December

335/365

12012014

December already wao. Such a struggle to get up today and today was a super slow Monday. Had a 4-hour long phone meeting this afternoon which I didn't contribute a whole lot, but I stayed all 4 hours. It was draaaining. Went to get some groceries at the new Good Fortune supermarket and it's so big! Got Asian vegetables yes, no more broccoli. The rest of the night I didn't do a whole lot, did a lot of stuff around the apartment that needed to get done and just watched TV.

336/365

12022014

Sometimes it's better to not know than to know. Less is more.

337/365

12032014

My morning commute to work today was happier than usual, because I got a Caramel Brulee Latte haha. Had Excel training in the morning and learned more functionality of Excel which I don't know when I'll use, but good to know! Throughout the day there were a bunch of urgent emails so I took care of that while in training and when I went back to the office in the afternoon. Presentation to my team went well today, but it was a small one so not a big deal anyway. I spent a good portion of the night looking at video projects and brainstorming ideas to make my first video. Started filming a few things around the apartment! Off to a good start I think, and hopefully I can get better! Also, really determined to take more portrait pictures of people... maybe friends at first and then strangers?

338/365

12042014

Busy busy day today at work filled with meetings. Got so much to do now while the past few days were pretty easy. Guess it comes and goes! So the whole day I was trying to see what I can take videos of. Don't have an idea of what video to make yet, but it's good to get random clips first! Got several cool short clips in the apartment and then went to the track field to jog and take more videos. Pretty excited to start playing around with filming! Need to get my actual tripod back instead of a mini tripod. It took me so many tries to adjust the mini tripod for this picture.

339/365

12052014

Whew, fun day. Photo is of the parking garage at the office that says the spots are for compact cars. Did work here and there today, but left the office for 2 hours to get lunch with the candidates at Chef Geoff's. Not as great as I thought, but it's still pretty nice steak nevertheless. Then left at 3:30 to come back to the apartment before heading out to the Newseum for the candidate after-hour tour. The museum was really cool with a lot of artifacts from 9/11 and FBI and a lot of free press related things. I'm going back tomorrow morning to see the rest of the museum since an hour was not enough. Dinner at The Source same as last time, pretty good and had a good time talking with the candidates. Then afterwards we went to the W Hotel rooftop bar which was like 2 blocks from the White House. So fancy there and we got champagne and lots of mixed drinks. Afterwards, all of us went to Brixton on U Street where we got more drinks. The second floor was a dance floor ish and it felt like a college party, pretty fun hanging out with the people. Also met a few Capital One associates whom I've seen around the building almost everyday but never officially met. Then got delicious Mexican food with Jay before heading back home.

340/365

12072014

Super long day but exciting day today. Woke up so early to go to Newseum for the free tour and went through the museum in depth to all the places I wanted to go. Specifically, the 9/11 and FBI exhibits were super cool and I took lots of photos at the museum. The picture is of the Berlin wall on the West Side! Met up with the rest of the crew for lunch and went to watch Mockingjay! I thought it was good, but unnecessary to split it into two parts. Afterwards we wandered around National Mall for a long time before deciding on dinner at District Taco. Pretty delicious but not compared to SD's tacos. Jack, Srivanthi and I walked to the White House to see the National Tree and it was so gross and rainy. Ended up coming back to the apartment and Simeon had his friends over! Drank a bunch with them and they're a really cool group. Played Cards Against Humanities and Kings, and then went to World of Beer with Jay at 1am to talk about...life. Good talk and we had a good time.

341/365

12072014

Didn't leave the apartment till late afternoon when I went to Gravelly Point Park to watch planes take off and land. It's right by Reagan Airport and it's super close to the runways. Met a guy there who was also taking pictures and turns out he's also a pilot. He had a scanner to listen to the towers radio to hear what/when planes are landing/taking off. He had a few folders with pictures he took and they looked like they came straight from an airport poster. It's ridiculous. He was really friendly too and chatted with a bunch of us. Since he's a pilot, he tells us which planes to watch out for - which are larger, have cool designs, etc... I wanna come back again to get more pictures, and if the wind is in a different direction the planes will land/take off from the opposite direction. Then at night I spent a good amount of time editing videos.

