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!