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!

November

305/365

11012014

Claimed Bryan's room for the night. Woke up and bummed in bed until bottomless brunch at LES! Weather was gross and rainy and cold and I was definitely not dressed for this weather. But brunch at Tre was good, mimosas was delicious. Then watched TV at Mui's, but I just napped haha. The dog napped next to me and it was so nice and warm! We got Pho for dinner and split up for a bit since we had an hour before pregaming. I met up with Alice and Vincent it was so nice seeing them! Great to see people after so long and it's like nothing's changed. Caught up real quick before heading to Steve's. Had Jagerbombs before venturing to the west side to Bryan's apartment. The party wasn't as crowded as I expected, but it's fine since the apartment is small. Played a few rounds of pong, and flip cup with Red Label omg... Then a bunch of random stuff. Then all the 305 Eddy people left and I stayed since I'm staying there, and we played King's and drank soo much from King's. Chris ended up making pasta for everyone and it was delicious, probably because it was late and we were drunk. At like 2am we decided to go to Ktown for food.... I just wanted to sleep D: Don't even remember where we went but the food was delicious.

306/365

11022014

Woke up at like 8 and couldn't fall back asleep because the futon wasn't comfortable.. So rolled around in bed still so tired, before finally getting up at like 10:30. Met up with Alice to get Ippudo Westside, but the wait was an hour and half! We were starving so went to a nearby ramen place, Nipoori? It was just okay. But lots of catching up and updating each other on our lives. Then walked around the city and wandered to the finish line of the NYC marathon! So many people cheering on the runners and saw this lady with the sign. It was freeezing, so we took shelter at the Apple Store and the FAO toy store. We go there every time haha, and this time took a picture with the two guards in the front. Made our way to Rockefeller and then down to Soho. We were going to find Central Perks, but apparently closed down, so found another random cafe to stay warm. So many cafes in Soho area. And that's when I realized I bought the wrong bus ticket... Had to scramble to see if I could reschedule it and then went to Chinatown to ask in person, but nope, so ended up getting another ticket :/ Womp. But super nice weekend spent in NYC. :)

307/365

11032014

New apartment! Moved almost everything into the new apartment in the sunroom. It's actually really cool, but kinda chilly. Right now only have a futon because the bed was too big to bring over. But it's a different atmosphere with just a futon haha. Work was meh. Haven't been in the mood to work lately and just do a bunch of random stuff in the office. Played with those pressurized air duster thing at work for like half an hour today... Made frost, froze a puddle of water, and just a bunch of experimental stuff. Highlight of my day. Left work super early to come home to pack and clean, and then Katy came to help me move everything. Such a struggle but we did it! Then got dinner at this self-serve Viet place and caught up. Spent the rest of the night unpacking and settling in.

308/365

11042014

Woke up at 6:30 freeeeezing because the sunroom has no heat. Didn't think it would get this cold, but gonna take out my space heater from now on. The view was so nice though. Woke up to a pinkish sky from the 20th floor. Drove down to Richmond in the morning and the morning drive was pretty refreshing actually. Today was essentially only a half day because we had a team celebration from 3-6 at this restaurant by the river in downtown. Met a bunch of people from other teams that I've talked to via email but never met. Good to match a face to the name. It was just snacks there, no fancy meal, but drank a few beers and hung out with people. By the time I left I wasn't even hungry, so decided to skip out on dinner. But then got so bored at the hotel so went to Whole Foods to walk around and get some drinks. Got this Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir excited to try tomorrow! Then had a major dilemma where I was hungry but didn't want to go downstairs to the bar to get food.... solved it by ordering room service...

309/365

11052014

My routine pit stop at Panera to get dinner coming up from Richmond. Busy day today at work today I got so dizzy from looking at like 100+ graphs. Things started to look all the same.. The day went by pretttty slowly and the drive back was so dark. Didn't leave till like 5 and by that time the sun was already down. This is how it's gonna be for the entire winter :( Had to find street parking today near the new apartment and I realized how bad I am at parallel parking now.I shall brush up my skills since I'll be doing lots of street parking now. After the gym, I took a stroll around the apartment just to get some fresh air and it's still not that cold to be walking outside.

