turning a new leaf

it's been three years since i moved to this crazy city and after all the whining and griping about wanting to be back in san francisco, i am finally making the move back. it's funny that when the opportunity was given to me, i actually went back and forth and was mentally tormented for days. i made lists of pros and cons and i talked to everyone and anyone about it. the bottom line was that i was literally handed the thing i wanted most on a silver platter and i needed to take it.

i have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving this city. i think my first year and a half i was hating it and really wanted to go home. then i started to meet more people and hang out with certain people consistently and felt more comfortable with the city and my job. although i don't yet feel that i'm ready to leave, a part of me does wonder when i would exactly have been ready (if ever). i have yet to figure out what more i wanted out of the city in order to make me "ready" and i will not be able to find out....and i think i am content with that.

regnar socal

a few weeks ago i did this crazy race called the regnar relay. picture this: 12 people, 2 vans, 200 miles...TWO DAYS. and i basically got 2 hours of sleep the whole time.

whats crazier is i cant wait until next years race!

nola

so it doesnt look like i have anymore room to take pics everyday and post them! how unfortunate....buuuut that doesnt mean i cant still write!

so in my previous post i mentioned that i had just gotten back from new orleans. it was my first time there and i had the time of my life! it was never a place i desired to go but boy am i glad i did.

i traveled with my good friend hana to go to jon kong's wedding. i had met hana through jon and jon i met through monica. the two of them were child hood friends back in toronto. monica, jon and a few of his friends and i met in vegas in 2005 (or was it 2006?) and then again when we went to austin, tx and when he would visit sf.

first off, new orleans (aka nola) was HOT and humid. i did a lot of sweating and smelling but stupidly only brought one casual outfit and three dresses. packing fail on my part....

day 1-we checked into the hotel and headed out to EAT. jon had told us about a restaurant called stanley's that had the best soft shell crab po' boys. we ordered one of those and soft shell crab eggs benedict. both were super yum but semi heavy. the best part about the meal was the hot sauce! (crystal's-official hot sauce of the new orleans saints btw). for a linner snack we headed to a place called mother's. it reminded me of katz deli but with soul food. i tasted my first bowl of grits and debris (nola dictionary: debris is the meat and fat drippings off of a roast beef) among other things. that place was awesome-especially for their homemade rasberry jam and biscuits! for dinner we headed to the rehearsal dinner for an authentic crawfish boil! hana and i got there a little late and it was already dark. by that time there was no more carbs left-just a ton of crawfish poured out onto a table. we just ate and ate and ate and there were still a ton of crawfish left! i got to meet hana and jon's uw friends at the boil and we headed out to bourbon street with the promise that jon would come meet us later that night.

wow bourbon street was so crazy awesome it deserves its own paragraph. it totally reminded me of dublin with people all over the place. it was even crazier because there was music blasting from the bars and people on the balconies above throwing beads. (dont worry, no boobs were shown by me and anyone around me) oh and did i mention that alcohol was CHEAP? there were shops that sold hurricanes (=red death) and grenades (=neon green death) and others that looked like a slurpee store but all the slurpees had different types of alcohol in them. so so fun and so so crazy! we ended up at an irish bar with an outdoor area for the night which was a little less crazy.

day 2-nursing my hangover. just kidding! hana and i headed back to mother's to try more of their awesome food. this time we tried the crawfish etouffee even though you would THINK we were sick of crawfish from the night before.

after lunch mon and i decided to go for a run to help us train for our relay race. lemme just tell you that 2 miles in humidity feels like 10 miles. my priss ass is so used to running in the gym that i simply couldnt run the 2 miles! i ended up going to the gym at the hotel to run more and then immediately jumped into the pool (one of the best feelings in the world!)

