All I Want for Christmas (Is You)

I'm not Christian, but boy do I love Christmas.  There's something in the air that's crazy and calming at the same time.  I mean, people kill other people to buy toys for people.  Insane right?  I also love "Love Actually" and I watch that every year.  I love everything about it, the turtlenecks, the cheesy love stories, the Joni Mitchell, Hugh Grant, their rendition of "All I want for Christmas (Is You)."  I love holiday music, love it, love it, love it. 

I put my tree up the other day and organized my DVDs based on the decade of the movie came out.  I have a lot of 80's romcoms.  I didn't really do it because I necessarily wanted to, but mostly because I had boxes still that needed to be unpacked and it seems like it would be much easier to do that than other boxes.  I unpacked the same fake tree from Target that I used last year and unpacked all my ornaments.  I can't believe how many I had.  I guess you just accumulate more as each holiday passes. 

I'm not even really sure how my love for Christmas began.  Growing up, we never had a tree, we didn't exactly do presents, and my favorite type of present was still cash.  I'm not even really sure I still care about the present aspect of it.  I find white elephant to be an awful torture method.  It's like who can choose the least worst gift.  I shot that down this year at my office.  I did not want to waste money on buying shit for people.  If anything, I would like to just bring all the crap I've chosen over the years and just give them away for free.  Just saying...

I love the food aspect of it though.  It's like the one time of the year where you are eating out multiple meals a week because someone is hosting a holiday party of some form.  Better them than me.  I could barely host a two person dinner without feeling overwhelmed and overworked. 

I also love the holiday movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel.  They get me all the time.  In fact, I saw two in a row the other night when there was the first one with Ashanti (remember her) and Jordin Sparks followed by another one with a fat Nicole Eggert.  How do you get from Baywatch to that is just beyond me. 

Finally, I love going home for the holidays where you do get a Christmas feel.  It just never feels like Christmas in LA.  I don't care if people here think 59 degrees is cold! :p

Where did 2013 go?

It seemed like just yesterday when I decided to give myself 10 silly goals each month to accomplish...I've been doing this for a year now and this goal setting thing is probably the biggest accomplishment of 2013.  I guess if you really put your mind into something...

And the final 10 goals for the last month of this year are here!

Movember November

I chose not to partake in Movember this year.  Mostly because I did it in the past and I get self-conscious when a 16 year old boy grows a better moe than I do.

This month has been a whirlwind trying to complete goals.  I bought a house and quickly started caring about things that I never used to care about (basically anything that has to do with interior design and kitchen appliances), I also turned 21 (+10) and found out what a bitch that was when I woke up on the morning of my birthday to back pains, there was also Thanksgivingkkah.  My November began with me being sequestered at work for the program that I run for the first week and then an immediate trip to Scottsdale for work after.  I don't think I was home for the first 10 days of November.  Oh, then there was this move from my old apartment where I didn't think I had a lot of stuff until the move happened and I realized I was a hoarder...

Goal #1: I couldn't quite get to 15 unless you count moving as an exercise.  Some can say it is, at least I can because my move involved running up and down the stairs due to the moving truck not being able to clear the over pass.  Thank god I hired movers!  I exercised 11 times this month, which is pretty darn good considering.  Can I count the batting cage to make it 12?  I sure there are calories burned while batting, or at least some type of core work out... (.733)

Goal #2: For the life of me, I do not know how Andre doesn't know how to twerk.  You would think that someone of his size and stature coupled with his splits on the dance floor would be the queen of twerking.  I tried showing him in Palm Springs last month and then this month we tried again during my birthday party.  I even sent him the Andrew Christian twerk tutorial.  Oh, here's the full length.  The guy doesn't just make underwear.  He still couldn't do it and cost me a point!  #twerkfail

Goal #3: I'm pretty sure outside of the bank incident and having to explain why Asians don't trust bank and keep loads of cash under their mattresses, it was a pretty easy escrow process.  I'm still not sure I know what an escrow is.  (1)

Goal #4: I'm pretty sure snowboarding was a previous goal and again I have failed in this venture.

Goal #5: Done, see post on LACMA. (1)

Goal #6: I couldn't even use a gift card!  Then again, it's not really swim season, so I don't really need any slutty bathing suits until like maybe March.

Goal #7: I slipped a little bit during MMM week at work.  There was soda catered with every meal and I slipped for the week.  I had diet coke, diet pepsi, and coke zero.  It was so good considering I haven't had it in months.  Alas, I quickly stopped after when it wasn't free. (1)

Goal #8: Flying home on Christmas morning...Blah (1)

Goal #9: I noticed myself getting soft around the stomach area as of late.  So I made a commitment to tightening it up without surgery.  I just started doing more work outs that included a lot of sweating and well, I stopped eating...(1)

Goal #10: My birthday party was awesome.  It was cheap.  It wasn't $1,500, it was $188.  I didn't wake up drunk in Rome (literally).  Thank you Aventine! (1)

I couldn't even muster up the strength to achieve 7 goals this month.  I must get my act together and finish strong for 2013.

Ma! I'm coming home for the holidays...

This happens every year.  I know the holiday break is around the corner and yet I still never get my ticket until 2-4 weeks before I fly out.  I was determined to not let that happen this year.  I was determined to at least buy tickets 6 weeks in advance.  That I did!  The only thing is I'm flying home Christmas Day at 6AM.  Jesus Christ!  That's early...The thing with buying tickets so late is that I always end up paying an arm and a leg to fly home.  I send out disclaimers to my family that their gift me their oldest son coming home to visit them.  That's right, I'm the muthaeffing present. 

I love Christmas, I'm not religious and I don't really care for holidays in general, but I really love Christmas (probably because I was never stabbed on that day).  There's just something about snow and Mariah Carey.  There's something about seeing people's faces when they get unwrap presents (I don't really care for presents either).  It's just a wonderful time of the year.  I mean, even wash up actors and actresses, or starlettes who want to become actresses get to be in made-for-tv holiday movies  on the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime.  Where else are you going to find movies with Freddie Prinze Jr or Brian Austin Green?  Ashanti and Christina Milian has been known to make appearance in these also. 

Ticket prices were no exception this year.  I'm flying the morning of Christmas day and coming back on January 6th.  I spent my first NYE in LA last year and was not too amused, so decided that it would just make sense to extend my trip home.  Then there's that game you play with your PTO.  Flying back on the 1st is expensive because everyone needs to get back on the 2nd and then the 2nd is Thursday, so most people will probably extend holiday by taking the 2nd and the 3rd off and fly back Saturday or Sunday which is still expensive, so that left me with Monday.  I thought that taking 3 PTO days were worth the $300 savings as well as more time in NY.  In the end of the day, it's not really value wise in terms of the sticker price of a PTO day, but you can't put a price tag on family time. 

