I closed one window and it opened another window, or maybe I opened two windows, but in any case, one window was still open when I thought that all of them were closed.

Someone please just put a hole in my head now.

i can't move my butt

After a morning of frantic shopping for ghetto-ass clothes, 3 hours of dancing and squatting, and going out and dancing all night, my butt is completely sore.

Michelle and I headed off to Serramonte (where else would you find ghetto-ass clothes?) to pick out a costume for my dance show in a couple of weeks. We found the cutest white skirt - with shorts built in! - and a ton of fun stuff at Forever 21. "I'm here for costume approval," I said to Micaya when I walked in the door, decked out in the skirt, pink J. Lo hat, sweatshirt over blue tank and fishnets. "You look hella cute - get out of here!" she laughed.

The best thing about my costume? I can dance in it - unlike my sad, sad attempt to dance in knee-high boots and a mini skirt last week.

Later on in the evening, I met up with Eric H., Karen and Agnes at Butterfly. For some reason, I always thought that it was a full-on club after dinner hours, but they closed the bar around 12, so we headed off to Fuse for cucumber cosmos and dancing.

Gawd, what is it about North Beach? When we were walking there, we saw so many hella-ghetto boys, all leering at the three of us. Then, in the club, there was this amazing white guy dancing, well - like a white guy. And I don't just mean a guy who doesn't have great rhythm. I mean like point point clap point clap clap squat cowboy dancing. I couldn't stop cracking up - I had just watched the "How to Dance Like a White Guy" video the night before, and I swear, he had all those moves going on.

After last call, we ended up at some Chinese restaurant, where we overindulged in noodles. We were originally going to go out some more, but I think we all passed out from the food. *Sigh* Long weekends are bad for my diet.

*sigh* summer's here

Most people who watch a lot of TV sit on their butts and get fat. I work out when I watch TV, so I have some slight concern that I'm going to be getting fat over the summer.

Besides, anyone who knows me knows that really good television is the key to my heart. (Ripe Mt. Rainier white cherries run a close second.) That being said, I feel almost bereft that one of the best seasons of TV in a long time has come to an end.

And what an end! Reactions to the season finales of my 4 favorite shows (spoilers below, so highlight over them if you want to read...)

Alias: Still my favorite, despite the introduction of Lost and Desperate Housewives. All I can say is - OH. MY. GOD. What an ending. How could Vaughn not be Vaughn? Is he still Bill Vaughn's son? A double? Didn't sound like it from the way that he led into it ("I didn't become your handler by chance"), but I'd like to see how they're going to explain this one. And that accident! JJ has already said that "the plan is to have [Vaughn] back." What does that mean?!

One more thing - the "epic battle" between Nadia and Sydney? Not so epic. I really feel like this season has been much more about Nadia than Sydney - somehow she doesn't seem like the superhero anymore. Which is ok, because Mia Maestro is a much better actress. And besides, its amazing how much she looks like both Lena Olin and Ron Rifkin.

Desperate Housewives: Holy sh*t! Is Rex really dead? When we were watching it, we totally missed that scene - overeager Tivo forwarding! I am so amazingly saddened by it, and didn't really expect that the Roger Bart's creepy character could really kill him off. AND this guy is a regular next season. My skin crawls just thinking about him.

But then again, everyone knows how I feel about clingy, obsessive men.

24: I'm trying to figure out multiple ways to say "holy sh*t" because I guess that's mostly my reaction to everything this last week :-)

How are they going to bring back Jack? Why do they always try to attack LA? I mean, I hate LA as much as anyone else, but its really not major enough of a city to expend all that effort on. And I agree with whoever said that jackass of a President - Logan - was too much a caricature of himself. He even kinda looks like Nixon.

Minor bone to pick: I know Kim wasn't a regular on the show this season (thank god) but wouldn't it have made sense for her to the first person that Jack called after his faked death? Tsk, tsk. Bad continuity, writers.