310/365

11062014

Such a struggle to wake up in the morning when it's so cold out and so comfortable under the covers. But the futon is not comfortable... Got out of the apartment before 8 because street parking starts at 8, so had to leave by then. Work was the usual. Made lots of progress and surprised my manager with the amount of data I put together haha. All the tedious work paid off! Just found out John's rotating off the team in the next month or two, which means I need to be even better at what I'm doing! Since the team will be smaller and I'll be taking on more projects :O. It was so dark when I left at 5 today, I hate this. It's so sad to leave the building when it's already black outside. But anyway, I went to the old apartment to pack a few more stuff and disassemble my bed. Can't wait to sleep on an actual mattress. Then the rest of the night just bummed in the sunroom. I like to take nightly strolls around the block after the gym. Shall make this a habit.

311/365

11072014

Work was the usual, pretty quiet Friday at the office. I left early to go to an event with candidates who've got offers and we're trying to get them to accept. Met at the Ritz Carlton and right when I walked in the receptionist offered me champagne... First time being offered champagne in a hotel haha, but why not? Then went to the International Spy Museum in D.C. and learned that statistically we're within 200 ft of a spy anywhere in D.C. Pretty crazy. Dinner was at this super fancy Wolfgang Puck restaurant called The Source. It was deeelicious. I got the salmon and it was so good. After dinner, the head recruiters left and had us take the candidates out for drinks. So the entire group bar hopped around Chinatown area and everything was on Capital One's tab haha. Had a good time, but maybe had a few too many drinks.. Ended up getting home at like 4, did some pretty stupid stuff so never again!

312/365

11082014

Recovery day! Except had to wake up at like 9am when Sang came over to help me move my bed. Now my room actually looks like a room and I'm no longer sleeping on a futon! Spent a portion of my afternoon unpacking and reorganizing, and then went out for a stroll! I drove to Barnes & Noble by Seven Corners and sat there on my laptop just doing random things. Good to be out of the apartment, change of scenery. Then went grocery shopping since I won't be going to Richmond this week I can actually groceries. Rest of the night was just a bum night..

313/365

11092014

Slept in today felt sooo good. At like 11ish drove to American University to throw a football around with Alice and two of her friends. Haven't played in so long it was fun throwing it around. Morning exercise! Then we came back to Ballston to get Chick fil-A and Chiptole, but Chick Fil-A is closed on Sundays! Bummers, no waffles fries. Alice trying to play with my camera on the drive back. After Chiptole, my apartment was right across the street so we played pool for a bit before they left to go back to D.C. I went on this longg jog that went through the woods, and then ended up right next to the highway... I was trying to explore but got kinda lost haha. And the park I went to wasn't even that great, thought I'd get a nice view of Georgetown but nope. So struggled to jog back because I jogged like 3 miles out. But anyway, went to the library to get a few books and actually reading them!

314/365

11102014

Mondays... At least I get tomorrow off so the week is slightly shorter. The usual at work, making progress with my projects. The highlight of my day was when my manager told me I'm getting a pay bump at the end of the year! Capital One is bumping my year's salary up to matching the incoming class. It's more than a 10% increase and is essentially like getting promoted and paying more, but without the promotion. So pretty excited about that! Stayed till past 5 in the office doing some work and it sucks how it gets so dark now. Not a good feeling driving home in the dark :/ Spent the night reading Mitch Albom's The Time Keeper it's so good, and watched a bit of TV.

"Sometimes, when you are not getting the love you want, giving makes you think you will." - Mitch Albom

315/365

11112014

Veteran's Day off today! So went to Baltimore for a day trip to explore the city. It was kind of a let down since there wasn't a whole lot to do there besides eating, but the food was good. Got there right around lunch and got Crabcake Benedict at Miss Shirley's Cafe it was yummy. Spent a few hours walking around Inner Harbor - saw all the historic ships and went to Federal Hills park where we got a good view of the harbor. Then... that's about all there is to do. The museum's seem alright and we didn't have enough time for the National Aquarium, so went to Barnes & Noble for an hour or so and I finished reading the book I've been reading - The Time Keeper. Really good ending, so relatable. Spent another hour or so wandering around the harbor before getting dinner at Thames Street Oyster House! Got the lobster mac & cheese and grapefruit crush as Sally suggested and they were delicious. Major food coma afterwards and the drive back was such a struggle. Pretty productive day of exploring and full of eating! 