around 530 we headed to the W for the wedding. it was gorgeous and so was the bride! and true to new orleans fashion we paraded with a jazz band down to the reception dinner restaurant (paul k's which is the number one caterer in nola) i cant rave enough about this meal. it was the best meal ive had in a while. hana ordered the fried green tomatoes and crawfish etouffee. i had the crab cake and the blackened drum. holy crap just thinking about the food makes me salivate. and not to mention the BEST bread pudding for dessert. oh...and it was open bar top top shelf. talk about an awesome wedding.

then it was back to bourbon street and surprisingly back to the same irish bar as before. it was just that fun!!

overall nola = awesome (and way better than vegas) i want to go back. like NOW.

at least one resolution followed through

ive been so blessed this year - its only april and ive been able to travel to cabo, dublin and new orleans! not only that, i can check off my new years resolution of "travel to two new places". how exciting!!!

ji kang ga nai

sometimes i wish there were more hours in the day for me to do stuff besides work. it seems like the few hours after work are so freakin precious and time passes by way to quickly when i dont want it to. meanwhile, i can spend minutes at work just staring at the time or typing away and it seems like FOREVER but its not!! argh.

btw, how the heck is it already april!?

a life without smart phones

today i was in line with my friend grace at whole foods and she asked me if i would be able to go back from a regular phone to a smart phone. i told her that i think i might be thankful for it. i seriously think we are addicted to our phones. im constantly checking it and using it as a "im bored" fix. are our attention spans just getting shorter?

it also REALLY annoys me when im at dinner with people and they are always on their phones. ugh it would be so nice to just have a meal with friends and not worry about who is calling or that email or blah blah. i remember when people used to talk about blackberries and joke they were crackberries. umm...ALL SMART PHONES ARE LIKE CRACK.

cant someone write a column on social etiquette about cell phone use and cant it become taboo to use your cell at dinner? pleeeease?!!?!?

recognition

i got promoted this week. it's good to know that i get recognition for having two all nighters and working my butt off last year. it's time to make this next year a crazy one and work even harder.

this is just the motivation i needed to keep myself busy and working hard for busy season which is just around the corner!

yay me!

nice to meet you kelly o'shaughnessy!!

i finally get to write about my dublin experience! unfortunately our trip was cut one day short and we spent one night innyc but that's what happens when you travel on standby....i call it EXTREME traveling. luckily the hotel did not charge us for our cancellation since we were still staying two nights.

so after work on thursday amish, meeks and thomas meet me at penn station and we head to jfk to our aer lingus flight. did you know aer lingus charges for alcohol on international flights? NOT COOL. they also dont provide an overnight kit with an eye mask and stuff to make it a comfortable flight. i only slept 3 hours on the 5 hours flight because i was watching easy A (movies were still free!) and the stewardesses were going around the entire flight selling duty free items. another NOT COOL thing about aer lingus!

friday morning the four of us arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed (NOT) into dublin and take a cab to our hotel. we stayed at the central hotel which was exactly that-right smack dab in the center of everything. the only time we had to take a motor vehicle as transportation was to and from the airport. otherwise we were able to walk everywhere.

first stop was lunch at cornucopia. apparently it is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in dublin. second stop was THE GUINNESS BREWERY! this building is a must if you head to dublin. not only do you get to see how guinness is brewed, but at the end of the tour you end up in this amazing room withpanoramic views of dublin and of course a free pint of guinness. we were so so lucky to be in dublin that day because it was sunny and gorgeous!

next stop is the best place for fish and chips in dublin-burdock's! we found a little grassy area and had a little picnic action!

fastforward to night time when we decided to do our very own pub crawl! another cool thing about our hotel is they had this bar called the library bar with huge chairs and books lining the walls that served awesome irish coffees. we of course started there and proceeded to hit up at least 5 other bars and didnt sleep until 4 am! one of the bars had the best sampler platter (which they called "after work nibblers") my fav on the platter were the chicken wings...id have to say they were one of the best ive ever had! while on our pub crawl we encountered gypsies begging formoney which made me and meeks so angry and in our insobriety yelled at them. that was basically when it was time to head home to eat halal food that we discovered and introduce the boys to the writing game.

