Am I Vegan Now? And Eating Out June

Above is my animal rights coworker's necklace.  I was really amused so I took a picture.  But she has the last laugh now as my gastro problems keep increasing with age.  Can I not be a self proclaimed foodie and enjoy a healthy life?

I went to the doctor yesterday because the cramps were killer.  My frequent visits to the restroom come with terrible pain and the release wasn't satisfying.  What is wrong with me?  My doctor confirmed that the Taco Bell adventure immediately after my return from Indonesia was not a good idea and that I should stay on liquids for 24 hours and then ease myself back into American processed food using the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast.)

I knew I was not myself when I was looking at vegan options of gelato.  OMG.

Not fun - when I finally was able to eat today, I had Vegetarian Japanese Curry... arguing that it was on a bed of rice.  I'm always cheating.   Thankfully I'm still okay!

I do feel skinnier, but man I need my intestines to strengthen, NOT weaken.  But I have my lactaid pills from Costco ready!

In the mean time this is what I ate in June:

Manila Sunset - This is the Filipino bibingka - cheesey, coconutty dessert.  It was better the first time, but definitely try it out!  I really crave Filipino food except maybe adobo and tocino.... drool
Chaya Downtown LA - This pheasant was a part of their Summer Happy Hour and it was good but so $$$$.  And no one was here!  This joint is definitely for the weekday business person
Good Girl Dinette - Amazing Chicken pot pie.  Not Vietnamese food!
Coco Laurent DTLA - Terrible, dont go here
Starling Diner in Long Beach - Very saucy... i love saucy
Beverly Chicken - Excited for Mediterranean Chicken, but it just didn't meet expectations!  Others disagree, but I would make the treck to Zankou for something better!
Starling Diner in Long Beach - Met up with my family here, this place is so cute
Ktown City Center Food Court - There's a hidden food court that's pretty good and cheap!   I ordered from Terikiss, but I recommend the bimbinbap from its neighbor
Korean Hotdog - Dealth, but no worries - the place is closed down.  That sweet roll tho
Office - I used left over condiments from our burger bar to make guac.  Success!!
Korean Hotdog - So this place is closed down, but this was a bulgogi dog!  YUM!
BCD Tofu - Fried Dumpling was pretty good!  Especially when you're buzzed
Beer Belly - Grilled Cheese.  This was amazing!!!  The best white food in Ktown!

Off to Indonesia

Written on the plane:

I’ve prepared myself for large pockets of down time by bringing my work laptop on my Indonesia trip 2013!  Though I told my boss 7 month advanced, the LA office is scrambling because other folks will be missing at the same time. At points there will be an out of office that will link to another out office until the client is frustrated and cancel our relationship. Since I brought my work laptop, I can still help out and peak in on my 50 accounts.  But the main reason for bringing such an inconvenience is to catch up on blogging between flights.

I have a list of events that I want to blog, but noticed that a lot of events happened in 2012 – the opportunity is gone; the stories are stale - thankfully I can "publish" the entry appropriately on the date the event happened; like filing a document in the right spot.  Below is what I've added!

Exploring San Francisco
Ignia 2012 Christmas Party
Bay to Breakers Part 2

Opening Ceremony
Chinatown Summer Nights
Race LA - Scavenger Hunt

I was a bit frustrated with Jimmy – everything felt last minute to me.  The vacation day approval, the ticket purchase, the plan; I was getting antsy.  But everything is working out.  A shared google document has kept me organized and calm, but the document also revealed how insane I am.  There’s a tab of points of interest with star rankings based on my personal interest level.  There’s a to-bring list tab, finance tab and contact info tab.  I am not a lazy traveler.  I can’t be when it happens only once a year at such a high cost.

I am already thinking about next year:  Europe.  Visit my cousin in Switzerland?  Visit romantic points of interest.  That should be very expensive, but worth the adventure.

This is the plan for today:

Jakarta for 5 days – hang out with Jimmy’s family, check out malls and attend Jimmy’s brother’s wedding as a guest.

Bali for 5 days – Have eat pray love moments;  I have to admit that I actually don’t know what that means.  Enjoy one night at a beach side 5 star hotel, enjoy two nights near gay clubs in Seminyak and enjoy one night in the jungles by rice terraces in Ubud.  Hopefully I am awakened by the dew of the morning.

This is what we have to see:

Tanah Lot.  Monkey forrest. Lake Temple. Bali Joe. Rice Terrace

And the rest of the time will be spent in a pool.  Definitely different from our Asia trip last year where we squeezed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Beijing.

