4th of july at the white house… no, really

when my lovely friend ying asked me if i wanted to spend the 4th of july at the white house, i said, why yes, i would. this, the day after purchasing a patio set for my balcony to watch the fireworks at the park across the street from my condo. while i really wanted to spend the 4th with my new neighbors at this bbq potluck, i had to break the news to them and let them down easy. needless to say, they were understanding.

the journey there was not as smooth as one would hope (my connecting flight to dc from dallas was canceled due to the tropical storms so i was stuck in dallas for a night), but it was all worth it. and yes, i did see the president! granted it was from a distance while waiting for popcorn without my camera or phone, it happened in a split second (okay, a little bit longer than that). i could see him wearing white and waving at us. it was quite exciting. the celebration was a lot of fun and i think we all felt very patriotic.

there was beer, wine, ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy, and of course, commemorative cups! that was the best part. we got one of each color (blue & red) but i could see others totally hoarding them. i think i saw 20 cups at one table! as a government employee, she could only bring 2 guests and her office wasn't invited last year so chances are, she won't be invited next year. the security wasn't bad considering the scope of the event. even the transportation home wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. we took the metro and didn't make it into the first train but with some forcing and squeezing our way in like sardines, we made it into the second train. after a few stops, the train emptied out.

the next day, we headed into dc to have brunch with my friend stephanie and see her two babies. i think the last time i saw her was at her wedding back in 2008! i hadn't realized it was 6 years ago that i was last there. i used to visit more often.

anyway, there was the annual folklife festival that weekend. it was actually the last weekend for the festival so i lucked out. they highlighted two countries, kenya and china. showcased at the festival were food, culture, and their respective performance arts. there was a stage in a tent for each country with singing and dancing. it was fun and educational!

when asked what i wanted to do on my last day there, i looked up "things to do in manassas." and what was the #1 thing to do? the battlefield of manassas. why yes, please. it was fantastic! out here in california, we have missions to visit. on the east coast, they have battlefields! apparently, there were two battles at manassas. the history there is amazing yet unimaginable.

i had so much fun! and i hope to be back soon!

july 4th adventures

popscene re-established 2008

last thursday, i went to popscene with betty. we haven't gone dancing there in sooo long. there have been a lot of changes since the renovations took place back in april (?). it wasn't just a face lift. it was also a lift of two of our very favorite popscene people. we assumed the two left popscene. however, it was the opposite. it also turns out that popscene is now new home to douchebags as well as emo kids. an unlikely combination but as it is, they both suck, in every way possible. i'm afraid that my popscene era is coming to an end. it's no longer as fun. there's no more eye candy and hardly any room to dance. big bummer. i suppose it's time to put my dancing shoes away. i'm getting too old for this anyway.

at least jason is still there. we also heard that josh now works at the beauty bar in the mission. apparently, he still does sound checks for bands at popscene. we decided to call it a night and head out to the beauty bar to see if josh was there. it was 1am when we left and there was still a line outside of popscene. this never happened before.

a funny thing happened as we drove into the mission. we were stopped at a stoplight when i noticed this guy in the car next to us just staring at me. i don't know why, but this always makes me laugh. and as a result, the guy thinks i'm smiling (really big) at him. luckily, he went straight and we turned left. after we parked, we found ourselves surrounded by 3 french men. or so they said. at least that's what i thought. one of them was telling me that they were from france and asked us where we were headed. i told him the beauty bar and i asked him where he was from. he said dijon. like the mustard. my response? shut the fuck up!! dijon my ass. i referred them to betty as she lived in france for a year or so. when she heard they were from dijon, she said, oh? i lived in marseille. oops. oh well, i wasn't interested anyway. they got the hint when we saw josh and completely ignored them. later, josh asked us if we came with those guys. hahah.

4th of july

i spent the 4th recuperating and hanging out with my niece and nephew. we watched fireworks that night from the new house. they were small and aside from the two large trees blocking our view, but we could almost see all that was going on from the front steps. next year, we are hoping to watch the fireworks on the rooftop. that should overlook those trees.

saturday adventures

on saturday, i went to the deanza flea market with my sis for fresh kettle corn. i heart kettle corn. especially when it's nice and warm. i can't really eat kettle corn otherwise. spoiled, i guess. we had pizza for lunch afterwards.

i had planned to go to the fillmore jazz festival with louis & rich (& pati!) but was invited to a housewarming at my friend thao's place in south san francisco. it started at noon but i didn't get there until after 4p. which was ok because the party goes until 9p. i thought i'd be able to head over to the festival to meet my friends but it was getting too late. i'd decided not to until i spoke to rich and he said they were waiting for me. so i headed over and met up with them for an hour or so. i'd never gone and they said it was better last year. there's really something about being able to drink in public. we ended up at the boom boom room for a while. that was fun. i spent most of the time chatting it up with pati. afterwards, we went back to thao's for some munchies. both louis and rich had previously met thao, ages ago at popscene. despite being such a full day, i'm glad i made it to all my events!

back log - the 4th, blocked tear duct, & a baby shower!

