happi july 4th.

for the last several years, i've been vacationing alone to oahu the last week of june.  i met my friend, robbyn through roy's during my visits.  she would tell me about their upcoming july 4th event and would tell me that i should just stay another week so i can celebrate july 4th with them.  well, that extra week obviously never happened.  every year, as my annual solo-vacay came around, i would wish i scheduled my vacation a week later, but due to personal reasons, that was never an option...  

one of the highlights of me moving to oahu and working for the original roy's was that, i was FINALLY going to be able to attend (work) the july 4th party!  let me give you an overview of what happens...

we called it "roy's july 4th bbq bash" this year - we get permits to barricade from our lounge/patio area to the sidewalk, the entire lawn is ours.  we sell tickets and we have our own july 4th bbq party for our guests.  we roasted two whole pigs, hot dogs, chilli, corn on the cob, poke station, cotton candy, rootbeer float and lemonade stand and much more.  our regulars and guests came in the afternoon, ate, mingled and at 8pm, they got to watch the fireworks.  it was a lot of planning, but definitely a lot of fun!

the hostess girls and i wanted to make cute t-shirts for this special occasion.  my two lead hostesses decided to tie-dye t-shirts and put the roy's logo on the back.  here's the production process...

the girls tie-dyed the shirts so i don't have photos of that, but i went to my friend, jp's office and ironed on roy's logos.

pretty neat right?

i brought my friend, lauren along with me to help.  turns out that lauren, who works for bubba gumps and jp made a great networking connection!  :)

jp, whose one of my sous chef's brother, who also has made shirts and hats for us, had extra smaller roy's logos, so we decided to put those on the front of the shirts.

cute right?!

modeling.

sexy modeling.

view from the roof of the restaurant at 4pm...

pig roaster

bretty-poo, krizpin, brother and wayland about to roast the pig!

showering the pig with some salt

sexy ah?

pre-shift with the staff!

how come the boys are so sexy?!

i made this sign!  i painted a slate of wood with chalk board paint!

look at us with our fabulous shirts!

tomtom, joshie-poo, chalesey, nicky and kinjo.

steph, kalena, sheila & teves

travis & mitchell

kinjo with the cotton candy...  his arm/arm hairs were so sticky!!  buahahaa

alan & evan

police officers from next door came for a visit.  ;)

my love, maile!

view from the roof around 7pm

ciera, chalesey and i - the shirts came out amazing!  we got lots of compliments!

love!

so we played a trick on zameer, out general manager.  ciera hid in the box and asked zameer to pick it up.  haha he freaked out so much he tipped the box over!  hahaaaa!

july 4th bbq bash was definitely a memorable day.  HOT day, but fun day.

black bean spare ribs.

years ago, i went to a friend's house for dinner.  he made black bean spare ribs for us.  he gave me the recipe, it's been sitting in my inbox since then.  for some reason, i've been having a strong craving for those spare ribs!  so i decided to give it a try.


the recipe calls for:
1 slab of pork spare ribs
1 small bottle of garlic black bean sauce
soy sauce
wondra
vegetable oil


i went to foodland and had the butcher cut half a slab of pork spare ribs into smaller chunks.  

i marinated the ribs with the black bean sauce and shoyu for a day and a half.  (it shouldn't have been that long but my hectic schedule didn't allow for me to take it out earlier.) 

i then browned the ribs, added water, bringing it to boil, allowing it to simmer for about an hour and a half.  after the ribs were fork-tender, i added the "gravy" - wondra+water.  

this is the outcome.  it looks like... barf, but it was really tasty!

i had maile from maile's thai bistro taste it and she loved it too!  i'm pretty proud of myself.  :)  i wonder if there's a way to NOT make it look like crap..  any tips?

