Wednesday, May 24

Mama Zuma's Revenge

in case you're bored at work, pick up a bag of Mama Zuma's Revenge. They're habanero potato chips and while yes, they make my tongue tingle, they're more fun to trick your friends w/.

Debs & i went to Starwich at Citigroup Center to have lunch together. i saw a bag of these, and i do like spicy food, i bought some. btw, there is some definitely impressive food at Starwich and the portions are ginormous. however i would recommend ordering from their pre-made menu and not creating your own salad/sandwich. Debs made her own sandwich and they were skimpy on the ingredients. my citrus duck salad was ginormous.

anyways, Debs had one of these chips and started to tear up. i saved the rest for later and when i got back to the office started offering them to people. hilarity has since ensued w/mad dashes to the soda machine & water cooler. heehee.

Monday, May 22

Her Cup Overfloweth

Just got back from Vegas this morning around 2:00 am. of course i'm exhausted. you'd think that having travelled to Asia, a measly 3-hour time difference wouldn't whoop my ass but it did. i woke up at 8 am (11 am east coast time) but went to bed at between 3-4 am (6-7 am) EVERYDAY. sucks.

the wedding was adorable. it was a small ceremony (w/a giant wedding party) at the Ritz Carlton. the ceremony was outdoors and it was such nice weather and a beautiful sunset. of course only ASW would have a rainbow at her wedding. a nice touch was the release of butterflies at the end of the ceremony. definitely an original touch. ASW looked lovely and at the reception she was hilarious (and drunk). the dj played a lot of 80s music and ASW was bopping around in her wedding dress the entire night.

OMG, the food at the dinner reception was phenomenal. there was a smoked chicken and mushroom ravioli in cream sauce, a pecan-crusted goat cheese salad, a beef filet w/ tiger prawns (this was some GIANT shrimp), an enormous creme brulee and devils food chocolate wedding cake w/white chocolate mousse frosting. i wish i'd nabbed one of the menus as a souvenir, it was that good.

the stay at the Luxor was actually really nice and ASW's friends that i'd roomed w/were hilarious. Rose (who's a guy) & Mike were really easy to get along w/. They both work in the city and are single so we've already made plans to meet up some time and introduce our single friends to each other which is a very good deal since both Rose & Mike work in finance.

the one thing i noticed about Vegas is the incredible hotness of all the girls. everyone's got ample boobs which they display quite openly (hence the term "her cup overfloweth" which we used all wkd) and tiny waists. luckily ahjima had lent me some trashy clothes to wear to Pure this wkd or else i would never have fit in. topless clubs/shows abound there (Mike kept mentioning the one playing at the Luxor, Fantasy) although they also have something for the ladies (Thunder Down Under anyone?).

will definitely go back some time, but only when i qualify as a high roller.

Friday, May 19

employees only

ouch.

that is all i can say for today. whenever i go out w/Pal on a weekday the inevitable response the next day is the above. i should've known yesterday was going to be trouble. Pal & i had originally made plans to go to the Edgewater mall. she had to return some items and i had to pick up something else for the Vegas trip. afterwards we would go back to her place & watch the O.C. finale while drinking copious amounts of wine & vodka.

i got home around 6:30 pm and found that plans had changed. Pal had been invited to a Lehman Brothers happy hour at the bar Employees Only. i agreed to go for the sole reason that you can never meet enough Lehman employees. in light of my last post, which is still very true, we managed to go out for the entire night while only spending $10 each + one way on the PATH. Employees Only was fun but very expensive (one drink cost $10). we met an uppity British Asian guy who claimed he was from London but i think he sounded like he was from Leeds.

Pal & i went out for a butt and ran into a very italian (real italian, not jersey guido) businessman and SaltyBalls aka Mr. Darling (his actual last name is Darling, how darling). SaltyBalls received his nickname from some girls he was standing w/, not from any personal experience on my or Pal's behalf. anyways, we headed over to another bar down the block and Pal and Italian got chummy. turns out SaltyBalls lives in Jersey City so he drove me and Pal home. we went to Whiskey Bar once we got home, which i chose mainly for the fact that it's right across the street from Pal's apartment and she was definitely in no shape to go far. we briefly met up this morning and she told me that she fell asleep w/the Brita container in her bed. somehow she'd drank the whole thing and then just passed out w/it still cradled in her arms.

both Pal and i made it safely home last night, but i can't say we're doing so well this morning.

and i'm leaving for Vegas tonight....