16 Hours later

The first leg of the flight wasn’t too bad.  Though Jimmy and I sat separately, I was able to get a solid 8 hours of sleep with the help of ear plugs.  My neighbors with this disgusting man that kept me awake with his banshee-like snores… though at some points I thought he was dying because it looked like he was gasping for air… yes, he was dying as well as transforming into a zombie from Walking Dead.  His morning breath laced the air.  I ran the service bell twice and pleaded for ear plugs.  To my rescue, I serviced 13 hours which included 2 fair meals.

The Taipei airport was fun – the themed waiting rooms gave us something to look at and Jimmy suggested that I force myself to use the restroom because we don’t know what the situation will be like in Jakarta at his cousin’s condo.  We’re going to squeeze and I’ll be sleeping on the floor.  After feeling well rested on the previous flight, I felt like I could sleep any where, but using a squat toilet was another questions.

I spent hours researching squat toilets.  It just doesn't make sense; I imagine pooping the back pocket of my pants, I think about falling in my own soil because I did not properly train myself growing up.  Do you take off your pants… does everything get wet?  I know squat pooping is good for you, but I couldn't figure out the mechanics even after watching a handful of youtube videos.  We shall see.

Taipei airport had free wi-fi, I took a glimpse at my work email and became anxious.  Shit is quickly hitting

the fan.  My poor backup has no historic knowledge of my 50 accounts and his task seems impossible.  I’m worried that I will be coming back to a disaster.  But I can’t think of that, I’m on vacation.

Most of the trip is planned except for transportation in Bali and the last hotel which we’ve decided will be in Kuta.  Hopefully something between 20-30 with breakfast, but without bed bugs.  We can plan that later, I should learn to take relaxed vacations.

Taking Care of ChuChu

There’s something about watching Jimmy interact with dogs that I like.  He voice gets high and he gets affectionate.  “You’re such a good dog!!”  I find it adorable. The other day Jimmy found his dog ChuChu limping in the yard.  It turned out to be an intense gash on the top of his paw.  We cleaned and bandaged ChuChu.  Jimmy feed him sausages because he was sad that ChuChu was hurt.  Check out that work!  I could be a doctor!

Maybe one day I can care for a pet.

We enjoyed suburbia for the rest of the day.

Jimmy has this great hiking trail by his parent's house.

Asian Glow - Blacklight - Some Stories

I bought 4 blacklight tubes, 4 black light bulbs, body art, highlighters, Red Bull, Tonic water and enough glow sticks to a light a stadium for a Glow party this past Saturday.  I probably spent at least $250 on various things while raiding my office's party pantry, but it did not go unnoticed.  Work drains me of creativity and it's through these ridiculous parties where I open my house to 50+ gaysians for an evening that I find happiness.

Me buying party decorations and photobooth props is equivalent to people who invest a lot on the lastest fashion.  The fashion that I'm wearing was a giraffe T turned workout shirt with large holes on the size to sexify my look during the party.  "Lick Me Now"  was written on my back with a highlighter in tasteful font.

As I shopped for these things I wondered... will I ever grow out of this?  As I drove from Michaels to Walmart to the Thai Costco in DTLA I thought to myself, "what is my obsession?"  It wasn't until Andrew surprised me with a giant barrel that he found off craiglist that he painted in neon yellow for his "Radioactive Photobooth" that I felt like I wasn't crazy.
, Folks didn't leave until 2:30AM when I turned on the lights and told them to get tacos.  The neighbors didn't complain because the music was soft which was fine since guests were too distracted by the glow to need music to lighten the awkwardness of house parties.

Below are my instagram photos.  I asked my friends to hashtag #321GLOW, but it was so dark.


Charles was our bartender.  The drinks glowed with Tonic water.


Here is Jason trying to Hula hoop.  More will be posted later.

There were party crashers who I promptly scolded.  I heard the murmurs of my friends, "Who are those people?"  I quickly investigated and in a drunken stupor I put my arms around the shoulders of two guys, "who do you know here??  well I'm the host, I live here, my name is Chris and usually when people enter my house they introduce themselves to me... I'll let that simmer."  My condescending voice echoed through the halls.  They quickly left after finishing the drinks that they had swiped from my kitchen.

I learned later that the friendliest one, the one guy in the group that was trying to interact with the party was dating my friend.  Oops.  I later paraded around the room declaring that "I don't invite white people to my parties."  The drunk me, is racist.  Regardless, folks agreed with me actions.  I learned that my friend once had things stolen by party crashers.  This group of six strangers were NOT in neon, were NOT talking to other people.. they were just awkward and in the corner which fueled my rage.

We usually make out with handles of alcohol, but not this time.  Only a case of beer and some wine was left.  The new faces that were invited drank everything.  There were points in the evening where I would put random liquids in the punch bowl only to find it gone within 10 minutes.

