Randy's 30
Randy's 30th part 1
On Randy's actual birhday, the 22nd we headed over to Saints and Sinners for some Hell's Fire fun.
Kay's personal space invaded.
Hooray! These boys are back. Seong's back from Korea and Eric's back from the East Coast.
Saints and Sinners bartenders are crazy. Now that's a real Hell's Fire.
Sleepy Randy.
Randy's birthday part 2
On Sunday, we started with dinner at Lala's and ended up at Hollywood Billiards.
LaLa's in Hollywood.
Randy and his boys.
Hollywood billiards.
James and Ate's back shot.
Group shot #1
Group shot #2
Passed out Randy. Thanks to everyone who helped bring Randy home.
Americana
A few old high school friends and I checked out the Americana at Glendale the other day. We heard people describe that place as "the Grove on crack." It's really nice. They have the fountain with the choreographed water dances to music, Cheesecake factory and Katsuya, Anthropologie, H&M and all those stores. Angela and I found out they don't have a Starbucks. They have a Barnes and Noble cafe that serves Starbucks coffee. They even have this clock in the plaza so everyone can keep track of the time.
One lady asked us what time it was. Here's Ange's, "Excuse me, what time is it?"
Now notice where we were standing. Haha!
Me, Aimee, Angela and Bernadette
Angela still doesn't know what time it is.
Bernadette and Aimee
Double birthday and triple baptism bring good luck
V-LOUNGE for MEGAN and CAMILLEA few months ago, we had Megan's goodbye party at Tony's. Last Saturday, we celebrated her return and her birthday as well as Camille's at V-Lounge in Santa Monica. Everyone at work gets me and Camille mixed up. She's my twin at work. One day that we worked together, she answered a call light from a patient that we both had.
Camille: I'm heartbroken.
Me: Why?
Camille: Your patient just said that I was one is his favorite nurses thinking that I was you.
Me: How do you know that?
Camille: Because he said to me, "I still have your name on the board." And the name on the board was yours.
Me: Awww.
Anna, Camille and Me- Hell's Fire champs
Me, Megan, Camille, Anna
Anna, Randy, me, Leah and Pat
me, Leah, Anna, Michelle, Michelle's husband, Camille
RN's off the clock having fun on the dance floor.
Can't miss Michelle's husband on the dance floor.
My bodyguards, Pat and Randy
MOTHER's DAY BAPTISMSI have tons of cousins and many of them are mothers. For mother's day this year, we celebrated three baptisms and I became Godparent to my ninth godchild.
Jason became Ninong to Jacob Christopher, son of our cousin from Ohio.
I became Ninang to Evangelyn, daughter of our cousin from Las Vegas.
And Raelien, daughter of our cousin from San Diego was also baptized.
GET IT TOGETHER!Yesterday, Leia and I tried to win tickets to Wicked. Unfortunately, they didn't pick our names in the lottery. Instead, we had dinner with Joe, Riann and Larnie at il Capriccio and had drinks at Good Luck Bar. At times, we were a little clumsy, dropping stuff or forgetting things. Our line of the evening, "Get it together!" For example:
Larnie: [Tried to use her straightened out fork to pierce a crouton from her salad. Instead, it slipped and flew across the floor.]
All: Larnie! Get it together!
Gwen's State Tour part 2
CHICAGO!!!We flew into Chicago last Thursday for Cile's birthday. Fun drunk times is all I can say. Good food + lots of drinks + fun people = great time in Chicago.
First impression of downtown Chicago, it's clean, mellow and cool. There are restaurants on every corner and bars, lounges and clubs galore. Everything was pretty much within walking distance of our condo, which by the way was supercool. We were on the 55th floor of 30 Huron and had an equally cool doorman, Herbie. The condo offered breathtaking views of Lake Michigan, the Magnificent Mile and the whole city. The place came with binoculars. Awesome.