Wednesday, May 17

broke as a joke

i feel so bad for my friends lately since the only thing i keep telling them is how i'm "broke as a joke" now-a-days. at the same time, i've still got a lot of "necessary" purchases to make. for instance, take this dress. Pal & i went to Loehmann's yesterday to go bargain shopping for a dress for me to wear to ASW's Vegas wedding. the stakes were recently rasied when it was decided we were going to go to Pure after her wedding reception. i was forewarned that it was "dress to impress". what the hell does that mean? i've never been what could be called "fashionable". i wear what i like and i like to be comfortable (most of the time). even when i get dressed up to go out it tends to be jeans w/ a nice/flashy top. hopefully this dress will be acceptable. i gotta admit, i do like it for various reasons:

1. it's black so it'll always be slimming
2. it's empire waist so it won't matter how big i get on the bottom, no one can tell
3. it's got a serious v-neck and (w/the right bra or tape) gives me huge boobs (at least for me)
anyways, now i'm more broke than before but have a cute dress to console me.

Monday, May 15

Ew yuck

I was stuck on the 5 train this morning between 2 people who both reeked of onions. o god it was unbearable. i mean so bad that i was involuntarily coughing and tearing. and of course since i was so physically uncomfortable the train seemed to take forever to get from Union Square to Grand Central.

aside from that, it's raining today. usually rain really bums me out, but ever since i got my Totes umbrella, i relish every opportunity to use it. i've never owned an umbrella in my life but when Ahjima & i were planning our Asia trip i decided to get one b/c weather reports were saying it would rain just about every day we would be there and i knew i wouldn't be able to get away w/ wearing a hooded sweatshirt in that muggy weather/torrential downpour.

if you're going to own any kind of umbrella, the Totes umbrella is the way to go. it's got a lifetime warranty and (this is the best feature) it retracts by itself. so you press the button on the handle to open the umbrella up and then you press the button again and the umbrella closes by itself. now tell me that's not one of the best things ever invented. right up there w/ the lightbulb & television.

this weekend was Mother's Day, so went home to hang w/the fam. Debs' dad was here visiting from Taiwan so there was a lot of eating out this weekend. Of course we went to Hunan Cottage on Route 46 in Fairfield (love coming here for brunch on the weekends). The highlight was going to Minado on Route 10 in Morris Plains. as i've gotten older i've opted away from buffet eating b/c all it does is make me feel sick about 3 hours later. Minado is my exception to that rule. the sushi buffet there is outstanding.

now it's back to cereal & salad until ASW's wedding in Vegas this weekend. can't wait for her reception at the Ritz Carlton.

Thursday, May 11

oppa hooks it up again!

ah...oppa. so of course i totally missed oppa the entire time he was here in the new york. there's always a "shoulda woulda coulda" aspect about everything i do i think. i've been reading some of the other fans' writings about when they saw him while he was new york and while i'm real happy that they got to see him, i'm also hating on them a little b/c i'm so jealous.

ironically, every time i head out on a Rain oppa mission, something else totally crazy happens. i think it's b/c i act w/complete wreckless abandon when it comes to oppa. so Bubs & i went to dinner at a restaurant that oppa frequents whenever he's in the city. lots of yummy korean bbq and baek sae chu. Ahjima met us there around 8:30 pm and she called up SJ-who works w/outer wear for labels like Sean John. i'm not sure if he was just teasing me or not but he mentioned that Bi will have to come back to new york for Sean John fittings since he was just signed as a model. i called up PinkyPete and by the time our whole crew was assembled it was already around 10:30 or 11:00 pm.

by that time i'd been drinking w/ Bubs for at least and hour and a half; w/Bubs & Ahjima for an hour; w/Bubs, Ahjima & SJ for 45 mins; and w/Bubs, Ahjima, SJ & PinkyPete for half an hour so needless to say: i was pretty drunk. i gave up on trying to see oppa and we headed over towards Players and drank a few pitchers. it was at this point that Ahjima & i (in our completely wasted state) decided to lose all dignity and call up oppa's hotel. we finessed our way w/the concierge only to learn that oppa had checked out that morning! we all had a good laugh about it and by about 1:00 am i was ready to call it a night.

the next morning i headed towards work from PinkyPete's. as i walked toward the Union Square subway station i checked in w/Ahjima & Bubs. turns out Ahjima & SJ had gone to another bar after we split up and been drinking shots of Patron (ew yuck). SJ stayed at Ahjima's (wink wink nudge nudge) and they were both ridiculously late for work the next day. it was only as an afterthought that i realized why SJ was so intent on having me stay @ PinkyPete's (my original intention was to stay at Ahjima's). you know, something similar to this happened last time Ahjima & i went to CODA to see Rain. even inadvertently, Bi oppa just knows how to hook it up.

and now i'm broke as a joke for the next month. either way it was an insane Tuesday night...