the next morning amish found this brunch cafe at the top of a clothing store which reminded me a lot of anthropologie. we had heard that the national leprauchan museum was a must see so we ventured there. in my opinion it wasnt worth the money....end of story.

then we decided to go to this shopping street called grafton street which reminded me a lot of the 3rd street promenade in santa monica. lots of street performers and cute boutiques! that night, which was our last night, we went to a pub where the tables have beer taps in the center. SO AWESOME but so dangerous. we stayed there for a long time and ate traditional irish fare (bangers and mash and guinness beef stew) and watched them do some irish dancing. oh, did i mention we played the writing game AND kings? (btw by the time we were finishing up with kings we had gone through almost 12 pints of beer among the four of us.) a rule that was made during kings was that we had to make up irish names for ourselves (mine was kelly o'shaughnessy) and everyone had to use that name for the rest of the night. the next rule that was made was we had to SING the person's name.

basically....we left the bar to roam the streets of dublin singing each other's irish names. SO. MUCH. FUN.

dublin was hands down one of the best places ive been to. everyone was super friendly (except the gypsies), their accents are super cute, and the city was so incredibly chill. i definitely want to go back in the near future!

next stop....paris? barcelona? amsterdam?

apocalypse?

its the end of march and its still cold as death in nyc! is this global warming or what? this summer better not be scorchingly hot....i dunno if i can handle that!

today was the best monday ive ever had. EVER.

i feel like im constantly tired. it doesnt help that i have issues sleeping too! so today i stayed home from work and ended up sleeping 10 hours! weird thing is, im still so so tired but i have all this work to do!

a friend suggested i take vitamin c and zinc everyday. time to go buy that stuff and stock up on it! i seriously get sick too much =(

anyways, this pic is from saturday after me and james took a hip hop class at alvin ailey dance studio. we tried to pose in a dance move but dunno if that turned out so well!

did i mention i like to dance?

anyone heard this song? its freaking hilarious!! youtube it NOW and learn to do the dance in a sweatsuit!! hollaaaaa

he also has another song where he goes..."how you like your eggs, fried or fertilized"

anyways....today james and i went to eat korilla food truck. while in line, i got spat on by a homeless. ive never seen james get so mad before since ive known him. it was cute how he wanted to defend me by getting crazy korean on a my den bum. i told him it wasnt worth it because that guy was a bum and a loser. but i still heart james for being so mad for me.

and then......he and i went karaoke at this awesome bar. we spent two hours there and had the time of our lives. james says his favorite song was "just a friend" oooh baby youuuuuu got what i neeeeeed. my favorite was "picture" cuz i got to sing with james.

after karaoke we walked to ktown and had some makori and some snacky snacks. im so proud of james because he walked so much today....it had to have been at least 5 miles. granted his feet are smelly and sweaty but so are mine. misery loves company and i love james. =)

st pattys!

today we celebrate st pattys! not sure why we celebrate it or who he is, but it seems like the nyc tradition to be drunk during the daylight hours and to get CRAZY.

hit up my fav bar landsdowne road tonight and all we did was drink. i really just wanted wings and some nachos!

james is passed out next to me. he had one too many car bombs! isnt he so cute?!

fabio visits!

james came to new york this morning! strangely i was nervously checking my phone and waiting for him to arrive this morning...i think i was worried that it was raining and the poor boy had to walk from the subway and drag his suitcase in the rain.

we didnt get to hang out during the day but we discovered this awesome bar nearby via scoutmob. where was a skeeball machine right next to our table, our bill was only $16 and the food was awesome! (did i mention there were tater tots?) i cant wait for the rest of the good eats and fun during the rest of his visit!

bump in the road

im badly craving sweets! last night i had a dream that i stuffed four cupcakes into my mouth!! i hope the crazy cravings go away soon. i cant avoid that candy bowl at work for forever!!

it truly amazes me how some people cut stuff completely out of their diet for their entire life. i think at some point the cravings stop but i cant even fathom the thought of not wanting to eat sweets or meat or dairy ever again.

