Sunday morning I met with a client who I had met for the first time 3 months ago. She was about 4 shades darker this time because she had gone to a BBQ the day before at the famous Tomales Bay Oyster Company. My friend commented that she really wanted to have a BBQ there too since we've all heard about it but have never gone.

So Monday I put up a facebook status about wanting to go and got a lot of positive feeback. So I put it together for Wednesday, which is my mom's day off so she could go too. By Tuesday night, I had 15 people confirmed. I was kind of nervous since a lot more people than I had expected were coming to an event I have no experience with. And on top of that they were all random friends that I knew from different places: xanga, church, high school, cousins, college, etc..

Tuesday night Christina came over to help me and mom prepare for the BBQ. Mom made all the real food while Christina and I made the Spam Musubi.  

Why aren't there any pictures of ME cooking? This makes it look like I made Christina do all the work... Hahaha.

 
The yummy finished product. These went fast! Too fast! I forgot to eat one 

Wednesday everyone met at my house first to meet each othr. Then we headed off to Tomales Bay, which is about an hour away from me. The road was SUPER curvey so everyone got a little car sick. One car had to pull to the side of the road to throw up! The weather was on and off sunny and a little bit chilly but at least not windy! The overcast made for a lovely lake BBQ

 
We bought about a hundred oysters and 2 pounds of clams at Tomales Bay!

Let's get this BBQ started!

Me being extra gentle with the oysters placing them on the grill one by one by one because I didn't want to hurt them. Before I ate them. Muahaha!

Yum yum! BBQ food was delicious thanks to mum!

My cousins and waiting for the oysters and the clams to open up. Good thing they got the wer black & sun hats memo

Us girls shucking away at them oysters! Lots of fun!

After lunch us girls took a walk along the bay and found Jelly Fishes washed ashore! Since I was wearing rainboots and we had no other way of saving these poor Jelly fishes, we put them on my boot and I walked them back to the water. Maybe we hurt more than we helped  o.0

The lovely Christina and I   In tights and boots since it wasn't sundress-wearing weather 

At the end of the day. Packed and ready to go

After wards everyone came back to my place to snack and nap. The night ended with a game of Cranium!! Girls rule!

I had a blast!! Thanks to everyone who came and helped out on such short notice. The BBQ was a sucess! Hope you had a yummy lunch and made some new friends
Special thanks to Christina for taking and uploading all the pictures I stole!

I am writing this for my yoebo because he's lazy and I am on a posting spreeee!

Disclaimer: EVERYTHING is 100,000,000% true!

More Random Things About Yoebo aka WonChoe

-  I have a million shampoos and conditioners in my bathroom. They belong to everyone but me. I use whatever but my favorite is Herbal Essence because it smells yummy. Teehee!

-  What is lotion? Is that the white stuff my girlfriend uses after she showers?

-  If I had the option of choosing a fancy night out or a movie at home in sweats with a girl. I'd choose staying at home playing video games by myself. But it doesnt really matter because I get no opinin because my girlfriend always chooses to go out to a fancy dinner. Sometimes shes askes to humor me but she never listens anyway.

-  Makeup. It's the reason I sit and wait for an hour before we go out.

-  I actually take a REALLY long time in the morning. I need to get out of bed, shower, have coffee and breakfast. The words "hurry up" have no meaning to me.

-  I don't butt heads with my parents. I am a good son.

-  My lips are plump and juicy. Good for pouting and for kissing becuase they are super soft.

-  I don't care about other people at all. But I care a lot about my girlfriend. I can listen to her ramble on forever about other people, whom I don't care about, and still be happy.

I stole this from JL789. She has the most interesting random facts. I want to be interesting too

More Random Things About Me

-  I have one shampoo and one conditoner because it works. I'm not too big on how it smells. I use it until it's done, which is a long time considering I buy in professional bulk sizes, and then buy either the same thing or a new set depending on my hair needs. It bothers me to have more than one set in the shower but I usually leave it alone for when we have guests.

-  I use two lotions. One for body and one for face. Face lotion is Neutrogena. Body lotions changes with the season. I use thick creme for the winter and a light oil for the summer.

