The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 24
 

You guys!!!  It's cooold now. Not just chilly, but brrrrr.  Last night, hubby and I went out to have dinner with some friends and then after that we got some coffee and walked around and at one point we were cracking up because the wind was blowing in our direction and it was literally trying to rip our faces off!  It's like, we didn't know what to do, but laugh.  We're afraid at what's to come this winter. 

During times when we don't have visitors, we like to try out new New York things.  I've always wanted to take the L train over to Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn so Hubby took me one night.  We loved that area and were actually trying to go to a restaraunt we kept hearing about, but skipped it due to a 2 hour wait.  Instead we found a sushi restaurant where rolls costs about $4-$6!!!  The sushi wasn't the best, but with prices like that... it was delish!

After dinner... feeling satisfied, we headed to a bar called Lolita.  When we got back to Manhattan we Dan hailed a cab to get us there faster.  Subways don't run as often as night and by midnight, the wait could take a while for a train to come.  So off we go!

Here we are at Lolita.

Also, when we don't have visitors... the Roomies would try to go out and try a restaurant we've been wanting to try.  On this particular night we ate at a sushi place called Hane only a few blocks from our apartment. 
Gray Day!
  

Before the super coldness hit we took a trip out to Long Beach in Long Island about two weeks ago.  To get there we had to take the Long Island Railroad (LIRR).  There was some Irish Parade going on so we went to check it out and also the city.  It was like going to New York's own version of Newport Beach in California.

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 23
 
Our 2 year wedding anniversary celebration was amazing.  I can't believe it's been 2 years.  Time flew by in a flash and we've been having so much fun together.  We didn't let our fun and excitement end with marriage, but we've combined forces to go out there and learn new things, see the world, and live life.  I truly struck gold with Dan and feel that I've truly married my partner in crime.  You've really got to marry someone who motivates you and encourages you and at the same time thinks you're the sh*t... even if you don't understand it yourself.   We truly are a team.  Many more years to come, Honey! 

My hubby took me to a restaurant called the Rainbow Grill set on the 65th floor of NBC Studios.  The food wasn't the fanciest we've had, but the prices were definitely fancy.  I figured we were paying for the awesome view.  Here are some pictures of us by our table. 

     
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 22
 
First off, I have to say...

Happy 2 Years to my hubby!!  Yes, today is our 2 year wedding anniversary and I'm soooo excited!  We're going to get all dolled up and he's going to take me out to dinner at the Rainbow Grill where we'll have a great view of Manhattan. 

In September my mommy came to visit me!  Aunt Kim and Cousin Peter came with her.  Of course she brought with her a bunch of groceries that would last me another year.  It was great having her here with my aunt.  They cooked lunch and dinner for us everyday and didn't even let me clean or wash dishes.  LOL.  What a life...

My mom loooves museums so it's no surprise we explored the Metropolitan Museum for 6 hours one day.  She loves looking at paintings and artifacts and learning about history and other cultures.


Being with my mom in the musuem was like babysitting.  I kept telling her she can't touch the statues!  Not only did she want to touch them while taking photos, she wanted to molest them.  She got yelled at in the second photo below.  You can see part of the man that's about to come up and yell at us.  It's so embarrassing.  Sigh.

Boy, can my mom and aunt walk for long periods of time.  I don't even know that I've walked this much ever since I moved to New York.  I've never felt the need to look at a million things in one day... haha.  These two ladies covered a lot of ground, I'll tell ya that (taking me along for the ride). 

This photo looks like we're standing in front of a fake background.  LOL.  We're not though... It's really the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan in the background on a foggy night.  Purty ain't it?
 

It was sad to see my family go, but I was glad for their visit at all.  Back to NY life.  We celebrated 2 birthdays here recently.  We took Johnny out for his 25th birthday at Vamos and then headed over to meet Megu for her 28th birthday at China 1 Restaurant/Bar.  We also had time to squeeze in a show with Tina and Dane... Phantom of the Opera.  Great show!