to me i never worried about what a certain food would do for me, whether or not things were organic or grass fed or blah blah but i wonder if i should. i always thought that life was too short to not enjoy what you love!

maybe if i learned about where things come from or what they are doing to my body i would think otherwise. problem is, i know that sweets and sugars are horrible for my body and i know how they make me feel after BUT I STILL EAT THEM. here i am trying to teach people about their well being when i cant even practice what i preach.

lent

this year i decided to support james this year by giving something up for lent. we talked about what to give up and decided on cuss words...then i decided to add more and have us give up sweets. sweets has actually been easy. its cuss words that im FAILING in. i have to put $1 in the jar each time i cuss and im basically already broke!!!

effort

when i first moved to sf i was a bit of a hermit and hung out by myself a lot (ie i watched a lot of south park online). it wasnt until i found a good group of people that i liked that i started going out more and actually making the effort to get to know people and going out. moving to nyc i missed them so much and reverted back to being a hermit. well now, since ive decided to turn a new leaf, i feel more social and think i am actually going to make an effort to meet up with people. my calendar this week has been packed just like it was back in sf! lets see if i can keep this up!

fat tuesday?

another goal of mine is to try to learn about religious stuff. not that im saying i want to become religious, i just think that a lot of american culture and events is based around christianity and i have always wondered what they were for! i JUST learned what fat tuesday was for a few days ago!!

pinched nerve

having the internet makes it so easy to google symptoms and self diagnose! maybe im becoming a hypochondriac but i was so afraid of a tumor or chronic headaches again! i keep getting headaches that start from the top of my neck/bottom of my head and when i try to move my neck, it hurts so bad! not sure whats going on but gonna treat myself to a massage this weekend to try to help it out. yeah massages!!

second chances

yesterday was the day of second chances. i started off with trying bikram yoga again and had an amazing experience. i felt super prepared mentally and physically and didnt feel like passing out this time. i think im definitely gonna start going more often!

i felt so good from yoga that i also decided to go to circle again. i seirously havent gone since my bday in 2009 and for some reason was traumatized. this time, however, was a blast!!!!! dunno if i will go more often but i will definitely remember circle as a good experience now. i felt like a grams there tho....maybe it was cuz i wore my cardigan the whole time?

wellness

at work we help our clients improve the quality of health of their employees. i think about it and wonder how much the wellness programs actually affect people. i honestly think it takes a lot of work to get people motivated and active in these programs which is why a lot of them dont see an roi until a few years past implementation.

when i first started i wanted to introduce a walking competition but got the message that the culture of the office was going to make the program not successful. luckily when company decided to do a small walking competition last year, i was one of the people who got to suggest it and actually help it get into action. it was really exciting at first but then when i saw the low participation and total apathy for physical fitness, i was again discouraged.

today i had the idea to start a walking club or a running club at work. not much, just a few laps around the good ol neighborhood or a run after work. im afraid it might be a long shot and no one will want to join, but i think ill put a sign up sheet in the kitchen or send an email around to see if anyone will want to join me.

with obesity rates and bmis (and not to mention diabetes and heart disease) skyrocketing, i dont understand why people dont care about their health more!! its pretty upsetting to me even though im not vegetarian or vegan or blah blah, i think i take care of my body for the most part by exercising, eating lots of vegetables and getting my routine checkups. everyone else should too!!!

work to travel, run to eat

today was my first day back in the office after being away for almost 2 weeks! man, it sure is hard to get back into the groove!

after being in sf and then cabo, i was not looking forward to coming back to nyc. thank goodness the weather was mild today....im hoping spring comes soon!

my week at home was spent cleaning out my mom's house. i unearthed way too many notes and pictures that needed to stay hidden and gave away a bunch of clothes! im seriously not buying anymore clothing!

