u aint 2 old

venue: the joint, hollywood
artist: man vs teeth
who: the guys
when: 19 september 2010 (sunday)

this is my favorite song from these guys. and best of all, it was dedicated to yours truly. they totally rock. ♥ ♥ ♥

congrats, serena & tom!!

i have known serena since ucsd (in 1998). she is one of my many good friends i know from alpha phi omega (aphio). through aphio, she was also one of about 10 house/apartmentmates during my years in san diego. and though i lived with her for a mere quarter (taking over anne's room), she is really the only former roommate i am still in contact with. but not only that, i consider her a truly great friend. despite the fact that we don't talk for weeks or months at a time, we still find the time to catch up every so often. i actually met tom back in 2003 when i went to boston to visit serena. they were friends at the time but he always seemed pretty nice.

this is me with my lovely sister at joe & carl's house before being dropped off at the hotel to catch the party bus.on the left: me & lisa just getting on the party bus.
on the right: the party bus, broken down in the middle of the street after smoke came out of the back.
this picture was taken from my seat at the reception. it was a fantastic view of the stage and the very cool jazz band that played all night long. it was exciting to be placed at such a fantastic table with nice people and not be all the way in the back somewhere random. thanks serena (& tom)!
to the left: after the unveiling of the, wait for it... candy bar!!
to the right: the aftermath... a couple of sad empty jars.
finally, right before lisa and i took our leave, this is me with the beautiful couple. the food was a chinese banquet and trust me, i've had my fill of this cuisine. but i've never really had chinese banquet food served to me. and the food here was delicious. not to forget, the very cute older chinese lady serving us was genuinely sweet and so efficient.

we had a wonderful time. unfortunately, i wasn't feeling well and didn't get to bust a move on the dance floor. but coming soon... our silly photo booth picture.

birthday events

on friday, i turned 33. i'm closer to my mid-30's. ugh. but as most of my friends know, i like to celebrate my birthday all month long. i started with my new red shoes. last weekend, i went to los angeles for a mini holiday. it was the only weekend i could get away before my big work deadline on december 4th. coincidentally, it was the baby shower of my college friend, sandra. i hadn't seen her since her wedding. kelly also surprised me with a trip to the bliss spa at the w hotel in los angeles. i'd been dying to go back to bliss since we had our muffin spa day there back in 2005. it's been over 2 years since i'd gone to any spa. so it was the perfect birthday surprise. we both got facials and chilled out in their lounge munching on brownie bar. we both also had extra treatments. she had the refining fruit acid wash ($25 extra) added on which is like a mini chemical peel. i had the microdermabrasion ($65 extra) added on and basically, they sand your face to make it smoother. usually, you get more than one session of these but i don't think i need to do it again. we both sat in the sauna for a bit, took individual steam showers and bought our products. it was much fun. and while i wanted a spa day with my sister (who suggested it to kelly, thanks lisa!), kelly is the next best thing. thanks kelly! ♥

last wednesday right after work, i brought home my birthday gift to myself. a new 2007 acura tsx with navigation system. it's carbon grey with ebony leather interior and a 6-speed manual transmission. i'd had my heart set on a mini cooper s but with all the bells & whistles i wanted in the mini, i got standard with the tsx. and more. everything has voice control. i'm still getting used to the commands. not to mention, talking to my car. and it is SO MUCH fun!!! the bluetooth is also really cool. if i call you on the road, chances are, i'm talking to you from my car!

on thursday, lisa & i cooked thanksgiving dinner. this year, there were no parents or unmarried significant others. a first. we all get along with my sister-in-law's siblings that they are really like family. i've been spending the last 8 or so thanksgivings with the pham family. it's been really great. lisa made the most amazing stuffing from scratch and corn pudding. and since my birthday was the next day, we celebrate my birthday on thanksgiving as well. it's a good excuse to have cake after dinner. i usually get myself the pumpkin burnt almond cake from peter's bakery but ro (thanks ro!) told me about aki's seasonal pumpkin cake. so i ordered one. it's called the pumpkin delight and it is quite delightful. really moist and flavorful. i'd say it was much better than the pumpkin burnt almond. mmm. i also got a yummy strawberry birthday cake from trang's sister jade.

