Hi everyone, this is my first post ever so bare with me. For those that don’t know me, you wouldn’t be reading this blog anyways but I will give some insight about myself. I was born in Buffalo, NY and mainly grew up in the Los Angeles area and yes, I am a Laker, Raider fan and for whatever reason, I am also a Dallas Cowboys fan. As a young child, I was involved with a lot of video games so it wasn’t until high school at Whitney HS that I got involved with tennis and soccer and actually saw some sunlight. I attended Whitney HS where I met and keep in touch with many of my current friends. After HS, I spent 4 glorious years as a UCLA Bruin studying Economics. Afterwards, I ended up in NYC with several other friends doing banking. I had a brief 10 month stint, I felt I had to join the dot.com boom and moved to SF. This is where I met new friends who were East Coasters (ie also Laker haters). I spent 3.5 years in SF and had the pleasure to meet Haeli back in 2003 through my buddy Brendan (also a groomsman). Shortly after we started to date, I then moved to NYC to take a job opportunity. We continued to date via long-distances with some bumps and bruises but ended up working through them.
I also wanted to spend some time to introduce my closest friends over the past 15 years that I have had the pleasure to get to know, spend time with and support me in my strangeness actions. I will start off with the co-best men, 1) Eric and 2) Henry C. and follow up with 3) Frank, 4) Alex, 5) Brendan, 6) Jeff and 7) Henry W.
Eric the "Bottom-less Stomach"
I have known Eric since freshman year at Whitney High School in Cerritos. We actually didn't have alot of classes together but had multiple evening excursions as seniors. Key highlights were: 1) midget-ville: visited the land of midgets where we witnessed door knobs at knee levels and midgets chasing us with baseball bats, 2) haunted school: visited an abandoned private school where allegedly children were buried in the school grounds, 3) Mr. Turek's Mars Simulation: we allegedly attempted to visit Mars via a nearby park and inspect the local wildlife and 4) Raw Beats: late night practices as dancers for the senior talent show. Ahhhh, the memories...
We also attended UCLA together where Eric and Henry C. started out as 1st year roommates. UCLA past times included hours of Warcraft 2 and N64 Bond shooter, weekend trips to Las Vegas Treasure Island for blackjack and eye patches, and countless of hours of pick-up basketball at the Wooden Center. I soon realized that Eric’s eating disorder that enables a 135 lbs person to eating 4x an average person. This includes multiple Yoshinoya beef bowls, fried chicken sandwiches and tacos at Jack-in-the Box.
At UCLA, we both started off as Economic majors but Eric soon departed to the science world. Eric continued his never-ending education vacation at NYU Ph’d program for neuro-science. As I decided to move back to NYC for a new employment opportunity in 2003, it was nice to know that Eric and my other groomsman (Jeff) were living in NYC. Eric and his family has always been my second family and its been a pleasure being friends. Even Eric’s Dad (Mr. Chang) has called me his “son” as if I was his first born son. Eric continues to live in NYC and has a Tasmanian dog named Petey. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS9AyKQtTZc).
Henry C. the Human
Henry C. and I knew each other before high school. As many do not know, Henry and I have family ties that go back several generations. His Grandpa was my Grandpa's friend in Taichung, Taiwan and may they both rest in peace. We also went to Whitney HS and UCLA together. He was even my roommate for 3 years at UCLA. As you live with someone for an extended amount of time, we go through the bumps. I still don’t understand how Henry can splash water everywhere outside the sink. Henry is a special friend as he is a man of no words...he may appear mute but he is not…just a man of deep thought. I even introduced Henry to his lovely Taiwanese girlfriend of 2 year now and fulfilled his man-hood. Henry is a good and extremely loyal friend. Henry does have his quirky ways as he sings Celine Dion and Taylor Swift songs and does not watch movies with Adam Sandler (WTF?!?) but is a 10 of 10 on the friend scale. Henry C currently lives in LA and is in the brink of moving out of his parents house.