this weekend i went to cabo and to sum it up, it was awesome! i tanned, gained 6 lbs, went ziplining, repelled off a 180 ft rock, jet skiied, and snorkeled, and oh did i mention i gained 6 lbs?!?! we stayed at an all-inclusive resort with most meals being buffet style. i didnt even drink that much but ate to my heart's desire!!

this weekend made me think of a new life motto....work to travel, run to eat!!!

cannot wait for my next trip to dublin!

im on vacation

being on vacation in california is perfection. besides the coldness of my mom's house and having to wake up at the crack of dawn so im not stranded all day at her place, being at home is awesome!

im sitting here with my grams learning how to make vietnamese style pickles and chatting about living in new york back in the 50s. i think she knows more about the city than i do.

will return to blogging next week when im back in nyc!

happy day

today has been a great day! the weather was fabulous, i got to meet a client and have a great lunch, i PASSED MY EXAM, and i got laundry done!!

man it feels so good to be able to pass this exam. i feel motivated even though there are still 7 exams left. i really hope i have time to continue taking exams!

here i am with my first learning guide!!!

i love to walk

i would have to say that my favorite past time is walking. i think itstarted in middle school when sharon and i used to take walks around saratoga pumping our arms and squeezing our butt muscles to try to get a work out...you remember that dont you sharon?

in college it was simply a matter of me not wanting to take the bus so i walked everywhere. i hated being on someone elses schedule (the bus was free btw)

when i lived in sf mon and i ramped it up a bit to urban hiking because the hills were so brutal! i think some of the best times ive ever had were urban hiking with mon and just chatting and enjoying each others company.

in ny i think walking is a necessity. some people think im crazy for walking the three miles to and from connies place but when im not on a time crunch (which is more times than not) its the best and most relaxing thing. i can catch up on my phone conversations, listen to music or just people watch. on a night like tonight it was perfect!

i have A LOT of pics to post up cuz james came and we did awesome stuff like eat chicken wings on vday. its great to have him around and totally looking forward to his next visit!

this first pic was taken on monday as we were getting ready to go to landsdowne! we basically had food coma after the meal cuz we ordered a ton of wings, our favorite pulled pork nachos and then hit up holey cream for a donut ice cream sandwich. what a great way to spend valentines day!

on tues after work james and i went to meet up lu at ginger man and had some of their home made ginger beer. i seriously havent been been to ginger man since i met hana there two years ago! sadly, james and i drank before eating and got pretty darn tipsy after two beers each. we successfully passed out at 9 pm and woke up a good 11 hours later. (well, i woke up 11 hours later. i think james woke up 13 hours later!) strangely enough i was still really tired today and felt groggy at work. super annoying.

his flight just left a few hours ago and its always hard for me to fall asleep without him after hes been here for a while. hopefully my walk will make me fall asleep asap!

surprise surprise!!!

today was the bestest day! i was woken up by someone coming into my room at 9 am and almost screamed because i didnt know who it was! then i recognized the hair and realized IT WAS JAMES!!! that sneaky boy came all the way from CA to surprise me for valentines day! im such a lucky lucky girl =)

first impressions

ive heard that my first impression to people isnt so great. the first time james met me he was not a fan at all! and thats in a social setting. in a professional setting what makes you give off a good first impression? i think its the way you talk, the way you shake hands, the way you make eye contact, the way you sit. i need to make a conscious effort of that next time i go to a client meeting...

i think way too much

im pretty sure i think too much about certain things. theres so many times that i am in a situation and i churn my thoughts over and over in my head to make sense of them but always get back to the same conclusion. today when i was running i tried to zone out but kept going back to the same issue and conclusion. its only when i talk to someone close to me like james that im able to fathom another conclusion. its strange how the mind works huh?

i'm getting old....

seriously i'm not making this up but i am going GREY! jackie just pulled out a bunch of hairs and i know i have more but the lighting was bad! i know i'm gonna go grey by the time im 30....i should do more woo-sahs or something!

today was pretty uneventful at work. i definitely took advantage of it today and finished another section of reading for my exam.