-  If I had the option of choosing a fancy night out or a movie at home in sweats with a guy, a fancy night. Not only do I LOVE dressing up, I love dressing him up. And hopefully the guy is a good photographer

-  Er... Makeup is my profession so I know how to put it on anyone and everyone. With that said, I rarely wear makeup but when I do my mom always says its too much since I go for the drama. Go big or go home anyone?

-  I can get ready to leave the house pretty fast if I wanted to, like in the morning before school. But I usually choose to listen to music and take my time.

-  I don't butt heads with my parents really. I let them think that I am their goody two shoes daughter but I secretly do my own things. Haha. I sure know how to keep my mouth shut.

-  My lips are naturally pinkish-red with a deep natural lip liner to boot.  People used to ask what lipstick and liner I use. Nothing really.

-  I hardly worry about other people. I know people always will in the end take care of themselves. I love it when people pour their hearts and soul to me but I don't lose sleep over it. People always bounce back in time

And now a SUPER FUNNY make-up related video for you all to enjoy. Lol can you imagine me asking my clients to do this?!

Last weekend was my brother's wedding and my cousin's engagement. Of course I invited yoebo to the family gathering. So he can meet EVERYONE and see how a Vietnamese wedding is done    Yoebo came a few days early and stayed a few days late so we can hang out. Not to mention he went to EVERYTHING I had to go to.

Now if you guys don't know my relationship with yoebo already he's the best. Very patient, very kind, very willing to go the extra mile for me. But I didn't know what this REALLY meant until this weekend.

The week started with me buying all his outfits to match mine perfectly. I changed as many times as the bride did. And yoebo matched each an every one of my outfits from torquoise to hot magenta. Of course everyone commented on it    I'll post pictures as they start coming in.

Yoebo came on Thursday and unlucky me I was right in the middle of FINALS & reviews. So yoebo had a lot of time to kill while I had to be in school. Good thing he loves playing online games and that can keep him occupied for most of the time. But I did get out of school early and we went to eat Boiling Crab. Too bad we had to wait in line for 1 1/2 hours before being seated. I imagine yoebo to get angry and explode like the Hulk at one point but nope, not even one complaint. He just held my hand and sat patiently.

Then Friday yoebo dropped me off at school then took my car to the dealership to help me fix something. Turns out I need to fix A LOT of things : (   He met me up for lunch with my favorite things to eat. I got my hair prepped at school so I looked crazy cuz my hair was up in rollers. After school we went to the mall and I made yoebo hold my hand since everyone was staring at me like a crazy person cuz of my hair    Yoebo laughed at me but didn't complain one bit. Then we packed and headed up to Sacramento for the weekend. Yoebo usually drives like a mad man and scared me but he didn't this time since I was in the car    Right off the bat in Sacramento my brother and Yoebo did not get along becuase my brother can be a huge jerk. But yoebo promised to be calm, which he did much to my surprise. I kenw he was boiling inside

Saturday was the wedding. Poor me had to wake up at 3am to do my own makeup & hair then my mothers. Then head over to the bride's house and help her and her mother get ready for an 8am wedding. That means Yoebo had to get up at 3am too : (   I was pretty busy most of the morning so I left Yoebo to fend for himself with all my relatives. That didn't fare too well since he was the ONLY non Vietnamese and this was the first time he was meeting everyone. But by the end of the night Yoebo was drinking and merry at the reception. What an exhausting day! I am SUPER glad yoebo was there to drive instead of me, and to pick up food and medecine since I probably would have died without him.

Sunday again I had to wake up super early to get the new bride ready for her Trash the Dress Session, which means yoebo had to wake up early too. Then we headed back to the Bay Area for my cousin's engagement party. Again, everyone spoke Vietnamese except my yoebo. But I felt things went much better this time around. Then we came home and crashed. I woke up and yoebo had ended up on the floor     I knew he was as dead tired as I was and we still had to go to Vietnamese church. I get bored going for an hour long mass in which I can at least understand what's going on. I wonder how yoebo must have felt. The night ended with us taking my aunt & uncle for a tour of San Francisco. I was exhausted and I knew yoebo was too but he pushed on ever so kind to my relatives.