Lost: Bad idea, watching the season finale show late at night when I'm home by myself. The Others abducting Walt - I felt like I was watching some creepy pirate ghost movie. *shivers* I really thought that Rousseau lady was out of her head and making up "The Others" until they came for Walt. Why didn't anyone guess - considering his "powers" - that the boy that they were referring to all along was him?

And please, please, PLEASE don't let Sawyer be dead - you guys already killed off one hot guy, you can't take my beautiful, dimpled boy. I am such a sucker for those dumples. If he dies, I'm officially boycotting the show forever - Matt Fox just doesn't do it for me.

Grey's Anatomy: Not a favorite, but its a good additional exercise hour. No real comment, except who couldn't see that "cliffhanger" coming? How cliche.

All in all, a fantastic season. The only thing keeping me going (and hopefully, exercising) this summer are reruns of shows that I didn't get to watch this season for lack of bandwidth, i.e., Veronica Mars and Smallville. I'm really hoping they'll run reruns in relative order so I won't be completely confused. I also think after Lena Olin's fantastic stint as Mama Bristow, I'm going to have to revisit Season 2 of Alias all over again.

the best way to kick off a long weekend...

... is with some good, old-fashioned pampering.

When I got to work today, there was just NO ONE there. Which was really annoying, because I was there before 9 for once, and I don't even have any witnesses! In any case, I stayed for a few hours and decided to go home.

On my way back I text messaged Miriam, who was also leaving early. "Food?" I asked. "Yes," she replied. "Herbivore?" I suggested. That got me a real live phone call. "I was actually thinking Memphis Minnie's," she said. The exact opposite of light vegetarian fare, but what the heck, its the weekend.

Afterwards, I mentioned that I really needed a manicure, as I had rib tips stuck under my nails. "That's exactly what I was thinking!" Miriam exclaimed, and we headed over to her favorite salon - Bliss - for a mani/pedi combo.

Mmmmm. I think I may have discovered another "favorite" spot in the city. Bliss isn't like any of the hundreds of ghetto nail places in the city, where no one really speaks English, and they yell at you if you try to leave before your nails dry. (I say all this in fondness, mind you.) The walls are painted a cheerful yellow, there are space-age looking chairs for the manis, and the whole place smells like lemongrass. I got the Moji-Toe pedicure, which included soaking my feet in water with fresh lime and mint, a mint scrub, and a fantasic 10 minute foot massage.

I'll definitely be back. We may even make it a standing mani-date.

o brother, here art thou

My cousin Kevin was in town briefly on a layover between Ohio and Taiwan (he goes to Oberlin College). And before you ask - no, he's not my brother/cousin because his father and mother are related. His mom and my mommy are sisters, and we lived within blocks of each other most of his life. Since we're both only childs, and I would go over his house after school (Grandma was there), I pretty much consider him my little bro.

I was lucky enough to get upwards of 3 days notice that he was coming through this time. Last time, I got no notice at all...

[Cut to hazy flashback sequence]

Phone rings...

Serena (sitting in hotel room in Sacramento): Hello?
Kevin: Serena? Its Kevin.
Serena: Heya.
Kevin: Can you pick me up? I'm at SFO right now.
Serena: What?! You're here?!
Kevin: Yeah, didn't I tell you I was going to be coming through?
Serena: You vaguely mentioned three months ago that you might be coming to SF in August. But you didn't send me an itinerary or anything! I can't pick you up, I'm in Sacramento.
Kevin: Oh.

[Cut back to present]

The stupid dorkwad ended up taking a shuttle to our apartment building, and Nathan had to let him in. So I consider three days notice and being in town a huge improvement.

In any case, buttmunch that he is, I was really glad to see him. He's still my little squirt - after all, we were temporarily living with my aunt and uncle when he was born. I picked him up from his other aunt's place in Cupertino after work on Wednesday, and took him out to a fabulous sushi dinner at - you guessed it! - Chin's.