i had dinner at this awesome south american/peruvian restaurant today...freaking delicious! but the weather was dreadfully cold! that wind chill really kicked me in the butt! i had this plan to go to the trader joe's in chelsea then to grab a taxi home. but i got ambitious and thought i could carry my groceries and walk. needless to say i got 2 avenues and gave in cuz it was so so cold!!

it's amazing how much has changed since i moved to nyc. when i was in sf and went grocery shopping, i would buy the world. but now, i can only buy what i can carry. a couple of weeks ago i went crazy at trader joes and spent $45 and could barely carry it my 3 bags home. today i spent $30 and had 2 bags that were easily manageable. does that mean that each bag at trader joes fits $15 worth of stuff?!?! veeeery interesting!

blog ideas

so sometimes during the day i have these awesome ideas about what to write about but then when i get here at night i cant remember any of them! how weird (and annoying) is that?

well, since i dont have much to say today, id like to wish my boyfriend a happy birthday!!! it's already february 8 eastern standard time so its OFFICIALLY his 30-1!! yay james!!!!

and in honor of james....he also gets a pic!! whoohoo!

no more!

ok it hasn't even been a month and i have not been able to keep my resolution up of no drinking on the weekdays. this has got to stop!

i've been pretty good about studying everyday and running but starting tomorrow, i need to up the running and begin eating healthy for this race. i think i also want to sign up for the brooklyn half.

looking forward

it was really bad of me to start off the new year with such negativity. today i am much happier!

work last year i have to say was crazy. this year started off a little crazy but this past week has been so chill that i have plenty to be happy about! i started studying for my CEBS (certified employee benefits specialist) exam. i'm taking exam 1 out of 8.....it's going to be a long journey! the first two exams i think will be cake because they cover a lot of information that i have learned from work. the second two cover retirement (which i know nothing about) and the third two cover compensation (which i also know nothing about). then i get to take two electives of my choice. i think i know what i am going to take already but we will see!

i'm excited for this journey ahead and to work towards this certification!

my tet part 2

it's almost time for my favorite holiday...lunar new year or as we viets call it...tet!

most people look forward to christmas, but when i was kid i always looked forward to tet cuz it meant $$$ and lots of it! thinking back on it now, i remember having to go to all the adults and individually wishing them a happy new year and listing all the things i wished for them in the new year to get my red envelope (all in viet, mind you). i would give anything to be near my family and doing that right now!!

on new year's eve my mom does a lot of superstitious things. at the stroke of midnight she makes sure that she is the first person who steps in the house and that my grandma always calls to "start the year off with good luck". on new year's day we aren't allowed to do a lot of things because how we spend the first day of the new year is an indication of how lucky the rest of our year will be. so no showering (washing luck down the drain), no cleaning (sweeping luck out the door), no spending money (throwing away all your money) etc. im not as superstitious as my mom but i do believe it is good to try to do good things as it is an indication of the rest of the year!

i was really irritated yesterday because i kept seeing all these facebook status with people wishing a happy chinese new year. i was this close to posting a snarky comment but refrained because that just isn't cool. so instead, i will rant about it here.

seeing comments about chinese new year makes me angry for several reasons. it is not chinese new year, it is lunar new year. by using the term "chinese new year" it makes it seem like only chinese people celebrate it and that just is not true. it is a big holiday for vietnamese and koreans as well (among others). i don't think it's cool to use the term chinese new year because then non-asians and other asians will think it's just a chinese holiday. and if among us asian people we don't know about each other's cultures, then how do expect non-asians to know about our cultures? i always hear stories about non-asians not being able to tell different types of asians apart and that ignorance makes us mad. just not knowing that there are other asians besides chinese who celebrate such a big holiday in my eyes is the same kind of ignorance.

