Don't Feel Like Writing

It's been about about three weeks since I last wrote (wow!) and I seem to come to the same conclusion every time a big time gap has passed: change is the only constant.

I won't write about the more personal events that happened but they are probably the more important changes that have occurred recently. Other than that, I've been hanging out with the usual crowd, dinners, coffee dates, movies, bumming, hotpot, beer pong, and any exciting Rochester events like the Summer Arts Festival or the public market. Went to buffalo one weekend to hang out with sisters-- Steph and Sayaka who flew in, as well as Miranda, Michelle, and myself. We went bar hopping a bit before we ended up SkyBar where Michelle & I went off to have our own little interesting night haha. 

I haven't been taking much pictures on my camera, which is very unlike me, but I guess when you're around people who regularly take photos as well, you aren't really motivated to capture another copy of what they already will post up. However, I have been using Brians DSLR camera--ahh I really want one for myself!

Looking ahead,

I want to finish sewing up some things I left on my table--like hemming some jeans that were too long or tailoring this dress that has unsatisfying ends. I also have to sew up some belt loop tears in my jeans haha (I always tug on them!)

I'm most likely heading down to the city for a super short visit this weekend! I'm insanely excited for it :)

A trip to Niagara Falls the weekend after!

Reading the many books on queue

Apply for some jobs in NYC so I can get out of Rochester ahh!!!

MC Fair & AT&T (Part 2 of 2)

In an attempt to update after so long, this is going to be a dual entry haha. This one is more about the random happenings in my life. 

Went out to the bar this weekend with Eugene, Michelle, Charles, and Brian and had a really awesome "life talk". We shared stories all night and it turned out so much better than I thought. I had a blast :) We decided to go eat dimsum together the next morning & see inception after that. Inception was mind bogglingly good. Definitely a must-see!

During the night, we went to the Monroe County Fair. It was exactly what I always dreamed it would be in a fair! There were tons of rides and haunted houses and house of mirrors--all that usual stuff. It was open from 5pm-11pm so we went around 8:30PM when the sun was setting. The sky was a gorgeous golden color that reigned over the many lights from the rides. It was just picture perfect. There was a pig race where they had little piglets race around a track and win oreos (haha!). They also had pigs race through a short stretch of pool water. It was so cute! Not only that but they had a floral competition as well as a competition for cows, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. It was like what I used to see on TV--animals getting blue ribbons and stuff! Eugene & I bought an unlimited band so we could ride on all the rides we possibly can. We pretty much ran around all night trying to take advantage of the unlimitedness. Some of the rides womped but others were RIDICULOUSLY good! Ended that night with a chai tea. Yum.

I also had the worst experience with customer service with AT&T. I spent hours on the phone with them just trying to renew my 2 year plan and adding an extra line. It pretty much went something like this. I asked for a rate discount and I was forwarded to customer care. Then he said he can't deal with it so he handed me off to another. Then another. Then after I got a rate discount, I was transferred to someone who would update my lines. However, my blackberry offer price for upgrade disappeared after my rate discount. So I got transferred to someone who was in charge of pricing. Then transferred to online department. Then transferred back to the customer care people who told me I needed to talk to the rate discount people. They were closed by then. I call the next morning and they told me there was nothing I could do--my offer was gone. I got pissed because they told me that if I called this one last number, they'd honor my price. So I demanded to speak to the supervisor who told me it can't be helped. I got pissed and kind of professionally yelled at him. Finally I got my blackberry at the offer price. This whole process took about 5 hours. Yea I know.

But my beautiful blackberry came! After four years of using an old dinosaur phone, I'm so amazed at how handy dandy these smart phones were! Although it's super expensive to keep one...

I can't think of anything else that has happened but it's been really fun so far!

Hobbies (Part 1 of 2)

Sometimes I feel like taking an interest in too many hobbies  prevents me from focusing and excelling in each one. I want to do so much but I never seem to find the time.

First off, I have the sewing hobby--something I really need more practice on. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the arts and right now it's definitely nowhere near acceptable in my personal standards. I bought some new fabrics and I really want to make something soon but I've been putting that off. I really need some inspiration.

I also was recently reminded of my love of drawing too. I'm not good at it, actually I'm terribly sub-par, but I really enjoy it so I wanted to start it up again. It takes a lot of practice to capture facial/body emotions and the still-action of a picture so I want to make some time to start drawing cartoons again. I also brought up my watercolors from home so that I can try out this new type of art. Again, I haven't gotten around to even opening the box or making a single drawing...

Photography is a brand new thing. Ever since I started using tumblr, I've been so impressed by the photography that people post up. I really wanted to get a dslr for myself and start taking pictures of everything! I have all these images in my head that I'd like to capture with a camera but it takes money to buy the equipment to capture images the way I want it too. I've been borrowing Brian's DSLR and taking pictures all over Rochester. It's been super fun but I am still extremely noob so I hope to learn more about it and take better pictures! Sadly, I can't invest in a DSLR until after the driving lessons...drivers license...car...then DSLR haha.

My all-time favorite hobby: reading. There are so many books I bought over summer but I haven't even touched yet.  I never buy books because I'm cheap but I don't know where the library is LOL Rush Rhees doesn't have much pleasure reading books. I tend to start books and leave them half way when I lose free time--so I have a lot of outstanding books. The awful part is that I always have to start from the beginning if it's been a while because I need to refresh my memory. I always read books when I'm sitting idly on a bus or train, which is how I get much of my reading done in NYC. But in Rochester, there's not much idle time so I can't sit down on my bed and just read. I'm too restless. I started the Asian American Dreams after I graduated and went home but only got halfway through before I went back to Rochester. Then I stopped reading it. When I went back down to NYC again for my birthday, I started reading Landburg's More Sex is Safer Sex...when I got back to Rochester, again I couldn't find time for it. So those two books are currently sitting sadly on my desk, collecting dust. Sadface.

Okay fine, I do have time, during evenings and weekends. But I fill that up with hanging out and going places--so there's never enough down time to just sit and do all of this stuff. I always tend to feel a bit guilty after going out because I never get any of this stuff done and it's just sitting in the back burner. Unfortunately all of the activities I listed above tend to occur in solitude and like I said, I'm too restless--I can't just do this alone and in silence. I like to move around, be around people, be super active. Help!