4th of july

i spent independence day at muffin's new pad with sir gb. they had a grill going out on their balcony which is on a corner and faces the street. so there's no one next to you. it was quite nice actually. getting there was a little bit of an adventure as my friends(betty & gillie) & i got lost getting to her apartment. the food was very yummy and i met some cool new people i could go dancing with. heehee. all in all, it was a nice low key event. we saw some fireworks but it doesn't seem to impress me like it used to. i just wasn't interested. i think the food was distracting me. food or fireworks? food or fireworks? i took food.

thanks muffin! ♥ it was great fun.

eye update

it's been nearly a year since i had my intubation, i went back to the opthalmologist last week for a check up. i thought i was just going to have surgery and get it over with. but there were some problems... he said i had three options. they are:

1- some sort of balloon intubation where they stick a tube inside my tear duct that is blown up to stretch the tear duct. but he said that procedure almost never works. so, scratch that.

2- do another intubation. last year, the tube was too tight and rather than leaving it in my eye for a few months, it was there for a few weeks. initially, i felt drainage so i was excited that it was working. but the tightness created problems. my eye started to get infected and my tear ducts were getting stretched and droopy.

3- the last option is surgery. he'd open up the side of my nose and make an incision to try to stretch out my tear ducts. the problem here is that my condition isn't that bad. and apparently not ideal for surgery. if i went through it, i would end up with a scar on my face, which is likely to become infected since the area we are dealing with isn't sterile (my nose) and that would make the scarring worse. plus, it may not even work! ugh.

we talked it over some more and i decided on doing the intubation again. i don't think i posted in detail the whole procedure. i guess i said it didn't hurt but it really did. in fact, it was a bit traumatizing. although, now that i've been through it, i know what to expect and it may not be so bad the second time around. so, the plan is to leave it in for 4 months instead of 3 weeks. the procedure is scheduled for august 2nd. wish me luck!

my cousin's baby shower

this past sunday, my cousins (proud parents-to-be debbie & roger) had a baby shower. they are expecting a baby girl. it's very very exciting. they got married last september and were together for over 9 years before that! as they are still attached at the hips, they have been very much in love for the entire time. it's refreshing to see that kind of love still exists.

i was asked to make tiramisu and cream puffs and bring drinks. well, i was a little overzealous with the alcohol. i bought a case of champagne and two bottles were barely touched. i spent most of saturday (until well in the am) trying to finish baking the cream puffs (baking them in my mini convection oven was 30 minutes for every 9-10 cream puff, i made 40) and the tiramisu. which was a total disaster! i had total of ten tubs of marscapone cheese. out of the ten, only two was good. the rest came out curdled. i'd never been so frustrated at 4am before. on two hours of sleep, i woke up early to get more marscapone cheese to make at least a batch of it for the shower. out of the four, i purchased that morning, only two worked. so i had 13 single servings of tiramisu for about 30 people. oh well. thank goodnes for my sister who came over to help me finish up with the cream puffs. the custard didn't turn out for that so we put cool whip inside with strawber- ries. oh yeah, i cut my thumb (while cutting the strawberries) and smashed my index finger closing a door on it. all on the same hand. at least it was my left hand.

there were fun games, good food, and great people. kelly was also there for it. she sat with us in our "winning" table. each one of us (even though i was the last one to win something) got picked for prize from a game. i will post more pics when i upload them from my camera. despite everything, i had a wonderful time!

they are a lovely couple and i'm so very excited for them! congrats debbie & roger! i ♥ you both!!

4th of july & los angeles...

i spent the last 5 days in los angeles with ted. i flew down in the afternoon on thursday. ted and i went straight to kelly's to pick her up for lunch. we had our usual at the california chicken café. very healthy.

the next day, we slept until 2pm. apparently, we were tired. we ran some errands and did as much as we could for what was left of our friday. this included seeing batman begins at 11:30p. it's so nice to be able to go to a movie with your significant other...

on saturday, we were really good. we woke up to go to a spinning class (cycling, they call it at 24) at 10am. and it kicked both our asses. i'm still hurting today. and frankly, i'm feeling a bit whimpy about that...

sunday was nigel's (the band's drummer) bbq in silver lake. it was fun chatting with all the transplants in la, including ted. it's pretty amazing how so many people from every corner of the world end up in la.

yesterday, monday was my very last day. we went to rob's bbq who is ted's mom's best friend's husband's brother. he is helping me find a job and is very very nice. his house is just as fabulous as he and his partner are! ted and i had a lovely time.

being in la with ted for an extended period of time made me really want to move there asap. i love him so much and feel more and more comfortable making la my new home. now if only i can find a job that pays enough...