Day 1
Arrival into O'Hare International airport in the evening and taxi to our condo in downtown on the 55th floor of 30 Huron.
Late dinner at
Jake Melnick's for Happy Hour appetizers and beer.
Day 2
Gino's East for Chicago's famous deep dish pizza. It's a tagger's paradise in there. You're allowed to tag anywhere in the restaurant except the bathroom.
We walked over to Navy Pier where Larnie got a massage on a dog paw chair.
Cottonelle was doing some promo stuff. While Larnie was waiting for her massage, the rest of us checked out the dog bus and "butt bar." Their slogan- Be kind to your behind.
Having fun with funhouse mirrors. Look at Randy's gumby head.
James with Lake Michigan behind him. Hey James, I read that Lake Michigan is a freshwater lake. Doesn't the water look caribbean blue?
Jumpshot with the Chicago skyline in the background.
Here's the birthday girl and her boyfriend, Lester. Cile found this awesome sushi place in downtown. We began her birthday celebration at
Oysy.
Here's the gang sober. We had a few sake shots here and continued celebrating Cile's birthday at JBar around the corner.
Me, James and Randy
Larnie, Lester, Cile and Junior
Bring on the rounds. The yellow drink in the martini glass is called "the James." The brown drinnk was Junior's "Applejuice."
Some lady asked Lester to get "jiggy with it" when we first got into the lounge. Lester got "jiggy with it."
The JBar was like a modern Saints and Sinners, small, cozy, dangerous and fun drunk times.
Here's James' drunk tell. His hair slowly starts getting higher and higher throughout the evening.
By this time, we were all drunkos. There are more pics, but I won't be showing them to you here. All I remember is trying to inflate the air mattress and getting tackled to the ground by Lester. WWE followed. We've got bruises to prove the battle. Cile has her own story. She was big winner that night. Ask Larnie about it. Sorry, I wasn't able to help. I was knockout out in a drunken slumber.
Day 3
Potbelly's for lunch.
Millennium Park's Cloud Gate or "the Bean."
Here's Larnie's water trick.
Dinner at Roy's- I had the Butterfish.
Reyna was Cile, Terry and Anna's roommate in college. She's now living, working and going to school in Chicago. Her boyfriend is a resident DJ at a club I can't remember the name to. (Sorry, I'll update this when I find out.) Anyway, she totally hooked us up VIP style. Thanks, Reyna and thanks to your boyfriend for hooking up the hiphop set. Again, we were the only ones singing to BBD's "Poison."
Junior, Cile and Lester
When and where else could you get unlimited bar drinks whenever you want? That's all for Cile. Haha.
Olivia, another UC Irvine alum is also living and working in Chicago. She met up with us at the club. Congrats on your engagement, Olivia!
You know how you're always hungry after clubbing or drinking? We headed over to the Flagship McDonald's. You have never been to McDonald's if you have never been to this McDonald's. Two floors, executive chairs, gelato station, large screen TVs, two drive thurs. I wish we had one of these in LA.
Day 4
What up, Harold and Kumar? We had our own little journey to find and eat at White Castle. Little did we know there was no place to eat. So, we kicked it curbside. In Chicago, beggers don't ask for a dollar. They ask for 50cent. Ask Lester.
One of the greatest players of the game, Michael Jordan.
We rode the "El" and rode the bus, but we did alot of walking. Here's the Chicago Theatre. Playing that night, Margaret Cho- SOLD OUT.
While the others took naps, Randy and I went shopping on the Magnificent Mile. We found the Hershey's store and scored free hats to go along with our hot chocolate. We also scored free Full Throttle drinks. Random, right?
Dinner at a Spanish Tapas place. What a great way to end the trip, tapas, sangria, gaspacho and paella. Muy bien!
10pin bowling is kinda like Lucky Strike lanes. That night their video jukebox was out of service. Unfortunately all they played on the screens were Country videos.
Our last outing before heading home. I won. Thanks for the fun times, guys!