342/365

12082014

People waiting at the bus stop after work by the Ballston Metro. Saw them before I left to drive down to Richmond. Today was a busy day at work with some small analysis and other things popping up here and there. On the drive down to Richmond I stopped by Chick fil-A to get waffle fries. Not as good as the last time, but oh wells. And then I got Buffalo Wild Wings at Richmond, so much unhealthy food omg. And discovered a bunch of new games on the iPhone so played Quizup for over an hour... Good times.

343/365

12092014

Busy morning with something due at 9am, and I just found out when I woke up. Besides that, the morning was relatively slow until I got more feedback in the afternoon to do more analysis. When I went down to get lunch bumped into James and we just ate together. Good catching up with him and had a pretty good conversation about creative projects like photography and film making. Makes me want to be even more active now. Before dinner, I stopped by the Town Center to return something and walked around taking photos of the festive decorations. Felt so homey and cozy especially in a small town like Short Pump. I really liked all the lights they put up. Got dinner with James and Sang at Maya. Had steak for lunch and steak again for dinner haha. But it was really good and I was bloated after. Spent the rest of the night editing my 1 Second a Day video in Adobe Premiere that I just downloaded. Such a slow process..

344/365

12102014

My car was frozen this morning. All the windows covered in frost and this was what happened when I defrosted - pretty cool. Had steak for lunch again... that makes it 3 straight meals of steak, nom delicious. Time to eat more veges and fruits. The drive back to DC wasn't terrible, just listened to Taylor Swift haha. I met up with Katy to go watch Interstellar at the Courthouse Theater, didn't even have time to eat in between. But Interstellar as reallly good! It was really trippy, but in the end everything made sense and made full circle. Really cool how much science there were too, even though I didn't understand the majority of it.. haha.

345/365

12112014

Fun day at work today! Didn't get a whole lot of work done but got a lot of hanging out done heh. John and I helped Kara out with her volunteer event starting at 1:30. We just moved pallets of food from the loading dock to this big room, and the event itself was packing dried food to be shipped to countries in need. After the move, we just hung out in the room and being immature with insensitive jokes haha. Glad I'm not the only one.. We packed the food for half hour before leaving for a meeting, but returned an hour later to finish up! Packed 10,000 meals!! And then stayed after for the happy hour with light food and beer. Pretty fun event! Got my exercise done tonight before all the holiday parties this weekend and ran my fastest time so far! :D

346/365

12122014

In the morning I had to get my blood drawn for my physical. Because I was nervous about the needle my heartrate went much higher than it normally is haha. But oh well. The lady saw my tattoo and said if I have a tattoo I should be comfortable with needles... Eh, not so much. The day went by pretty quickly and I left at 4 when I stopped being productive. The holiday party was really fun. Lots of small plates of food and they were all pretty good, and an open bar. I got to chat with a lot of people in a non-work context and get to know them more in a more social environment. That was the best part. I also won a $25 Bed Bath & Beyond giftcard in the raffle. lol. We took a Cornell photo booth picture since there were like 10 Cornellians. Lots of fun and drinking and took a shot right in front of my VP haha. Afterwards we went to Dodgecity at U Street and it was packed. You could tell all the Capital One people because we were dressed really nicely compared to everyone else.Drank a bit and hung out before finally heading home. What a night, but had a great time. :)

347/365

12132014

Bum day Saturday. Did some chores around the apartment in the early afternoon before going to The Java Shack to get some work done. Nice little coffee house in Couthouse and I managed to get a seat and stayed there for 3 hours. I edited a good amount of my 1 Second a Day video and read up on random things. It's nice getting work done or just hanging out at a coffee shop. I will be exploring more coffee shops in the upcoming weeks and picking my favorite one. The photo is taken from my seat of the front door. Snowman for the holiday season! For dinner I cooked chopped spare ribs with some veges and they turned out better than I expected! Pretty happy about that and had a delicious dinner. Party at James' at night, but there were less people than last time. Met a bunch of cool people and we had some random mutual friends! Took so many jello shots because they tasted so good haha. The party ended early so I went with Jay to his friend's party nearby and it already ended, so we just hung out there and ate the chips lol.

