Sorry I haven't written in awhile...been pretty busy. Last weekend was such a blast. It started with a spontaneous trip up to Vancouver with my friend Jason so that we could catch the Jazz Festival. We started off Friday evening checking out an Afro-beat jazz musician, Tony Allen. He was amazing, great sound. Coincidentally, Joe & Sri went up to see the same show. The rest of the trip was fun, going to places I'd never been: brunch on Granville Island, strolling along Commercial Drive, visiting Kitsilano Beach and eating the most amazing meal at Bin 941.



Sunday, came back and stopped at Home Depot on the way back and picked myself up a Weber Q Portable Gas Grill. (Before y'all bash me for getting a gas grill over charcoal, it's because I'm not allowed to have charcoal grills up on the rooftop of my building so I have no choice but to get a gas grill) I'm very happy with my purchase as I was able to use it quite a bit for my 4th of July party that evening. What started out as a casual conversation with 2 friends about having some friends come over turned into quite a sizable party. It was great! We had fabulous views of both the Puget Sound and Lake Union fireworks and ate a lot of good food. I should have people come to BBQ up on my rooftop more often....



I'm actually staying home sick today. I'm not as horribly sick as I've gotten in the past..but with the weather being so up and down recently (Monday I was speedboating on the lake in my swimsuit, Tuesday I was wearing a sweater and swearing at the bitter cold), my body's panicking and trying to bring on a cold. So I decided to just stay home and rest it out so that I don't get any more sick.

My family ended up switching plans and eating at an interesting restaurant called Basta Pasta, a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant down on 17th--yeah, who would've guessed it? For example, Aaron had spaghetti with sea urchin sauce. The food was pretty tasty in the end.



As mentioned, we saw Aida on Saturday night and I ended up liking it more than I expected. One surprise was seeing Micky Dolenz performing in it. I kept expecting him to burst out in "Here we come...walkin' down the street...". The musical takes place in ancient Egypt times and is about a love story of a princess from Nubia who falls in love with the captain of the Pharaoh Army, enemies of her native country. The storyline itself was so-so---I was much more interested in the costume choices for the show. Much of the women's clothing had a slight contemporary look to it which I found different and interesting. If you're in New York, check it out--it's in its last run on Broadway!



Later in the night, I met up with Smithies again--Katie, Debbie & Li Mei--to go barhopping around the East Village. Met some new people and had an overall great time again.



Sunday was the day of the wedding---but first, of course, we had to check out the NYC Gay Pride Parade since it was literally a block away from the hotel. Do you know this parade lasts SIX hours in this city? Crazy! It was quite..ahem..entertaining...





The Chang-Wong wedding was oh so very chi-chi and very beautiful. It'll probably be the fanciest wedding I'll be attending all summer. The ceremony itself was simple and took place at a beautiful church on Park Avenue. Hester just looked amazing in her dress and the weather was perfect as we all exited the church.



The reception. First off, let me say, this'll probably be the only wedding I'll attend where the majority of guests wear one thing to the ceremony and another for the reception. I can see why. The reception itself took place at the fabulous Essex House Hotel across the street from Central Park. Most of the men had changed into tuxedos and the women into formal gowns. You can tell it's going to be a fancy reception when the h'ors d'eouvres in the beginning include items like foie gras w/cucumber and goat cheese & black olive mini quiche. At dinner, I found myself separated from my parents as I got placed at the big singles table (aptly named "Smoke's" after one of the big bars on the UPenn campus, where Hester & Mike went to undergrad---my parents weren't thrilled about being at a table named "Class of 1920"). Coincidentally, I sat next to a former Amazonian that I had heard so much about in the past few years, Ben Margoles. Anyhoo---dinner was absolutely delicious. We started off with shrimp & scallops in a puff pastry with beurre blanc, followed by an asparagus & arugula salad. Main course was a choice of striped bass fillet or a cut of veal. Dinner was a raspberry sorbet Baked Alaska, petits fours, chocolate covered strawberries AND the wedding cake. Yum! The whole event was rather upscale with a very good live jazzy-ish sort of band playing all evening. Quite a number of people danced, including my parents---it was my first time ever seeing my dad boogy down. He even asked me to slow dance! What a shock! Well, now I know what to expect whenever I get married... Congratulations Hester & Mike---I think your wedding was absolutely beautiful.

Took the red-eye flight out Thursday, arriving in the Big Apple early Friday morning. Arrived at the Carlton Hotel to not surprisingly find out that the room was not ready for check-in. Waiting for my parents to arrive and being all achy from spending the night on a plane, I took the subway down to Chinatown and got myself a $40 massage. That felt better. My parents arrived and we got sushi for lunch and then shopped around SoHo for a bit. In the evening, Debbie picked me up and we got some drinks at a bar called Le 26, soon joined by Katie, Kit & Debbie's boyfriend Saevar. We then headed out for a late dinner in the meat-packing district at a restaurant called Son Cubano where there was some live latin music. Quite the scene this place---I'd say the entire meat-packing district was a huge people-watching scene. I had the most scrumptious meal---lobster, scallops, shrimp, clams & mussels in a coconut sauce, accompanied by my favorite: maduros! Yum yum. After dinner, Gina showed up with her friend and we all danced for awhile. It was fun & interesting dancing with the girls again..it's been years!