Frank the Tank
Frank is the Korean kid that not only I went to Whitney HS but he also lived down the street. Frank literally lived about 45 second walking distance from my house so we did alot of things: play basketball, tennis, Techno-Bowl 1&2, Madden and any other sports games. Frank also went to UCLA with me so we hung out alot at the dorms and playing basketball at Wooden. Soon after I moved to SF to work in finance, he also ended up there doing banking and we ended up hanging out some more but by this time, I was in drinking mode. I still remember Frank and I taking down close to a 20 pack of beer while watching Sunday football but of course Frank took down at least 70%. As Frank has several drinks he can get belligerent with friends, foe and strangers so buy the man some drinks.
Note that Frank is the only guy I know with the deepest voice but when he argues, his voice will squeak and crack. And he does argue a lot. Frank lives in SF and recently married and is enjoying married life (I think…not really sure but I guess that is the right thing to say).
Alex the "Un-dog Whisper"
Alex and I attended Montessori pre-school and reunited in high school. Alex also joined the late night excursions with Eric and I. Those nights were dangerous as we put our lives on the line to explore LA. Alex also attended UCLA and was the integral player of the intramural basketball team which won the championship our junior year. Note I also was able to score 7 points and 3 rebounds coming off the bench after we had a 21-0 lead. We also did various in-house apartment activities that can not be elaborated at this point….but it was a good time. Alex lives in Cerritos and married to lovely wife Adrienne and with two dogs…1 trained and 1 definitely still un-trained.
Brendan the "Shady Bruin"
Brendan was my next door neighbor at the UCLA Sunset dorms. He was the guy that just looked years older that everyone else and is a hard core sports lover. For whatever reason, we only hung out playing basketball/football IM’s at UCLA but we kept in touch post UCLA. We both ended up working in finance and enjoying much of the same things: watching and playing sports and going to gamble in Las Vegas. Brendan did introduce me to Haeli that I must give him credit for. I was visiting LA for a weekend and had Brendan come out to a bar for drinks and he dragged out Haeli and the maid-of-honor Wendy. Then the magic happened from there. Brendan lives in the middle of no-where (ie Phoenix) and is married with one dog.
Jeff the "New Friend"
Jeff was the first guy I met in SF. We met through my friend Chao who trained together at the CSFB training program. He seemed like a decent guy so I called him up for drinks when I moved to SF for the dot.com boom. Typically we would grab drinks and shoot some pool. Jeff was the first real friend who grew up outside of LA area. Jeff lived at Rincon Towers in the city and I would come into the city (before owning a car) via BART station...so after a night of drinking, he would be nice enough to drive me back to Emeryville.
Anyways, as I moved back to NYC for a job opportunity in 2003, we hung out a lot to explore the NYC lifestyle. We eventually spent quality time overseas in Japan, HK and China as our work schedules overlapped. As different as Jeff may seem, we have similar backgrounds: he is the eldest of 3 sons as I am the youngest of 3 sons and both our Mom’s lived in Shanghai at one point. Jeff lives in NYC and recently married and is enjoying married life.
Henry W. the "Koala Bear" (also know as Rob Kim)
I met Henry W. through the 2nd guy i met in SF (Julian Siaw) and can u believe i actually helped him move into his new pimp apartment that faced Alcatraz...I just met the guy!!! Henry seemed like a pompous asshole but turned out to be a pretty genuine guy. I just remembered this conversation below.
MS: "hey, nice to meet you"
HW: "hey"
MS: "How's it going?"
HW: "Okay"
MS: "What do you do in SF?"
HW: "I work at a bank"
MS: "cool, which bank?"
HW: "I work at an investment bank"
MS: thinking **wtf is wrong with this guy**
MS: "which investment bank?"
HW: "Goldman"
MS: thinking **what a prick, can’t this guy just give me a straight answer?**
Henry is like fine wine, it just takes time for him to open up and he comes a great friend. After Henry's business school training, he has been renewed as "Rob Kim". Henry currently lives in the dorms in NYC and is engaged.
Feel free to say hello to these handsome guys at the wedding.
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