the older men in my life

every once in a while i get a glimpse of what life out of school would be like. it reminds me of the days of yore when i could go out and enjoy the luxuries of restaurants and drinks in manhattan bars. man that feels like ages ago.

i met up w/JCrew for dinner and drinks at South Street Seaport. i know there are tons of bars and restaurants in that area, but, for the life of me, i really couldn't name any. i googled a bunch of places and found an interesting bar called Nelson Blue. it's an Australian bar altho i wouldn't really be able to tell you about that b/c the only indication the bar's Australian is with regards to the good it serves and we didn't try any of it. we stayed for 2 drinks and then moved on to have dinner at Stella Maris. i def recommend this place for the summer b/c it's off the main area of the seaport so not too many tourists are running around and the setting is small and intimate with large glass doors they leave open so you have the feel of the summer. if i didn't know JCrew since high school it would've been a perfect date (especially since he paid-yes, i still get impressed by that. word of advice: if you want to sweep a girl off her feet, do not ask her to go dutch with you. it just feels tacky). we had a bottle of wine and the food was really good (focus on seafood) and the service is impeccable-that kind of classy attentiveness you should expect from a small restaurant.

now let's compare this with my dinner with Oppa which happened a few days later. Oppa just bought an apartment in Jersey City and we decided we wanted to go out for cheap dinner and opted for somewhere in Chinatown. however, the only places i really like to eat at in Chinatown are all noodleshops. somehow, i didn't think that's what Oppa wanted so i called Snoopy for recommendations. we walked to Bowery from the WTC, and kept going from place to place until we finally found the place Snoopy recommended. did i mention that the whole the time this was happening Oppa had a cast on his leg? and it was brutally hot out. yea, my bad.

when we finished dinner, it started to rain and we were scurrying from awning to awning until we got to the subway and i directed him how to get him. and i paid for dinner. it was such the opposite of romantic but super low-key and chill. ironic how contrastingly different the experiences can be...

Cousin in Manhattan

over christmas break Cousin came to visit from LA. altho i'd planned to stay home and just chill out until after NYE, that plan flew out the door once Cousin got here b/c there were just too many things to be done in NYC and Cousin needed a place to stay. her usual abodes had all been occupied/taken/were too inconvenient (1 was in Queens, the other was already hosting somebody and the last had recently gotten a girlfriend which meant Cousin could only stay over on a rotating schedule. phew that's complicated).

it was all fine and dandy tho b/c Stinky was visiting NYC w/her new Aussie boyfriend so i was required to be back in the city regardless. came into the city w/the family and all the kids got haircuts (including me. it's a little high maintenance but the cut was very necessary considering how long it's been since my last 1) before the fam and i had dim sum at Jing Fong. now how ironic is this? Stinky and the girls were also gonna be getting dim sum and since i've only taken them to Jing Fong i knew they would be going there. Cousin also had friends going out to dim sum and i knew, in my heart of hearts, that Jing Fong would be where they would be going too. and we all sort of converged there all around the same time. i just missed Stinky and the girls (they were leaving when we were sitting) and Cousin's friends were waiting at the same time we were and sat only a little before us. when it comes to dim sum Chinatown is just as a small as ktown at 3 am.

after brunch i went to South Street Seaport to meet up w/Stinky and Bubby and Cousin's crew all came along in tow since they didn't really have any plans either. we went to Jeremy's Ale House for quiet drinks. honestly, not really a fan of this place. such a local dive. bras flung everywhere, not much in terms of ambience, and when we went to go order beers, they were pretty much out of everything but would wait to let us know until after we'd ordered. and to top it all off, Bubby and i got Yuengling and it was flat. how whack is that? regardless it was good to sit down and catch up w/Stinky who hasn't been to town since she moved back from Australia.

Cousin got tipsy from 1 cup of cider and considering she hadn't really slept the night before, she wanted to lay down for a nap but i still had loads to chat w/the girls so she went over to Snoopy's (conveniently located in Chinatown) while i went over to Heartland Brewery for more beers. a little disappointed that the Heartland at South Street Seaport doesn't have pumpkin ale (my favorite) but we totally snacked out on nachos and deep fried dill pickle spears. sounds weird right? it's hard to explain but i thoroughly enjoyed them altho they definitely must be eaten hot. the batter's sort of like boardwalk onion ring batter which is what makes it yummy. and they do taste exactly like they sound but somehow it's still good.

went to Snoopy's afterwards to pick up Cousin but she was totally passed out. instead i got introduced to playing Wario Ware on Wii. so much fun. Snoopy advised me it's even more fun to play when drinking. i'm sure it is just based on how fun it was when we were sober. can't wait...

once Cousin woke up we went for dinner before heading over to 40/40 Club to watch the Celtics vs. Lakers game. aish. i know it's technically a sports lounge but only ballers would go there to watch the game. we had a decent number of ppl so we got a private room to watch the game which was real comfy but once again, it was to watch sports, not club. it was kind of surreal.

karaoke weekend: "the best weekend of my life"

anyone who's been talking to me lately has probably heard the phrase "twins" thrown around a lot (let's thank Oni and Chipmunk for that). regardless, there was this one crazy weekend that started the whole phenomenon off.