50th state fair.

forgive me for not updating for awhile...  things have been sort of mellow over in my world.  sort of.

when i was living in cerritos, i never went to the la fair.  i went to the oc fair a few times, but fairs have just never been my thing.  it get quite expensive and what the hell was i going to do with that humongous/ugly stuffed animal?!  oahu had their 50th state fair recently - for some odd reason, i had an urge to go!

luckily, i had reri and kristina go with me.  we more so, wanted to go eat "fair-food"!

reri & kristina said i had to ride one ride - and this was the one.

the INVERTER.

ian told kristina that we couldn't win him a pepsi.  we spent $8 on 60 rings trying to win one pepsi bottle.  that was one damn expensive 2 liter bottle of pepsi!

corn on the cob - they let us season it to our liking.  garlic salt and cayne pepper.

funnel cake - best fair dessert.  EVER.

it started to rain while we were standing in line.  i kept trying to *hint* to reri and kristina maybe we should get out of line and wait out the rain.  they didn't buy it.  they knew i was trying to get out of riding the "inverter" so we stood in the rain.  fml.  hahaha.  i'm pretty proud of myself - i didn't complain as much as you'd think!

realization.

what a fool to think it's possible to have a convenient love.

there's no such thing.  it always gets messy.

some people are just better off alone.

i love us.

today, i'm thinking of us.

in tahoe.

together.

talking about the men in our lives, drinking and laughing.

xoxo.

do i need love?

i'm enjoying my new HI-life more and more these days.  strangely - i'm not as lonely as i used to be...

like carrie from sex&thecity said, "i'm somebody whose looking for love.  real love.  ridiculously inconvenient, consuming, can't live without each other love" - i am that somebody.
...i rephrase, i was that somebody.  i've come to the realization that as much as i want to love and be loved, to be in a relationship, to have that someone who i cannot live without, but when that opportunity arises, i might not be... so into it.  it's probably because i haven't met the right person yet, but honestly, maybe i'm happy alone?  not because i think i'll be happy alone, but it's easier to be alone.  i mean really...  what if i learn that i need love?  what if i have to shape my life around it?

look at my life - i am so materialistic and vain.   i do what i want, when i want.  i'm so consumed in my own life - how can i possibly incorporate somebody else's life into mine?

is it possible to have a convenient love?  but then, is that selfish?

but for now, i'm happy where i am.  maybe my feelings will change when i meet that guy who i'm in love with - a love that's ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming and can't live without each other kind of love.

anyways, ef love.  here's been what's going on!

remember how i don't cook?  but i really really enjoy baking!  ian gave me an old-school roy's apron and it encourages me to make something! 

here, i'm making... 5 chex mix boxes worth of muddy buddies!  recipe says 15 minutes (per box!) but it took me almost two hours - with the help of ian...  yelling at me!

that's me and minami on easter!  cute yah?!

the "six pack" came for a visit!!!!  we went to go eat tonkatsu in waikiki.  we laughed and had such a good time.  oh how i miss them!!  but due to their visit, i finally got to meet ken & candace's daughter lauren!!!

this is elijah - she's mark gedeon (one of our sous chef)'s wife.  this is at their baby shower.  

guess what they're naming their daughter???  AYA tiare marie!  cuuuuute ah?!

[elijah had baby aya on thursday, june 2nd!)

i made a six layer dip with homemade guacamole for their baby shower.  it was a huge hit!  yay!

the girls + mason

from left to right - mason, cathy, hannah, sheila, stacey, michelle and reri

aren't these babies sooooooooooo cute?!?!?!!  i keep telling hannah that her and i are special because both our names are palindrome.

next up...  minami's 5th birthday brunch at the beachhouse @ moana surfrider hotel...

that's minami and her two bff's.  precious.

that's michelle (yoko-chan) with my eye patch.

typical of me and minami!  hahahaaa.

and here she is with her cake - soo adorable!

boys football team - although they lost their championship game AND it was raining/windy, it was super fun!  handsome buggahs!

