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!

hustlin

last night i listened to a webcast from this dude named noah kagan who was talking about hustlin'. while most of his video was annoying because after a while his voice got nasally, there was also a ton of rude comments from people who were also watching the cast. yeah, i thought he was annoying but im not gonna talk smack about him while he is taking his time out to talk to people. if they didnt like him they should have closed the box and not watched him!!

anyways, he was talking about hustin' in life which is basically just getting out there and DOING something. stop talking about stuff you want to do, and do it. i like the message the more that i think about it and want to keep it in mind instead of complaining about my life.

my way of hustlin' is getting myself to work so i dont complain about being poor, getting myself to the gym so i dont get fat, and then reading about health insurance laws so i can pass some exams and get myself more moola.

so this outfit i wore to work today was totally the cheapest outfit ever. grey pants that ive had since college and bought at forever 21 for $19....and a black turtleneck that i cant get enough of that i got at target for $8. and that bling....that's courtesy of hana lim and juicy couture!

speaking of hana, we booked our tickets and hotel to new orleans in april for jon kong's wedding. im so excited to travel to a new place!!! now its time to book dublin in march!!

preparing for the storm

man, the news totally overhyped this storm. too bad last night when i looked outside it was barely snowing and this morning it wasnt snowing AT ALL. funny thing is no one was at the office today because of transit issues but jackie and i were able to walk to work!!

i got this shirt at jcrew for only 20! what a steal for jcrew!

i dont think people know how incredibly stressful my job is. when there is a client meeting or a deliverable, its ridiculous how intense it is. man, i feel like the grey hairs in my head are growing exponentially!

my hair looks so much better after being washed...the salon people told me i couldnt wash my hair for TWO days!!!

sunday night dinner

trying to organize sunday night dinners at stuy town every week from now on...if you're in nyc and would like to join, lemme know! yesterday was the first one we had and i slaved away making spaghetti and meatballs. i have to admit my concoction was quite awesome. who knew mixing a packet of cheese from the mac and cheese box would make spaghetti sauce so awesome?

and i got a late xmas gift from my fav which i wore to work today!

so i got this sweater at anthro at a highway robbery price of $40...it's warm as hell but does it kinda look like a robe?

Another Perm

Headed to chinatown to get another perm yesterday. My first digi perm and my hair stylist kept dissing on my baby hair! =(

It was ridiculously cold yesterday and after grocery shopping, having awesome malaysian food, and grabbing to-go banh mi for my roommates, i headed home and didnt leave again until diane and i went out at night. chinatown is way too cheap. tell me why hainan chicken and rice was $5.50??? the banh mi was still bank at $3.75 fo

r ca standards, but for ny its also a steal and super delicious!

diane and i headed to this lounge called naked lunch in tribeca/ctown last night. at first it wasnt too crowded but after a while i felt like i was back in college at an azn club being herded like cattle! because we went out, and i had been watching youtube videos to make a smokey eye, i experimented with some eye shadow....too much maybe?

you always want what you dont got

today is my last day of having straight hair. ive been wanting to try a digi perm for forever because the past two times i got my hair did, i had maaaajor split ends. a digi is supposed to be betta fo the hair and because it makes your hair curlier when drier, its perfect for this weather! its crazy how staticky (?) and dry it is right now!

funny how i have super straight hair and want it curly while most people i know with curly hair just want it straight! the people who made straight perms and digi perms are geniuses for making money off people like me.

i literally bought this dress two years ago and this was the FIRST time i wore it. diane said i shouldnt have wasted it on work but i have had no other time to wear it!!

day one of training

meeks sent out an email about the regnar socal race in april earlier this week and asked for participants. it's basically a 24 hour race with 12 people per team and each person running 3 legs each of approximately 3-7 miles. i went to the website and looked at the training schedule for a beginner and im already 5 weeks behind!!!

it band...PLEASE HEAL FULLY AND DONT GIVE ME ANY PAIN!!!!!!

today i had an 8 am meeting (yay!) but was late because i couldnt figure out what to wear!! i hate mornings like that.

trouble sleeping

im still having trouble sleeping. last night i tried reading and turning up the heat and couldnt fall asleep until 2 am! tonight...melatonin!!

hola, 2011!!

i know people make resolutions and they always break them (especially me) but this year, i've got myself 10 that i will attempt to fully dedicate myself to:

1) no drinking on the weekdays

2) start up my clothing blog again

3) move home!!

4) read before bed instead of browse online

5) max out my roth (thanks sai for the idea!)

6) have a certain amount saved up (undisclosed amount)

7) get promoted

8) complete my CEBS

9) pushups everyday

10) travel somewhere new

first pic of 2011.... at bar basic before i spilled 7 layer bean dip all over my new dress!!