The food was fabulous, as usual, and I was super excited because there were new items on the menu. Yes, I've been there enough that I've sampled everything at least once. We tried out the Miso Crab Cakes: tiny little crab cakes drizzled in curry oil and marinated in miso, accompanied by some salmon sashimi. Delicious. We also ordered a new roll, whose name escapes me, but it was pretty damn good: tempura scallops topped with fried garlic and avocado. Its got a fairly subtle flavor at first, but the aftertaste - when the garlic hits you - is amazing. We topped it off with the best lychee ice cream in the world, which I just found you you can buy at Smart and Final!

I drove him to the airport the next afternoon, and gave him a hug. "Come back, squirt," I said. "I totally miss you."

the mysteries of vegetarian meat

Well, I guess there's really no mystery. Its soy stuff that's supposed to taste like meat. Except it doesn't.

But I find veggie "meat" to be equally as good, just in a different way - especially pork and duck. They're both WAY too fatty to eat on a regular basis, but the veggie/soy versions are pretty tasty. Not to mention that they are far healthier.

Case(s) in point: Vegetarian smoked tea duck at the Love 'n Haight Deli, the vegetal sweet and sour pork at Shangrila Restaurant, and Gardenburger's frozen BBQ "riblets". All much better than their real meat versions - I had real smoked tea duck the other day, and almost gagged because of all the fat. Yuck.

And I don't care how much you people and/or various waitstaff laugh at me - a veggie burger with bacon is probably one of the best things in the world.

WAAAAAHHH!!!

I've been hitting various versions of the computerized GMAT hard, and I realized that my scores suck. I was doing pretty well on the paper versions, and my quizzes and drills are going fine. BUT... when it comes to the computerized version, with its stupid stupid stupid 75 minute sections, I just totally tank.

This is me + GMATs

On a good note, my stamina is much better than it used to be. I haven't even slightly fallen asleep or over during the 75 minute sections. I have hope...

Mini-wah?

garage sale madness

First of all, yes - I know I suck. My apologies to those of you who showed up to SWIG last night on my invite. Especially Gerardo and Alex, whose bday party I missed once again. Thank God they're having another one :-)

But I had a completely legitamite excuse - Heather and I were moving stuff down to the garage until 11 last night, and we just totally passed out face-down on the couch. If I didn't burn some serious calories these last couple of days, I don't think I ever will...

On that note, our Garage Sale/Sidewalk BBQ was an unexpected success. Unexpected because I never thought that people would be waiting outside for us to open the doors at 11; a success because I managed to sell most of my big pieces, and made about $300. Unfortunately, we didn't get rid of most of the little junk - there are still boxes of trashy romance novels if anyone wants them! - but they're all packed up and ready for Goodwill.

The Garage Sale itself wasn't the main point of the day though - we ended up firing up the grill and having good friends, great conversation, and some very yummy food. Laura's peach salsa still blows me away, and the chicken-apple sausage from Trader Joe's was just incredible.

Some memorable moments from our first (and hopefully ONLY garage sale):

• The woman who showed up and just took the ENTIRE free box. She didn't even bother to look through it to see what was in it.
• Accidentally selling Larissa's chair. Oops. Glad I gave her a discount on that TV.
• Laura spending all of the money she made shopping.
• Fernando trying on the skirt, and Eric trying on the bra. Must be something in the water at MIT.
• My "Everything (marked in red) 1/2 off!" sign. I ended up jumping up and down with it to attract customers... and it actually worked!
• Ohhhh, the food. Did I mention the sausages?

Fernando and Laura simulataneously rummage, while drinking beers...


... while Johnny and Larissa set up more stuff.


Heather does the happy dance


My infamous sign


I'm sure its that and not my jumping up and down that created attention.


We even put the whiteboard to use, promising free parking for potential customers.


Fernando extols the many virtues of the dress.


Personally, Eric, I think the bra looks fabulous on you.

I think we sold more stuff to each other than we did to outside customers.

At 2:15, I had to leave to get to my dance workshop. I flirted with the idea of wearing a mini-skirt, fishnets and boots as my costume for the show, but it was impossible to dance in. Plus, I felt like a streetwalker. So Irma, Jasmine and I are going shopping on Thursday.