Rest of NYC

I’m currently on the Megabus on my way back to Rochester. The internet is hardly working so I’m trying to post this up when I get a spot of activity. I really needed something to do for 7 hours haha. So here is a recap of my week back in NYC after Virginia Beach.

The day after I came back was my birthday. I really hadn’t planned to do anything—I’m not a big fan of celebrating my birthday because the planning, inviting, and trying to make it all work out is quite exhausting when I just want to have a relaxing day. So I met up with Viv for coffee at this place at 71 Irving in manhattan. We had a long but insightful talk about everything and anything. These are the moments I really look back on as a perfect bonding experience. Then we met up with some friends for dinner at May’s Sushi Place at St.Marks since their food was cheap but delicious haha. After that we went next door to Maychan for $1 Sapporo’s. Then we went to Pinkberry for dessert. Most of my friends left after that but Viv & I stayed behind to crash the bars of St.marks. We bumped into some Rochester people and chilled in the bars with them the rest of the night. It was really fun seeing everyone, especially Steph, and drinking together Afterwards, Kelvin came to pick me & viv up to go home. I ended my night with a happy buzz :)

I met up with Christy the next day for a date J She bought an unlimited so we kinda went everywhere in Manhattan. We met up at Union Square and then went to eat at a Japanese Ramen Place in Alphabet city called Minca. It was delicious! Must go back there someday haha. Then we went to a coffee house called the Coffee Foundry? It was super edgy and contemporary. It was part bar and part coffee/tea house. We sat there and talked a long time before heading to Times Square for the new Forever21. She had to go after some shopping so I went to meet up friends at St. Marks again. I didn’t drink that night because I’ve been drinking a lot throughout vacation & birthday. Some drama went down between some friends but I hope everything will work out!

Friday I went with Sunny to Chinatown to get a haircut. They cut my hair much shorter than I had anticipated but it didn’t bother me much. It’s nice to have a change after all these years of long hair. I’m just sad I won’t be able to braid it for a long time especially since I just learned how to French braid and do the fishtail braid as well. Then went to eat at a Thai place with Sunny and his friend Antonio. After that, we went to AX to use up Antonio’s 75% off discounts since he was quitting the next day to work for Forever21. Then I went to meet up with Viv for an unsuccessful night at the bars (why so dead?!)

Saturday, my last day!! I went to dimsum with my friends and then we all went to target with my brother as well. We picked up dorm stuff for my bro and shopped at other places. I went home early with my brother for some family time before I leave Sunday. I watched some TVB with my mom and then they all chilled in my room for some of the night, playing cards while I packed. It was a good night…I’m going to really miss my family.

I’m excited that my brother is going to college in the fall (he’s all grown up, tears!) I feel happy that we’ve gotten closer now that we’re older because we were pretty much strangers our entire lives due to our 4 year age gap. It’s weird to see this protective/bigsister side of myself appear when I’m around him haha. I’m really going to miss Vivian too—it sucks being in Rochester without her because we do everything together L

On another note, I’m using Futureme.org to write myself an email that will be sent to me on my 28th birthday. So many expectations I have for myself at that point!!

It’s 4:50PM so there should be 2 more hours until I get to Rochester. I can’t wait to get offt his bus, my butt is sore and it’s crazy cold with the AC blasting!! The internet is awful L I can barely get online the entire time. On the bright side, I’m not sitting near loud nor smelly people, which makes my trip many times more pleasant J

Virginia Beach

I haven’t updated in a long time but I got tired of writing daily. I realize I’m not a writer; I’m more of a historian haha. I like to document my life and others by writing about my days and taking pictures of everyday happenings. This unfortunately results in uninteresting entries on my blog and photos that are far from artsy. But mostly it’s just for me to reflect back on later on life and let people who actually take the time to read my blog to keep up with what’s been going on in my life—that’s the reason I read my friends’ blogs as well.

My days in Rochester, in retrospect, remain a blur to me. It has definitely gotten less mundane since I haven’t been bumming at home after work like I used to. Brian’s been an awesome friend and driving me to places to hang out and sharing his talents with me (his cooking & his art). There’s a bunch of things we’re planning to do/go to this summer so I’m looking forward to it! I usually look forward to seeing my syzters (Miranda and Michelle) and currently I’m waiting for Michelle to get back from Boston so that we can see Despicable Me

My break back in NYC is always action-packed because my mentality is that these are the only few day’s I’ll be back in a “long” time so I have to take advantage of it every way I can. I went with Vivian, Dara, Jon, Jen, Brian, Anthony, and Annie to Virginia Beach on July 2-July 6. It was a good escape with people I love. We had 2 rooms at an oceanfront hotel at the Days Inn, complete with balconies that face the beautiful beach. The 4 guys shared one room and the 4 girls shared the other. We went drank every night and/or went to the bars. There was a massive amount of people around since it was the Fourth of July weekend.

We walked around the streets of Virginia beach a lot but there wasn’t a lot of good places to eat or see. It’s mostly mom and pop stores and other touristy shops. I’m guessing it’s hard to run any big businesses because when it’s NOT a holiday or vacation season, it’s pretty much deserted. When July 4th came and went, the streets were pretty bare.

So we went tanning at the beach and splashed in the water—which was much cleaner than anything in NY haha. Although the waves were pretty strong since it knocked me down and gave me a sand burn! The weather was amazing for the 4 days we were there. The girls also went tanning on the hotel balcony at some point while the guys went go-karting. I definitely got rid of my pastyness, yes!

There were so many ridiculous moments, which made the vacation fun for me. I went with the guys to the beach in the middle of the night when nobody was around. I tried to learn how to do cartwheels since I never was able to master it. Luckily I finally learned how! I also saw that they had trucks that cleaned the sands of Virginia beach—awesome ! we need to invest in some of these for NY for sure.

I don’t really want to write out all the details of the vacation because it’ll be a crapload of more stuff to read haha.

earthquakeeeeee

I've been super busy at work since we're wrapping up the Natural Helpers pilot project. We have our final dinner celebration on Monday so I've been working on the program for it all week. I've still got so much errands to run after Monday. I hate deadlines!