The one sad thing about flying in Christmas Day this year is I don't get to spend a Christmas Day tradition watching a movie and then heading to the Tick Tock Diner under the New Yorker Hotel after with my friend Angie.  We both don't really care for Christmas, so we along with every other non-Christian go to the movies and the diners together.  Last year we saw Les Mes.  Now that's a feel good movie everyone should go see!

I think the more important point here is that I'm spending two weeks at home.  I really need to figure out how I can make this work out.  That's a long long time...

I'm a homeowner!

So escrow finally closed on Wednesday, November 20th.  I also call it the day I officially went broke and will be poor for the rest of my life, but whatever, I have equity.  Equity is like a consolation now for liquid assets.  How do I go to the bank to collect on equity. 

The home buying process was the most stressful thing I've ever gone through in life.  At the same time though, it was relatively easy for me compared to some of the horror stories I heard from friends who have gone through the process.  It was only in August that I decided to find myself a real estate agent.  Once I met with Roxane and Amir form Rodeo Realty, the rest was history.  I started looking at condos right after my brother's wedding in September.  In total, I saw 11 condos.  I put my first offer down on the 8th condo back in October.  I got outbid and came in second and was crushed.  A week later, after a work trip to Seattle, I came back and saw the 11th condo and just went for it.  Boom!  Offer accepted!  My boss basically described the process like me buying a pair of shoes.  In fact I'm sure some women have take longer to invest in a pair of shoes than I did with this home search.  It was not that easy though, for the month that I was looking, I made it my life.

I won't bore you with the details of contracts, loans, and all the paperwork involved as I didn't go insane during the 30 day escrow period.  The only thing that got me to lose my mind a little bit was when I had to take money out of the bank to fund my escrow account.  During that time, I learned a couple things:
1. HSBC is full of morons in their front line who gives wrong information
2. HSBC does not allow you go complain over the phone to customer service, I actually need to go to a bank for that.
3. HSBC does not have your money.  I'm sorry, if a bank doesn't have a couple thousand sitting around in cash, that is not a good sign.
4. The USC Credit Union gives free cashier's checks.  
5. Wiring fees are EXPENSIVE...

On to Sherwin-Williams to look at color swatches!

My LACMA Cherry Pop

I came in like a wrecking ball...

So the blogging has been limited this month given that almost all the goals are end of month oriented.  I did however go to the LACMA for the first time ever.  I mean, I've been by the Urban Light exhibit, but I never went in. 

I don't really care to discuss art.  I worked at an art school (my first real job out of college) and I had to deal with artsy folks and artsy type pre-college teens who find meaning in everything.  I see a picture of people walking around at the mall and I take it for face value, the artist sees mass commercialization in a society where we overspend.  I see a fruit basket painting and the artist sees contrasts and two focus points.  Now that's not to say I cannot talk about art, I'm just not pretentious enough to see a paint splash on white canvas and care to talk about it for 15 minutes about what a trendsetter the painter was.  For all I know, he spilled paint on a canvas and it made spotchie splots. 

I spent four hours at the museum using words like "juxtaposition" and "contrast."  And then used phrases like "you can really see the hurt in her eyes, she's frighten by the sight of the post-modern word."  Most often than not, I'm like "OMG, titties..."  I really want to take someone to a museum one day and just run up to a piece and go "OMG, this is my FAVORITE piece EVER!"  Go into a tangent about why and then in reality, it's really a rock. 

The best part of the exhibit other than the wrecking ball (see picture) was when everyone started going into this dark room behind a curtain.  You look up and all you saw was a reflection of a light.  A REFLECTION OF A LIGHT!  People were starring and really thinking about probably what I was thinking about.  WTF are we doing here and what is this supposed to be?!?  Yup, that was pretty much the course of the evening at the LACMA. 

Octoberfest!

Accomplishing my goals were difficult this month.  Why?  Because I'm tired.  I don't generally use that as an excuse too much because everyone is tired, but this month felt different.  I had too much going on.  I found a home and an offer was accepted!  The excitement was short lived since after that, my life became a whirlwind trying to close escrow.  I'm still not really sure what escrow is.  On top of that, I had two trips, one to Seattle, the other to Vancouver, so not a lot of time to actually do stuff.

Alas, it begins the tabulations...

Goal #1: I'm so made at myself on this one because I had the day off yesterday and all I had to do was go for a jog and that would have been the 15th exercise day, but I got super lazy and I was still livid from the parking violations bureau (see below).  So needless to say, I exercised 14 times this month, which I still think is better than the American average.  Thank god for straight married people because they balance out the average of the WeHo gays... (.93/1)

Goal #2: I know picking up items from the tailor's should be easy but it's not for me.  I found this awesome Korean lady when I was living in Sherman Oaks.  Please go see Christine as she is amazing.  I brought in a peacoat and a courdory blazer to have it fitted.  So for you non Angelenos, Sherman Oaks is in the valley.  I love the valley, so I'm not talking shit, it's just far from where I live now and far from where I work.  I used to commute a good hour to an hour and a half to get to work one-way!  So when your tailor closes at 6pm M-F and is only open for Saturday in which I'm usually on the road for work, you can imagine how difficult it will be for someone to pick their stuff up.  However, it was done as I had a half day from work and it was just sitting there for a month.  At least I had some free closet space when it happened. (1)

Goal #3: Never made it to the bunny spa.  I'm always having to reschedule!  But she is a lot happier roaming free in my balcony. Goose Egg!

Goal #4: OMG, this parking permit situation...I don't care, I'm giving myself a point for trying.  I went to the god damn place 3 times!  And each time, there was an excuse governed by the red tape that is the shit show of the LA Parking Violations Bureau or you can just yelp them.  They make even getting a parking permit difficult.  First of all, there is no free parking, so you can meter park for an hour or you can do garage parking for a price of I didn't even bother finding out how much it was. 
First time: I just walked out of the place because my meter was expiring, yes that's how long I waited.
Second time: I didn't have a utility bill.  I even told them I would pull it up from my phone and they told me I had to make a copy of it.  To make things worse, apparently my building isn't zoned for guest parking, so I have to get an annual pass.  That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  My specific building doesn't qualify for guest parking so I can only get annual passes?  And the utility thing is bullshit.  My license and registration alone should prove my residency.  Whatever, I walked off.
Third time: Yesterday October 31st.  I brought everything and I was ready to purchase my permit and guess what I was told!?!  My district's fiscal year ends today, October 31st so I will need to come back tomorrow to buy a new annual permit.  WTF?  You can't sell me a permit one day early?  And WTF kind of annual time goes from Nov to Oct.  To top it off, the dumb bitch told me that she can see me the permit for one day for $11.50 and then come back tomorrow for a new one.  I basically told her I thought this process was ridicious and that this was my third time here.  I walked out fuming and basically told my friend Carla on the phone that I was going to give it my best Left Eye and burn this muthafucking place down. (1 - for all the effort).