Now, I must collapse...

ice ice (09)babies

We're only a week and a half away from our low-key May event, ICE, being held at the Madrone Lounge. If y'alls are in town on May 29th, stop by for some infused vodkas, peach martinis, great art, and - of course - fabulous music!

This time, its going to be a chill event (hence the name), which will be an interesting change. We're featuring Miriam's friend Ashton, Laura's friend Jarrett, and of course, Wiggy will be spinning. I think Vanessa and Michelle are also going to run a speed dating thing from 6 - 8 to raise more money.

In other exciting 09:Babies news, we booked 111 Minna for July 8th, which is a Friday. We're on the hunt for some good bhangra DJs, so if you know any, hook me up!

weight watchers - a family activity!

I talked to my mommy again today (not surprising, since I talk to her almost every day), and broached the possibility of joining Weight Watchers. My doctor recommended it to me about 6 months back, when I asked him what was the most sensible plan for losing weight. Studies by consumer groups support his opinion. Plus, there's a meeting place just near our house in Jersey.

She was really receptive to the idea, and asked me to send her some information. I think her and Dad are going to join together, since he could afford to drop a couple of babies.

I told her that if she joined Weight Watchers, that I would too. I tried Weight Watchers online rather halfheartedly before, but I think Mommy's health will keep me on track. I'm aiming for 1 lb to every 2 that she needs to lose, and Dad is going to up it to 2.5.

Her reply was enthusiastic. "It'll be a family activity! We'll even put Bennie on a diet!" Bennie, our little dog, has recently developed quite a big behind, since she's been eating people food.

I take this as a very good sign that she's really taking this diabetes diagnosis seriously. She even walked the dog tonight - even though she didn't get home until 8 - and said that it was quite a bit of exercise since she had to chase my baby around the park :-)

*~*~*~*
This actually turned out to be a timely decision, as Heather and I both got our bridesmaid dresses last week - and holy jesus, we both need to lose at least 5lbs to be able to breathe during Daysun's wedding!

We're not sure if its because we've been eating out so much, or what the deal is, but we've resolved to both be more careful about our eating from now until July 23rd. We made a pact that we're cooking together on Tues and Sun - Sun is my night - will only eat out 3x a week (that includes take out), and are going to stock up the house with fruits and sliced veggies for snacks.

worries

Its been a crappy week.

As if suddenly pulling out of 1+ year's worth of emotional repression wasn't enough (think floodgates), my mom calls me today and told me that she's been diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

I've been on her for years to take care of herself better - she's close to 60, and not in the greatest shape. Besides having a stressful personality to begin with, she's a workaholic, eats poorly, and barely exercises.

Now, her doctor basically has told her that she has no choice but to cut down her work hours - a reasonable request considering she works something like 70 hours a week - and take 2 months off. She also has to go on a diet and start exercising regularly.

If this is a wake-up call that works, then I'm glad its happened, but I'm terribly, terribly worried. We've been on her for years to get into better shape, and sometimes she starts, but it never lasts. My grandmother exhibited the same symptoms back when I was in college, including the high blood pressure, risk of heart disease, and high cholestrol, but she was never that stressed out, and didn't smoke for more than 30 years of her life. And my poor grammy had 4 strokes before she finally passed on.

I still miss my grandmother, but I don't know what I'd do without my mother. I realized today that despite all the people that surround me - my friends, my extended family - and my independence, my mother is really all that I have. I think she's possibly the only person in my life that I really love unconditionally. She singlehandedly raised me, and I've always wanted to be able to take care of her in her old age.

Somehow, I didn't think it'd be quite this soon. Part of me feels like I should move back to the East Coast now to be closer to her. Is it selfish of me to not be ready for this yet? Or will my presence not really make a difference either way?

bay to breaking and entering

After last year's insanity, I deliberately tried to avoid this year's Bay to Breakers by cloistering myself in my room to study. And yet, the madness came and found me anyways.