then again, my anger (be it legit or not) probably comes from my alice 97.3 incident back in 2007 (refer to post "my tet" 2/16/10 and also from my childhood. i grew up around ALL taiwanese and chinese people. all my friends spoke mandarin and when i went over to their houses their parents thought i was chinese and spoke mandarin to me. heck, i dunno if i blame them, my last name sounds chinese and apparently i look chinese. but....I AM IN NO WAY CHINESE. people freak out about taiwanese versus chinese so i think im pretty justified in getting finally pissed that people think im chinese.

so the point of my rant is that it pisses me off that i feel that this holiday is all chinese. everyone only knows the chinatown festival, the firecrackers, the lion dance, blah blah blah. yes, vietnamese culture is in many ways similar to chinese culture but we are very very different and do distinct things on tet. for example, we eat certain types of cake that are only made during tet. one of the cakes is called banh trung and we eat it because it is made from all simple vietnamese ingredients and it's in the shape of a square to signify the earth. (i used to know this story really well because i told it during my pageant speech)

ok im going to stop ranting because it's almost midnight and i'm going to be happy! chúc mừng năm mới.....Vạn sự như ý

Happy new year!

today was one of those days that i was just ANNOYED! good thing i had james to calm me down and talk it over with me!

ok, short ass post today, but here are pics from yesterday and today!

be my guest

we have a guest in my pics this weekend!!! i headed back to sf on friday to celebrate james' bday this weekend. it's horrible but this was the first bday i celebrated with him....i resolve to celebrate more with him! we had a wonderful dinner at kan zaman with 20 of our friends then headed to milk to partay. it holds a special place in our hearts cuz that's where we shared our first kiss!

saturday i had dinner with the girls in sf at barbacco which was awesome! too bad sf was rainy and poopoo and i was feeling poopoo that i couldn't enjoy more of sat night in the city. i did get some awesome qt with james though. we fell asleep at midnight haha.

sunday i spent all day traveling so pictures from that day ARE NOT ALLOWED!

it's been one LONG week

i think my weeklong sickness is finally over! last night was BRUTAL. my ears are still pretty plugged but at least i can't hear semi normally. today was the first day in a week i managed to go to the gym. sweating it out really does help....but so does sudafed, theraflu and lots of other drugs.....

off to CA tomorrow!! whoohoo!! i'm packing now and listening to my new fav pandora station called "dance pop" it's the BEST station to run to and dance party to!

celiac disease

so a few months ago i was telling my boss that i have chronic headaches and she suggested that i might be allergic to gluten. i kinda shrugged it off because i thought my headaches would go away with proper use of my mouthguard. unfortunately, the mouthguard hasn't made the headaches go away completely.

a few weeks ago i decided to try going gluten-free. i've been doing a lot of reading on celiac disease and one of the blogs i follow did a piece on it so i decided to write about it too. i'm planning on going to my doctor in the next few weeks go check it out but man eating gluten-free is HARD. thank goodness i'm asian and can eat lots of rice and know of about all of the gluten-free noodles. not eating bread is REALLY hard. not eating baked goods is even harder but it's awesome that they do have gluten free bakeries and mixes out there! (check out the gluten-free brownie mix at trader joes!) it's even harder to not drink beer....but thank goodness whiskey and scotch are gluten-free.

i'm hoping my blood panel comes out negative for celiac disease but for now...gluten-free is the way to be for me!!

under the weather

today was my first full day out of the house. it was a HUGE mistake to leave today because the weather was on crack. it snowed like crazy this morning and then it was sunny and then on my walk home it was semi warm. i have to admit work was pretty painful and i left early with a maaajor headache and amidst multiple fits of coughing!

do i have to go back to work tomorrow??

i havent blogged because ive basically spent the past three days cooped up in my room sick. cute outfits coming soon...

last night the roommies headed to tree nyc for a farewell dinner for diane. we all had our first taste of rabbit pate which was AMAZING!! we also had really good entrees and yummy desserts.

i got sick friday night and am one of those rare cases where i eat and eat and eat when im sick. i guess good thing about that is that i enjoyed the meal last night so much!