316/365

11122014

Came home to this view. Pretttty niiiice. Today was a super slow day at work. Not many people came in and I wasn't super busy, so spent a good portion of the day reading different things online and just killing time. But better than working from home at least I had some human interaction. After work, officially turned in my keys for my old apartment! Don't have to worry about that anymore now wooh. And since I'm going to NYC tomorrow and I have so much food in the fridge, I cooked food to bring as lunch tomorrow. It's nice to have so much time to cook food and not having to rush it. But while eating dinner, I watched Transformers Age of Extinction. I feel like all Transformer movies are just very action-y and cool, and this one was no different. The movie was so long though, so that took up most of my night. Then started reading No Easy Day, shall continue it on the bus ride to NYC tomorrow!

317/365

11132014

Work today was full of meetings and finishing up my projects. Not a whole lot going on and I left around 4:30 to catch the Megabus to NY at 6. D.C. Metro from McLean to Union Station was so expensive! Almost $5 wth. On the Megabus I passed out within like 5 minutes so tired for some reason. Then after our stop in Baltimore I was so awake and the rest of the ride seemed like fooorever. Along the way it rained/snowed the whole time too. Kinda miss the snow actually, so kinda excited for winter to come. Got to NYC and got halal food before coming over to Bryan's. Getting ready for a fun-filled weekend in the city!

318/365

11142014

Woke up at like 7 because all of Bryan's roommate get up so early. So went to Union Square Starbucks by 8 and started working then. So much work to do this morning and was on the phone with people all morning. Migrated over to Barnes & Noble because was getting tired of Starbucks and had a pretty nice view of Union Square from Barnes & Noble. Then around 1, got a sandwich and met up with Carmen! Haven't hung out in so long it was good catching up. We went to the Lego Store by 23rd St and ended up at Union Square again. Wandered around the streets of Soho for a bit just to get some fresh air, but it was so cold today! Eventually met up with Mui to drop my stuff off at his place before heading to Hot Pot with everyone! So much beef haha. We ordered at least 10 plates of beef and were all so full by the end of dinner. Before coming back, we met up with Bryan briefly at a bar/club. Too much like frat houses haha. Didn't stay long and then came back. So ready for bed zzz.

319/365

11152014

Happy birthday Mui! Woke up at like 10 and just rolled around on the air mattress till 11ish to get out of bed. No idea what I did till like 2pm, but Mui and I got dumplings then and then met up with Sally and Steve later to get more food. I just got hot and sour soup to satisfying my cravings it was so delicious. After lunch, or whatever meal it was, it was 5pm haha, so we chilled at Mui's for a bit before heading back up to Steve's to hang out before going out. Played pong there for a bit and Tekken, lol we all button mashed and it involved no skills at all. We went to Local 138 bar for a tiny booth, and not as many people showed up as we expected. So right before happy hour ended, we ordered a bunch of drinks. Like 30 drinks for 7 people and it was waaaaay too much. Ended up playing roulette to finish the drinks until Mui came to help out. LOL got kicked out because we were lighting the menu's on fire from the candle, but it wasn't even our fault! Whatever, ended up bar hopping around LES and bumped into Wes at one point. Then started drinking much more haha. Then Mui and I decided to go back, but went the wrong way and ended up at Soho area.... Had a nice conversation about everything and bumped into Wes on the way back, and got dragged out again to have a few drinks. All we wanted to do was get water and sleep! But anyway, finally left the bar and so ready to pass out. Cheated a little since I didn't have my camera all day, but that's only a tiny portion of the amount we drank that night...

320/365

11162014

Ugh. Woke up super thirsty and not well-rested at all. Mui and I talked for like an hour about... life and people and everything. It was a really nice conversation and literally just said everything on my mind. After talking with him about what's going on between everyone, it made me realize people do/think about a lot of things that you may not think they do/think about. Kinda like a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that. But anyway, slept past 5, and the entire morning I was in and out of sleep because I was so thirsty. Finally got up and ended up passing out on the chair again haha. We finally got up and got lunch at like 4pm... Not even lunch anymore, but the pho was soooo good. Cured my headache before going on the bus back to D.C. It was such a nice weekend I'm glad I decided to go back. The bus ride back wasn't as bad since I knocked out most of the ride. Then just kept reading the book I've been reading for the past few days.