At about 3 this afternoon, in the middle of some Reading Comp problem sets, ePop knocks on my door and says, "There's someone here looking for you." Since he was entertaining some friends, and it was one of those friends who answered the shouted inquiry from our 2nd story window, I didn't pay much attention. And, I have to admit, I was a little afraid that it might be that dood that I gave my number to last weekend and he called at 10:30 the next morning. (Note to boys: Overeagerness is unattractive, especially when it wakes the girl up from her hangover nap.)

I walk out about 20 minutes later to find Fernando camped out by our couch. Apparently, the boy was part of a Beeramid float for Bay to Breakers. When they got to Ocean Beach, some sort of bruhaha broke out, and while he was watching it, the Beeramid float disappeared, with his bag still on it. He went looking for it, since his wallet, keys, and phone were in his bag, but no luck. By the time he went back, his friends were gone too.

At a complete loss, he walked over to my house, which is luckily for him right along the B2B route and a mere 20 blocks away.

I laughed at him for about 30 minutes, threw a couple of inanimate objects at him for being a dork and resumed studying while he tried to chase down the phone number of the owner of the Beeramid. Finally, he got in touch with the guy, and we set off to get his bag from the Presidio.

One small problem, though: As soon as the front door closed behind us, I realized that I left my keys inside the house.

For the record, I blame this completely on him. We tried calling Eric, Heather, and Nathan - to no avail. Larissa, who lives in apartment 2, let us in the front door, but the apartment door was locked, so we climbed up the fire escape and tried to break in through the kitchen window. I realized then and there that I'd better get cracking with the bschool apps, since I proved to be a completely inept burglar.

Finally, Eric and Megan arrived home and rescued us. Exhausted and hungry, we drove to the Presidio, got his bag, and headed for dinner in Noe Valley. Which was great, except that Fernando was planning on treating me, but of course, he left his wallet in the car. What a scam. So now he owes me a nice, expensive meal. I'm thinking Gary Danko's...

We did finally go to Mitchell's, though, which he's been telling me about forever. I ordered the Kalhua Mocha Cream, but the magic shell was so overpowering that I couldn't really taste the ice cream much. *Sigh.* So much for my quiet day of being a hermit.

gray, grey saturday

I woke up on Saturday morning and was greeted by a gray, cold fog. Ahhhh. Summer has finally come again to the Sunset.

I actually rather overslept more than usual this morning, thanks to a round of drinks that quickly turned into six with Karen last night. Karen and I originally met up after work at the Wine Merchant Bar at the Ferry Building to discuss life as a Product Manager. A casual wine tasting (mmm... try the Donabaum) - accompanied by a pate and cheese box - somehow became three, and the next thing we knew, we were sipping sakes at Sushi Groove South. Whoever told me that you can't get drunk off of sake is both WRONG and DUMB.

At dance workshop, I felt the consequence of both last night's unplanned indulgence and skipping class on Thursday to watch Grey's Anatomy. I ended up in a small group with some fairly uninteresting choreography, as the other group was made up of students who already learned some more exciting stuff. That's it - I have to motivate to go.

Post-3 hour torture session, I grabbed some enchiladas from El Farolito, headed home, and scarfed it down. I don't know how I managed to forget this, but Asian people + Mexican food = Bad Idea. More specifically: (Asian people*IBS) + Mexican food with lots of chili, cheese and beans = Bad Idea^4.

oh, why can't i live in brazil?

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=741368

red, blue or a slight shade of purple?

I heard this fantastic piece on Fresh Air (NPR) last night about political typology. Every 5 years, the Pew Research Center conducts a study polling Americans on their political leanings. As intelligent people have known for some time (and newscasts largely ignore), there's more to American politics than just being "Red" or "Blue".

Read the article here.

Hey baby, what's your type? Take the poll to see where you lean.

