What's new?

Ok. I'm guilty. shouldn't have named my page Ceciliatoday if I wasn't going to keep up with it right? The truth is, with all these sites - facebook, myspace, flicker, food blogs, etc etc etc.... who has the time to update all of them?

But my friend Mitch is right... it's time to update you.

The past 3 months i've been busy busy busy. I've been named after the movie "27 dresses" only because this year i've been going to one wedding after another.
(Thanks to the year 2008, which for most asian cultures it's an auspicious year).
Adding the baby showers, the baby 1 month celebrations, the bachelorettes, the pre-wedding parties, the after-wedding parties...it's been 3 months of lots of celebration!

In June I traveled to St. Marteen with 2 other girlfriends. It was the first time i stayed in the island. Other times, i've just cruised by it and walked around for a-couple of hours... a la Royal Caribbean.
We had an awesome time and some memorable moments.

I decided on that trip that life is just too short and I should start fulfilling my "bucket list" (Inspired by the movie). So I went parasailing. The taking off was pretty exciting. Not knowing what to expect, the guy instructed me to wear my gear, sit on the boat and wait till the wind took me off!
ok... so what was i supposed to do up there? hold on tight? wave? I had no idea. All i know is that the view was gorgeous. Unfortunately, i dont know how high i went, but everything looked great from above. Then the captain decided to dip me into the water. It was great the first couple of times until I saw a jelly fish and thought i was going to burn my rear end! All i can remember is screaming: "up, up, up, up!!!"

Another interesting tour was going to St. Bartholome. Apparently where the rich amd famous hang. So we put on our nice dresses and got on the "rapido" boat. So rapido that my food came out before I even had breakfast. Pretty nice start.
It was a pretty hot and sunny day. We walked around and shopped, well more like window shopped, and hoped to see a famous person strolling around. By the time it was noon, There was not rich or famous, it was still pretty darn hot and the freaking stores were not worth the walks up and down the hills! our smiles turned into desperate faces and our feet dragged. So we took a taxi, let out a loud "Ahhhhh!" and toured around the island. We ended the tour in an isolated beach... the "nice and must see beach" where we ate sand for 4 hrs! it was windy enough that the sand would end up in our faces, hot enough that we would dehydrate and well... isolated enough that it was a nude beach. - so, I added the last thing to my bucket list - Nude beach - checked.
By the time our taxi was scheduled to pick us up, we realized... St. Barth is where the rich and famous hang... only that they hang in their nice yatch and dont have to eat sand!

Back at the hotel After St. Barth. My friend M. suggested we should shower and shampoo at least twice, because the sand gave us a really nice more-than-we-wanted extra layer on our skins.
sure enough, i'm on my second shower run, and suddenly the lights go off. I yelled, "girls! stop playing is not funny", and then heard M. say "it's not us, the lights went off!" and sure enough the water stops running...
yeah, pretty nice, my hair was fully shampooed. The island had lost electricity and nobody knew what was going on! anyhow, an hour later, after rinsing myself with "smart water" bottles, the lights came back. Pretty funny.

2 weeks later, I went to Ecuador for a wedding. It was one whole week of partying and drinking. Yes, they sure know how to party. Every night I went to sleep later and later... starting at 6am then 8am, then 10am... we would sleep for 3 hrs, run wedding errants and then party again. till this day, I really dont know how our bodies lasted. I partied more than I have in the last 2 years. But it sure was some good times!

and so, after that, it was my friend M & D's wedding, Y & Y wedding, S. Baby shower, all of which were so nice and unique. I just have to say... kudos to these people for such an awesome production!

Aside from all these events, I've been training at the gym since Feb.
My trainer D. is a really tall and bulky guy. He is a weight lifter and competes very often. His mean face is pretty intimidating and his dry and cut way of saying things makes you run away even faster. - that is only until you get to know him - He is a teddy bear!
My goal is just to be healthy, so we've been doing different things, including those scary and heavy things called "weights".
I have to say, working out on your own is pretty different. I've learned a lot over the months and know how to feel my body and what position make a right or bad move.
This past Friday I broke record... for the first time I lifted 105lbs! Romanian dead lift... I could have never imagined! - still those are the big, heavy and scary things.
I've been jogging more often and hope one of these days I would get the courage to run a 5K. - we'll see.

anyhow, this is enough for today.

I'll continue to cheers, and i'll update you pretty soon.