Goal #5: Did it but decided not to be Miley Cyrus (1).

Goal #6: See Seattle post (1). 

Goal #7: I was in Vancouver this past weekend and all I wanted to do was see a black bear in the live.  I packed my bags and drove up to Whistler.  The drive was postcard.  That's the only way I can describe it.  They have these bear hikes for $119, but I thought that was stupid since you can't really be guaranteed to see a bear.  I figured if I was to walk on the same trail, I would most likely see one as well.  No luck during our afternoon hike.  At night while drinking at the hotel bar, the bartender told us that on our drive back to Vancouver, if we look in the open meadows under the sun, we can see them as well.  No dice.  There were so many bear crossing signs and I couldn't see a single one.  Luckily,  I saw this cute little bear at the airport.  Well, there was also the one I saw at the Fiesta Cantina out in WeHo.  (1).

Goal #8: Buy boots?  Hmmm, I don't know that I need to give myself a zero for this.  I only had this goal because I was going to be wrecking ball Miley Cyrus for Halloween...

Goal #9: Let's put it this way...I put down two.  The first I came in as the back up offer and the second was accepted!  (1)

Goal #10: Going to an Adam Levine concert counts! (1)

7.93 out of 10.  That's actually not as bad as I thought it would be...

Costume Change!

So I've been growing my hair out to have the Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" look as of late.  The other day, I decided to have a costume change for Halloween.  I decided this when I realized that if I only walked around in panties and a wife beater, where the hell would I put my wallet, keys, and cell phone?  I know what everyone is thinking, but these items are not illegal drugs and I am not walking through a metal detector. 

It was brought to my attention that I should just go dressed as Jeremy Lin.  I made the horrible mistake of not being slutty last year and got a lot of shit from my friends for being the red telly tubby.  The costume was masterful and what a costume should be.  I had everything down to the T.  The only problem with it was that I went out with a bunch of slutty "insert anything."  Plus it also got really hot at certain points of the night.  So this year, I'm going to be a slutty Jeremy Lin.  I have no clue what that really entails, so I bought myself kids size Houston Rockets jerseys and shorts.  The jersey came yesterday and apparently a kid's XL is still a little too big for me.  I wanted it to be so tight that my ribs pop out.  The other problem I have with the JLin thing is that I might just be confused for an 80's basketball player or the John Stockton version of Jeremy Lin with the short shorts and the tight jersey.  #sluttyhalloweenproblems

Eating until Sleepless in Seattle

I travel quite a bit for work.  I don't get taken anywhere too exotic (although that will change fairly soon as I'm making some moves), but I don't complain because it's just basically a free wine and dine way of life for me.  I choose to eat at the best restaurants and order things I would never order if paying for meals on my own.  Double shot in the morning for breakfast at Starbucks?  Why not?  Appetizers during lunch and dinner?  Well of course...

Seattle was a little different though.  Before coming here, everyone who has been has only talked about what a great food city it is.  I love seafood, so naturally, I was excited for this.  Before arriving, the only impression I had on Seattle was Grey's Anatomy and that the days are always wet and gloomy.  I got here Sunday and had the entire day to myself to just enjoy and be a tourist.  The place reminded me so much of New York City, or at least downtown Seattle did.  I did all the touristy stuff, the Space Needle (I didn't go up because it was $26 to do so...I work in the 29th floor, so I've seen views before), Pier 70 (aka where the Real World: Seattle house was and where Stephen slaps Irene for calling him a homo and then throwing her stuffed animal down the water), Pike Place Market, I almost even almost went to a Seahawks game.  I figured I would just walk up to the stadium in the third quarter and offer a scalper $5. 

My first interaction with food in Seattle was on a warm sunny October afternoon walking down the pier (it was quite weird that it was a warm sunny October afternoon because I totally thought it would be cold, gloomy, and raining).  I found this cute little place called Anthony's and ordered a fried battered salmon and chips.  Delicious!  It was like eating chicken tenders, but fish!  Perfect paring while watching the Seahawks game on tv.

Eww...and yes, I'm aware that I'm brushing my teeth during this.

Dinner for day two was at Ivar's Acres of Clams, the original seafood house in Seattle as a sign says.  My boss and I had a bottle of wine for $20 and then shared some seafood cocktails before pretty much inhaling our clam chowder.  It was so good!  After taking what seemed to be an hour decided on what to eat, I chose to have the 14 oz lobster tail.  I'm retarded when it comes to weight and stuff, so I thought it was going to be small.  Either that or I thought that it would be like LA portions.  We don't really eat in LA because we're too busy trying to be skinny. I even finished some of my boss' mussels.  That dinner was a big mistake as it kept me up all night.  I was in a food coma and couldn't fall asleep because I was so stuffed!  I thought about going to the gym for a run just so i don't feel as heavy, but didn't have running sneakers and I was not about to join the Westin work out program.  $5 to rent sneakers and work out clothes is kind of disgusting.  #footfungus

Last night for dinner and apparently it's lunch today as well, we went to Metropolitan Grill for some fancy steak.  It was such an old school steakhouse.  The waiters had their vest and spoke of their steak like it was some form of art.  I didn't realize how big the portions were, either that or I was still full from last night's dinner.  I had half and had to make it to go.  I also couldn't decide so I figured surf and turf was the way to go.  Sidebar: I'm distracted at the moment right now because a woman is dictating text message on her iphone and she kind of sounds like a robot.  Suri understands your regular voice!  It was also a dinner with our partners for a fellowship program and by the end of the night, I think I offered to dog sit and play beach volleyball.  I'm not sure how that happened.

Today is my last day in Seattle.  I need to get back to LA and hit the gym HARD!

An offer on my dream home

Barbie's Dream Home.  Mine is similar, but not!

I found my dream home last Tuesday.  It was one of those that I knew was the one and I was willing to put my savings account at 0 for.  It's super cute and in the Hollywood Hills.  It has that mix of big city, yet feeling like you are in the middle of nowhere because you're so secluded.  It's funny that type of environment is my flavor considering I grew up in Manhattan.  Then again, I went to college in the Hamptons, so we totally saw it coming.  I always said the Hamptons was like the quieter half-sister of Manhattan.  It's the same demographic of people anyways. 

After we finished viewing the place, my realtors asked me what I thought, I pretty much just told them I had to have it.  Which is weird too because I normally don't have to have anything.  I just told my realtor to do whatever it took to give it to me.  Needless to say, it's been a stressful week.

