The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 14

I've heard that NYC is a great place for the summer and I must agree wholeheartedly.  I was afraid that I was going to miss the beach and be miserable from the heat and humidity.  I confess that I do miss the beach, but there are soooo many activities to do in NYC in the summer and a lot of things are free too.  It's pretty awesome.  And the weather is still pretty bearable.  On days when there's a nice breeze or a little rain comes in, it's great.  And lemme tell ya, I bring and umbrella EVERYWHERE now.  Even if the sky looks clear without a cloud up there, it could start raining at any time, but then stop after 10 minutes.  I kind of like it when the rain comes because it cools the city down. 

And, of course, by now I'm completely adjusted to life in the city so it's getting harder for me to see all the minor differences that used to be so evident to me before.  Which means, it's getting more difficult to find things to write about like, "Omg, I have to walk everywhere and and there are people dresses as Elmo walking around."  LOL  I have feeling my entries will just be filled with pictures and activities until fall or winter come because that's when I'll probably start noticing differences between OC and NYC again. 

On to the photos then!

More visitors!  Trang and Anthony, from Florida, came for a visit.  They didn't stay with us, but fairly close in an apartment nearby in the East Village.  People normally ask me for travelling advice, but these 2 took it to the extreme.  LOL.  When I met up with them for lunch in Chinatown, I found out they were staying here for about a week.  And it dawned on me... They totally have enough time to take a chinese tour bus to DC, Philly, Niagara, or wherever else they're interested in going.  That's what I did when I was in NYC in 2001.  We had enough time and pretty much saw everything in a couple days so we took off to DC, Philly, and Virginia.  I figured they might already have an itinerary so thought nothing of it, but they went ahead and booked a tour to DC and Philly right after lunch!  Haha.  I'm glad they enjoyed it.  Why a chinese tour bus?  Because it's cheap.  Haha.

Anthony, Me, Nam, Trang

I also joined Trang, Nho (who lives here), and their friend who lives in Florida for dinner.  Funny story about how Nho and I met.  I met her from Nancy who used to live here (who used to live in OC--that's where I met her).  Nho is Nancy's cousin so when Nancy brought her out to a party, I met Nho and asked her where she moved from?  She said Orlando and I said... "Oh, I have a bunch of friends in Orlando!"  I didn't think to give her any names because what are the odds, she'd know them.  It's a big city.  But she asked me to give her some names, so I just said one not thinking that she'd know him.  I said... "Oh, there's Charlie."  And she goes... "Bui?"  I was shocked... "YES!"  And she said... "I grew up with his sister Trang!"  What a small world!  And it turns out she knew everyone else I knew from Orlando, including Ant who comes to visit 2 days after Trang and Anthony Leave.  Small world!

You can see my hair was extra curly that day because of the humidity.  LOL

And here comes Ant, two days after Trang and Anthony.  He came for the weekend.  I thought it was going to be difficult being a good host to him because when I asked him what he wanted to do in NYC, he said... "I don't like to walk and I don't like the sun."  Whaaaaaat???  Everyone knows that's pretty much impossible to avoid in NYC.  Haha.  Unless that is you want to waste $19308430 on cabs.  It turned out to be quite easy having Ant around cuz he'd do whatever.  He said he wanted to do what the locals did so he went with me while I bought things for the house and what not... haha.  I did force him to at least go to Times Square becaue this guy didn't want to see any sites.  And since I knew a good place to eat at Times Square, Laura and I took him there. 

And see, things like these still fascinate others while it's becoming quite normal for me.  Haha, Ant wanted to take a picture with the Naked Cowgirl Lady in the background.

We were walking down St. Mark's Street one day when Ant says he's always wanted to get his ears pierced.  He wanted to get the big holes done, not the little earring kinds.  So I asked why he didn't just do it then and there with all the tattoo and piercing shops around?  I dragged him into a couple stores and asked about the procedure and pricing.  He told the guy he'd think about it and we went outside.  Two minutes later I convinced him to just do it... and so he did!  LOL

For Dane's birthday lunch, we went to go meet up with the others in the West Village for burgers.  It took us sooooo long to get there!  Why?  We were stuck in the Gay Pride Parade.  We couldn't cross the street anywhere for many blocks and so I just watched for a bit while we found our way out.  Haha.  If you can't beat em', join em'.

