All Star Parade on 6th Ave.

Red carpet view from my floor. 44th floor. and view on the street level. just went around the corner to grab lunch and decided to catch a few mascots.


WALLY!!! THE GREEN GINAT! Though I work in NY, I still support my Red Sox. Mainly b/c H will dump me if I don't. =P and the Moooose... so cute!

oh the random things u run into @ NYC. nice parade. commute back home? not so nice.

Nyc current temp 85 degrees

Getting crisp

well, that was that. let's move on now..

Period intensifies every emotion. Let's just put it that way. I'm over it now. Thanks for all your concerns and caring comments. I appreciate it. It's so weird something, I feel like my blogger friends are the only ones who truly cares about me. How sad it is in today's world, we connect in the purest form through the internet. Thank you my friends. =)

This weekend is jam packed with action.

Sat. - POOL!!!! and tanning. and a bit of gym. hit the mall to return a few things and get hiking boots. At night, we've got a little show to attend in Bklyn, then raw food dinner (which reminds me I need to post about Pure Food and Wine, which is a raw food rest. we went a couple weeks ago. RAW in SATC is based on this rest.)

Sun. - Hiking!!! My first hike. So excited. Can't wait to get dirrty dirrty and make monkey love to H in the jungle. =D

Next week, I've got some interesting places to visit... H and I have been on a "body cleansing" ritual lately. Basically, it's just salad, fruit, and water for me during the week. We tend to do white meat as protein, but sometimes we can't resist a good steak salad. In light of keeping us healthy and me "bloat-free" (girl, a monster period does your body wonders. I gained 5 lbs and bloated as f*ck). We are going to get COLON HydroTherapyyyyy.... ohhh yeaa.... H's butt hole won't be a virgin anymore after Tuesday. tehehehe... I can't wait to get all that shit (literally) out of me! We will be happily report back how it felt with a garden hose shoved up in our arses. And hopefully this will end H's daily request for anal sex once and for all (sorry, TMI).

Also, I've made an appointment for a facial at Mario Badescu. I got their samples and thought they were ok. But the facial is only $65, for nyc standard, that is DIRTY CHEAP, cheap as hell! Many reviews I found online said their facial is great, but extraction was painful. Oh pls, my face is extraction pain proof. I've been getting my pimples popped since I was 12. I'm sure I can sustain the pain. I shall see how the final result is and let y'all know.

'Tis Friday and the weather looks fantastic for this weekend.. Ladies and gents, enjoy it while you can. Ciao~

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edit: I forgot to mention that I went to the MAC store on 5th ave to check out the Sonic View, etc. new releases. I'm never early on MAC collections, b/c there are so many good and much more informative reviews out there. But the "beauty blogger" in me pushed me on the NRW line and there I was...

I was not impressed with the Mineralized e/s. I thought some of the colors came out to be too glittery and chulky. The blue one had the most beautiful blue, but the silver/light blue that came with it was too light for me. So I skipped.

I could not stop swatching the Mineralized blush in Gentle. It's sooo fine and smooth. OH man.. how did I manage to walk out of MAC w/o it? The mini buffer brush is really soft and perfect for the blush. I'm surprised no one really talked about the brush, but then again, it ain't nothing new to us.

As you all know, I'm a MMU wearer. I'm willing to try all Mineral foundations (but some of the online ones seems sketchy, so I keep it to EDM mostly). I have the Mineral foundation natural in Medium already and love using it. I was thinking about picking up the medium dark since I've tanned quite a bit. Well, I wasn't really impressed with the shimmer and I really don't see the point of me using shimmer on my face when I like it matte with a sheen, not shine. Plus the Face brush it came with was weird to use. I don't know how that paddle shaped brush can evenly buff on mineral foundation. I could see that it's being used with the shimmer though, either way, it's unnecessary.

