Halloween 2015

This year's Halloween was ... pretty spooktacular!

Seeing as this is our first Halloween in a house, we decided to get much larger pumpkins than usual. You know, the kind that I can't even lift on my own. HAHA. But OMG we didn't account for how much thicker the pumpkins would be and the additional pulp that would need to be removed. 

In fact, the pumpkins were so big, that JR broke the big serrated spoon that we had. It was pouring outside, so we made a deal - Lorraine and I would go to Target to get more tools, and the guys would clean out our pumpkins! Lorraine found a really cute pizza costume, and I found Forrest a hot dog costume. It fit him PERFECTLY. We also got pumpkin Oreos and pumpkin cheesecake cookies. YUMMY. Our pumpkin carving was a success! And wine followed. 

On Halloween, we went to BJ's house party. I haven't been to a legit house party in sooo long; I'm really glad they hosted it. And their house was pretty big! The theme was 90s, and a lot of people had appropriate costumes. I was surprised that there were THREE tamagotchi costumes! And one guy was Windows 95. Lots of overalls, but I think I nailed the look. I was laughing to myself the entire time I was twisting my hair and applying brown lip liner (it took ridiculously long). I got a lot of compliments on the lip liner for sure, and the butterfly clips. Like middle school all over again!! And of course, everyone loved Forrest. He stole pizza, again! This time from Sarah's hand as she bent over. Oy vey. 

When we got home, we checked the candy bucket that was left outside for trick-or-treaters. AND IT WAS GONE. Someone took our whole candy bucket!!!! Rude. Now I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't have ordered a wreath. After my disappearing Costco order and now the stolen Halloween bucket, I'll be so mad if they take the wreath!

Rock The Bells & Reno Rubfest

Summer has been INSANE - a vicious cycle of anxious planning, being really busy, and then ending up absolutely exhausted!

The job search is still ongoing, I had a resume workshop with a professional and learned a ton about how to better customize each application. Although he assured me that my content was solid, I definitely feel that the advice he gave me on the delivery will help me tremendously. And so I apply, and wait, and apply, and wait again.

I've also been working remotely nights and weekends again. Thankfully, my assignments have conveniently fallen between big events so I haven't had to choose.

The weekend before last, I went to Rock the Bells in Mountain View! Salt 'N Pepa was wildly entertaining, with the baby daddy and the husband on stage - I love their dynamic! I also thoroughly enjoyed Ice Cube, he is an AWESOME entertainer. The way he transitioned from one hit to another kept us on edge, and he always dropped the beat at the perfect moment. Watching DMX was pretty great also, until he started preaching about God. I don't mind that he's deeply religious, but I didn't pay to see that. DJ Quik and Bone Thugs were good, but I wish E40 and Too Short were there - they would have completed by perfect RTB lineup. Overall, it was an amazing weekend. We stayed over at Hiep's friend's house in Mountain View on Saturday night and had a giant sleepover. SO FUN! <3 br="">
This past weekend, for Labor Day, Charles, Victor, and I went to the Rib Cookoff in Reno (dubbed the rubfest per miscommunication between Alex and myself, LOL). The ribs were excellent as always, and I'm glad this has become an annual tradition. Charles was cracking me up the entire trip, from the airplane rides, to the ridiculous comments he made throughout the weekend, and his overall loveable personality. I'm glad Charles and Victor made the trip this year, I think everyone enjoyed the company through and through. We went to a new club in Reno called Rise, and it totally blew our minds. The venue was definitely on part with San Francisco clubs, maybe even on the same level as LA clubs! Beautiful, open spaces with easy access to drinks and awesome music. We had such a blast dancing our butts off!

For September, I think I'll be taking it easy. I've got two remote work assignments the next few weeks, and I'm going to start a 24 Day Challenge (diet) mid-month. I'm trying to slim down before Moonlight Masquerade on 10/13, and definitely before FreakNight! All of this yummy food and experimental cooking has given me a nice, juicy, spare tire. Not cute.

Halloween: A San Francisco Treat!

Last weekend was such a shit show.

Thursday afternoon, Charles and I flew into San Francisco with no delays or anything - great start to a trip! Ryan picked us up at SFO and we headed back to my place to drop off luggage, then downtown so Charles could check into the W. By the time we got to dinner it was already getting late, maybe 8 something? We ended up at San Tung. WORTH THE WAIT. And since it was the first time for Charles in San Francisco (and California) we had to take him to the best Chinese place we know. Duh. Later at night we went to see Shiny Toy Guns perform at the Rickshaw Stop. It was pretty good, but I liked the show at Ruby Skye the first time I saw them better. Anyway, super packed and very exciting! We stopped by at Holy Cow afterward but everyone was too exhausted to enjoy. We did see Latina fight though, pretty awesome.

