a beautiful time

italian men seem to enjoy using the word, beautiful. the wine was beautiful. the eggplant parmigiana was beautiful. and we were told, were beautiful women. it was a beautiful time.

on saturday, my beautiful friend, funie invited me up to north beach for dinner. turns out she and another beautiful friend were there the day before and passed by this restaurant with flirtatious italian boys. which is just what i needed because i've been so busy with my new job that i've no time to even notice boys these days. è tutto qua in north beach not only has good food but also cute boys who flirt with you. and it seems like the most natural thing to them.

we started with a beautiful half bottle of red wine. it was smooth and flavorful. we had the eggplant parmigiana as a starter. it was cheesilicious. i ordered the spaghetti neri (the squid ink pasta with mixed seafood in a garlic and white wine sauce). it looked (as you can see) and tasted beautiful.
we completed our dinner with two cappuccinos and their panna cotta. funny story about the panna cotta. as i was looking at the dessert menu, the only thing i wanted was the panna cotta. i turned to funie and before i could say anything, she says she didn't really want anything sweet but would have the panna cotta. clearly, we are on the same wavelength. on many different (& pleasantly surprising) levels. before we could order, the host (above on the left) stops over and has one recommendation for us, their panna cotta. we weren't speaking very loud when we agreed on it and there was no way he could have heard. i was so flabbergasted by the coincidence of the panna cotta, that i started hitting him with the menu. crazy!

the panna cotta was so scrumptious that we didn't think to photograph it before inhaling it. it was quite delightful and i look forward to going back (with funie!) to try the rest of their menu.

how to tag team boys

as i kick off my birthday month, i planned a ladies night out with my friend funie on saturday night. we always talk about meeting boys. i told her about how my friend betty & i once tag-teamed-picked-up on a boy. i find it's one of the easiest ways to meet boys, especially if you are shy. here's an example of how it works, or what happened last night at the beauty bar...

assuming you and your friends are attractive, this is very very easy. you go with at least one other girlfriend. in our case, there were the three of us. funie picked our target. while funie waited on the other side of the bar, i took betty with me to show her the boy we were going to tag team. it was really crowded in the bar so when we came upon him, it was not hard to make contact. as betty stood behind him, pointed towards him, i nodded at her and smiled at him. he smiled back and said hi. then out of nowhere, his friend (female) grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek. she says, this one is cute, you should make out with her! after which, he proceeds to kiss me on my other cheek. so we introduce ourselves & betty and i ask if he's single. he says yes and i say, oh good, you must come with me then. i take his hand and start heading back to funie. he pulls me back and asks me to stay with him and his friends. i tell him he had to come with me to where my friend was. so he comes along. i introduce him to funie and leave them to talk while betty & i hit the dance floor. we check on her between songs and they seem interestingly engaged.

betty and i go outside for a break. i see his friends leave, without him. hmmm... about 10 minutes later, we go back in to check up on funie. turns out he was only 23 y/o! too young but made for a very fun ladies' night out.

and that, is how you tag team a boy. not too difficult, huh?

betty's bachelorette!

i don't often have event-packed-weekends but this past weekend was exhausting. don't get me wrong, it was loaded with fun things to do. but still, weekends are supposed to be for refueling on sleep and laziness. then again, maybe not.

saturday was betty's bachelorette spa day & dinner. all day. it started with the burke williams spa in santana row. our treatments were scheduled at 4ish but i decided to come early to make the most of the facilities since i had to leave early to get stuff ready for the dinner @ xanh restaurant. i met up with joahnna at around 3p. i went to high school with her and hadn't seen her in ages! but back in 2006, we hung out a lot with betty. it was nice to catch up with her a little bit because she wasn't able to join us for dinner. i had a detox/calming wrap at 4p. it's 25 minutes of being wrapped in a cocoon of warm towels soaked in herbs, eliminating unwanted toxins. the esthetician who helped me, tifa, was this fabulous indonesian woman. she was a mother of 3 and in her late 30's. i would have guessed that she was in her 20's. she looked SO good! she threw in a mini-facial with my wrap. it was exactly what i needed. next time, i'm going to try a facial with her.

i left about an hour after my treatment. i wanted to say goodbye to betty. she didn't get out until after 5:30. i was meeting lisa at home by 6p. i had to get ready, remember to bring the cake, menus & favors and be at the restaurant by 6:45p with lisa. i drove like a speed demon to get things ready before 7 only to have to wait nearly an hour for betty to arrive. i should've known. and since she came straight from the spa with her friend lisa, it was kinda lisa's job to get betty there on time. apparently, she didn't know it was. luckily, it turned out fine.

