Celeb Alert: Daniel Dae Kim

I forgot to mention that on Sunday, I thought I spotted Daniel Dae Kim (aka Jin from Lost) outside of the Ward Avenue Sports Authority. I can't be 100% certain because I was passing by in a truck and he was walking toward the entrance. However, after looking a numerous pix of him online I'm about 90% sure it was him.

All I could see was a profile view of his face and that he was wearing a blue t-shirt. Couldn't see below about chest level. He was alone and headed toward the sporting goods giant. You know how people sometimes say stars look better or worse in person? Kim looked the same as he does on the show. I gotta admit though that I only watched a couple episodes back in season one. I didn't follow it much after that.

Kochi, Kochi, Koo

Last night I hung out at Kochi Restaurant and Lounge with some people from work to celebrate and bid a fond farewell to one of our nearest and dearest co-workers. Our friend Jen, who just graduated from Chaminade University with a Master's in Counseling Psychology, will be staring a new adventure on the island of Maui. She applied for and got a job at Kamehameha Schools - Maui Campus. Her husband also earned his Master's degree (in Secondary Ed I believe) from Chaminade and will be looking for work on the Valley Isle too.

So bringing it back to last night . . . . It was the first office party I've been to at this job (even though I've been working there for three years now). It was definitely an interesting mix of people. Some people were obvious choices to invite because they're fun kids to be around. Others who showed up had me scratching my head going "huh?" I didn't take them to be party people, and sure enough they didn't disappoint. Some of the conversation was awkward to say the least as no one really knew what to say to them. At one point, I thought one or two of these peeps fell asleep in the corner. But hey, who am I to say whether or not they should attend these things. I'm a newbie.

By the way, it was my first time at Kochi's and it was pretty nice. The server was cool and the vibe was relaxed. It was like partying at someone's house almost. They had some tv screens running ESPN and they lowered the lights and raised the volume of the music to make it seem semi-clubbish.

It was interesting to see people's personalities once they got some liquor into their systems. Some got a bit rowdy, but it was all in good fun. Everyone was drinking soju, a Korean alcohol similar to vodka. It was mixed in with some lemons so it tasted like lemonade. You could barely even taste the liquor. Not bad.

All the office gossip and political rumors started free-flowing out of people's mouths. I learned a lot about the going's on at work that I never bothered to listen to until now. The rumblings from the peanut gallery weren't very positive, and it's got me thinking I need to jump from the sinking ship before it's too late. Some of the stories were very revealing about people's characters. Some were outright shocking. I'm thinking I may need to ramp up my plans and get my act together to decide what I'm going to do with myself.

Go Jump Off A Bridge

Honey, maybe I just might! And why stop there? Why not a plane as well?

I spent a lot of time yesterday looking into different options for a vacation to New Zealand. Yeah, I know it's rather sudden. It's not someplace I've mentioned here much (unlike Italy *sigh*). But all my previous research has pointed to NZ as a backpacker-friendly locale. There's a lot of young people who travel there so it should be easy enough to make friends while traveling alone.

Yes, undoubtably I'll need to go it on my own as my friends have various issues that aren't likely to be resolved before I completely implode. So, in order to relieve my own inner anxiety and escape the doldrums that is my every day life, I'd like to plan a solo adventure.

Since it'll be my first time traveling alone, I figured why not go big? NZ is the home of all extreme sports and I couldn't possibly go any bigger than that. So, I've been skimming through websites about various tour companies, transportation and lodging options and of course extreme fun by means of skydiving, bungee jumping, white water rafting, hiking and even zorbing.

I'm debating whether to do the true backpacker thing and plan my own trip and bounce from hostel to hostel while enjoying the sights and activities or hooking up with a tour group. The good thing about going to NZ is that most of the tours are focused on active things so it's likely that the crowd will be younger and not your typical tour group. Still it'd be nice to just bum around on my own a bit too.

Anyone ever been to New Zealand? Any tips?