348/365

12142014

Another productive day at a cafe in Clarendon - at Boccato Gelato & Expresso. I liked this place even more than Java Shack yesterday, it's much bigger and the atmosphere is so nice! Felt very festive and there were holiday music playing in the background. I stayed for like 3 hours and finished editing all of my 1 second videos up till December! Made lots of changes and had to edit each day... took foooorever. Now I need to find a song to go with it. Afterwards I headed to Jack's place for our holiday party/get together. Helped him put some frozen spring rolls and pizza bites into the oven before people came. We just hung out and played Cards Against Humanities for a looong time, got so tired of it. Very chill nice and nice seeing everyone before the holiday.

349/365

12152014

Tough Monday today. Partially because this is the last full week of work before vacation and there's just fun stuff going on that makes me not want to work. Pretty busy all day doing monitoring stuff but got it done by the end of the day. Throughout the day we were talking about and organizing the fun event tomorrow - murder mystery at the American History museum! Lol they made the managers draft their teams and all the teams are pretty even! Should be a good competition tomorrow! Did the usual after work but also went for a quick jog to Clarendon and back. 40's is not good for just shorts and a tshirt haha, so it was slightly chilly. I also made a quick 1 minute video by putting together 12 5-second random clips. :D

350/365

12162014

Didn't go into the office today so instead went to a Starbucks and Barnes & Noble in the morning to get work done. I like working remotely, it makes the day pass by faster. Stopped working around 11:30 haha, and then just gymmed and had lunch before heading out to DC for our team fun day! We had a Murder Mystery scavenger hunt at the American History Museum. All 4 teams were so competitive. We pretty much had to go from one exhibit to the next using the clues on our sheets and finding the right words to fill in the blank. We finished the hunt pretty quickly and solved the mystery, and spent like 40 minutes coming up with a good team name cause it's part of the scoring too. All the teams solved the mystery so it came down to the names. We had a punny team name - Call Us Aaron Burr and We'll be Dropping them Hamiltons - and it won! Afterwards we went to Pi Pizzeria and ate soooo much. So bloated after. It was a really fun team event and got to know more people!

351/365

12172014

I should clean my room before heading back to NY. Anyway, slow day at work today - read a lot of news and random articles during my down time. After work I was gonna go to a free advanced screening of The Interview, but because of the hack/threat this morning, Sony canceled the release of the movie including the screening. Bummers. So ridiculous how a threat is preventing a Hollywood movie from playing in theaters. Anyway, went to the holiday party in my apartment and it was fancier than I expected. Served dinner food, desserts, drink and wine. So many people there too, but didn't know any of them welps. Another 2 days of work and then going home!!

352/365

12182014

Super slow day at work again today. Lots of chatting in the room and talking about holiday plans. I literally read so much random stuff not related to work in the afternoon until my meeting with my manager. We talked more about skiing and snowboarding than about work itself haha. And he said I don't have to worry too much about upcoming projects until I return from the holidays wooh. After work Jay and I went into D.C. to check out the National Tree again, this time not in the rain. Much more comfortable dry, but it was so cold. We also wandered to the Washington Monument before heading back. Spent the rest of the night trying to learn Hallelujah on the guitar and watching TV. Also talked to Alice for quite a long time while she's stuck at work. :D

353/365

12192014

Last day in the office for the year! My manager took me and John out to lunch at Tyson's 2 and we got Kraze Burger. Pretty delicious burger and just chatted about a bunch of random stuff. Everyone was so chill - we were talking about drinking, partying, and all that stuff with my manager, he's such a cool guy haha. I actually had quite a bit of work to finish up in the afternoon, but besides that a bunch of people were in the team room so we just chatted and hung out. After work, a few of us went to Zoo Lights at the National Zoo. It wasn't all that fancy and it was freezing. There were these student groups performing Christmas songs there too. And then we went to eat at Donburi in Adams Morgan after - it's a Japanese restaurant and it was really good. Walked to a board games bar in DuPont and played Jenga there for an hour or so before heading to Jay's to play pong. Bud Light, actually pretty light in alcohol, but we still had a good time. Ended the night talking with Alice for another hour or so, now so ready to pass out.