Today, my mom & I attended Hester's bridal shower which was nice...now, I'm about to head out to visit Anna for the afternoon...and then my family's going to get dinner at a local Italian restaurant in the East Village I picked out called Evvia. Hope it's good---then, we're heading out to watch the musical Aida. Lots to do here!

I just had a really wonderful evening hanging out with LaToya...we just talked and talked and talked under this beautiful night (today was so nice and sunny). We started off with dinner down at the waterfront at Red Robin (yeeeeeeaaah), sitting right at the dock as the sun set...and then continued our conversation sipping wine up on my rooftop. It was awesome. I truly appreciate that she's continued our friendship despite my breakup with Brendan. I really got to know a lot more about her tonight--she's an awesome chick. Yay.



Lately, I've been surrounding myself with good conversation with various women here in Seattle. This last weekend, I traveled down to Portland with Sri, Supriya & Asayo to attend Jigna & Matt's wedding shower which was so much fun. We had great food and all sorts of interesting conversations. I really can't wait until Jigna's Bachelorette Weekend in Vancouver in a few weeks, which I've been trying to plan (the stress!). Nah--it hasn't been that bad...got the spa reservations and the hotel nailed down today, which takes care of a lot! Should be a really fabulous weekend.



I've got a fancy NYC wedding to go to in a week and I still don't have a good dress for it....ack. Been trying to locate all my NYC friends to hang out with while I'm there.



Going shopping with Pierre tomorrow--car, furniture and clothes. Hmm..what kind of car should I look into?



Have my last ever symphony with Fred tomorrow night--boo! We're celebrating in style at the Wild Ginger for dinner..thanks to Bruce! It's been an amazing two years of going to the symphony with Fred...just a chance for the two of us to find time to hang out and catch up with each other. I've known that kid forever. Well--he was like a kid when I first met him and he's grown into this incredible, smart, forward-thinking adult. I wish him the best in his next endeavors, which I am sure he will succeed in.

I had a really great weekend with my friend Willie visiting from San Francisco. We started off having the most amazing seafood dinner--copper river salmon of course--at Waterfront. The weather was perfect as we sipped our wine to a beautiful sunset and ended up talking for hours and hours. On Saturday, we headed off to a baseball game at Safeco to watch the Mariners vs. White Sox. In the evening, we watched a fun, silly Asian American play about love and relationships (aptly entitled sex in seattle) followed by a fun party at LaToya's to celebrate her birthday. Yay. I really miss having friends that have known me for so long surround me. It's amazing that Willie and I have stayed in touch all these years. I do wonder if we would have touched base as much if he were still in Beantown...sadly, probably not. I'm glad at least someone's out here on the West Coast with me.



Caught the last bit of the trilogy that I haven't seen yet at SIFF---Infernal Affairs II. I'd strangely seen #1 and #3 already but not this second one, which is a prequel to the first one. I liked it although it was definitely not as good as the second one. There was a lot more slow character development in this story, which was extremely fascinating given the context and outcome of the main characters shown in IA1. I don't think this movie would have been as interesting to see without having seen the first one--as Pierre attests (he was rather confused walking out of the movie!). Still, if you've seen the first, see the second..and then the third. The trilogy all make up a great good cop/bad cop story out of Hong Kong...with some amazing acting. Speaking of, that's probably why IA2 didn't seem as exciting--Tony Leung and Andy Lau are missing from it; rather, actors that play the younger versions of their characters are present...somewhat unemotional actors I must say who don't convey the amazing subtle feelings that Tony/Andy can in their facial expressions. Still, as I said, the character development is interesting..and there's still plenty of bloodshed.



I got 3 more invites on my gmail account. hmm..who to invite? I immediately sent one off to Sri who had wanted one. It's tempting to give it a try on Ebay where these accounts are selling anywhere from $0.01 to $100,000. Curious what I could get. I'd rather, really, just invite someone I know who will truly use and enjoy these services. Anyone?

ack, just got invited to a SEVENTH wedding this summer. at least this one's somewhat local.

another fun evening--Liz and I went to see the Yale Whiffenpoofs perform at Benaroya last night. yay a cappella. afterwards, we caught up over drinks and food at the Triple Door. It's interesting--we talked about what it meant to be a Smithie. For both of us, there was a sense of community, family, bonding and sisterhood. I just feel so comfortable around my Smith sisters. She and I could've talked for hours--it was great seeing her.