Olympics NBC

Great Music in Union Square

Where else other than NY can you find great spontaneous music?

On my way home after having a lovely dinner at Japonais I saw this jazz band 'baby soda'. They got all riders dancing on the spot!
So i couldnt wait to run home to find them and share it with you

for more info about them check out http://www.myspace.com/babysodajazzband

Who is right and who is wrong?

The other day I was riding the subway and saw something very particular. It really made me see things from a different perspective.

It was a crowded morning. Everybody was rushing to work. Like any other rush hour day on the subways of NYC, everybody was crowding at the entrance of the wagon, leaving a huge space right in the middle of the cart.

As it is expected, more people would try to get in by squeezing every part of their body before the double doors close right in - their faces (ass, arm, purse) whatever that is sticking out.

Of course, everybody starts screaming - "stop pushing!!!" "You don't fit" "Ah!"
and some faces start turning left and right, some eyes start rolling...

In the mean time, the same people who are screaming, are the ones who are just standing in front of the double doors, and who are not moving into the empty area for others to get in...

So, who is right and who is wrong?

The Celeb in me

Happy Birthday!

This was my birthday announcement. Clever eh?!

Needless to say, i'm not getting any younger - but the party was great and i felt 21 once again.

Thank you all for coming - I had a blast!

Happy New Year!

Nothing beats spending the holidays in Vermont snowboarding your way down the slopes of Stowe.

We were a groups of 14 people. We stayed in a beautiful cabin. Lots of snow, fire in the chimney, and plenty of wine to sip... it was definitely a White Holiday just like those they show in movies.

The first day we all went up the slopes. It was perfect. Not too cold, and just enough real snow to help cushion the falls. Those who endured went up the second day. The others stayed in the cabin and build a sled trail and played tag football - in the snow?!

The third day - my scariest day.
I've always been superstitious about saying, let's do a last run... because all the people that have said that, got hurt on that last run. So, it was the third day snowboarding, putting my legs into fire... I was tired. It was also 2pm. Way pass my lunch time. I was starving. The 4 of us - the masochist who despite the pain forced our bodies to snowboard one more day - decided to do a run - in my mind the "last run"- which i was JUST doing to have a yummy waffle that only Vermont makes. Obviously, i dared not to say the cursed sentence out loud. (Talk about gluttony).

The four of us decided to take the singles lane for the gondola ride. My girlfriend and I went up first. The other 2 guys were right behind us waiting to get on the next one.
It was a long ride up. The wind was getting stronger. So strong that as soon as the doors opened and i went out, the wind pushed me 2 feet back.
As luck would have it, the Waffle house closed!!! and the guys did not make it up. They had closed the gondola and our cart was the second to last. We were caught in a windtunnel!!!

It was so cold and windy that my gear had frozen. By the time i finished putting on my gear, 10 min after, everybody had disappeared. It was only my girlfriend and I up there.
My gloves were hard as a rock, my eyelashes were starting to freeze. The wind was blowing in every direction, mostly upwards so you could not see past 2 feet. The snow would stick to our goggles and the only way to have some sort of vision was to scrape it every minute. Sometimes the wind direction would shift and would push you away to whatever direction the wind was going. It was scary.
Needless to say, we were on a cliff. I had to concentrate really hard just to keep my tired legs and my inexperienced boarding body to keep myself in the middle just so that i would not fall down into the woods.

45 minutes later, we made it! We took a deep breath and then I Thanked God for letting me live 2008.

So cheers to that and Happy New Year!

A Merry Xmas

It has definitely been a really great year... just today... on xmas eve, my really good friend Mariko got engaged!!! - yes, let's add another one to the list this year!
Congrats to her!

I certainly feel honored since she wants me to be part of her big day and take on this project! So, i guess it will be a fun way to start the year.

Anyhow, Cheers! and a very merry xmas to all!

May everyone's wishes come true, and may everyone enjoy a very healthy, wealthy holiday filled with love.

Nothing but Good News

It's been a really long time... - so much for a Cecilia "Today" page eh?

so, where have I been in the past 6 months? Busy, really busy.

