Photos from Seattle

Downtown Seattle - Clean and Cold!

Walking towards the Pike Place Market - Next to the port!

Cheese Shop is REALLY busy! People L-O-V-E their cheese!

Busy Beecher's Cheese - It's all handmade!

The First Starbucks - The Coffee Craze started here!

Inside Pike Place Market - Super crowded and exciting!

Another view of the market - Fish throwing guys said hi!

Gaudi's Tapas - Bacon wrapped dates, sweet and savory!

Paella for 2 - Clearly it's more than enough for 3 grown-ups!

2 Small Flans - Too sweet to finish by all, really!

Central Market - You can pick your own eggs and your own carton box!

Blue C Sushi again - This time at University Village! Yum!

Finally

The week's finally over. Now I can sleep late and not think or talk about work day in and day out, what a relief! CH came to pick me up, and I finally arrived at her super sweet home. For dinner she and Robert decided to take me to Bai Pai for some Thai food yumminess. It was pretty good, if a little fancy and salty. We came back and all watched X-Men 2 on DVD, which I brought. It's really not their typical film or taste, but I think they kind of enjoyed it, hahaha. Now we're just too tired from this very long week, and are preparing for bed. I think I definitely want to take it easy this weekend. Gonna try hard not to worry about work...

Not homesick yet

I'm extra tired today. We got to visit our client's office buildings in the morning and stay there for the rest of the day. We had both lunch and dinner with them, and by the end of the night I was exhausted. On the way back to the hotel, I was dozing off in the backseat. After I returned to my room I cleaned up and relaxed a little. Tomorrow I will need to check out, so I started sorting clothes and packing stuff. Some people are leaving on Friday, some on Saturday. I am staying for another week. I am not homesick yet, just tired.

Alone tonight

I got to spend the night alone today. After the meeting I went to the gym, came back to my room, and had dinner by myself at Beach Cafe. I had fish (sear salmon) tacos, they were delicious. My night was quiet and relaxing. Then I caught up with dad and some friends over the phone and Skype after the meal. Tomorrow the day is going to start early and end late again. I'm happy I get to have the night to myself before the last 2 busy days (w/ meetings) in Seattle.

Small gym to Big house

Today's meeting was not as intense. Still, there were times where I was feeling sleepy and fighting to stay awake. I was happy that I was able to squeeze in a little gym time by the end of the day. The little gym on the other side of the hotel was mostly efficient. There were some familiar machines, but none the familiar faces. In fact, there was no one when I walked in. I didn't spend a lot of time, I was on this machine, then that one, then back to this one, then that one, then I was on my way out. We were going to have dinner at someone's house by the lake. It was a big house, custom built for the owner. The view, although we couldn't see at night, was pretty vast and impressive from the inside. Its got heated hardwood floor and many levels. It made me wonder who these people were and why they lived in such a huge house. For dinner we had pizza's, and I played a little Taboo with some of the company folks. It was nice to get to know some of these people in a more relaxed, not all about work way. I got back shortly after 9 and did a little bit of work. Wrote Dave an email and took a shower. It was a good 2nd day here. Hope the rest of week turns out just as pleasant.

Stuck in the parking underground

The meeting today just was long. There were short breaks, but people just logged on and did work. Then we were back. Dinner was with the company folks too. So yea, it was a full day. The restaurant was a big restaurant again. El Gaucho was just spacious and grand. The food was good. The service was good too. But the parking situation was a joke. We were stuck in the parking underground and couldn't get out of the building after we finished dining. We were even requested to go back to the restaurant to get our tickets re-stamped, because the intercom lady claimed our validation was wrong! It was ridiculous. Finally someone walked out and swiped his parking attendant card to let us out. We were lucky we had a lot of cars with us and were all leaving at the same time. Otherwise, CH or I would probably have to get out of our car, go back to the already closed restaurant, and ended up paying freaking $15 for parking! What the...

Seattle I am here

The trip today was very smooth. Jose came to pick me up around 9:30 and we were at Long Beach Airport by 10:10 - Smaller airport = smaller crowd = shorter checking-in time = quicker entrance. I loved JetBlue's complimentary TV + first bag + snacks and drinks. It was just a very nice experience, except for the crying kid in the front, but there's not much you could do about that. Seattle's raining today, just like LA for the past several days. Dear sun where have you been? The wet and gloomy weather makes me sleepy. CH and Robert met me around 5 and came with water and Fuji apples (yay!)... They also gave me my birthday present: Sony Bloggie! Now I feel the pressure to make some seriously fun and cute videos hahaha. Thanks CH & Robert! We had our early dinner at Blue C Sushi in Bellevue - It was a modern, fresh and young sushi restaurant. Music was rocking indie, there was a video projection on the high rise wall, vibrant color-coded plates, lively graphics and mural, little anime figurines and drawings and toy robots here and there (on the belt train or in the display) - The food was good too! This was a truly multi-media restaurant experience. Later we grabbed some coffee (of course), and walked around the mall. Before they dropped me off we stopped by Cefiore frozen yogurt for some icy, tart treat. We were actually thinking about getting something from Cheesecake Factory for dessert, but we agreed fro-yo was lighter and more refreshing. I really spilled the beans on The Lovely Bones, which I didn't like very much. I might have said too much and gave away the movie completely, oops! I came back to the hotel room and chatted on Skype for a bit. I was tired, but happy. I hope I get a good night of sleep. It's going to be a long (but hopefully pleasant) week ahead.