Friday afternoon, Charles and I sort of slept through lunch time. We did wake up in time, though, to get ramen at Himawari! I had to get my ramen fix, since there isn't any good ramen in Seattle. We went to Blue Bottle Coffee for a pick-me-up and mmm mm that New Orleans Iced Coffee surely hit the spot. Charles got to see the Octavia/Hayes way of life also. Everyone just hanging out on the sidewalks, chillin'. Gorgeous weather. We picked up some viet sandwiches for dinner, then we went home to get ready for SKRILLEX!!!

Chad drove his van and picked us up at my place. When Charles came over that night I was laughing so hard at his joker costume, he looked freakin' homeless. I was literally in tears, clutching my stomach. It was a great moment. Our costume theme was a hit, we got lots of compliments! The concert was fantastic when Skrillex came on, his visuals just blew my mind. Hearts galore. I had tons of fun! Maybe not as much fun as Tiesto or Kaskade, but still lots and lots of fun. OH, THE ENERGY! After the concert, we migrated to Sugar Cafe and continued on dancing. As we were leaving, I made a special request to be dropped off before everyone headed to Brian's. Thank goodness I did, I couldn't wait to get to bed - so exhausted!

On Saturday, we explored Haight with Alex and Ryan (after first driving around Sunset to pick up Alex's ticket and viet sandwiches/boba!!). We saw the Painted Ladies, but honestly we didn't even know which house was the Full House house. LOL. On the corner of the block there was the remains of a haunted house party and we somehow wandered in uninvited. Luckily the people inside didn't mind us peeking around. The house was very spookily decorated. It looked like they'd had one hell of a party!

For dinner, Charles wanted to have sushi, so I took him to the second best spot I know - Ryoko! We waited over an hour but it was worth it, of course. We had a pretty interesting and random conversation over dinner, and the music as always was a compilation of all of my favorite songs. How do they always know! We headed back to my place to meet up with Cindy, Albert, and Calvin. By the time we all were ready to go to Polk street, it was super packed at all of the bars with ridiculously long lines out the door. We decided to go to Rendezvous instead! I saw a bunch of the old DNC people there, and I met up with all of the Deadmau5 people there also. It ended up being a good time, great company! And it was nice to dance to hip hop instead of house for the first time that weekend. :)

On Sunday we tried to go to Lime but we had a pretty big party and the wait was a few hours. Instead we had burgers at Super Duper, and then went to the beach. AH THE BEACH! I miss the beach

Overall I think it was a fantastic trip. Charles fell in love with San Francisco, as everyone should, and I think in the four days that I had with him I was able to show him most of my favorite things! Then again how could he not love SF, my friends are all so cool!

HALLOWEEN MADNESS

Friday afternoon, after a full day of work, I caught an evening flight to Vegas with Rainbow. We were both exhausted and had meant to nap on the plane but we were having such a good time that by the time we settled down to sleep, we were already landing. That was probably the best flight I've ever taken, we were literally laughing the whole hour and a half. I wasn't surprise to see other people I knew on the same flight, it seemed as if everyone from San Francisco was in Vegas! Cindy and Amy met us at the airport and we went straight to the hotel to get ready. I thought the suite at the Venetian was pretty nice, probably my favorite hotel in Vegas now. I like the fancy little railing that separates the upper and lower levels, and the charming bathrooms with plenty of mirrors.


So us girls took so long to get ready that by the time Gary got to the hotel two hours later we were finally ready to go! We grabbed some food downstairs and then headed to Surrender to meet up the guys. I was kind of hesitant because I'd never heard of Surrender before, but it turned out to be my favorite club yet. I love the huge open space and the couches in the pool (even though they don't let you go in, go figure). The lights are gorgeous and the open sky makes it even more scenic. I had a really good time there, and I even REALLY liked the music - which I wasn't expecting at all. Stereo love!






After Surrender, we ended up at Tuscany for steak & egg breakfast. I ordered hash browns and I don't think they were very good. I lost my voice that first night, and it wouldn't be the last night lol. I can't quite remember everything that happened while we were eating but I remember having a really good time. =)



On Saturday, we met up Charles and went to eat Pho in Treasure Island. Then we walked the strip and shopped a wee bit. Amy and Cindy got the finishing touches for their costumes and we stopped by Fat Tuesdays for some novelty booze. It was my first Fat Tuesdays drink! And it was delicious. I shared a Bellini with Peach Shnapps with Nancy and Sinclair and it was sooooo good. To this day, I've NEVER had a bad bellini. We headed back to the hotel so I could get ready for dinner.

