VB & NYC Trip - Rest of the trip Round-up

Early Monday morning, we drove back to Virginia Beach. The drive was relatively smooth and quick. I swear the 6 hours flew by, which could seemingly be a metaphor for the rest of my trip. The rest of my trip seem to fly by.

Monday night, I went out with my brother Nate and his friends to 757 restaurant and bar. It was his friend Brandon's birthday. We watched the game, while I tried not to fall asleep from exhaustion...

Jeremy about to demolish the entire plate. My brother Nate looks on.


The free sushi.. Nothing to write home about, but how can I complain about free?


Patron shots for the Birthday Boy!
Brandon aka Birthday Boy, Nate, and Jeremy

Tuesday
I took Auntie Lilly shopping. Because we were in such a frenzied state, I have no photos. Shopping with her is almost as good as shopping with my mom. Auntie Lilly came away with a ton of deals. I am curious as to how she will get all of those things back to the Philippines. I thankfully restrained myself. I bought some earrings and a gift for my cousin's daughter. That's it. For those that know me, that's shocking.

Later that evening, I met up with Aja whom I haven't seen since I moved to L.A. She was the last person I photographed in studio. Back then, she was a feisty lingerie salesperson at Nordstrom. Now, she's equally feisty, but now she's a big boss at Auto Trader publications. {Cue Ne-yo's "Miss Independent"} Add she bought her first home and her first puppy and she's really doing well for herself. I went over to meet her puppy Silas who is 3 months old and check out her new house. Silas is a Yorkshire Terrier. I am the first to admit that I am not usually a fan of small dogs. Silas makes the Exception List along with my friend Ali's dog, Princeton. Here are some shots of Aja and Silas.

Silas sports the new sweater I bought him


Aja and her little man


Silas admires his reflection. He can rock a sweater like no other.

Wednesday
I met with some old college friends, Neleh and Shane, for lunch. I met them at their house before we headed off to lunch. Being the animal lover that I am, I popped off a few shots of their dogs and new kitten.

Adobi


Mao-Mao...Government Name: Sadie


Pixel

I am a horrible friend because I neglected to take photos of the people that own the house! We did have mouth-watering feast at Surf Rider. I love Southern-fried Seafood deliciousness. The food was so good that all conversation ceased once the food arrived. Up until then, we were catching up and talking shop about photography.

I finished up the evening by watching trying to watch Wall-E with my nephews. I kept getting called to help my mom pick a new computer. From what I saw of the movie, it looked cute.

As you can see, the rest of my trip was much more low-key than the first half. I enjoyed the slower pace of my hometown and reveled in the cold weather. It was cold, but not too cold. I actually got to wear a coat and boats! Laugh all you want, but I hadn't worn either articles of clothing in nearly 2 years. It was the perfect trip.

VB & NYC Trip - Day 5 - Family Bonding

Short fluffy teaser alert...

Sunday was the only day that my relatives in the New York Metropolitan area were free. Without getting into too deep the intricacies of my family tree, I'll just say everyone at lunch was a relative through my maternal grandma. Since all our social gatherings revolved around food, we all decided to meet at Junior's in Time Square.

Auntie Lilly


Mom, Cousin Louise, and Louise's husband John - photo by Auntie Lilly


Cousins Rhed, MaBelle, and Me - photo by Auntie Lilly


Louise's Kids - Joseph, Mary, and John with my nephew Franky - photo by Auntie Lilly


An Early Birthday Surprise for My Mom


Reuben Sandwich


World Famous Junior's Cheesecake

After lunch, we split up. My mom, Franky, my cousin and her family decided to head back to New Jersey. My Auntie Lilly, Rhed, Mabelle, and I headed over to American Museum of Natural History... also known as the museum featured in "Night at the Musuem".

Rhed, MaBelle, & Auntie Lilly

Me & MaBelle - photo by Auntie Lilly

My cute, but poor footwear choice... more on that later.

VB & NYC Trip - Day 4 - Art on the Brain

Here are some teasers for the day. I'll do full posts when I return home. Here's more unedited pics. Here's a day at the MOMA.

People gazing at a Jackson Pollock mural

Aunt Lilly and a Picasso

Mom trying to appreciate Modern Art

Boccioni Sculpture and Painting

My Melody Sculpture at Lever House

Getting Cozy with Hello Kitty

47th Street

Mom on Park Avenue

VB & NYC Trip - Day 3 - Sensory Overload

I've spent all day walking around. It's been sensory overload. Ground Zero... Wall Street.... Century 21...Chinatown... Rockefeller Center... Harlem. So.much.to.process. As a contrast to yesterday, here are few pics. They are completely raw and unedited out of my camera. No cropping. No photoshop. Enjoy.