Tuesday - saw my dream home!
Wednesday - threw in my offer.  Offers were be taken until 5pm on Thursday, seller had until Friday at 5pm to respond back to me on my offer. 
Thursday - seller decides to go through with an open house on Sunday to see if he can get more offers!
Friday - seller throws out a counter offer to all bidders and I have until Monday to decide what to do with the offer.  I consulted a relator friend and he gave me some valuable advice in that since the seller is only countering with $3K more, I most likely have the highest offer.
Saturday - called my realtor and told her I was sticking with my offer and not a dollar more.
Sunday - Open House
Monday - it's a waiting game at this point.  Fingers crossed as I will find out if I will be a home owner!!!

The Stalking of Mr. Levine

On a beautiful summer evening, I entered the Hollywood Bowl after being sick during the afternoon from some type of allergic reaction.  I'm not sure these days what they can be, turning 30 meant hitting a brick wall and being sick at any moment's notice.  My immune system is failing on me at my old age.

 I got to the Hollywood Bowl right as Kelly Clarkson took the stage.  I'm pretty good at knowing when the opening act tends to finish so I don't have to deal with them.  I was racing to my seat because I really wanted to make sure I was around when she did "Breakaway."  I love that song.  Not because it's a particularly great song, but that song always brings me to a wonderful memory of my teammates and I during pre-season in college.  Stephen, Marc, Sean, and I were driving up Montauk Highway heading back to the house from a visit to King Kullen to buy groceries or ice cream.  I can't remember what it was, but that's not the point.  A grocery store was involved.  We just had a really awful practice because well, the coach was a little crazy at that moment of his life.  As we were driving up, "Breakaway" came on and before you knew it, we were all belting out the song as loud as we could.  I think the best part was that neither of us had any clue that any of us knew all the words to the song.  We just looked at each other after and laughed.  It felt great, it felt comforting, it felt like brotherhood.  I always said the best memories from playing on a team aren't usually the games itself, it's everything outside of that.

Kelly Clarkson also brings back another fun memory at the Jones Beach Ampitheater.  Sam and I went to see Kelly that year, it was most likely 2006 and we met up with Stephen and his then girlfriend Jenna.  This was during Kelly's really famous "Since You've Been Gone" phase.  We met up at the parking lot and just started drinking beers.  For one reason or another, Sam decided that she was gonna get all agro and started smashing beer bottles.  Then her and Stephen started taking turn throwing and smashing beer bottles.  I'm not really sure how we didn't get escorted out of the venue, but that ended up being a kick-ass concert.

Kelly was great Sunday night, she sang great, she looked great, I mean, she's getting married.  You know who looked better though?  Adam Levine!  Maroon 5 just stood out there and performed all their song to the crowds amazement.  I looked around and noticed a good amount of parents and their tweenage kids.  That would make sense, I guess if you were a mom at 25 and was a KC or Maroon 5 fan, you and your kid can enjoy a concert going experience together.  What was funnier was that I think the mom behind me was screaming and crying more than her daughter when Adam came out.  That must have been embarrassing as all hell for the child.

So I know the goal was to stalk Adam Levine, but I was at his concert and a couple hundred feet away from him.  That's as good as it's gonna get as far as stalking is concerned for me.  I don't really have time or the energy to stalk.  I feel like that's like something only unemployed people can pull off...

October Goals

I am in no way supporting the new "Notes" look on iOS7.

September Recap

My Halloween Costume!

 Oh October 1st has arrived.  Baseball season is officially over.  Well, as a Mets fan, baseball season was officially over during spring training.  To think, they swept the Yankees.  Such promise wasted.  Now even as a Giants fan, I'm not going to have to wait until January to see their season end either.

This was not a good month for me in accomplishing goals which is sad since I was hoping to build on the momentum of last month.  Life just happens sometimes.  September was very busy on the traveling side.

Goal #1: I was not able to exercise 15 times this month.  I was only able to squeeze 10 days in.  Most of this is due to traveling and the rest is due to condo hunting and the world just getting dark faster.  However, what I find most impressive is that of the 10 days of exercise, three of them were done at a hotel gym.  One even being in Vegas.  I know, crazy, who really works out in Vegas...I still did meet 2/3 of my goal for this one and I've never been so happy to give myself partial credit (.67).

Goal #2: I couldn't get Boo to the bunny spa.  I called about making some appointments, but they are only open on weekends and Wednesdays.  You can see how this can be challenging for me.  I had every intention of bringing her this Wednesday since I have the day off, but that's Oct 2nd, so it's a moot point.  I will move this over to October goals. (ZERO)

Goal #3: This wasn't done, so clearly I don't really care about having friends come visit.  Or I just go out of my way to find a parking spot in the streets and let them park in mine.  It's so much better than driving to Van Nuys or going to the Parking Violations Bureau to pick up permits.  Trust me, there is nothing cute about sitting there.  You wonder where half of the people there crawl out of.  (ZERO)

Goal #4: Looking at condos are a tiring process.  I didn't only look at 1, I looked at 7 this past month.  With the exception of the first place, the other 6 were done in intervals of 3 within a 1 to 1.5 hour time period.  Driving all over LA like that is god awful, especially after work hours. (1.6).  Why the .6 you ask?  Extra credit of a tenth for each extra house I looked at.  After all, this was a major reason why I couldn't go to the gym after work to reach my first goal.

Goal #5: I totally had a speech I didn't need to use.  Awesome.  We all kind of were a little worried the best man would try to throw the mic at us. (1).

Goal #6: Got my hair done did.  Check. (1).

Goal #7: The first two are about crazy shit white people do to understand the world better and humble themselves.  Here's the thing, I didn't grow up living in poverty, but I don't need to take a trip to the slums of India to figure out things like that suck.  I just know it does and accept it... 
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/south-african-family-trades-suburban-comforts-for-slums--stirring-controversy-183911585.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/panera-breads-ceo-tries-eat-153810950.html

This one is about Sino-Africian relations.  Essentially, Asians (specifically Chinese in this article) are just super racist! http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/08/on-being-african-in-china/279136/

This last one is just there because I geek out to higher education news.  http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/19/local/la-me-loyola-law-20130819

So I guess this goal is checked off. (1)

Goal #8: Giants are 0-4 and I didn't start bitched about it until October. (1)

Goal #9: There's so much tv to watch the DVR matrix wasn't help.  I can only record two shows at once and watch one live while doing it, so I will need to catch up on shows online as well.  Please don't judge me as I list off all the shows I watch. 

