Friday, July 29, 2005

Baroque Blockbusters

i went to watch the Sf symphony perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons yesterday with my hot date - Diana! the symphony was AMAZING. thanks diana for inviting me! the conductor was Scott Yoo. at 12 he performed a violin concierto with the Boston Symphony. he was conducting WHILE playing the violin! i've never seen a violinist with such control. I even saw sarah chang play at carnegie, but i think i liked scott yoo much better. his passion and just pure enjoyment was so evident. he made all the complicated notes look so effortless. he didn't miss a beat as he was using the rest of his body movements to conduct the orchestra. the rest of the symphony was equally amazing. they played music by handel and bach as well. when they played bach's air, i could feel my heart swell up. classical music can be so moving. although i admit, i'm not a true classical music snob since i do tend to like the more popular stuff. things that you would probably hear in movies. i suspect certain pieces might have an effect on me since i associate them with the feelings i feel during romatic movies or really good weddings. sometimes i feel that since i've had so much classical music training (12 years piano and a musicology minor in college) i should know a lot more about music and be able to cite technical things about the compositions. i could cite technical things, but those aren't the things i really enjoy. when it comes down to it, music is about being able to spark emotion from sound. and as long as i can feel that emotion from a symphony, that's all i care about.

after the symphony we grabbed crepes at ti couz. we shared 1 savory and 1 sweet crepe. smoked salmon/mushroom sauce and chocolate/coffee ice cream. mmmmm.....after eating we grabbed a few drinks at ROE. it was a Drink Club nite but the scene was pretty sad. the room was barely 1/3 full and mostly guys. you know it's not a poppin bar when diana pulls out her bb to check her email. hahaha..... it was so nice to talk over dinner with diana. i feel like even though i've been home for a few months, i rarely have one on one time with my close girl friends. all of us are social butterflies and have a million and one different activities at all times. so we actually have to set dates with eachother, otherwise we wouldn't ever have one on one time. during the whole nite, we talked about everything. we need to do nites like this more often.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

sleeeeeeeeeepy

went to workout after work yesterday. i haven't done anything other than some light swimming since i donated blood. (maybe 30 min laps in my pool in the backyard) it felt really good to sweat so much. 1 hr cardio, 45 min weights, abs.

i think i was taking out some of my frustrations. one roommate in pitts has not gotten back to me with a security deposit or rent check. he actually signed the lease too. I've already left him 2 messages. what's up with that? is he travelling? it's been over a month! arg......

so since i was worried about that roommate, i couldn't sleep well last nite. i think i'm going to start checking into other roommates just in case. *rarrrrr* this totally sucks. i thought i was done with the roommate search.

as you can tell i'm still all worked up about it. after dinner today i'm hitting the gym again. meeting up with the ex-scimagicians for dinner.

Monday, July 25, 2005

bite sized blog

i'm trying to break up my monster entries since i always seem to blog about 5 dif topics all in one entry. hopefully these bite sized blog entries might encourage more comments. :) or maybe nobody really reads this and i can write whatever i want. haha...

bum reiu and jackfruit

sunday hung out with mom and dad. went to this restaurant next to pho hoa in tully. i've finally discovered a place that makes bum reiu just like the ex's grandma. that's the one thing i really miss about hanging out with his fam. his grandma was a darned good cook and i learned all these good vietnamese dishes to eat. after eating we went to the lion supermarket and bought a huge fresh jack fruit. anyone know how to eat those things? normally fresh jack fruit is so expensive, 30 bux for a little quarter. this one was 38 for a huge watermelon sized fruit. we couldn't resist trying one. after shopping we went to check out some model homes we had passed by on the way to the restaurant. 800K for 2000 sq ft. brand new. my parents love to look at model homes to see all the decorations and look at what you can get for your money nowadays. i'm thinking of buying a place when i graduate. we see if i can afford something like that. maybe if i get roomates, definitely not alone. i'm hoping my bro will get a good paying job, then he can go in with me. but it's been a while and he's still looking. =P i think he's afraid of leaving the house. that means responsibilities.