I took multitudes of photos. There are more to come. We're off to MOMA and a Broadway Show tomorrow.

VB & NYC trip - day 2 - Welcome to NJ

Highlights
-Got an iPhone. (Big YAY)
- Making an attempt at mobile blogging
- Drove to New Jersey in my Mom's brand new RAV4. It drives beautifully in the rain.
- Staying with very hospitable relatives

Negatives
- Took all day to get luggage. First, the airlines didn't know where my bag was. Then, they took all day to deliver my bag.
- Delayed luggage = delayed departure for NJ
Instead of leaving at 10am, we left at 5pm.
- Had to drive in rain and fog which made the trip take longer.
- Blogwriter lite doesn't allow for photos. This will feel like a naked post without photos:(

Tomorrow is our first day on the city. This should be fun. I'd better get some rest.

VB & NYC Trip - Day 1 - In Transit

I spent most of today in transit. This is my least favorite about cross-country travel. One leg of the trip was from L.A. to Chicago. That flight lasted 4 hours with a fair amount of turbulence. Thankfully, I sleep like a baby on anything that moves. So, I was able to cope. I think I was even drooling and snoring at one point. My apologies from the cool man from Bakersfield that was sitting beside me. I had a short layover in Chicago, which allowed me to buy a mini Chicago style pizza.

{Insert Photo of Pizza here}

Who knew O'hare offered decent food? Aside from more turbulence, my flight to VA was without incident. I slept so soundly again that I missed the beverage service.

I should have known my luck would run out. When I arrived in VA, I discovered my luggage didn't not leave Chicago. Ugh. Supposedly, they will put it on the first flight out from Chicago and will deliver it to my parents' house. I actually paid to bring this bag and they lose it. WTF? I hope this doesn't ruin our schedule for NYC. We're supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon. If my bag doesn't show up in a timely manner, the angry Asian inside of me is going to show up and yell at United. Meanwhile, if anyone sees a bag resembling the one shown below, please send it my way. For an added dimension of wackiness, my brother took me directly from the airport to Best Buy.

Why? He wanted me to stand in line with him for a World of Warcraft expansion pack. It was being released and sold at midnight. My bro is one of those nerds. He'd kill me for calling him that. He goes through his obsessive gamer phases. He doesn't look the part or act super geeky all the time. After all, there's only so much I can take. I also have my nerdy tendencies, but the fools standing in line behind us take the cake. I haven't seen so many nerds in one place since I worked computer tech support. All I have to say is some of these folks need to invest in some soap and deodorant. I know gaming takes over people's lives and whatnot, but darn... basic personal hygiene should not take a back seat.

I froze my butt off for an hour and half. My bro owes me BIG TIME. He got his game. I'm officially exhausted. Little does my bro know that I'm going to hit him up for a favor tomorrow... Muhahahhahaha.

Packing my bags

I'm taking a short trip out of town. This East Coast girl is headed home for a little over a week. It's my mom's birthday. Add that one of my favorite aunts will be in town as well and I have the makings of a good trip. An extra bonus is my grandma will be giving family history lessons, which we plan to film and edit.

I will be flying into here....

Virginia Beach

...and spending a few days here.

New York City

I haven't been to NYC since I was 6. So, I'm really looking forward to it. We plan to see a few museums and watch a Broadway show. I can't wait. It'll be a nice change of pace.

The Adventures of Others

I had an uneventful weekend, which is much appreciated. I did nothing of interest except nurse a migraine and work on some design projects. The next couple of weeks are going to be hectic. I have a trip to back East, a couple of design projects brewing, a wedding to attend, and Thanksgiving. I am going to be completely exhausted by the time New Year's rolls around.

While I worked, Rob, Kevin, Lu, and the dogs undertook a 10 mile hike from Mt. Markham in the Angeles National Forest. Here are some pics .

Kevin, Lu, Rob, Piper and Dottie at the beginning of their hike

Dottie and Piper are ready to go


Dottie finds some shade with Rob's hat - photo by Rob

Piper is pumped

Not a road cyclist

Once upon a time, I was over-eager girlfriend who wanted to impress my very athletic boyfriend with my willingness to try new things. Then boyfriend-now husband is an avid road cyclist. I bought a road bike. Prior to that, I had mountain biked and even owned a mountain bike. I foolishly thought that the transition between the two types of cycling would be no big deal. Um... yeah. I was wrong about that BIG TIME. Between the aggressive body positioning, the speed of the bike, driver hatred of cyclists and general clumsiness, I quickly realized that this was not for me.

