La Fête

Hung out with new friends this weekend. I think I'm getting old for this kind of nonstop partying. The celebration was for Minh's medschool acceptance, Lisa's & Tu Anh's belated birthdays, Thoai's paper getting published, us meeting each other, and whatever else we could think of. It's amazing how much more reasons we could find to celebrate under the influence.... of Blood Orange Italian Soda! Isn't that right Tu Anh?

Around noon the girls arrived in Baltimore with what looked like enough food for a whole army. I guess they never thought that two guys would manage to hold a party for seven people!! Well, I think we did quite well, Thoai & me, if I may say so myself. Though the flowers were all him, hehee... don't ever leave me with living plants, they tend to go towards the white light sooner than their normal lifespan. It was a finger food party with nothing from the Coca-Cola nor the Pepsi Company, nor the Frito-Lay. Instead we had Italian Sodas and rosé wine. For food, we ordered a platter of sushi rolls, a shrimp cocktail, mini-quiches, spring rolls, bruschettas, and many more. We were planning to have chocolate-dipped strawberries, but couldn't find the right cocoa so we just bought this chocolate sauce and just have people dip their own strawberries fondue-style. To end the party we had the superfabulous Hazelnut Meringue Cake from Pasta Plus. Yum! With the official drink of Summer: Rosé Champagne.

I guess once the bottle popped, some really fun time began. We watched that Overseas Vietnamese Variety Show a.k.a Paris By Night. No, this is an actual variety show not porn shot with night vision! Got into arguments on whether Vietnamese and Cantonese sound alike ... I know, we're such geeks. Hahaha, since I instigated the whole thing, I guess I'm the father geek.

Annapolis

We went to Annapolis afterwards. The original idea was to kayak and eat loads of crabs. But as we go round and round the harbor area, we couldn't find a single kayak rental place. The only promising lead turned out to be this desolate ship dock. After waiting out the rain that suddenly just fell in the middle of a hot, sunny day, we took the Miss Anne boat tour around the Severn River. Now Tu Anh, I'm still waiting for that cookout party we're supposed to have at your riverfront property!

Off the boat, we wanted some crabs! The ship's captain pointed us to this place called Cantler's. Thanks to Google SMS, we found the address & phone number. The supposedly famous restaurant was located on the other side of the harbor, and we kinda had to drive into these wooded area. I think the Philly peeps thought we were gonna dump them in the river, hehehe.

Cantler's!! We finally made it. That place was packed, seemed like everybody in Maryland was there for crabs. Even the governor was there. Hmpff! I bet he didn't have to wait for an hour and half like we did! Thankfully the wait wasn't too bad due to the creative ways Koreans can amuse themselves. So Lisa taught us about this bip-bidibidip game which was just plain whack! It was basically a game of self-control. There were three poses and as the main player sang bip-bidibidip, he/she'll take a pose and the one watching her had to make a different pose. Sound simple, but it's amazing how your reflex would just follow what's in front of you. I think it's the bip-bidibidip thing that kinda hypnotize you! I think we were too hot and embarassed to play that, except for Minh. And there they went at it to the amusement of us all and a few other groups around us :) Thanks for the entertainment guys!

"Minh! Table for Six!" They finally called. Yay!! So we went in, ordered, groaned while waiting for the food, and became real silent as we cracked and munched on the crabs. We got two dozens of them, which means each of us got four crabs. Crazy. I think I had enough crabs for a while now. I have definitely seen enough crab's insides for my lifetime!

fur nightclub

Time for bed? Of course not! Off we went to freshen up at our respective homes in Baltimore, Laurel, and College Park, then we all met up at my place to leave for the fur nightclub in DC. Woo hoo! I've been meaning to check out this place for some time now but something always happened and the plan never fell through.

I think it is safe to say, that was the best night club I've ever been to in DC. The crowd was a good mix, not too Asian, not too White, and not too Black either. Pretty much everyone was represented there and I didn't notice a single majority group so it was really nice. Everybody was just there to have a good time, no rude people or you know those obnoxious asses that seemed to go to clubs just to get wasted and somehown managed to get into a fight.

The music was good too! But I'm not a big fan of R&B so that might be why I thought it was good because they play different kind of music instead of the usual diet of 50 followed by Eminem followed by DMX and other acronyms & abbreviations where nobody actually sang or no music was actually played except for heavy bass and some guy talking. The reggae period was a bit much though, I give you that. But all in all, we had a really good time. I think Minh had a really, really good time especially towards the last hour when all her shots finally got in her head. Hahaha. I'm still contemplating whether we should put the pictures of us in discriminating poses here. Perhaps not, I still wanna be friends with these people. Hmm maybe just one.

So we partied until the club closed which was around four, I think. A mandatory stop at Plato's Diner for some post-dancing snack and we went home.

Live Life Like a Rock Star

My cell rang early in the morning, oh I meant early in the day since we got in at early in the morning already. It was Thoai.
"Good Morning!"
*Grumble*Grumble*"Hmmmh? Mornin'"
"I got into an accident last night."
"WHAT?"
"I hit a car and my car's at the lot now."
"WHAT?"
So apparently as they drove back, Thoai hit a parked car just a few blocks from home. No, no, it was not a DUI, more like sleepiness added to bizarre Baltimore traffic. So in Balto right, you must never take the leftmost lane or rightmost, because you never know if in the next block they would suddenly decide that lane is parking area when it is not in the block before. This would sound normal if they didn't do it like every 5 blocks. "A Rock Star Night" according to Thoai. You go out, you party, you slam your car. Where are the PEOPLE mag people?

It's cool down time in hot 100F DC now. After circling the Chinatown gate for like 20 times, we decided to park at a lot. I thought it was gonna be expensive, but turned out the weekend rate was only like 5 bucks a day or something. Hahaha, I should have listened to those out-of-towners. Sorry guys, but don't you just love my cafe mocha hot hot song? Which... was Japanese thank you, not Indonesian.

So we walked around the Metro Center - Chinatown area for awhile. Benetton, H&M, Urban, and all that. We had lunch at that little noodle shop on 6th & H Streets. The best place for Chinese noodle soups. They make their own noodle and you can even see them as they make it at the front of the store behind large windows.

What a great weekend. Now I'm deadbeat. Time for sleep. Shoo!