Tuesday, September 06, 2005
US Open, great food, great company, great parties, etc.
Last weekend was definitely the best time I've ever had in New York. Weather was sunny everyday with a hint of comfortable cool breeze, food was crazy delicious - thanks to Bryan and his venerable skills at sourcing fine dining, and my time well spent on hanging out with the good friends from high school and college. Here's a recap from this year's Labor Day weekend:
Friday night:
Arrived at JFK 8pm. I was a little tired after working and the 2 hours flight, which normally should just take 40min. The pilot missed the landing and had to circle around the airport again to try land the plane the second time. However, I was more excited than anything to start the weekend early. After a quick quesadilla at buddy Bryan+Charlene's old but cozy apartment in Queens, we left for Times Square to catch a 12:30am movie, "The Constant Gardner." I felt like I was rich, spending $10.50 on a mediocre movie in heart of Manhattan - already I was assimilating the "expensiveness" of living in the Big Apple.
Saturday:
US Open start at 11am. We woke up at 11am. It's always good to be able to check the game schedule online the night before, because we planned our schedule accordingly so we could catch Blake vs Nadal and Agassi vs Ber(something). Blake beating the #2 seed was definitely something, because the whole stadium stood up and roared everytime he hit a winner; the cheers went on for at least five minutes when he beat Nadal. Screw watching tennis on TV man, I'm coming here every year now!
US Open from Arthur Ashe. The weather couldn't be better.
Some Russian chick who wishes she's Sharpova
Blake vs Nadal
Will, Bryan, Charlene at 2005 US Open
We met up with Wayne after the games and ate cheese and steak at this supposedly top-rated cheese steaks place in Mahattan. Pratts at Philly still has better cheese steak, but it was good nonetheless. Later, we cabbed to Chinatown, which scared us shitless because our driver caused a major accident behind us. Glad that we were still in one piece, we met up with Sharon and went to my favorite boba shop in Chinatown, only to discover that their bubble tea wasn't as good as I remembed. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought the place was good, because I ran into another friend from DC and she said that that was her favorite bubble tea shop too! While we suck on the tasteless boba balls, we talked about gas price, birds, insects, China haters, China lovers, and how Wayne just threw an empty Barq's Rootbeer can on the sidewalk of NY, claiming that it was more environmental friendly than the trash cans. Wayne is a conserative biologist by the way.
Sunday:
We were supposed to go to Jen's BBQ, but we were in the city the whole day so we didn't have time to head back to Queens. Nevertheless, we had a good meal at one of the many ghetto restaurants at Chinatown; everyone knows, the ghettoer, the more delicious. While hogging down the ultra-delicious, slightly spicy meat sauce with the thinly sliced, soft but texture-full hand-made noodles, I also noticed this was why Bryan got fatter within these three months. Peter, and later Cathy, were there with us, and basically kept me company while the couple shopped, hugged, and tortored each other (yeah, I was the third wheel all weekend).
Went by SoHo, Brazilian festival, Chelsea (Gelatto was SO GOOD) and finally ended up in an authentic Japanese BBQ restaurant, where Angie joined us with small eats, sake, and good conversation, which occasional interrupts of Michelle + Andrea's calls, informing us how lonely they are and wanted us hotties to join the two gorgeous girls. They were obviously drunk and absolutely wrong about the "gorgeous girls" part.
Finished the night off at Peter's high-class luxury apartment with designer furnitures. Not bad playing Texas Hold'em with Cherios (as opposed to poker chips) and drinking fine wine on the 11th floor watching the East Riverside. Too bad we missed the open bar at Tempo!
Sunday:
Dim Sum at Flushing. Brooklyne Bride. Lots of weddings and water. Brooklyne Heights. Juniors cheese cake. The aimless drive in Manhattan. Thai fusion restaurant. JFK airport.
Today:
I went to my garage, about to start a new day in the real life, only to discover that it wasn't so real afterall. As I blankly stared at the empty space where my car should have parked, millions of thoughts ran into my mind: Was my car towed? Did somebody steal my car? After the series of unfortunate events (eg broken window, flat tire), I almost believed I was witnessing the saddest scenario: stolen R32. Dumbfounded for 30 seconds, I finally realized I left my car at the office last Friday, so I reluctantly started my walk towards the company (5 miles), thinking if I can make it to office before noon. I guess today is my lucky day because I managed to stop a yellow cab dropping somone off in an office building nearby. That was probably the best spent $11 since I started working here.