I'm gonna go to Nordstrom this wknd to check out the Color Forum collection and this time I will NOT end up with a pair of Gucci shoes that I didn't need.

if i don't pay attention to it, will it really just go away?

update: i slept 12 hours last night. literally, went home, changed into my pjs. ate a shit load of mapo tofu and rice. laid down to digest at 7:45pm, and didn't wake up until 1:30am, watched a little tv with H, went back to sleep at 2am and woke up at 8am this morning. refreshed? HELLZ YEAH! my body and mind goes out of wack whenever i'm on my period and it's like a big black hole that just sucks me in. makes me hate myself, doubt myself and I simply turn into a devil.

i'm not going to sit here and pretend everything's fine and danty when it is not. work is stressful. i'm always juggling 3-4 projects at the same time. i like to dismiss it saying i hate myself and i don't do shit at work. but the truth is, if i don't do it, no body will. my head's on the chopping block at all times. it'd be nice if i received a little bitty bit of appreciation from that short little vietnamese boss from hell. i guess big ego makes up for small ****. that SOB is so going to get it whenever i quit. i can't wait till my exit interview. from now on, i'm going to keep a journal of everything single little shit he does wrong. that mofo piece of shit.
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i don't want to close my eyes and pretend i don't see all the mess (sorta a chinese saying: if your eyes don't see it, your heart won't be stressed)

so i'm going to just list it out like i do my to-do list:

1) my grandmother, also my last living grandparent, passed away the weekend before the 4th. she had a blood vein popped in her brain, spent 10 days in ICU and decided to go back to her hometown, which is about 8 hour drive away, and died on the way.. my dad, mom, aunt and a cousin was with her. she was 84. i believe she lived a very good life and that she was with all the people who loved her when she passed away. I'm just sadden that I wasn't with her and the last time I saw her was May 2007. I didn't know about the news until my cousins IMed me on MSN. Prior to all these, when I knew she was in ICU, I thought, I'd definitely know if she passed away, b/c I will dream about her. I feel guilty that I didn't dream about her on the night she passed away. The past week, every night, I went to sleep thinking she'd coming and say good bye to me. I just needed that closure. She came, on Monday, in my dream, she said down by my dining table and said she's going to move in with me. Sounds scary, I know, but I felt so warm seeing her. I had no problem that she brought all of her luggage and was ready to move in. I just wanted to see her and that means she didin't forget about me.

2) I couldn't sleep very well for the past few days. I'm worried about my GMAT. I took it back in May and got 620. Not good enough for me nor the schools I want to apply to. So I decided to pick it up again after July 4th weekend. Still, I haven't started studying yet. I'm afraid. Scared of studying. B/c i'm scared of failing my own expectations. I hate myself for being so negative all the time. Thereby, stressed out.

3) One more person left my team. We went from being 7 to now 4 people left. Which means more work and no appreciation. What's even more annoying is that I will have to work with the VP (my "real" boss) directly now. I've mentioned before, he doens't like me. He really doesn't know my existence, even though we have only 4 people on the team. it's funny, b/c he talking to the AVP right now and I sit next to her. He's giving her 3 free tickets to see a play, he's asking the AVP and the 2 seniors. He didn't even bother asking me. It's so heart warming knowing your boss doesn't even know you are there. I guess I must be donig something really good for him to hate me so much.

stress, will never go away. all you can do is, acknowledge it and move on. so i say, hello stress, thanks for visiting, don't make yourself too comfortable, you'll be outta the door once i'm done with my period. =)

Weekend shopping therapy

The weekend before the 4th, we went to Short Hills just to walk around, I really didn't have to buy anything, just wanted to check out the sale at Nordstrom to see the MAC collections. But before we even made it to Nordstrom, I almost emptied my wallet... there were SALES everywhere! Chanel, Burberry, Fendi, and then there is Gucci....

$840 down to $339. A total savings of $501. say whaaaa....



I was told by the SA it's python leather, that's why there are little flakes, b/c the skin needs to breathe... hmmm... I don't know how much to believe her, but I did a little research on it. Gucci's last season's python skin wasn't meant to be a smooth texture to give that exotic look. However, the fall/winter seasons python is treated to be smoother.