after dinner, lisa & her bf allen took me to meat is murder night at popscene. it's a tribute to the smiths & morrissey. a smiths cover band, this charming band, was also playing. i hadn't been back to popscene since september and was dying to go dancing again. most of the popscene characters were there so we got in for free (thanks ken!) and for the most part (except for the first drinks allen had to pay for), we got our drinks for free (thanks to chris). dancing was so much fun. lisa took two car bombs with me. she'd never had them before. we didn't get home until 4p but it was totally worth it. thanks lisa! thanks allen! you guys are the best!!

a tradition i've started on my birthday is getting my haircut. i thought i just wanted a trim but i usually let my hair dresser, gina, do whatever she likes. she does in fact do whatever she likes and it always looks hot.

on saturday night, my brother & sister-in-law took me and lisa to this new restaurant in palo alto, called shokolaat. let's see, the only good thing i have to say about this place is that the dessert was the best thing there (even though we ordered 3/4 of the dinner menu). it was overpriced (over $200 for 4 of us) and there was a racist elderly woman sitting next to us who did nothing but glare at us all night and made racists remarks at us. i didn't know these people still existed. we were the youngest patrons dining there and not the only asians there either. next time, i'll go to xanh for my birthday.

thank you all for sending/leaving birthday messages on friday. i was napping from noon to 5p recovering from the night before at popscene. despite unfortunate events, it was still a lovely birthday.

mini break

in anticipation for my surgery scheduled next week, i am going away for a mini break down to southern california starting wednesday night. i will be back early next week with lots of stories and pics to post! ♥

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!

meeting emily

last saturday, i flew down to burbank to meet kelly's little arrival. she looked so small and pink (heehee). she just slept and ate and slept and ate. but kelly's house was full of visitors, her parents were both down from san jose. her cousins were over and her sister joy, the girls and wade showed up too. there was a lot of food and fun. i was there for about 5 hours, i think. it was lovely to see kelly...
...more pictures to come...

summary of events...

i've been bad with posting lately because i've been SO utterly busy!! anyway let's see what's happened in the last few weeks...

sunday, september 4
my lovely cousin debbie got married to her sweetheart of almost 10 years, roger. it was in morgan hill and despite the very hot weather, a very beautiful occasion. i saw family i hadn't seen in ages! and the nordstrom crew, as always, is a pleasure to spend time with! my sister-in-law thuy played this hilarious joke on the bride and groom. it was after we saw my other cousins (the bride's siblings) make the couple eat a spring roll from each end. it was sort of like the spaghetti scene in the lady and the tramp. anyway, thuy got a piece of cold broccoli, tied it when something she found out of the centerpiece and dipped it in hennessey! so, jacob (lisa's bf) hung it over their heads for them to bob and eat it together. they said it was the nastiest thing they'd ever eaten. but she told us she loved us anyway... :D

saturday, september 10
the big moving day. i flew down on thursday night so i can help ted move. i spent half the day on friday packing up his stuff. good thing he doesn't have much. i'm so not looking forward to packing my stuff up. i really need to learn to throw out stuff. the actual moving day was a big mess... it started at 9 in the morning to pick up the uhaul truck and the tow dolly (to tow his car). there was a problem with the two dolly and one of the lights didn't work. so they had to take it to a different location. we were starved and went to the café tropical in silver lake for a snack and coffee (really good cuban food, the coffee is SO good! and at great prices). we then decided to run to the osh hardware store to pick up some rope for his piano. and on the way back to the uhaul, we saw an american apparel store and ted stopped to get a shirt for work. by the time we got back, it was 11am. we still had a lot of packing to do!

sometime after 2pm, ted's friend mal showed up to help with the piano. it was a tough job despite the ramp. there were two other guys that came and helped them lift the piano up a little step to the back of the truck. i spent most of the time finishing up all the packing and doing some cleaning. then my friend (and ted's) joe showed up after mal left and help tremendously with the move. we still need to take joe out for helping us.

after all the packing and cleaning, we were finally done! so we took the truck out for some gas and some dinner. then we got back to put the car on the tow and had no clue how to do it. so ted called uhaul and they told him to stop in and they would do it for him. it was 20 minutes to 7 and they closed at 7. by this time, the other light of the tow dolly had gone out! it was so frustrating!! when we got to uhaul, the guy that was helping us didn't speak an ounce of english and had no idea what ted was asking him. finally, some other guy came along. but he wouldn't help us because they didn't want to be liable so he just showed us what to do. finally, we got on the road at 7:20p. and while merging onto the freeway, some stupid jerk tried to cut us off. he sped up while we were getting into the right lane and almost hit us but went onto the pavement to avoid it. what an asshole.

