• Visit Alcatraz
• Watch Dave perform at O’Neill’s Irish Pub
• Visit Minor Studios‘ office on Fremont
• Rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito or Tiburon
• Wii Sports showdown
• Burritos from La Taqueria the Mission District
• Ride a cable car at Powell St, have a Beard Papa creampuff in the food court

Those last two bullet items, I have no idea anything about, but Dave put it in the list of possible things to do, so we’ll see what happens! You can bet that Dave and I will be taking tons of pictures and videos to document the weekend…

Amanda’s birthday celebration spanned two weekends. If you haven’t checked out my Flickr photostream, pictures from last weekend’s limo excursion out to the Leesburg wineries is up here. Last night we celebrated again with more friends in DC at one of our favorite places, Matchbox. Of course we got our favorite sliders with addictive onion strings, washed it down with a few De Koninck beers, and followed it up with a few more at Buffalo Billiards in Dupont. Busy weekend, but ready for this week to get started.

The next day, Amanda and I headed down to Richmond (2x in 2 weeks!) for an engagement party. More eating and drinking ensued, as well as some late night pool debauchery. Check out the sets from both nights below:

Amy & Jeremy’s Wedding Set

Randy & Meredith’s Engagement Party Set

I had a great time at the Juniper Lane show this past Saturday at the usual Clarendon venue: Iota Club & Cafe. The picture above was a mistake that turned out kinda cool…Check out the set to see the rest here.

Pictures from my Grandfather’s birthday party are up on Flickr. He turned 96 on Monday. Check out the set here on Flickr.

I had only had two beers before I went to college…each beer at separate times. Each time, my face immediately felt flush and hot afterwards. It wasn’t until at college when I rediscovered this feeling of my face getting splotchy red and hot while drinking. Then people had told me I had “Asian Man’s Disease” when I drank. The combination of not drinking in high school and not having many Asian friends prevented me from ever being exposed to this “phenomenon”.

Throughout college, I went through phases of caring about this seemingly unpreventable reaction…on one hand, it was uncomfortable, and on the other hand…who cared? For me, it was hit or miss. Some nights my face would turn red, and other nights I would be “in the zone”. It was the inability to predict how my body was going to react that sparked some anxiety. I was constantly running to a mirror to see if my face was red. I quickly learned that, for me, the color of the palms of my hands was a good barometer for how my face was doing. If they were red, I was in trouble. If they were normal, I was good to go…

I started to mentally keep track of my habits leading up to a night of normal college drinking. What did I eat? Did I drink a lot of water during the day? How much sleep did I get? How much did I drink last night? What was I drinking? How fast was I drinking? There were many variables to eliminate and, unfortunately, was never organized enough to systematically eliminate many of them. One night, I thought I had the secret ingredient to success. A McDonald’s #6 combo meal (a wonderful Crispy Chicken Meal at the time, RIP) about an hour or two before drinking. The second night – I got the ol’ #6 again, and a different (unwanted) result. I was more disappointed about not cracking the code than getting flush in the face. Thankfully it wasn’t the answer to my question, because I would end up weighing 300 lbs. I ended up going with a solution that worked about 90% of the time…Drink until my face turned red, and then chill out for about 30-45 minutes. Let the reaction subside, and then continue as usual.

Fast forward a full 2 years after college. I was having a last hurrah party at my townhouse in Arlington, when I was approached by an (Asian) acquaintance, “Hey – noticed your face is pretty red…didn’t you take a Zantac?” he said.

Zantac. A heartburn pill? It was like someone had pulled a blanket from over my head. At first I felt a little betrayed when he said that’s what most Asians do to prevent the reaction to alcohol. Why hadn’t anyone told me? I had gone through countless combinations of different pre-game meals and rituals trying to discover a solution that turned out to be an easily accessible, inexpensive, over-the-counter antacid pill.

A few quick Google searches later, and I discover that there is something missing in many Asians that prevents our bodies from breaking down the acetaldehyde left over from the breaking down of the alcohol. And although there are a few sites that have anecdotally mentioned the benefits of taking Zantac, no one site has come out and said it outright. I’ll add more anecdotal evidence: Zantac works for me. I rarely have reactions to alcohol anymore, just as long as I don’t start with shots of Cuervo. As a result, I have stashes of Zantac 75 (generic store brands w/ Ranitidine as the active ingredient work just as well) everywhere. It’s almost like a placebo, in that I start to feel uncomfortable if I drink without popping a Zantac. So far, no ill side effects. Amanda’s friend from school also has adverse reactions to alcohol, and she just tried it last week, and it worked like a charm. So, there…2 data points. I try to take one about an hour before I think I might drink, and pack another one just in case it goes late night. Just look here at my pictures, I don’t think you’ll see any bad reactions (at least when a camera is around) for the past few years.

Even some of my close friends don’t really know that I take a Zantac every time before drinking. I decided to write this because it has come up quite a few times in the past month where people don’t understand why I say I need a Zantac before drinking. It allows me to feel comfortable in casual situations and happy hours, in which I would otherwise feel uncomfortable with even having one drink. Hopefully this spreads the news about Zantac faster than just letting friend’s of a friend in on the secret. If you have more anecdotal stories, leave one in the comments!

Like what you have read?  Subscribe via RSS here!

Have an opinion? Take the survey!

April’s Birthday Party Set on Flickr.

Ouch.

That about sums up Sunday morning and afternoon for me. We grabbed a table at Ragtime around 5pm and didn’t leave until 1am, or so I’m told. NCAA Tourney, car bombs and green beer have never flowed so freely.

St. Patrick’s Day Pictures on Flickr.

After a long week of work, the work didn’t end on Friday at 5pm. My sister and I scrambled all day setting up the party with streamers, birthday signs, buying alcohol, buying balloons, cooking appetizers, and picking up catered food from China Gardens in Rosslyn. We had everyone gather about a half hour before my mom dad, and cousin Nora from Canada were going to arrive, and had appetizers and drinks waiting for them.

I’d have to say that my dad was pretty surprised. If not surprised by the party, definitely surprised by the fifty or so co-workers, friends and family that were there to celebrate his 60th birthday with him. Two of the guests were in charge of making the cake, which had an awesome hole in one golf theme. That ball going into the hole…was a cake ball. Awesome.

One of my favorite things about what I did for the party was the slideshow. We borrowed a projector, and I put together a slideshow of pictures from his teenage years and on, which were mostly from the scanned pictures set that I’ve been adding to the last couple weeks. The party was a success, and I put the pictures up, so check them out!

Dad’s 60th Surprise Birthday Party

update – just got more pictures John Soho’s pictures