Monday, August 21

Hiro is not my Hero

Hiro Lounge officially kicked my ass on Saturday night. apparently, it also kicked a few other peoples' asses too.

it's been a bevy of going out since Gohm's friend Phil arrived from Cali. on Thursday we went to Third Floor and Maru in k-town. of course the boys all ordered bottle service. luckily for me, Pal had come to visit me at BLS and see my new apartment. we went to dinner at Heights Cafe on Montague Street and had some wine so i was in no mood to full out drink on that night. since it was a thursday we all went home around 2 am. Phil ended up going to some bars on Amsterdam Ave and stumbling into Gohm's apartment at around 4 am. it was pretty funny. he kicked open Gohm's bedroom door and is huffing and puffing. the only phrase he utters is "fucking stairs!" and then he grabs his stuff and sleeps on the futon in the living room. i went to the bathroom around 5 am and found Phil laying on the floor w/all the remaining take-out from dinner on the table.
friday night we ended up at 230 Fifth. such a random night. a lot of Gohm's BU friends and Cali friends showed up. out of the blue i ran into Debs which was a nice surprise. she actually spotted Gohm first and ran up to him saying "is tina here?". i love her for that. it was pretty ironic considering i had called her twice that night to see if she wanted to meet up but she had left her phone at home.

saturday Gohm came to brooklyn and we went out for dinner at Queen Italian Restaurant. the food was pretty good, but not great though their minestrone soup was delish. either way i don't think their food agreed w/me.

later we went to Hiro Lounge. once again we got bottle service but i liked the booth we got and felt very VIP. here's where the night gets funny. all i drank was cranberry vodkas and 1 shot of SoCo and lime (their shots are huge btw). nothing too extravagant. the guys mostly drank McKellan's. it turns out Gohm and his sis both barfed that night and Chow and i barfed the next morning. none of us really drank that much, just enough for a buzz, if that. i swear, something must be up at Hiro...

i spent all of sunday either in the bathroom or in bed until 7 pm. blech.

Wednesday, August 16

Brooklyn Law School

so i am officially a law school student now (sort of).

i moved into my new place in Feil Hall yesterday. the moving in part wasn't that bad b/c the school had arranged for helpers to carry all your stuff in w/these giant carts. much appreciated. however, they couldn't help me unpack, and that was a nightmare.

as could be expected, i have the smallest bedroom in my 4-bedroom apartment (of course). can't complain though. it's still bigger than my previous hoboken apartment. i'm still not fully unpacked but it's just the little things that are left.

my sister cried when i moved out. it was so cute and sad. on one hand, it breaks my heart to see her cry like that. on the other hand, it makes me feel all warm inside to know she loves me that much. conundrum.

met all the roommates but haven't really bonded. doesn't help that i skipped out on dinner and drinks last night to go and see Gohm, who just arrived back from Cali yesterday. but that had to be done. after all, priorities priorities. besides, i'm sure there'll be tons of time for bonding later.

went and picked up my books today. it was a whopping $540 (and that included purchasing as many used books as possible). those bastards. this better be worth it in the end cause i'm looking at a lot of debt.

bunch of stuff has happened in the meantime which i'll write about in retrospect on a more boring day. for now i've got reading and more unpacking to do and i must focus.

Thursday, August 10

i hate packing

things are going real fast now. there's so much stuff to get done and it all seems to have piled into this week.

my last day of work was on 8/4. this gave me a week to get ready before moving into my new place in brooklyn on 8/15 and have the school year start on 8/20. i spent some time w/Gohm before he left for cali on wednesday and have now been spending my time trying to pack up my room.

i used to think my room was small but i've definitely managed to clutter it up. i'm moving on saturday morning and i feel like that's coming too close. it's not the actual act of packing that's difficult. it's just that whenever i look at all the stuff i have, i just wonder how i accumulated all this stuff!

hopefully i'll get a good chunk done w/in the next hour and be more productive tomorrow. going out w/Pal & Douglife tomorrow for one last hurrah in Hoboken while i still reside here and can walk home from the bars.