We are women with penises, hear us ROAR!

Sorry ladies, we've got gay firemen...

Can you spot boobies?  I did!

And yes,  as sunny and hot as it was, it started to rain so we had to bust out our umbrellas.  Notice how all of us were prepared.  Haha.

Check out the people on the side of the buildings and on the rooftops.

Lucky Magazine Party!!

The Hudson Hotel, Giant Step party.  It's a really nice venue.

...and another night at Pacha for me and the gang. 

That's all for now folks, but stay tuned for entry 15.  A cousin was here to visit from Houston and I've got two more comin' in tomorrow.  My loves... MyAnh and Mykha.  They picked this week mainly so they can watch The Dark Knight with their cousin Anh Dan.  LOL. 

  
The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 13

I need to blog now or else I'll be too far behind.  If anyone has ever told you that NYC is awesome in the summertime, they are telling you no lie my friends.  There are soooooo many events and activities to do.  I just love it.  Granted it IS hot and humid, but dang it... all the cool things to do make up for it.  It's pretty much impossible to even do everything so I'm not even going to try.  And people scared me by saying that NYC is sooo hot, but it really is bearable. 

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day!  We sure did.  I even had my 4th of July outfit and everything.  Gotta rep that red, white, and blue ya know what I'm sayin'?  Complete with matching red bug bite on my right thigh.  LOL  I'm even representing my name on my shirt.  How you like that?


For the 4th of July, we decided to watch the fireworks show on Johnny's rooftop.  It was a great view since he lives right by the river and that's where they were shooting the fireworks from.  Here's everyone on the rooftop waiting for the fireworks to start.


Look at that beautiful sky.  Oh say can you see?!


Nam, Johnny, his roomate, and roomate's buddy.


Eloise, Michelle, Tina, and Moi


Afterwards, we went to Korea Town to eat and sing karaoke. 


Here's Tina and me doing our duet and me and my solo.  LOL
 


Onward!  Again, events will be told in random order, because I don't remember. 

If anyone knows my hubby, that person knows that he is a MAJOR comic book geek and that he LOVES Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins movie and is so dying to see The Dark Knight.  He's been studying so very hard and not going anywhere so I was glad to go with him when he wanted to go to the Toys 'R Us in Times Square so that he could see one of the original Dark Knight batsuits from the movie.  The bat tumbler was also on display; the one they used for stunts.

Aww... lookie how happy he is.




One day he texted me how much he loves the city.  When I asked why, he said because there were Dark Knight posters everywhere.  And there seriously is.  There's a HUGE HUGE ad right in the middle of Times Square.  I'll post it when I get the photo from Elena.  We saw it on the way home from Pacha.  Haha.

Check this one out.  This is our subway stop so it's like heaven for Dan since he takes this subway to work every morning. 


No surprise we watched The Hulk, right?  HAHA



I wanted to check out the Water Taxi Beach summer parties and so I was excited when I hit up my friend Andrew one night and asked him what he was up to and he said he was going there.  So Eloise and I met him up at Union Square and we subbed it over to Queens.  The view there was awesome and the vibe was great as well.  Good music and good people equals a good time.  It did start sprinkling a little, but it was still okay.

    

Check out the view!  You can only get this view when you leave Manhattan.
        


Eloise asked if I wanted to see Fuerzabruta.  Usually I'm down for anything anyway, but when I went to the Fuerzabruta NYC website I was DYING to see it.  Check out the video on the website.  There are a whole bunch of videos on youtube as well if you just type in Fuerza Bruta.  It was an awesome awesome show and I highly highly recommend this show to anyone that visits NYC.  If you don't like it, we'll just agree we have different tastes then... haha.  I mean, I can explain what the show was, but it is nothing like seeing it for yourselves.  I can show you pictures, but they won't even begin to show you how awesome this show is.  For me, Ten Thousand Thumbs UP!


Try to imagine an urbanized cirque du soleil with drum and bass and electronic music tracks.  And you are right in the middle of it all.  The stage and props move around so you have to move around with it.  The actors come into the crowd and smash foam on people's heads.  Water comes falling down like rain on the audience and a plastic glass ceiling with actresses swimming on it comes down so low you can touch it.  I can't even tell you every detail so I'll just stop there.