Wednesday (6/23): I was sitting in my office by myself just working on some stuff quietly when suddenly I felt everything around me tremble. It lasted about 5-10 seconds and immediately I looked around and wondered if it was an earthquake. But I shook that idea off quickly...earthquakes never hit NY, right? Wrong. I got some texts about the earthquake and then I went on facebook and saw that other people felt it too. Is it weird that everyone got so incredibly excited over a natural disaster? I was so over-the-top psyched about it because this kind of stuff never happens. Even though it occurred in Canada, that tremble was still something rare that mother nature doesn't bring over to the east coast. Pretty awesome!

Brian made some pho today and it was definitely different eating home-made pho but it was delicious! I had the crazy itis after eating it and passed out while watching the bachelor lol. Then we went to grab icecream at abbots but it was mosquito infested so we ended up at friendly's where we got two huge desserts that i ate the most of lol that's a lot of calories i wish to forget about :(

Anyways, looking forward to this weekend!!

Pseudo Jamaica haha

Since the weather was beautiful out today, we decided to have a make-up bbq for yesterday. Miranda came down to visit! It was really nice seeing her again :) Michelle, Miranda, and I laid on the grass in the shade and it felt really nice, kind of like a vacation, because the skies were so blue and the grass was so green and the weather was absolutely wonderful. The guys played ball and then we all ate the ghetto hotdogs and burgers haha. Viet took me on a driving lesson around the park (thanks!!) and then we all went to Brian & Dan's place to swim in their complex's pool. It was very refreshing but too bad it got cold very soon since the sun went away. It was nice though, I don't remember the last time I got into a pool lol. Dried off/sunbathed on the grass. It felt super nice. Then we dried off at Brians and went home because the guys were starting poker. Good day, felt so relaxing!

Little NYC

Finally had some taste of the NYC lifestyle in Rochester. 

Went out to TGIF Friday's for drinks with Farmer, Mike, Luna, and Brian. After that we went downtown to Tapas (177) for some of the "best martinis in town" haha. It was actually pretty cool because the atmosphere kind of reminded me of St.Marks all over again haha, although it definitely can't compare. There was a dj playing music downstairs and it was set up all chic and edgy. Had a "177 martini" and delicious garlic bread with olive oil dip. yum.

Drank at the bar for a while and watched these people dance to techno/trance and tried to figure out how people dance to this kind of music. It was just a lot of fist pumping and moving around lol. Observing only because I'm gonna go to the club One tonight to listen to Farmer DJ there and it'll be trance/techno and I'll have to learn to dance to that type of music haha. I miss my hiphop :(

Rained today (saturday) so BBQ and beach plans were canceled. Boo :( It's okay because we're watching Smashmouth tonight at East Ave & then head over to One. So good to take a break from work!

Natural Helpers

I started work last week and just started getting used to my tasks. I'm glad I worked here the past year as as student because I knew what kind of stuff we did so I was definitely more efficient. Cindy is the student worker and she's been really cool and helping me out with my tasks. 

I went to a Natural Helpers meeting with one of my bosses (Natural Helpers is a pilot project my boss is running. She seeks out natural helpers of the rochester community and holds these meetings to find out what motivates these people to help out and be leaders of their neighborhood. Most of these people come from drug-ridden and poor neighborhoods in Rochester.) It was incredibly inspiring to hear from these wonderful folks about the work they've done to drive out drug lords and clean up their streets. They've seen a lot throughout their life time and spend their life making their run down neighborhood into something safe and worth living in. I never felt that motivation in my neighborhood in NYC. In fact, I never even thought about having some sort of collaboration between all the residents to make it a better place for everyone to live in. Everyone just kind of does their own thing. I don't even know my neighbors really. But apparently in the meeting, the participants lived in areas where each block had a block leader and block clubs. The block committees meet weekly or bi-weekly to discuss what needs to be done and who needs help with what. It was really interesting to see this dynamic because I've never seen this kind of thing, at least not from where I've lived. They're like this collective family that works together and helps each other out--it's something I see as crucial in surviving in low-income neighborhoods that are always crime and drug-ridden. I'm really grateful for these people's efforts. Go natural helpers!

This weekend I went to the public market for the first time in Roc. Everything was pretty cheap and the food was fresh. I bought some pluots and random stuff like gum haha. I also got a pretty handkerchief dress. The best thing I got was these 800 thread count bed sheets for under 20 bucks. I'm so used to cheap 200 thread count ones because they cost around 20 bucks too so this was a steal! It felt soooo good and smooth on my bed. I don't think I can ever go back to 200 thread count lol!  I got a baby blue colored set and it had a satiny sheen to it because of the higher thread count. Must get more of this!

Had hot pot with a bunch of people. It was delicious! We bummed there from 5:30PM-2AM. We played this card game called Munchkins and watched a movie and some HIMYM. I hope the weather gets warmer so we can hit the beach soon!

Anyways, I'm really missing home. Talking to my friends back home just makes it worse because they're always going out and I wish I could be there! It's kind of boring in Rochester during the week. Nobody really goes out at night or does anything because they're busy or working super late. I have to find something to do soon! 

Beginning of Life in Roc

this past week has all been a blur to me. Came back up to Rochester on Sunday and spent the first two days unpacking and getting settled in. My room is pretty comfortable and homey so I'm happy in my new place. Hung out a few times with the Roc people and spent the rest of the time at home, bumming. I really need a car :( But went to the East End Festival this weekend, although we got rained out later on. It was pretty cool, there were these rock bands playing and tons of motorcycle gang members from the Warthogs. They all had matching leather vests with their state stitched on it. Everyone had a cup of beer in their hands and were just chilling like it was spring break in Rochester lol. Shopped with Ed this weekend and was quite fruitful (yes!). Had work orientation the past two days and it was honestly the longest, most torturous initiation into full-time work ever lol. It was from 8am-4pm and it was straight talking. I was pretty excited to get things rolling though--I've got health insurance, life insurance, and a pending retirement fund (lol how about that!) My legit (non-orientation) first day of work is tomorrow and I'm super excited!