Monday: How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Mom, and Hostage
Tuesday: New Girl and Mindy Project
Wednesday: Criminal Minds, Agents of Shield, Trophy Wife, Modern Family
Thursday: Glee, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal
Friday: Drinking
Saturday: Drinking
Sunday: Revenge and Betrayal

Then we have the revolving summer/winter shows that come in from time to time: Suits, Covert Affairs, Drop Dead Diva, Devious Maids, Newsroom, American Horror Story, Breaking Bad (although, that's a moot point now). 

Yes, I'm aware I watch way too much tv. (1)

Goal #10: I'm totally gonna be wrecking ball Miley.  Not naked on a ball, but wife beater and white panties while licking a hammer (see reference above).  (1)

Final tall is 8.27/10 goals.  A step down, I guess I'll need to try harder in October...

Lil' Bro's Wedding Weekend - Sunday

It's 11:59pm EST on Saturday, a minute until the after paRtAAyyyy...When you have a group of about 20+ Asians going to an after party, there really is only one logical choice - Karoke.  We love to effing sing, I don't know why, because most of us can't, but we love it.  We also love drinking which was why I was hauling around a magnum bottle of Goose until we got to the joint since it was only a $40 corking fee.

After unsuccessfully trying to figure out how it Twerk it like Miley, I began the night off dancing and stomping to tables to You Belong With Me.  Who doesn't like that song?  I dedicated it to my brother and my new sister-in-law.  The crowd sang along, it was awesome, I was awesome, it was as if I was being cheered on at the Superbowl and I was Eli Manning during those winning seasons.  Or, I was just drunk...

For the next 3+ hours or so, there were some amazing song choices that I remembered.  There were like way too many.  You can totally tell we grew up in the 90's...
1. Backstreet Boys - All I Have to Give
2. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
3. NSYNC - This I Promise You
4. NSYNC - Bye Bye Bye
5. Craig David - 7 Days
6. Mariah Carey - Thank God I Found You
7. Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby
8. R. Kelly - Ignition
9. Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
10. Bruno Mars - Marry You
11. Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer
12. Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time

At some point, we also gave praise to New York and woke up in a new Buggati.  

I think I may have crawled back to the hotel around 4AM.  I woke up the next morning desperate for dim sum.  The funny thing is it took me about 30 years to realize why when I was younger, we would have to get up so early to be dragged to dim sum at 11am.  Turns out we learned the hard way.  We tried getting to a dim sum place in Flushing at half past noon.  Boy was that stupid.  The lines were long and there was no way we were sitting.  The card that I usually use in LA (aka, speak Cantonese to the hostess) would not have even worked this time around.  There just weren't enough white people waiting to eat.  Luckily, I was also craving Vietnamese food as well, so that made life a little easier.

Work was not done as we had to pack the car up and bring back all the stuff to my brother's apartment from the hotel.  By the time I got back at 5, I passed the eff out.  That was the longest 48 hours of my life.  Speaking of long wedding weekends.  HIMYM is on tonight!  

Lil' Bro's Wedding Weekend - Saturday

The Groom and his men dealing with all the Chinese Door Games to get the bride.  Oh yeah, we also kidnapped the dog and held him ransom to get a discount of $200.  We only had to spend $60!

It was way too early for a Saturday morning.  Mind you, I'm in PST, so for me to be up at 7:30am was pretty much the time that I would be arriving home after a night of boozing back in LA.  I woke up early because I wanted to stop by Dunkin' Donuts and the Duane Reade around the corner to buy a wedding card.  Yes, I'm aware that I just tried to buy a card on the morning of the wedding.  Needless to say, I failed and couldn't buy one until I got to the best man's apartment to catch the limo.  Apparently, the Duane Reade by my apartment doesn't open until 9:30, which was a problem since my dad was giving me a ride to Astoria at 9:15.

Upon arrival, I saw a Walgreens and I ran in there to buy a card and some black socks.  I only packed blue and red for some reason.  I found a blank card because apparently wedding cards do not exist and diabetes friendly socks which I ended up taking off after the pictures because I was losing all of my blood flow to my toes.  Either that or I just didn't break my new black shoes in.  The dogs were barking!

My brother had his last bachelor breakfast and we quickly worked on the dance routine before getting changed to be picked up.  Putting on a tux is such a production when it involved suspenders and a tie and making sure there are no wrinkles.  We got to the hotel to pick up the bride and we had to play Chinese Door Games and we got a good deal on the bride for $60.  I know, such a steal.  I'm not sure if it was really a steal or if it was the fact that we were in a rush to get to the Queens Botanical Garden to take pictures.  That was kind of an ordeal as we spent about two hours taking shots and candid shots of us walking and making idle conversation.  Oh, by the way, at this point, we're all really hungry and there's no sight of food around.  In fact, we were the food as we were all picked off one by one by mosquitoes. 

We thought we were in the clear when we got back to the hotel, but it turns out, we were in for more work as we had to bring stuff down to the ceremony and reception area to help set up before guests arrived.  Luckily, I was able to sneak in one quick drink to to ease the level of anxiety.  If I was feeling anxious, I can only imagine how the bride and groom felt.  We got everything set up and one by one guests arrived and we ushered them to their seats and I was introduced to family members I have not seen before, or at least haven't seen in 10 plus years.  One by one they made fun of me for letting my younger brother get married before me.  I just smiled and nodded.  I think the story my mom and dad are giving to everyone is that I just don't plan on getting married because it really isn't my thing.  Which, I guess is half true.

Russell, the ring bearer.

The ceremony started with me walking out first.  I'm sure everyone recognized me as the loser older brother that allowed my younger brother to get married before him.  I just smiled gracefully as I walked down the aisle.  I really wanted to get fierce and drag race that shit, but I decided it was my brother's day and not mine.  I can look fierce when I walk from my office to the metro.  I was trying to fight back tears during the ceremony and it really wasn't that hard considering the officiant was the apprentice of the original officiant who called out four hours before the wedding due to a family death.  It's crazy how they have apprentices.  In hind sight, I guess it's a good thing someone showed up to married them even though he wasn't the most amazing.  Let's put it this way, the man did not know how to use a microphone, so I couldn't hear a single word.  Well, I guess the only people that needed to hear words that day were the bride and groom.

There was no rest during cocktail hour either as I had to take family pictures and then quick help set up for the reception.  I eyeballed the cater waiters and all their finger foods they were passing around as my mouth was just salivating at the sight of food.  I went to do a little set up with the candy bar, and well, candy became kind of a meal for me.  Don't judge me...