321/365

11172014

Mondays. A little over one week of work until I go back home for Thanksgiving! Work was pretty quiet today as we wrote feedback for other people and wrote our self-feedback. Ran some errands after work and then did a bunch of random stuff in the apartment, don't really remember what. But it was nice being back and having some free time. But it also got soo cold at night, and I had to use my space heater to keep warm. Not gonna be a pleasant winter in the sunroom..

322/365

11182014

Decided to wake up early to drive to Richmond to make a meeting in person, so woke up at 6:30 and then sun wasn't even up yet. It was freeeeeezing in the sunroom, my nose and ears were so cold when I woke. Had a really productive day, did analysis and made a few slides too. The second half of the day was so busy with meetings and ended up leaving at 5:45. By then it was pitch black outside already :( And since all the hotels were booked I stayed at the Marriott this time, and it's the same one I stayed at for my interview!! Still like the Hilton better though.. Got dinner at Hondos steakhouse, and the steak wasn't as good as I had hoped. Meh. There's a lounge at the Marriott with free drinks - wine, beer, hard liquor, and snacks too! Got a few glasses of wine as I finished up some work at night.

323/365

11192014

Sooooo freaking cold this morning. 23 degrees, and in Richmond too! Not used to this freezing weather yet. Woke up and got breakfast at the Marriott lounge. Free breakfast means more money to spend on food later on in the day. The day was busy with a bunch of small things popping up here and there. But I was pretty distracted throughout the day with Snapchat. Oh well, I still got my work done. Left work a little early and actually got our before the sun went down! Ran a few errands around Short Pump, it's so convenient because everything's all in the same area haha. And came back to the Hilton. Still much prefer this over other hotels because I know the receptionists. A bunch of us got sushi at Hanami and it satisfied a craving I had since lunch, And the rest of the night I just read and watched TV.

324/365

11202014

Fairly happy day I suppose. Got to work so early, and worked while ate my omelette by the cafeteria. Had several things here and there in the morning, and then met up with my "buddy" from Cornell who's interviewing today! Then later on, Manita and I tagged along the candidate lunches and turned out there were 3 Cornellians interviewing today, so it worked out very well. Hopefully they did well and get offers! After lunch, I left work to go to a Branded Card celebration at a bowling alley. It was so good driving in the mid-afternoon sun. At the event we bowled, played arcade games, ate finger food and just chatted with different people. Pretty relaxing and fun hanging out. I got a caricature drawn of me, and it doesn't quite look like me.. On the drive back I found a Wegman's 30 minutes out from DC! Stopped by for some subs and dinner, and it felt so homey being in Wegman's. Aah missed that place.

325/365

11212014

Fridays... My timer didn't work so my space heater didn't turn on, and I was freezing waking up this morning. Work was pretty slow. We had a larger team lunch meeting and got catering from Chiptole! Best part of the day. I was also put on the spot to talk about my team, which I did not expect at all. The rest of the afternoon I finished up some projects and just chatted in the team room haha. Caught the sunset when I got home cause I left earlier! Had dinner real quick before heading out to DC to someone's birthday at Recessions. It's a karaoke bar and pretty interesting hearing people sing. Got a bit lame so we left and played pong at Jay's place. Need to brush up on those skills. At like midnight we went to get Z Burger and it was pretty delicious given we were buzz and hungry haha. Good to be relatively sober on a Friday night..

326/365

11222014

Literally did nothing all day. Watched 2 movies, a lot Awkward, exercised and went for a jog, and ate. That's my whole day. And finished up the bottle of wine at night.