Monday morning yoebo had to wake up early again to drive me to school. Then back to the dealorship to fix up the rest of my car. He sometime ask if he was my butler or my boyfriend. How do I ever make it up to him? We ended the day with going out with my cousins. I don't know how much he enjoys shopping with a bunch of girls but he didn't act like he minded.

And too soon he had to catch his flight back home. To be honest, I'm not really sure how much yoebo enjoyed this last weekend.  I'm not even too sure how much I enjoyed it because everything was really exhausting for me. On top of that yoebo woke up when I woke up, went to sleep when I went to sleep and was ALWAYS there for me. I'm going to marry him so he can NEVER leave me. Life is so much better when he's around. Hehe.

I was visiting my old high school with a friend. We walked through the football field and watched the cheerleaders and the dancers practice their routine. We stopped at the sidewalk and I called my dad's cell phone. I haven't seen him in quite a while but thought I'd call him anyway to see if he could pick me up so I didn't have to drive home. My mom picked up instead.

"Mom? Why do you have dad's phone? Why doesn't dad.....

Before I could finish my dad surprised me from behind. How did he know when and where to pick me up? He had probably been waiting for me like he always used to. Perfect! I don't have to drive. My dad would drive me home instead. He was in a cheerful mood and I was glad to see him afer such a long time. He held my hand and walked me to the car. His hand wrapped around my little one felt so comforting. I wondered when was the last time we were like this? So long ago. Too long ago.

We got to the car and he opened the door for me. I am so glad he's healthy now. He survived his second stroke, what are the odds of that?

I woke up.

And realized I could never feel the warmth of his hands again, only in my dreams.

The new fad on xanga is to list the xangans you'd like to meet or f*ck.  Reading everyone's list reminds me of how Yoebo and I got together. We met on xanga, in case you guys didn't know. Haha!

I always laugh when I think about it. If you scroll backwards into my old entries, you'll see his silly comments on all my posts that I post pictures. And he ONLY comments on the pictures (kind of like now) but never on the content. So for the longest time I ignored him (kind of like how I ignore a lot of you now.. hahaha just kidding. I only ignore the creeper comments). And by the longest time, I mean like a year.

And if you read HIS old entries, they're about dumb boy stuff. Like sports, and fights, and boobs. And he was REALLY popular with the ladies (which he STILL is). He was funny but not someone I thought much about. Until he started writing serious entries about his family that made my heart melt a little. But the hook, line, and sinker was when he wrote about how he was going to Hawaii but needed someone to go with.

So I snooped and found his screen name and we chatted for a few days. Right away he told me to go visit him in Seattle. To which I replied... HELL NO crazie!! But I made the mistake of jokingly inviting him to San Francisco since I knew he wouldn't go. Except he did accept!!! Ahhh!! So literally the next week I was picking him up from the airport. In between that time I was the one to initiate exchanging phone numbers, and texting, and phone calls. But he made everything so easy because he loved to text and listen to me talk.

We met and it wasn't awkward at all! He didn't seem a tiny bit nervous and it was like we knew each other since forever. Our first date was the cutest date in the history of cute dates since we went to the Garlic Festival. We ate ice cream together, got a hermit crab together, and even matching henna tattoos! Super cute! It wasn't even supposed to be a date from what I thought but since he said I had to kiss him at the end of the night, I guess it became a date. That was the quickest kiss in the history of kiss!

And thats my story of meeting a xangan I couldn't be happier I did

This is a slight twist on Thoughts_Of_P blogs about Ten Simple Rules for the Next Guy/Girl Who Dates My Man

I have been extremely tired these past few days. I started running with an old friend of mine after school. Whoever said running made you feel great and energized... lied. I couldn't stay awake for 2 days after running. Anyhow, I am in the middle of Operation Doll so I must keep running. Eating healthy and running.

