PRI, 6 years of “us”, Wedding progress, Christmas and more

Well, this will be my last update of 2010. It’s been an okay year overall with plenty of ups and downs but at least it was memorable.

First, I’d like to welcome one of my bestest friends, Sarah, to Atlanta! She’s moving here today and I am soooo excited to be able to spend more time with her!

Erik recently celebrated his 30th birthday so he’s officially a grown up now (at least he is on paper). We had a big birthday dinner for him with a ton of friends at a local Korean BBQ place and it made me smile to see him smiling so much.

I was down in Orlando a few weeks ago for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show. PRI is a lot like the SEMA show in that it’s automotive-centric, but unlike SEMA, PRI is specifically focused on hardcore racers and racing products. I was with Precision Turbo & Engine and spent three days working the booth, talking to people, seeing some old friends and generally having a blast. It’s funny but when it has to do with racecars, work feels more like fun to me. I also ran into some of my coworkers from when I was at Garrett and it was wonderful to see them again. I’m especially grateful to the entire PTE crew for making me feel like a part of the team and for their hospitality. Everyone go buy a Precision turbo, now!! 😀 PRI shout-outs to Full-Race and Enzo Racing, too!

Precision Turbo & Engine’s booth at the 2010 PRI show.
http://www.facebook.com/PrecisionTurbo

While in Florida, Erik and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary. Sometimes I can’t believe we’ve been together this long and other days I feel like we’ve been together forever. Regardless, we waited until we were back in Atlanta before officially celebrating with a fabulous dinner at Tom Colicchio’s Craft. Everything was delicious and I ate so much I was in tremendous physical pain. Craft is the absolute best restaurant I’ve ever been to in my life, hands down, and they’re closing! If you live in Atlanta, make sure you get there soon before it’s too late!

Last week I took off from TMP so that Erik and I could continue our wedding planning by hitting up as many potential venues as possible. We looked at 19 different places, met with a planner and stopped by a bridal services boutique store – woo I am tired!!! The first 18 venues we visited were all nice but not quite what I had in mind and I was starting to get incredibly discouraged, it was awful. Then, with lucky number 19, we found the absolute perfect place! I’m SO excited! I won’t say what it is yet (in case it doesn’t work out) but I’m hoping we can make it work within our budget and book soon so we can lock in a date. Keep your fingers crossed!

Christmas eve we cooked a big dinner and had some friends over which was nice; it makes me so happy when the house is full of people we love. The next day, Erik, EJ and I opened presents then did the good-Jew-on-Christmas traditional Chinese food and a movie thing (Tron, which was awesome, by the way). Overall it was very low-key but that’s exactly what I had wanted!

Switching gears (no pun intended), Damnit came home last night after having spent over a year up at Balanced Performance getting work done. (Damnit it is our ’92 Lexus SC300 that used to belong to our friend Sae Kang who passed away a few years ago.) I’m excited that Erik will have something to race now and that we still have a bit of Sae still in our lives.

Now, let’s get 2011 started!!

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Thanksgiving, Engagement Photos and the Search for a Wedding Venue

Okay, while I’ve got a few minutes of downtime I figured I’d knock out a post.

I went up to Maryland a few weeks ago with the guys from Precision Turbo & Engine for the World Cup Finals Import vs. Domestic race at MD International Raceway. I’ve been doing some work for them over the past few months and it was great to finally meet some of the guys as well as my boss. I had a blast hanging out down at the starting line taking pictures and talking to new, interesting people. I hadn’t been to a drag race in forever and I forgot how much fun they can be, despite the fact that it’s straight line racing. LOL

Riding has been very meh lately. I actually haven’t ridden in almost a month because my last three lessons have all gotten rained out and the last time I did manage to get on a horse I wound up on the ground. We had done an entire hour-long lesson of no stirrups (took them completely off our saddles so we couldn’t cheat) and I was absolutely dead tired by the end which was when we started jumping and the ridiculously tall, painfully uncomfortable horse I was riding decided to take a long spot for one of the jumps and I was too exhausted to stay on. Eh, at least I didn’t get hurt and the ground was surprisingly more comfortable than being in the saddle. Ha!

Erik and I went up to NY for Thanksgiving to visit our friends and family which was nice. We got in Thursday afternoon and had dinner at his mom’s. Alana stopped by which was awesome because she’s been one of my best friends since I was 6 years old (seriously) and I love her to death and hadn’t seen her in years.

Friday we hung around, got rear ended in Erik’s mom’s car by some 18 year old kid (he was absolutely terrified and shaking after it happened, poor baby) but luckily nobody got hurt and the damage wasn’t too bad. Had dinner with an old friend and then went to Grand Prix New York to meet up with some other friends for go-karting. I was surprised at how baller the place was – definitely the nicest facility I’ve ever been to, period.

Saturday was spent down in NJ doing the big family Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, I really enjoyed hanging out with Erik’s family. I’m so fortunate to be marrying into such a wonderful group of people!

Sunday was Erik’s 30th birthday but also the day we got to do our engagement photos! A good friend of mine, Paul Nart, is a very talented photographer and offered to take some snaps of us. We met down under the Brooklyn Bridge and suffered through the cold weather for the sake of looking good. 😉 Paul got some really incredible photos and I couldn’t be happier! We even found two beautiful old cars in a parking lot that we managed to pose with for a few. Check out the album here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2276775&id=10503411&l=8c62126645

Erik mentioned that he really liked this photo because it shows our past, where we’ve come from (the city) and our future which is still “under construction” and I couldn’t agree more.
See them all at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2276775&id=10503411&l=8c62126645

Yesterday we went to go see two potential wedding venues and I was incredibly underwhelmed. I don’t know what it is about Atlanta, but it seems impossible to find somewhere that I love! Maybe I’m being too picky but I’m really bummed about the lack of quality wedding space for what we want/need. Feel free to suggest places… argh.

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one. One of my favorite peoples ever, Miss Sarah Fick, will be spending the weekend here with her mommy as they go apartment hunting in preparation for her move to Atlanta in January! I can’t wait!! 😀