Flash-forward 4 years. Amazing road bike sits in our living room. Because I spent so much money buying it, I felt guilty about getting rid of it. I keep thinking maybe, just maybe I'll come back to it. Meanwhile, Rob has been maintaining it and secretly hoping that I'll try again. No such luck. I hate to admit defeat, but I have finally come to my senses. I'm selling the bike. Someone else can get better use of it and we can get some space back in our living room.

So, if anyone has a friend that wants to move from doing just spin classes to riding outside or someone who is just getting into triathlons, please pass along the info for my bike. I know this a shameless plug, but it's my blog and this is as good a method as any to put it out there that I'm trying to sell my bike.

Here are some pretty photos of my bike.

2004 Giant OCR 3 Women's Road Bike - XS- SOLD!!

Here's all the technical info on the bike.

• Light blue Women's XS size frame - 43cm
• upgraded saddle - Body Geometry by Specialized
• frame Extra-light ALUXX butted aluminum, Compact Road Design, Integrated Forged Headtube
• fork Aluminum Tapered, 1 1/8"
• derailleur Front: Shimano Sora, Rear: Shimano Sora
• derailleurshifters Shimano Sora,STI, 8 speed
• cranks TruVativ Touro, 30/42/52T
• pedals Steel w/resin body
• handlebar Alloy anatomic
• stem Giant adjustable, alloy A-head
• headset Integrated 1 1/8"
• brakes Tektro Dual Pivot
• levers Shimano Sora
• seatpost Alloy micro adjust, 27.2
• rims Alex, 32H, doublewall, black
• hubs Alloy 32H, QR, cassette
• tires Michelin Dynamic, 700x 25c
• cassette SRAM PG850 12- 26T, 8 speed
• spokes Stainless Steel, 14G

If anyone is interested, email me for price.

BTW, I did list it through Craigslist. I just want to cover all my bases;)

A Historical Day

When I arrived at my polling place, I was immediately greeted by this image.

I entered here.

I waited 5 minutes and voted here.

...and was one of the millions that voted for this result.

I would love to wax poetic on the election results, but I can't. I'm just taking it all in. In L.A. County, we had 82% voter turnout. Angelenos really wanted to be heard. I watched Barack Obama's speech and was moved. Let's pray that it's not just words and that this really is the beginning of positive change.

It goes without saying

As a Filipino American woman, I will be exercising my right to vote. I've done my research and have my voter cheat sheet ready. There are quite a few propositions on the California ballot and I want to make sure that I keep them all straight. My immigrant parents instilled a sense of civic responsibility early on... much to their dismay. My political leanings are radically different from theirs. Although we disagree, we respect the process. They will be voting in what is considered a swing state. Let's hope that state swings in my candidate's favor;)



For those in L.A., if you need extra incentive to vote, go to these places for some great freebies and discounts for showing your "I Voted" sticker.

Halloween

Rob was working on actual Halloween eve. So, we searched for alternative plans. We were invited to watch Lucent Dossier at Bar Sinister. Lucent Dossier is a Vaudeville Cirque. Think Cirque du Soleil only smaller scale, intimate performances.

Bar Sinister is Goth, Industrial club in Hollywood. Factor in Halloween and Hollywood and finding the right thing to wear was a bit off-putting. Initially, I asked Rob to help me find something to wear. He had been there before. So, he supposedly had a better idea of what to wear. This is what he came up with...

....a Goth naughty nurse outfit. Uh.. that's a "no". This getup is as cheap looking in person as it looks in the picture. I won't even share a photo of me in it because I look like a stripper for a Medical Convention in Vegas. I quickly vetoed this outfit. Thankfully, this outfit cost as cheap as it looks. So, it wasn't that big of an investment.

As an alternative, I decided to go for a pinup/burlesque performer look. I figured I'd showcase just enough skin to be salacious. I wore bustier top, pencil cut skirt, and red platform peep toes that matched my lipstick.

Rob took the easy route and wore a dark suit.

It was an evening that was definitely outside of our norm. The costumes that people wore were all over the map. You had french vampires, naughty nurses (or whatever you can think of), Sith lords, Ozzy Osborne, Angels, Devils, and Darth Vader. Of course, there were those in goth and fetish wear. Despite all of what can be considered peculiar, there was a refreshing lack of pretense or judgement. The cirque performances were amazing... from what I can remember. I thought that I only had 3 cosmos. Apparently, Rob bought me quite a few more drinks that I recalled. My actual drink total was 6 or 7! So, I had a REALLY good time. Of course, I was paying for it today. Did we have a good time? Absolutely? Would we go again? Ask me once my hangover subsides.