Friday night:
Arrived at JFK 8pm. I was a little tired after working and the 2 hours flight, which normally should just take 40min. The pilot missed the landing and had to circle around the airport again to try land the plane the second time. However, I was more excited than anything to start the weekend early. After a quick quesadilla at buddy Bryan+Charlene's old but cozy apartment in Queens, we left for Times Square to catch a 12:30am movie, "The Constant Gardner." I felt like I was rich, spending $10.50 on a mediocre movie in heart of Manhattan - already I was assimilating the "expensiveness" of living in the Big Apple.
Saturday:
US Open start at 11am. We woke up at 11am. It's always good to be able to check the game schedule online the night before, because we planned our schedule accordingly so we could catch Blake vs Nadal and Agassi vs Ber(something). Blake beating the #2 seed was definitely something, because the whole stadium stood up and roared everytime he hit a winner; the cheers went on for at least five minutes when he beat Nadal. Screw watching tennis on TV man, I'm coming here every year now!
US Open from Arthur Ashe. The weather couldn't be better.
Some Russian chick who wishes she's Sharpova
Blake vs Nadal
Will, Bryan, Charlene at 2005 US Open
We met up with Wayne after the games and ate cheese and steak at this supposedly top-rated cheese steaks place in Mahattan. Pratts at Philly still has better cheese steak, but it was good nonetheless. Later, we cabbed to Chinatown, which scared us shitless because our driver caused a major accident behind us. Glad that we were still in one piece, we met up with Sharon and went to my favorite boba shop in Chinatown, only to discover that their bubble tea wasn't as good as I remembed. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought the place was good, because I ran into another friend from DC and she said that that was her favorite bubble tea shop too! While we suck on the tasteless boba balls, we talked about gas price, birds, insects, China haters, China lovers, and how Wayne just threw an empty Barq's Rootbeer can on the sidewalk of NY, claiming that it was more environmental friendly than the trash cans. Wayne is a conserative biologist by the way.
Sunday:
We were supposed to go to Jen's BBQ, but we were in the city the whole day so we didn't have time to head back to Queens. Nevertheless, we had a good meal at one of the many ghetto restaurants at Chinatown; everyone knows, the ghettoer, the more delicious. While hogging down the ultra-delicious, slightly spicy meat sauce with the thinly sliced, soft but texture-full hand-made noodles, I also noticed this was why Bryan got fatter within these three months. Peter, and later Cathy, were there with us, and basically kept me company while the couple shopped, hugged, and tortored each other (yeah, I was the third wheel all weekend).
Went by SoHo, Brazilian festival, Chelsea (Gelatto was SO GOOD) and finally ended up in an authentic Japanese BBQ restaurant, where Angie joined us with small eats, sake, and good conversation, which occasional interrupts of Michelle + Andrea's calls, informing us how lonely they are and wanted us hotties to join the two gorgeous girls. They were obviously drunk and absolutely wrong about the "gorgeous girls" part.
Finished the night off at Peter's high-class luxury apartment with designer furnitures. Not bad playing Texas Hold'em with Cherios (as opposed to poker chips) and drinking fine wine on the 11th floor watching the East Riverside. Too bad we missed the open bar at Tempo!
Sunday:
Dim Sum at Flushing. Brooklyne Bride. Lots of weddings and water. Brooklyne Heights. Juniors cheese cake. The aimless drive in Manhattan. Thai fusion restaurant. JFK airport.
Today:
I went to my garage, about to start a new day in the real life, only to discover that it wasn't so real afterall. As I blankly stared at the empty space where my car should have parked, millions of thoughts ran into my mind: Was my car towed? Did somebody steal my car? After the series of unfortunate events (eg broken window, flat tire), I almost believed I was witnessing the saddest scenario: stolen R32. Dumbfounded for 30 seconds, I finally realized I left my car at the office last Friday, so I reluctantly started my walk towards the company (5 miles), thinking if I can make it to office before noon. I guess today is my lucky day because I managed to stop a yellow cab dropping somone off in an office building nearby. That was probably the best spent $11 since I started working here.