it was me, lisa, loanne, hoi, lien, marie, betty & her friend lisa. we had more than enough food with plenty for betty to take home. the pumpkin burnt almond cake from peter's bakery was enough for all 8 of us (big & small slices) and leftovers for hoi to take home to her kids. in addition, we had less than a quarter to share with my brother's little family who showed up at the restaurant during our dinner. the kids joined us (me, lisa, betty, lien & marie) in the lounge after dinner too! we had yummy deviations and chatted until we closed the place down. it was loads of girlish fun.

back! and chicago continued

am finally back! can't believe my vacation is over! :( but it's nice to be back in my bed and with my family. too bad i got back in the middle of a heat wave, yuk. anyway, on to the rest of my trip...

day three - friday night in wicker park
i got off to a late start on friday as well. i planned on going to the shedd aquarium but it's almost $30 to go! seems like a lot. i decided to wait until lisa gets here to see what she wants to do.

i started with a cappuccino from the fix cafe (again) and then off to magnificent mile (again). ha. i went to filene's basement. i always seem to find something there. i got this very pretty purple dress by max studio there. it actually fit, perfectly. i went across the street to the water tower place mall to pick up a make up brush for mien at sephora. there was an mng by mango store there. there's one in the sf shopping center but i've never purchased anything from this store. they have such cute things at great prices too. it's a little nicer than h&m but more along the lines of zara. it's based in barcelona. penélope cruz and her sister, monica, both designed for mango. the dress pictured was my first mango purchase. yay! apparently, purple is all the rage for this coming season.

i met up with mien at pretty much the same place as yesterday. we went to chicago burger for some junk food (aka bacon cheddar fries and burger nachos...mmm). i showed mien my purchases and it made her want to go shopping. so we went to nordies at north bridge. she got a pair of cute shoes. she also got quite a deal at the ann taylor loft store. i was done for the day if not for the week.

it wasn't until past 9 or so that we got back to her place. we watched some tv and putz'd around (as i do) a bit. i don't remember when we finally started getting ready but it was after 10. i did mien's make up using the new stuff i got her. she wanted the smoky eye look. thank goodness for miss pursebuzz and her make up demos. i was able to give mien a look she really liked. she is my first makeover! then, i got ready and it was already midnight.

when i was there back in 2006, we had gone to the lincoln park area, the night mien & i met so so many boys. we decided on wicker park as it is where the "artsy" types go. as opposed to the "frat boy" types we found in lincoln park. the first place we went to confused me a little. but we were hungry and heard that they might still be serving food. so we went to pint, this pub that made me feel like i was in lincoln park. not only were we the only asians there, there were all sorts of typical midwestern cut outs. all the guys looked alike. i didn't really notice the girls. when we first walked in, there were these guys too drunk to know the meaning of subtlety, not to mention charm. they stared at us like... we were the juiciest pieces of meat there. wait, we were. ha. and, do you know how hard it is to look around anywhere else than two feet in front of you to avoid eye contact at all costs?? they got the hint and moved on to their next victims. we moved upstairs to people watch in the dark. after one drink, we decided to get some polish dogs on the corner. we might have been hungry but it really really hit the spot.

on to the next bar, across the street was rodan. it was very artsy here. different types of people and yes, even other asians. hipster types. nerds and geeks. i felt like i needed my glasses there. the music wasn't as hip, then again, maybe it was for chicagoans. it was all reggae, and turns out, is really fun to watch people try to dance to. we weren't there long before it closed, at 2a. we had one round of drinks.

it was 2a and most places were closing, except for one. not too far from rodan was nick's. they had an outside patio and they closed at 4a. we had two more hours, woo hoo! we ordered drinks and sat in the back. it was a little empty, outside anyway. not too long after we got there, this very midwestern guy sat down at our table. apparently, when mien went to the restroom earlier, he made her high five him. after chatting us up for a bit, his friend came by. his friend kinda looked like carlton from fresh prince of bel air. he was cute and charming and unlike his midwestern friend, closer to our age. carlton was 30 and his side kick was a mere 22. i don't remember what happened but carlton started talking to a girl in the table next to us and mien was talking to side kick baby (skb) and this random guy started gesturing to me. asking if i was with carlton and skb. i said no and excused myself to talk to the random guy. his name was tony and was a cop. he had two friends with him. a couple. she was in her mid-40s and her boy toy was in his late 20s. tony was cute and turning 32 on tuesday. said he hadn't seen anyone interesting all night until he saw me and he wanted to spend his birthday with me. i wonder if those lines actually work? i told him i couldn't because my sister was coming on sunday and i couldn't leave her. and when he found out i was from california, lost interest. oh well. went back to our table to see how mien was doing. after revealing that she had a bf, skb lost interest and started talking to me. he was tickling and hugging me all night too. weirdo. then 4a came round and we got kicked out. mien was talking to carlton quite a bit while skb was flirting with me. she told me that carlton was really into me and that the girl he was talking to wasn't cute and was just a friend. oh well. i'm not in chicago to find a man, i'm there to have fun.