just one of those days

usually on friday nights im so exhausted from the week that i dont want to do anything but sit at home and watch netflix. friday was so ridiculously busy and stressful that i decided to reach out and go out with people....i even offered to go to hiro. yes, the AZN club that i went to and got so drunk that i fell trying to get into the cab TWICE.

luckily we didnt end up going to hiro but had a great wine and cheese night and then hit up maru in ktown. there we saw james' doppelganger....the dude had long hair but he wasnt as hot as my james!!!

organic....orgasmic!!

i've been so good at not wearing the same clothing over and over again....i dont think ive repeated an outfit just yet!

tonight was one of those nights where i was pleasantly surprised by a place that i had eh first feelings about. sf fun club introduced me to scout mob which gives discounts for restaurants and boutiques FOR FREE. it seems like tons of these sites/apps are popping up lately, but that's for another day's blog! anyhow i headed to spring street natural tonight with my girlfriend hana. she chose the restaurant and at first i saw the menu and thought....oh dear...GRANOLA STATUS! i personally am not too keen on organic this, grass fed that which is why i was eh about the place at first. boy was i wrong!! don't wanna bore anyone with a "yelp" review so let's just say it was yummalicious.

btw hana and i have weekly dinner dates. we have a list which we literally refer to as THE LIST that we treat like a netflix queue. its actually quite awesome!

restaurants in nyc...and a bunch of other random thoughts

man, the weekend really killed me for posting! my good friend steven was visiting nyc this weekend and grace, ck and i took him to dinner on friday night. we went to this super cute french restaurant in the les and lucky for us we were the first patrons there!!! unlucky for us, several other tables got seated shortly after we arrived and when it came to ordering and receiving food, we got the last laugh. literally two other tables who got there after us finished eating before we even got our food. to make things worse, the meal was a little pricey and the food came out cold and blegh. the thing is, nyc is full of these hit or misses. there are so many restaurants that some of them have got to suck!and the most annoying part is, sucky or not, they are bank and require a wait. w.t.f.

speaking of which, i cannot rely on yelp. someone please make a menu based review site because most yelp reviews are LAME. i dont care if you had just gone to buy shampoo at the drugstore around the corner and stumbled on this gem of a restaurant with your stupid boyfriend who only likes to eat well done beef. TELL ME WHAT YOU ATE AND TELL ME HOW GOOD IT WAS. thanks!

and now for a bunch of pics from this weekend....all of me of course!

im cheating because this first pic was from august of me wearing the same outfit. its funny that im ranting about new york restaurants because when i last wore this outfit, i was headed to le bernardin. yes, that is the eric ripert restaurant with 2 michelin stars. it was also a sad sad disappointment. it was asian fusion...aka fish simmered in udon soup and very very blegh. for that much money i expected to be BLOWN AWAY. it was the most expensive meal ive gone to too! i cannot wait to go to per se and have thomas keller blow me away. please impress me!!

on saturday i was headed out to soho and thought hmmm...ill try to be a little creative today! once i got dressed i ran out to the living room and asked diane "do i look crazy??" she immediately said yes and i was gonna go change but then i thought...thats ok if i look a little crazy!!

sunday i was semi hungover. saturday night was spent drinking wine from eataly (one of my most fav places in nyc) and playing kinect. luckily i was headed over to connie's for sunday night dinner and preparing pho which was a great hangover cure! sadly my new white turtleneck (which i got for $5.99 the day before at uniqlo) got food all over it and the rest of my outfit smelled like fish sauce, but whatever...im vietnamese...fish sauce is our life source!

i didnt leave the house monday...so no picture. this pic above from tuesday make me look like a choir girl...what we used to wear in middle school choir looked EXACTLY like this! NCAA (not cute at all)

sometimes i dunno why i think its ok to leave the house with my hair looking crazy. ever since i got it permed, my hair has been BIG. im afraid too big! hopefully i wont look back at my pictures and grimace the same way we grimace when we look at pictures of hair from the 90s!!

ok that was a way random bunch of thoughts and pictures. i will get better at blogging EVERYDAY now!