 

That's it for now folks.  I'll be back with an entry with more of our time in NY sans visitors and I'll let you know how our anniversary celebration went.  ta ta~~
   

    
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 21

Hi Everyone!  I'm a little behind on blogging, I know, but my mommy just left yesterday so now I have some free time until I have Jeremy and Colleen come next week.  As I said previously, the weather is getting cooler and I'm liking it.  It's still humid and it's wet sometimes, but it's all fine with me.  I can't wait for Fall to fully arrive so that I can bust out my hats and scarves. 

On to photos!  This month was full of visitors.  After my first September visitors (Anh and Tiffany) left Uyen, Brian, and Nathan arrived for their visit.  They stayed the longest so far... a whopping 10 days.  But lemme tell ya, the 10 days flew by fast.  It was great having them here and I sure miss them already.  It was nice to get to spend time with my Godson Nathan again as well.  Kids grow up so fast. =*)

Uyen, Brian, and Nathan's trip overlapped with Jenny and Bryan's so we had 5 visitors here at once.  It's Jenny's 2nd time visiting me and her BF Bryan's first time in NY.  I have a feeling Jenny will be here at least 4 more times before I go back to California... Haha.  It's always nice to have my BFF in town.

 

 

   

Hope you enjoyed this photo-filled entry.  I'll be back with photos of a visit from my Mommy, Aunt Kim, and Cousin Peter.

~Toodles!!

 
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 20
 
Another blog from New York City.  Despite some days being hot and humid still, we are getting some days that are cooler with nice breezes.  I think it's a sign that Fall is comin' to town. 

That means, no more people hanging out like this anymore... well at least on in their bathing suits.

Aside, from the many summer events I've attended... summer days also allowed us to have relaxing Sundays at St. Patricks Cathedral for mass and lunch at the many food festivals throughout town.

Anh and Tiffany came to visit for his birthday early this month.  Anh doesn't like walking at all so while he was here, we had to take a taxi everywhere haha.  If you live here, you'll realize how expensive it gets.  Thank goodness for our monthly metro passes.  At $80 a month, it sure beats paying for gas.

For Anh's birthday we went out to a restaurant called Les Halles.  Anthony Bourdain (From Anthony Bourdain's No Rervations Show) owns this restaurant so we were confident it would be mucho yum yum and it was.  I had me a delicioso steak.

Minitek will probably be my last event for this summer.  It was a big music event that lasted 3 days.  We went only on Sunday at Coney Island venue.  I'm glad there was a nice breeze because earlier in the day it was HOT HOT HOT.  The stickiness from the humidity always makes it worse than it is.  Dan and I met up with some friends and when we got hungry we went outside to eat some Popeye's chicken since I was craving it.  Haha.

I'll back with a post and pictures of a visit from Uyen, Godson Nathan, and Brian.  Here's a preview of me the lil guy in Times Square.
 

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NY
Entry 19
 
Yesterday was 9/11 and it's apparent that many are still affected by that historical day.  I watched the news and saw so many people crying during the memorial for the 9/11 victims.  Jenny also arrived to NYC yesterday so after dinner, we all headed to Ground Zero to take a look at the memorial.  Here are some pictures.  Even though it's been 7 years, it's still hard to believe the events of 9/11 actually happened.  Sometimes I picture how it would have been if I was living in NYC at that time.  I just can't imagine it. 

I'll try to be back for Entry 20 soon.  It's been so busy and will be for a while.  I have 9 visitors in September alone so no doubt I will have photos for you.  Stay tuned!

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 18

Oopsy Daisy.  I know I need to update when I have several people reminding me.  Tick tock, tick tock.  Here goes...........

There's a funny picture I want to show everyone.  It doesn't just represent my mom, but all moms and the lovely way they always want to be moms to helpless children.  Of course, even if you're married and living miles away in a big city, they will always worry and will always jump at a chance to help in any way.  I find that my mom gets ecstatic every time I ask her for any sort of help and since I don't need help with money or any other service, I usually ask her to send me care packages whenever we get visitors in town.  She takes the meaning of "care package" waaaaaay overboard!  And this isn't even everything.  This is all that would fit in this one cupboard.  I really mean it.  I have other cupboards filled with fish sauce and a bunch of other things I use to cook with. 
Moms... Gotta love 'em!