Here are some pictures I found on the internet.

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 12

Okay.  So I was a little premature in saying that the weather stopped being beautiful because since my last post, there have been some pretty awesome days.    Also, the rain likes to pop in and out at random moments.  I'll talk more about that later.

A random short story:  I was walking down to the subway one day and I saw that same weirdo that dresses like Elmo and walks around.  He was sitting on the stairs and for some strange reason I was mildly afraid.  LOL.  I wanted to still go down the stairs, but I wanted to walk as far away from him as possible... as if he could grab me if I was at arm's reach.  Anyway... I would be okay if I never saw him again in such narrow stairways again.  Haha.

So the job search hasn't been as easy for me as it has been for my hubby, but he's been so understanding and supportive.  I told him about a company choosing another candidate over me and he was so upset for me, he came home with flowers. *tear*  He used to come home with flowers every now and then back in OC too, but in NYC he has a new method... haha.  He doesn't drive into a flower shop parking lot and go in the store anymore.  He just has to walk home and on his way stop at one of the many flower stands around here... yup!  Easy as pie.  Just like in the movies!  LOL. 

photo reenactment



I think I'm so far behind on posting that I don't remember the order of events anymore so I'm going to do this post in random order of events.  LOL.  I could look up dates, I guess, but I don't think anyone really cares.  Heeerrreee we go!

As I mentioned in Entry 11, Linda and Phong came for a visit.  They had a great time and LOVED NYC.  Even Linda's mom, grandparents, sister, cousins, and son Jonny came by the apartment.  Boy was it a full apartment.  Luckily, Linda was caught on fast and found her way around to all the places she wanted to see so that I could take a rest from all the tourist traps.  HAHA.  I did end up going to Times Square with them though.

Third set of visitors, third time to Times Square.  And Linda wanted to take a photo Anne-Style!  Woot woot!

We also got dinner at Bubba Gump.  I still love that restaurant.

Dan and I were able to find some time to catch the broadway show Xanadu with Linda and Phong as well.  Overall, it had a cute story and we enjoyed it.

I'm very proud of Linda since she was really ambitious in wanting to catch as many locations as she could.  What a trooper!  Just a warning though... if you're as ambitious as Linda, this might happen to you and your hubby.  LOL.

And here's a photo of us right before they left for the airport... Was sad to see them go.  If you look closely, these two are representin'.  LOL.  Linda is wearing NYC pajamas and a T-shirt and Phong is wearing an NYC T-shirt as well.  They  NY.



Brian is a good friend from high school.  We were really close, but I hadn't seen him since high school.  He's a year younger than me so I graduated first and kinda did the college thing and he did the high school thing until he went to Berkley for college.  Lo and behold he moves to NYC about 6 months ago and I run into him randomly while walking down St. Mark's on our first or second night here.  We catch up for a little bit and didn't really hang out until the 2nd time I ran into him again with his gf Monica (you've seen her pics in past nyc entries) and we've been hanging out ever since.  For his 26th birthday, Monica decided it would be rather funny to have a mustache dinner.  So we all wore mustaches and headed out on the town for some Korean food.  If you're wondering... yes, strangers DID come up to us and ask what was going on.  I think the girls having mustaches is what caused the confusion.  LOL.

Hubby, the Bday boy, and me

Everyone!

My night out with some friends at Identity and The Sullivan Room... on this night my alter ego came out.  My alter ego is just like me, but has straight hair.  Straight-hair-Anne seldom comes out to play, because straight-hair-Anne takes longer to get ready.  LOL, my hair is naturally wavy so you'll notice that I go out most of the time with waves.  There are two weaknesses for straight-hair-Anne in NYC.  NYC humidity acts as kryptonite and the straightness goes away.  Also, the NYC nightlife causes straight-hair-Anne to sweat thus luring wavy-hair-Anne to come out as well.  HAHA.  Okay... enough of that.  Here are the photos.