day four - saturday is for recovering
nisa and i had planned a spa day on saturday. but it turned out she had to work. and mien didn't get up until past 2p. before that, nisa called at 8ish to touch base. i'd gone to sleep only 3 hours before that. i saw the sun rise over the lake. it was so breathtaking, i had to take a picture (see below). doesn't quite do it justice.
we had tac quick thai food for a late lunch. its located near the red L line. it was really good hip thai food, one of which mien frequents. i hadn't had thai in a while. there must have been a cubs game going on because many many cubs fans passed us up as we ate outside. tac quick is between lakeview and wrigleyville.

afterwards, we took a walk and stopped in at the fix cafe. unfortunately, it was closing, forever! and saturday night was the farewell party. we just had to pick up something to bring over to georges' potluck on sunday night and we could then head over to the party. i'm not sure where we walked but we walked long and far. it was a nice walk. some coffee and some shopping, for mien. we got back, had some italian sausages (mmm meat) before we headed out to the fix cafe.

one of the owners was there, eric. mien knows him through a coworker of hers. he seemed pretty interesting for someone who is 26 or 27. he'd been in the military and is finishing school for geology. we didn't stay very long until we decided to head out for some drinks. we went to the bar on buena otherwise known as the bob. they had a great selection on european beer and was very conveniently located a couple of blocks from mien's place. we chatted about boys, like always.

dinner with the ladies

last monday, we went to xanh before the new xanh opened. my friend caroline was in town visiting her twin, grace. funie & kristina also joined us. it was just one of those fantastic nights where you end up staying until closing but didn't expect to.

adventures at kirala's

i'm posting late (sorry melissa!) because um, i was sick on thursday and have been super busy since...

last wednesday, we went on a ladies night out at this very yummy sushi restaurant called kirala. betty used to go there all the time when she lived in berkeley and she knows the owners. as well as everything to order.

as we are chowing down our scrumptuous food, i see, in the corner of my eye this really cute guy. he's in the kitchen somewhere and i see his face peek through the circular window. and he's such a cutie! i think i was pigging out on ice cream when i saw him watching me. i laughed as i caught his eye. and he returned my giggles with some himself. it was all very high school. which made it cute and obnoxious at the same time. one of the owners took me back to the kitchen to meet him but as soon as i got back there, he sort of ran away and hid from us. so, i went back to my seat. after exchanging more looks, the owner came over to me with a piece of paper. it had his name (ogi) and phone number on it. i sent back a piece of paper with my name and phone number. then we decided we were going to stop being annoying so we left.

on the way to the car, the owner was saying goodbye to us from a window above and ogi was with him. that's when we introduced ourselves. betty said it was like a scene out of a cheesy japanese movie. it was funny in a cutesy cheesy way. and we were off to the next adventure...

we end up at a bar in oakland. i can't remember the name. the bar had nice ambience. and jonna's friend charlie joins us. we were there for about one drink or so and decided we wanted to go dancing. so we head over to luka's. while en route, i get a phone call. it's ogi and it turns out he lives right by luka's. so we invite him to join us. about an hour or so later, he shows up with his friend agi. we find out that ogi is 24 and is from mongolia. he also speaks russian! but as luka's is closing, ogi suggests this korean karaoke place somewhere off of telegraph.

we get there and the karaoke is closed so we sit in a booth and drink. ogi & agi order 2 pitchers of beer and some alcohol. we have these sake-bomb-like drinks. so it's me, betty, joahnna, melissa, jonna, ogi and agi. and i remember having a forth shot but nothing much after that. apparently, betty said i had 6 or 7. which freaked me out because i wasn't sure what else i didn't remember. and um, i didn't remember the making out part. ugh.