Not suprisingly, I was categorized as an Upbeat - "Financially well-off moderates who express positive views of their finances, government performance and business, (www.npr.org)." That's about right. While chatting with Miriam, I realized the main differentiation between me and her is the religion issue - her type is much more secular, while Upbeats hold "[t]he highest proportion of Catholics (30%) and white mainline Protestants (28%) of all groups, although fewer than half (46%) attend church weekly, (Pew Research Center)." The only thing that bothered me about my typing is that 63% of my fellow Upbeats voted for Bush. Yeah, I'm more traditional than most San Franciscans, but even I'm not that far out.

I'd like to think of myself as a pretty shade of purple. Lavendar, to be specific.

the surfing bunny

I was feeling a little blue yesterday, so Fernando told me a happy bedtime story about a surfing bunny.

There once was this island where all these happy bunnies lived. They hopped around, took walks on the beach, and populated the island very quickly. Every bunny was happy, except for one bunny. That bunny wanted to learn how to surf.

All the other bunnies thought the surfing bunny was crazy, but he was determined to learn how to surf. He made a surfboard from chewing on the trees, and his sister knitted him a pair of swim trunks out of shed bunny hair. One day, he was finally was ready to go out into the water.

The first time he went out on the surfboard he gnawed from a palm tree, the waves were too strong and he was washed up on shore. But he kept trying and trying, and eventually, he learned how to surf. And he became a HERO.

I'm still a little confused about how he managed to gnaw a surfboard out of a tree, or his sister knitting him a spandex swimtrunk out of bunny fur (what's the point? would he still look naked?), but it was a happy story, and it made me feel less blue.

And was definitely better than the last bunny story someone told me, where a bunny eventually hopped into a pie and got eaten.

disco de mayo

No one really thought that we were going to make it to our GMAT study session today. Especially since Alex (one of my study buddies) was at Ericn H's Disco de Mayo party last night, and at one point, Fernando and I were on the kitchen floor with beer all over us.

After a grueling 3 hour dance workshop, I drove like a bat out of hell to get home, shower, and meet Fernando for dinner at Tsunami. We made it there just in time, and had a fabulous dining experience at quite possibly the ONLY sushi restaurant that is better than Chin's. Yes, its outrageously expensive - almost twice what a typical meal at Chin's cost. But, for once, I can say that I really really enjoyed it, rather than walking out feeling like I just didn't get my money's worth.

I hadn't seen Fern in a while, so we caught up over sake and sushi. Fernando has become somewhat of a sake connoisseur, so we both got different sake samplers. The samplers each come with three different grades of sake. I don't know much about sake, but I was pretty darn excited when I got one named "Demon Slayer."

(A moment of silence for the demise of Buffy, please.)

We're also both big straight fish fans, so we only ordered one roll - a shrimp tempura roll topped with unagi and avocado - and splurged on an extra appetizer. The roll was so-so, but the Magic Mushroom dish was *amazing*. I also liked the Fire on the Ahi dish, but it was a bit on the spicy side for me.

The really amazing part of the dinner was the fish. We went for two of their specials - the Toro Aji and the Moi - as well as some sake sashimi and the hamachi. All were winners, but the suprise of the night was the hamachi. It was so soft and rich, it just melted in your mouth.

After dinner, we headed back to Fernando's to pick up some wine for the house party, nibbled on a couple of liquor-filled chocolates, and we were off!

*~*~*~*~*

As always, the ESL house party was a ton of fun. Carol did comment that we barely knew anyone there, and its true - the turnover in roommates and significant others brought a different, and slightly younger crowd. DJ ePop was spinning downstairs, and the combination of hip hop dance class, Fernando's drunken antics, and very nice champagne brought out the party.

Eric H (who, I might add, I hadn't seen in SIX MONTHS!) commented that everytime he walked into a room with us, his first thought was, "What the HELL is going on here?!?" I remember precious little of that, except for when we ended up on his kitchen floor. Oh, and also apparently I ejaculated candle wax on the coffee table when we used this huge candle as a strap on. But I digress...