I love these shoes for a few reasons. First, they fit like a glove. When do you ever see a size 6 1/2 on sale? last pair left in the entire Gucci group. yea booyyyy... Secondly, the color of gun metal grey is so my thing now. I have to many black and 1 pair of bronze. I've always loved metallic color for shoes, but they tend to be silver or yellow gold, which in my mind, looks tacky most of the time. I love the dark metallics and the CRYSTALLL... awww... the one piece of crystal in the middle is really sparkly. the picture doesn't do it justice. It's an understated spark, just enough to catch your eyes and not look like i'm wear a pair of disco balls. They'd look great at night! Thirdly, the heels aren't crazy high, like my last pair of jessica simpson's. I am not 18 no moe' and i refuse to get bonions from wearing them cute suicide shoes. I used to walk around in 4inch hooker heels like nothing. however, since my style has changed to the classier side *a sign of getting old*, I'm only drawn to comfy sexy heels. plus i'm making more so i can afford more comfortable shoes than chinese laundry. These are about 2 1/2 - 3 inches, which is perfect. and the way the front is designed, my toes arent slipping all over the place and causing unnecessary water bubbles.

Im going to bring them to a shoe repair and have them put protective sole on the bottom. cuz them babies' got leather soles, mama ain't got the heart to scratch them all up. ahhh.. my first pair of shoes that came with its own dust bag. it's funny that now i have such a distorted sense of value. while paying for the shoes, i thought it was $499, since the sticker at the bottom of the shoe only showed the $499 price. I was gong back and forth thinking "is it worth it? should i get it? will i regret it?" The SA was like "it's not returnable, so if u don't like it like that, don't get it. but i bet you anything though, them shoes look crazy hot on you. no matter what you got on rest of your body, but everybody will tell you that chu got some hot shoes on." I was biting on my AE starring at those babies, and then the SA next to her said, "it's $339, they just got another price cut today, see it's right here on the box" before he even finished the sentence, I shoved the AE in the SA's face "CHARGE IT NOW! SWIPE IT BEFORE ANYBODY COMING IN AND SEE THESE!" i swear, God just flew down and took a pen cross that $499 and wrote $339 on it. Someone answered my prayers!

Now i have a pair of shoes that cost more than most of my bags (except for the Prada Fair). I am on a designer brand roll, somebody pls stop me before I go broke. I could totally see myself living out of my car with all of my bags, shoes and make up.



Onto the not so heart stopping hauls. Went to Bloomingdale's to check out the new Prescriptive All Skin Mineral Foundation. They had a special going on, the Mineral Powder Brush was only $17 with the purchase of the Mineral foundation. Got myself the Issey Miyake (my all time fav) dew on a petal summer edition perfume and scored an orange bag, b/c seriously, I need another beach bag.



Spent some of my gift cert from Sephora on Shiseido stuff - Eyelash curler (my second one) and the Mascara base. Recently, I've found out Shiseido's eyelash curler fits my eyes better than the Shu one. So one for the office and one for home. And I rediscovered my T'Estimo treatment mascara base as my new HG in creating full lusicous lashes. Happy to report that the Shiseido Mascara base is pretty good and lives up to the hype.

Got a pair of Maui Jim polarized sunglasses. Actually H was looking for one in the store and I had to be nosy and try some too. that's how that $280 went down the drain. But omg, I totally get the difference between regular glasses and polarized ones now. You can really see the greens, yellows and reds through these glasses. So vibrant. great for driving and outdoors. I'm gonna wear these when I go hiking.

Oh and I bought another Puppy!!!!
lol. jk. that's daisy when she was 5 months old. found this picture and thought she looked like Garfield for a min. I remember this picture so well. She was laying on the coffee table taking a nap, and I was like "Daisy daisy, turn around, daisy!" and she's all like "Whaaatt... momm..." hahaha..

It's almost the end of Tuesday! That's means one more day closer to the WEEKEND! I got my monthly yesterday and it's sooo bad. Cramps, aches and mood swings. Got a little anxiety attack yesterday, but it's ok, i can control it. You know, it's just one of those days where you need to remind yourself what a wonderful life you are living and thankful for all the blessings you have in your life.