The good thing is that I have nothing but good news. Good news all over the place! Let's see, Cass, Judy, Mitch, Darius, and Angie got engaged, Michelle and Katie both got married, Amy, Jennifer, Michelle and Andrea had babies, Angela had twins, Chavez didnt win, Danny and Vic both got a place, Chung's business is growing, my website sales increased by 20% after we changed it, the database application is getting stronger, i'm about to launch a new security application, i'm currently launching a new phone system - literally NOW (i'm in the office finalizing things to launch it tomorrow at 7:30am), my sister is growing stronger, my parents visited for a while and pampered us with good food, I found tons of long lost friends through facebook who are doing incredibly well, and everybody else around me seem to be doing very well.
let's see... I also got a car, - (if you saw my earlier post this year about my 4 x 4... well no more of that - i'll tell you that, cos this time i got a real 4 x 4!)

Every time something good happened i "thought" of updating you with some news... obviously it never happened. The good thing is i've summarized everything today - just in time to start our New Year's resolution and Thank God for everything we learned this year.

well, i guess my break is over - back to work.

Talk to you soon!

We Did It!

I can't tell you how relieved i am! The project went as smooth as I could ever imagined.

Thank you, thank you thank you.... to my guardian angel for watching over me!

and of course, thank you to those who helped me go through this project. I couldn't have done it without you!

Today is D Day

So, i've worked and worked and worked over the past year to see this moment. Today I am opening my website to the public!

Based on past experience, as bad as the previous website used to be, people would get ready to shop online as if it was a horse race. With this new website and the advertising that has been done, i'm assuming it will be ever more of a horse race with tons of espectators.

I've pushed my team to get this going and they have all come through. We've all worked hard. But it wasnt until yesterday, around 4pm. when i finally had my heart drop to my stomach because that's when i finally realized we are almost there! luckly, my anxiety only lasted a second. I was able to keep going afterwards. It was the last day, and we still had 2 major issues to fix before the site opened.

As ready as we could be, we all went home... or at least some did. I went to the local bar next to my job, and enjoyed as much as i could without getting too drunk for the next day, a few drinks.
The next morning, TODAY, i woke up at 5:30am. (so much for being afraid to not be able to wake up!) and suddenly, i had this rush in my tummy... everything seemed to turn...

SHUT!!!! A FEW MORE HOURS! it is the moment of truth.... today is the day we see if our hard work paid off!

(Deep breath).... Wish me Good Luck!

Work and work

I have spent the last 20 days working about 12 - 13 hrs a day with no break in a little tiny office where i have somehow managed to fit about 4 people at times, and where there are no windows, fresh air, tons of papers growing by the minute and little mouse droppings that appear every morning.

before the intense 20 days, about a month ago I launched my first website. Though it was many months, days and hours of brain damage, it was very rewarding in the end. I got very nice comments overall and business automatically picked up the next day! We sold about 5 packages right off the website and many catalog requests!

The website though was not the last thing in my mind. I still had an inhouse application to build. So right after the website launched i went back to the application brain mode. Too many nights staying late in the office, eating pizza, and drinking coffee.
Yesterday was the deadline, we had to rush everything to make sure things were working according to the business. which by the way - this is a heck of a business. If building an application for 2000 people who does the same routine is difficult, building an application for 150 people who has about 30 different business process per department is even worst!
On top of that, we had to do all the manuals - application processes for dummy - like and prepare for the training sessions and the planning involved.
that alone was 10 different manuals, depending on the department, what they sold, and their business rules.

In the end, after many nights bonding with my computer, getting crossed eyed and developing a secretary rear end, I am finally there... We are launching on Monday.

Needless to say, i am terrified. We have done this entire process with only 2 people inhouse. I wonder what has been left in the hole and what kind of problems will derive from it. All i can ask for is a lot of LUCK and the strength to go on.

As if 2 major changes in the business is not enough, we are also undergoing a renovation - which is why i get little presents in my office from my little Mickey friends. Renovation means that I also have to worry about this, and plan every single outlet, cable, infrastructure that the place is going to have. while planning already is a big deal, moving people around during work hours while we renovate different areas, making sure they can still work and still handle a new website and a new inhouse application makes it even BIGGER!

I really don't know how i have been able to cope with all these things and still be sane...
Though, my perception of being sane is just relative to what i see and i what i know.
Just last night, after we managed to get everything ready for Monday's launch, i told my crew to go home "early" which was about 8pm, and get a good rest. Then, i took a walk down the streets of little Italy, and i was a bit lost. I thought, i must have been so out of touch with the world, that seeing so many people on the streets was a bit weird to me.
Again this morning, i was on the streets. I couldn't explain to you how happy i was just to be able to walk under the sun, breath air and see people around... it really makes me wonder if i am still sane.