so that's lauren on the left - she's ken & candace watase's daughter.  LOVE HER!  in the middle is melissa.  we met in high school, her dad and lauren's dad are partners in their law firm.  she came to vacation with her bf, chad.

my gm is on vacay for two and a half weeks so i've been working monday-friday, allowing me to enjoy an actual weekend off!  lauren and i took melissa paddle boarding at ala moana beach park!

i loooove floaties!

what's a beach day without waiola shave ice?!  mine was flavored with melona and mango.  YUM!

so a group of us went to go watch hangover 2 at the first midnight showing.  i learned something new and delicious!

popcorn with:  kakimochi (arare) and snow caps!  DELISH!

me, paula, sharla and robbyn at wai'olu at the trump waikiki hotel celebrating sharla's belated birthday.

roy's participated in kapiolani children's miracle network with costco.  we served pork belly bou buns.

only in hawaii, can we go to work in shorts and slippahs!  

ho cherry brah, cherry!

and have fun!

so this is ian - aka the other restaurant manager, aka my friend kristina's fiance, aka "angry 1".

wouldn't it be so much fun if we both worked the floor in this outfit???  but.... we figured it was a bit inappropriate... 

xoxo.

ulcer?!

i apologize in advance for the graphic photogs - it's my only way to give you a visual of how much pain i'm in.

so it all started last wednesday when i went to the beach.  such a nice day - windy though.  i think sand got in my eye.  minor.

i still felt like i had something in my eye on wednesday night - figured it would go away after awhile.  guess what?  it didn't.

my right eye was really bothering me on saturday.  i was having sharp, stabbing pains.  

this is what my eye looked like after i took off my contacts.  it kept getting more red and wouldn't stop tearing.

i tried to deal with the pain but it was getting unbearable.  around 3am, i went to a doctor that's on-call in waikiki.  thank goodness for them.  he took a look, gave me some drops and said if it doesn't get better by sunday night, i should go see a ophthalmologist on monday.  told me not to wear my contacts for now.

shocking - the drops he gave me didn't make things better at all.  working mother's day dinner was quite painful.  my eye was very sensitive to any bright light, my right eye would throb of pain.  annoying.

i went to the ophthalmologist today.  the pain has gotten so bad that driving for longer than 10 minutes is difficult.  i even wore my oversized sunglasses over my glasses but that didn't really help.  i'm squinting and closing my eyes for at least two seconds at a time - yah, dangerous.  i know.  i wish i had someone to drive me around...

the ophthalmologist told me today that i have an ulcer in my cornea.  apparently, i have an open sore on the cornea of my eye.  what?!  honestly, how the heck does that happen!?  she said it's probably due to long wear of my contacts.  i never realized..  i wear my contacts from.. 9/10am all the way up to... 12-2am depending.  

fml.  the doctor gave me a stronger dosage of antibiotic drops + something that dilates my eyes so it won't be as sensitive to light.  eye drop medications are the worst because they go down your sinus into your throat and it tastes like... shit.  yuck.  doctor says it might take up to two-three weeks until it completely heals.  

due to my stupid condition, i've been teased at work... being called: miss captain one eye, one eye aya (with their hand over one eye!!), ay ay aya..  hahaa.  i'm embracing it - it is quite ridiculous.

but what else is more entertaining???  

this!!!  arg!

my friend, ian bought me an eye patch today!!!!!!!!  buahahahaaaaaa!  i didn't have the will-power to wear it during work, but maybe after i bedazzle it or put a hello kitty sticker on it, i will.  :) 

luckily, my eye is not contagious!  which means, i can wear make-up AND i don't need to throw my make-up away!!!  

regardless of my situation, i will choose beauty over pain.  yes, i am vain.  oh well.

i hope this gets better soon.  this ulcer in my eyeball is a bit discouraging.  i don't want to be outside during the day because it's too bright, i don't want to go out at night because it's too painful.

i just want to be in bed in the dark until this goes away...........