Finally, the party begins.  I won't bore you with the details of the reception, but there were a couple highlights:
1. Our surprise groomsmen dance to "My Girl."  We all did so well during dress rehearsals and then all of a sudden, when the actual dance came about, all the alcohol consumption was not taken into account during dress rehearsal, but we still rocked it.  I wish I had a link to share.
2. Seeing my mom dance on the dance floor like a school girl gave me mixed emotions.  They involved being really happy and embarrassed at the same time.  More happy than embarrassing only because I haven't seen her smile in a long time.
3. Photobooths are fun.
4. When it comes time to play games for prizes, I don't even care if you're a little kid.  I'm not at a mindset where I let a kid win.  That doesn't teach them any lesson in life.  Sometimes you need to push a couple kids down to win.  I had no clue what I won as I left the gift at the reception.

At midnight, the reception ended and we head over to the after PARTY!!!

Speaking of long wedding weekends, yesterday was the premiere of "How I Met Your Mother", where the whole season is the wedding weekend of Robin and Barney!

First Condo Viewing

I saw my first apartment today.  It felt like NYE.  There were so many expectations and then when I finally did it, it just kind of felt like my first time all over again.  You have all this excitement and when you're done, you realized it only lasted about 5 minutes and you're left wondering what happened.  I think I've looked at apartments where I'm renting longer than the amount of time I looked at this one that I was considering purchasing.  I have to admit though, the apartment was very clean, I need to find out who they used as a cleaning service. 

After viewing the place for about 7 minutes, I decided on just telling my agents the good points rather than all the shitty points, and boy were there many.  I figured positive reinforcement is always a good thing so they know what to look for in the future.  I also had an appointment schedule for tomorrow at 2pm with another condo in the same neighborhood, so I drove by to check it out.  Boy and I glad I did.  It was a nice condo, but it was surrounded by crack houses and shattered American dreams.  Just because it's the nicest house on the block, does not make it okay...Needless to say, I e-mailed my agents after and asked that we cancel the appointment tomorrow to not waste anyone's time.  I need to get a feel of what my agents are like because I was definitely a little more PC about how I really felt about the place. 

This is gonna be one long ass ride to home owning...

Lil' Bro's Wedding Weekend - Friday

The Groomsmen gift that never happened :-/

 Weddings really are an outer-body experience.  I'm sure it's even more so for the bride and groom if I felt this way as just a groomsman.  I woke up Monday morning wondering what the hell happened as I tried to recover from what seems like a 50 hour day.  I also woke up with the dizzy spells, which was odd to be because even on my worse morning after drinking like alcohol is going out of style days, I have never been dehydrated to the point where I would have dizzy spells.

For those of you who have never been a part of a wedding party, be prepared to Work Bitch!  Sorry, I had to use that...Oh and one more thing, you also don't get to eat much either.  The moment I landed Thursday night, it was all about my brother's wedding.

I woke up extra early on Friday so I can squeeze in a haircut before I went about running my errands.  I had to buy a pair of pants for my mom because she's crazy superstitious.  Long story short, my younger brother is not supposed to get married before me and since he did, I have to give him my blessing by him walking under a new pair of pants of mine.  I was worried at first because I wasn't sure how much I would need to invest in these pairs of pants, sometimes my mom had a tendency to just burn things.  I wasn't sure if I needed to make a trip to Old Navy.  Here's the tradition explained.  Apparently, I'm supposed to get tea too during the tea ceremony, but that did not happen!

At 4pm, I had to drive over to my brother to lug boxes upon boxes of stuff to bring over to the Sheraton LaGuardia East hotel in Flushing.  It turns out, I really do like Chinese themed hotels.  They are typically really cute and I love staying in them.  Flushing, however, I can do without.  The best way to describe Flushing is that it's like Canal Street in Chinatown in Manhattan, except every street is Canal Street in Flushing.  The pedestrian traffic is awful, Chinese people really don't care if you hit them with your cars or not.  It's all Asian drivers, this may even include the bus drivers, which is even scarier.  It's just a pretty stressful driving experience and that's saying a lot being that I drive in LA in a daily basis. 

Things were unloaded to storage and there was no rest.  We had to quickly go to rehearsal where we met a rather ghetto officiant.  He definitely had some swagger and was apparently a good find on Yelp!  I would really know how good he is since he was a no show on the wedding day (but that's a different story).  We did our walk through and I'm pretty sure I almost cried during it.  I'm a real sap for weddings. After a walk through that seemed pretty hard to mess up, we rolled over to the rehearsal dinner.  It was a great pick in the Korean section of Flushing.  I love Korean food.  I can take it down like no other.

The most exciting part of the dinner is the bridal shower gift.  You and I both know it.  For some reason, all the groomsmen were anticipating watches of the Rolex sort.  We waited patiently as we watched the bridesmaids unwrap their Tiffany boxes.  When it was our turn, we opened up a bunch of valets.  In my brother's defense, he did buy my tux, so I guess I'll need to buy my own Rolex to put in the valet.  Whomp Whomp...

The night didn't end though, oh no it didn't.  We had to run back to one of the other groomsman's apartment to reherse our surprise dance to for the bride.  All my goals have meaning and now you will understand why there was a goal last month to learn an entire dance routine.  It's not because I wanted to twerk it like Miley, although I did practice that as well in case I wanted to go rouge.  After two hours and a noise complaint later, we finally got the entire routine down as a group.  Let's remember that I've been practicing myself in LA while the other four had weeks to get it together.  Turns out it doesn't matter how much you practice because even though we were perfect during dress rehearsals, alcohol came into play during the real thing.

It was no midnight and I had to be up at 8AM...

Giants Lose - Shocker...

I don't know man...I just don't know...

I didn't get frustrated this weekend when the G-men lost to the Cowboys 36-31.  I kind of expected it since I seem to think Eli has to kind of just get adjusted as the season goes on.  Plus when you lower your expectations, things will always be awesome when the opposite occurs. 

Just because I didn't get frustrated, doesn't mean I thought the performance was okay.  First of all, six turnovers?  The only thing that kept me going was seeing Tony Romo get banged up left and right.  I still question how he's the starting quarterback and can Dallas really not do a better job at finding a franchise player?
    
I used to get really angry at Eli Manning because when he got that big contract, it was like he reverted backwards and forgot home to play football.  However, can I really complain?  He's given us 2 Superbowls in the past couple years, both of which came by the hands of the Patriots (hahahahahahaa) and both of which were subpar seasons.  See why I can't really be too worried?  We can go 9-7 and still win a Superbowl.

He's also the better looking of the Manning brothers...

AWESOME! 

The 9th Month Goals

Recapping August

Clockwise from L to R: Stephen and I driving endless miles, me shooting a gun in Vegas (I just like the way my arms looked, I do not support gun violence), seeing some former teammates in Scottsdale, AZ, my brother's bachelor party at XS, and then my exercise log for the month of August.

