Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Chester, CT with the Gastler/Bhandari/Palmisano clan.

Aunt Deb made a 25 lb turkey.



It was STUFFED with stuffing.



And it was Lillifer's first thanksgiving!



Yayyy! (So cute seeing Grandma photobombing/looking on so happily.)



This turkey smelled soooooy good.



Uncle Felly did the carving.



Kristen did the amazing table setting...





And then we poured turkey drippings into the gravy...



And it was the most delicious gravy I've ever had in my life.



YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY



We loves a turkey leg!



I'm so grateful to be welcomed by this amazing family.



Heaven on a plate.



Even Izzy got a few scraps.



AND then! Connie brought out a birthday surprise for me... Meatball "Cupcakes"!!!

The most beautiful delicious birthday cake I have ever had in my life!!!!!



Yayyy!





Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm off to Vegas!

Catch Me If You Can

The next two weeks are gonna be nuts.

My LA friends convinced me to buy tix to Vegas this weekend. Since I have to be in SF next week anyway I just changed my flight so that I go out a little earlier and fly to SF from Vegas.

Then the other day my friend Rebecca was telling me about a Luxury Wedding Summit that she and another friend Allan will be attending (http://montelucia.engage13.com) and I happened to have the dates free and it happens to be taking place in Scottsdale, home to beautiful Lady Di, so I signed up for that as well.

It'll be a good networking event. I need to meet more peeps in the wedding biz. And honestly, if I somehow end up booking one wedding as a result of going and making some new friends, it will have been worth it.

I'm taking off to CT tomorrow for Thanksgiving at the Gastler/Bhandari/Palmisanos and from there it's just going to be one non-stop wild ride. Apologies in advance if I stop blogging.

Nov 28 - Birthday/Thanksgiving/Hanukkah!
Nov 29 - 10am flight to Vegas - VEGAS!!!!
Nov 30 - VEGAS!!!!!
Dec 1 - R&R day in Vegas (Treat Yo Self!)
Dec 2 - R&R day 2 in Vegas (I said TREAT. YO. SELF.)
Dec 3 - Vegas to San Francisco
Dec 4 - Corporate shoot in SF
Dec 5 - SF to NYC for Brown 10 Year Reunion Pre-Party/Kickoff Event
Dec 6 - 8am flight JFK to Ft Myers, Florida - LizCroci's Rehearsal Dinner
Dec 7 - LizCroci's Wedding in Florida!!
Dec 8 - 11am flight Ft Myers to Phoenix (playtime w Lady Di!)
Dec 9 - Luxury Wedding Summit in Scottsdale, AZ
Dec 10 - Luxury Wedding Summit in Scottsdale, AZ
Dec 11 - Luxury Wedding Summit in Scottsdale, AZ
Dec 12 - 8am flight Phoenix to NYC
Dec 13 - NYC - 3 Headshot Shoots
Dec 14 - EmilyFlanagan Wedding in Upstate NYC

A little bit scared.

Very excited also.

This is cray.

3 Days in LA / SoHo Obsession

So I landed back in NYC after three awesome days in LA.

Got home and was EXHAUSTED and slept from 10am until 6pm.

Now I'm up all night working on photos and decided to take a break to blog.

You may or may not have noticed, I've started updating my blog again. I've also made an addition to the sidebar. Where I used to have a Cast of Characters, I now have Choose Your Adventure, so you can choose a tag/hashtag, and revisit those blog posts from the past. It's a really cool feature I've been slowly working on for the past year, and when it's complete it will be epic. If you have any tag suggestions, feel free to email me. I've been having to go back through the blog in my limited spare time and retroactively tag posts with labels and it's somewhat tedious but worth it in the end.

ANYWAY...

LA!

I'm in love with the 7am flight to LA because the airport is empty when I check in. And the upgrade likelihood is high (I got it, obvi) and then you land at 10am with a full day ahead of you and just in time to grab a fabulous lunch.

My first stop was SoHo House West Hollywood with Matt and Kelli.

SoHo House WeHo is arguably the most fabulous place in all of LA.