Beach, and a little bit of everything in Manhattan

 the girls at manhattan beach

Wednesday: Planned to go to Manhattan Beach today because it's super hot out! Viv & I took the train/bus there, which felt like forever in the heat. Calvin was already there and Viv & I just tanned until Jon, Jen, and Alex came to join later on. They had a beach umbrella so we didn't melt under the hot sun haha. Then we talked and drew silly cartoons on Jen's sketchbook. We left the beach around 5-6PM and Jon drove us to eat pho at 86st. After that I went home to take a nice, cleansing shower. That night, Sunny walked his new doggie, Telly, over. It was super adorable and friendly! We talked for a few hours and then I went to bed.

my chicken cutlet @ Cafe Orlin

Thursday: Viv & I were supposed to watch Sex & City and then hop to Letters to Juliet but that didn't happen because I ended up being super late because my internet suddenly stopped working right before I had to leave my house. My mom and cousin were nagging me to fix it and I frantically tried to somehow make it work but failed anyways. We saw Sex & City at a later time and then walked to St.Marks for some food. Viv got kind of cold so she quickly bought a sweater at American Apparrel haha. We wandered around looking for a new place to try out but couldn't find anything other than Japanese Ramen places (which I love but must try new things!). So we ended up at Cafe Orlin (Mediterranean food) at Jimmy's suggestion. Unfortunately it suddenly started raining so after we ate, we just went home :(

playing with the military gear

Friday: Last day to hang out with Viv :'( We decided to go out for Fleet Week. We first went to Times Sq where we got to see and climb aboard a tank. There were a lot of people from the Army and the Navy all around. Viv even tried to do chin ups on this high bar, which was pretty impressive since she was so tiny. There was a bunch of stuff going on, like mini shows of push-ups, and equipment exhibitions. We then migrated towards the pier at 48th and 12th ave to the ship tours. They didnt allow drinks nor pepper spray so we both chugged our drinks and Viv stuffed her pepper spray down her pants LOL. We made it through the bag search & metal detectors though so it was all good. We went aboard to one of the fleets and it was HUGE. There were tons of tanks and other big vehicles on the bottom level. We took pics with some of them but there were lines so we kept moving. There was also a big equipment exhibition so we both took pics with guns and helmets and vests, etc. Pretty cool.

the navy band

We then made our way up to the deck where there were many types of military helicopters. We took some more pics and then tried to go over to the 2nd fleet, which had really colorful helicopters. Unfortunately, it was starting to close so we couldn't get in. We walked back to Times Sq for the Fleet Week concert. We didn't know what to expect and Jon met up with us, but the concert turned out to be awesome! The navy band did many covers of popular songs and everybody had a blast. Viv thought the drummer was cute and we ended up getting a photo with him, yes! 

Went to eat Korean at 32nd street after that. I love free side dishes :) But then I realized that my the little monster doll I had gotten with the seniors was gone. It hadn't fallen off my bag because the clip is also gone. I think someone stole it :'( Damn NYC hooligans. Went home after that.

congee village, yum!!

Saturday: Today was a super, super eventful day. Met up with Google in Chinatown and went to eat at Congee Village. So delicious, I gotta go back there!! Then I tried to get a haircut but the wait was too long so I didn't end up getting one. 

 what do you think?? he looks creepy here hahah!

So we walked down to St.Marks to get sunglasses. Tried on a few pairs and we both found ones that we liked.  At first the salesman said they were 10 each. We then said no way and he just dropped the price down to $6 each. Nice.

After that Google wanted to get some lobster rolls so we went to this little place to get some. After peeing at Starbucks, we decided to go see McGruber at the movie theatre. Didn't turn out to be such a good movie but it was alright. 

Then, we went to play pool. I sucked, of course, but I learned a lot! Practiced some shots and Google of course recorded me doing terribly :( 

We then went to Khyber Pass to smoke hookah for my first time :) We had the peach and mango mix flavor. It was pretty interesting. Took a little getting used to but eventually I think I got the hang of it.

Afterwards, we got Pomme Frites as promised. We had the Vietnamese Pineapple and something Mango sauce for dipping. It was sooo good. I must go back again. We ate at a random park and then snuck inside this church to try to find a place to pee, but no success. Went back to Khyber Pass and peed hahaha. 

some guy spittin out rhymes @ union sq

THEN went to Union Square to sit on the steps. There was actually a poetry slam/rap taping going on. People were giving their best lines and some were really good, others were ehhh. It was really entertaining and I'm definitely going to miss these kinds of night-life things in NYC. Other people were dancing, music was playing, and everyone was just chilling at 1AM in the morning on these steps. I never felt more alive in NYC then now.

Happy 22nd Vivian!

 chipotle

Today was my best friend Vivian's 22nd birthday! I met up with her in the morning and we went to Battery Park to go tanning (haha!). We were originally going to the beach today but it was going to be a lot hotter tomorrow so we decided to do a pre-tan today. (I'm way too pasty from being in Rochester so long). We stopped at Chipotle first because she's never had it and I wanted to eat it with her for her first time. NYC is such a rip-off compared to Rochester! They charged extra for guacamole. GUACAMOLE!. Not to mention they skimped on everything else. Damn, being a stereotypically cheap asian makes me care too much about this. We brought the food back to Battery park and ate it while we talked for a few hours. It was a really good bonding experience, I always like these heart to heart talks with biffle :) Afterwards, we had to leave because her birthday dinner was at 6ish. 

my bff <3

We went home, took a shower, met back up and got to her dinner super late. Turns out the restaurant she picked out was closed so we randomly walked around and ate at this bar/restaurant called Firefly. It wasn't too bad there, food was kind of pricey though but it was delicious. Calvin got her a forest cake, yum. I had second helpings but all that resulted in everyone calling me a cow for my "extra stomachs" lol because I somehow always make room for more food. 

at 1849

Afterwards, we went to 1849, which was a bar on Bleecker. Their Wednesday specials were $2 Coronas and $2 Jose Cuervo shots. So we got a bunch of that and chilled there a while. We left around midnight. Met up with Kelvin when I got back home and we talked in his car for an hour or so. It was really nice catching up with him because I'm leaving soon :(

Anyways, I still have a lot of errands to run so I need to set some time out for that before I leave. Also my mom wants to "hang out" before I go back to Rochester so I have to make time for that too. By the way, I caught a ride up with Victor so I canceled my Amtrak ticket. Phew! I hate traveling long distances alone.

Graduations, back in NYC

Crap. Trying to recall the past 13 days is going to be really hard...here goes nothing! Warning: Extremely long and terrible grammar ahead.

at luxe

Tuesday (5/11): Went to a senior night tonight even though it was raining outside. It was supposed to be a pub crawl but due to the rain, we didn't really go anywhere. We went to Luxe first and had a nice corner by the window but then we tried to walk to Colony. The line was long and wasn't moving so we walked back to Luxe lol. We liked that they had lollipops (ate so many that night!) and random board games on the tables. I actually bought no alcohol tonight, wasn't really in a drinking mood, and played the game Sorry with Ling haha. 