Well, here i am. Finally at home, resting one entire day - or rather doing the laundry i had not done in weeks and cleaning my place and my yard. It felt good.

So... this is it for now... Wish me Good Luck!

I miss you my friend...

useless poems and long paragraphs. None can fulfill my one simple and real need - Just to say how much a miss you.

A Great weekend getaway and a Diamond day to remember!

This weekend I went snowboarding at Hunter and had an awesome time.

The people I met were great (all characters!), the weather was a bit cold but tolerable, and the mountain had good snow.
Half of the people that went were first time snowboarders, so we stayed on the easy green trails until the very end when M and I decided to end the day with some fun. We decided to go up one level and do the Blue - more difficult.
One of the guys, G, decided to come along... it was his first time going on a blue trail, and a shocking experience for all of us.
Just going up the lift, he got so nervous that he sat on my spot and i had nowhere to go. His board was stuck with mine and the lift was coming onto me while i was at that point facing the lift. I saw my leg amputated at that point!!!
Then, somehow, i fell under the lift, M tried to help me and fell on top of me, and then the lift went over our heads! It was crazy!!!!!
Thank goodness for that angel that was by my side protecting us.

On the second day, we decided to keep everyone at their level.
Hells yeah! I was not planning to go though that scary moment again!
So, 5 of us went up to do our usual Blue, until the 2 experts convinced us to do the diamond...!!!
OMG, yes! I DID THE DIAMOND!
Of course, right after we finished the diamond, those 2 experts convinced us that we could do the double diamond... and 3 of us Blue goers ended up doing Double Diamonds!!!!
We were soooooo proud that we did it!!! - definitely a day to remember.

Of course, we had to end the trip with a bang and had an awesome dinner in flushing with some good old inexpensive real Chinese food!

It was definitely an awesome weekend!

Now... let's bare the pain... I am so sore that i can even lift my leg.

Not Just 3BT... but Many Beautiful Things

Today I saw many beautiful things crossing in front of my eyes...

I saw two little girls on the train, probably 2 years apart. One was probably 3 and the other 5.
They both smiled at each other, played with each other, caressed each other, leaned on each other. It was beautiful. It was sweet. It was Innocent. It was true.
I immediately thought of my sister and wanted to hug her and tell her how much I love her.

Then I went to a bday dinner. at the dinner table there were many people. tons of couples.
in each couple i saw a silent union. It was invisible but very strong. I saw how much one cared for the other. I saw connection. I saw love and affection. It was the right hand talking to the left. Silly conversations, silly touches, silly comments, silly "oh do you know what happened today on my way to work?", silly "touch my hand, is soft, why is your hand so rough? it must be the cold"
silly laughs, silly "do you remember what happened on our trip?", silly "I'm so full, should I eat one more piece?", silly "sure go ahead". silly "I can't smoke, she doesn't like it", silly "We are going on vacation next week, i'm so excited", silly "is late, we have to go. We have to do things tomorrow", silly "Do you want to go to your mom's house after this?", silly people walking down holding hands.
It was beautiful. I miss feeling silly.

Whining people drive me NUTS!

What is it with whining people?

Although I am usually very patience, calm and understanding with people's problems, this Friday I almost lost it. The light, the space, the equipment, the neighbors, the music, the chair, the people. Everything seemed to bother this person.

After complaining for God knows 7 hrs? this person knocks on my door, opens the door and interrupts a meeting despite my nice "I'm in a meeting" quick reaction. This person's response? "oh, yes i know, but... Do you know...?"
OH MY GOODNESS! this person drove me bonkers!

What do these people have in their heads???

Pheww I feel so much better!

Spares!, Hobbies and Subways

1) Acknowledging that I am horrible at bowling, but still concentrating very hard so that I can control the motion of my hand and finally hit a spare! 3 games, first score 78, second 79, thirds something low again and final score 141!

2) When you know you are trying to get things work

3) Stepping into a new subway car, admiring the new screens that they have integrated and realizing that I have a big open mouth smile!

WD50 - An interesting taste of Science cuisine.

A while back a friend of mine and I went to a restaurant where I found beautifully designed dishes, creative use and mix of ingredients and still deliciously prepared.

Chef Wylie takes me through a fascinating tasting menu that is well paired with glasses of wine.