354/365

12202014

Went to my favorite cafe again and camped out for a couple of hours. It's large enough to always have free seats - at least the two times I've been. Edited my 1 Second a Day video some more and organized stuff on my computer. Also walked around Clarendon area and went to the Barnes & Noble there. It's a pretty cozy area but not a whole lot to do haha. For dinner Jay, his roommate, Sravanthi and I went to eat Vietnamese-style hot pot at Eden Center. It was quite different from the Chinese style but pretty good, but I still prefer the Chinese style haha. We also got bubble tea after; it was $5 and not even that good. Disappointing. Lol on my way up to the elevator I bumped into a bunch of semi-drunk guys and they're like dude come drink with us. Considered it for a second but decided against it.

355/365

12212014

Back in the city! Left VA fairly early and slowly made my way up the I95, and wasn't tired at all! Got into the city around 2pm and found parking right by Herald Square to meet up with Alice. Got BCD Tofu it was delicious considering I didn't eat anything all day. We walked around 34th Street and Macy's to get her Christmas shopping done; so many people in  Macy's. Then got Jamba Juice - my craving finally satisfied. On my way back Jeffrey asked me to go over to his house and we hung out there for a while since they're all going back to Taiwan on Christmas!

356/365

12222014

Woke up late today but it's okay, I worked from my bed anyway. Slow day today just bumming/working at home while playing with Chloe. At like 3:30 I left to go get Secret Santa gift in Flushing, and bumped into Christine and Ying! Nice to see them again! At night I went to pick up my dad at JFK and he brought back soo much food from Taiwan. Lots of dried mangoes and Taiwanese goodies. Day was pretty boring; a bunch of things ticked me off throughout the day, hopefully tomorrow is better.

357/365

12232014

Super long day today. Woke up early to get to the city by 9 and worked from Starbucks. I hate the MTA the bus driver this morning was pmsing about people not being behind the white line. Anyway, did a bit of work in the morning before eating lunch at Google with Toshi and Paul. It's like a college style cafeteria with better food and all you can eat. Google has it so nice. After lunch Paul and I left, and met up with Lucy and Hank to go to this art gallery by the Hudson River. Soooooo far. And then went to Adorama with Lucy to get her film camera. I hung out around Union Square since I had time to kill and strolled by the Holiday Market. By then I was so tired from walking, but still trekked to SoHo to get dinner with Bryan and Toshi at Il Corallo Trattoria; the pasta there was amazing it was sooo good, and pretty cheap too! Finally chose a song for my 1 second video a day!

358/365

12242014

Christmas Eve! Nothing special though, woke up to baby sit Chloe for a while until I went out to go do some last minute Christmas shopping for the two minions. Toys R Us was so chaotic and toys were everywhere, but I was able to find Play Doh and Kinetic Sand for them. The Kinetic Sand might be a little too advanced for Chloe, but I'm just getting her a head start haha. Met up with Vinny and went to Target to see if there were any better gifts but nope. Also went to Michael's for Vinny to get his secret santa gift. And today's weather was so gross and rainy all day. Before coming home, I stopped by Jeffrey's house to see all the QCC people one last time before they all leave for Taiwan! I wish I could go with them it's gonna be so much fun. Then home for hot pot I was so bloated. But worked a tiny bit of it off by playing with Evelyn and Chloe afterwards. Merry Christmas everyone!

359/365

12252014

Merry Christmas! Woke up to the two minions screaming and playing downstairs wanting to open the presents. They had so many presents, literally everything was theirs and they just opened one after the other for like an hour. Chloe was so clueless opening half the things haha. The rest of the day I just bummed at home and played with them here and there. Then I took a nap while watching That Awkward Moment. Then at night played with them for a little bit more and played Legos with Evelyn. Not a super exciting day/Christmas, but oh well.