A sneak peak from Jimmy's camera. I asked folks to dress neon or in white so that people could mark each other with highlighters. Those lasers is are actually lines of yarn strung across the walls and help together with push pins.  I bought 6 packs of glow in the dark stars and butterflies.

And now we have a lot of glow things that we are thinking of selling as a party kit on Craigslist.  I'm almost certain that someone from USC will buy it.

Moonlight Hike - Los Angeles Hiking Group

Meetup.com unites strangers with common interests.  I recently went on the "TGIF Full Moon Night Hike...Griffith Park" which was a level 5 hike that resulted in a picnic on top and a glorious full moon.  I found a picture of us on the event page!

The group was very diverse, but we didn't make any friends that day.  We met at Griffith Park by the Merry Go Round  and started our 1.5 hour journey.

It was already getting magical.

The moon was visible so we took a quick shot.  Jimmy is a sweaty man.

The sun setting.  Now you can see the Hollywood sign.

Day and Night

We added our own moonlight using our iPhone flashlights.

Our new friend wished us a good night.

Bay Area - Catching Up

In mid July I took a pretty good bay trip to visit family and work.

I drove up with my cousin and visited my family.  Enjoy San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose.  The mexican joint there is terrible.

I reached out to San Jose friends and discovered a Night Market.  After having a large chicken cutlet, Japanese Hotdog and pork fries - really nothing special. They had ping pong!  

And then I found myself at the San Jose Obon Festival.  Finally participating in the dance and playing bingo!  The highlight was this nickel game.

I spent the next day catching up with Aaron while he got his picture taken for the NoH8 campaign.  We chilled in Hayes Valley which is my new favorite SF neighborhood.

Got dropped off in the Castro to congratulate Jon on his triathlon. 

Had a really good dinner with Joe at Perilla in Inner Sunset.  Really impressed with this place.

The main purpose of the trip was to take personality tests to strengthen our team at work.  The middle picture is the financial-like SF office that I felt was really dreary.  The bottom is the corporate office near Palo Alto.

Check out what this personality test had to say about me.  Wow.  I'm always impressed with this sort of stuff.  I'm a gold blue which means that I like making notes and creating lists and staying organized along with being a people person to put it simply.

That's all I remember from the trip, but I had a good time catching up.

Work Activities

Who am I to complain about work?

My stress level has been a bit high because I cover more accounts than I should slash want to.  And with that, more things slip through the cracks.  I'm not at my best and I hate that feeling.  I also made a small mistake by being too proactive over the weekend that cost me a little of my pay.  UGH UGH UGH. I used to work until 6PM and then work out to beat traffic.  But for the past two months I've just been working through the the allotted time and physical fitness motivation is thrown out the window.  I've essentially gained back the weight that I lost this year. 

But... I love it.  I love my coworkers and activities. They've become my friends and people who essentially care about each other... to an extent of course.  They're the straight friends that I've lost when I devoted all my time making gay friends because they "understood me better."  Straight friends that are comfortable around me and make me feel special because I'm the gay one in the group.  Straight friends that ask about my boyfriend and other personal questions that most people keep separate from work.  It's quite nice to find a home at a place you spend most of your time.

K1 Racing

I drive like your grandmother.  The case is proven when the workers at this racing venue held up "let them pass" sign when I drove by because I was blocking traffic.... just like real life!  Sorry I'm not flooring it.

I am the first place loser.  Though maybe that's best because someone got their hand crushed at a sharp corner.  The electric powered carts are dangerous at high speeds.

Del Mar Racing

I took a party bus to bet on horse races in San Diego.  Learned that you can win a lot by just picking the right horses to win, place etc. etc.  Someone won $200 after putting in $4.  I was more concentrated on the outfits.  Big floppy hats and mint juleps.  I'm glad I was able to make use of my $1.50 bow tie I got from Daiso.

My strategy for betting?  The gayest name like Glitter Ball and Galatic Spinner.... of course this wasn't the best strategy.  I quit after losing $4.  And they're off!

Postal Service Concert at The Greek LA

I never really enjoyed concerts, but got a chance to give it another shot with my coworkers during a team outing.  Pit tickets!?!  I reminded my boss that we were both quickly approaching 30 and needed seats.  But to my delight, being really close to the artist singing nostalgic songs is quite amazing.  I've been doing it wrong this entire time buying nose bleed seats - I might as well have watched the concert on TV.

And the 4 large beers helped as well. 

"...that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss, they're perfectly aligned."

It was magical.  

We got dirty dogs, street meat, bacon wrapped hotdogs in Echo Park.  My boss regretted that in the morning... I however felt satisfied.  Nothing like a midnight treat.