Old Friends, New Memories

I have not blogged in the last few days an as a result my dad has been worried that I would lose the interest of my loyal blog readers. I assured him that I have a loyal base of readers and in the worst case scenario I can probably call all 5 of them and let them know I have a new post today! :)

The last couple of weeks have been very busy. Mainly because of work. It’s still a bit tough adjusting – what’s worse is to have so many deadlines looming while that adjusting is going on. But enough about that. This post was not intended to focus on my gripes about work.

The other reason I’ve been so busy is cause we have had so many guests the last couple of days. It started last week (Wed.) with the arrival of my cousin, Jill, from Toronto. Despite our 9-year age gap, Jilly-bean and I are very close and she grew up almost like my little sister. It was great seeing her even if she was here only for a few days. We spent all our free time catching up and bonding. She left last Tuesday.

Next was the arrival of my best friend of nearly 20 years (my god that makes us sound ancient!), Leslie, who was here for my wedding back in 2004 and is here for a 3-week vacation. With Les is her co-worker and friend Jaime, who in a span of 1 afternoon has become one of us! They both arrived on Sunday. The following day, my very dear friend from high school (Su-an) and her husband of two days (Mark) arrived. They are on their honeymoon and since I missed their wedding, it’s kinda sweet that they are sharing their honeymoon with us :) To welcome them all, we had a backyard bbq of chicken, sausages, ribs and corn together with three other friends Ginger, Heidi and Libby.

On Wednesday night, we met another long-time friend of mine (Mei and her husband, Ben, and son, Thomas) for dinner at Samba in Redondo Beach. It was really nice seeing Mei (who I have not seen in 13 year!!!). The next night I had them all over for dinner at home where I prepared baked chicken wings, garlic focacia bread and spaghettini with meatballs.

On Friday, we all drove to Las Vegas to meet up with still more friends. While my high school pals spent the afternoon at the Primm outlets, Jojo and I met up with two of my really good friends from work (from my first job in Manila). Ence and her hubby Rich who are here visiting from Connecticut, and Muri and her boyfriend, Carl who are based in Las Vegas. We had dinner at a really nice place called Bahama Breeze. I was so excited when they mentioned the place since Rachael Ray had featured it on her Food Network show $40 Dollars a Day.

So there we were dining on fiery hot wings, jerk chicken pasta, barbecue chicken with smashed sweet potato and plantains topped with chicken, cheese and salsa. The food was good, the mojitos were just right, the ambience took you to a tropical hideaway, but the best part was catching up with old friends. It was great seeing Ence who I last saw back in 2001 and Muri who was over very briefly to attend my wedding. These two were such good friends of mine and we’ve been thru so much together too. Great meeting Carl who was very funny and Rich who had not changed at all. After dinner and drinks we headed to Tuscany villas to say hello to Ence’s family (mom, dad, brother, in-laws). It was just nice to see familiar faces. We stayed till about 1 just talking and catching up.

Right now, it’s bright and early (well, 9 am is bright and early in Vegas) and while everyone is still asleep, I thought I’d post an update. We are booked here at The Orleans hotel. It’s off the strip but really a very nice hotel. I’m quite impressed. I actually think it rates much higher than Circus-Circus, were we stayed two months ago when I came with my in-laws.

Today, is another exciting day since another dear high-school friend, Pam is flying in from Boston. Along with another friend, Ahna who is arriving from New York. It’s all very exciting and so awesome seeing everyone and having a weekend just dedicated to having fun and getting reunited. This is one time where “what happens in Vegas, hopefully does not stay in Vegas” :)