phew..

phew!!!!

that pretty much sums up the past few days! mom, i'm back in Paris (apparently, she gets all of her updates from my blog, and i might have forgotten to mention to her that I was going to be back in SF for the wedding...)

well, sorry for being away for so long, it's been pretty hectic and i'm only now getting back into the rhythm of things. where do i start?

first off, on thursday morning, i got ready to fly back to San Francisco for Diana and Brian's wedding (woohoo!!!). and i woke up super early, for a flight time that i read wrong (more on this later). giving myself what i thought was 2:45 hours, i head to the train station to board the RER from paris to CDG, and find out that there's a strike. and the trains are all messed up... ok... no issues... so i hop onto the first train out of chatrelle, and it only takes me one stop, to gar du surd. ok... i look up on the board, and for some reason, the train i'm on... is going BACK to chatrelle. not having a clue WTF is going on, i decide to play it safe, and hop off the train. and yep, the train starts going back from whence i came. sweet. so i dook around the gar du surd train station, and finally make my way to one that should take me to CDG. except the train i need to be on, has just closed their doors and has taken off. the next train? 30 minutes.

30 minutes later i finally board the train (by this time, by my watch i have about 2:00 left before my flight leaves), and it starts trucking along. thinking i'll get there with 1:30 left to spare by the time i arrive, i'm not panicking. until the train stops at a random stop, and the train operator tells everyone to get off. seriously?! so we get off the train, head to another platform, where we have to wait for another train to come pick us up. in 30 minutes. blood pressure starts to rise.

30 minutes later, with me itching to kill someone, we hop on the train (now i only have 55 minutes before my flight departs) so, i wip out my phone in a panic, flip on the internet (screw the roaming charges!), and check my flight to see who I should call. only to realize... my flight isn't at 11:15AM. it's at 11:50... someone up there is looking out for me... big time.

well that pretty much is my horror story of trying to get to the wedding, aside from that, i was blessed to be in the new United Airlines business class international seats... that are... lie flat. AND they ended up giving me first class from Chicago to SF (with this cool professor I met on the Paris leg getting me into Red Carpet...). naht... too.. shabby.

i got to SF, got picked up by chang soo, and then... of course, we went... to Chipotle. CS is the MAN for recommending that. couldn't have asked for a better meal upon return.

brian and diana's wedding went without a hitch and was beautiful. they ended up having it inside instead of outside when this freak 2 day storm came roaring through san francisco for some reason, but inside being just as nice and the ceremony, reception, and dance were all fantastic and flawless. here are some pictures:

gents only picture a-top brian's condo complex:



and at the wedding:





my flight home... was thankfully, uneventful. first class from SFO->ORD was unbelievable, and international business back to CDG was just as nice as coming home. i'm not sure HOW in the world i'll ever be able to go back to economy without silently throwing daggers with my eyes at all of the comfortable business class people on the flight.

well upon my return, Grace had just started culinary school! so she whipped on the uniform, and show cased it for me, and i gotta say, she looks STUNNING! i mean, it's as if she was MADE for the uniform! it's incredible isn't it??? oui chef.



yeah, my girlfriend's a cook! and a hottie at that! oui chef!!!

this concludes the most obvious statement in the world, which of course i knew at day 1. i am the luckiest man in the world. the known universe. and the unknown one as well. oui chef!!!