Monday, May 8

speaking of crazy....

ok so the current ETA on Rain is that he should be getting ready to go to ABC Headquarters Building located on 66th/67th near Lincoln Center to meet w/them about appearing on one of their shows. i know i get all stupid when it comes to oppa (korean for big brother), but more so when he's actually in the near vicinity. this morning as i commuted to work i was listening to oppa's songs & i got this goofy grin on my face just knowing he was in the same city as me. yea, i'm retarted.

due to the fact that i work i won't be able to go to ABC Headquarters at noon. while i debated about heading over to Lincoln Center tonight to check out oppa at the honorary dinner, i'd read in some article that Bi would be one of the few guests not walking the red carpet. this may in fact be a good thing b/c i don't think i'd like to be one of those shrieking fans in front of important political leaders, thinkers & writers from all over the world. it's already embarassing enough that they might have to pass David Blaine in his little sphere.

so i called Bubs & discussed my crazy Rain behavior and reached this conclusion. i act exactly like girls did in high school. remember when you had a crush on an older guy and you would get all giggly when he passed you in the hallway? and you knew exactly where to be and when just so you see him? yea that's what i'm like w/oppa. so Bubs & i came to the conclusion that i have no dignity whatsoever when it comes to Rain & revert exactly back to that behavior even though i just turned 24. eh, whatever.

strangely enough, after i hashed about my idiotic Rain behavior, we got to talking about Scientologists. hmm, could that be an indication of how crazy i am? i mean if we can jump from my Rain behavior to Scientology then it must be pretty nuts since Scientology itself is pretty insane. we still can't fathom how a "religion" based on the writings of a known science-fiction writer could turn into this weird phenomenom.

right after this we segued into our obsession over cheese. it was funny actually cause Bubs got all fanatical about it. hmmm, so i'm crazy about oppa and Bubs is crazy about cheese? tell me that's not crazy in itself.

p.s.-just read an email from Ahjima who works at Lehman Brothers near Rockefeller Center. she's definitely jumping on my FANatic train & i love it!! i'm trying to send her out to ABC Headquarters Building as my emissary since i can't be there.

Saturday, May 6

FANatic

ok, so it's Cinco de Mayo this weekend & i've got a new roommate moving in. last night was pretty scandalous at Liberty: Mini ran off w/Dave (who's got a girlfriend. apparently i was the last to know); Douglife hooked up w/his neighbor across the street (and i got to see this personally-well the beginnings anyway. Bummer & i busted out as fast as we could when we noticed what was going on); Courtney passed out before i even met w/ Mang & Pal at Liberty. the night was fun.

ok, so even w/all this exciting stuff going on & a Journey tribute band later tonight in the city, there's still really only been one thing on my mind. Rain will be in NYC tomorrow. yes, i am 24 years old and while i think i've outgrown getting all crazy about most celebrities (but i will always be a celebrity slut at heart), for some reason Rain (aka Bi-pronounced like "Bee") gets me to act all giddy like a teeny bopper all over again.

so Rain will be in NYC to attend an honorary dinner at Lincoln Center on May 8th thrown by Time Magazine for its 100 greatest influential people in the world. he'll also be holding a meeting at ABC headquarters on May 8th at noon for talks about an appearance in one of their shows. for these events he'll be flying into JFK on May 7th at 11:00 am and return to Korea on May 10th. i've already roped Ahjima into joining me on Tuesday in my mission impossible: to stalk Rain. i mean, let's call a spade a spade, right?

this isn't my first offense either. Ahjima & i attended his concert at Madison Square Garden on February 2 & then managed to go to the restaurant he ate at in K-town and later, i even went to his hotel (through the help of a new friend). the night after the concert, ahjima & i went to the club promotion he attended at Coda in midtown. see? i'm fanatical when it comes to Bi.

so wish me luck that i'll get another chance to see my future husband/ideal boy.