 

On a bright and sunny day, the three of us (Goosey was busy) decided to head to South Street Seaport to hang out and have lunch.  It kinda reminds us of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco except I didn't see any seals or walruses. 

 

 

After South Street Seaport, we headed for the Silent Rave.  For the 2nd time this year, New York City held another Silent Rave in Union Square just a few blocks from our apartment.  I was curious about this event so I immediately excited to hear about a 2nd event since I missed the 1st one.  At a Silent Rave, everyone dances and listens to music, only they listen to it via ear phones.  So on the outside looking in, it looks quite hilarious because all you hear is giggling.  You don't hear any music, yet all these crazy folks are dancing. Well, I decided to join the crazy folks.  LOL.  This event happens all over the world.  The premise is that music brings people together.  It doesn't matter what kind... Music in general.  Attendees of the Silent Rave can listen to whatever they want and dance in any way they want.  The only rules are to be at this one spot and start at exactly the same time as everyone else does.  And the number one rule... ear phones only, no speakers!

Of course I dragged the boys along in my crazy shenannigan.

....and for those of you who have forgotten how short I am, here's a picture to remind you.  I'm dancing in a train and as the hubby got a picture of me, everyone else's head is cut off.  LOL

During a free weekend free of visitors, we roomies took a bus trip to Thousand Islands and Niagara Falls. 

In Thousand Islands, we took a boat trip around the Thousand Islands area.  If you take a look at a US/Canada map and check out the northeast corner where all those little islands are bordering the US and Canada, you'll know where we were.  There are over 1800 islands there.  Some have houses on them and we even saw a huge castle on another.  

We spent a night in Rochester and headed out to Niagara Falls the morning after Thousand Islands.  Niagara Falls borders New York and Ontario, Canada.  We only visited the New York City side, but we got a glimpse of Canada from the other side.  While at Niagara Falls, we took a boat ride and came close enough to the falls for it to spray us.  Luckily the boat company gave everyone rain ponchos!

Niagara Falls and Canada in the background.

Yummy, rainbows taste so good.

That's all for now folks.  You'll hear from me again in Entry 19.  September is a busy month.  We've got 9 visitors.  I hope to get back to you all soon!

   
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 17

I'm back everyone!  I can't believe I've been living in NYC for 4.5 months now.  Before I know it, winter will be here and I'll be freezin' my booty off. 

Here's a good picture that represents how spontaneous the weather can be.  Luckily, I carry my umbrella in my purse EVERYWHERE I go.  You never know when Mr. Rain strikes.  You also get other common other NYC elements present in this photo haha.  Corporate attire since NYC is basically jam packed with corporate offices, iPod, taxi in the background...

Here are some pictures in and around my office at Discovery Communications.  Being that I work for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, etc... it's no wonder I'm surrounded by animals.

A new event I got to try out was Restaurant Week.  It's a week where certain high end restaurants charge a discounted price for prefixed meals.  We went to the Blue Water Grill in Union Square.  It was muy yummy.  They have Restaurant Week in many cities so try it out in your hood. 

Dan and I made it to the Metropolitan Museum while the Kids (MyAnh and MyKha) were here.  During this time the Superhero Exhibit was going on and we got to see all the original costumes from the movies such as Superman, Catwoman, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Spiderman, and many more.  Dan and the Kids loved this one.  We also watched Avenue Q.  Highlarious adult version of Sesame Street.  LOL. 

After the Kids left, more cousins came.  My cousin Huong and her boyfriend Yen stayed with us for a few days.  They were a delight to have.  Huong's mom is my mom's cousin and they lived in New Orleans so I don't think I met Huong until just a few years ago, but we were able to build a relationship fairly quickly. They were here on the weekdays so they did their own thing while we were at work and we hung out at night. 