Senior Ball @ Radisson Hotel

Thursday (5/13): Got ready in the evening at Camille's room for Senior Ball. Camille did an awesome job on my hair--she made a poofed up french braid. She also did everyone else's hair haha. Everyone looked gorgeous! Thank goodness it had stopped raining and we were able to make it onto the bus. Got to the Radisson hotel where it was based and just chilled around til everyone got here. Bumped into many familar faces and took pictures with them. Ate as much food as possible and spent a good portion of the night on the dance floor or the table, sipping on the fruity drinks from the open bar haha. It was a great night, it really reminded me of prom!

 senior champagne toast. free champagne, yes!
Friday (5/14): Had graduation rehearsal today and senior champagne toast! We also went to Senior Brunch...free food all around! I ran a bunch of errands today and that was pretty much it, i believe.

took my family on a tour of campus

Saturday (5/15): My parents, bro, and Calvin, got in around 3PM and we took a tour of campus. Then we ate at Douglas with susana's clubs (thanks!). After that, went to Walmart to get some stuff. My brother ended up getting the most items haha. Then went to this performance by campus groups. The singing groups kinda sucked but it ended well. Finally went back to Riverview & slept. My parents slept in an empty bedroom and my bro slept on my floor. Calvin took the couch. I didn't sleep at all! I think because it was way too early (around 12:30AM) so i fidgeted around in my bed for hours and finally gave up around 6am and got out of bed.

the seniors minus ling :(

Sunday (5/16): Graduation day!! Thankfully there was a shuttle from riverview to campus :) While the families took seats at the Eastman Quad, all the graduates lined up on Wilson Quad. Stood in line with the graduating Sigmas and we processed to Eastman Quad. The ceremony was ridiculously boring but it was finally over. That wasn't the end though! I had two more major graduations to go to (damn double major!!!) but good thing there was a reception after each (that means free finger food!). Finally finished all the graduations around 4 and went back to Riverview to start loading stuff in the car and move it to my new place. It was crazy hectic but we left Rochester around 6:45PM and got home around 1 or 2AM.

my family & my aunts family at malaysian

Monday (5/17): Didn't do much most of the morning because I slept in but I met up with Andy later on in 8th avenue. Got the dumplings & wonton soup I've been craving for as well as Quickly's bubble tea. Played pool for a few hours before my dad picked me up for a family dinner to celebrate my graduation. Went to eat Malaysian :p

eating at Dave & busters
Tuesday (5/18): Went to Chinatown to meet up Simon, Dillion, Andy, and Susan. It was raining though so it definitely made it an obstacle to hang out. Simon, Dillion, Andy, and I went to eat at the tunnel and then met up with Susan at Dr.Lyons. There we chilled and played these difficult verbal games haha. After that I went to meet up with David Gao for pho. We talked for a long while before I left to meet up with Simon Andy and Susan and Dave & Busters. After chilling there for a while, we all went back to Simon's for an all-nighter haha. Simon and Dillion were busy working on some project so the rest of us just did random crap. Sometime around the crack of dawn, Dillion Andy and I started playing with this autotune thing on Andy's Ipad lol. We made so many rap songs and for some reason it was mad funny at that hour. We made one rap called Fiber and sent it out. Someone commented with "GG". pretty awesome hahaha.

chillin @ kenkas

Wednesday (5/19): Woke up at Simon's around 12-1PM and went to Baruch. I went to hang out with James when Andy met up with his buddies.  Afterwards, met up with Andy again with Danny Tjeong and Paul Kim. We stopped by the AT&T store cause my phone died and I needed to recharge it lol. Then did a little shopping before we headed off to St.Marks. I left the group to stop by Ale House to say hi to kevin lin and david park, as well as a lot of UR PDPSI alums. It was nice meeting them and I stuck around way longer than i was supposed to lol. Wandered around St.Marks to find my friends because my phone died and I found them at Kenkas haha. Drank some and went home.

kenkas

Thursday (5/20): Went to Dara's house and got sushi yummm. Sat around talking & watching TV with Jon Dara and Annie for a good part of the day before I left to Manhattan later that evening. Went to the Blind Tiger bar around West 4th to meet up with Solomon, Calvin, Brian Wong, and Jack. Then we went to Kenkas and drank some more. I somehow got sucked into a 7-shots-of-JD challenge for tomorrow. sigh.

k

kelly singing on the ghetto mic

Friday (5/21): Met up with Solomon, Calvin, Brian Wong, Jack, Kenny, and Kelly for pho at 8th ave. Then we all went to Kenny's for Rock band and drinking. Lol brian and Jack made the craziest, ghetto-est microphone (with socks and hangers and papers) and microphone stand (cardboard tubes, hangers, textbook, etc). I fulfilled my 7-JD-shot challenge woot!

Saturday (5/22): Didn't go out today, but instead took a personal day to do a cleansing of my room. It hasn't change sinced I graduated high school because then I left for college. I felt like I needed to go through everything and throw out stuff I didn't need or want anymore. So I spent the whole day doing just that. I ripped my room apart and put everything back in a more organized manner. I feel a lot cleaner haha. I have a few boxes of sentimental stuff. I don't think I can ever throw those away for a long time. I'm such a pack rat!! Vivian told me last minute that she wanted me to go to her graduation and that her mom, dad, and uncle were taking off 4AM so I got ready to go.

vivs graduating!

Sunday (5/23): Slept in the car the entire time. Got to Viv's campus around 9:30 and tried to find her. Her campus smelled like poop from the fertilizers lol. But otherwise it was very rural looking! and hilly haha. Found some seats in front of these obnoxious men in suits and listened to her commencement. It was definitely shorter and more to the point than my graduation haha. I'm glad it didn't rain today. We drove back to Viv's place, quickly loaded her stuff in the van, and drove back home.