I think this is sufficient enough for Entry 12.  Entry 13 will include visits from Trangy, Anthony, and Ant (aka Anthony/Thien).  Another big event that happened is that Laura moved in!  My closet is twice as huge now and I took advantage of that right away by already wearing some of her clothes.  LOL.  And for future reference, Laura will be referred to as Goosey from now on as that is what I call her.  Until next time folks!

CRAP!!!  I JUST REALIZED I HAD ENTRY 11 ON PRIVATE FOR OVER A WEEK NOW. 
Sorry readers... here's entry 11.  Haha... it's late, but it's here.  The heat must be messin' with my mind.

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 11
written June 09

My fears were justified.  New York's summer has hit town and with a mighty vengeance.  Remember my comment about the subway stench increasing when it's raining?  Well, let me retract that statement.  When the sun is shining fiercely down on New York City, the subway stench is as bad as ever!  Did you know that human body odor can act as a hallucinogen?  Haha.  I kid.  I went out to Chinatown today with Linda and Phong and within 30 seconds my face was drooling with sweat, my pores were oozing with this morning's iced tea.  In other words... our beautiful weather is gone and the sweltering heat is here to take over. 

So before the heat hit, I managed to get in a few activities while the weather was still beautiful.  A couple of weeks ago I attended a party at the Museum of Natural History for some music and dancing.  This is the 2nd time I attended a party at the Naturay History Museum (1st one in LA).  Before hand, we hung out at a friend's house in the UWS.  UWS is a new term I learned for upper west side.  Haha.  After the party we walked around and I headed home. 

This great apartment belongs to the lovely Tina in the striped shirt.  With her are Jason and Megu.

A photo on the steps of the Natural History Museum.

Partying inside...

The boys left early and I stayed back with the party people!

For Eloise's 28th Birthday we went to a restaurant called Peep in Soho.  The food was good and so were the drinks... not like I had one, but I tasted them.  Haha.  After dinner, we met up with the boys at Lowe's Village theatre for the midnight showing of Sex and the City.  Some girls commented that they were amzed that we were able to get boys to come with us.  LOL. 

An end to a good night... Michelle, Ai, Monica, Eloise, and Me

Also, what recently passed was my Bubba's 27th birthday!  You saw the pics from our one on one quality time at the Boathouse on Sunday afternoon, but here are some photos from the Saturday night before.  The night consisted of Rock Band, a Bar, some drinks, and friends!

And just for kicks, we had a funny photoshoot with Monica's "Fugly Glasses."  LOL.

We also managed to squeeze in a Rilo Kiley concert at Terminal 5.

The boys!

Welp, that's all for now folks!  See ya later!  Anne loves you all!

Stay tuned for our third set of visitors, Linda and Phong.  They had a great first time in New York and I miss them already...

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 10

Entry 10 will be about my wonderful husband... and only him.

warning:  somewhat sappy entry ahead

Mr. Dan Tran aka my husband turned 27 years old today.  I'm so proud to be his wife for so many reasons.  He also started his new job today at The Related Companies.  It's a huge company here in New York.  Just to give you an example, they own the Time Warner Center.  He is one of their new Senior Accountants... uh huh, Senior.  He tells me after work that he's not used to his new title because it happens to come with assistants that do things for him.  LOL.  I'm sure that won't be too hard to get used to real fast.

I've noticed that I haven't written about all the sweet things he's done for me lately, but have no fear... he's just as wonderful to me as the day we got married.  His kindness to me has not wavered one bit and I know that I am so so lucky and fortunate to have him and to remain the apple of his eye.  I sometimes feel sorry for people who think marriage has to be the end of all happiness and end of life itself.  That is not so, my friends.  With the right person, marriage can be absotudely and fiercely fantasmerrific!  So fantasmerrific that I have to use the words fantastic and terrific together to describe it.  Haha.  I'm so glad that so many of my friends share the same joys of marriage as I do in their marriages.    Anyway, I do have a point to this... I feel this way about marriage because I'm married to Dan Tran.  He gives me the love glow everyday.  And if you're into the whole marriage thing, I hope you find your Dan Tran some day too. 

I know I haven't written anything about Dan actually turning 27, but I dunno... 27 just didn't seem like a big deal of an age.  Haha.  No significant milestone or anything of the nature... so movin' along.