360/365

12262014

Long day in the city today hanging out with Kevin. Got lunch at Cafe Habana and the grilled corn was really good! Then we decide to walk instead of subway up to 56th Street to see the Gingerbread Extravaganza, which wasn't even all that cool. But the walk did kill a lot of time and we had to weave through the mob of tourists by Rockefeller. Ridiculous how many people were in that area. Went to the MOMA gift shop to walk around where Kevin broke an ornament haha. We were just saying how it's so fragile we can squish and break it, and he breaks it.. On the way down to the 42nd Street 7 train I saw the Empire State Building! Such a long day of walking but it was nice catching up. I watched The Interview at night and it's so dumb lol. Then spent a good hour going through old pictures as far back as 2006!

361/365

12272014

Spontaneous lunch plans today with Steph Jou. Literally decided at noon and then met up. While waiting for her I saw this old guy in my mirror and I took the picture! It was really nice catching up on everything. Her telling me about med school life and me updating her about the working life. Kinda weird now that everyone's not in undergrad anymore. We got lunch at this Korean place on 149th and the lady treated Steph like she's a child because she couldn't eat spicy hahaha. She mixed her bibimbap and made sure she knew what was spicy so she wouldn't eat it. It was entertaining. The rest of the afternoon/night I spent playing Sim City BuildIt on my phone. Literally all I did since 3pm. Too much I need to stop.

362/365

12282014

Sorta bum day today. Didn't do a whole lot in the first half of the day - just bummed at home. Then met up with Sally and Steve at LIC Piers late afternoon and walked around for a bit. We had nothing to do so just sat in the grocery store to figure out our plans haha. And ended up getting bubble tea at Elmhurst and then head to Patty/Stephen's to play Catan. That game requires too much thinking it was so tiring at the end. We played 3 games and we had enough, and discussed briefly about potentially another cruise trip some time next year! Hope it happens I'm excited for it!

363/365

12292014

Was gonna wake up to work today to save a vacation day, but couldn't get up early enough haha. Welp. Headed into the city to get lunch at Umami Burger. I was there early so I wandered around Washington Square Park; it's always interesting going there. This guy was playing a grand piano right by the arches, and on my way back towards Umami I saw this kid playing chess with an old guy. Umami was pretty good and it was cheap because of the $8 deal! Then on the way to find a coffee shop we went by the park again, and this time a pole dancer joined the piano guy in the park! She was performing and the guy was playing the piano. So cool seeing these things in the city, makes me miss the city and all these random things. We settled at Think Coffee by NYU where I spent 3 hours making my budget sheet on Excel super elaborate and pretty.

364/365

12302014

Almost the end of 2014! Woke up fairly early to run some errands, and when I was hanging out downstairs I took this photo of Chloe. Just doing her own thing being such a diva with the sunglasses haha. Then headed out to the city for the screening of Woman in Black 2 by Times Square. I didn't think the movie was all that great, just like the typical scary movie with things popping out. Afterwards, Kevin and I walked by Times Square and saw them doing test runs for tomorrow's performance. Can't believe it's almost the new year already. Then we met up with Matt and Theo for Thai food at Viv, which was really good and pretty cheap! I got some noodle in a special spicy curry sauce it was delicious.

365/365

12312014

Last day of the year and the last photo of 2014! Celebrated New Year's Eve with all the 305 Crew tonight. Met up with Sally and Steve first to get pizza for dinner, and ended up getting 2 pitchers of really strong Margarita because it looked too good to pass up. And it was only 6pm then.. Drank more in Steve's apartment before going to Patty/Stephen's to meet everyone else! So nice to see everyone there! We had so much alcohol and played a bunch of drinking games. But we also did our Secret Santa exchange!! Stephen got me a marshmallow shooter it's so fun to play with! At midnight we popped open the champagne and continued the drinking till like 4am.. Good times good times. Happy New Year!