a black tie dinner at Magic Castle

We went to the Magic Castle at Hollywood for dinner on Feb 14th. It is a private club and you have to be a member or have a guest card from a member to enter. Tim had invited us to go and since this is a rare opportunity, we agreed without second thoughts. As the day came closer, I started to regret my decision. First of all, it fell on a weekday. I don't know why, maybe my age is starting to catch up with me. I just can't see myself doing late night activities on weekdays anymore. After work, I just want to go home and rest. Have a nice dinner or something. Second, it's Valentine's day! Going out to Hollywood for dinner with a group of friends is just not my ideal date on a Valentine's day. However, I am glad we decided to go. We did have fun that night, although I have to admit that I was exhausted at the end of the night.

We were not allowed to bring cameras in the building. So all we have is just a group picture that the front desk girl helped to take. And then Steve helped us take a picture of me and John. I am so glad he did cause I have an extra picture of just the 2 of us. I bet the rest of them are jealous! ha- just kidding!!!

here's a group pic of us. is it me or does Robin looks like she wasn't at the same place as we were? ;P

there...... our "alone" picture

Each girl gets a stem of a fake red rose at the entrance in ___ of Valentine's Day.

We got there pretty late and had dinner there. With not much time left for the night, we decided to watch just the main show which lasted about 50 minutes and I had to say, I was really impressed. The guys were funny. They were able to keep my heavy eye-lids open till the end of the show. We called it a night after the show. It was kind of late and everyone was tired. There are many other shows I heard but they were all small shows, like 10-15 minutes.

It was interesting. I will definitely go back there again to watch the rest of the shows that we missed. I was telling John, next time we should just go for the magic shows and skip the dinner because I wasn't too impressed with their dinner.

me trying to play with the camera on the way to Magic Castle

i made John take this one cause I realized that I suck at taking my own pic!! hehe

the 2007 thanksgiving tahoe trip

I was cleaning up my personal folders at my work computer and found pictures from my Tahoe trip last Thanksgiving. Well, not exactly pictures from the whole trip, just an excerpt from it. Haha, the clubbing night. I think these pictures were sent to me by a number of different people. I guess I'll just blog something about it before I delete it.

here's a group photo of us. I think that's Jocelyn at the far back trying to poke her head out and giving the peace sign. ;)

the crazy drunk dance after a couple of shots... i have a confession. i can't dance if i am sober! :P

the night is still young and nick is already dozing off

it has been a tradition that the 3 of us has to take at least one picture together

yes, this is part of the trip too. This picture was taken with the intention of showing off my sun burnt nose after a long day at the mountain wandering around with my rented snowboard. I took my first snowboard lesson and didn't go far with it. I was too chicken to proceed on my own.

please make me fall in love again......

..... my dress. :( I got a very surprise call last week.

Conversation in mandarin

Caller: Hi, is this so and so (my name in chinese)?

ok, i was thinking who can this be... calling my name in chinese

me:... umm... yea, this is she

caller: hi, i'm calling from "ai zi ling" (the bridal store name in chinese)

i am still very confused because i've only known the bridal store as Lucy's Bridal

me: (paused, thinking hard) okayyyy...

caller: oh, i am calling to let you know that the dress that you ordered is here

me: what dress?

at this point i kinda knew what she was talking about, but just needed to confirm

caller: errr..... your wedding dress. you bought a wedding dress from our store a few months ago.

now i realized that the painful memories that i have been trying to suppress.... surfaced... no way out now.

me: oh ok. that was fast, i thought it took longer than that to get it.

caller: no, that's about right. You ordered about 3 months ago. we told our customers it took 3-4 months to get the dress to be safe. anyway, i just want to let you know that you can come in anytime to do the dress fitting and please make sure you call ahead to make sure that tailor is here to do alterations if you need any.

me: ok thanks.... errr..... is the dress nice?

damn..... what kind of stupid question is that!!!

caller: we don't know. your dress came sealed in a bag. we don't open it until the customer comes to pick it up to prove that it's brand new.

me: thanks. i will be sure to call before i come in.

caller: see you then. bye.

me: bye

phone clicked.

I was staring at my computer blanked... with mixed emotions. Scared & excited at the same time. After a few seconds which feels like forever, I quickly messaged June (my wedding planner buddy) to let her know my dress is here. Then I shot an email to Janet to let her know, to which she replied "are you excited?". I remembered she was very excited when she found out that her dress is here. Hell ya! I am excited. If I say I am not excited, that would be a lie. However.... something is holding me back.

You see, the situation is like this. I have fallen out of love with my dress as soon as I put the deposit down. I don't know how that happened, but it just did. I would always look at wedding dresses on magazines and turn green with envy, wish I could wear that. John has diagnosed me with Buyer's Remorse disease. I change my mind constantly about the things that I bought, the food that I ordered, basically any decisions that I made I always have second thoughts about. I always re-visit the same store twice in a week, just to return stuff because ... I have simply changed my mind! I can't help it.

Okay, my dress is no exception especially it involves something important. Of course I had second thoughts about my dress when I bought it. Now that it's here I have to face it. I decided not to go get it until we move. We will be moving this weekend, I don't want to haul that heavy gigantic dress in a truck and risk getting it ruined. So, please please let me fall in love with it again when i see it. I mean, why did i buy the dress in the first place? There must be something that attracted me to it, right. What was it? I know the pick-up skirt had alot to do with my decision at that time. The problem is I don't know if i like pick-up skirt anymore. :p

Everyone tries to assure me that there's nothing wrong with the dress. John kept telling me he likes my dress (he has never seen me in it, just the picture). June and Janet constantly ask me to stop checking out other dresses. I did. I really did. Janet said something that knocked me down to my senses "it's the man you are marrying, not the dress. stop worrying about your dress".

Now I can't wait to see my dress... and please.... help me fall in love with it again.... and oh, make it fit too. I've gained some weight since ... let's hope it fits.

I don't have a picture of me in the dress but here's the picture of the dress from Maggie Sottero's website. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present you with the dress that I have been rattling about for the past 1/2 hour.

except mine would be all diamond white instead of champagne & red, and there will be no bow. just the brooch.