Drunk During the Day

It was my first time going to Las Vegas as an adult for Ern's birthday.  Every time I go to Vegas, it's been with family or a friend's family so I'd always be on my best behavior.  Never have I experienced Vegas as it was meant to be - a playground for Adults.

Ern's bday was celebrated at the Wicked Spoon buffet where we stuffed ourselves and enjoyed bottomless champagne for 3 hours immediately when we arrived from our roadtrip.

We explored out hotel and took model pictures... of course.

We spent the entire day lounging at the pool, buzzing from the buffet.  Sam, somehow gashed his face in the pool when he tried to do a flip or something.  Blood everywhere.  We were a flock of sassafras gaysians frolicking around.  At one point we positioned ourselves in the pool to represent a map of Asia based on our ethnicity.  We had all of East and South East Asia covered!

As we sunbathed, I realized once again what it means to be on vacation: enjoying the time spent.

Back in our hotel room, we created a bar with the alcohol that we brought.  Vegas hotels should really provide ice chests to prevent damage to their sinks and tubs.  There was a lot of Patron and Sweet Tea vodka was the alcohol of the weekend.

We took a nap until 11PM.  Showered and headed out to Crave which was very eh.   I had to drop about 30 dollars round trip in a taxi because I forgot my ID which was a huge buzz kill.  All I wanted to do was relive that pool.

This was a highlight for 2011.  I loved it so much.  The traffic back to LA was a reality check.

Prom on a Boat!

It was nice to dress up.  People went all out in 80's prom outfits.  I stuck with just a homecoming look and a "sash" made from streamer paper.

Took some preprom photos

Group photo

The guys

They gave away these sunglasses which I ended up losing by the end of the night.

The night was a little messy.  Found myself pigging out and spilling hot chicken wings all over my coworker's girlfriend's car.  "I was a massacre!"  is how I described it to people when I was dropped off.  I texted my coworker immediately, but he chose not to tell the girlfriend until the day after when she started to spell the vinegar.

This is always a good event.  Better than last year.

Work Celebration

Back in July we had a large Korean dinner to celebrate our hard work.  Lots of soju. Lots of cheers-ing.  I was amused watching higher ups loosen up.

We went back to the office to sober up... but ended up planking in the boardroom. 

There you go.  One and only planking moment.

We'll Take You to Amazing Places

It's been a while since someone visited me, but when folks do I think we do a good job at showing them around town.

I took my cousins downtown to watch a Grand Performance.  In the middle of sky scrappers is this auditorium.  During the summer there are free shows that vary from Spoken word, musical performance, dance, theatre etc.  We watch a dance performance by Diavolo and Noruz.
 

After was Daikokuya.  The deconstructed ramen has become my favorite.

Karaoke followed at Max studios.  The night ended with My Heart Will Go On.

The day after was spent at the Lotus Festival.  The last Lotus Festival before they shut down the entire Echo Park Lake to drain and landscape for 2 years.  *Sad Face*

The thing about one of my cousins is that she's from Switzerland and that means she loves to shop because American clothing is so cheap.  It was such a bad idea to take her to Melrose street.  We basically walked the entire area spending at least 40 minutes in each store.  Sort of wanted to die.  But not before this dance break in the middle of the street.  This food truck hand an awesome DJ spinning Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the 80s.

Though it was easy to entertain my cousin because she was obessed with all things Japanese.  Luckily, we live next to Little Tokyo and headed back there for her to spurge on J-things.

Wurstküche dinner.

 A handful of folks know that Royal T is a great tea place with an amazing art gallery.  Not many know how amazing their brunch menu is.  These mini sliders were amazing and the soba salad my cousin ordered was perfect.  This is what I mean by Hidden LA.  There's your famous burger joints and ramen, but those places make you wait in long lines because of its popularity.  I refuse to wait in lines when there are amazing places everywhere.

 An LA trip would not be complete without a beach!

My cousin also agreed (enthusiastically) to be a model for Jimmy.  Check it out:

Anime
Menuet
Sonatine

Come visit me!  We'll take you to amazing places. 

White Water Rapids of DEATH

Alysia and I have made it a tradition to go back to the bay for an annual river rafting trip every 4th of July weekend.  This year I was excited to bring Jimmy along!

2010 River Rafting.

We are lucky that Alysia's Dad co-owns a raft so that the only cost to us is gas.  It was perfect - Jimmy loves the out doors, we can take a little vacation away from Los Angeles, it was going to be a perfect weekend.

As we approached the rapids we soon realized that it was a little rockier than usual. With me as the captain we went head first into a huge rock throwing Jimmy and his friend overboard! 

While trying to get them back in, the rapids kept coming swallowing them whole.  We managed to save them, but lost a paddle.  This put a damper on the rest of the ride down the river.  To add to this, more rapids were coming.  The second rapid that tore through are raft manage to fill the entire boat with water.  Thankfully it was self-bailing.  We pulled over to catch our breath and witnessed two more rafts that had been completely flipped and a man drifting passed yelling "help!"  We didn't know what to do.

The waters seemed calm that day, but it was indeed rough.

Before all the crazy happened, we took a nice lunch break.  Check out my boyscout knot.

The water was cool.

Alysia admitted that the rapids were scarier than usual.  When we went home she discovered that the usual Class 3 rapids were classified at Class 4 that day meaning we should have worn helmets.  I'm thankful Jimmy didn't drown or hit his head or giant rocks.  Seriously.

The trip took a lot out of me.  I'm thinking of retiring this annual tradition, but we'll see what 2012 looks like.

Reliving College

It's quite common for me to hear folks say that "last night was like college all over again."  Like "college" is always the point of comparison when you go out drinking.  I guess it's a common point of referenceand everyone understands what you are talking about when you reference it.  Anyway, the other night in San Francisco was like college all over again...

But when I was in college, I didn't go to places like Double Dutch because I was barely 21.

...but college did consist of hanging out with these crazy Japanese Americans.  Oh look, drunk clubbing pictures. 

I enjoyed the straight venue for the music and was entirely entertained by the SF Mission creepsters.  What makes them unique?  They have mustaches, creepsters with mustaches that kept prowling on my petite JA friends.

I'm a creepster with a mustache too!

 Love this nonsense.

It was an unsuspected gather of old friends!  I label this picture - obligatory group photo with bombers in the back.

College came and left that night and we had a good time.

East Bay Visit

Sorry for the influx of entries.  I'm still trying to catch up! 
Back in July, we visited the East Bay.  We stayed with Huan, Charles, JonJon.

They prepared a guest table with a ton of accommodations such as popcorn, tea, blankets, stuffed animals, gum, shampoo, etc. So cute!

 We had some O-town Dim Sum in Chinatown.  NOM NOM NOM.

We checked out Lake Merritt and tried to reenact the Britney Spear's Sometimes music video.

Charles took us to a hidden spot with an amazing view at the Mountain View Cemetery in North Oakland.  I originally wanted to take Jimmy to the Berkeley hills at night because of how romantic it is to see the bay area lit up, but didn't get a chance.  Another time lover cakes.