memorial weekend - rita's wedding

our weekend started off with a huge delay at southwest! when we checked in, the ticket lady said the flight was 40 minutes delayed. when we got to the gate, it was over an hour delayed. by the time we took off, we were almost two hours delayed. ugh. but after all the plane troubles, the rest of the weekend was great. i'm known for being last minute and not planning things out when i want to have fun. i like to do that so i'm flexible and we can do whatever our mood feels like and are not stuck to any schedule. it becomes a problem when meeting up with many people however so i'm grateful for those who were able to make it out.

saturday we got up late, hunny and i had lunch at cheesecake factory in pasadena and then walked around the shops. got our coffeebean fix and then met up with irene and jimmy before heading out to houstons to meet up with amy for dinner. for dinner hunny and i shared the ribs and the spicy tuna roll salad. after dinner we went to a wine bar to meet up with amy's friend george and his fiance. It's been years since i've seen george- since i moved back north 6 years ago. I had a glass of wine and tried cindy's blogged about drink - citron vodka with tonic and lemon. I used kettleone citron. yum! then irene, who hasn't had any alcohol since her wedding 1.5 years ago, decides that she wants to do tequila shots since she saw patron gold and silver and wanted to know the difference. so hunny and irene each did two shots - one silver and one gold. turns out irene likes gold because it tastes spicey and hunny likes silver because it has less taste and goes down faster. haha. after the two shots irene's cheeks turned red (indicator that she is a little tipsy) and so we all headed home since we had to wake up early the next morning.

sunday we woke up early and met up with amy's brother and dad for a boat ride. Her brother has a boat which he uses for his company and needs to take it out periodically to mix the gas in the engine so there is less water from condensation or something like that. although it was cold and overcast, it was still fun to go out onto the water. I learned a lot about boats from amy's bro and everyone got some time to catch up and get to know eachother better. jimmy and hunny have only hung out a handful of times and they were having fun goofing off on the boat. amy, irene and i all got to do some catching up since we have not all been on the same coast for so long. i think it hasn't been since irene's wedding that amy, irene and i have actually hung out together. and back then, irene was too busy with wedding stuff to really hang out. amy would update us on her exciting NYC life, dating up a storm while irene and i are more domesticated these days. however i do make it out of the house more than irene. haha.

later that day we all got ready and went to our respective weddings. amy was there for jen gu's wedding and although i was invited to that wedding, i was invited to rita's wedding first. Rita's wedding was beautiful, elegant yet simple. in knowing her, that's the kind of person she is. doesn't stress about the details and is just really easy going. The wedding reflected her personality. simple, elegant yet everyone just had a great time. in contrast i heard about jen's wedding - elegant but very put together with a lot of little details - coordinated flowers which matched the invitations, the table settings, the arch which was used in the ceremony, etc etc. the difference in wedding styles would get me thinking about what i would want for my future wedding. i flip flop - on one hand it would be so nice to have an elegant wedding for all to remember. on the other hand, my practical side says it's a lot of money for one day, i like chinese food better, and i don't like to stress about the details. also to me, i've always been more of the type of person who enjoys the company more than the environment i'm in. eh - we'll see.

we headed out of the wedding super early because we were so tired from waking up early. also perhaps the anti sea sickness medicine was making us extra sleepy. so we went back to irene's house at 11. haha. i'm embarassed i wasn't able to last longer! irene and jimmy even stayed up later than us baking cakes for a company contest they were having.

monday we woke up late - the bed in irene's guest bedroom is sooooo comfy. turned out jimmy was baking the cake sunday nite for us and not for the company! it was a european style cake with raspberry sauce, yogurt filling and white chocolate frosting. mmmmm..... sooo good. i finished my piece of cake in 5 seconds flat and practically licked the plate it was so good. haha. i wanted another piece but we were supposed to meet up with people for breakfast. doh. so we headed out after cake to the west side and met up with jyan and jen king for brunch at headlines in westwood. irene and i haven't seen jenny king since loveboat! it's been 9 years. =O we found out she actually works at UCLA now and just moved to LA a few months ago from boston. she went to med school at harvard and did her residency out in boston as well. she's still the same person i remember. playful and good hearted - you would never know she came from harvard since normally the harvard people i meet are so stuffy and snooty. after brunch (i had the blueberry short stack pancakes with fruit and hunny had the joe's special breakfast) we headed off to hang out at the beach. none of us were really prepared - dressed in jeans and nice shoes. but we just rolled up our jeans, took off our shoes and sat on the sand to chat for the rest of the afternoon. the sun wasn't too bright as it was somewhat overcast and i only got a slight reddish tint on one shoulder. even though the afternoon was so haphazard in planning, it was perfect. we sat in the sand chatting, joking around, catching up for a few hours. irene was telling us how she was in awe of girls who can charm their way into clubs by twirling their hair and showing skin. then she gave her rendition - "hee hee!!" haha...ok you had to be there.

six o'clock rolled around and it was time for hunny and i to catch our flight so everyone headed off to eat ramen while we went to the airport. darn them - we were talking about eating ramen and i told them how much i love ramen. next thing you know, they are all going to eat ramen without me! oh well, jyan said he would eat a bowl for me. gee thanks. haha. anyways..it was a great weekend to catch up with all these people who were all in town for the weddings. pics below! enjoy.

irene, amy and me


fun with a boat!



beautiful rita


beachyness