I cannot believe it's already September.  When I was a kid, I would always think a year took forever to end.  As I'm getting older, the days are moving along so much faster.  I felt like it was just yesterday that I was on a flight back to LA on NYE's so I can end up bringing in the new year at Rage.  #classy

The fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  Football starts, college football starts, and volleyball begins, except this time, I will not be coaching and I'll just be a mere fan or spectator.  The summer heat dies out and the new school year begins.  I've been in academia all my life, so I don't know what it's like to really live outside of an academic calender.  If anything, my new years is actually Labor Day.

August has been a busy month.  I've been really going hard at these goals and after 8 months of goal setting, I'm happy to say that I've accomplished 100% of these.

Goal #1: Exercise 14 times this month.  I killed it and did 16.  That's like working out every other day...CRAZY.  I can't believe I'm that dedicated or at least had that much time in my hands considering all the traveling I had to do for August.

Goal #2: I actually don't really miss soda at all now that I've gone two months without soda unless I'm having a vodka soda or a vodka red bull.  That still beats drinking a diet coke a day during lunch.

Goals #3 and #4: This was the Three Part Mini-Series: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Goal #5: That was four crazy days that I lived to not talk about.  What happens in Vegas...

Goal #6: There's a routine I've been working on but I need to keep it a secret.  For all you know, I can be making my own version of Miley's "We Can't Stop."

Goal #7: The home buying process is scary, especially when you don't know of good real estate agents.  I have a friend who is one and I didn't want to go that route because who really wants to have their friends working for them.  It just gets awkward and uncomfortable.  I would much rather keeps my friends around to do fun things like drink with them.  However, my awesome friend Sabrina just recently bought something and gave me her real estate agent who she says was FAB.

Goal #8: I booked a fall vacation for October.  I was going to go to Portugal and stalk Renaldo, but plans changed when I got an agent and will potentially be looking at places to throw all my money at before the year ends.  So I'll be going to...DRUMROLL....Canada!

Goal #9: Two tickets to Justin's 20/20 Experience World Tour: Check!

Goal #10: Here's the thing, one of my favorite scenes from CrazySexyLove was this.  I have this tendency to sometimes just buy clothes from the GAP or "Gap like" because it's easy and low maintenance.  This happens every month since I live by one.  So sometimes I'll buy a $2 t-shirt here and there and then I'll have a bunch of stuff that I can't really wear to work or on a fancy night out.  This entire month, I stayed away from that kind of shopping.  That's not to say I also went about buying 'Gamos.

What happens in Vegas...

Stays in Vegas...
So I'm not going to blog about Vegas since it's kind of sacrarelig to discussed what may or may not have gone down at my brother's bachelor party, but we all survived it!  However, I will put down 10 things I have learned about this Vegas experience.

1. Never gamble at a club, it's distracting and you will lose!
2. When there is 11 of you and the taxi line is a mile long, just ask how much a limo will cost, it'll end up being most likely $10 a person.  You save on time and you get to ride in style!
3. 2 Deck Blackjack is kind of BS, just stick to 1 Deck.
4. Redbull is the devil in the form of liquid.  However, if you want to power through four days of partying, I don't see any other option.
5. The Cosmo buffet at Wicked Spoon is hands down the best thing ever.
6. Don't attempt to walk 1 mile in 106 degrees heat, especially if you need to leave the strip and you can't cut across hotels.
7. The Vegas Monorail might be the most inefficient and useless thing ever.
8. Bottlerats come in the masses. 
9. You can hear the music at Wet Republic from near by pools.
10. The Southwest flight from any of the LA airports to Vegas is the best pre-game bar ever!

2,800 Plus Miles Later Part 3

I know it's taking me about three weeks to finish this saga, but the road trip really did feel that long at times.  It took 10 hours to get out of Texas!  Before we started this trip, we had high hopes for New Mexico.  We were hoping that by the tail end of this trip, we hit up a spa in Santa Fe and just relax the day away.  Instead, plans changed when we opted for San Antonio instead of Austin and we just decided to ride the 10 all the way to LA.

Southern New Mexico was awful to say the least.  The only thing different about that and Texas was that New Mexico had red dirt as opposed to yellow dirt.  Land of Enchantment my ass.  The border patrol was funny though...well, depends on who you are and how you define funny.  For those of you who haven't picked up a map lately, New Mexico borders Mexico, so obviously, there would be a check-point.  There were cars ahead of us while we were waiting and they were checking IDs.  When it got to our car, the patrolman basically just said "you're both citizens right?"  "Yes," I responded.  "Okay now, have a good day."  No ID checks, no nothing!  Stephen's probably used to this because he's white, but as an Asian-American, we never get the same treatment that the white man does!  I didn't know what to make of it, but hell, I'm not going to complain about not being racially profiled!

When we finally arrived to Scottsdale, AZ, we checked in to the cutest spa and resort the Double Tree had to offer.  Leave me alone, I used Hilton points okay!  I know there are better spa options, but what's better than free!  The rooms had this who cabin feel to it, I felt relaxed, especially after saying at this janky hotel in San Antonio the night before...

Our old college teammates were in town.  Well, Sean lives in Phoenix (which, I'm not sure why) and Tom was visiting, so we all met up at Hi Fi Kitchen and Cocktails.  The people of Scottsdale really reminded me of Long Island.  The guys were all meat heads with more gel than one should ever have and the girls were just slutty with fake tits and very plastic.  In fact, I think the only major difference was that the tans were real as opposed to the fake tanning that happens on Strong Island.  This is in one way to knock to LI, I love it there.

Now, all four of us have not seen each other in about nine years.  I mean the four of us collectively.  I saw Sean like seriously a week before for his 30th birthday in Vegas and I think I saw Tom at Mark's wedding like 7 years ago.  We did the brief catch up on what's going on in our lives even though that's what Facebook is for and then moved on to sharing good ole volleyball memories.  The thing is, we all had stories that no one had any recollection on.  However, we all remembered one memory and that was when our coach got so mad at us during practice that he just lost it and kicked a volleyball up to the ceiling of the gym.  I know!  It totally happened and it was really the only on-court memory I have.  The rest of the memories were off the court that I shall not discuss due to the various NCAA infractions that may or may not have been violated.  Wait, I can't take money for autographs?

The next day, after some time at the pool and then a full on workout, we packed our bags and headed back to LA.  We stopped for some lunch by having the greatest Mexican food of all time: Chipotle.  I love it!  The drive was going really well until we drove through a wild fire in the Palm Springs area.  I know they existed, but I never been in such close proximity to one.  It was rather intense as we had to roll our windows up and turn off the AC in 106 degree heat and drive with somewhat limited visibility.  Alas, we pushed through and ended up in 5pm traffic.  Home sweet home!

2,800 Plus Miles Later Part 2

Welcome to Texas where you're told when you cannot bring your gun into establishments like restaurants and movie theaters.  It's just common sense everywhere else. 