we stopped once to get gas 3/4 down to empty. it costs us $75. the whole way, ted went 65 mph or slower. the speed limit for the tow dolly is actually 45 mph. it was going fine until we saw some flashing lights. it was a copper. he said one of the chains from the tow had fallen out and that we might want to secure it. apparently, it had been dragging on the road that part of the hook had disintegrated! the cop probably noticed the sparks from it dragging. it was close to 3am when we finally got back to my apartment. we just brought in the necessities.

the next day we unloaded in an hour! and it took a while to get someone to help with the piano but we finally dropped it off at my parents' house and dropped off the truck. good riddens. i don't know if we'll tow a car again...

yesterday, september 13
i had my follow up with my ophthalmologist. and the intubation didn't work. my tear ducts are still completely obstructed and now, it means i will need surgery. the surgery entails opening up the side of my nose to stretch out the tear duct sac. he says it would happen on a friday and i would be able to go back to work on monday. eek. good to know it's a fast recovery time. he wrote me a prescription for eye drops and wants to see me in 6 months. what a pain...

caroline & fred pinchon - wedding #3 or was it #4?

yesterday, ted and i ventured down to westminster to attend my friend caroline's last wedding of the year. they were officially married at the chicago city hall last year. that was wedding number one. since then, they've had two more weddings in france. fred is french, hence the weddings in france. and this one was a chinese banquet and their last wedding celebration.

it was a nice small event. ted and i sat with the couple. the last time we saw them was right before they got engaged. they stayed with me for a night and then headed down to carmel for a couple of days. carmel was where fred proposed to caroline. it was all very exciting and sweet.

it was nice to see them and catch up for a bit. we're hoping we can finally make it out to chicago next year. so, that was my 4th wedding of 2005. i have one last wedding to go...

jon brion & surprise guests

venue: largo
artist: jon brion
who: ted
when: 05 august 2005 (friday)
doors open at 8:30p

as we walked to the reservations line, i think i see rhea perlman. then i think, nah... but once we get to the end of the line, i see this really short man who looks exactly like danny devito! then i hear him say, rhea! check this out! they were there with their family. it was very cool to think that danny devito and rhea perlman would go see jon brion.

so, we get in and they show us to our seats. prime location! right at the front. it was better than the last time we went! when you get reservations to the jon brion show, you get a table which requires dinner. so this time, i got something different. i got the honey baked chicken breast with mashed potatoes and salad. not only was the salad very yummy, i had to eat all of it but the rest of the food was good too. ted usually gets the chicken caesar salad because it was safe to get. he liked my entree though.

jon brion is really utterly amazing. you feel like you're in the presence of pure genius. not only does he play all sorts of instruments but he also sings. so, he does original songs, then he takes requests but puts in his own thing. oh and another thing, being so close, i couldn't really see any wrinkles on his face! i think he's in his 40's? and well, maybe some on his forehead that his hair covers up but nowhere else!

we stayed for the second set this time. we'd prepared ourselves and took a short nap earlier in the day. last time i went, i was fighting to stay up and ended up having to leave before the second set. so, there are some surprise guests in the second set and it's fiona apple and nickel creek, this folk band. i didn't really like fiona apple before, i just thought she was too angry. ted is a huge fan. and after seeing her live, i was very impressed. i don't think i can say that i don't like her anymore but i kinda do now.

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...

superbowl sunday

so breakfast in tokyo played last sunday at this place called club good hurt. it was a small cozy sort of club. there were 3 bands, bit, the transmissions, and the james-brown-singer band (aka i forgot their name). i know i sound biased but i really thought bit was the best band there. they had the right amount of stage presence, melody, and diverse sound. i really enjoyed the show. i especially enjoyed being able to see the band. normally, in these small venues and since i'm so petite, all i can do is hear the music and see the tops of the crowds' heads.

my first BIT show

ted's band is playing on sunday, in west la at club good hurt. i think it's their 5th gig but it'll be my first time seeing them play. i'm kinda nervous about it. what if they suck? haha. i know, that's mean. i'm sure they'll rock.
my partner-in-crime betty is coming with me. she & i know the singer of their band. it'll be fun to see them with her. i've even got my white go-go dress packed ;)
i can't wait!!