Okay, that's it on the sap.  Although today is Dan's actual birthday, I took him out yesterday to celebrate.  I wanted to spend the whole day with him instead of just dinner this time.  The weather is just too beautiful not to enjoy.  I took him to Central Park where we spent quality time together and also had brunch at The Boathouse Restaurant.  If you've watched 27 Dresses, this is the restaurant that was shown in the movie and also a bunch of other movies and television shows. 

Oh man, these showed up for Dan in the mail and he just about peed his pants.  Haha.  He was wearing his work clothes, yet he still looked like a child opening a present on Christmas.  He loved them.  Now if you know Dan like Elvis and Kim do, then you know he goes gaga over this comic book superhero stuff.  LOL.  Thanks KimChi and Elvis!

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 9

Boy, the weather has been so great lately.  It's raining today, but I'm confident we'll get our beautiful weather back.  I'm dreading the humidity that all New Yorkers are warning me about.  Ahhhhh!!

On to the update!  Last Friday, Dan and I headed over to Brooklyn for the 125th Birthday Celebration of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Now, that's OLD.  The Brooklyn Bridge is about a century older than I am.  Imagine the history.  They were playing the movie Enchanted on a screen in the park.  Even the little actress that played McDreamy's daughter in the movie came up on stage and talked a little bit about the movie.  If you haven't seen it, it's a modern day fairy tale set in Manhattan.  It was cute when the actress told everyone she didn't understand why so many women came up to her and told her how lucky she was to be able to work with Patrick Dempsey.  Haha.  The whole setting was so amazing!  Only pictures can describe to you what I saw, but even then, the pictures don't do it justice... maybe if I had Thaoie or Helen here to take the photos, but even then you don't get the feelings that come with it. 

Getting settled on the grass...

Our view... Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan, and the movie screen.

During the celebration, the bridge lights started changing colors!

I ended the night off at Touch with Monica, Eloise, and Brian.  If you are familiar with Sex and the City, you'll notice behind us that that week was Fleet Week... Haha.  There were sailors all over the city.

Here's a random photo of my husband while we were out having lunch on a beautiful day.

Aside from what I'm actually blogging, there's so many little joys that I have been getting from this city and so much I have yet to see and experience.  People have told me that I will know in about 2 weeks of living here if I love New York or hate it. 

And I must say... I NY

Stay tuned for Entry 10 with my night out with the girls, Sex and the City midnight showing, and our night at the American Museum of Natural History.

As for now, I'm just going to keep dry.   Until next time!

Sometimes I get caught up in "my" life and what's going on around me that I forget how lucky I am to be alive and healthy.  People like Michelle, who have cancer, remind me to stop and think about all my blessings and try to live life as a better person every passing day because God has given me so much to be thankful for. 

Even though Michelle has cancer, from what I've been reading, she still has a vibrant spirit and still considers herself lucky in life because she has so much love around her.  I don't know her personally, but her story was passed to me and now I'm passing it on and hopefully all of you can do the same.  She needs a bone marrow match for surgery by June 21st (yes, "this" June 21st) to save her life.  Click on the link below to read about her story, progress, and ways to help save her.

Project Michelle

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 8

On May 17, New York City had it's annual Dance Parade so I thought it would be fun to march along with the floats.  Each float had its own theme and type of music and since I'm not a ballet dancer or tap dancer or anything like that, I joined the house music float sponsored by Club Pacha NYC... haha.  The Martinez Brothers (best friend Jen introduced me to) were djing on the float so that made it even better!  So off we go...............

PARADE TIME!

My hubby joined in on the action too!

He's a dancin' machine, I tell ya... a machine!

Here you can get a glimpse of The Martinez Brothers djing on their float and the rest of their party posse.

Don't mind us... just comin' through......... (marching and dancing down the streets of Manhattan)

The Martinez Brothers

Elena, Dan, Isai, and Me!  Sweaty after all that marching and dancing... Haha.

Later that night, a bunch of us met up at Pacha for the afterparty.  Why?  Because it was time to PARTAY!!!
Party posse of the night:  Elena, Isai, Lisa, Megu, Theresa, Hubby Dan, and Me

Okay, I just wanted to show this picture cuz I wanted you to see my necklace.  It's a llama.  Haha.  Okay sorry... that was random.    