Christy at Ippudo

 Dara, Jon, Viv, & I at Asian Pub

Monday (5/24): Went out to meet Christy although I was late :( I had to transfer three times...bus to the D to the N to the 6 -_-'' It was super annoying! Went to Ippudo for my first time and it was very edgy looking inside! The noodles were delicious :p Then we went to get some red mango. yum! We also started wandering from St.Marks to Union sq and stopped by some bakeries. Christy got some ice cream called Cereal and Milk at one of the bakeries. It seriously tasted like what it's called. Then we went to some stores at Union Sq and Viv met up with me. Christy left to take care of some stuff at home. Viv and I shopped a little bit before Dara and Jon met up with us. We then walked to the Asian Pub and got some drinks during their happy hour. Their drinks were SO STRONG. So worth the 3 bucks. I had the Asian ___ and a Lychee-tini haha. They had good chips and salsa as a complementary snack. After that we went to Menkui-tei for Japanese noodle. After that we went to Pinkberry and headed off to Continental. We then ended the night at the Ale house for their $1 for 6 wings deal. Left at midnight after saying happy birthday to Viv!

OMG FINALLY DONE RECALLING THE PAST 13 DAYS!! I'm never slacking again...or will I haha. I never learn my lessons :(

La-Tea-Da, Buffalo, Senior Nights

I've been putting off my updates all week but before I forget all of it, I think I should start writing now. Despite the fact that it's 4AM and I need my beauty sleep (haha!) for Senior Ball tomorrow, I need to do this!! Nobody should have to suffer reading this extremely long and detailed post so skip this!

Friday: I *tried* to wake up early to go to work around 9AM but I failed miserably and didn't get there until 11AM. I rushed to get my last minute things done since today was my last day of my student employment. There is a two-week gap between today and the day I start full-time so I wanted to make sure everything was in order. Around 12PM I ran back to campus to catch the Red-line bus to La-Tea-Da to celebrate Camille & Frances's birthday.

La-Tea-Da is this cute cafe for "tea parties". There are many differently themed rooms and they are all tea party-themed. It's super adorable because people of all ages go and they have fancy hats and other costume accessories to help their customers feel like they are in a childhood tea-party. They have scrumptious tea and sandwiches too! There was this one moment when I was waiting for the bathroom and I looked inside this small tea party room and I see an old woman on a wheelchair and on an oxygen tank. She was adorned with a fancy hat and a pretty boa and she was clutching a stuffed animal with one arm. Across from her was a little girl who also had on a too-big hat and fake pearls. The little girl pretended to serve tea to the old woman and they were just having such a picture-perfect time. It made me smile at the innocence and sincerity of it all.

our monsters!

Afterwards a few of us walked around Park Ave. It was drizzling the whole time but it was okay. We went into some shops but there wasn't much to buy. Christy & I tried to sneakily buy a present for Camille but it failed when the cashier blatantly handed the newly wrapped present box over to us while Camille came around lol. Still, we pretended nothing happened and we snuck in the signing of her birthday card through. All of us bought matching monster dolls too!! We walked to a cafe near Eastman called Spot and chilled there sipping coffee for a long time before we took a bus downtown to the bars. Met up with Porchea and we chilled at a bar all night and then back to Annabelle's house. When I got back home, Frances was having her birthday party in our suite still so hung around for a bit before sleeping.

Saturday: Had a good sleep over at Christy's because Frances's party dragged on a lot longer than I thought and I really needed sleep so I slept over at Christy's. We were going to walk over to campus quickly because we were already kind of late to catch the bus to Darien Lake. But when we were waiting for elevator, guess who we saw when the doors opened? Nina! She drove us to campus (THANKS!!) and we caught our bus with extra time to spare. So I made a mad dash to Connections to get some breakfast for us. Got to Darien Lake around noon and it was super cold and mildy drizzling. Most roller coaster rides were closed unfortunately so we rode on whatever was open (Mind Eraser, and some wooden one). Some other rides opened up later so we went on those too. We went on the Viper twice and they took the funny rollercoaster photos and Christy & I posed both times haha.

We stopped to get some fried dough but that was such an adventure. Since it was incredibly windy and rainy, the wind blew our plate over while we were trying to pay so the lady had to re-frost it. Then we snuck into random gift shops for shelter and pretended to look at their merchandise while eating our fried dough haha. But we ran out of places to take shelter and finished the rest of it under the awning of some arcade place. Bad idea, the wind blew whatever powdered sugar was left all over us haha. It was hilarious nevertheless.

We won a stuffed animal each...although we were the only two who were versing each other LOL. We were getting extremely cold and wet midway through the day and decided we could not continue. So we figured we could try to get the bus to leave early if we gathered enough people. We stopped to get a bucket of popcorn to pass time in case the bus wouldn't leave. The popcorn stand was having issues with their cash register so we ended up getting a free giant vat of popcorn, yay! Sadly, we downed the entire bucket within the first half hour or so. Good news was that one of the bus drivers offered to drive back early. We hopped on that bus and got back to ITS with the GLC bus waiting (THANK YOU!!) Went back to Christy's room, took a shower and we both snuggled under our respective covers trying to get warm after today's awful weather. Watched some movies/TV all night and ordered chinese food.

group pic in front of hummer limo

Then I randomly got picked up by Andy Poon to go to Buffalo tonight. He drove down and picked me up and went up to Buffalo. Got ready quickly and went to someone's house to pregame. They actually got a limo for the night to go to Club Pure! Felt like prom all over again :) It was a cool place, it was more awesome seeing old friends from Tech & meeting new friends. However, because it was Buffalo there was tons of drama happening by the end of the night haha.

Sunday: Woke up mid-afternoon and went to go eat Pho with Andy, Jia, and Sabrina. Their pho's are mad tiny! Haha, still good though. Went back and watched The Office before going back out later that night to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings with some buffalo people. Played this trivia game that I completely sucked in lol. We rock-paper-scissored the blazing hot wings but for the first time I did not lose and did not have to eat any of it! :D Went back to watch more Office (haha!) and had the cravings for chocolate milk so made Andy take me to Wegmans to get some. Got some random stuff but they did not have the Nesquick chocolate milk :( But it was okay because the next gas station had it and my cravings were very satisfied.

Monday:  Woke up late and went to eat some Korean at this ghetto place modeled after a Chinese take-out restaurant. Haha. Then Andy drove me back to Rochester (thanks!!) Right afterward I took a shower since it felt like forever since I had one. Left to go to Boulder Cafe to meet Ling, Christy, and Camille. We all chilled there til we got kicked out around 9PM. Their chocolate+coffee drink is always so delicious!! Went over to Camille's and had some girl's night-out sort of thing. We had a bunch of asian magazines to help us decide what sort of hairstyle & make-up to do for Senior Ball on Thursday. We experimented on some make-up styles and then did some facials. I walked back home afterwards.

