Lobster

Had dinner tonight with my bro, mom, and some of her friends at this somewhat fancy Seafood place in Long Beach. The food was delicious, and the place was right next to the water with awesome view of the ocean.

I ate 4 humongous lobsters and they were so goooood. My cholestrol level probably doubled after the meal but it was well worth it. I think the last time I had had lobster was last October in Boston when I was there for the Japanese career fair.

At night, Ellen, James, Ryan, and I went to Ellen's UCLA friend's birthday party in Santa Monica. The party was pretty fun and got to meet many cool people. I only had two glasses of wine but I was a bit buzzed. I've become such a light weight with alcohol ever since my long alcohol hiatus last year.

Another week in LA

Since my last entry, I haven't been doing much but errands. There are so many things I need to take care of before my crazy move to HK via NYC via London. Here are some of the stuff I've been doing:

Getting Ready for the Big Move
I've been making so many trips to Ikea and Target since I got back....mainly buying stuff that will be shipped to HK when my movers come in 2 weeks. I bought most of the essential kitchen and house stuff already...new plate set, utensils, pots and pans, etc. Also bought small furnitures like a new coffee table, a nice rug, and I need to buy a new bed this weekend. Since I've been moving to different countries once every two years, I've been practically buying all of this same stuff...well, once every 2 years. Like my kitchen stuff, I got rid of it in NY when I moved back few weeks ago, but now I'm buying most of the same stuff all over again...argh.

San Francisco
I made a trip up to San Francisco last weekend. It was a super busy weekend for me but like always, I had a great time up there. I went up there because I wanted to see my friends and relatives one last time before I move half way across the world to HK. On Saturday nite, I went to Doris' welcome back party at her sister's place. The party was pretty cool and I got to meet many of Doris' friends. I went with Gorton and Mayuko. It was nice seeing Gorton, Doris, and Mayuko and catching up with them! Then, I spent the next day with Winnie, my ex-coworker/friend from HK last summer. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge, hung out and had lunch in Sausalito, fisherman's wharf, and had dessert at Ghiradelli. In the afternoon, we met up with Doris, Gorton, and Mayuko for high-tea at Ritz Carlton.

Then on Monday, I had lunch with Paigie in Japantown before driving back home to LA. In the morning, I made a quick trip down memory lane and drove to Berkeley! It's been awhile since I visited my alma mater and it was very nostalgic. I walked down telegraph and was surprised to see that the GAP store across the street from school went out of business. I use to buy all kinds of crap from that GAP during college....when I was going through my GAP phase...hahaha. Then I briefly walked around the Berkeley campus, and everything looked pretty much the same as it was when I was there for college...maybe some of the buildings like Sproul Hall was repainted and looks newer. But other than that, Berkeley was pretty much Berkeley. Visiting the campus made me miss college....and seeing the students there made me feel really old.

Overall, the trip to SF was awesome and it was good seeing my friends. Hopefully, I'll see most of them again...perhaps in HK next time.

Nacho Libre
Went to see Nacho Libre last night with a friend. Surprisingly, I liked the movie a lot. We couldn't stop laughing through out the movie. It was hilarious! HAHAHAHA

Braces
Looks like I'll be getting my braces off next week...or so I was told by my ortho doc yesterday. woohoo! They started taking some of the brackets off my teeth in the back and I can already feel the difference. Can't wait to get them all of my bling-bling off! It's been 3 long bling-years since I had braces.

Time for the gym. Ya'll have a great weekend!

la update

it's so great to be back home. i love the sunny socal weather and love spending time with my family and friends. everytime i'm home, i keep telling myself that one day i'll come back and settle down here. but in the mean time (i.e. the next 2~3 years) i'll have to compromise and make hk my new home. i realized that i can't have everything in life - the career that i want in a city that i want to be in, so there are certain sacrifices that i have to make in life to get what i want. i guess that's part of being an adult.

so i've been trying to use my time efficiently at home. well, i've volunteered to do a major cleaning and organizing of the entire house. with all the stuff that i moved back from ny, the house is even more cluttered with stuff everywhere. i'm completely reorganizing the den, my room, and even my brother's room. donated/tossed out old furniture and will need to go shopping for new ones (i.e. couch, entertainment set, etc for the den). i've always been the anal "neat freak" in the family but somebody has to be, right? my family thinks i'm crazy for trying to do all this cleaning. i feel like a monica geller sometimes.

