t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


"what're you doing tomorrow, do you want to go to lunch?" mandy asked me last night over ichat from new york city. so we planned on meeting today for lunch in chinatown, mandy taking the chinatown bus into boston. we knew there'd be snow but weren't expecting it until later in the day. unfortunately, when i woke up this morning, the snow was coming down at a pretty good clip, which meant that mandy's arrival would probably be delayed because of the weather.

mandy didn't get in until 1pm. by then the snow had turn to slush from the continuing downpour of sleet. she called and i went out to meet her by the chinatown gate. mandy wanted korean so we went to apollo grill, my second visit this week. originally we figured dim sum, but i'm glad we didn't do that otherwise we'd have a stomach of greasy food (which sometimes makes me feel queasy) and smell like it too. mandy went with the teriyaki chicken box lunch while i had the short ribs again. afterwards we went to the bubble ice tea place, where i treated mandy to a bubble coffee while i had the bubble carambola. she left for a meeting at srm while i went back to work.

i came home and ate all my leftovers, the lamb korma from wednesday and the homemade burritos from tuesday. there was a bling bling party at julie's place but i didn't feel like going with the weather still pretty nasty outside. instead i just stayed home, watch television, read the latest issue of entertainment weekly, took a shower. then i started thinking, "maybe i should go, despite the weather, despite the fact that i won't know anyone there, i can't just stay home on a friday night." so i got dressed, put on some bling bling on the process, including: kraken ring which i never wear because 1) i don't wear rings and 2) it's hard to take off once i get it on; my custom "yang" belt buckle that i ordered two weeks ago online; and my thick silvery chain that i got free with the belt buckle. i headed out in the cold rain, stopped by the star market in porter square to get some drinks, before arriving at julie's place close to 11pm (the party started at 9pm).

i was surprised to see so many people when i got there, and i didn't know a single one, other than julie's three roommates (rahda, kim, johana) and their boyfriends. the party was sort of for kim, who's birthday will be in 2 more weeks (20th), along with one of her friends, nicole, sporting the shiny silver sequin (?) outfit (she reminded me of my former coworker jen pasiakos). the theme was bling bling and you were supposed to wear something shiny and flashy, which not too many did. those who sported bling bling however, like myself, got all the attention and were the topic of conversations. there was a food table, also a table of hard liquor, plus a cooler full of ice and beers. the lights were low and music was being feed through julie's powerbook, i guess having you laptop DJ is the latest party trick these days.


kim with
ginormous
champagne

random party
shot (boy in
shiny shirt)

drink making
accoutrement
 

i bumped into sajid and chatted with him a little bit, the two of us in the same boat, not knowing pretty much everyone at the party. throughout the evening i was able to nurse 3 bottles of black cherry IBC root beer, "what is that?" someone would ask, "it looks red!" and when i tell them it's root beer, they don't seem to understand. because i'm always the guy at the party who hangs out in the kitchen eating the food, i'm very conscious of it and try to stay away from the kitchen area. however, it didn't work last night as there was so many people i was almost forced into the kitchen, my butt against the warm oven, a pot of mulled wine heating on the stove. i figured there'd be people dressed up as ho's and pimps, but no such luck. a few people had mardi gras beads or feathered boas. a group of crafty partygoers had gone to home depot earlier and gotten strands of metal chains which i thought was pretty creative. there was also comments about how the party was a "sausage factory" as there were more guys than girls.


booze still life

bling bling!

nicole with
mardi gras guys

i confessed to julie that i almost didn't come, and she said she knew i might bail because of the ichat conversation we had earlier, when i was complaining about the weather and asking how many people would show up at the party. i was surprised she didn't have any bling bling of her own, and i commented on it so many times that julie macgyvered a necklace out of tinfoil. i got a lot of comments about the belt buckle, and people would scream "yang!" from across the room, like they knew me, which would prompt me to tip my false beer in their direction. this one guy, rob, he was already drunk when i met him, and he acted like we've been buddies forever, secretly passing me comments about the various ladies at the party. it was fun watching him work his intoxicated mojo on the girls.


julie with
tinfoil bling

birthday cake

rahda taking photo

i made a new friend, kate, who told me that some guy tried to hit on her tonight by touching her ass and asking if he could rub his feathered boa between her boobs. i liked her instantly not because of that, but because like me, she's also born in 1974 and will turn 30 this year as well. after the birthday cake was brought out and i had a slice (a delicious strawberry affair), i left. by that time people were starting to dance and they ran out of beer and had to tap into the hard stuff. i walked the 20 minutes worth of distance back to my place, stopping by the 24 hour CVS to get some gum for this weekend's run.