Other than that, I've been feeling a sense of tiredsome for my life. Nothing is going bad so I couldnt complain. But I need something to mix it up from school, work, and family. I'm so tired. I need another vacation already! I need to be taken out on a date is what. Wicked tickets are on sale *hint hint*

Hope everyone is doing well 

I was raised in a strict Catholic upbringing. My mother was a Sunday school teacher for the children. And my father was the Sunday school teacher for the adults who wanted to convert. My dad was the chairman of the Vietamese Catholic community in San Francisco. And my mother was the president of the Vietnamese Catholic Mothers group. My dad stayed an advisor when he retired from his position but his work never stopped. Even when we switched to another church he became an advisor for them. If you walk into either Vietnamese Catholic churches in SF, you will see my dad's legacy. You will see the community he built and the traditions he started. You will see the alter he built with his own two hands still on display even decades later, the same alter he built from wood and scrap metal in our very living room.

I have never seen a funeral so crowded as my father's. People sat shoulder by shoulder filling up every single bench in the funeral home, still people lined the walls and out the door. They were all his church people. And I listened as represenatives from every church group stood up to speak about my father, the religious man, the pioneer, the advisor, the older brother. They were his peoples.

And they used to be my peoples. God to used to my peoples too. I was never one to publicly defend religion or try to spread it by any means. But I was geniune when I thanked the Lord for my meals, when I prayed to him every single night, and every single morning. I didn't mind coming to church EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY of my 21 years, church was calming, it was the place I went to when I needed to cry. Prayer was what I did in my hours of gratitude and my hours of need. I didn't speak much of it but I was geniuine about it.

It has been 8 months since my father passed away. It has been 8 months since I've really had any genuine connection to my religion.

We drove up Friday night and got to LA at 1am! Such a long drive! My leg was getting tired during the last hour stretch. We had a GOOD night sleep!

KOGI TRUCK - The famous Mexican taco truck made with korean bbq meat. The stupid truck took FOREVER to find since it was parked inside a high school with no signs anywhere. We must have driven around the school 4 or 5 times like creepers before we spotted it through all the school fencing. Lame. Then to top it off there wasn't a long line of people, just a bunch of high school students and their parents who were there for the weekend sport game. And they all STARED as us as we walked in with our heels and our shorts and our sexy tops. EMBARASSING!! And if that wasn't enough it was a deaf/mute high school so everyone just signed to each other and we didnt know what they were saying. Awkward.

UCLA - Afterwards we met up my best friend from high school who ended up at her dream school, UCLA. The campus is gorgeous!

Go Bruins!

Time to go home... to get ready to paaaarty!

GEISHA HOUSE - The Ashton Kutcher owned sushi house. The outside was dingy and red with no windows! Looks more like a whore house. But the inside was super trendy and had a lounge/club type feel. The food was DELICIOUS!

Girls getting ready in the bathroom.

Our dinner booth.

Post dinner pictures. My dress has stains. How embarassing -__-

INDUSTRY - The asian night club. There was not a single black person in sight and white people were treated like diseases. This was a seriously asian club. People hardly spoke English not becuase they couldn't but because they preferred to speak in Mandarin. Good thing I was asian right? Hehe. Everyone was super nice and the crowd was classy unlike the ghetto clubs in San Francisco. And while we valeted our Camry Hyrid everyone else drove up in Beemers, Bentleys, Mercedes, and even Limos -___-.They say the famous singer Jay Chou comes here to party. We didn't spot him that night but I did spot some Vietnamese celebrities. I didn't know their names so I didn't approach them  plus I didn't want to seem like a groupie when I wasn't even a fan to start with. What was interesting was the celebrities were kind of vulgar for no reason. My image of them being so sweet is ruined!! Haha. Anyhow, I had SOOO much fun! We got home a 4am and knocked out!

I am addicted to my stripper shoes. But still so tiny compared to my friends 

With my new friends! The ones I can remember anyhow 

SIX FLAGS - The next day we got up bright and early and headed to Six Flags Magic Mountains to watch the Miss Drill Team competition. Our girls won 1st in their division. What else is new right?

I'm so old I don't even know the actual team members anymore! But I still love to watch them and help out when I can.

Of course, the best part was seeing our old (he claims young) team advisor. Not the best, but definitely my most favorite teacher!

HOME - Then we headed home and back into our life of school and work. It's not so bad, I love it all

How was everyone's weekend?