Thursday, May 4

vacation highlight #2: drinks

ok, don't get too excited about the title of this post. i'm not gonna be sharing a plethora of party alcoholic beverages. there's only 2 drinks showcased in this piece, but they were definitely fun highlights of the vaca.

chocolate milk:
ahh...this was probably one of the best drinks i've had in a LONG time. if only they had this chain in the U.S. rock, o, ahjima, cousin & i went for lunch in causeway bay while in hong kong. we weren't sure what we wanted to eat and ultimately stopped at the asian chain Azabusabo. i actually really like this place, although i don't think ahjima or o really cared for it. at lunch both rock and o ordered a chocolate milk and it looked damn good. between the apps we'd ordered and my meal i just couldn't imagine also drinking a chocolate milk w/ soft serve ice cream on top so i passed. later, while cousin, ahjima & i window shopped around causeway bay i kept thinking back to that chocolate milk. it just kept haunting me. so when ahjima & i headed towards the subway and passed the same Azabusabo i just couldn't resist and went in to order a chocolate milk. one of the best decisions ever.
fyi about rock's photo: right before i took rock's photo, it just so happened that he and o were talking about prostitutes (i have no idea how that convo happened). regardless, right before i took the photo, instead of saying "cheese", rock said "prostitute?". and when you look at that photo, it somehow all fits together.

flaming lamborghini:
this was the infamous drink of the weekend while in hong kong. chah-lee kept trying to convince somebody to do it. finally, on o's last night in hong kong, we made a little card bet that the 2 losers would drink it. that ended up being ahjima & jin. this drink is impressively lethal. it's a shot of henessy, sambuca & b-52, lit on fire and mixed together. yikes. here's a pic of the contents:
o and ahjma kept trying to get me to do one, but after seeing jin's expression after he did his, i knew that wasn't going to happen.
haha either way, i think o and ahjima enjoyed theirs. thankfully me and chah-lee managed to get through the night flaming lamborghini free.

Wednesday, May 3

Colour Me Kubrick

Thanks to Debs' Devil Wears Prada job (and her natural interest in the finer arts), i got to see the movie Colour Me Kubrick last night at the Tribeca Film Festival. The movie, starring John Malkovich, was surprisingly funny, which i wasn't expecting. of course, i don't know what i was expecting from a movie about a conman (Alan Conway) who spent the latter part of his life impersonating Stanley Kubrick, but humorous wasn't it.

if you get a chance, you should definitely see this movie. it'll be playing at the Tribeca Film Festival through 5/5. if you can i would purchase tickets earlier b/c when Debs and i showed up there was a line around the block and the marquee stated that the 9:30, 10:00 & 11:00 shows were all sold out. of course, last night ended up being a bit more special since John Malkovich showed up to do a question-answer portion.

Malkovich looks exactly like the characters he's been playing as of late. he was round around the middle (not that i should be judging) and was sporting a shaved head. the part of him Debs and i appreciated the most was the man-purse he was sporting. i think we noticed it b/c the character Alan Conway also carried a sort of satchel/man-purse, but i must admit, Malkovich wore the man-purse well.

Tuesday, May 2

vacation highlight #1: the food

instead of chronicling my vacation from day 1 through day 8 i've decided i'm only gonna go w/ the highlights, like a vacation's greatest hits sort of thing. so this one's gonna be about all the amazing food we had while traveling:


1) ahh, beard papas. probably one of the MOST amazing pastries i've had in a very long time. ahjima saw them for the first time at the Mongkok MRT station in Hong Kong. after that Cousin and i couldn't stop raving about them and then Ahjima just knew she had to have some. the day we left Hong Kong to come home we stopped at the Beard Papas station in Sogo at Causeway Bay to pick up a box for our flight. We ended up buying SEVEN of them. o god were they good. i'm salivating just thinking about it. i might have to stop at Cafe Zaiya to pick some up...