set ups

so i've been trying to set up some of my single friends lately. ok well set up is not the right term. more like intro dif groups of friends to eachother to see if anything happens. i have a lot of dif circles of friends...

and so, the first experience was watching a movie together then hanging out afterwards. however that didn't work out so well since the groups were too large.

tried something dif at paragon. a guy friend has recently told me he thought one of my friends was "down to earth and cute". so he wanted her number from me. so of course i asked her permission first however she preferred to just hang out together again so she could get to know him in a group setting. so we met up after paragon to go eat. however some people ( not me) tried to nudge them closer together and do the things people do to kind of encourage a couple to talk to eachother. i disagree with this tactic since it tends to make the social situation more awkward. and so, that's exactly what happened. he balked under the pressure and she felt uncomfortable. doh

she wants to try again to hang out together. i'll have to figure out a way to decrease the pressure and actually jsut hang out so they get a chance to know eachother!

Saturday, July 23, 2005

garlic fries

this weekend was friggin HOT! i almost melted!!! saturday i went to sandra's housewarming and then out to dinner with hunny and his HS friends in the city. gordon biersch has really good food! aside from the awsome garlic friends of course. i never realized. the asian bbq salmon was very tasty. even the white rice was flavored with chicken broth and green onion. yet another set up was attempted. but somehow, she didn't give the right vibes. she was actually really liking this one guy, but her body language kind of told a dif story. so funny how that worked out. so hunny is going to try to get things moving in the right direction. hahah.

Friday, July 22, 2005

bye bye nails

so i cut my nice long nails before i went rock climbing. i have to say, things are so much more convenient with short nails. when i was taking out my contacts, i kept poking my eyeball with the long nails. how to people live like that? haha... so back to my old practical self.

went to paragon the other nite for diana's bday with the college peeps along with extended friends. one of the people there is someone i've known since HS. however we didn't really talk much in HS. interesting how that dynamic is. i find that when talking to old HS people, people that i have not kept in touch with much over the years, i tend to revert back to my old quiet self in my head and i have to make a conscious effort to be the talkative me that i am today. if that run on sentence made any sense at all. strange how that is. the same thing happens, even more so, with junior high people. although i don't talk to junior high people that often.

anyways, the food at paragon was very yummy. i ordered the steak (med rare - i can't believe some people like steak well done! ruined!) it came with this square of wild mushrooms and potatoes. i don't remember what it was called but it looked like a lasagna only it was made of potatoes and mushrooms instead. i tried some of diana's duck cannelloni. yummm... both were yummm but i think i'll get the duck next time round. i like eating with the college peeps. i think over the years we've all started to really appreaciate really good food. but the best thing is that we kind of moved up at the same rate. meaning, we started with olive garden in ucla and gradually moved up. haha.

last nite saw wedding crashers. hilarious movie. although i tend to reserve the theater for either huge action movies (with lots of explosions) or really really cute chick flicks. hung out with the girls and JY and his crew. both groups were just a little too large and the mingling didn't go as well as planned. oh well, i'll try again some other time. looking forward to the weekend. tonite i think we're gonna grab drinks again at paragon.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

i'm so proud of me

temp - 98.8
pulse - 52
B.P. - 100/60
Hgb - 13.6

the blood donating people asked me if i excercised. i said yes. i asked why they have to ask everyone if they excercised or not. she said that she asked because my pulse is so slow. teddio says normally girls are at 70. yay! i'm healthy! and i saved 4 lives with my blood!

got em

finally got those new chairs delivered. ahhh.....heaven for my tushi.

mom made blueberry pie! my favorite! ate too much pizza and pie yesterday. blah....need to go gymming but i'm donating blood today so i don't think it would be a good idea. =P

Monday, July 18, 2005

angels, dinners and granite

friday was micki and vivian's bday so i partied it up with my girls and hunny's friends at this new club in SJ called Angels. kinda interesting how one crowd is so rowdy while the other crowd is more chill most of the time. the crowds i roll with can really vary...but in a good way. :) many single girls are popping out of the woodwork lately ( so teddio tells me..haha) i don't know why but i've had the strange urge to matchmake lately.