See, what happened was that Fernando, for whatever reason, decided to put his foot on my shoulder. Heather was pretty impressed, and I was like, "Hey, I can do that!" Well, once upon a time I might have been able to, but either the lack of yoga, the jeans, or a combination thereof made it mighty difficult. To accomodate me, Fernando bent down, holding my foot in one hand and the drink in the other.

I don't know what happened. All I know is that we fell, and Fern didn't want to let go of either my leg or the drink. So we ended up on the floor in the kitchen, at which point Eric walks in.

Quotes of the night:

"Fernando, stop drinking. Your gay is starting to come out." - Me, trying to take a drink away from him

"I'm one bad-ass motherf***er (hiccup)." - Greg

"You don't remember my name, do you?" Fernando asks
"Um, its Jimmy, isn't it?" - Maha

The ESL roomies


Happy newlyweds Nicolas and Svava


I *told* you his gay was coming out...


Getting hot and bothered over frozen pizza


Heather and I passed out sometime around 2...


... but the party goes on for everyone else.

A wonderful night, as always. I'm sad that the ESL household is somewhat breaking up, as newlyweds Svava and Nicolas are moving out and down to the Peninsula at the end of the month. It won't be the same without our Icelandic princess.

sing, drink & spray pink

I woke up on Saturday afternoon to a sea of pink.

Adrienne and Vince hosted a fabulous karaoke / bday party on Friday, where the theme was to "Sing, Drink and Wear Pink." Of course, being formerly of pastel hair, I decided to (temporarily) dye my hair hot pink.

So I headed to Hot Topic and bought some spray on temp paint, which managed to get all over my bathroom, in my eyes, my nose, and on every surface within reach. I even ended up wearing my glasses out - which I never do - as I got pink spray in my contacts. Since I didn't have any peripheral vision, I figured I might as well get drunk.

Which might explain the truly terrifying rendition of "Love Shack", followed by a drunken "I Will Survive", that we all belted out to an audience who luckily will have no recollection of it the next day.


The birthday girl looks fabulous in pink.


Vince plants one on Eric's hot and very gay lips...


... even Vijay can't resist the pink seashells shirt and the neon plastic purse.


Um, I can't see that the hell I'm drinking.


TIN ROOF RUSTED! Miriam, Patricia, Steve and I prep for "The Love Shack"...


Who knew that Steve could channel Fred Schneider?


Apparently Howard Stern made an appearance. Maybe we'll get discovered.


Yes, Jeremie is singing into a lamp.


Um.

I think I'm really too old to do shots and get wasted... dancing for 3 hours when you're hung over was a serious challenge. Which is why I did it all over again on Saturday night.

a go-go to tokyo-yo

After hearing people rave about Tokyo Go-Go for so long, I finally had to try it. Someone even dared say to me that the sushi there was better than that of Chin's, my absolute favorite sushi place in the city. Yeah, its stuck between a liquor store and a dry cleaner, in the middle of nowhere (6th and California), and the lights flash whenever a bus rolls by, but the sushi there is heavenly. Try the salmon sashimi, toro if its in season, the Dragon Roll, and absolutely the Sembei Roll if you go there.

So Brian and I headed there - by bus of all things! - last night for dinner. We were worried that it was going to be packed because its the Mission on Cinco de Mayo, but it was surprisingly mellow.

Before I go on, let me just say that Tokyo Go-Go is not your typical sushi house. Its like fusion-nouveau-schmancy sushi "dining". To make sure we got the entire Go-Go experience, we ordered food off of every section on the menu - Curry Calamari with Raita for our "Shared Plate", Truffle Hamachi for the "Specialty Sashimi", and this roll with seared asaparagus, grilled avocado, and kobe beef. We also got some wakame salad and nigiri, of course.

The Curry Calamari was pretty damn tasty, although Brian said he preferred regular calamari. But the Truffle Hamachi was disappointing - and expensive. Basically, its thinner slices of hamachi than your standard sashimi, drizzled with truffle oil and caviar. It tasted sort of like soy sauce, though, so I wasn't really impressed. Brian said he couldn't taste anything, but he also has a sinus infection and was on drugs.