It sits high above West Hollywood at the beginning of the sunset strip and overlooks EVERYTHING. You can see the Hollywood Hills, Santa Monica, Century City, Downtown, and on a clear day even Long Beach. It is beauuuuutiful. And no picture taking is allowed, which kind of just adds to the mystique. (There are a lot of celebs there and it is probably nice for them to have a refuge where people can't snap photos of them for fear of having their memberships revoked.)

I found this photo on the the internet though. There are probably others if you google or search instagram.



It's just one of the terraces overlooking the LA skyline. As a member, you can just sit here all day and work on your computer, which I did, and plan to often.

The other thing that's awesome about SoHo House is that people are so excited to check it out that they offer to buy you lunch just for taking them. Thank you Matt and Kelli!



Celebs spotted at lunch: Omar Epps, Gerard Butler, Trudie Styler (Sting's wife).

After lunch, I headed over to Westwood where I was crashing with Matt and Adrian and took a nice long nappy nap.

Then it was back to SoHo for drinks and dinner with Danny and Steven. (Thank you D+S!)

While they don't allow picture taking at SoHo, they DO have an awesome photobooth and the hallway between the lounge and the restaurant is covered with black and white photos from the photobooth.



Celeb spotted: Ed Sheeran, Jason Lewis AKA Smith Jerrod from Sex and the City

After dinner we headed into West Hollywood where I had invited some of my friendsies out for pre-birthday drinkies. Thank you everyone who came out!



The next morning I went downtown to see KristyKwan who brought me to a hidden gem, Cook's Tortas.

And had the most delicious Steak Milanese Torta EVERRR...



Then we went back to Kristy and Mike's and she helped me hand-stitch my Worst Quality Crab costume for Ming-Na's big 50th birthday party (which I'm going to give its own post, for obvious reasons.)



Sunday morning after Ming's party, I brought my lovely hosts Matt and Adrian to SoHo for brunch. And after brunch I basically just held court there all afternoon because a bunch of people had texted saying they wanted to come by and check it out too. (You're allowed 3 guests at a time, so when one person left, I'd text the next person that they could now come over and would sign the next person in.) Gotta love social media. Such fun!

Celeb spotted: Rachel Zoe

Around 5 pm I headed to the airport for my redeye home.

And now here I am. Shivering under my blankets.

Oh...p.s...my friends convinced me to go to Vegas again this week to actually celebrate my real bday post Thanksgiving and...well...I just couldn't resist.

YOLO

Ming's 50th: Teaser

Ming-Na's 50th birthday party was last night. And it was SO MUCH FUN.

Everyone dressed up in costume.

Naia and I had an epic one. Ming roared with laughter when she saw it.

For those of you who haven't seen The Joy Luck Club, the most famous line from it is when her mom tells her, "Waverly take best quality crab. You take worst. Because you have best quality heart!" And then everyone cries.

So our costumes are Worst Quality Crab / Best Quality Heart.



If you've never seen The Joy Luck Club, you should be ashamed. You are a bad asian.

I've uploaded it though and you can download it here:
https://www.transferbigfiles.com/e2581f7f-4c04-4a4b-988e-eb1b26583e6c?rid=lbMT0AA-4b43uTbe9XvjqA2

It will change your life.

Special shoutout to KristyKwan who spent an hour yesterday sewing little plastic crabs onto my tshirt for me.

Will post more pics later maybe. There was a costume change right before we roasted the birthday girl, and she came out in a golden bikini.

Off to LA! - A Whirlwind Cometh

Today/this weekend is going to be nuts.

It's 6am. I'm at JFK waiting for my flight to LA.

I'll land at 10am. Pick up my rental car. And head straight to SoHo House West Hollywood for lunch. (Joining SoHo House officially this week really makes me feel like a whole new stage of my life has begun.)