A few days after Huong and Yen left, Mark and Christine arrived.  We had so much fun together.  Mark and Christine are also a young married couple.  Mark, as a husband, is just like that Dan.  They adore their wives, Christine and me, so we all got along juuuust fine.   These two were so self sufficient.  They barely asked us any questions.  They did their thing on the weekdays and when the weekend came we all hung out and had a fantabulous time!

Mark and Christine were cool enough to come with me to watch my pal, Isai, spin at Identity.  Yay!  He gives me credit for getting him this gig because I jokingly asked the head DJ there, Steve aka DJ Amaroso, a while ago when Isai can DJ and he said, "sure!"  LOL

And the local buds, of course.  Hanging out in the West Village . 

Stay tuned for Entry 18, folks!
  

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 16

I apologize for falling behind on blogging.  I owe it to at least Helen and KimChi since I make them blog for me... LOL.  Also since my blogs are Anh's morning reads I should update so she has something to read.  Hee hee.  It's harder now that I've got work.  I come home, cook, we eat family style (which entails waiting for each person to get home), clean up, and do whatever else afterward until I get tired.

I made an observation at work.  Our elevators will hold about 12 people until people stop trying to get in.  Haha.  3 rows of 4 people standing side by side.  I don't know why, but I would count how many people are in the elevator when it hits capacity.  Another obvious observation is that I'm usually the smallest.  Go figure.

The weather.  Oh, the weather has been good to us.  My expectations were that the weather was going to be super hot like "Vietnam" with humidity levels up to 100%.  Thanks for trying to scare me everyone, but I can do this!  I can do... this!  I think what also helps is that I'm not really walking around ALL day like tourists are.  I'm working indoors in an air conditioned building and I only have to walk a couple blocks to the subway stations.  So now when you tell New Yorkers it's way too hot/humid to live in New York and they tell you it's bearable, it's because they're not walking around all day like you are.  Makes sense, huh?

Summer days also allow you to eat outside at cute restaurants like this.

Everyone really takes advantage of the summer before winter hits and it gets too cold to go outside for activities.  On one of our great summer days, I met up with a few friends at the Great Lawn in Central Park to play some games.  Then headed over to Sheep Meadow to meet up with Cousin Thuy and Cousin Thomas who was visiting from Houston.  Central Park is so huge that we tell each other which area we'll be at so we can find each other hence The Great Lawn and Sheep Meadow.  There are many others too.  Central Park turns into a whole nother world in the summer.  So many people are out there just to lay out, play games, have picnics... it's amazing.

Family (check out all the people in the background enjoying a beautiful day in the park)

Friends

Dan took his last CPA test so we took him out to eat to celebrate.  He was studying so hard.  Those of you who know him know that this guy studies like a robot. 

So we've had quite a few visitors since my last entry... a total of 6 from my last entry.  Two of them were MyAnh and MyKha.  My two little dearest cousins visited us thanks to my wonderful Aunt Tina for buying their tickets.  We grew up together so we have a strong bond filled with so much love (sorry for the sap).  They stayed for 8 days and had a great time.  Their main reason for picking the dates they did was so they could watch The Dark Knight movie on opening night with their Anh Dan.  Haha.

On Wednesday night before the opening of The Dark Knight, we took the kids to Thompkins Square Park in the East Village so that we could watch Batman Begins. 

We arrived at the theater 4 hours early to get good seats.  Here the boys are representin'.  Haha.

Of course we did other things.  We went site seeing, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, watched Avenue Q on Broadway, ate yummy food, went to the museum, and much more.
Note:  These kids will be the only ones I am taking to the Statue of Liberty.  It would be sucky if I had to go every single time a visitor came.  Haha. 

For Isai's birthday, 10 of us headed to New Jersey for Great Adventures for a fun thrill-filled day of roller coasters.

After the Batman ride, Elena had a massive bronchitis attack so we took her to first aid.  A long while later, the nurse comes out and asks if I'm Anne.  I say yes and she proceeds to tell me that I need to go in the ambulance with Elena to the emergency room!  Ahhhh!  So I left with Elena in the ambulance while Isai, Dan, and Nam drove to the hospital in Elena's car.  The other car stayed because they didn't know we left.  I might not have ridden all the rides at Great Adventures, but I DID get to sit shotty in an ambulance... LOL.  I was at the hospital for most of the day.   

