go to Jersey Garden mall to watch The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It worked out well since Yuli wanted to shop and she could do that at the mall while we watched the movie.

The Hitchiker's Guide: Don't Panic!!! I actually read the book before going to watch the movie. The book was very weird, the movie was also weird, but I think it was less weird than the book. I don't know which one is better, both weird but both very entertaining and funny. The effects in the movie was pretty awesome though and they plugged in a happy ending, which was warm fuzzy and satisfying. :)

We had dinner at Chinatown at Bo Kee in a rush. Yuli had to rush to make the 10PM bus back to Philly. All in all, it was a pretty calming, not too eventful day, but it was nice. I also gave Yuli an official invitation to Bali, and why not? They're printed and pretty. :)

Need to lose a little weight before your wedding?

Hahaha...got this from a friend of my mom. I guess she's trying to motivate me....

Small accomplishments...

I sent out my invitations today, unfortunately I had to pay more than normal postage because of the size of my envelope. So it's not as neat and tidy looking but well, they get more interesting stamps. I figured it doesn't hurt. :)


I also pick up our marriage certificate! Now our marriage is in writing with the state seal and a watermark proving it's authenticity. Wow... so official...

thursday, may 5 2005 - Busy busy busy!!

So when I finished that accounting exam on Tuesday, I walked out there thinking, I'M FREE!!! FREE as a bird in the sky, no exams to haunt me, no studying all summer!!!!!

Of course, there is no such thing. My mom had once told me when I was younger, that my only responsibility was to be a student, and I should be happy that all I have to worry about is beinga good student. I was like, no...I have to think about what I need to wear tomorrow, and friends and boys...like those were the toughest things in life to deal with. Now I appreciate what she was trying to tell me. Although I am a student, I also need to deal with mortgages, rents, planning weddings, Ricky, Brownie, the list just goes on and on. So I've noticed that I am never ever FREE!

Wednesday was obviously super busy day, what with getting locked out and all. Thursday was pretty much similar. I experimented with the labels that I bought from Staples in the morning and came up with the perfect color to match my envelopes. I even bought gold return address labels to both print our return addresses and seal the back of the envelope. So that morning, I took to printing and sticking, intent on sending out my invites.

Well...then Ricky called and he wanted to have lunch, and of course, I don't like being lonely, so I headed out to the city for lunch. Then I set about looking for a present for my mom for mother's day, what do you get someone who has everything? Sigh...in the end, I still didn't find anything. Then I realized that I should really get home if I want to get to the post office to send out my invites, I got home and all this drama ensued over email on whether we should meet tonight or tomorrow night...argh.... So well, my invites are all printed, they will be sent on Friday, and life chugs on. But as I woke up today, Friday, thinking of all the things I need to do, I realize, I am SO NOT free!! I wonder if I ever will be...

wednesday, may 4 2005 - Hampton Chutney Co.

Anabela and I were supposed to meet at Dean and Deluca for desserts but since the place was overcrowded, we decided to go elsewhere. We ended up at the Hampton Chutney Co. on the corner of Prince and Crosby, it's a nice little place that sells very interesting cardamon flavored coffee and chai teas. It was good, nice and quiet for chatting and not too crowded. We just spend the few hours together talking about Shanghai, getting married, getting guys, etc. It was so refreshing to have some girl talk. It's been so long since I've just chatted with a chick! :)

New York is such a wonderful place to just hang out and chat. As we sat outside, we saw all sorts of funky people, big guy walking a mini-chihuahua and holding the dog's little pig toy in his other hand. Girls in big colorful dresses and knee-high football socks with sandals. I bet you won't see that in any other city besides maybe Tokyo.

At around 7PM, we headed for the NR train uptown, she was going to an 8PM show of hairspray and I was heading to Japas 55 for my bachelorette party! It's so great to catch-up, I'm really going to miss Anabela!

wednesday, may 4 2005 - Locked out!!!

Woah...another night of wild party fun! :)

Well...in the beginning....I woke up at around 11AM, when my mom called from Hong Kong to chat because she was putting "cake cards" into envelopes and weas bored. "Cake cards" are what you give as presents to your guests for wedding in Hong Kong. With the cake card, you can go to the bakery and get yourself a dozen whatever cake. It's like a gift card for bakeries. Of course my mom had more details that she suggested for the ceremony, just suggestions. It's so awesome that my mom is so easy going about the wedding in Bali, I am a very lucky girl to have such a cool mom.

Then I got my gear together to go to the post-office to send Cathy's bridesmaid dress to her, and what do you know, I did not bring my keys. So I was locked out of the house!! I calmly called ricky and left him a vmail about that, then I set off for the post office, got the job done and took the PATH to the city. I had just stepped into Century 21 when Ricky called and said he would go make an extra key for me. *Sigh* I was so psyched to have this perfect opportunity to shop for new party clothes. Since I had dressed like I was going to the post office (frumpy) and I was meeting up with Anabela for coffee and snacks, I needed some snazzier clothes.
Oh well, I was shopping in HK anyway, let's not get too greedy! :)

sunday, may 1 2005 - Open Houses

We went to two open houses today in Hoboken. I was amazed at how some people are just so good at decorating their space, I thought that this wall of pictures is a great idea so I took a pciture of it. I am always envious of people who have design talent, since I obviously have none. This couple converted all the pictures to black and white, made everything look like art, pretty amazing.

The Westin Resort beach in St. John. This is where Ricky proposed. Imagine it dark, at night, bathed in moonlight. Torches of fire lit the brick pathway and only sparsely lighting the beach. We were snuggling on one of the beach chairs, where it wasn't entirely dark but just out of reach of the firelight. So we had a lot of privacy, it was really sweet.

saturday, april 30 2005 - Poker Face

Today I played my first game of poker, Ray and Andrej vey patiently taught me, Ricky and Elaine how to play. They even especially went to buy new chips for us to play with, such great friends. After a couple of rounds, I think I became totally addicted to the game. Although I am still not a good payer (by far) it is a lot of fun. I now finally know what call, raise and fold means. I also landed a hand of straight flush, which I was told is a rarity inthe poker playing world. That, was pretty cool. I got so into playing that I was kinda upset when we had to stop because Euhan and Elaine had to go eat dinner. But hey, I know, people got to eat. We ended up playing a couple rounds of Big Two before calling it quits.

I must say, I really got to work on my poker face though. Always smiling and singing works great (I think) when you are just hanging out with friends, but doesn't work at the poker table. I really love hanging out with friends. In Leadership class, we were told that Introverts like to be alone with they have very good or very bad news. Extroverts are just the opposite. I think I must be an extrovert, since I always seem to enjoy myself so much more when I am surrounded by others. I definitely know how to value my time alone, but the most fun comes from being with others.

All in all, it was an entirely unproductive (if you don't count the Revlon 5K as productive) but very fun day.