Halloween in Charlotte....

Cheap plane tickets, Pam buying her first condo, and seeing old friends again brought me back to Charlotte for Halloween weekend.  When I think of Charlotte, I think cheap shopping, pho, going out clubbing on the weekends with big groups of people, and potlucks.  I accomplished all of these and more that weekend .  I got to see Pam's new condo and of course, it's beautiful!  My favorite room is the kitchen...hehe.  We did tons of shopping and I fulfilled my craving for pho.  I made a special trip to South Park mall to buy a perfume from Victoria's Secret cause can you believe it is $10 cheaper in every other city outside of NYC?  Yes, it's true.  I was afraid I bought so much stuff that the airline would charge me for my luggage going overweight (50lbs).  Luckily Pam had an extra duffel bag for me to use so problem solved . 

For Halloween, a big group of us went to a Halloween party that we had pre-purchased tickets to.  As we park and walk towards the party, we notice the people walking towards the party....needless to say, the crowd there was not our cup of tea.  On top of that, the party is OUTSIDE!  It was freezing outside, especially if you are in a short devil outfit .  There were tents set up and fires outside, but it didn't help much.  Even worse, the party had advertised all you can drink beer and wine and some appetizers.  Well, they ran out of beer by 10:30 .  We were not happy about that so we left early to go to a bar in downtown Charlotte where we spent the rest of the night dancing .  The best parts of the night were taking goofy pix and eating hotdogs after the club, just like old times . 

Of course I couldn't leave Charlotte without having a potluck so a big group of us got together at Pam's new place and pigged out on each other's food.  Boy, were all the dishes delectible.  Pam and I made cabbage rolls and now I want to get a crockpot so I can make it myself.  Some of the guys had bought fried chicken from BoJangles and Dunkin Donuts for dessert...haha.  Guys.  Halfway through the night, Chang brought his 1 year old twin girls over.  OMG...they are soo adorable.  Playing with kids is exhausting.  I was pooped when everyone left.  The weekend was too short, but I had a great time.  Good memories...good times.  Until next visit...Thank you Pam for housing me =).

The gals at Pho 98...their pho is gooood.                                                         The guys looking good.

The Nurse (Pam) and The Devil (Me)                                          The Pimp at work behind closed doors.  Oh baby.

Me, French Maid (Carmen), and Super Mario (Andrew)                              Check out that ring on the Pimp. 

One big happy family.  Dhiren's knee's were about to buckle from me sitting on it..haha.  Check out all the costumes .

Kim as GoGo from Kill Bill.... her outfit.                                 JP as 70's tennis player...he trimmed his fro.

Lunch with the Yeps.           It was tough to get those babies to look in the camera.  I wanted to pinch their cheeks cause they so cute.

Action shot.                                                                                       The food before going into our stomachs.

Quarter of a Century Old....

This day has come and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Turning the big 25 is not so bad.  I don't feel any different and it was just another reason to hang out with the girls.  We had dinner at Nobu 57, a place I wanted to eat at for a long time now and like usual, I got to the restaurant on time and saw Yalan and Julie arrive at the same time being very suspicious..hehe.  Apparently, they were trying to sneak in a bday cake as a surprise.  Turns out, Nobu charges $10 a head to serve the cake there so we had to think of somewhere else to go to eat cake.  My favorite 2 dishes were the sashimi salad and of course their famous miso black cod .  Sooo delicious.  The girls also ordered sake and I got a bit tipsy after dinner...hehe.  Towards the end of dinner, guess where we decide to go to eat cake?  Dun dun dun...Yalan comes up with the brilliant idea to go to the Mcdonald's across the street to eat the cake, ghetto-fabulous ATL style.  We order ice cream sundaes and fries and the manager gave us Big Mac boxes to use as plates..haha.  We take up the entire second floor with a view of 5th ave =).  The cake was beautiful and said Happy Birthday Poa Poa Lynn on it...haha.  Cake at Mcdonald's turned out to be a lot of fun.  The janitor cleaning kept looking at us and smiling, probably thinking dirty thoughts...seeing Asian girls dressed up at a Mcdonald's at 11pm at night.  After cake, we cabbed it to Comic Strip Live where we sat front and center.  The whole night, every comedian called us "the Asian girls".  Somehow, Japanese porn was a topic of one of the routines and the comedian kept saying how Asian girls were freaky in the bedroom.  I think everyone in the audience by the end of the night thought we were all freak nasty girls. 

Thank you Betsey for planning and setting everything up (tt was perfect), to Yalan and Julie for getting the pretty cake and to the rest of the gals for celebrating my old age with me.

Giving a thumbs up for the sashimi salad  .                 Stuffing my face with the yummy miso cod.

Yalan and I look so happy cause we cant wait to eat the cod...haha.              My token FOB pose.

Ladies night.        I need a new camera cause my pix r always blurry .  or is it just the person using it?

The sashimi salad                                 Rock shrimp tempura with ponzu sauce.  another delectible dish.

                                             The sub-par sushi (spicy tuna and house special)

Buttercup bakery red velvet bday cake                           Mcdonald's experience.