Night ruiner

I've been seriously slacking off with blogging. Sigh. This week's just a mess. Tonight I was supposed to have a nice evening out, that didn't end up the way it should. I said a few things that hurt someone's feelings. Then I managed to say a few more. Then a few more. I was disappointed I wasn't getting what I thought I was going to get. I know, spoiled brat! It was just not a flattering thing to hear that I was a weirdo or acting weird. Or Asian places just had too many Asians. Not something I wanted to hear on a night that's supposed to be a belated birthday thing. Of course, I still had a wonderful time during dinner. Tony Roma's was fun, and I was able to talk, share, and learn. Daybreaker was an OK film. I didn't expect it to be kind of political and dramatic, a nice change from the typical vampire thriller flicks. Still, by the end of the evening, I was feeling, well not too special. And once I opened that floodgate there's no holding back. The feelings were hurt, the night was ruined, thanks to me! Sigh. Tomorrow begins another trip. I'll survive. Just a feeling a little down, that's all.

Raining. Messy.

I did not expect the rain when I came back to LA. Yesterday it was bad. Today it was worse. Soaking wet, freezing cold, totally sleepy and slightly depressing. Work was pretty rough. Why am I complaining? I'm tired. I do not have a solution to an unsolvable problem. It's true sometimes when you are in a dilemma only an outsider can provide some type of perspective. The only thing is that I don't know if I have that serious a problem. I probably do, I just don't know who to talk to, where to begin, how to get it out of my system. Sigh. It's not a big deal, it's just personal and maddening. I'm going to sleep it off tonight. I will find a way to get myself out of this.

Take off

Work was draining today. I was happy to get out of the house tonight. I did some shopping at Target, well, I got just one thing. Then I went to the bank. Finally I did gym before coming back home. It's been a hectic start of a year so far. Things are just moving quickly, going smoothly, and developing unexpectedly. It's such a difference from a year ago. Sometimes life just takes a while to take off, and sometimes it just flies. I'm still trying to see where all this is leading, and I can't wait to experience what's to come.

Badder Romance

Jose sent me this fan video and it killed me. I watched it several times and it just kept getting funnier and better. I laughed 'til I cried! No joke!



The original Bad Romance by Lady Gaga:

Purple

I went to Dave's last night and surprise! Regina and Anjelo also came by to eat with us. Dave made Thai food last night. Again it was very good and delicious. Anjelo brought a purple ube fudge from Philippines, it was mysterious looking but very yummy, sweet and complex. After they left we watched an episode of Top Chef, American Dad, and Family Guy. It was just another typical Wednesday night at Dave's. I received my ski goggle and T-Mobile prepaid card today. The goggle is so big! It literally covers my 2/3 of my face. Very funny ;P Watching the commercials for the new Google phone this week really makes me want to switch. I can't and I won't. I'm going to make sure this crappy Samsung phone gets enough usage before I retire it. For now, I will just watch and drool! Hahaha.

BBQ Ribs

The pork rib restaurant, Ham Ji Park, we went to last night was not bad. Yes it was super stinky when I stepped in, reminded me of Chinese stinky tofu. I never thought Korean cuisine could be that pungent too. The standout was their ribs and pork soup. However, it was the company that made the night great, not necessarily the food. Afterwards we went to Ice Kiss next door for some icy treats. It turned out this Korean ice dessert was also very Chinese-like. It was shaved ice with all kinds of stuff on top, syrup, banana, ice cream, etc. The weather was cold, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. I did feel tired and a little distracted though. I guess I was still adjusting to the life after the holidays. Ha!

I'll miss the holidays...

Time doesn't stop for anyone. The holidays are over! Sigh. I will miss you! New Year's Eve Thursday I went to Dave's again, then to Jen's to do the countdown with other friends. New Year's Day I was at home, went to the gym briefly, then home again to relax some more. Saturday I went to New Capital with PK and David for dim sum. We waited for half an hour to get in, there was a lot of people! We were lucky though, I got my ha-gao and David got his fried taro dumplings. At night we all went out to Silverlake for some drinks and hanging out. I had not done that in a long time, it made going out a lot more exciting. Today I woke up very early to see Avatar with Sylvia and her brother in the mall. We got the ticket and glass for IMAX 3D, it was awesome! I really liked the movie and thought it was better than I expected. Sometimes when a movie is so hyped and talked about, the movie itself can never live up to what you think it is, but in this case, it is just as good as I hoped. For lunch we went to Apo Apo, it was all looks and none the taste. Yea the place was clean and trendy, but their food overall was just bleh and unimpressive. The shaved ice was quite good though. And there was indeed a long line waiting to get in, so I supposed a lot of people did like it. Tonight we had a big group going to Hong Yei again, and we all overstuffed ourselves. It is very nice to end the holidays with friends I love. Even though we already ate a tone, we all decided to have frozen yogurt afterwards. I can never turn down an icy treat, and we all need some kind of dessert to end the holidays!