yesterday, one of our family friend invited me over to his company for some meeting. he didn't tell me what the meeting was about but thinking that it was probably something casual, i went over to his office. basically they own this large global corporation that designs and manufactures high end furniture.. pretty impressive company. anyways, so i show up at the company thinking that our family friend probably just wants to tell me about something... maybe some weekend plans with my parents which is nothing unusual since my parents are really good friends with them. so i get there, and the receptionist shows me to a conference room. right when i walk in, i see a panel of probably 10+ people all dressed up, all employees of the company, sitting across the large conference room table all waiting for me! then the family friend shows up...basically, he wanted to conduct a panel interview and discussion specifically to learn more about my MBA experience -- and i was their guest speaker! i was completely suprised... but i managed to share my own experience and give them tips and recommendations. overall i think the session went pretty well considering that i was basically thrown into it unexpectedly. i got asked tons of mba related questions but no curve ball questions since i've practically heard all of the possible questions there is to be asked in the past year from being part of the admissions committee. i probably turned slightly red in the beginning though, but lucky for me, i'm too dark for anybody to even notice =D

alright, will write more tomorrow... going to sleep now.. oyasumi!

back in lalaland

i'm back in LA! i got back last night. after haeran picked me up from the airport, we met up with billie, ryan, and ellen and had dinner around the sawtelle area for some japanese curry at this place called hurry curry of tokyo. the food was pretty good. i was totally craving for japanese curry few weeks ago so it felt good to finally be able to eat it. afterwards, we went to Urth Cafe in west hollywood and had coffee and dessert... had a blueberry cheesecake which was awesome. during desserts, my friends surprised me with two gifts. they got a new mont blanc pen and a set of tiffany's cuff links for my birthday and graduation. its totally nice of them! but i can totally use it for my new job! thanks guys - if you're reading this!

today, i had dim sum for lunch with my family and then visited my grandma at rose hills. then came home and started organizing and cleaning mine and my brother's room. since my room is bigger, and i'll be moving to hk shortly, my bro will be using my room and the den. so i had to tidy it up a bit. in my room, i still have all these pictures from high school and college up on my wall along with many other high school/college things. it's as if my entire room froze in time and everything was still there since i left for college.

getting sleepy.. going to bed now... g'nite!

waiting for my connecting flight in JFK

i'm currently at JFK waiting for my connecting flight. thank gawd JFK has free wifi because this layover is 3+ hours long. i left ithaca for good this morning. hard to believe that i won't be going back to ithaca or syr anymore.

i have 2 ginormous luggages that i had to check in this morning at the counter...both were clearly over the weight limit.. but lucky me, i was able to talk my way out of paying the additional 100 bucks they were going to charge me...heehee.

while i was sitting at SYR waiting to board my flight, i overheard a funny convo between 2 ladies in their 30's standing few feet from me:

lady 1: i love your blouse!
lady 2: oh thank you
lady 1: so when are you due?
lady 2: excuse me?
lady 1: how many months into your pregnancy are you?
lady 2: umm.... i'm *not* pregnant... beeotch!
lady 1: ... oh i'm sorry

bahahaha... i tried so hard not to laugh... i just walked away. okay, she didn't really call her a beeotch but she should have!

okay peeps -- gotta go catch my flight now! woohoo!

waiting for my connecting flight in JFK

i'm currently at JFK waiting for my connecting flight. thank gawd JFK has free wifi because this layover is 3+ hours long. i left ithaca for good this morning. hard to believe that i won't be going back to ithaca or syr anymore.

i have 2 ginormous luggages that i had to check in this morning at the counter...both were clearly over the weight limit.. but lucky me, i was able to talk my way out of paying the additional 100 bucks they were going to charge me...heehee.

while i was sitting at SYR waiting to board my flight, i overheard a funny convo between 2 ladies in their 30's standing few feet from me:

lady 1: i love your blouse!
lady 2: oh thank you
lady 1: so when are you due?
lady 2: excuse me?
lady 1: how many months into your pregnancy are you?
lady 2: umm.... i'm *not* pregnant... beeotch!
lady 1: ... oh i'm sorry

bahahaha... i had to walk away because i almost bust out laughing. okay, she didn't really call her a beeotch but she should have!

okay peeps -- gotta go catch my flight now! woohoo!

MBA Graduation

Last weekend was finally my mba graduation. It feels good to be all done and ready to move onto the next stage of my life. Last week was hectic since my family and relatives flew in to attend the graduation. I also got a chance to show them around Ithaca and spent 2 days in NYC after the ceremony. It was great hanging out with my family especially since we haven't travelled together in awhile. After my parents went back home, I've been busy running around errands, packing, and cleaning. I am now sitting in my empty house getting ready for the morning flight back to LA. It's been quite sad seeing my friends leave one by one...some I will probably see over the summer in NYC, and some I have no idea when I'll see them again :( But it's a small world, so I'm sure we'll see each other sooner or later.

Here are the pictures from my graduation:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?
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Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=
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