I Love Long Weekends...

Columbus day weekend was just not long enough.  Jenn came to visit from DC and road on the bus for 6 hours!  We had dinner at my new favorite restaurant, Megu.  It's on the expensive side, but well worth the money for the experience.  The 3 of us ordered king crab fried in a spicy sauce, real tofu from a man in Japan who makes them fresh, shrimp & lobster curry, 2 orders of Hennessy flamed Kobe Beef, and of course sushi!  The beef is my favorite...everyone should try it.  Saturday was dim-sum and shop-a-thon! 

Jen and her yummy Pomogranet Cosmo Drink.      Sorry, Jen, bad pic of u, but the only one I had

Real Tofu from Japan                                                  Hennessy Flamed Kobe Beef. Amazing...

I've been wanting to go to the David Letterman show for years now cause Im a huge fan.  A couple of months ago, I decide to try my luck and apply for tickets online and low and behold, I landed 2 tickets in the lottery.  I had to answer a Letterman show trivia question correctly before getting the tix, but considering I watch the show every night, I wasnt worried .  I answered correctly and luckily the taping we got was for Monday, a bank holiday.  So on Monday, we waited in line like everyone else and somehow, we were hand-selected to be in the VIP group!  At first, we didnt know what was going on, but we noticed that we were separated into a smaller group than the rest of the folks.  They finally announce to the smaller group that we were selected to sit in the first 2 rows .  I was super excited cause I  Dave!  Turns out, I got to sit in the first row right in the aisle seat closest to Paul Schaeffer's band.  The band played a concert for us before the show and one of the guitarist kept making eye contact with me (I guess cause he saw how excited I was) and he threw his guitar pick at me.  So now, not only am I sitting in the first row, I got a souvenior from a band member =).  Gets better though...the show people tell us that we were watching the taping of the Friday show (Friday shows are usually the best) and that the guests were Diddy (formerly known as P Diddy) and Neil Patrick Harris.  Diddy was in a smoking suit and his performance was amazing and I was sitting right in front of him the whole time!  Unfortunately, they wouldnt let us take pix =(.  So if you watch Friday, October 13th Letterman show, you'll see me sitting in the audience (im wearing pink/coral shirt).

Never eat vitamins on an empty stomach....

The other day, I didn't have time for lunch so I took a vitamin to get my daily nutrients in.  Literally 2 minutes after I swallowed the vitamin, I start to feel nautious and just as I start putting my head down at my desk, my manager walks by and says "Oh look! Lynn's taking a nap".  Im like...oh crap, she thinks im sleeping, but I didnt have enough energy to really talk or get up.  There just happened to by 2 other people in the aisle talking and witnessing this whole thing.  So I stay down for a few moments and finally lift my head and explain to them that I had just eaten a vitamin and they informed me that you should never take vitamins on an empty stomach .  Doh!  At this point, I'm afraid to get up cause I feel so sick so I attempt to instant message the a co-worker in the next cube to ask her to get food for me.  Just as I start to type, someone who heard about my incident (yes, news/gossip travels fast) helped me up and walked me to get food down the hall.  There were bagels in the lobby from the morning's town hall meeting.  After scarfing down 2 bagels, I was revitalized instantaneously.  Phew!

So boys and girls....there are 2 lessons to this story.  1.  Always read labels 2.  Never put your head down on your desk cause people will think you are sleeping, no matter how you feel.

Jen arrives tomorrow...yey!

There's always a first for everything...

It's been a while since I've played poker so this past weekend I decide to take a shot at playing in a tournament for the first time since the Borgata Open was taking place in Atlantic City.  I usually play cash games (limit), but I never play in tourneys.  On Saturday, I enter a single-table tournament for a $75 entry fee and my only goal was not to be the first one out..hehe.  The first place prize was 400 and second was 200.  With a table full of men and one other female, I knew the men would try to bully the females at this table, including myself so I decide to wait until I had a monster to make a move.  Long story short, I end up winning first place in my first tournament ever !  The guy who came in second kept saying to himself outloud "I cant believe I lost to a girl."  I had a lot of fun with the guys at the table and even went out drinking with the second place guy afterwards...my treat. 

Me with all the chips in the end.  I had to sneak this pic with my camera phone cause no pictures were allowed in the poker room....muhahahaa.

Another first for me...Being the big wuss that I am, I never got my ear pierced, despite the fact that I love how earrings can make an outfit that much better.  The pain was just too much to bear....that is, until now .  The more and more I thought about it, I decided just to suck it up and get it done before my 25th bday.  So, my friend Gin comes with me to Claire's for moral support and something to squeeze during the process.  I was glad that there were no little girls in the store cause it would have make me look even more of a pansy...little girls watching a 24 year old woman getting her ears pierced for the first time would be a bit embarassing.  The first hole didnt hurt at all, but the second one was a little painful....not bad at all.  The worst part about it is the maintenance/care you have to take after the piercing.  I can't even change earrings for 2-3 months =/.....no fun.  Thanks Gin for coming with me.  We even went to the gym right afterwards...hehe.  Pix of the piercing to come later...