Dan and I left early.  Yeah, the club ended at noon the next day.  There was no way Dan and I were going to make it even til 4am like everyone else did.  LOL.  Anyway, we left to go get us some tacos.  Before we did that we stopped by the apartment to see if Bro Nam wanted to go.  

See that window that is lit up on the 2nd story?  Yep!  That's our apartment.  That window and the 2 windows to the right of it and the 2 to the left of it.  We'll be moving out of there by the end of the month into a more permanant one though.  

So I almost gave up on finding authentic mexican tacos here in Manhattan (we heard there are some in Queens), but Dan found a place only a block away from our apartment.  It's a small mexican place, but has been in the newspaper and media in New York for having the most excellent Mexican tacos.  $2... almost makes you feel like you're back at home.  Not to mention, everyone that works there is so nice and cool to us ... Including Ruben pictured below.  I'm holding a sign showing they won best mexican food 2004.  Haha.  Aside from Ruben, the others that work there don't speak english too well... So I've asked them to let me practice my spanish and they took me very seriously.  In the beginning, they'd try to speak english with me, but now they are forcing me to speak spanish even when I speak english too them... haha.  That's good... it'll help me become more fluent.  Can't beat going to the same place to get tacos and spanish lessons all at once.

Stay tuned.............
Friday, Dan and I went to the Brooklyn Bridge's Birthday Bash.  They played the movie, Enchanted, at the park just on the other side of the bridge.  It was an amazing set up.  So beautiful.  I'll write about that next time, but here's a glimpse of what it was like watching a movie out there.  There's the Brooklyn Bridge.  On the other side, you see Manhattan.  Towards the bottom of the photo, you can see the movie screen.

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 7

Hi!  I'm still well and alive here in NYC.  The weather is quite frustrating sometimes.  One day it's cold and raining rather fiercely and then the next day it's as hot as can be.  Then the day after, it's raining again and the day after is hot again!  C'mon, what's goin' on here people!  Throw an OC Girl a bone.  The good thing is that it hasn't been freezing like it was when we first got here.  I know what New Yorkers would think if they read this... "honey, you ain't know nothin' about cold."  Yeah, I know!  I guess I'll blog about the New York Winter when it arrives, but for now... I'm waiting for the humidity to hit when summer comes a knockin' at my door.

Lemme tell you something about the subways.  They're really fun to take and an excellent source of transportation, however, when it's raining or really humid and sticky... the stench level increases 10 fold.  Yeah.  You think you're sweaty above ground?  Try going underground to ninja turtle sewer level.  Sweating profusely is not very becoming for a lady such as myself.

So what have I been up to?  Well, still adjusting to life in NYC and still missing my loved ones oh so much, but it's going by faster than it did in my 1st two weeks.  The three of us are having a grand ol' time just exploring and doing new things.

A couple weekends ago, Anh called and said that she and Cat were heading to DC (yes, Washington DC) for the weekend and asked if I'd come down.  Sure, I thought!  I decided to research different ways I could get there and learned that it was just a hop, skip, and an hour flight away.  (The train would have cost me more money and 2 more hours of travel, so I decided to fly.)

DC is a very cool city.  I didn't get to see the surrouding areas of the monuments when I was there 8 years ago because I was only there for a little while.  I went on a chinese tour bus from NY because it was cheap, but that's a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother time.  Haha.  Let's just say, if you go with a Chinese Tour bus, you might be paying a rediculously low fare, but you also don't understand anything the guide says unless you speak chinese.  Luckily, Anh had a friend (James) who lived in DC and took us around.  He took us around different neighborhoods and bars and restaurants.  We had a great time.  Thanks, James!

And here we are with good ol' Abe.

In front of the Washington Monument. 

The Vietnam Memorial

The White House...

Back to NYC and I wasn't sorry to be back.  After all, I've only been here about a month and half and there's still so many more memories to make before I had back once again to become an OC Girl in OC.

On one interesting night, we went for chinese food and hung out in a park until 4am, blowing bubbles and dancing on the chess tables.  LOL.  Tina has those pictures so I'm sorry I won't be posting any of those photos.

Last week, Tina invited a bunch of us to an event hosted by the model/actress Chloe Sevigny.  I liked how it was decorated and the people who attended it were dressed extremely fashionable.  We even got a cool goodie bag at the end of the night! 