Friday, August 4

Aburiya Kinnosuke

went to Aburiya Kinnosuke last night for dinner. the restaurant is an izakaya so they have an extensive sake and shochu menu and serve Japanese tapas/small plates instead of full-on entrees. the restaurant specializes in authentic food, so there's no beef teriyaka or soba (from which stemmed a hilarious incident. Gohm had wanted to eat soba but we weren't sure if they served it there so he asked the waitress-who is 100% Japanese, fobby accent and all-and then proceeded to describe what soba was as if she didn't know).

i got there first so i ordered a Grapefruit Sour which is shochu w/seltzer/club soda and then you get a fresh half grapefruit on the side that you squeeze yourself then pour into the drink. it was, as the waitress had said, truly refreshing.

Gohm & i sat in a private booth which was fun. we could overhear other diners' conversations and the whole place was full of Japanese people. the place is actually pretty cute. very tranquil and they play mellow remakes of American songs which was pretty funny. when you enter they greet you w/an irrashaimase but not in a "let's-scare-the-crap-out-of-you" (which is what i hear happens at EN Japanese Brasseries) but in a calm and cute way. even our waitress was adorable.

we ordered a bunch of really good food. Gohm, being the sashimi lover he is, ordered Toro which was good. i've recently read somewhere that toro is best in the winter b/c the water gets colder so the fish develop more fat to stay warm. i will admit that Aburiya Kinnosuke has the most interesting but delicious side sauces and dips for the food. the toro came w/wasabi and another version of it that Gohm made the mistake of eating a large bite of.

since the food is small plates we ordered a bunch of stuff. we had chicken wings (it always feels stupid ordering this at a Japanese restaurant), fried fish cakes (they were SO yummy), chicken meatballs, grilled salmon (that you grill yourself. they bring a small grill to the table), seafood salad, octupus tempura, amazingly tender berkshire pork and a robata grilled pepper pork (both porks were delicious). we also had lots and lots of sake to go w/all the food.

i would definitely recommend this place but only for people w/adventurous palates. the food here is definitely not mainstream but nonetheless is good. plus the service is adorable. Gohm loved our waitress so much he wanted to adopt her.

Thursday, August 3

damn, wish i was your lover

made plans w/ Bubs and Kiks to have dinner last night since Kiks will be going to Cali today for a wedding w/the family she works for.

Bubs & i met up early and had to kill a few hours before Kiks would arrive from Rye so we went to Macy's. i picked up some shorts from Rampage (i finally gave in to the trend. i'm actually wearing them today) and we just roamed the department store. we stopped by the Lancome counter so that we could buy some Juicy tubes and spend enough to get the free gift they're doing right now. the gift's pretty good (it includes a 4-color eyeshadow set in cool/warm, a lipstick, 3 make-up brushes, some anti-wrinkle stuff and 2 makeup bags) and you only have to spend $28.50.

afterwards we cruised the perfume area and sprayed and smelled perfumes until our noses broke and we were incapable of smelling anything. i saw they had Gohm's cologne, and since i missed him, i sprayed it on myself. they also had Chow's cologne, Armani Code, which reminded me a little of the curry from Saigon Grill, which is what he orders all the time.

we headed towards Dae Dong and then met w/Kiks. i actually really like this korean restaurant. the tables are surrounded by booths, which make it really comfortable. the only negative was that their A/C wasn't up to form and it wasn't that much cooler in the restaurant than it was outside. however, the food was good (we ordered Bulgogi and DaehJi Bulgogi for BBQ and Neng Myun, which was really good i thought) and the people were nice.

Wednesday, August 2

bling bling

ok i've been boring lately so i haven't had much to say. instead, i'll discuss how one of my attorneys treated me to a night of awesome wine drinking at Divine Bar East.

some time last week, i was getting ready to meet Gohm for some dinner after work. i suggested we go to Divine Bar East since i wasn't that hungry but was plenty thirsty (as i always am). one the attorneys i work for is a wine afficianado so i printed out the list and asked him to make some suggestions that were in my budget. after perusing the menu he outlined a strategy for drinking but suggested i go for a Jonathon Phelps Insignia Cabernet.

the bottle was from the reserve list. the bottle was pricey. the bottle was $145.

i completely balked saying there was no way i was going to buy a bottle of wine for $145. so he kindly offered to buy it for me saying that the price of the wine was too good a deal to pass up.

it was a very good bottle of red.