 There's a second part to this mostly because Texas itself deserves a second party considering the size of that state.  It took us pretty much half a day to drive through the entire state.  From the moment we set foot in Orange, Texas to get to a Wells Fargo Bank to the moment we left El Paso, Texas.  It was probably the most non-scenic drive ever and that's saying a lot having driven through Kansas. 

Ribs from Pizzitola's BBQ

 Upon arrival of Texas, I really wanted to do two things: (1) eat some Texas BBQ and (2) shoot guns.  Apparently, it's the easiest state to do both, especially in the city of Houston.  Unfortunately, we were only able to do one of the two due to time constraints.  After a quick late lunch in Houston at Pizzitola's BBQ, we were on our way to San Antonio.  Pizzitola had great ribs and that BBQ sauce was to die for.  Stephen bought two bottles and didn't want to share one with me.  As Stephanie Tanner would say: "How rude!"

San Antonio was pretty chill.  I'm actually glad we changed the plans as the original plan was to spend the night partying up in Austin.  I think what really happened was that I realized I was 30 and that the last time I was in Austin, it was just messy night in and night out.  The Alamo was pretty and historical.  Although, I'm still not quite sure what the Alamo was significant for.  Like I kind of know, but I don't really know.  Trust me, I read up on all the signs and even read Wikipedia on my way over.  Next up was the San Antonio River Walk.  There's an actual river walk!  I was wondering how many drunks fall in per year.  I'm sure there's a census out there somewhere.  Drinks were had at the Esquire Tavern.  I would recommend the Milan Julep even though it's more indigenous to New Orleans.  The La Pueblita was okay too.  I actually think any cocktail with crushed ice is okay in my book.  

The next morning, we were on a 12 hour driving trip to Scottsdale, AZ.  I happened to really enjoy my time in San Antonio, but boy was it rough getting out of Texas.  Although, in the suburbs of San Antonio, you can get an estate starting the the $500's.  Here in LA, you can get a 2BR apartment in DTLA if you're lucky or a studio in Manhattan.  So as it turns out the rest of Texas on the I-10 between San Antonio and El Paso had nothing.  I mean nothing...It was all rocks, and mountains, and yellow, and dirt.  I think the only thing I got excited about was when we went from central to mountain time and we saved an hour.  Well that, and I got really excited about the Mexican border.  You can see Juarez from El Paso.  I valued my life too much to even considered hopping over for an hour.  Not even for cheap Tequila.

El Paso felt like Mexico.  I figured since it felt like it, there has to be amazing Mexican food.  Yelp can be so handy sometimes.  I found this place called L & J Cafe.  Don't be fooled by the name, it is supposed to be the best Mexican food in El Paso.  That says a lot.  This place had amazing food and the people looked like they were straight out of what you would imagine a Mexican drug lord to look like.  The cowboy hats, the boots, the plaid shirt, the stache.  It was scary and exciting all at the same time.  To be fair, when you're Asian and going cross-country in the deep south, it's always scary and exciting at the same time.

Well, that's it for Texas, the last leg of the trip will need to be continued...   

2,800 Plus Miles Later Part I

Off to an adventure...

The Southern Experience of my USA road trip with Stephen was a success.  It was a success because we're both alive due to the fact that we did not kill each other or were killed in some random state like Mississippi.  I was also able to achieve another goal when I ate something I've never had before, but I'll get to that later.

I landed in DC and flew to Fayetteville, NC in what was allegedly an airplane.  I'm sure I've seen bigger school buses and what kind of plane has steps on the door for you to walk up to?!?  Stephen picked me up from the airport and I'm pretty sure I drove by three Bojangles by the time we got to his sister's place.  I'm not sure why there needs to be three in the same town, but whatever floats the boats of the North Carolinians.  This was my third trip to Fayetteville, but I'm not sure why I was still so surprised by many of the trashy things I saw.  I did meet the cutest four day old baby though!

Piedmont Park

Atlanta Botanical Garden

 After some lunch and a endless hours of television on some network that I never heard of, we were off to the ATL.  We got to Atlanta around 10pm and went straight for some food.  We found this place called Marlow's Tavern in the Midtown area where I may have possibly had the best shrimp and grits ever.  I'm not really a fan of grits, but the way they did it up...I can't even begin to explain how I could eat that everyday.  After some drinks, we headed back to our hotel for an early morning exploring Piedmont Park.  The park actually puts Central Park to shame.  Mostly because it's so clean and there's all these athletic venues that one can use.  They also had this botanical garden that pretty much charged an arm and a leg to get in, but what the heck?  How often is one really in Atlanta?  What should have really been a quick tour of the park became a much longer stay as my photographer friend needed to take artsy shots of anything that would look good on a picture frame.

If someone can tell me what the license plate number says, please let me know.

Bourbon Street, Gator Tail, and the Infamous Trollies

 After a hot afternoon in Atlanta, we made our way down and west to New Orleans, or as they would say down there: N'Awlins.  We had to drive to Alabama on the way down and one interesting fact about Alabama is that everyone is a Crimson Tide fan, but when you look at the people who are in the pick up trucks driving it, they don't look like they could have gone to college at any point in their lives.  Anyways, I digressed.  We got to N'Awlins around 6pm thanks to a time zone change and boy was it crazy to still see some post-Katrina neighborhoods.  I'll have to admit, my first and last impression of NOLA was that it's just dirty.  Like Fremont Street in Las Vegas dirty...or maybe even worse.  We got to the hotel and it could not be a more perfect location: across the street from the French Quarters, three blocks from Bourbon Street, and across the street from Harrah's Casino where I lost $6.  It was also a couple blocks from the St. Charles River and the Superdome.  I'm not sure how I got that kid of deal for like $65 a night, but I'm not one to complain on a deal.  It was at Old N'Awlins Cookery where I tried gator tail for the first time, both fried and blacken.  I knew that if anything, this road trip would allow me to enjoy great regional food.  We also ordered a fried seafood platter in which I had catfish.  If anyone is wondering, gator tastes like chicken.

The following day, we went about an hour west of NOLA and ended up at the Evergreen Plantation.  It was by far the coolest thing I've ever done.  Not cool because I thought slavery was cool, but cool because I got to witness in a sense a part of history that we were taught.  It was also the set for Django Unchained which Stephen was really excited about.  Let me tell you something, there is nothing more eerie than walking from the master house to the slaves quarters.  There's this feeling you have that you knew shit went down at some point.  I also learned a lot of Louisiana and Creole history like how they are still governed by French law and that's why they call their counties "parishes."  I also learned that the port between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is the biggest port in the world.  That I need to actually check up on.  Finally, I learned the true definition of "Creole."

To be continued...