sat was hanging out with hunny, doing some errands. the kiwi at costco are REALLY good. really large fruit and sweet. mmmmm..... at nite was dinner at one of annie's friends house. she's moving away to vancouver to be with her man. the ex was there. normally it should not be awkward talking to him. somehow it was. i think because of the things i found out, i see him as a different person now. not the same person i dated. dinner was really yummy however. filet mignon, grilled baby carrots, green beens and squash, saffron rice, stuffed baked bell peppers. for dessert: 2 different kinds of cake and almond tofu. annie opened my bottle of wine first! yay! that means i picked a really good one. hahah. it was pretty good, a pinot noir. i'll have to remember the name later so i can buy it again.

sunday hunny and i went rock climbing at planite granite with a new friend i met at my bbq, jennifer. it's so funny, i think she wants more girl friends since most of hers are married or attached at the hip to their sig other. she used to be an attorney and now does building permits. tall, smart, pretty, fit...looking for a serious relationship now that she's ready. know anyone who's good with really independent girls? i need to invite her to go out with my girls. i think she'd really get along. it seems like a lot of my female friends are similar to her. ambitious and not too much in a hurry to get married.

which brings more ponderings...
when is it ok to put career first? when do you start changing your priorities? jennifer was a successful attorney (UCLA law grad) but had to quit her job and do something else since she felt she didn't have time to concentrate on her personal life. she's 30 now and recently divorced. she mentioned interest in starting her own consulting firm, however she is refraining becuase she wanted to make sure she had enough time for her personal life. does that mean we all have to make those kinds of sacrifices? many of my more successful guy friends don't like it when their sig other don't have time for them. however, this presents a conflict. those that are successful like to fill their days doing productive things. therefore, does that indicate successful guys prefer to date less successful women for it to work out logistically? when i really think about it, i don't really know that many equally successful couples. the few i do know, are extremely independent and are ok not spending a large amount of time together. perhaps that's the key. but then, that would suck if i were really ok not seeing my sig other. if that were the case, what's the point of having a sig other if you don't miss eachother? on the other hand, i do feel i'm more independent than most. as long as i see my sig other 2 days out of the week and talk on the phone once everyday i'm fine. me and my sig others (current and previous-ok well not the last ex, which is why we are not together anymore...he was too clingy) tend to do the " you hang out with your friends today and i hang out with mine" more than most. in my current relationship...it's just right. not too much, not too little :)

Friday, July 15, 2005

errr??

so the senior vp who i thought didn't like me has now requested that i spend my last 2 weeks with him working on the possibility of some different strategies he's considering. what's up with that? well at least if he likes my work, he has the power to give me a FT position when i finish school. woo hoo!

red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets...oh my

hunny has inspired me to donate blood this year. he always donates blood. although i've thought about it many times, i just kind of put it off. i'm not really scared of the sight of blood. i love watching those heart surgery shows. (i do however dislike watching plastic surgery shows since they appear so violent - a chisel shouldn't be used on noses!) when it comes to donating blood, what i find most disconcerting is to watch so much blood being drained out of me. however, they say each donation could save 4 lives. so i think i should get over being such a scardy cat.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

what the heck is that??!!

so out of nowhere this bruise-like looking dark spot the size of my thumb appears on the back of my knee! when i push it down, it doesn't hurt like a bruise. i can't think of any way i would have hit myself that hard on the back of my knee. although i do admit, i'm a huge clutz and i tend to get bruises everywhere all the time. i bruise like fruit.

my dad says it's a burst blood vessel. so now i need to increase the strength of my vein walls. must eat more vitamin c, drink less, and sleep more.

it was kinda scary to look at that huge dark spot and not know where it came from. i think it might also be due to all the gymming i've been doing. last time i burned 650 calories on the eliptical, an additional 150 on the stationary bike, 15 min abs, 45 min weights. i was at the gym from 6:15 until almost 9:00. where did all the time go?