Here we are at the hospital in New Jersey

A special day arrived.  Tina's birthday!  We ate at Carmine's on the upper west side aka uws.  One good thing about moving to NYC is getting to know and hang out with Tina more.  I knew her back in OC, but more so as Duy's cousin.  Tina is a very talented fashionista.  She's a stylist for Tyra Banks.  Yup, she gets paid to shop and tell Tyra what to wear and even accompany her to the Emmy's!  You go girl!

Until entry 17 folks!  I've had 4 more visitors since MyAnh and Mykha and more events to update about.

Toodles from me and hubs!

 
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 15

Time for a new entry.  I've been keeping myself quite busy and when I do have free time, that laziness I have comes lurking back.  Haha.  But have no fear my friends, I'm back and ready to share.

I've got some news.  I have a job now!  You are reading the blog of a Discovery Communications employee.  I had no idea that aside from the Discovery Channel, Discovery also owns Animal Planet, Travel Channel, TLC, BBC, and many more.  I work in the Ad Sales Department and I can't tell you how nice everyone is.  It's almost surreal.  It's such an awesome company and not to mention they're paying more than my asking range so of course I'm super excited.  I'm half way through my second week.  So far so good.

OC Working Girl:  Now that I work, I'm able to see another side of NYC... RUSH HOUR!  Oh man, it's so busy in the morning sometimes that you literally have to squeeze inside the ittiest bittiest crack you can find between a sea of people jammed like sardines into a subway car.  The mornings aren't so bad, but at the end of the day when everyone has had about 9 hours worth of time to build their own unique body odor is when it gets tough... haha. 

I also started noticing that I saw people dressed up for work, but wearing flip flops.  I kept wondering what kind of company would let people wear their flip flops to work.  I saw this in both men and women.  I also noticed that A LOT of the women at my work had about 10 different pairs of shoes under their desk.  And then it hit me.  People were walking to work in their flip flops and changing into heels at work!  How smart is that?!  So I caught on pretty quickly and began this routine as well. 

Here is a photo of me just getting out of the building after work in my heels.  Hubby meets me after work so we can go home together so he was able to take it for me.

I didn't even know he took this one.  Here I am... already changed into my flip flops walking across the street towards our subway station.

And after taking the V and L trains home, we arrive to our apartment.  You see me here walking down these steps to get to the door of our building.  I love the trees around our building.

I found one of the ads that Discovery is using to market Shark Week on the Discovery Channel in Midtown.  These are the bikes the you see guys riding with people sitting in the back like a carriage.  You can't see the front of this bike, but it looks like a big shark's mouth with teeth and when you sit inside it looks like you're inside his mouth.  Haha.

One of Dan's good childhood friends, Eli, came to NYC for a business trip and we were able to hang out with him.  We went to a hotel rooftop bar where the view was pretty awesome.

During the summer months, the Museum of Modern Art in Long Island City throws a music party every Saturday.  I went to the opening.  It was cool to get to walk through the exhibits and then come out and dance with everyone.  I don't have pictures of the inside because we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  It starts raining, but it didn't stop any of us!  Party on dudes!

Me, Brian, and Monica

Sean, Me, Theresa, and Jenn

Festivus 6.0 in Central Park!  This was a cool event and we all had fun being there.  The weather was beautiful, the company was awesome, and the music not too shabby. 

The girls! The boys! The DJ and all of us!

Stay tuned for entry 16.  My most darling little (but bigger than me now) cousins, MyAnh and MyKha came to visit us-- thanks to their mama for buying their airline tickets.  Also, Cousin Thomas from my dad's side came to visit and stayed with his sister.  More details and photos of other events to come in the next post!

You didn't thnk I'd let some of my NY friends get away without taking a single jumping picture, didja?  LOL

TA TA for now, Folks!!!