I joined the company softball team and went to our first game last night. Even though i've always been the kid that got picked last in dodge ball, I gathered my courage up and joined the intimidating white people game. I'm glad I did, b/c I had so much fun last night and our team WON! 12 - 6! You should have seen the other team, all tall and athletic, can't believe we beat them. Now I just need to practice on my batting on Wii. =)

i'm outtie

Ippudo - East Village NYC

We arrived at Ippudo after a 90 min Bikram Yoga in the Flatiron studio. Exhausted and hungry, we headed to Ippudo, which was 5 minutes away. I heard about Ippudo when I was reading up on Minca, which by the way is the WORST ramen place to go in NYC. A lot of people mentioned this place with its flavorful brother and nice ambience, I got even more curious when a friend of ours (another NYC foodie) raved about this place. Ok, now we really got to go see what it's all about. Can it measure up to the bestest rame we had in Tokyo? We shall find out..

9:30pm on a Tuesday night. Place was pretty full; we waitted about 20 mins at the bar admiring the hundreds of ramen bowls on the wall. The bar top is a glass case, inside is filled with dried instant ramen (the square), pretty cool huh? The bartender offered us some green tea mochi dessert, even though we didn't order a drink.


Assort appitizer - $20. a waste of money and apptite. don't even wanna talk about it. skip.
Akamaro ramen
the original recipe with *guess what* CHILI sauce. you know your girl can't live without spicy things, so I went straight for whatever had chili in it. The verdict? OMFG! I almost fainted with the first sip of the thick white broth. Life, after all, is worth living, if you eat a bowl of $13 ramen at Ippudo. I wanted to go to the show kitchen and kiss the man who made this broth. I'd totally kidnap him and just have him in my kitchen making toniku soup base for me ALL DAY! i think i just got a little wet thinking about it, my mouth that is. get your mind out of the gutter!

Shiomaru ramen
The pimp daddy OG original recipe. H had to try the "original" *eye rollin'.. boringggg....* but as it turned out, IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD! but this time I did not switch plate with him as I usually do whenever his food is better than mine. For one thing, the chili sauce on my dish is soo good, i can't let her go to another man who doesn't know how to appreicate SPICE. The pork, the noodle, the soup, everything is just perfect, down to the scallion. I truly believe I was in heaven for that 15 mins I made food love to my bowl Akamaro.
Miso ramen with every topping available
H is 265lbs, fyi, so a tiny bowl of ramen is not going to satisfy him, even though it costs $13. He liked this joint so much, he's determined to try EVERYTHING IN ONE SHOT, not allowing a second visit to taste the other goodies. In this misco ramen, the noodle is a bit thicker, brother is lighter, and the condiments (extras) are so freaking good. The pork belly, pork meat, mango/pepper salsa, tea egg and bamboo shoots made up for another $10 on top of the $13 for the bowl of ramen already. $23 for a ramen orgy in your mouth is worth every penny. Even the odd mango salsa was worth the $2. I asked H what's that teeny little piece of black things floating on the soup, he said it's called "wok shit" in Chinese. It's the left over grease from frying the pork and not washing the wok after each dish. Let me just say, they should have charged for the "wok shit" too, and that shit tasted GOOD! left over grease? hell yea, pile it up!


I was responsible for finish all the soup. If I could have gotten a container and take those to go, I would. But that'd just be too ghetto. So I resorted to just burp profusely in the car, just to throw up a little bit in my mouth and taste all that goodness again.

4th of July - Baltimore

Hi my lovlies, sorry for being MIA. We are heading down to Baltimore for some blue crabs for this long weekend. It's been a busy week, though I have a lot to update, I didn't get home until 10pm everynight. Bikram yoga, eatting the best ramen in NYC and meeting up friends for tapas. busy bee that I is.

I did some real damage last weekend at the Short Hills Mall. My trophies includes a pair of Gucci shoes!!! But your girl got $500 off on that, have I made you proud or what? =P I uploaded pics on Picasa and tried the "Blog This" function. Stupid thing only posted 4 pictures. Argh... so frustrating, I thought it'd be so freaking easy using Picasa to upload my pics, guess not. Back to the upload 5 at a time thing. so stupid..

anyways, I hope everyone will enjoy their long weekend! lay out by the pool, eat a whole lotta bbq or crabs in my case, and watch the fire works!!! woohoo to the US of the A!~