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

musings

i've been trying to grow out my nails just to see what it would be like. i'm really into hands. there's just something about someone's hands that tell a lot about a person. normally my fingernails are really short and maybe have light nail polish or no nail polish. this is because of my practical side. i hate it when stuff gets stuck under my nails and it's easier to do things with short nails (type, play guitar or piano, paint...) lately i've been wanting more feminine hands. so now my nails are the longest i've ever had them in my entire life. my hands look really nice but i don't think i have it in me to keep it up. it's just much easier to keep em short rather than file and polish them all the time. being that i'm a hand freak, it's unacceptable for me to have long nails unless i keep them in good condition.

lately i've found out some things about an ex. i always kind of knew he had those qualities about him. but i thought i was the only one that was really bothered by those things for the most part. being humble and being unselfish are both things that i had always felt he was lacking. not that he was a bad person or did things on purpose to hurt people. in fact he was an excellent bf. but it's not always how a guy treats me that's important. how he treats others is equally important. i really hope he learns that he needs to change those things about himself or else he's going to find that he will not have any more close friends to rely on. i hope he learns that his friends don't flake on him for no reason...

Monday, July 11, 2005

new template

how do you folks like the new look of my blog? yay or nay?

bartops and weddings

it was diana's bday on friday so we went to party it up at rouge. oh man, crazy nite. she got me to dance with her on the bartop as her bday wish. it's been a long time since those days of stage dancing. feels kinda weird to be up there now. but it was nice to celebrate diana's bday. hang out with some people i haven't seen in a while. dance the nite away...i missed getting my groove on.

saturday went to watch fantastic 4 with hunny, ate dinner and then hit the gym together. saw paul and doyle at the gym. didn't do a whole lot, just a lot of cardio. i'm trying to burn more calories to trim up. i'm up to 50 min on the eliptical machine at level 10, incline 10. :)




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sunday was at the gee-li wedding. oh man karin was so beautiful. steven cried during the ceremony. i didn't see that one coming since steven doesn't seem like the type to cry. i saw so many people there...hockey crowd, scimagix peeps, ucla crowd, lawrence's HS friends. weddings are so much more fun when you know everyone! saw a lot of hunny's relatives. i never really thought much about it, but i have met a lot of his relatives already prior to the wedding. not that we did that on purpose. hunny is just close to his relatives. :)

Friday, July 08, 2005

blasted donuts!

after buring 700 calories off on the eliptical machine last nite and eating a small dinner, i come in this morning to donuts! i caved for a sugar coated donut. to make up for it, i'm gonna go running when i get home today. i'm also going to a bday party for diana. I'm not gonna drink too much so i can be DD and dance away the nite (thus burning more calories)!

*sigh...* sometimes i wish i didn't enjoy food so much so i could lose some weight. i swear, all my gymming just barely keeps up with my eating habits.

I was watching "i want a perfect body II" last nite on MTV. there was a girl on it who wanted to compete in a ms. fitness contest. she was a harvard grad student who worked out only occasionally. within 3 months she turned her somewhat soft body into a nice trim body with a 6-pack. i'm in somewhat better shape than her starting point. so does that mean that i should be able to sculpt that 6-pack in 1.5 months? not if they keep bringing donuts to work. =P

Thursday, July 07, 2005

boredom continued

what do i do when i'm bored at work?

-check people's blogs a million and one times. both of friends and strangers.
blogs really fascinate me. i find that some people don't really open up on their blogs and it's just really a list of day to day activities. other people have blog personalities that are exact opposites of what they portray on a daily basis. Sometimes i feel a blogger is writing just to put thoughts down (these can be the most amazing entries to read) and other times a blogger seems to be pretending to be full of insightful thoughts (these are just hilarious to read) i admire those who are extremely prolific while writing about the most mundane. i've never been all that great of a writer but it's something i've tried to work on. personally i know i don't really open up too much on my blog because i know family members read this. I initially started this blog so my family would know what i was up to in school. perhaps i should start a more private blog like JL.