I joined the guys for Del Frisco's for dinner and it was freakin' delicious!! The steak was sooooo good, and we even got to watch the Sharks game while we ate =]. I really like that place! It was surprisingly not as expensive as I thought it would be, and I enjoyed every mouthful of that savory savory meat.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to get our masquerade costumes together, and I think we looked fantastic! We were late to XS so we caught an Escalade ($55 for like 3 blocks? Drivers in Vegas sure make a lot of money) and thankfully we didn't have to wait to get in. We had table service so we got to waltz right in, and for once in my life I was so early that I got to take a picture in an empty club. Our cabana was pretty cool, right by the bathroom thank goodness. Lots of crazy dancing and picture taking, I think everyone had a really good time there as well. XS is always fun, especially dipping your feet in the pool after a looooong night. Alex found Julian!!! And brought him back to the cabana =] I had a drink with him and some other friends but eventually got lost and ended up back at the cabana. It was a semi-chaotic night. When we got back to the hotel we were famished, so we ordered room-service pizza. I wanted to get food from Grand Lux but it was SO PACKED and we couldn't wait that long. The pizza did the job.


Sunday morning, Janet and Sinclair left to head back to New York, and the rest of us went to Tao Beach for lunching & relaxing. The food wasn't bad, and drinks were pretty good. I LOOOVE tao beach, just the idea of lounging in swimwear with loud high-energy music and food and booze. That's my vacation trifecta. The guys met us up and we hung out a bit longer before heading back to the rooms to rest. I ended up getting sick shortly after, but a few hours of snoozing did me justice. When Rainbow and I woke up, Cindy and Amy had just stumbled in drunk and they ended up passing out. Four of us went first with the guys to TAO to get our handstamps, and picked up food from Grand Lux on the way back. Mmm mm, I LOVE Grand Lux, and I have yet to visit Vegas once without eating there. I hope to continue the tradition.



We had a nice chat while eating our yummy jumbo shrimp scampi pasta dishes in the room, and we debated whether or not we should actually go to the club. We were all so exhausted (and two were still passed out) from the two nights of clubbing before that we were completely content with staying in. But, in the spirit of Halloween, and Vegas, we finally forced ourselves to get ready. After all, we put in so much effort to get our Disney princesses theme together! Two hours later, we were all awake and looking gorgeous. The costumes came together quite nicely and we headed to Tao. The fact that we stayed at the Venetian and went to TAO on Sunday was a godsend, if it were any less convenient we probably wouldn't have made it. We didn't have to wait in line because we already had stamps, and it was easy as pie. The guys happened to get a table so we had a place to sit. Overall, Tao was a very chill night - mostly because we got in late. I still had lots of fun though, but one thing I don't understand is why Tao is so overrated. I didn't think the venue was that great (compared to XS and Surrender), but it wasn't bad either.



After the club I ended up in the guys room, and we were talking about future Vegas trips not happening, and happening, and road trips. And it just made me glad to be there, and sort of solidified how grateful I was that I got to be a part of that Vegas trip. As we get older, I hope that we have more hurrahs like that because seriously Vegas was the most fun I've ever had on a trip. All of my favorite people were there! And if we don't, at least I'll have that trip to remember - the one that set the bar.

Monday was painful for me, I was so exhausted from all of the partying. We had buffet lunch at the Rio and we ended up getting into a really lively conversation. I think we were all delirious, but I've never had such an interesting buffet lunch. We headed back to the hotel to meet up the guys again and await our flight. We said goodbye to Nancy who left before us (awh, love that girl) and in no time it was our turn to leave. The flight back was nice because most of us were flying together, but I wish we had all had seats together instead of scattered. The plane went crazy for about a minute when the Giants won, I could really care less though lol.

It was such a fantastic trip! And I have so many happy memories =) So thankful to have such great friends and awesome times, and I can't wait until we do it again.

Crustacean & Costumes

Tonight I had one of the BEST DINNERS EVER! Julian and I were browsing Urban Spoon (LOL) and came across CRUSTACEAN! We both had heard lots about the place, so we decided to go. The food was so delicious... we had Crab Puffs, Grilled Calamari, Roasted Crab, and Saigon Beef. Everything was good, even the garlic rice and Bellini Martinis! I don't usually eat crab because it requires so much effort, but this was worth it. And the bibs DEFINITELY came in handy! I can't believe we both hadn't been before, it was such a treat! We noticed that the famous neon crab sign above the elevator was dying =( and we reminisced seeing that sign as children... we're getting old. We actually did a lot of reminiscing over dinner, and I had a really awesome time catching up. The service was great, and it was much more dressy than I had anticipated - luckily we were well-dressed. Good food, good service, and great company. I had so much fun! This is now one of my fave restaurants, and I rarely LOVE restaurants.

Later on at night I was summoned for the brainstorming of Halloween costumes, and when I got downstairs Dom & B were wearing some ridiculous children-sized duck and fireman Walmart costumes - IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I've decided to be a sailor for Halloween, and together with V (and some others hopefully) we can do the Village People theme.