327/365

11232014

Productive Sunday. Explored D.C. and went to two museums today. I took an Uber into D.C. since I had a free ride and had a pretty nice conversation with the driver. Talked about our Thanksgiving plans and what not, always nice having conversations with complete strangers - there are still friendly people in this world. Started at the Capitol and made my way down to Washington Monument then the White House. Soo much walking, but it was a nice day today. Not too much at the monuments, just taking pictures. Then we went to the Natural History museum and the American History museum. Kinda breezed by both of those, they weren't as big as I thought anyway, and by then I was so exhausted. At night a few of us got hot pot at Mala Tang, very subpar hot pot. Only 3 types of variables and the sauce was funky, wouldn't go back. At night I watched If I Stay and it's such a sad movie. :(

328/365

11242014

There are good days and bad days, and today was one of the latter. Went on a much-needed jog and exhausted myself on the track field. It's becoming my new favorite place. Besides that, took my car to the car wash at Capital one and it was pretttty cool. Can't wait to go home tomorrow ugh.

329/365

11252014

Work was super empty today and I ended up just reading a bunch of articles online because I couldn't do anything since everyone was on vacation. Left around 3 and headed up to NYC. Traffic on the 95 was horrible - traveled 50 miles in 2 hours before it cleared up, but finally made it back home! And played with Chloe for quite a while, she's so fun to play with now and so interactive!

330/365

11262014

Bed at home is so comfortable. Woke up at 9 and worked from my bed for till around noon. Pretty productive morning and spent and hour and half on the phone. Today's weather was so gross - rain/hail/snow. Got lunch with Ranice at Panera and we went to pick up Evelyn from school! She didn't know I was picking her up hehe, so it was a surprise. Then Ranice and I got bubble tea, which was pretty bad today, and met up with Ronnie at his house. Bummed there and just killed time for like another hour before we all headed home. Can't wait till I see everyone tomorrow!

331/365

11272014

Happy Thanksgiving! Woke up nice and early at 8 to run some errands with my brother. We parked the car to buy something, and then when we were leaving the engine wouldn't start.... So had to wait for my sister-in-law to drive the other car to jump start it. We planned on leaving for Long Island at 10, but ended up leaving at like 1... The drive took quite a while because of traffic, rain, and just pit stops here and there. When we were heading back it was already 5 so I just headed to Jeffrey's to meet up with everyone! So nice to see everybody, all the kids and the parents as well. The food was delicious as usual because all the moms are so good at cooking. Just chilled the whole night until we dispersed at like 12:30. I love how everything feels the same within the group no matter how long we haven't seen each other.

332/365

11282014

Today's not actually a holiday, but I signed on to work this morning and no one was on, and I couldn't do any work anyway so I just called it a half day. In the afternoon I played football for a bit at St. John's field. We threw it around and ran around the track field. It was so cold today too, but nice being active since we've been eating so much lately. At night everyone went to Tim's house in Long Island for another get together. Not as exciting today, but we just watched TV and played Wii the whole night. Called it a night at like 11:30 so we didn't stay all that long. Picture is of Chloe eating her cereal breakfast.

333/365

11292014

Such a long day. Woke up early to get a Christmas tree from Home Depot and now the house is festive! Then met up with Ranice and Suzanne to get lunch at House of Small Wonders in Williamsburg. Pretty cool little restaurant I like, and the food was decent too so it was a pretty good lunch. Then we walked around that area and went by the water, it was freeeezing. Ended up at Odd Fellows and I got the caramel/white chocolate/almonds ice cream it was soo good. Kinda disappointed they didn't have Thai Iced Cream but the one I got was pretty good anyway. We drove to Bushwick Collectives to see grafitti art, it was like 5 Pointz in Brooklyn. Since it was so cold we found a cafe and sat there for a while. So many people doing work and reading there it's so nice. Then made our way to LIC Piers and met up with Jeffrey. Didn't stay long cause it was too cold, and we had dinner at my house with the two little minions too. Chatted for quite a bit about a bunch of random stuff before heading to Jonathan's to watch Chopped. Such a long day but t'was a fun day.

334/365

11302014

Lots of driving today... Woke up and played with Evelyn and Chloe one last time before I came back to DC. I drove out to get Pho take out and there was so much traffic. But the pork chops were delicious, and they were also the only thing I ate all day :( Then off I go to DC! I left Queens at 2:30 and got to my apartment at 11 ._. The traffic getting out of NYC was pretty horrible, and then on the 95 it was standstill traffic because of this big truck accident. Literally sat in the car for 2 hours and only traveled like 1 mile. Such a struggle. And by the time I got home it was too late to eat anything, so just skipped dinner oh wells.