First I had the coconut carrot sunny side up

The egg white is made out of very light coconut jelly-like. The egg yolk is made from carrot juice. What is most interesting is that the carrot juice is wrapped in a very thin film of jelly, making it jiggle like a real sunny side up!

The sea salt sprinkled over the "egg", the soft texture of the coconut and the motion of the carrot jelly makes it freakingly similar to a real egg. Clever!

As for the taste, both carrot and coconut flavors were mild. Presentation definitely impressed me a lot more on this dish.


Then I had Foie gras with a touch of candied olives, green peas powder and beet juice

The best way to enjoy this dish is to cut the Foie gras perpendicular to it. This way, you can see the beet juice flowing out of it. It was beautiful!

The green peas powder had an interesting grainy texture and a salty flavor. I didn't know what it was until I asked. The salty mix enhanced the taste of the Foie gras

Both presentation and taste were great, but a bit too rich. I had 2 glasses of wine for this dish.

My friend had a different version of the Foie gras. Since he's been to WD50 a couple of times, Wylie made something different to taste.

The hot version of Foie gras combined with cold watermelon

I enjoyed this dish more. The Foie gras was not as heavy. the bite was airy like kidney or duck blood, but the texture was soft and moist. The cold watermelon with the hot piece was a playful sensation on the tongue.

Excellent dish!

Skipping through some dishes... Then there was the clarified Miso

The clarified Miso was good but nothing i have not seen or tasted before. But the soy paste in the tube made this dish fun.

After squeezing the paste into the soup, the soy turned into airy strings of noodles.

It was exciting!


Skipping through other dishes, then we got to the dessert.
Pine, Apple and Pineapple

A delicate ice cream that taste like apple at first and as you taste through your palate it begins tasting like pineapple?

No, I'm not talking about a two flavor scoop or a swirl of ice cream where the flavors are mixed.
I'm talking about one single bite, and one flavor flourishing after the other vanishes.

How? what? huh?

The pineapple sauce to the side was a nice touch but oh MY...
Delicious!

My overall experience was delightful. I enjoyed every dish, and although some ingredients are of no exciting surprise because I am Asian and I know where is coming from or how it is made, i thought it was brilliant the way he put it all together.

Definitely two thumbs up!

To end this dinner with a BANG, Wylie gave us a tour in his kitchen.
What an awesome meal, place and chef!
Check it out http://www.wd-50.com/

Happy Surprise Bday!

What a treat!

Last Friday my coworkers surprised me with an early cake...
turns out they got the wrong Friday and the wrong cake. Nevertheless, it was a sweet happy moment to live.

Today, my sister and D surprised me again. After going to the movies to watch a scary movie (yiack!) we head to dinner. Since nothing was planned, I just kept walking looking around for places to eat.
Strange thought #1: As I am walking, I get a quick strange feeling because we were walking as if we had a direction when we have not discussed where to eat yet. Oh well... I keep walking.
Of course, D says that there is a restaurant around the area that he found online.
strange thought #2: Researching for a place to eat is not precisely his biggest hobby. He just doesnt enjoy to eat.
strange thought #3: We arrive to the rest. As soon as i open the door, a nice seafood aroma travels through my nose... ahhhh.... it smells delicious... I never realized when D began to improve on his food skills... impressive!

As I am walking in and asking for a table, d pushes me to a crowd and everyone screams SURPRISE!!!!

what a nice Birthday... definitely 3BT

Good Company, Good Times, and Good Food!

Good Bye 2006, Welcome 2007!

Once again is that time of the year, those very last moments waiting for the ball drop, or as we would say it back home - the 12 "campanasos" (the count down of the 12 Bells).
I'm getting ready to cheer with friends and loved ones with a glass of champagne. Everyone is counting down loudly and with a big smile. At the sound of the last bell, we all scream Happy New Year! Hugs, smiles and cheers.

Suddenly, as if I was part of a cartoon, I feel like my body separates from the crowd. I close my eyes, just for a blink, and there I was taking myself back to the whole year.
I open my eyes and feel them watering... it was at that moment that I, for the first time, felt from the bottom of my heart that this passing year was the most difficult year yet and that I was just so glad it had ended.
A silent sigh, a discrete tear and a thought - I made it through!

So many things, so many lessons that make me who I am today. I am just so glad that 06 is over and i am just so eager to start a new beginning...

Cheers to 2007!