i don't really remember much else but waking up in betty's spare room and being sick all day on thursday which wasn't so fun. :(

out celebrating with betty

when betty and i are together, we have too much fun. it started off at the village to celebrate the end of the school year teaching for her. we went to the village for drinks and dinner before heading out dancing. the strangest thing happened to us there, we sort of picked up on this guy, together. his name was sebastian and is from montreal. we asked him to come dancing with us. and he did. we never ever do that. play tag team in picking up men. he was such a cutie. he was so charming and friendly. maybe we couldn't help ourselves.

at popscene, he was even more fun. he danced with us all night, bought us drinks, and humored us with our paper-airplane-making games. will was there too but at first, he ignored us. not sure if he was trying to get us to go to him as he is always coming to us. he even walked right by us and didn't say a word. whatever will. eventually, he saw us and ended up in the vicinity of where we were. i guess his friends met up with him there so he was dancing with them. and after his friends had gone home, he finally came over and danced with us. i was a little intoxicated so i was jumping all over the place and jumping into will all over the place. i think he loves it. he loves the attention anyway.

it was so much fun. we might see sebastian again tonight. i'll have to bring my camera.

behind in postings

kelly's surprise birthday

on april fool's day, my best friend's husband decided to surprise her by planning a surprise party the weekend before her 32nd birthday. he offered to fly me down to burbank but i couldn't take him up on it and since i was planning to visit her for her birthday anyway, i booked my own flight. i had a voucher so it didn't cost me anything. and surprised she was! seeing her speechless and confused was so wonderful!! i was so happy to be part of the occasion!

we decided to take her out on an all girls' night out to asia de cuba in west hollywood at the mondrian hotel. joanne and karen drove up from san diego to also surprise her. gail, her landlady and friend was also in on it. kelly's husband stayed home with their 5-month old daughter. i was told that everything at the mondrian in white. the staff/waiters are all dressed in white. when we pulled in, it looked like there were a bunch of house painters in spotless uniforms. it was really posh and fun. apparently, there are celebrity sightings at the mondrian.

we didn't actually see anyone but had tons of fun. the food was so good. it was an asian and cuban fusion. i'd had asian fusion before but not with cuban food. we had 3-4 appetizers and 3 main dishes. it was family style and more than enough food for the 5 of us. i had a pineapple mojito which was their specialty (they also had mango mojitos). i'm not a big mojito fan but it was delish!!

we started with lobster potstickers, grilled pesto shrimp, fried riceless sushi rolls, butter fish, pan-seared ahi tuna on top of wasabi mashed potatoes, and a cuban chicken dish thai coconut sticky rice steamed in a banana leaf. it was all soooo good.

we all had a lovely time and kelly felt like a regular person again, being out and about. happy 32nd kel!! xoxo!

back to the chicago trip...

day two - friday, march 24th
mien had to work on friday, despite our late night, so i did what i always do while on vacation... i went shopping! the big shopping avenue in chicago is michigan avenue, otherwise known as the magnificent mile. i took the 145 bus ($2 for the ride) there from in front of mien's building. it was so easy and convenient. i was first dropped off at the start of michigan ave. lucky me, it was a mall...

it was interesting, there were all the same stores as there are here in the bay area. i went into the benetton store, club monaco, bloomingdale's, h&m, nordstrom, etc. there was a filene's basement there (kinda like loehman's) where i found the perfect pink bag that matches my pink shoes. it actually started to snow while i was in h & m. needless to say, i spent a lot of time there. here's a summary of my purchases on friday:
@ benetton
2 (one white, one camel) button up shirts
@ h & m
1 black sweater, 1 white tee shirt, 2 pairs of fancy panties, 1 pair of brown tights, 2 shirts for jaden, 1 top & 1 pair of overalls for chunky, a bunch of hair stuff for chunky (i think that's it)
@ filene's basement
1 pink furla bag
@ ethel's chocolate
box of assorted chocolates (for my coworkers)

i think that was it on friday... mien had hoped to get off of work early but it wasn't possible so i went home around 4p. she came home shortly after i arrived. we hung out and watched tv for a bit. mien took a little nap. we had a dinner to go to at 7p. it was her friend debbie's birthday. around 8ish, we cabbed it to uncle julio's hacienda to meet up with mien's lawyer friends.

incidently, i met someone from the bay area who knows my sister-in-law's family. and now that i've thought about it some, i think i went out with her brother once or twice. it turns out that mien met jennifer at some law convention. jennifer approached mien as they were the only asian girls there. it turned out they were both from california! and that sparked their friendship. jennifer went to hastings law school with my sister-in-law's sister. i went to the hastings law school graduation ceremony, meaning, i went to jennifer's law school graduation. to make a long story short, it's a very small world.