-check various evites that i've sent to see how many people have updated their responses

-post on my own blog - this is pretty evident

-surf online looking at consumer reviews on digital cameras, laptops, hand creams, makeup, skin care products, shampoos and conditioners.
it's an odd array of things i'm interested in purchasing, i know. i also find it strange that no matter how much shampoo or conditioner i have and no matter how much i like my current products, i'm always looking for something newer and better. This applies to anything i buy, always looking at what's newer and comparing it to what i already have.

grooming habits sidenote: i could easily spend 90% of my drug store shopping time just sniffing different shampoos and conditioners. There's just something about having good smelling grooming products that i really enjoy.

I'm big on finding the perfect perfume too. i'll generally go for a scent that is clean yet feminine. currently i'm using Alfred Sung - Paradise. I only switch to another scent when i'm all out of what i'm using. I never buy the same scent twice because i figure, once i've run out, time to change scents.

ok huge digression from what i started with. back to being bored and the things i do.

- use the restroom a million times

- look in the kitchen for things to snack on

- peruse industry news sites

AKK! someone came in my cube while i was writing this! oh well, good thing i can't be fired. i'm an intern! yay! i think i'll leave the office in about 20 minutes.

soooooooo bored

i'm waiting for someone else to give me some information so i can continue with doing something at work. so bored. things have changed at work. i was supposed to be doing this really exciting stuff. but then they had quarter reviews and goals changed. so now i'm stuck doing some boring but potentially more useful stuff. but i'm soooooo bored. ok well it's not THAT bad. it's still financial models, deal stuff and presentation stuff. but it's the prep work. i was supposed to be doing some presentations this week. blah.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

alone time with lots of people

so here's the recap of the weekend.

friday hung out at hunny's house. hunny and i cook lasagna for his brother and his brother's gf. it's so nice to hang at his house. all the brothers get along so well. lately everyone has been taking turns cooking on fridays for everyone else. last week stanley made fish tacos. before that hyman and priscilla made jumbalaya. it's so rare for a family to be so close these days. there's something about seeing a family cook together that i always enjoy. perhaps it's because my family is so similar.

saturday hunny and i made our errands to buy food for the bbq on sunday. did some marinating and preparing the backyard. at nite we hung out at diana's house to chill with some friends. ate good food, drank good wine, chatted with some people i haven't seen in a long while as well as some new people that were really cool. headed out a little early to save my energy for the next day.

sunday had the huge bbq. lots of fun in case you didn't see the video clip below. haha...people wanted to go party in the city afterwards. all of em said..."mel! you're coming with us! we're calling you later!" i just kept saying maybe because i knew i might be really tired once i sat still for a little. and what do you know, nobody called except vy to say "um do you really want to go? i'm kinda tired now." hahah....that's how i know i've succeeded. i tired out all the energizer bunnies!

monday had dimsum with my bro and his wife just before sending them to the airport. there were various events i was invited to...more bbq's and fireworks. somehow i just was in the mood to veg around the house. looked over the pics and videos from the day before with my mom. it was nice to really talk to my mom again. even if it was about unpleasant things. not that those unpleasant things had to do with me directly. just, family issues...

at night i went to the gym for some alone time. as i was driving i started thinking...it's kind of odd that i go to a public place for alone time. i suppose when i'm at home, i'm almost always talking with someone either my family or on the phone. so it's not a place i really consider being alone at. at the gym, i put on my hat and my headphones and work out. i generally avoid eye contact (that's what the hat is for) so i don't have to talk to people. just listen to music and sweat out my worries...

Monday, July 04, 2005

conversations

family conflicts are always so hard...

pool party!




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and so, it was my annual pool party. as with each year...a bunch of people get tossed in. this year the first to be initiated was marco. then the rest started...haha..

these parties are always fun. but a part of me wonders, mebbe i should quit now. while my last party was still tons of fun. i'd hate for any event i would throw to get old...