Tuesday:  Went to pick up some packages ( I've been ordering a bunch of books and some of them finally came in!) and went to Ling's room to drop off my stuff and the alcohol I brought for tonight's senior night. Then went to hang out with Tommy's at Starbucks but it was closed early for this week so we were trying to decide what to do when I had that chocolate milk craving again. We walked to CVS (super super far!) but they didn't have any so I got some Starbucks Frappucino bottled drinks.

 tommy holding my bag haha

Then went to get Susana's ID so Camille & I could get dinner cause we were both poor haha. Susana was packing and told me she had to pay for storage since she will be studying abroad next semester. So I offered her to store some stuff at my new place so she didn't have to pay so much. After dinner with Camille & Christy, I helped Susana take her stuff to my place and went to Camille's room where we got ready for the Senior Night Pub Crawl. It was starting to rain so I caught a ride back to Riverview, grabbed my boots and went to Ling's and finish getting ready. We all head out to the bars.

Luxe

The first one we went to was called Luxe. It was nice and we had a really good seating arrangement. I couldn't find my credit card and suspected I left it on the bus to the bars so I checked every bus that looped back to the bars and finally found it on my 2nd try! Phew :) We left Luxe to check out Colony but it was too full to get in and it was raining so we went back to Luxe where we stayed at the rest of the night. Ling &I played the board game Sorry for a while (No idea why there were board games but believe it) Went home later on.

i look awful in his gear

Wednesday: Did nothing for most of the day. Made some kimchi fried rice in the morning and ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner haha. Hung out with John Foote later that night. We were watching HIMYM and Family Guy and played some drinking games with the Family Guy flashbacks haha. But then we got distracted when we started talking about stupid stuff lol. First we had to settle a long time debate about how we first started talking. He said that I messaged him about biology and I said I would never do such a thing to a stranger. So I checked my AIM logs and turns out HE WAS THE SKETCHBAG! He messaged me first for most of our conversations haha. Then I laughed at his murses and his love life and etc. Too bad our college years is coming to an end because we just realized that all those times we spoke we wanted to chill but both of us didn't want to get rejected so we never asked. Haha. 

Transitions

Went to work today and my bosses surprised me with a graduation gift. They wrote me really cute card and gave me a gift card. Then they showered me with compliments, which I felt compelled to reciprocate somehow lol. For some reason I'd feel guilty if I didn't say something back.

my bosses are awesome!

Speaking of compliments, I was just talking to Tommy yesterday about how I used to be (and sometimes nowadays) terrible with accepting compliments. Most people would just say, "thank you" to a compliment. But not for me. I start getting nervous, bashful, and quickly rack my brain for something to compliment them back with--which totally comes off as awkward. It's like I couldn't just take compliments for free, I wanted to do something back. For example, once this stranger complimented on my hair and instead of JUST saying thanks, I said, "thanks...your...glasses...are nice.." and we both knew that was a lie. She gave me a weird look and then went on to do her own stuff. Then I mentally slapped myself for being an awkward turtle. Nowadays, I'm a lot less awkward but I'm always acutely aware of my controlled thank-you's. I need help lol.

Anyways, so today I did a lot of transitioning into my future full-time position in the office. I actually held that position for a week temporarily in between the time period when the last person retired and Katie was hired. I remembered how to do a bunch of tasks so I hopped on that. It was nice sitting at a big desk with my big chair har har. The chair feels kind of uncomfortably large though--I had to keep pushing myself back. 

Afterwards I went to the place where I'll be renting from when I start my full-time job. I changed the room that I originally signed in for. I won't be staying in the guestroom to wait for my bedroom to clear out. Instead, I'll be taking a different bedroom that'll be clear once I'm going to move in. That saves me the hassle of having to move my stuff around so much. One highlight is that some dude my age will be moving in as well--so it's not all going to be old people! So far it'll be me, this older woman professor, this man professor, and that dude my age. I met the man professor today--he was really nice! He offered to help me move in my stuff and told me that he'd be shopping for groceries every week so I can join him.  

Then I went to Starbucks where I joined people still studying for their finals (Thanh, WaiLing, Trissha). I left the table to go to the next corner table and webcammed with Viv for a while. Ling then stopped by for a study break and we chatted/surfed the net for a good amount of time. Then we both left and I went home. Now it's 3AM and like the other day, I don't know how time flew :(

Another Day

Went to work as usual. After work Tommy came to have dinner with me at URMC. Then we ended up chatting for a long time and went to Starbucks to talk some more lol. Good times. Feels so good to be able to sit for hours and not feel like you're wasting you time when you could be doing some homework or studying.

Nothing

Monday was very uneventful. Most people have their finals this Wednesday and Thursday so the pressure's on. I figured I should not go to campus and distract people from their studying as I have been doing this past week haha. So after work, I went straight home and somehow miraculously blew many hours away doing absolutely nothing. Watched a bunch of things online and then talked on the phone until I fell asleep. 

Time passes by so fast when you are doing random nothingness. You look at the clock and wonder what in the world you just spent the last 7 hours doing. I seriously don't even know.

R100KV

So the game plan didn't go exactly as planned...

Spent way more time being distracted and way less time "studying". For the final take-home exam due Wednesday, I didn't start writing my 6 page essay until 2 hours before it was due. I realize just how efficient I could be if I really put my mind to it because I completed my paper exactly as those two hours ended. Whereas I was spending countless hours trying to work on it the day before but got nothing done really. If only I can bust out that sort of adrenaline-time-sensitive-paper-writing any time I want.

But I guess the more important thing I want to say is that I'm done!! After I exited class on Wednesday, I walked out with a smile on my face (hopefully nobody saw) and declared that the final step out of my undergraduate career. It felt like sweet, sweet, victory--just as I had imagined.

So then started the process of finding random stuff to do to waste time. 

Wednesday night after that final class, I went over to Ling's to do a facial (haha my first!). We drank a beer and just talked about random things. It was nice.  Went over to her place again on Thursday after work and we watched some stuff at her house and went to starbucks for the rest of the night just to chat. Yea, I'm excellent at distracting people from their studies haha. 

Saturday was more uneventful. Woke up early with Frances to go see Priscilla who came to Rochester to visit. Then went back home but on the way, Frances and I were stopped by this random old man.