2) i knew Ahjima couldn't go to Taipei w/o trying MaLa Hotpot. so on our 3rd day in Taipei Harry, Athena and Island took us for a hotpot lunch. you don't know how much effort it took to get it. every place we went to was closed! on a tuesday! i felt like it was fated that we would not eat hotpot for lunch until we found this place. we got to pick 3 different soup flavors: curry, MaLa (medium spiciness thank you, not everyone's got Korean taste buds like Ahjima) and sour cabbage (those who eat real Asian food would appreciate this). it was an amazing experience that Ahjima really enjoyed. i, on the other hand, only picked at my food b/c i'd had an insane breakfast from my grandma and Island's presence at lunch made it so that i didn't want to oink out on all the food. damn him... btw, those are harry & ahjima's chopsticks in the pic.

3) on our 3rd day in Hong Kong my aunt ended up my Cousin and i out for a sort-of dim sum brunch. i say sort-of because there were no carts or anything like that but the food was very dim sum style. the restaurant was located in Causeway Bay Plaza and it's specialty is the Shanghai xiao long tong bao (Shanghai soup dumplings). Each dumpling is individual sized so you only get one per person and comes w/ a straw for you to drink the soup inside. it was such a surreal experience. Cousin and i took lots of pictures of the dumplings b/c we'd never seen anything like them. overall it was pretty good, but i still prefer the traditional ones (which are much smaller). either way it was definitely an experience.

here's a pic of me and Cousin enjoying our Shanghai soup dumplings. let's ignore my i-just-woke-up-after-a-night-out-in-Lam-Kwai-Fong appearance as well as the fact that Ahjima & O weren't there w/me b/c they couldn't wake up for it (this was around 11:30 am).

honorable mentions: there were certain foods i would've felt stupid taking pics of tho of course in retrospect i wish i had.
the best was when my aunt took me and Ahjima to Cafe Kool at the Shangri-La hotel in TsimTsa Tsui East. OMG the buffet there is insane. my aunt couldn't believe how much Ahjima and i ate. the highlights of the buffet is the sushi bar and the dessert bar featuring a chocolate fondue fountain. AMAZING.
our first day in Ximending Ahjima discovered a stand selling scallion pancakes which she fell in love w/. everyday she would talk about going to "her guy" to get one.
then there's Ah Zong Mein Xein, a famous chain making amazing stewed thin noodles. we ate at the one in Ximending. usually Ahjima's not too adventurous on the food (she's got some crazy allergies and won't eat anything that resembles the animal it came from) but i managed to get her to eat this b/c there were hordes of people standing around this place eating the noodles. Ah Zong is so good that they don't have to offer a place to sit and eat their noodles nor do they offer anything else on the menu. people just stand around w/bowls in hand eating them. and they're always busy.
of course i got Ahjima to eat some of those custard desserts found everywhere around Taipei. not like Beard Papas, the outside's more doughy. still good nonetheless. phew good thing it's almost lunch time here b/c now i'm really hungry.

Monday, May 1

carnivores anonymous

when I stepped off the 14th Street PATH station this morning I could've sworn I smelled beef being grilled. it was so weird. i kept looking around me thinking I would spot one of those kebab/hot dog guys that are all over New York but considering it was 9:00 am it didn't surprise that I didn't see one. I swear I must have meat on the brain. I've just been craving steak.

I've finally uploaded some of my pictures from vacation to Flickr (now that I finally started an account). Damn I wish I could upload more but I'm pretty sure I've hit my 20 MB limit and I refuse to pay. Either way, you can access them by clicking on the Flickr link on the right. Here's a pre-vacation photo of Ahjima on the flight to Taipei. SO funny. I'm pretty sure she'll kill me for posting it but SO worth it:


Let me tell you how cute Ahjima is. On our flight from JFK to Taipei we got the shaft by having to sit separate and in middle seats. those China Airlines bastards. and DON'T get me started on those elitist Emerald bastards... well except for O i guess but that still doesn't stop me from cursing Emerald card holders. anyways, Ahjima is so cute that as soon as she sits down she starts making friends w/the people sitting next to her. one is a little kid named Alfred who was travelling on his own to see his mom and the other is a husband whose wife is sitting in First Class (no idea how that happened). luckily the flight wasn't packed from JFK to Anchorage so we both moved to aisle seats. unfortunately Ahjima ended sitting next to a really loud snorer. I swear I've never heard anything like it. ultimately she moved back to her seat next to Alfred. she slept for most of the flight anyway (missing the in-flight movies of: Memoirs of a Geisha, Just Friends, Nanny McPhee & Cheaper by the Dozen 2) and only woke to eat the yucky food and request Ramen (the only positive of flying China Airlines).