The kobe beef roll - whose name escapes me - was pretty good, but I still am not a fan of meat in rolls. I don't know, its like too chewy or something. From the sushi standpoint, the hiragama (Australian yellow tail) was pretty good, and the salmon was tender, but not Chin-level impressive.

The best part of the evening was when I got Brian to try amaebi, the raw sweet shrimp. Personally, I love it because I think regular ebi is just too bland.

Brian started chewing it, making a funny/squishy face. Thinking he was finished, I told him how its prepared.

"So, the shrimp are still alive when they prepare the amaebi. What they do is they take off the heads and throw them in the deep fryer, and then clean and push the shrimp onto the rice. The shrimp is still squirming when it first goes on the rice."

Well, he wasn't finished chewing. No, he didn't like it, and apparently, "the story didn't help." I felt tremendously guilty as I watched him chew for the next 10 minutes, as he couldn't bear to swallow it. Finally he washed it down with some crab legs, and we bolted out of there.

Oops.

All in all, Tokyo Go-Go - ok, but, as with most nice restaurants I try, not worth the price. Sitting next to a table of hipsters didn't help, either. If you're jonesing for some good sushi, head to Chin's. And say hi to Herman for me while you're at it.

stupid doggie, silly mommy.

My dog is so stupid.

Apparently, Bennie - our mini daschund who just turned 1 last month - now believes that she's some sort of watch dog, even though she's like a foot long, and still really tiny. She sits by our window and barks at strangers who pass by. No one can hear her, of course, but she doesn't know that.

So one day, she was sitting on the back of our couch by the window, minding other people's business and barking at passerbys. At one point, she got so excited when a big group of people walked by, she started barking so enthusiastically that she fell off of the couch and got stuck between the couch and the wall.

Luckily, my mom was in the room to rescue her.

My mom then tells me that Bennie is just like me. Small, with a big butt. (To which I replied, "This is what happens when you feed the dog pepperoni and cheese, Mom.") Aggressive. And dumb, all at the same time. I told my mom that its got to be her, since she's the only thing we have in common.

Case in point: I recently bought Mommy a cell phone, and programmed mine and Dad's number into the address book. Mom couldn't figure out how to make a call to a number that wasn't already stored.

I told her to try dialing. She said, "Oh."

vegas

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quit nagging. Vegas pictures are coming soon...

clenching & thrusting - a.k.a. hip hop workshop begins!

I don't get embarassed easily. I think I've just done too many stupid things, walked into too many walls, to really bother anymore. Falling out of a chair everytime a boy I like walks by? Check. Being caught in the laundry room in my underwear b/c my pants weren't dry yet? Whatever. Tripping on the mic cord and banging my head into the microphone in front of 300 people? Yeah, happened more than once.

And yet I managed to completely mortify myself this weekend at the first session of our hip hop workshop.

For those of you who don't know, my dance instructor - Micaya - runs this hip hop performance workshop every year for beginners to perform in. Its a ton of fun, especially for those of us (i.e., me) who are really not good enough dancers to perform anywhere besides a back alley. I was super excited this year, because I knew a bunch of people, and I hadn't seen them in a while.

Well, we're doing this kind of whipping motion with our hands, and we're supposed to be thrusting our hips as well. I don't know what crack I was smoking, but I just couldn't get it. So of course, I raise my hand and ask:

"Micaya, how do you thrust?"

Micaya gives me this look, and is like, "Serena, just how old are you?"

To which I reply, "I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I think I'm clenching too much."

Of course, the entire class of 25 people just lose it laughing. As soon as the words come out of my mouth, my face bursts into flames of embarassment. I even managed to make Monty - who regularly cracks sexual innuendo jokes - turn red.

I did get a couple of offers from people to help me practice my thrusting, though. What nice boys they are.

*** To see my perfected thrusting technique, and more hella tight dance moves, make sure you come to Mission in the Mix, performing at Dance Mission Theatre on June 10, 11, 17, 18, and 19!! More info coming soon... ***