The conversation kind of went like this:

Him: So you ladies are oriental...did you know this place used to be occupied by native americans? if you have time please read the sign (and he reiterates this like three more times)

Us: ok...

Him: I know I'm an older man and you are young ladies and this might seem suspicious with me talking to you but I assure you that there is nothing to worry about....

Us: ok....

I'm a poet...can I read you a haiku? (and he actually recites this two to three versed haiku lol I only remember one line "Her wings were like dawn")

Then he said bye and left. Talk about random lol.

Sunday: Today was the Raising 100,000 Voices event. This is the event that my office has been working on for the past semester. It finally came together today, very smoothly. It was a red-carpet theme and all the kids had made movies about the Rochester community and are showing them today at the Dryden theater. Some of our sisters volunteered to be paparazzi lol. There was a large garden area adjacent to the theatre that we used to showcase their posters and other works besides the film. A good number of people showed up, including some senator. Cool stuff. After the event ended, went to Gleason and ordered chinese food with the group of friends studying here. Then went to see Frances's piano recital and came back to gleason. Currently bumming in a cubicle full of studying folks and I'm trying to figure out how to waste time on Phong's computer...lol ;)

---edit---

fell asleep while watching family guy on Lynna's computer. Then waited for Ling & Christy to get back from off-campus. Picked up a few videos at the multimedia center and then went to starbucks. Chatted for quite a while and Camille had to leave to do her group project. Ling, Christy, and I bummed some more until it was near midnight. We picked up the birthday cake from CLC and then stood around trying to pass time. After the minutes slowly inched by, we were on the move. First we checked her room and she wasn't there. So we snuck over to Gilbert where she said she was doing her group project. Surprised her with the cake but sadly she had to continue her project! So hopefully she had a wonderful bday--happy birthday biggie!! <3

Almost There...

about to take the second to last final forever....that i barely had time to study for...wish me luck, lots of it, please :(

edit (10:19PM)--I actually think I did okay on my exam, fortunately. Phew! One take home exam to go and  I'm free! Currently in Starbucks trying to skim through these books in order to answer my exam question ahh!

edit (2:25AM)--Tiny bit of progress, but I'm not sweatin it. All nighter tonight? no problem! I feel super giddy that it's all going to be over tomorrow! 

Game Plan Countdown to the very last day of Undergraduate life

Hopefully this will  be my last post until the last day of school (Wednesday the 28th!) because I definitely need to get down to business. I'm currently sitting in Periodicals (yea, I haven't been here in a long time because I was chillaxing at Starbucks unproductively--so now you know I'm getting serious!). I just realized what lies ahead of me after tonight...time to make a game plan.

Tomorrow (Friday) after class I'm not going in for work. Instead I will use that time to study for my Econ exam. I have the PDPSI banquet that night and I'm really excited for it so there goes an entire evening of studying time :(

Saturday is D-DAY aka the biggest Drinking Day of the entire year, especially for seniors as this is their last Dday. This already means this day is automatically crossed out for any attempt to study. There's going to be live concerts and all this carnival-y stuff. Not to mention the insane amount of booze that will enter my system continuously thoughout the day. Damn. Everyone's gonna be going INSANE!

Sunday I'm gonna attempt to wake up early (hoping there's no trace of a hangover) and study the entire day HARDCORE style until our Chapter meeting in the afternoon. Then back to studying. This calls for an all nighter that has been long overdue.

Monday I have my ASL written final exam. After that's over, go to work, then class until 7:30, then find some time in the measely hours of the night to study. Sigh.

Tuesday I have my Econ final in the afternoon. I must must must ace this final. After that, get to my take-home medical anthropology final that's due Wednesday. Must pull a long essay out of my ass from the books I never finished.

Wednesday: hand in the damn take-home exam and leap free from the bounds of undergraduate life forever and run & frolick on the sweet, sweet grass of my new found freedom of post-graduate adulthood. WOOHOO!!

let's re-evaluate after Wednesday and see how well my plan worked, shall we? :)

Cool Hwip

hehe my professor says her "wh-" words with extra emphasis on the "h". I am too aware of it because of that episode of Family Guy when Stewie does that..."cool hwip". Can't help but chuckle deep inside haha :)

CollaborAsian, Buffalo, Same Old

Crap, I have a lot to recap...let's see if I can remember half of it haha.

                                       our girls about to stroll during Nightmarket Showcase          CollaborAsian afterparty

Friday: We had the Nightmarket Showcase as part of CollaborAsian today. Many of the Asian cultural groups had booths for fun activities such as kite-making, pie-a-Pi, henna tattoos, and ours was origami folding. The multicultural Greeks strolled and other cultural groups put on performances throughout the night. Good job to our syzters for making that new stroll :) Afterwards, we had Chapter & elections that carried on til almost midnight. Then some of us hit the CollaborAsian after party that was upstairs in my dorm building. It was a good ending to a long day!

the travelers and the birthday boy

Saturday: Ended up going to Eastview again with Camille & Ling. Didn't get my dress but did end up with random clothes. Went to Buffalo that night (thanks Jenny!) to surprise Andy for his birthday--Susan & Simon were already there from NYC so it was really awesome seeing them again. Andy's friends and us all went bar hopping that night. It was a really fun night--I don't know what happened near the end though, I drank wayy too much for sure haha. But I made it back alive and so did the birthday boy. 

oreo blizzard

Sunday: Went to Panera Bread for Brunch (ugh the tired feeling of the morning after drinking) and then to mini-golf. I won the 2nd round, yes! Then went to the Dairy Queen for my first time to get icecream :D Watched a movie in Andy's room and then he was super nice enough to drive me back down to Rochester (thanks!!) 

Missy was the cutest puppy i've ever played with!!

Monday: class, work, class. My retired secretary brought in her brand new Havanese puppy! It was the cutest thing in the world!! Then met up with my ASL partner to practice our presentation for Wednesday. Then just bummed in Starbucks and did some hw. Bought the book 1000 Awesome Things :) Can't wait til it arrives!

Tuesday: work work work. Went to the gym and failed big time. I couldn't do a full half hour for some reason. My stomach felt really full--I probably shouldn't have eaten so much before the gym lol. Then met up with ASL partner one last time to practice. Sat with Susana and Thanh in starbucks and did some hw.