Cool guy, Antoine, on the floor... haha.  Go Antoine! Go Antoine!

The girlies!  Me, Nho (Nancy's cousin), Tina, Nancy (who is moving back to OC in a month, damn you!)

This photo is to show, Cuzzie, that I am still practicing.  I finished that whole drink all by myself.  Haha.  Despite, the room turning black on me at times and the nauseating urge to vomit, I managed and I managed it with all the fight I had in me.  *patting myself on the back*

After the event, we heard that Kanye West was having an after party.  So we decided to try and crash.  Tina tried every trick in the book!  She told the bouncers we were with Tyra Banks and everything, but NOPE... couldn't get it.  What a friggin bummer.  Maybe next time.  On a cool note:  I saw Janice Dickinson run in and yelled out... "HI JANICE!"  I didn't think she heard me, but she ran back out and waved to me!  TO ME.  Man, that lady has a hot body. 

I'm so blessed that I still get to keep in touch with my beloved family and friends back home.  Everyone is just a call, instant message, or an email away.  Even my little buddies find the time to call me every now and then.  Elise (whom I call Favelise cuz she's my favorite) has called me 2 times since I've been here on her daddy Elvis' phone.  That's once every 2 weeks... not too shabby.  The other morning, she called me and woke me up.  Even though I don't understand what she's saying, I know she's telling me that she misses me... LOL.  We managed to stay on the phone this time for a full minute and a half before she hung up on me.  Haha.  And I try to convince myself that she doesn't just accidently call me with her daddy's phone because my name starts with an "A".

Dan and I marched and grooved in New York's Dance Parade 2008 today. 
Stay tuned for Entry 8 and our amazing adventure and expedition down
NYC's Broadway St.  Haha.

The New York Chronicles:  Life of an OC Girl in NYC
Entry 6

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but it's been busy with my wonderful visitors in town. 

Before my birthday dinner, we all decided to go and walk about the city.  We visited Time Square and walked around Midtown and Central Park before going home to get ready to go to the restaurant.

For my 27th birthday, Hubby, reserved a table at The High Line restaurant located in the Meat Packing District.  I'd have to say that the food was very good and not too badly priced either.  Aside from the food, the restaurant looked really cool and had a nice mood to it.  The theme is luxury travel and different parts of the restaurant look like you're on a cruise ship or airplane.

Here are some photos from the restaurant website.

After dinner, we went home for a much needed nap and headed for the bars nearby!  Yes, I threw up after that one drink.  Ugh.

On Sunday we woke up really late and ate at Joe Shanghai's in Chinatown around 4:00pm.  Haha.  Then on Monday, Cuzzie and Dennis had to say bye bye, but not until after lunch in Soho.  I didn't want them to leaaave!  Duy and Laura were still here so we walked to St. Mark's and Union Square and hung out and on Tuesday, it was their turn to leeaaave!  Noooooo!  Wednesday felt so lonely.

But THEN.............................. who shows up that morning, but JENNY!

Jen wanted to see Times Square the first day so we did that and then had Japanese for dinner.  For the rest of the weekend, we ate at the very popular Cafe Habana and had some mexican corn (just like back home), we went to the Brooklyn Museum, Coney Island, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, and walked back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.  We hung out in Midtown, Central Park, a little bit of Chinatown, and went to a sake bar in the East Village.  Needless to say, we had a great time.  Jen left on Sunday.

After Jenny left, it was back to the three of us.  We had dinner at Bubba Gump in Times Square and then we went to see the musical, RENT... Thu Hong's birthday present to me!  YAY!  I loved it and we were only 6 rows from the stage.  Also, the girl who played Mimi was Tamyra Gray from season 1 American Idol!  It was an end to a great weekend.

My cousin Thuy leaves for Australia today so yesterday, Hubby and I met her up near her apartment near Columbia University to have lunch with her at this Korean restaurant.  It was so good, but we ate until we were too full.  It's a good thing that New York is all about walking and walking up and down stairs!  We also hung out in Morningside Park for a little bit.  It's a beautiful park... especially in the spring time.  And yes, as you can tell, it still gets cold here in New York.