on Friday night Oni asked me to go out w/VP and his friends b/c VP had somebody he wanted Oni to meet as a dating prospect. so we all went to ktown and had dinner at Seoul Garden which i'd never been before and was skeptical of, but i have to admit their soonjubu and nangmyon is really good. i think i got a pretty good handle on what kind of food Seoul Garden offers b/c VP's friend, who is visiting and invited his 3 friends all from Japan, decided to order just about everything you would usually order from the menu and we ate family style. we ordered haemul jun (the seafood pancake) and japchae for starters. everybody split bibim nangmyon, nangmyon, soonjubu, seafood soonjubu and bbq ribs. the only thing missing was chigae and the usual korean bbq choices (we opted against bbq, which was a good choice b/c Oni and i went out later and it would've sucked to smell all bbq-ey). i had ordered a budae jigae but they forgot and at that point i didn't want to spend any more money on food, plus nobody was finishing anything at that point.

afterwards, it still being kind of early (9-ish) we went next door to Toto for karaoke. it was all of ours 1st time at Toto and we'd just randomly picked it b/c it was next to Seoul Garden. the room's actually very big which was nice since we were 8 ppl but it's the system they have set up that's the most impressive. the tv screen is ginormous, there's 2 tambourines on the table when you sit down, and the place is BYOB. it's the remote that's the most fun: aside from having a button to create applause, you can also use it to make disco and techno versions of every song you sing. it was a lot of fun to use it on VP's japanese friends b/c they all sang really well so we had to just mess w/them a little. right in the middle of their song Oni would just randomly press the techno button and the song would speed up and VP's friends' eyes would widen but they'd go along w/it anyway. 1 of my favorite moments was after singing Don't Stop Believing i texted Pal and Douglife who were my Hoboken karaoke buddies w/the lyric: "strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard/their shadows searching in the night" and got the reply text from them stating: "streetlight people, living just to find emotion/hiding, somewhere in the night". *giggle*
while there i got a call from the Twins (Chipmunk to be exact) who were on the LIRR into the city. since they were arriving at Penn Station i told them to just meet us in ktown and we would all figure out plans for later. the Twins and their friends went to Off the Wagon and Oni and i met up w/them later. i'd warned Oni of the scene there but since she thought the Twins were cute and it was her 1st time meeting them she was game to at least give it a try. for anyone who's never been to this bar, let me just pre-warn: this is the ultimate college frat party. what's sadder is, i'd been there before. so when Chipmunk was calling me to tell me where they were going and he couldn't give me an address, as soon as he said Off the Wagon i knew where it was. in my defense, Pal and i used to go to Village Ma w/ppl from work for a giant karaoke night and it happened to be right next to Off the Wagon and that's how this bar 1st came into my life. the other escapades were few and far between.

afterwards be bounced to another bar on Yuka's recommendation but since it was around 4 am at that point, everything was closing so the Twins, Oni and i cabbed it back to Brooklyn and the Twins stayed over at my place. tho, once again, i'm obviously getting old, b/c Chipmunk slept on the sofa and Casper in my bed while i slept w/Wifey. and why didn't i just sleep in my own bed? i don't know. it's just kind of hard to articulate in writing. was it cause i'd only met the Twins the week before? or that i'd only known them for a total of 2 days? or am i turning prude? or just too old to sleep w/ppl i don't know? or b/c Casper was grumpy b/c he was annoyed at Chipmunk? sigh...

the next day Twins, Oni and i went out for dim sum at Jing Fong. Casper told me that it was his 1st time there w/o his parents. aaw... o yea, in case my tone hasn't told you already: the Twins are 23. and i always thought that Debs was gonna be the youngest person i would go out w/ (that's not blood-related). anyways, if i make a lot of "aaws" in this posting, it's not my fault. it's instinctual and reflex. since the weather was so gorgeous we walked over to South Street Seaport and just sat around. it was actually a pretty chill time.

eventually the Twins went home to change and get ready for another night out in the city and Oni went to have dinner w/a friend and i got to go home and take a nap (which was much needed although it made me late to meet up w/Stitch at Max Brenner's). Stitch and i headed to Sing Sing and waited for the rest of the crew to get there and start...another karaoke night. yep, you didn't read incorrectly. Um and Stitch and i had planned a week before that we would go out karaoking so that was the scheduled activity. plus, they're hilarious anyway so i just knew that karaoke was gonna bring out something even better. and it did! Um sang bedding songs (all R&B, all about how much he's gonna love you down) which just floored me and Stitch danced to Jordan Knight's Give it to You. CLASSIC. after an hour of Sing Sing i suggested we move to Toto b/c the space is better and it was cheaper w/the amount of ppl we had. so on saturday night, around midnight, i found myself in exactly the same spot in ktown i'd been the night before. who knew? later we got some more korean food and called it a night.

still had a great time tho there was a mini dramatic moment w/Oni and my voice was hoarse for the following week. and that quote used in the title of this posting? it's not mine.

there is one caveat tho. after this weekend, i am completely camera-ed out. the Twins each had a camera, Oni and i had one, and Yuka had one as well. taking the same picture 5 times gets trying after awhile. i noticed on the following weekend there was a lot less of it going around.