After lunch I'm going to do some work on my computer. Then I have a mini birthday dinner (also probably at SoHo WeHo) and then am having a little birthday get-together of my favorite LA people.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with KristyKwan and Mike for lunch before meeting up with Naia to finalize our costumes for the big party tomorrow night. (It's Ming-Na's 50th birthday party and I'm the official photographer and it is going to be INCREDIBLE. The theme is Ming-Na Con, so it's basically going to be like Halloween/Comicon).

Our costumes are F*CKING BRILLIANT. And I seriously think Ming might die when she sees us.

I'm not telling what it is just yet. But I'm so excited. So so so SO excited.

OMG and if Chris Evans is there (Ming's co-star in PUSH), I will literally have an aneurysm.

OK I have to get started on my "homework" for this flight.

(I'm catching myself up on all the episodes of "Agents of Shield" in preparation for meeting the other cast members tomorrow, assuming they will be there.)



I can't believe this is my job. I can't believe this is my LIFE.

P.S. If you've still never seen the Joy Luck Club, please email me. I will send you a link to download it and it will change your life.

New York effing City

I left my apartment this morning to someone yelling, "ROLLING!!!...wait...Cut! CUTTT!!!!" Because I had literally walked right onto a movie set - in between Adam Sandler and a camera crew filming his upcoming movie "The Cobbler" outside my front door.



And that was the LEAST exciting thing that happened today.

From there I was on my way to SoHo House to pick up my brand new membership card and get my orientation.



Literally I was handed my card and I thought, "The rest of my life begins today."

For those of you who keep asking what SoHo House is and why it's such a big deal, watch the Sex and the City clip where it's featured...



After my orientation I ended up staying there all morning doing work on my computer and having breakfast and coffee and being generally fabulous.

It was amazing. I love it. My new home.

At 1pm I went uptown to do a corporate headshot shoot for this fabulous tech marketing company that I've been doing lots of shoots for.

This is my 3rd time shooting their people, so now we have our routine down and it's a breeze and I just basically hang out with my awesome contact person there, Samantha, and we chat and giggle and gossip.

Today I taught them Asian Poses. My job is the best job. I know it.



After shooting 9 people over the course of 2 hours (9 corporate shots x $250 = $2250 woo!) I ran home to drop off my cameras.

I was also informed the company will be flying me to SF in two weeks to shoot their SF and European teams. (30 people or something, triple-woo!)

I got home, dropped of my cameras, and then headed up to Lincoln Square IMAX where Megoon had invited me to an advance screening of Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire.

(Goon's friend's step-daddy is the prez of IMAX, what.ever.)



The movie was AMAZING. Stressful, but amazing.

Also, Liam Hemsworth is too beautiful for words.



After THAT we went downtown to Olive's by Todd English at the W Hotel Union Square where my dear friend and headshot client (and Penelope Cruz clone) Merly was bartending.



She hooked us up with drinks and delicious food.

Including rabbit pasta...



(SOFA. KING. DELICIOUS.)



Crab toast...



And the MOST DELICIOUS SOUFFLE I've ever had in my life.



After wayyyy to many beers and vodka sodas I shouted across the bar, "MERLY! Does Todd English ever come in here?"

She gestured over to the corner and was like, "Dude! He's right over there!"

It was such a only-in-New-York(or LA) moment.

Turns out Merly and Todd are besties and so she brought him over and we got to chat him up and take a photo.



No big deal. Just Todd English. One big-time-iest chefs in America.

You may recall our very first outing to Olive's Las Vegas during our epic Celine Dion Adventure.

Not only an amazing chef/restauranteur but a total hunk as well.

I love this frickin' city.

Hawaii -> JFK

On my way home from a weeklong cruise around the Hawaiian Islands!

It was absolutely amazing.

Over the course of the week we ate our faces off, hiked and drove and explored sites all around Oahu, Kona, Hilo, Kauai, and Maui.

We saw a bunch of waterfalls...

Snorkeled and swam. (I got a sweet new underwater digital camera.)

Saw amazing mountain ranges and valleys and sunsets

Made some wonderful new friends.

And met some beautiful Hawaiian people!

On our last day today we hiked Diamond Head in Honolulu.



I will try to post more. But I am so backlogged on editing work right now. It may have to wait.