after dinner, we headed to the clubs and bars. i'm not sure exactly where it was but it was debbie, jennifer, this guy that's sweet on debbie, mien and me. our first stop was the lion head pub & the apartment. upstairs is the apartment complete with two bedrooms in which one bed we settled in. at first, there wasn't anyone interesting to talk to other than the people we were with. then there was this german guy i was talking to. he was nice. his name was robert. he was in chicago working temporarily making some new hip replacement technological device. it was cool, i wasn't interested but he was cute and friendly. i told him i spent some time in germany back in 1998. he told me he had a little daughter. then he had to go hang out with his friend patrick. after german robert left, there were two guys walking by. the first one started talking to me, and then the second one started talking to me too. after that, we started heading out...

as we're walking to the car, i was having a nice chat with debbie, telling her to come out to the bay area to visit me and i'd take her out and it would be so much fun!! then, we were stopped. in front of this bar, john barleycorn, with a guy waving at us to come inside with him. i looked at mien and she says, hey, he's cute! let's go have drinks with him! the rest of the gang decided to head home and let us stay out. it was already 11p, i thought we were going home...

steve was his name. i was a little surprised, this sort of thing never happens! mien was all for it so i went along with her. when we got inside, steve went to get us some drinks. then i saw this really cute guy so i smiled at him. and he approached me! who knew that smiling at someone would get them to come over. that NEVER happens here. he told me i was pretty and i said thanks. then steve came over with our drinks and took us away to meet his friends in the other room. his friends were matt and dave. steve was talking to me, i wasn't really paying attention... mien told me she thought steve was cute and i thought dave was cute so we switched places. apparently, steve didn't like it so he took me to the bar to get me another drink.

at the bar, suddenly, there's this girl freaking me from behind! i was like whoa! what just happened here?? after i had my carbomb, i went back over and met the girl who freaked me. she had 3 guy friends with her whom i also met. i think they were filipino and thought i was too. i was talking to one of her friends who incidentally is getting his mba at usc but is home visiting. it was kinda cool to meet so many people.

later, dave left and it was just me, mien, steve and matt. i don't know if john barleycorn closed and that's why we went to another club. so, the four of us hopped into a taxi and they took us to this club. it was freezing outside and there was a line so i wasn't looking forward to waiting. fortunately for my wussy californian ass, matt knew the bouncer and we bypassed the line! during the short time we were in line, mien and i managed to meet a couple of more guys... hahah. i don't remember what the club was called but it was dark and really crowded. i paid cover since steve was out of cash. so he made us wait for him at the bar while he went to the atm. surprisingly, while waiting, i met a couple of more guys! it was never ending. i don't even remember their names but they were really nice. steve showed up soon after and took us upstairs where we bypassed yet another line! mien and matt stayed on the dancefloor dancing while i went to a lounge area with steve. i was having my 3rd or 4th guinness. holding it next to my face so steve wouldn't try to kiss me. he was sweet but i just wasn't interested. he told me i was pretty and that when he saw me on the street, he wanted to meet me. he also liked my hair. of course he did.

when it was finally time to head out from this club, i walked by one of the guys we met at the bar, he told me to be careful. um, okay, thanks? that was kinda weird. steve was holding my coat and when i got it back, my cell phone was missing! so i made him look for it. he found it quickly. someone had left it by the dj upstairs. we cabbed it back to matt's place. not sure where it was. apparently, matt and dave are roommates. they had a pretty nice place too! there, i had another guinness. again, so steve wouldn't try to kiss me. we hung out until mien and i realized it was 5am. time to go home. so we shared a cab with steve and we were dropped off first. mien paid for the cab. steve asked if he could come up with us. our answer was a straight no, you can't. then i told him if he wanted to find me, he could look me up at my work! that was it. mien and i went upstairs and slept until 3p the next day. what a night!

i asked her if this was normal, being picked up off the street like that? she said no, it was unusual and that i shouldn't expect it the next time i came for a visit. awww man!

day three - saturday, march 25th
so we woke up at 3p on saturday and it was only because mien's friend camille called her! we had dinner plans with them... so before getting ready, while listening to music, eating chips and chatting. i finally decided to take some pictures of the view from mien's apartment on the 42nd floor.
it was the view of the lake that convinced her to buy.